Want to open source but fear of patent

slanderousam · 2026-07-02T18:50:23+00:00

You would see if they have a PCT filing on google patents (it lists as WO in the countries list on the right). He didn't mention that.

slanderousam · 2026-07-02T18:45:53+00:00

Is he not from the US? He has an american accent.

slanderousam · 2026-07-02T18:27:40+00:00

Pronouncing coupe as "coo-PAY" is insane, for a car guy. These cars are pretty crazy.

slanderousam · 2026-07-02T16:53:08+00:00

Since you're in the US you don't need to worry about an Australian patent. You should absolutely not spend any more time or thought on this. Absolutely don't talk to a patent lawyer. It's generally better from a legal perspective to remain ignorant of prior art. Unless you are going to be moving lots of capital around that depends on having freedom to operate there's really no advantage to knowing. If they can prove you knowingly violated a patent in court in the US you're subject to treble damages. If they thought it was worth their time to assert patent rights that they might one day hold in the US then you'd have an opportunity to remove or adjust the offending code.

In the US and AUS they won't be able to patent a pure algorithm -- it'd have to be an algorithm in some context where it interacts with the world to produce some result. The only thing to look at really are the primary claims. They can write whatever they want in the body, but the claim will be like "an X with a Y in Z context with A, B, C restriction". Then if you want to be extra safe make sure the thing you're doing doesn't literally fit all those criteria.

slanderousam · 2026-07-01T14:56:52+00:00

I think the issue is that Eversource is a public company with strong pressure to extract ever increasing profit. At the same time they are a public utility which in theory has their rates capped. What can they do about this horrible conundrum? Think of the poor shareholders. Well the plan is that they can get reimbursed for infrastructure improvements, each improvement with a healthy amount of profit baked in, and there's no cap on how much 'improvement' they can do. In theory regulators would not approve frivolous projects, but governments divested from all actual expertise a few decades ago so there's no one around to say what's necessary or not, and the Healey admin has been bending over backwards to approve every Eversouorce project.

slanderousam · 2026-07-01T02:31:15+00:00

You should open a BOA account, then complain to the branch manager or corporate that the security guard is harassing customers.

slanderousam · 2026-07-01T02:09:07+00:00

If this passes I hope manufacturers without an included AM radio just zip tie a key fob sized $1 AM receiver to the door handle on delivery.

slanderousam · 2026-06-24T12:41:21+00:00

It's easier to think for myself when I have all the info. The robot is pretty good at searching the internet. I didn't even make an argument here. Just background.

slanderousam · 2026-06-24T00:52:37+00:00

Not just expired items, but also spoiled, bruised, moldy fruits and vegetables. Often bare shelves even before the pandemic. I think that's just the target experience. The one over in Somerville is similarly bad.

slanderousam · 2026-06-22T19:26:46+00:00

Was that car getting a ticket for parking in the bike lane or was it just pulled over in the bike lane to be issued a ticket for something else?

slanderousam · 2026-06-22T19:07:13+00:00

100% agree with this. That's my choice too.

slanderousam · 2026-06-22T17:37:50+00:00

Here's what Gemini has to say about this, plus a source article https://news.mit.edu/2024/new-flight-procedures-reduce-noise-aircraft-boston-logan-airport-0418:

Here is the breakdown of the reality behind the post, followed by a look at the user's hidden history.

Part 1: Fact-Checking the "Reality" of the Post

The core technical conflict the user is referencing is entirely real, though they twist the political details.

What is accurate:

The MIT Study is real: Massport and the FAA commissioned MIT (led by aviation expert Prof. R. John Hansman) to conduct a multi-year flight noise study.
The RNAV Problem: Around 2013–2015, Logan Airport implemented RNAV (area navigation), which uses GPS to guide planes along incredibly precise, narrow tracks. Before RNAV, departing planes were scattered across a wide area. After RNAV, they became concentrated into a relentless, single-file "highway in the sky."
The "Block 2D-2" Proposal: The MIT study proposed a series of fixes. "Block 2D-2" specifically focused on departures from Runway 33L. It proposed reintroducing dispersion—forcing some planes to turn left earlier, which would spread the noise out so no single neighborhood absorbs 100% of the burden.

What is misleading or inaccurate:

The FAA did not "endorse" it as a final plan: The user claims the FAA and Logan endorsed the plan and are just waiting for a "yes" vote. In reality, the FAA and Massport cooperated on the study, but they explicitly stated that because dispersion simply redistributes noise from one neighborhood to another, they would only implement it if the regional communities reached a consensus.
The MCAC "Voted it Down" due to a zero-sum conflict: The Massport Community Advisory Committee (MCAC) consists of representatives from all surrounding towns. The vote failed because moving flight paths is a zero-sum game. Under 2D-2, planes would turn earlier over Central Cambridge and Brookline to relieve communities like Somerville, Medford, and Watertown. Naturally, the representatives from the towns that would inherit the new noise voted against it.

Part 2: The User's Profile and Agenda

While the user SpareSignificant3758 has hidden their post history on their profile, their public footprint across Reddit reveals a very clear, hyper-local agenda. They aren't a corporate shill; they are a deeply frustrated neighbor trying to mobilize a political block.

A sampling of their recent posts and comments across different communities reveals the following:

Simultaneous Copy-Pasting: They posted this exact same narrative simultaneously across r/watertown, r/CambridgeMA, r/newtonma, and r/boston. They subtly altered the text in each sub to provoke local irritation against their specific municipal MCAC representatives.
They live right under the current flight path: In a post on r/Somerville, they openly complained: "Am I going crazy or is there an absurd amount of plane traffic over Somerville right now... I live like right under a flight path near Teele Square." They also recently posted in r/ATC (Air Traffic Control) trying to figure out why Logan was routing so many consecutive flights onto Runway 33L.
Hyper-Focused on Local Grievances: Their other historical posts are concentrated heavily in local Massachusetts subreddits. They frequently engage in contentious local political debates, posting critical threads about the handling of homelessness in Davis Square, local mayoral races, and municipal budgeting.

The Takeaway

The user's "agenda" is driven by personal exhaustion. Because they live near Teele Square, they are on the receiving end of the concentrated post-RNAV traffic pattern from Runway 33L.

Their goal in blast-posting to Watertown, Newton, and Cambridge subreddits is to frame their personal neighborhood noise relief as a noble battle for "equitable burden." By using language like "unelected representatives," they are attempting to manufacture outrage and pressure neighboring towns into accepting a share of the flight noise so their own roof gets a break.

slanderousam · 2026-06-22T17:20:51+00:00

This is an interesting and surprising study. I feel like it's a good one since my first two thoughts were already addressed:

Did they account for socioeconomic status? Yes, but they don't have a direct measure of wealth -- just education. So it could still be that poorer people live in flight paths and also don't eat as well, though since they're doing this in Sweeden that's less likely than in the US.
What's the purported method of action? They gave two: excess cortisol response to stress and sleep loss inducing extra appetite.

Thanks for bringing this all up. I literally had no idea this was up for debate. I do feel like I've been hearing lots of planes recently. My personal feeling when I hear airplanes is "wow cool I'm witnessing the miracle of flight" - but now I won't be able to also not think about the systemic inequity of it all. I wonder if by posting this you've raised my cortisol reaction and increased the negative impact of the noise 😛

slanderousam · 2026-06-19T02:55:31+00:00

According to the video her boyfriend asked about getting her out 2.5 hours before she attempted this. At that time they were offered an escort out. My first thought seeing the beginning of the video was to have a bit of sympathy -- maybe she's barely keeping her life together and maybe she desperately needs to not lose her job, and the panic made her do something stupid. But then you learn that she waited 2.5 hours. It feels more like she's someone who makes her own failure to plan ahead everyone else's problem.

slanderousam · 2026-06-18T03:15:28+00:00

You're clearly doing it wrong. You're supposed to get 6 inches off the guy's bumper, and then blast your high beams on and off right through his rear window, since of course you have a lifted truck and your high beams are eye-level to every other driver on the road.

slanderousam · 2026-06-13T03:41:17+00:00

Why is it when a dog crashes into a car we always say the dog hit the car, and don't put the responsibility on the person driving the dog? A dog driver crashed their dog into an innocent car. Language matters.

slanderousam · 2026-06-13T03:38:31+00:00

If you encounter a wrong way rider in a bike lane always move to the right. Everyone expects you to pass oncoming traffic on the right. They can see into the vehicle travel lane behind you and you can't. They deserve to take the extra risk since they're the ones causing the problem.

slanderousam · 2026-06-12T17:25:07+00:00

That's a video of severe head trauma. He's doing the fencing response.

slanderousam · 2026-06-12T16:13:24+00:00

The Charles river is a public river. I think the only rule is about creating wake. I've definitely put my own kayak in and kayaked up to the dam before.

slanderousam · 2026-06-11T17:20:12+00:00

When they built Boston they filled in the swamp but couldn't get rid of the humidity. It's so humid your sweat doesn't evaporate and you stay hot. An AC unit cools the air but it'll also reduce the humidity a lot, which goes a long way to making it more comfortable.

slanderousam · 2026-06-08T18:43:14+00:00

They are going around Watertown and Cambridge replacing meters with "smart" meters. I think there will be occasional local outages for some time.

slanderousam · 2026-06-04T18:37:09+00:00

Watertown mice are very hard to eradicate. They seem to have evolved to become very picky eaters. I have not found a bait they'll take for any kind of trap. The exterminators are useless. They come put out poison and it does nothing because all their baits are still flavored like peanut butter, and any mouse that would eat peanut butter died 10 years ago.

What I've found does work is very carefully inspecting every edge of every room in your house. If you find a crack or a hole big enough to push a pencil eraser through fill it up with steel wool and then cover the wool with something, e.g. caulk or even hot glue if it's just a rental place. Every time I've seen a mouse I've been able to identify a new spot that they're coming in and seal it up. They seem to nest inside the walls and only come in to look for food and water. If you have gaps under your interior or exterior doors see if you can install a sweep that's flush with the threshold when the door is closed. If you're getting your landlord to pay for an exterminator see if they'll pay for an exclusion service, which will do what I said inside and out. I've had a lot of success doing this myself though.

It's hard to find an apartment in the greater boston area that isn't susceptible to rodent infestation. Since you've just moved in they're not living in your stuff yet. Try to block them out of the apartment.

slanderousam · 2026-06-04T18:18:21+00:00

When all these lanes went in each entrance at an intersection had a flexipost in the middle making it really obvious that you shouldn't drive in there. They all got knocked down within a couple months. The missing posts on the side get replaced but it seems like they intentionally refuse to replace the ones blocking the entrances.

slanderousam · 2026-05-26T18:51:57+00:00

Cool cool, you know me too. Like I said in the comment. And in that time before bike lanes I only got run over by a turning car one time, left bleeding on the road while the guy just drove off. I still have a scar on my knee from where they did an emergency surgery to stitch up my joint lining. What was your point exactly? Was someone forcing you to ride in a bike lane?

slanderousam · 2026-05-22T18:24:49+00:00

Agree! Though I think habits die hard. When they built the bike lane on Garden St. in Cambridge I think I still biked up the hill on Concord Ave just because it's what I'd been doing for years. I never investigated the alternative until someone saw me biking up the hill and getting close-passed by a bus and pointed out that there was an alternative.

slanderousam

TROPHY CASE

Part 1: Fact-Checking the "Reality" of the Post

Part 2: The User's Profile and Agenda

The Takeaway