FUN: A Christmas tradition that I think is “priceless”

Friday, December 27, 2024

https://www.fark.com/comments/13494756/175388094?f=Fbjk9mpT0wsasZqUb92Wa3pw_oGgAw5zU7Q88#c175388094

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In 1981, we drew names and everyone had to go to a garage sale and buy the ugliest thing there – the kind of thing that the seller put $.25 on just so someone would think it had *some* value and wasn’t just junk.

My dad ended up being given an 18″ tall plaster bust of Queen Nefertiti from someone’s ceramics class. It was painted in light blue with a bright red jewel in her headpiece.

The next year, it was given to someone else, but we recorded with a black sharpie who it had been given to each year.

The rule is that if you receive it, you have to display it in your house in a prominent place. No sticking it in a closet.

It’s been passed down every year with few exceptions (Covid being one and a well-meaning but ill-advised prank being the other).

Somewhere along the way we started recording births and deaths on it.

CSB: My mother has threatened to smash iat several times – not because she hates it, but because she’s gotten it the least.

CSB 2: Was in a store and found several duplicates once. If I’d had the money, everyone would have gotten one. 

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I just thought this was a great idea!

Made me laffffff, and glad I don’t have “family” traditions.

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: The USPTO grants very broad patents for ideas that are neither new nor revolutionary

Friday, December 27, 2024

https://www.zdnet.com/article/open-source-fights-back-we-wont-get-patent-trolled-again/

Open source fights back: ‘We won’t get patent-trolled again’

  • Businesses using open-source projects like Kubernetes are being targeted more often by patent trolls. Now the open source community is launching a counter-offensive and looking for volunteers.

Written by Steven Vaughan-Nichols, Senior Contributing Editor
Nov. 14, 2024 at 12:41 p.m. PT

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Edge Networking is a patent troll. This means it buys up patents — not to use them but to extort money from anyone who might want to use the patent. Let’s say you’ve posted a job listing for a Kubernetes engineer. An Edge bot will spot this, assume you must be using Kubernetes, and then slap you with a cease-and-desist note claiming you’re violating its Kubernetes patent and you must pay them a licensing fee. Welcome to the wild, wonderful world of 21st-century patent trolls!

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So, here we have the root of the problem  — the USPTO.  And, vultures use the USPTO flaw to extract wealth from the finances of companies.

Too expensive to fight so they just fold and pay,

Seems like the Gooferment needs to rebalance the scales of justice in this case.

When the USPTO invalidates a patent, it should charge the patent holder a fee for the wasted effort.

If the patent troll has several patents invalidated, the Federal District Attorney should review the facts for an abuse of process claim.

It’s only fair.

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