Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1755295AbXABPPN (ORCPT ); Tue, 2 Jan 2007 10:15:13 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1755296AbXABPPN (ORCPT ); Tue, 2 Jan 2007 10:15:13 -0500 Received: from mail.acc.umu.se ([130.239.18.156]:54463 "EHLO mail.acc.umu.se" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1755295AbXABPPK (ORCPT ); Tue, 2 Jan 2007 10:15:10 -0500 Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2007 16:15:03 +0100 From: David Weinehall To: "Robert P. J. Day" Cc: Theodore Tso , Trent Waddington , Bernd Petrovitsch , "Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu" , Erik Mouw , Giuseppe Bilotta , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Open letter to Linux kernel developers (was Re: Binary Drivers) Message-ID: <20070102151503.GA28150@vasa.acc.umu.se> Mail-Followup-To: "Robert P. J. Day" , Theodore Tso , Trent Waddington , Bernd Petrovitsch , "Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu" , Erik Mouw , Giuseppe Bilotta , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org References: <200612211816.kBLIGFdf024664@turing-police.cc.vt.edu> <20061222115921.GT3073@harddisk-recovery.com> <1167568899.3318.39.camel@gimli.at.home> <3d57814d0612310503r282404afgd9b06ca57f44ab3c@mail.gmail.com> <200701020404.l0244n3b024582@turing-police.cc.vt.edu> <3d57814d0701012230v2e8b31eeqef7e542d73fc08d9@mail.gmail.com> <1167730833.12526.35.camel@tara.firmix.at> <3d57814d0701020326o2b3b5636mcf31147ad00e82c6@mail.gmail.com> <20070102125026.GA4608@thunk.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.1i X-Editor: Vi Improved X-Accept-Language: Swedish, English X-GPG-Fingerprint: 7ACE 0FB0 7A74 F994 9B36 E1D1 D14E 8526 DC47 CA16 X-GPG-Key: http://www.acc.umu.se/~tao/files/pub_dc47ca16.gpg.asc Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 2061 Lines: 48 On Tue, Jan 02, 2007 at 08:22:21AM -0500, Robert P. J. Day wrote: > On Tue, 2 Jan 2007, Theodore Tso wrote: > > > I can very easily believe it. The US patent system and "justice" > > system in the US is completely and totally insane, and companies > > often feel they have to act accordingly. Remember this is the > > country that has issued multi-million dollar awards to people who > > spill hot coffee in their lap ... > > MASSIVELY OFF TOPIC: can we please stop using this "hot coffee in > lap" story as an example of the idiocy of the justice system? i'm > guessing there's more to this story than most folks are aware of, and > you're welcome to read the details here: > > http://www.lectlaw.com/files/cur78.htm > > as you can see, there are two salient points that change the > complexion of this story thoroughly: > > 1) mcdonald's was not merely serving their coffee "hot," but > *scalding* hot (180 to 190 degrees Fahrenheit), a temperature that > will produce third-degree burns almost immediately, and That's less than 90?C. Water boils at 100?C. How the hell do people expect coffee to be made without boiling water? Magic? > 2) there had, for a decade prior, been some *700* cases where people > had burned themselves with mcdonald's coffee, so it's not as if > mcdonald's was unaware of the danger, yet continued to ignore it. No, the customers continued to prove to be total morons by total ignorance of the fact that coffee *is* hot when fresh. If they cannot handle hot coffee, they can order ice coffee or ask for a refill of their cola. [snip] Regards: David -- /) David Weinehall /) Northern lights wander (\ // Maintainer of the v2.0 kernel // Dance across the winter sky // \) http://www.acc.umu.se/~tao/ (/ Full colour fire (/ - 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/