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Linked List Patented in 2006

Posted by Hemos on from the good-thing-that's-protected-now-as-well dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Congratulations are in order to Ming-Jen Wang of LSI Logic Corporation who, in patent #10260471 managed to invent the linked list. From the abstract, "A computerized list is provided with auxiliary pointers for traversing the list in different sequences. One or more auxiliary pointers enable a fast, sequential traversal of the list with a minimum of computational time. Such lists may be used in any application where lists may be reordered for various purposes." Good-bye doubly linked list. We should also give praise to the extensive patent review performed by Cochran Freund & Young LLP."

9 of 477 comments (clear)

  1. Prior Art? by tedgyz · · Score: 5, Funny

    I would show the prior art, but I can't read the reel-to-reel tapes.

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    1. Re:Prior Art? by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · · Score: 5, Funny

      I think you misunderstood. To make the links, you take about 5-6 inches of reel-to-reel tape, wrap it around to form a loop, and then seal it with a bit of sticky tape. Then you take the next piece of reel-to-reel, and loop it through the first before sealing it, thus forming the link. The prior art the GPP mentioned is found in every school for five-year-olds in the country, around 15 December every year, and has been since long before your new-fangled punch cards were invented! :-)

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  2. Re:oh dear by simm1701 · · Score: 5, Funny

    thats not a reference, thats a pointer!!

    *smack*

    Go back to Algorithms and Data Structures, Do not pass go, Do no increment the Counter by 200 ;)

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  3. Oh yeah by eeyore · · Score: 5, Funny

    I read about this technique about 23 years ago. What is going on here? This looks like material for a slashdot poll, viz:-


    Why do you think that the latest LSI is bogus?
    • (o) It isn't. Free enterprise musn't be regulated by stupid rules, such as "prior art"
    • (o) I read about this in Knuth
    • (o) I slept through a college lecture about this.
    • (o) You woke me up, you insensitive clod!
    • (o) It is an attempt to boost LSI's share price
    • (o) It is a pathetic attempt to dis' LSI!
    • (o) Cowboy Neal has prior art

    What about it, guys?

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    E.
  4. Re:This is a good thing? by dreamchaser · · Score: 5, Funny

    You're absolutely right. Patenting an algorithm like this would be like me patenting, "A method of transportation involving the repeated placement of one foot in front of the other, thereby conveying motion upon the transportee."

  5. Aww Shoot... by TheVelvetFlamebait · · Score: 5, Funny

    I've got so much code modifying to do.

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  6. Re:oh dear by Fordiman · · Score: 5, Funny

    You've still got it wrong. It's an abstracted class.

    You cannot dereference the pointer; that's impossible. You must first realize that there is no pointer, and that you're only dereferencing yourself.

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  7. Re:Previous Slashdot discussion of this patent by Bastard+of+Subhumani · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's obvious what's new: the original story wan't doubly linked until the new one came out.

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  8. make cast? by norminator · · Score: 5, Funny

    In my day we had to make cast the bronze ourselves

    make cast? I've done make, make install, make clean, make menuconfig, make xconfig, make modules make modules install, but I've never done make cast...

    But obviously I've never compiled anything with a linked list in it anyhow, since this dude just barely invented them.