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seeking dissertation inspiration
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Peter
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Oct 7, 2008, 06:01 PM
 
I have to write a fairly large ~15k word dissertation for my final year of computer science. I'm struggling with topics.
Something involving Interactive Design would be chill, does anyone crave any kind of research about Interactive Design or the Apple platform?
Really, any ideas about Computer Science related dissertations? Has anyone done a dissertation/thesis? How was yours?
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olePigeon
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Oct 7, 2008, 06:04 PM
 
You could write a dissertation about the evolution of Apple's user interface. From the Lisa to OS X.
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dcmacdaddy
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Oct 7, 2008, 08:50 PM
 
I am 3000 words into a ~15,000 word Masters thesis on the life of Margery Kempe (late 14th-century English visionary/mystic). I've got plenty of ideas about how to procrastinate but need suggestion on how to stay focused on the writing.


As for your request for a topic suggestion, how about investigating touch-control interface designs?

Try and think up a new way to interface with a 2D computer screen that is different than the basic touch-screen controllers* we see everywhere.
*resistive and capacitive overlays on flat-panel monitors--and the software interfaces for them--essentially treat the finger/hand as a mouse; come up with improvements to that tried-and-true input paradigm. You don't have to get in-depth a la Apple's iPhone interface or Microsoft's Surface but you could try and improve upon the existing design assumptions regarding how motion is registered and selections are made on a touch screen.

Something that has always intrigued me is pressure sensitivity in interactive design. With a computer touch-screen, pressure sensitivity is irrelevant to the screen manipulation metaphor. Come up with a design that allows for pressure input level to be a control or selection factor in the interface. (They've been making pressure-sensitive electronic keyboards and drum kits for two decades now so the hardware side of things should not prove to be an obstacle to designing/implementing such a solution.)

One final suggestion is to focus on non-traditional interface media. Instead of touch-screens, track-pads, or push-buttons think about interface-design from a material-design approach. Think about how to turn different materials into physical interfaces. How about a game-ball interface (soccer, basketball, hand-ball) where the ball is sensitive to touch, pressure, and temperature. I would think the trick there is not so much the materials side of things--making it work as a touch-sensitive device--but rather the electronics side of the process--How do you ruggedise electronics inside a soccer ball* so they don't break when the ball is kicked.

*I am thinking that an application for this type of technology is a "Bend It Like Beckham" arcade game. You've got a screen with an image of a goal on it and you have to kick the ball at a certain angle and speed in order to score a goal. The ball's "interface" would have to be able to measure force/pressure and spin and the electronics would have to be designed to be both small and rugged/durable.



NOTE: I am asserting copyright on the ideas articulated above. Feel free to use them in your thesis at no cost to you whatsoever (none, nada, zilch money--of any amount or in any currency--needs to be provided to me for use of these ideas). But, If you use any of these ideas you MUST credit me in your thesis. We can have the discussion about credit off-line if that proves to be necessary.

Good Luck!
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ghporter
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Oct 7, 2008, 10:16 PM
 
What dcmacdaddy said. Plus, think of the coolest thing you came across in your experience with various development systems/packages/interfaces. Explain that thing in terms of how it got your attention and why you thought it was so cool. Use that as an example of a development idea that could be enhanced/expanded/developed/improved, and then explain how you'd do that.

As with the above post, I grant Peter license to use these ideas for free (no monetary compensation of any kind), but require that I be credited. I won't immediately respond to a PM or email, but I'll get to you.

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Andrew Stephens
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Oct 8, 2008, 05:22 AM
 
How about a dissertation on how students are using the internet to do all their thinking for them.

No need to credit me for that idea in any way.
     
mattyb
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Oct 8, 2008, 05:38 AM
 
How about :

z/OS, why its the best, the fastest, the most secure operating system in the world. And nobody wants to learn it.
     
Doofy
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Oct 8, 2008, 06:04 AM
 
So, with all this talk of copyright (silly talk, since one can't copyright ideas) what about something to do with the rise of P2P and its effect on the media industries?
Been inclined to wander... off the beaten track.
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Peter  (op)
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Oct 8, 2008, 09:06 AM
 
Originally Posted by Andrew Stephens View Post
How about a dissertation on how students are using the internet to do all their thinking for them.

No need to credit me for that idea in any way.
how about a dissertation on how people are dicks on the internet?
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Andrew Stephens
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Oct 8, 2008, 09:11 AM
 
Originally Posted by Peter View Post
how about a dissertation on how people are dicks on the internet?
Yes that would work. There's plenty of material.
     
Peter  (op)
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Oct 8, 2008, 09:17 AM
 
hah, very true.
Another one analyzing youtube comments would be fun
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Laminar
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Oct 8, 2008, 09:24 AM
 
Originally Posted by dcmacdaddy View Post
Something that has always intrigued me is pressure sensitivity in interactive design. With a computer touch-screen, pressure sensitivity is irrelevant to the screen manipulation metaphor. Come up with a design that allows for pressure input level to be a control or selection factor in the interface. (They've been making pressure-sensitive electronic keyboards and drum kits for two decades now so the hardware side of things should not prove to be an obstacle to designing/implementing such a solution.)
Looking at the way that lines appear on the tablets I see my professors use, they would appear touch sensitive - the lines vary in width. Although that could be done in the stylus instead of the screen.

*I am thinking that an application for this type of technology is a "Bend It Like Beckham" arcade game. You've got a screen with an image of a goal on it and you have to kick the ball at a certain angle and speed in order to score a goal. The ball's "interface" would have to be able to measure force/pressure and spin and the electronics would have to be designed to be both small and rugged/durable.
I've seen this kind of thing for golf and baseball - a ball is hit at a "curtain," and sensors behind the curtain calculate where and how far the ball will go.
     
residentEvil
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Oct 8, 2008, 10:09 AM
 
the indoor golf range here has them, and all Dicks Sporting Goods have them now too. fun toy. wish i could get a used one for my basement.
     
BRussell
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Oct 8, 2008, 11:14 AM
 
You really need to come up with a new sort algorithm.
     
Laminar
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Oct 8, 2008, 11:19 AM
 
Originally Posted by residentEvil View Post
the indoor golf range here has them, and all Dicks Sporting Goods have them now too. fun toy. wish i could get a used one for my basement.
The one I've seen was in a golf pro shop used to size drivers - it looked pretty cool.
( Last edited by Laminar; Oct 8, 2008 at 11:30 AM. )
     
residentEvil
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Oct 8, 2008, 12:53 PM
 
Originally Posted by Laminar View Post
The one I've seen was in a golf pro shop used to size drivers - it looked pretty cool.
yup; that is what dick's uses it for. then they send of the specs to the manufacture and they in turn mail out the finished driver. and the more i think about it; basement wouldn't be good; can't do a full back swing. but, i'd still like one

the one in the dome are actually courses you can play. think what a nintendo wii could be with real clubs and balls. type in the course, date (for average weather conditions on that day), etc and if you want to play 9 or 18...or just a particular hole.
     
finboy
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Oct 8, 2008, 01:15 PM
 
Originally Posted by Peter View Post
I have to write a fairly large ~15k word dissertation for my final year of computer science. I'm struggling with topics.
Something involving Interactive Design would be chill, does anyone crave any kind of research about Interactive Design or the Apple platform?
Really, any ideas about Computer Science related dissertations? Has anyone done a dissertation/thesis? How was yours?
I thought most CS dissertations were technical and short (although 15k words isn't that much really). The ones I've seen lately were about trust in e-commerce (with behavioural model development) and complicated stuff like that. It depends on what you want to do with your degree. If you want to teach, you should see if you can get an essay option, where they will let you write two or three essays that later turn into paper submissions. If you're going to the private sector, you may want to focus on one area of technology so you're more marketable. By the time you get to writing a dissertation, you should have a pretty good idea of what needs to be written about or researched (within the field). The HARD PART is implementation, as with everything.
     
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Oct 8, 2008, 01:27 PM
 
We usually use page count, how many pages do 15k words correspond to? Who is going to read/grade it? I'd go to professors in fields you're interested in and find out what they're doing research on. Think of a few topics and who would be the one reading it. Are reference implementations necessary? If so, what is more important?
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Oct 8, 2008, 03:28 PM
 
Originally Posted by dcmacdaddy View Post
As for your request for a topic suggestion, how about investigating touch-control interface designs?

Try and think up a new way to interface with a 2D computer screen that is different than the basic touch-screen controllers* we see everywhere.
*resistive and capacitive overlays on flat-panel monitors--and the software interfaces for them--essentially treat the finger/hand as a mouse; come up with improvements to that tried-and-true input paradigm. You don't have to get in-depth a la Apple's iPhone interface or Microsoft's Surface but you could try and improve upon the existing design assumptions regarding how motion is registered and selections are made on a touch screen.
You I always found the computer system that Tom Cruise uses in Minority Report to be a totally cool idea. You essentially use your hands like two "mice" and can just "pick up" objects on the screen and discard them, or bring them in, etc. etc.

I find a very apt metaphor that someone gave me is that of organizing your work in front of you when you're studying on a desk: Laptop to the front off to one side, main book in the front off to the other side, incidental items behind or in front or to the side of everything, and you use both hands to switch back and forth and gather materials when you're working.

greg
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ghporter
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Oct 9, 2008, 09:09 PM
 
Originally Posted by Doofy View Post
So, with all this talk of copyright (silly talk, since one can't copyright ideas) what about something to do with the rise of P2P and its effect on the media industries?
By asserting copyright on a specific arrangement of ideas, dcmacdaddy and I have simply ensured that if our ideas are used, we'll be credited—and that credit is very helpful in elevating one's standing in having scholarly articles published.

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
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Oct 10, 2008, 01:54 AM
 
Originally Posted by Doofy View Post
So, with all this talk of copyright (silly talk, since one can't copyright ideas) what about something to do with the rise of P2P and its effect on the media industries?
Ideas in science are not copyrightable, but copying someone else's ideas/work without quoting them properly can be very serious. This is nothing new and has not changed since the rise of P2P. People in theoretical sciences rely on proper citation to make a career, because all they have are ideas.

Learning how to reference properly and acknowledge the work of others is one of the academic fundamentals. If students plagiarize, they will fail whatever task they were given and in some instances (e. g. in a Master's or PhD thesis) might even be expelled as a result.
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Andrew Stephens
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Oct 10, 2008, 03:00 AM
 
Originally Posted by ghporter View Post
By asserting copyright on a specific arrangement of ideas, dcmacdaddy and I have simply ensured that if our ideas are used, we'll be credited—and that credit is very helpful in elevating one's standing in having scholarly articles published.
Dude he's doing a final year dissertation. You'll need accreditation on a few more heavyweight papers if you're looking for tenure somewhere.
     
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Oct 10, 2008, 11:35 AM
 
Originally Posted by Andrew Stephens View Post
Dude he's doing a final year dissertation. You'll need accreditation on a few more heavyweight papers if you're looking for tenure somewhere.
It's not just for dcmacdaddy, but also for the OP himself: learning to acknowledge the work of others in whatever form is part of the education.
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ghporter
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Oct 11, 2008, 10:30 PM
 
Originally Posted by Andrew Stephens View Post
Dude he's doing a final year dissertation. You'll need accreditation on a few more heavyweight papers if you're looking for tenure somewhere.
Actually, the way most libraries decide on how to stock various journals depends more on stats for how many articles in the journal are cited elsewhere than whether the journal has quality articles. Likewise, getting your name cited ANYWHERE raises the probability that your second, third or fourth article will be more favorably reviewed by a journal's editorial committee.

My profession's journal editorial staff has recently published a number of articles on just this issue: quality doesn't get library's attention as much as number of citations, and many journals have resorted to Googling authors' names before reviewing their submission (as in "these other journals published him, so we can just scan the submission and we'll be fine").

Two of my professors (out of 5 regular faculty) are on or have just left the editorial committee of my profession's journal, and they are both quite upset at the way "serious journals" have been behaving recently. Instead of vetting authors based on their track records, many editors simply "go with the flow." Bad for serious research, and bad for anyone who depends on published research for real information.

So my personal demand for credit was intended to do two things: first, to get my name published in a paper which might just get me a little leg up when my first article is ready to be reviewed. Second, to reinforce that "ideas" are not free, and when one uses other people's ideas, one must provide appropriate credit. Every single paper I've written (I've lost count) in the program I'm about to finish has been entirely my own work with appropriately documented citations for sources of ideas and data. I think that it's only proper to reinforce that this is not an optional part of anything someone writes, scholarly or not.

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Oct 12, 2008, 12:30 AM
 
How about a complete biography of all MacNN members ?

-t
     
goMac
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Oct 12, 2008, 01:04 AM
 
Something involving multitouch.
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Oct 14, 2008, 11:29 AM
 
Originally Posted by ghporter View Post
By asserting copyright on a specific arrangement of ideas, dcmacdaddy and I have simply ensured that if our ideas are used, we'll be credited—and that credit is very helpful in elevating one's standing in having scholarly articles published.

Originally Posted by Andrew Stephens View Post
Dude he's doing a final year dissertation. You'll need accreditation on a few more heavyweight papers if you're looking for tenure somewhere.
For myself--and I think for Glenn as well--this request is not about getting tenure but getting recognition for our ideas in a manner that is academically appropriate. Were he to use one of our ideas it benefits both the OP and us to have that relationship acknowledged. And while Glenn seems likely to produce scholarly writing in his field, I am not. But that in no way suggests I am less interested in obtaining credit for my ideas.


My professional realm has me running major integrated multi-media/audio-visual systems for one of the museums that comprise the Smithsonian. In a previous job elsewhere in the Smithsonian I was responsible for the 10/7/364* operation of a $3 Million AV system comprised of dozens of touch-screens, projection systems, video monitors, audio monitors, and all the source devices to drive these playback devices (not to mention all the transmission equipment required to distribute the AV signals from a central control room throughout the museum across 12 miles of fiber-optic cable).

I explain all this to demonstrate that my ability to make the recommendations I did comes from my professional experience. Getting credit in an academic publication for providing an idea substantial to a scholarly work is credit to my professional expertise.


*The Smithsonian museums are closed only one day out of the year (Christmas). Therefore, our operational "up-time" was 10 hours per day, 7 days per week, 364 days per year.
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dcmacdaddy
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Oct 14, 2008, 11:37 AM
 
Originally Posted by ShortcutToMoncton View Post
You I always found the computer system that Tom Cruise uses in Minority Report to be a totally cool idea. You essentially use your hands like two "mice" and can just "pick up" objects on the screen and discard them, or bring them in, etc. etc.

I find a very apt metaphor that someone gave me is that of organizing your work in front of you when you're studying on a desk: Laptop to the front off to one side, main book in the front off to the other side, incidental items behind or in front or to the side of everything, and you use both hands to switch back and forth and gather materials when you're working.

greg
The IT consulting division of Accenture corporation is/was working on just such a multi-screen, multi-medium device. I have seen demos of their system and it uses spatial awareness of the "operators" hands and some pre-determined gestures to manipulate the images on-screen. The spatial awareness is achieved via sensors--I think based on laser or IR light--at the four corners of the screen. The diagonally opposed sensors face one another and when the two sets of sensors interact it allows the control system to accurately identify "where" on the screen the hands are, even though the hands would be moving in space just above the surface of the screen most of the time.

Accenture used to have a sample of this system setup in the international departures lounge of Terminal 4 at JFK. It wasn't quite as robust as the full demo I saw but it did allow for users to interact with a larger-than-life screen to obtain data on weather, travel/tourism, and news reports from major destinations around the world.
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vmarks
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Oct 14, 2008, 11:40 AM
 
Neat. I put my name into http://scholar.google.com and found that I've been cited as a reference much more frequently than I thought (once I weeded out the results for other folks with my name, and my father's (similar name) patents.)

Now, how to put that to use...
     
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Oct 14, 2008, 11:47 AM
 
Originally Posted by ghporter View Post
By asserting copyright on a specific arrangement of ideas,
Yeah, you can't do that either. The only copyright which would exist would be if you wrote those ideas down - the written manuscript would then have copyright. But even then, the ideas contained therein wouldn't have copyright.
That's what the patents office is for.
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vmarks
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Oct 14, 2008, 12:32 PM
 
Doofy,

I'm not sure I agree with you.
Patents are for inventions.
Copyright is for ideas that are not inventions, but are unique in their own right. Songs, books, movies, and more are all copyright-able, but are not patentable.
     
Doofy
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Oct 14, 2008, 12:39 PM
 
I don't know how it is over there, but under international law (Berne, UCC) you can't copyright ideas. It's simply not possible - you can only copyright a tangible product (i.e. a script, recording, whatever), not the idea behind it.

Which is why Apple doesn't sue Microsoft every three weeks.
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Oct 14, 2008, 01:04 PM
 
Doofy, you're in a different business. I wouldn't have used copyright, I would have used the proper term which is plagiarism (unauthorized copy of someone else's ideas while representing them as own work).

Plagiarism is not a copyright infringement (although it can become one if you copy a chapter of a book in your thesis). They are different infringements of rights: if somebody copies from the papers I've published (in a journal), they have infringed the rights of the American Physical Society, for instance, not my own (I've transferred my copyright to them*). But it's still plagiarism towards me.

Plagiarism can have many forms, the most important are improper or lack of citation and `copying and pasting'. There is even self-plagiarism -- which is only a problem if you water down make 2 publications into 10 (or infringe a copyright!). Plagiarism can have serious consequences for students, including revocation of a degree and being expelled. To cite properly is really drilled into the heads of university students here, although the details may depend on the field. Physicists and mathematicians don't have to quote `accepted facts' (e. g. Newton's laws of motion or the \epsilon-\delta definition of continuity).

* Some famous authors retain their copyright, though.
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Doofy
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Oct 14, 2008, 01:16 PM
 
Originally Posted by OreoCookie View Post
Doofy, you're in a different business.
...but the copyright law books I have cover every business.

Originally Posted by OreoCookie View Post
I wouldn't have used copyright, I would have used the proper term which is plagiarism (unauthorized copy of someone else's ideas while representing them as own work).
Correct. Copyright infringement is legally actionable. Plagiarism might get you throw out of a Uni or job (unless the owner of original work can get "fraud" attached to it somehow, in which case it's legally actionable). Big difference.
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Oct 14, 2008, 01:49 PM
 
Originally Posted by Doofy View Post
...but the copyright law books I have cover every business.
Right. But you're used to think in terms of copyrights while in academia, copyright is not really that important, it's plagiarism. Glenn's request to be acknowledged is nothing out of the ordinary.
Originally Posted by Doofy View Post
Correct. Copyright infringement is legally actionable. Plagiarism might get you throw out of a Uni or job (unless the owner of original work can get "fraud" attached to it somehow, in which case it's legally actionable). Big difference.
Yes, that's what I said, isn't it? Glenn used the wrong term, but the rest of his post is correct. Plagiarism does not have direct legal consequences, as you have pointed out correctly.
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Oct 14, 2008, 02:17 PM
 
Originally Posted by OreoCookie View Post
Right. But you're used to think in terms of copyrights while in academia, copyright is not really that important, it's plagiarism. Glenn's request to be acknowledged is nothing out of the ordinary.

Yes, that's what I said, isn't it? Glenn used the wrong term, but the rest of his post is correct. Plagiarism does not have direct legal consequences, as you have pointed out correctly.
This conversation started in response to dcmacdaddy "asserting copyright on the ideas articulated above" in the third post. I merely mentioned that ideas can't be copyrighted, but hey what about actually writing about copyright in a P2P world.

Unfortunately, you guys appear to have acquired the wrong end of the stick and run with it. Why are we even having this discussion?
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Oct 14, 2008, 09:30 PM
 
Legal copyright is immaterial in academia. PROPER CREDIT, (and properly cited) is everything. Plagiarism is a death sentence in school (rightly so, since you're not in school to simply copy other people's stuff), and all I'm doing by asking for proper citation is messing with "the man" in terms of how stupid librarians judge which journals to stock, which is based on web searches on authors' names and their works, not much else.

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Oct 23, 2008, 02:51 PM
 
I chose this btw


focussing on why people read newspapers, why they read blogs, where news delivery is going, etc etc. And making some form of personalized news reader / recommendation engine.
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Oct 23, 2008, 04:38 PM
 
Originally Posted by vmarks View Post
Doofy,

I'm not sure I agree with you.
Patents are for inventions.
Copyright is for ideas that are not inventions, but are unique in their own right. Songs, books, movies, and more are all copyright-able, but are not patentable.
But songs, books, movies and more are not "ideas." They are "works."

greg
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Oct 23, 2008, 05:03 PM
 
Originally Posted by dcmacdaddy View Post
For myself--and I think for Glenn as well--this request is not about getting tenure but getting recognition for our ideas in a manner that is academically appropriate.
But is an online, non-academic-forum post outlining some ideas for study "academically appropriate" for recognition?

Neither of you provided anything besides ideas for study, which he would then have to actually study. If you say "hey, Peter, you could try coming up with a design for this," and Peter says "hey good suggestion" and then looks at this further and eventually comes up with a design, what has he plagiarized? For what exactly should you get credit? You did absolutely no work on the subject yourself, except for some musing on ideas.

Finally, as Doofy said, both of you referred to "copyright" and "giving license." Both are terms of copyright. Neither are appropriate, or could be appropriate, in this case, because neither of your could claim any copyright in your "ideas."

greg
( Last edited by ShortcutToMoncton; Oct 23, 2008 at 07:08 PM. )
Mankind's only chance is to harness the power of stupid.
     
   
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