Big Brother Again...
I get all kinds of ads on the MSN start screen which is the default on Edge or whatever MS calls their browser today. Some are amusing some are blatant ripoffs, but together they paint a picture of just how much info the big corps (MS, Apple, Google, Amazon, etc) have on us. Occasionally there is some useful information there pertaining to local weather, road closures or even automotive or rock music trivia. Yesterday I typed post #19. Today I get two ads from "Trademarkclutch.com" for their USPTO filing service. Even here in a forum not frequently visited by the average Joe, we are being mined for targeted advertising. How close do these ads get? Yes, I use and build computers. All have used AMD CPU chips for the last several years, and all but one run Windows, either 10 or 11. Yes, I build audio amps too, some with small boards like the red one shown, but mine came from Parts Express. I rarely eat anything from McDonalds.
I get all kinds of ads on the MSN start screen which is the default on Edge or whatever MS calls their browser today. Some are amusing some are blatant ripoffs, but together they paint a picture of just how much info the big corps (MS, Apple, Google, Amazon, etc) have on us. Occasionally there is some useful information there pertaining to local weather, road closures or even automotive or rock music trivia. Yesterday I typed post #19. Today I get two ads from "Trademarkclutch.com" for their USPTO filing service. Even here in a forum not frequently visited by the average Joe, we are being mined for targeted advertising. How close do these ads get? Yes, I use and build computers. All have used AMD CPU chips for the last several years, and all but one run Windows, either 10 or 11. Yes, I build audio amps too, some with small boards like the red one shown, but mine came from Parts Express. I rarely eat anything from McDonalds.
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They are going to send EVERYONE ads on new computers and iPhones. Even if they had NO data on you. When it gets spooky is when the targeted ads come from things NOT connected in any way to your internet traffic, but to the contents of your PRIVATE DOCUMENTS which are never transmitted. Yes, OneDrive is turned OFF.
No such thing as privacy and NDAs aren’t worth the paper they are printed on, except for maybe keeping ex-employees from divulging trade secrets when they move on to another job. My next job is building a house and then finishing bucket list projects, so I don’t think they will even bother worrying about it here. If I needed to “further my career” you bet they’d be worried, with good reason.
No such thing as privacy and NDAs aren’t worth the paper they are printed on, except for maybe keeping ex-employees from divulging trade secrets when they move on to another job. My next job is building a house and then finishing bucket list projects, so I don’t think they will even bother worrying about it here. If I needed to “further my career” you bet they’d be worried, with good reason.
I think that post #19 was the first time I have mentioned patents here, or anywhere in a long time. Today, I get a targeted advert from a patent attorney or legal firm, really? Even though I worked in a research department for the last 12 years of my employment, I demonstrated to my boss that the internal patent application review committee was corrupt, and I refused to play their game for most of that time. I left Motorola over 11 years ago. I have not been involved in any patent applications or similar legal process for over 20 years. This means that someone is mining these and probably other technical forums for targets. The title of this particular thread is probably good bait for such a data miner.
Having 4 grandkids from age 10 to 19 with varying tastes proves that Amazon sells their data and customer lists too. I bought my last two cell phones from Amazon. The first one was offered at a serious discount if I purchased the "Amazon edition" so I got it. It even called home with my location. We go over to the Pittsburgh area once or twice a month for food and other necessities. Every time I passed the Mercedes Benz dealership I got a pop up advert on the phone. They obviously don't know what I drive. It seems that this was deemed illegal, so I got a message to leave the phone on and plugged in overnight for an update and all the Amazon stuff went away. I gave that phone to my daughter two years ago who does use it to shop on Amazon. I do not do any business on a phone primarily because of the small screen. I do use Amazon on this computer, and I still get ads for dog food, video games and other stuff related to my daughter and the grandkids.
Usually, these ads are pretty far off the mark. This batch gets pretty close. Yep, its cold outside, and I obviously play with computer stuff, and sometimes buy it from Amazon, drive an old Ford van, listen to a lot of vintage rock music, and may even have a pair of JJ EL34's on my workbench currently.........Wait, big brother has a pair of eyes inside my camera? Have they cataloged my NAS box? The lights flash on that thing when all the computers are off, so what or who is it talking to? Maybe I should power it down when the computers are off, but that's going to take a bunch of wiring changes, maybe even a separate network for the NAS box.
Having 4 grandkids from age 10 to 19 with varying tastes proves that Amazon sells their data and customer lists too. I bought my last two cell phones from Amazon. The first one was offered at a serious discount if I purchased the "Amazon edition" so I got it. It even called home with my location. We go over to the Pittsburgh area once or twice a month for food and other necessities. Every time I passed the Mercedes Benz dealership I got a pop up advert on the phone. They obviously don't know what I drive. It seems that this was deemed illegal, so I got a message to leave the phone on and plugged in overnight for an update and all the Amazon stuff went away. I gave that phone to my daughter two years ago who does use it to shop on Amazon. I do not do any business on a phone primarily because of the small screen. I do use Amazon on this computer, and I still get ads for dog food, video games and other stuff related to my daughter and the grandkids.
Usually, these ads are pretty far off the mark. This batch gets pretty close. Yep, its cold outside, and I obviously play with computer stuff, and sometimes buy it from Amazon, drive an old Ford van, listen to a lot of vintage rock music, and may even have a pair of JJ EL34's on my workbench currently.........Wait, big brother has a pair of eyes inside my camera? Have they cataloged my NAS box? The lights flash on that thing when all the computers are off, so what or who is it talking to? Maybe I should power it down when the computers are off, but that's going to take a bunch of wiring changes, maybe even a separate network for the NAS box.
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Have you ever tried a high-end DJ mixer for recording studio duties? I am after a nice small mixer and can't find it. There seems to be a big gap between SSL Six and .. maybe API The Box. There are devices for movie industries such as Sonosax. But the prices are out of this earth. The DJ mixers miss some features for recording but if the sound quality would be on par with high-end recording gear, they could be an interesting option. I mean companies like Formula Sound or Mastersound.
I used a Samson Mixpad 9 for years until I stumbled upon a well used Mackie 32 input board for $100. The Mixpad was mostly used connecting several synthesizers, a guitar and a digital drum set to 2 inputs on my Focusrite Clarett 4Pre interface. It worked good for that application. I found the Mackie at the Dayton Hamfest many years ago. It needed a bit of work and still has a few "ghosts in the machine" but it is useable as is. I'm not sure if the Mixpad 9 is still in production since mine is from the 1990's. If you buy a used one, make sure that it comes with the external power supply.
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I wonder if the OP is already scared away, but if not, there's the story of Robert Kearns. He did "everything right," had the windshield wiper delay patent issued to him before showing it, tried to sell it to the Three Big US Auto Makers, all three declined to license it, yet they all three used his circuit anyway. He sued and eventually won, but only after DECADES of litigation, basically taking up rest of his life.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Kearns
A mixer modification doesn't seem anywhere near as big a deal. Whether you can get a patent certainly seems variable. In a patent seminar as a Schlumberger employee I heard the story of an engineer saying "I bet I can get a patent on adding a resistor to this device," he wrote it up and indeed got the patent. I never figured out what patent that was, it's a big company with lots of patents. I had two patents through the company, but they weren't renewed as they had to do with POTS phone lines which have become obsolete.
I wouldn't bother with a patent, just keep the idea "proprietary" and make/sell as many as you reasonably can. A patent written up by a good patent lawyer is surely over $10,000 thesedays, and if you have to sue an infringer that could run into the millions, and I'd be surprised if the total market for this mod is worth anything near that. Patents are really only profitable for big companies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Kearns
A mixer modification doesn't seem anywhere near as big a deal. Whether you can get a patent certainly seems variable. In a patent seminar as a Schlumberger employee I heard the story of an engineer saying "I bet I can get a patent on adding a resistor to this device," he wrote it up and indeed got the patent. I never figured out what patent that was, it's a big company with lots of patents. I had two patents through the company, but they weren't renewed as they had to do with POTS phone lines which have become obsolete.
I wouldn't bother with a patent, just keep the idea "proprietary" and make/sell as many as you reasonably can. A patent written up by a good patent lawyer is surely over $10,000 thesedays, and if you have to sue an infringer that could run into the millions, and I'd be surprised if the total market for this mod is worth anything near that. Patents are really only profitable for big companies.