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Pastimes : Don't Ask Rambi -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nuni who wrote (47802)	3/3/2000 12:05:00 AM
From: Edwarda	Respond to of 71178

Marvelous! But not the story I am trying to recover. Thanks all the same for a fun read!

To: Nuni who wrote (47802)	3/3/2000 12:58:00 AM
From: nihil	Respond to of 71178

The WALDO © Waldo©: TCS' trademark for its brand of ergonomic-gonio-kineti-telemetric input devices for controlling its puppets and animatronics. Ergonomic because it is engineered to fit a puppeteer's or performer's body (and/or head and/or face) and comfortably allow a wide range of physical freedom. Gonio- and kineti-metric because it measures the angle and movement of the wearer's joints and limbs. And telemetric because the movement data is measured and sent via remote control. In simpler terms, an electro-mechanical rig you wear that makes a puppet (whether actually three dimensional or a CGI "electronic puppet") mimic your movements. The term was first used in a Robert Heinlein short story, which was about a disabled scientist named Waldo who managed to build devices that would amplify his strength. These "waldoes" went on toíreplicate bigger machines, and so on. At least that's the way I remember it happened. NASA scientists nicknamed some of their early telemetry systems "waldo", and when the rare telemetry device popped up, sometimes that caught the nickname. When we started pioneering the use of telemetric input devices for puppetry, we researched the name "Waldo" with the trademark registry. It had never been officially appropriated; no one had ever gone to market with telemetry devices, called them waldoes, and trademarked it. So, The Character Shop applied for and received the trademark for its line of input devices. Now, we've been accused of ripping Mr. Heinlein off; that's far from the case. We obtained the trademark with utter respect, and in an homage to Mr. Heinlein. Mr. Heinlein wrote a work of fiction, and a character in the story was named Waldo. One cannot copyright the name of a fictional character in literature, unless, perhaps it originates with the author. Mr. Heinlein was not intending to market telemetry devices, he was writing a science fiction story. So there was no need or reason for him to trademark the name. Just as Asimov popularized the term "robot", Mr. Heinlein has an inspirational claim to the term.