Thought(s)

[green_amber]

When we all have flying jet packs what will we use then as proof that we're still not living in the future?

Re SCrabulous discussion passim - I continue to wish non lawyers would not make intellectual property law up as they go along, and then complain when the world turns out not to match what they have just invented.

Comments

[frandowdsofa.livejournal.com]

A functional permanent moonbase.

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

Hah: we've had one since 1981, only the UN is keeping it under wraps.

[andrewducker]

I wish that people without computing degrees wouldn't talk about computers :-p

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

That's a mite extreme, Andrew, not to mention somewhat elitist.

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

It's Ok, he's always wrong whatever the topic is :-P

[guyinahat.livejournal.com]

Couldn't agree more. Just earlier I caught him trying to disagree with _me_!

tsk..

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

The bounder!

[andrewducker]

Exactly. Which is why is was a response to the equally silly statement of Surliminal's above...

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

Emphatic, yes, but silly? Not with you on that. I'd . Most of us have some level of experience with computers; the same is scarcely true of IP law.

[andrewducker]

Most of the people on this journal, maybe. Most of the people I bump into making horribly fatuous and ignorant statements about computers? No.

And we all bump into IP law, most days. We're just not aware that we are. Most people think they have some idea how it works, even if it's largely wrong.

And in both the case of ignorant computing discussion and ignorant law discussion, I'd rather that people were having the discussions, occasionally being enlightened, and at the least _thinking_ about the issues, than the alternative.

[ramtops.livejournal.com]

Hah - I've been working with them since 1985; I don't need no steeking degree.

[bellinghwoman.livejournal.com]

Which leads me to wonder if, when I started working with them (1973), you could even get a computing degree :-)

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

1976 for me, and I'm pretty sure you couldn't. I do have a City & Guilds 747 Certificate in Computer Programming from 1977, however.

[akicif.livejournal.com]

Had a trainee maths teacher for a term in 1974 who'd a degree in Comp Sci from (I think) Durham, but was doing a postgrad teaching qualification....

On the other hand, I may have been misled back then - just spoken to my boss, who says Edinburgh introduced their first year CS course in 1971 (all the scientists passed and the arts types failed, leading to CS1A and CS1B with subtly different teaching methods in 1972). As Edinburgh degrees are 4 years, it would have been 1975 before the first CS graduates appeared.

Of course, there were maths and engineering types who'd done some undergraduate computing before then, too.

(Also found: Edinburgh Computer History Project)

[drdoug.livejournal.com]

If it was easy and people didn't get IP law so wrong you'd be out of a job :-)

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

I do hope you've copyrighted that statement.

[drdoug.livejournal.com]

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

My impression (quite possibly inaccurate, of course) is that IP Law is so complicated and in such a state of flux that it's constantly being created or significantly changed by case-law Decisions. Mind you, some people are going to ignore it, or insist that it should be ignored, whatever it might be.

[a-pawson.livejournal.com]

We will not be living in the future until we have flying cars and robots to do the hoovering and ironing. Unless we have all three we should be certain we are not in the future. Those devices have been promised every year without fail, by the people on Tomorrow's World since about 1970.

Welcome to the future.

[andrewducker]

There are robots that do the hoovering.
http://www.irobot.com/sp.cfm?pageid=122

Robots that do the ironing:
http://www.gizmohighway.com/robotics/robot_iron.htm

And flying cars:
http://www.moller.com/skycar.htm

Re: Welcome to the future.

[dalmeny]

Robots have yet to volunteer to do our housework.

[clarehooper.livejournal.com]

I have a robot to do the hoovering. It is good!

And I don't do any ironing.

So I guess all I need is a flying car...

[alex-holden.livejournal.com]

We won't be living in the future until there's a cure for the common cold.

[blue-condition.livejournal.com]

I will not believe we are living in the future until Ingsoc is institutionalised as the government of this country. Another NuLabr win and that's it, we're fucked, we're living in the future of 1948. ;)

[vin_petrol]

When we all have flying jet packs what will we use then as proof that we're still not living in the future?

Lack of:

* Flying cars.
* Everyone wearing silver jumpsuits.
* Holidays in space.
* Everyone being called "Zargzim" or "Zilda".