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Comment Re:Silly patents, tricks are for kids... (Score 2, Informative) 451

1. A hybrid vehicle, comprising: at least two pairs of wheels, each pair of wheels operable to receive power to propel said hybrid vehicle; a first alternating current (AC) electric motor, operable to provide power to a first pair of said at least two pairs of wheels to propel said hybrid vehicle; a second alternating current (AC) electric motor, operable to provide power to a second pair of said at least two pairs of wheels to propel said hybrid vehicle a third AC electric motor; an engine coupled to said third electric motor, operable to provide power to at least one of said two pairs of wheels to propel the hybrid vehicle, and/or to said third electric motor to drive the third electric motor to generate electric power; a first alternating current-direct current (AC-DC) converter having an AC side coupled to said first electric motor, operable to accept AC or DC current and convert the current to DC or AC current respectively; a second alternating current-direct current (AC-DC) converter having an AC side coupled to said second electric motor, operable to accept AC or DC current and convert the current to DC or AC current respectively; a third alternating current-direct current (AC-DC) converter coupled to said third electric motor, at least operable to accept AC current and convert the current to DC; an electrical storage device coupled to a DC side of said AC-DC converters, wherein the electrical storage device is operable to store DC energy received from said AC-DC converters and provide DC energy to at least said first and second AC-DC converters for providing power to at least said first and second electric motors; and a controller, operable to start and stop the engine to minimize fuel consumption. essentially, they patented a triple electric motor hybrid, wit the third motor capable of driving wheels, but also being connected to an engine to generate power.

Comment Re:Frivolous Lawyer (Score 1) 1251

RTFA. The Article says she has not hired a lawyer. She filed this case pro se. All you need is $210. It'll get booted for "failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted."

And lawyers get fined for filing frivolous cases. They even get suspended or disbarred, but that's fairly extreme. The bar for a frivolous case is pretty high, and any decent attorney can find some kind of fraudulent inducement claim that'll survive summary judgement.

Comment Re:What's a C student at Monroe College? (Score 1) 1251

Monroe College is a for-profit institution, similar to the University of Pheonix. Here in New York, they advertise on the subway. This is generally bad. Monroe College offers degrees in vocational-type training (physician's assistant, dental assistant, etc.) It's basically a vocational school, not a university.

Comment Re:Document everything (Score 1) 508

you can't patent an idea, you can only patent an invention, which is the implementation of an idea. Or at least fool an examiner into thinking you've figured out how to implement it. After looking at Woz's granted patents, the implementations are fairly well described, so he had some idea of how to implement it. It wasn't a case of patenting a cure for cancer without knowing how to actually cure cancer.

Comment Re:Document everything (Score 1) 508

If you don;t share it with them, they couldn't have stolen it. If you keep your diary secret, it's not prior art, because it wasn't published. If you don't publicly use your ideas, those aren't prior art because there was no public use. Inventor's notebooks are only good for establishing the conception and reduction to practice of an invention.

Comment Re:probably not a single mouse... (Score 1) 773

Without transmissions, you don't have waves, and therefore no standing waves. However, you make a good point, because without proper boundary conditions, you don't have anything standing, so no standing waves. And I also remember doing my EMag homework, but that was 15 years go. (We didn't have Emag apps, we had signals and systems).
Education

Professors To Ban Students From Citing Wikipedia 507

Inisheer writes "History professors at Middlebury College are tired of having all their students submit the same bad information on term papers. The culprit: Wikipedia — the user-created encyclopedia that's full of great stuff, and also full of inaccuracies. Now the the entire History department has voted to ban students from citing it as a resource. An outright ban was considered, but dropped because enforcement seemed impossible. Other professors at the school agree, but note that they're also enthusiastic contributors to Wikipedia. The article discusses the valuable role that Wikipedia can play, while also pointed out the need for critical and primary sources in college-level research." What role, if any, do you think Wikipedia should play in education?

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