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Microsoft Pockets Patent for Encouraging TV Viewing
theodp writes "Through its WebTV unit, Microsoft was awarded a patent Tuesday for a system and method for encouraging viewers to watch television programs, such as offering viewers frequent-flier miles for identifying the name of a sponsor or the color of an announcer's shirt. In other news, Microsoft took a District Court to task for failing to recognize the existence of prior art for the Eolas web plug-in patent, resulting in a $521 million judgment against the software giant."
One more reality show like "Wife Swapping" and I'm going to kill my TV...
Sigs cause cancer.
We actually need to encourage people to sit around and watch television? Come on....
Sedentary life is its own reward.
This space for rent.
ITs getting to a point that Microsoft is going to have a patent on everything. THis isnt a groundbreaking idea or concept, there needs to be reforms in how patents are given out. What next we going to see someone patent the idea of having an input device onto a computer?
30% Troll, 50% Underrated, 10% Interesting
Score:5, Troll
But this sounds like a great idea. When I watch comercials my brain just glazes over but with this it is active mental stimulation. Watch a commercial and get some miles? Pointless but its a REWARD, and everyone loves rewards no matter how useless or stupid they are.
I remember when good tv shows used to be the incentive to watch tv.
What about contests? There have been plenty of TV show contests where you had to watch an episode,or even several,to find clues or code words or answer questions. Wouldn't that count?
==== Warning:this poster contains subject matter that may be offensive. Flaming discretion is advised.
When was TV anything else besides a barren wasteland of corporate-enforced mediocrity?
I thought local shows have been doing this for years with contests?
"Just write down the the name of the visitor in today's show and send a postcard to Win a CAR P.O. blah blah..."
I seem to remember these as far back as the 80's.
That and local news pulling similar tricks to get you to watch.
Whether you love or hate Windows, whenever you read an article like this about more Microsoft stupidity, rather than venting your anger on your monitor or even on Slashdot, turn it into something positive & deny Microsoft just a little bit of the power they have over you.
No, I'm not talking about fdisk-ing your hard drive and diving manically for the nearest Linux distro - instead, have a scout round all your Windows applications and spend an hour or two downloading and playing with an Open Source or free equivalent application, just to see what that little bit of your life will be without Microsoft.
Take something simple, like the Notepad text editor. If you're feeling really brave, you could go try out Vim if you want to do vi-type editing in Windows, otherwise, go try Textpad++ for a more traditonal-style editor. (I won't put links here, just Google for them, you'll find them.) Spend a couple of hours just trying to wean yourself off that little piece of Microsoft dependency, you will feel better for it, believe me!
Others you could try are Thunderbird for email, Ethereal for network sniffing, Firefox as a web browser, Filezilla as an FTP client, ExactAudioCopy (with Lameenc) for ripping MP3s... the list is endless.
Just make sure you do something positive with your anger. It may well be that the day you ditch Windows is a long way off (perhaps never) but at least you'll feel a little more confident that if and when that day comes, you'll be just that one step closer to an easy transition.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
You could make money off that one!
I prefer to be called Evil Scientist.
I know everyone is saying they are amassing patents in a defensive move.. but I cant see them passing up the opportunity to go on the offensive when they have large enough portfolio.
Between that, and their bank account, they could pretty much eliminate everything that stands in their way.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
"I killed mine a couple of years ago. I have noticed effects on my social life."
Kinda funny, iddn't it? Watching too much TV == bad, a lot of the content is pretty insulting to the intelligence. Not watching TV == bad, a few things are pretty darned good, but they're being missed.
"Derp de derp."