From: bill.sloman@ieee.org   
      
   On 27/12/2025 4:52 am, john larkin wrote:   
   > On Sat, 27 Dec 2025 03:09:04 +1100, Bill Sloman    
   > wrote:   
   >   
   >> 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.   
   >   
   > Patents are expensive and most always useless.   
      
   Almost always useless admits of some dramatic exceptions. A friend of   
   mine patented a better way of making a confocal microscope - he'd asked   
   my father and I for advice before he applied for the patent, and after   
   he'd made some $A12 million from it he did say that we had given him the   
   best advice he'd got back then, even if he hadn't taken it.   
      
   > I didn't want my name on the patent, but the company wanted to show a   
   > lot of patents to encourage investors. They got the investors all   
   > right: VCs who pumped and dumped and made $20 million or so for   
   > themselves.   
      
   That's what patents are frequently used for. The aim is to get people to   
   publish useful innovations rather than hiding them as trade secrets.   
      
   The patenting process does test whether the idea is genuinely novel (if   
   not all that rigorously) and getting a patent is a real achievement,   
   though not one that should be treated as an end in itself.   
      
   One of my colleagues at EMI Central Research put in some fifty patent   
   queries one year when I worked there, topping that particular league   
   table. None of them actually turned into a patent, so it was all a waste   
   of time. The one patent query I did put in did turn into a patent, but   
   it was submitted because I'd gotten sick of explaining why an obvious   
   idea actually was obvious, and exploited the point that it clearly   
   wasn't obvious to those skilled in the art.   
      
   --   
   Bill Sloman, Sydney   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)