Slashdot Mirror
Wireless Email Patents Vs. Innovation
Exactly a year ago Slashdot discussed Geoff Goodfellow's early contributions to wireless email and how they were conspicuously absent from the NTP vs. RIM patent fight. Techdirt points us to another early wireless email innovator, Nicholas Fodor, who recently came to the notice of the NY Times. Techdirt uses Fodor's story to highlight the problems with the US patent system that are by now so obvious to this community.
I don't think the BBS in itself is an example of wireless Email unless you consider all the Ham Radio hackers who did the packet relay with the ham stations. But even then It is more like wireless internet then Wireless Email. My understanding is that the controversy centers around the program interacting with the mail server, pulling the mail, associating it with a user, then sending it to a unit automatically- similar to a paging system.
An I know about the kids not knowing nowadays. I just had a conversation with a kid who attempted to say that windows 98 was the worst operating system ever. He based this of his use of XP and vista and had no concept of 95, ME, dos or windows 3.x and earlier. He even tried to claim DOS never was an operating system but a program you run in windows. Now that XP is old enough that it is like installing stuff on 98 were you have to hunt a driver down and shit they are thinking that's too hard. MS will always have a market.
As for Blackberries, Them getting screwed and This wireless email thing, I think this should be two separate issues. With the wireless email, RIM getting screwed means your getting screwed. Too often we accept things that are unacceptable because the outcome negatively effect something that we can justify it effecting. This is bad and if we get into a habit of doing it, we will screw ourselves out of something important some day.