On Monday 09 January 2006 01:19 pm, Stewart Stremler wrote: > begin quoting Andrew Lentvorski as of Mon, Jan 09, 2006 at 01:11:21PM -0800: > > Stewart Stremler wrote: > > [attribution lost] > > > >>"Why haven't they got bought out yet?" is a good question to ask, > > >> though. > > > > > >It's probably easier to steal it. > > > > Not in chips, it isn't. > > > > Just because you have a chip in your hand doesn't mean that you know all > > the recipes that went into it. And even the smallest of semiconductor > > manufacturers have dozens of procedures for overcoming engineering > > problems that they encountered. > > Reverse engineering != steal. > > I was thinking of actual industrial espionage. > > > I stand by my statement: if they were real, they'd have been bought. > > Which might be his intent. > > > There are just too many people who would kill to have such a product > > s/people/entities/ > > > (IBM, Dell, Qualcomm, Intel, Seagate, Apple, etc.) for *all* of them to > > not bite. > > Your reasonable world-view is cramping my cynicism.
Well let me help your cynicism. As Tracey noted I do have Ph.D. in physics. The relevance is related to my experience as a consultant, mostly with small startups and often with "inventors". I have been approached more times than I like to count by a delusional inventor, quite mad actually, but almost believable, and a completely unscrupulous promoter, who wanted me to act as some sort of a reputable authority (little did they know how truly disreputable I am :) and "verify" their claims. Basically they wanted someone to add legitimacy to their fund raising efforts. When one attempts to live as a free agent, being congenitally ill suited for conventional employment, one is on occasion stressed financially, so one can be tempted to take such work which is relatively easy, risk free and well compensated. The people involved are often funny as hell, great fun to be around, unfortunately the real deal is more often than not a scam. After a couple of very bad experiences I have learned to be very skeptical. This helps me to avoid that cynicism, which is the fate of the disillusioned. This smells a lot like that sort of situation. The "inventor" is often truly convinced that he has the "secret sauce." I have met more than one who was psychotic but very high functioning, sociable, even charismatic. I come to this view after having lived with a father and brother who were diagnosed and hospitalized for paranoid schizophrenia. My dad could have sold you this stuff if he got you alone. My brother was an accomplished designer and engineer. But things go on inside the heads of people with these sorts of problems that are really quite hard for normal people to imagine, let alone have empathy for. For the promoter such schemes are an art form and the kick that the promoter gets from pulling one off, as well as the money, is addictive. They are the technological equivalent of religious cult leaders. I could go on but I guess it is best left with a quote from Hamlet, There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.’ This could well be a quote from these inventor/promoter teams when they encounter the conventional criticisms of the world of the typical scientist or engineer. The scenes that surround their endeavors would do justice to Hamlet as well and often end just a tragically for all concerned. BobLQ PS. I would love to do some prototyping for someone. Any not so crazy inventors out there? "If you have the money honey I have the time." Playing with Firefox and AJAX as an applications platform these days. -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
