Will the HD Connect work on the Slingbox A/V? Specifically will the Slingbox A/V work with the Tivo S3?

My Name is Earl

I meant "saw nuclear reactor cooling towers" not "say" (because that would not make sense).

To all of you who say that windmills aren't an eyesore... i'm sure people made the same statement when they say nuclear reactor cooling towers back when they were new and cool. My point is that they may not be an eyesore now, but we have to think about the future too. Soon windmills will lose their coolness factor and will be just an annoyance (like cooling towers, cell phone towers, power lines, or any other manmade thing in nature). This is not to say that we should stop investing alternate energy sources, just make them as invisible as possible.

"Like a Rolling Stone" by Bob Dylan

(and damn, do some people have crappy taste in music)

because according to the tivo website, only tivo's bought through tivo.com (and not a 3rd party like best buy) are eligible for the lifetime subscription transfer.

d3: i am a lawyer. and there can be more than one purpose of patent law. i like to focus more on the innovator side... patents protect initial capital investment into a new product/invention. conceptually there is not much difference between copyright and patent laws... one simply protects artistic works, the other protects inventions. some of the finer details are different, but the general gist is the same.

as far as secrets go, a lot of companies choose to forgo the public patent route (or an IP protection) and maintain a trade secret. Coke and Pepsi being the two best known examples. neither have sought any IP protection for their formula, and have instead kept a trade secret. the secret is not public, but it is also not protected (except from theft and misappropriation).

patent law does make information public so that everyone can benefit from it... but it puts a 20 year stay of execution on anyone else capitalizing on the same product... that is the temporary monopoly i was talking about that protects the original innovator.

I wouldnt trust your Echostar Rep too much... their whole job is to say whatever to retain you as a customer. Besides, they have NO IDEA what they are talking about. The TiVo Echostar discussions are held at a level way way way above the rep's head. Not to mention, it may not be Echostar's call. If TiVo wants to do something stupid to make a point, they can just tell echostar to stop. And finally, although TiVo is public... it is not very easy to buy a controlling stake in a corporation (which is what they would need to force tivo to deal with echostar, not just an equity stake). Most corporations have "poison pills" built into their corporate structures that prevent hostile take-overs.

The purpose of patent law is to prevent competition. We promote innovation and investment (two good things) by granting a temporary monopoly. So to those who say patents stifle competetion... well duh, it is supposed to.

Why would any company invest billions of dollars just to have some jackass reverse engineer the device and sell it cheaper (a problem with pharmaceuticals, but equally a concern with less costly software and hardware).

It was only a few months, it didnt take the judge all that long. (I used to work for a judge, there are lots of things that go on behind the bench that people don't realize takes time... not to mention the parties have a certain number of days to file supplemental briefs in support of their post verdict motions... the legal process takes time)