Alt-BEAM Archive

Message #08510



To: beam@corp.sgi.com
From: Jacob Booth j.booth@mary.acu.edu.au
Date: Tue, 21 Dec 1999 11:14:14 +1100
Subject: [alt-beam] New Bot power + other thoughts


Has anyone figured out how to make a spam powered bot? I have plenty of it
to supply. Very ecologically sound.

Just a thought about 'poor old Dave _SMITH_' - I can imagine the reaction
would have been similar (but opposite?:) if he announced a new product
using the Miller engine but didn't mention the license... I can imagine
everyone jumping over Dave saying how he shouldn't commercially use
someones idea without permission etc etc. I really think he only said it a)
to cover his butt and b) he paid for the privilege to do so, so why can't
he mention it?

I know it is very easy to feel like we OWN all the Beamish tek, but there
could be many others out there who are doing the same kind of stuff without
having a clue what beam is. I sure was for years. I see similar technology
all the time. Flag wavers, magbots and others are used by Mobile phone
companies as shelf top promotional items (wagging a sign or wobbling a
cardboard phone). And were they using the good old D-Cell battery? Oh no,
there is an amorphous solar panel attached. Same size as a sunceram... Did
they steal the Beam idea, and heaven forbid commercialise it? I doubt it
very much.

It certainly humbled me very much. Many people also know the secrets we
think we hold to ourselves in the Beam community. Our difference is in the
application, and the philosophy, and most likely the budget. There is a
whole other aspect to beam that isn't one of the b, e, a, or m in the
acronym. And that is the community. How many scientific endevours allow
such freedom of exchange between researchers? Most work in the real world
is commercial, and the only publishing of information is a press release
announcing the completed product. We are lucky as we get to see everything
grow on this list, as 'godparents' to every new creation that finally gets
off the building board and into the 'real world' (and onto a web page...
ever notice all the pictures and descriptions? Seems very much like a proud
parents' photo album:)

Oh and by the way, I am not dismissing all the work that folks have put
into original designs saying that they are not new... of course they are. I
love the idea that we push components in the wrong ways and get great
results. Using a 1381 as a voltage trigger certainly isn't our idea, but
using it to reset a CPU and using it to make an efficient solar powered bot
are certainly different and original ideas. I like the fact that we use the
analog regions of digital devices and many other tweaks and 'hidden
functions' of many other devices and components. This is the knowledge that
makes us unique, and you probably wouldn't learn about it anywhere else...

Keep up the work, and keep pushing those envelopes..

Jacob

Phew.. I shoulda called this my BEAM manifesto of 1999

New years resolution? To make all the crap I have been THINKING about. I
need that space in my head back...
------------------------------------------------------------------
Jacob Booth BIS, MCP Web http://www.its.mary.acu.edu.au/
IT Services Email j.booth@mary.acu.edu.au
Phone (02) 97392235 Fax (02) 97392924
Australian Catholic University - MSM Campus Strathfield NSW
"Your lack of planning does not make it an emergency on my part"



8511 Mon, 20 Dec 1999 19:37:06 -0500 [alt-beam] Re: Miller Engine - licensing...--I'm behind dave on this one. beam@sgiblab.sgi.com Bob Shannon Tom Mairs wrote:

> Thanks for sharing Dave. Once again a simple, friendly gesture has been
> trashed by nit-pickers. I guess if you really want to gnash it down to the
> legal bones, the patent freaks may be right, but I am behind you anyway.
>
> Merry Christmas........
>
> Tom Mairs

Hold the phone people.

Nobody trashed any friendly gestures, until right here. Simply pointing out a
possible error should not be mistaken for 'trashing' anything. Very often, people
will point out a possible issue out of genuine concern and kindness.

Also the failure to point something like this out to someone, especially someone
who
is in business, maybe someone you want to see stay in business, would simply be
wrong.

I'm sorry the vocal majority of the list cannot see this.

But here on this list, pointing out this rather major problem with Intellectual
Property
issues is automatically assumed to be 'trashing' Dave, Solarbotics, the circuit in
question, or
God forbid, BEAM itself. Its just ~got~ to be an unfriendly act, un-BEAM-like
behavior!

So by bringing this up, people must be Dave's adversaries, so other list readers
can jump
to his 'side', and proclaim that they are behind him here?

Hmmm, so if you see someone who may be making an important (I.P. law IS important
to
running a business) error, if your on their side, you say nothing about it? Is
that how you
help people or a business you care about? Maybe only if your a 'patent freak'?

You know, I'm one of Dave's customers. I buy components from Solarbotics I
knowingly
can but from other suppliers (that I also do business with) at lower prices.

But it seems that expecting the list readership to get the idea that pointing this
major I.P.
issue out to Dave and everyone else might have been an act of genuine concern, a
friendly
act, is simply unrealistic.

Happy Hollidays indeed,

Your list 'Grinch'.



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