Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Tue, 17 Sep 2002 14:41:56 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Tue, 17 Sep 2002 14:41:56 -0400 Received: from tmr-02.dsl.thebiz.net ([216.238.38.204]:48910 "EHLO gatekeeper.tmr.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Tue, 17 Sep 2002 14:41:55 -0400 Date: Tue, 17 Sep 2002 14:39:43 -0400 (EDT) From: Bill Davidsen To: jbradford@dial.pipex.com cc: Linux Kernel Mailing List Subject: Re: Hi is this critical?? In-Reply-To: <200209171202.g8HC2vpm001844@darkstar.example.net> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1423 Lines: 34 On Tue, 17 Sep 2002 jbradford@dial.pipex.com wrote: > I want to file a patent on using hard disks as footballs. I claim prior > art, because I kicked a, (non-functional), disk across a room in front > of the person who owned it, (with their permission), about five years > ago, and they would verify that. Sorry, prior art exists. When iomega (the ZIP people) first shipped, they brought out a unit to demo. They pulled the media out, tossed it against the far wall, kicked it back, wiped it and ran from it. Then lifted the front of the case about two inches and dropped it. In those days the "hard drives" were the same size, 10MB (sic), and the heads would crash if a mouse farted in the next room. Bought a bunch, and had very few problems. > Incidently unlimited permission is granted to use disks containing only > GNU/Linux software as footballs without royalties. All other usage of > disks as footballs will be considered on a per case basis. I would be inclined to allow this for Windows drives instead. They contain no useful data. -- bill davidsen CTO, TMR Associates, Inc Doing interesting things with little computers since 1979. - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/