From: bill.sloman@ieee.org   
      
   On 27/12/2025 12:43 am, john larkin wrote:   
   > On Fri, 26 Dec 2025 16:05:57 +1100, Bill Sloman    
   > wrote:   
   >   
   >> On 26/12/2025 7:23 am, john larkin wrote:   
   >>> On Thu, 25 Dec 2025 16:01:11 +0000, Cursitor Doom    
   >>> wrote:   
   >>>   
   >>>> On Thu, 25 Dec 2025 04:00:03 -0800, john larkin    
   >>>> wrote:   
   >>>>   
   >>>>> On Thu, 25 Dec 2025 16:00:06 +1100, Bill Sloman    
   >>>>> wrote:   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>>> On 25/12/2025 5:44 am, Cursitor Doom wrote:   
   >>>>>>> Gentlemen,   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>> It's 'that' time of year again and we've had some heated debates on   
   >>>>>>> this group over the last 12 months, both from those who want to   
   >>>>>>> explore different views and those who would rather shut them down at   
   >>>>>>> any price. As a Christian conservative and a libertarian, I fall into   
   >>>>>>> the former category of course, and bear no ill will to anyone here. So   
   >>>>>>> a very happy Christmas to *all* our contributors here, of whatever   
   >>>>>>> religious persuasion they may be, or none at all for that matter! And   
   >>>>>>> have a happy and prosperous New Year.   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>> Your pal,   
   >>>>>>   
   >>>>>> Cursitor Doom may think that he is a Christian conservative and a   
   >>>>>> liberation (which happen to inconsistent ideologies) but the depressing   
   >>>>>> reality is that he is a gullible sucker for the kind of propaganda that   
   >>>>>> autocratic psychopaths (like Trump and Putin) dish out.   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> Thank you for the lovely Christmas spirit.   
   >>>>   
   >>>> It was Bill and his fellow countryman Phil Alison who are responsible   
   >>>> for me adopting the "Gentlemen" prefix to all my original posts here,   
   >>>> in the hope that they'd both observe the implied wish that trolls were   
   >>>> not welcome to respond.   
   >>   
   >> Decidedly comic, coming from a perfect example of an anonymous troll,   
   >> denouncing two people who posted under their real names   
   >>   
   >>>> Sadly, it hasn't worked. In any event, I'd   
   >>>> have thought Bill would have his time taken up elsewhere at this   
   >>>> season of the year playing the pantomime villain at some local theatre   
   >>>> in Sydney. A role for which he is, of course, perfectly suited.   
   >>   
   >>> He trashes everyone, even when it makes no sense. He must be very   
   >>> unhappy.   
   >>   
   >> I don't even trash John Larkin all the time - only when he posts stuff   
   >> that is even more off the wall  than usual.   
   >   
   > If you reflexively reject crazy ideas, you won't invent many good   
   > ones, typically none.   
      
   I've got three patents, you've got your name on one. Most of the good   
   ideas I've had haven't been patentable - mostly they had already been   
   thought up somewhere else, but quite a few weren't addressing large   
   enough markets to justify the expense of getting a patent, and at least   
   one wasn't practical when I thought it up (around 1975), but still   
   looked original when cheap programmable logic parts got big enough to   
   make it practical around 1992.   
      
   I certainly don't reflexively reject crazy ideas, but I had a had a lot   
   of practice at working out which crazy ideas have had some hope of working.   
      
   --   
   Bill Sloman, Sydhey   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)