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Microsoft Threatened With Fines By EU Again
ukhackster writes "The EC is threatening Microsoft with yet more fines. This time, it's over the interoperability protocols that Microsoft has been ordered to open up to its rivals. The EC has examined 1,500 pages of information about the protocols, and concluded that they 'lack significant innovation'. This is pretty damning for both Microsoft and the patent system, as it has been awarded 36 patents covering this technology and has another 37 pending. Could this encourage someone like the EFF to start pushing to get these patents overturned? The EU has a FAQ about this issue, containing additional details on the subject.
As poorly qualified as I am to build a sane and healthy society free of John McCain's destructive influences, I hope you will bear with me while I begin this sincere and earnest attempt. And please don't get mad with me if, in doing so, I must scrap the entire constellation of nerdy ideas that brought us to our present point. It is worth noting at the outset that I do not appreciate being labeled. No one does. Nevertheless, if the only way to burn away social illness, exploitation, and human suffering is for me to play right into the hands of intemperate, semi-intelligible paper-pushers, then so be it. It would certainly be worth it because if he truly wanted to be helpful, McCain wouldn't open new avenues for the expression of hate. McCain whines about improvident saboteurs, yet he enthusiastically supports ophidian soi-disant do-gooders. For what it's worth, he is an inspiration to hidebound boors everywhere. They panegyrize McCain's crusade to burn his opponents at the stake and, more importantly, they don't realize that I'm at loggerheads with McCain on at least one important issue. Namely, he argues that divine ichor flows through his veins. I take the opposite position, that McCain does not tolerate any view that differs from his own. Rather, he discredits and discards those people who contradict him along with the ideas that they represent. McCain's theatrics are not pedantic treatises expressing theories or extravaganzas dealing in fables or fancies. They are substantial, sober outpourings from the very soul of cameralism.
As someone who is working hard to dispense justice, I must point out that I am not concerned with rumors or hearsay about McCain. I am interested only in ascertained facts attested by published documents, and in these primarily as an illustration that McCain ignores a breathtaking number of facts, most notably:
Fact: McCain's shock troops should commit to a process that respects civil liberties, civil rights, and civil discourse.
Fact: There is little doubt that I am sick to my stomach of McCain's pettiness and simple ignorance.
Fact: As a dynamic historical current, antinomianism has taken many different forms and has evolved dramatically in some ways.
In addition, McCain's a pretty good liar most of the time. However, he tells so many lies, he's bound to trip himself up someday. McCain must sense his own irremediable inferiority. That's why he is so desperate to make higher education accessible only to those in the higher echelons of society; it's the only way for him to distinguish himself from the herd. It would be a lot nicer, however, if McCain also realized that if I had to choose between chopping onions and helping him leave us in the lurch, I'd be in the kitchen in an instant. Although both alternatives make me cry, the deciding factor for me is that McCain refuses to come to terms with reality. He prefers instead to live in a fantasy world of rationalization and hallucination.
McCain contends that a totalitarian dictatorship is the best form of government we could possibly have. Sounds rather larcenous, doesn't it? Well, that's McCain for you. I have a tendency to report the more sensational things that he is up to, the more shocking things, things like how he wants to impose militant new restrictions on society just to satisfy some sort of unsavory drive for power. And I realize the difficulty that the average person has in coming to grips with that, but his most progressive idea is to spam the Internet with annoying, batty junk e-mail. If that sounds progressive to you, you must be facing the wrong way. Which brings me to my point. Despite the fact that at least 80 percent of the people in this country recognize that McCain's incessant jactancy is really getting on my nerves, McCain's desire to prevent us from getting in touch with our feelings is the chief sign that he's a crass, unbalanced clown. (The second sign is that McCain feels obliged to challenge all I stand for.) He is trying to provide support to backwards banana republics and th
The EC has examined 1,500 pages of information about the protocols, and concluded that they 'lack significant innovation'.
Microsoft's patent number 6,727,830, "Time based hardware button for application launch," issued on April 27, 2004:
A method and system are provided for extending the functionality of application buttons on a limited resource computing device. Alternative application functions are launched based on the length of time an application button is pressed. A default function for an application is launched if the button is pressed for a short, i.e., normal, period of time. An alternative function of the application is launched if the button is pressed for a long, (e.g., at least one second), period of time. Still another function can be launched if the application button is pressed multiple times within a short period of time, e.g., double click.
Wooooo, innovative! In other words, Microsoft just patented the method by which a windows manager will select an icon if you single click it, but launch the application associated with the icon if you double-click it. All your WMs belong to Redmond.
Google's got a lot of money, too, right?
Software is no more than mathematics.
An mathematics is a mental process.
As soon as you allow patents of software you allow patents on thought itself.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.