The Logic Off Topic list

>You chose to direct energy in a way, that condemns me.  Instead of
>pragmatically looking at the situation and saying..."hmmm, that does sound a
>bit fishy.  399.00 dollars for a skip upgrade?!".  But you don't care about
>that, now do you.  You will only care, when it is you in the circumstance
>and your ass.  Until that day happens, you are happy...to which one can say,
>"Ignorance is bliss".  So, while you're flexing your intellect and quoting
>"Mark Twain"...think about what Twain did for his colleagues.
>
>For years, he was friends with Nikola Tesla.  And when Tesla started
>becoming destitute, he literally sponsored Tesla for years.  With his own
>money.  Why, because he realized the "the invincibility of idiocy" was not
>his good friends innocent approach to life and business.  He realized Tesla
>may have lost in business, yes, but a true Genius and a great mind.  The
>"the invincibility of idiocy" came from the people that screwed him over.
>Twain was a great man, in that respect.  Because while Tesla was eventually
>forced into climbing up power poles, cleaning up and fixing DC power lines
>created by Edison, just for his room and board.  It wasn't until later, that
>some people gathered together and said "hey, now wait a minute, AC is
>better...look."  Tesla...not Edison...so who was the fool.  And if we had
>gone forward with Tesla's inventions, just maybe we would all have
>incredible amounts of electrical resources for FREE.  The idea, is that
>Edison was selling crap, and only few people knew it. Yet to this day, we
>exploit Tesla's AC and yet pay for it through Edison company...lol.

Wrong.  Tesla became an enemy of Edison after working for him for a 
very short time and getting ripped off once.  Tesla was exploited 
mercilessly by George Westinghouse.  If Tesla had stuck to his 
original agreement or even negotiated a little he could have been one 
of the richest men, if not "the" richest man in America.

Instead he gave up his claim to royalties for electricity generated 
using his multiphase generators because George Westinghouse convinced 
him that if he stuck to his original agreement it would have killed 
the AC project and Edison's inefficient DC system would have won.

Tesla did not give up his royalties out of pure generosity.  It was 
probably 10% generosity 10% hatred of Edison 30% the naive assumption 
that it would earn him the steadfast patronage of Westinghouse and 
the main 60% confidence that he was close to realization of his dream 
of wireless energy transmission lifetime which if it had ever been 
actually accomplished would have rendered the vast electrical energy 
networks Westinghouse was constructing obsolete.  To imply that Tesla 
was not profit motivated is just plain stupid.  The fact was that in 
addition to sheer love for what he did he wanted to be rich and to 
enjoy his celebrity he was just mistakenly convinced that his most 
profitable invention was yet to come and therefore maintained his 
resources poorly.  He lost a lot of money and data when his lab 
burned and he never recovered.  That shouldn't have broke him but it 
did.

Nicola Tesla was probably the greatest inventor this world has seen 
in the last couple of hundred years died broke because he was a bad 
businessman.  It's too bad because if he had been a good one 
businessman and had been able to continue to finance his own work we 
less talented mortals would be enjoying even more of the fruits of 
his genius today.

That's why I respect inventors and the developers of inventions and 
when they set a price for putting their intellectual property at my 
disposal I either agree that what they are selling is worth that 
price to me and pay it or I don't.

What I do not do is whine like a spoiled six year old because they 
want me to pay for their work instead of just giving it to me.


>Also, note that Edison was very much like Microsoft is today...Edison didn't
>really invent anything, just bought patents and found ways to make them
>work...the only true invention that Edison can claim, was the Electric
>Chair.

Wrong again.  On many levels.  Edison invented lots of things, he was 
"also" but not "just" a total asshole who exploited those around him 
*but* to imply that his talent for making inventions "work" as in 
"earn money" was somehow unimportant is ludicrous and inane.  Over 
95% of patents obtained do not even earn enough to pay for the filing 
fee.  If someone can make a patent "work" he is doing a service to 
humanity because otherwise those inventions protected by the patents 
will just sleep in the patent office and their inventors will live 
out their lives in poverty.


>To which Twain, thought was pretty stupid, pointless and disgusting.
>  Edison being a bit of money grubbing sloth.

Edison may have been repugnant be he was anything but a sloth.




>However, what you did was very short sighted to ideal of greatness in the
>human spirit.  What "I" did, was raise the issue and present it on the
>table.  The wool has been pulled over your eyes, not mine.  Because you
>agree to this, not me.  For every individual that agrees with this, is just
>going corner themselves later on.  I will have ventured forth onto other
>things...and eventually you will be talking to me on another list somewhere
>else...or not.  But I guarantee you, I won't ever pay, $399.00 for skip
>upgrade.

You may be convinced that you are comparable in spirit to Mark Twain 
or Nicola Tesla but you are probably the only one.

If you had some valuable intellectual property that is actually out 
there doing something I do not believe you would be spouting crap 
that you have been.  But then if you were smart enough to actually 
originate an idea you would also probably be smart enough not to say 
the things you do.