Partner and I once test drove a car that had “passed” a something something-point inspection at the dealer. As partner turns onto the highway he realizes it doesn’t have a rear-view mirror. We were not impressed with that dealership. (Partner later said that when he got in he made sure the mirrors were adjusted, but his brain didn’t clock that there wasn’t a rear-view mirror until he had to use it. TBF, the missing mirror wasn’t pointed the wrong way.)

Same dealership tried to badmouth my Prius in order to get it as a trade-in. Partner had introduced me as his roommate and driver, which made it even weirder.

Ah, I thought you were being racist against people who might sing a song in a non-English language.

Nah, it’s just wicked repetitive and I hate it. I had a cubicle neighbor that played the radio and it felt like that frigging song played in a loop, alongside the “kars 4 kids” jingle.

Feliz Navidad.

I’m out of the loop. Could someone please explain like I’m a 5 year old that knows just enough Linux to be dangerous?

Walk someone else through editing a config file on the command-line over screenshare? Nano. Omg nano is your friend.

The problem with using nano for years is that I now try using nano shortcuts in other programs. Random new windows opening is confusing, until you figure out Ctrl+o isn’t save in that program. Then it’s just annoying because you still have your inappropriate muscle memory.

For some reason, Train to Busan is what springs to my mind.

Yep. That’s why I’m here again. My reddit app may work for now, but the writing is on the wall in bigger, bolder letters.

Why don’t you ask the trans people you know? They’re more likely to know their reasons that we are. We’re just random people in the Internet. They’re the ones whose style causes you questions.

I apologize, I don’t think we’re disagreeing. Fiction can, but often doesn’t, describe something in sufficient detail to be cited as “prior art” during a patent application or dispute. It comes down to how broad the claims are in the patent.

If someone were to try and patent “sliding doors”, a patent examiner could point at Star Trek and say “Sliding doors are already described in published material, your invention is not original”.

If someone were to try and patent “Mechanism X, used for making sliding doors slide”, that might be patentable because Star Trek (and other published material) didn’t describe Mechanism X.

Inventions need to be non-obvious (35 U.S.C. 103: Conditions for patentability; non-obvious subject matter) in order to be patentable. Prior art can be used to show that an invention is obvious. The prior art doesn’t need to rise to the level of detail contained in a patent to be prior art.

I’m not saying that devices described by fiction are patentable based on the description in the fiction. But, those descriptions could be used to prove that the ‘invention’ is too obvious to be patentable. Page 7 of this document from the USPTO going over what ‘prior art’ is suggests that fiction can be used as prior art.

My understanding is that patents are to protect novel new ideas. If something’s already bean described in fiction, what innovation is protected by the patent?

So, I’d think “it’s a tablet” wouldn’t be patentable because that was described in Star Trek. But, "screen technology blah that makes tablets practical "would be patentable.

Neat post on related topic: https://fia.umd.edu/answer-can-science-fiction-stories-be-used-to-demonstrate-prior-art-in-patent-cases/