2/09    Grey Davis bad [summarized for you by your helpful motd edtior]
        \_ why don't you put this on your homepage and link to it on the
           motd? it's probably just going to get deleted otherwise.
        \_ wtf is this? no offence but whos gonna take the time to read
           this?
           \_ LA Times- hard copy, and I am sure if republicans were in
              charge they would have screwed up as well, my main thing is I
              don't really think one is better or worse than the other, they
              are all evil
        \_ vote for Bill Simon!
        \_ The political philosophy of conservatives IS better.  Unfortunately
           no true conservatives can get elected today.  Only pseudo
           socialists who want pervasive government presense in
           every aspect of your life.
        \_ Voting is an exercise of picking the person whom you hate the least.
           It's getting ever so hard to pick one because I hate them all.

2/09    does anyone have any experience applying for a patent as an
        independent inventor, i.e. without the aid of an employer or
        institution (but not without a lawyer)?
        \_ Are you prepared to shell out $10K out of your own pocket?  If
           not, forget it.
        \_ Generally if you're doing it via an employer, the government, UC,
           or some other institution you don't own it anyway so it doesn't
           matter.  On your own you go find yourself a patent lawyer and shell
           out big bucks for them to write a decent patent and do prior art
           searches, etc.  It's important to know what a patent is.  A patent
           is the right to exclude.  It gives you the right to keep others from
           using your invention for 20 years from the date of filing (in the
           US).  It provides no other benefit.  It isn't instant wealth.  And
           defending your patent from infringers could easily take millions of
           dollars in legal fees and years in court without any guarantee of
           success.  Good luck!
        \_ A friend of mine has applied for about a dozen patents as a
           independent inventor. He found a good patent lawyer to help
           him with the applications. It took several iterations with
           his lawyer to work out the first application, but the others
           were quite easy. Make sure that the patent lawyer you get
           is familiar with the area of your invention (ie if you invented
           a specialized asic, get a lawyer who knows how to file hardware
           patents), otherwise you may end up spending a lot of money
           to file a patent that doesn't completely cover your invention.

2/10    Can anyone recommend a good portable mp3 player? I had one of those
        Iomega hipzips, but it's no good. Any ones without moving parts (and
        hopefully low price)?
        \_ There is a triangle of "no moving parts", "low price", and
           "decent capacity".  Choose two of three.
           \_ Why the HECK would it have moving parts!?  What for?
                \_ maybe a hard disk
                \_ or to play MP3 CDs.  Not everyone goes jogging with their
                   their portable players, so moving parts may not always be
                   more important than media costs.
                \_ because the hipzip had removable disks, so it was
                   having to read from the disk. which is why it
                   failed, in my opinion. -op
           \_ agreed.  i love my 6GB archos jukebox which is the size of
              a tape walkman from the early 90s and heavier.  but then
              i got it for airplane flights, not for noodling around town.
        \_ 1/4 of the /. 'stories' these days are about mp3 players.
        \_ iPod. Its the best mp3 ever. If you want to try mp3 cds
           I'd recommend the sony. Other possibilities include the
           sony memory stick players or the Samsung YePP. A couple
           of guys at work like the intel player, but I prefer the
           YePP.
                \_ I need a mac for the iPod though, right?
                   \_ http://www.mediafour.com/xplay
        \_ digisette.

2/10    Suck my big black cock.