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A Guardian Angel In Your Cell Phone

theodp writes "Bill Gates and Ray Ozzie are listed as inventors of the Guardian Angel, which is described in a most unusual Microsoft patent application that should intrigue privacy advocates. In addition to protecting you from possibly diseased people, by detecting body temperatures, the Guardian Angel's 'monitoring component can take note of the number of conversations occurring in a room (and more specifically, a breakdown of the types of people in the room accompanied by a warning for dangerous persons, based on sex offender registration, FBI most wanted, etc.).' The versatile Guardian Angel, Microsoft notes, can also recommend restaurants, advise you on the appropriateness of your jokes, detect that your heartbeat has stopped, display targeted ads on billboards, and block spam."

21 of 215 comments (clear)

  1. WTF? by Divebus · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now we have to figure out how to block this too? Thanks Bill.

    --

    Most of the stuff on /. won't survive first contact with facts.
    1. Re:WTF? by dotancohen · · Score: 5, Funny

      Traditionally, the way to block devices this intrusive was to divorce them.

      --
      It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
    2. Re:WTF? by dwywit · · Score: 4, Funny
      Imagine the possibilities for fun:

      1. design device to detect the 'guardian angel' in a roomful of people that you don't like

      2. broadcast subversive material in its vicinity

      3. profit!

      --
      They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
    3. Re:WTF? by NeverVotedBush · · Score: 4, Funny

      Well, maybe Microsoft will have the defib pads in version 2?

      BSOD indeed! Just imagine how insistent Microsoft could get about validating the software?

      "User authorization failure. Your software license has expired or is an illegal copy. Please purchase a legitimate license immediately or your heart will be shut down."

    4. Re:WTF? by somersault · · Score: 5, Funny

      Nobody is going to be walking around with freakin' defibrillator pads on their chest and a Microsoft Guardian Angel in their pocket. Probably not, but at least your loved ones are going to get a nice ad for tombstones on the nearest billboard when you kick the bucket.
      --
      which is totally what she said
    5. Re:WTF? by donaldm · · Score: 4, Funny
      This is your "Guardian Angel"! I have detected your heartbeat has stopped. Would you like "zombie clippy" to:
      1. a. Recommend a cemetery were you can party with your new zombie friends. (Free service)
      2. b. Direct you to the nearest mall were you can dine on the finest brains. (Free service)
      3. c. Other undead services. (Charges do apply)
      :-)
      --
      There ain't no such thing as proprietary standards only proprietary formats. Standards are by definition open.
  2. I call bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    They wont even be able to do this within the 20 years the patent is valid.

    They should start with something simple like an OS that works.

    1. Re:I call bullshit by nick_davison · · Score: 4, Funny

      They wont even be able to do this within the 20 years the patent is valid.

      They should start with something simple like an OS that works. I think your first line answers your second.

      Windows 1.0 was launched 23 years ago, in 1985.

      MS-DOS wasn't too bad. But then they bought that one from Seattle Computer Products.
    2. Re:I call bullshit by Aranykai · · Score: 4, Funny

      Everyone knows wikipedia is run by a bunch of mac fanboys, so you really cant trust that information.

      Microsoft "Commissioned" MS-DOS, they didnt "Buy it". Everyone knows that.

      And Windows 11 will be coming out in 2010. Thats going to really kill Apple.

      --
      If sharing a song makes you a pirate, what do I have to share to be a ninja?
  3. Bad jokes? by gruvmeister · · Score: 4, Funny

    The versatile Guardian Angel, Microsoft notes, can also recommend restaurants, advise you on the appropriateness of your jokes...
    So this thing will let me know when I'm surrounded by the type of people who will be offended by my telling of dead baby or titty-fuck jokes? Awesome.
    1. Re:Bad jokes? by edxwelch · · Score: 3, Funny

      > So this thing will let me know when I'm surrounded by the type of people who will > be offended by my telling of dead baby or titty-fuck jokes? Awesome.

      Yes, remeber back that time you met with the queen mother.. ?

  4. Re:Wait, what? by Linker3000 · · Score: 4, Funny

    It displays targetted ads from paid advertisers on billboards *and* blocks ads from other unpaid advertisers

    Fixed that for them?

    --
    AT&ROFLMAO
  5. "detect that your heartbeat has stopped" by Zocalo · · Score: 4, Funny
    WTF? What happens then???
    • * "I'm sorry, you appear to have died. The license for this phone is non-transferable. Thank you for buying Microsoft!"
    • * STOP: 0xDEADBEEF
      Beginning dump of physical memory...
      Out of memory. Dump aborted...
    • * The battery rapidly discharges into you; hopefully the sudden shock will restart things.
    • * ...
    Hmm. HTML lists appear not to print bullets in the new Slashdot stylesheet...
    --
    UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
    1. Re:"detect that your heartbeat has stopped" by Kamineko · · Score: 3, Funny

      "Major fracture detected. Morphine administered."
      "Bloodloss detected. Seek immediate medical attention."
      "User death imminent."

      BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP

  6. I can see it now... by Bogtha · · Score: 5, Funny

    Clippy: It looks like you are having a heart-attack! Would you like help?

    • Call an ambulance
    • Zap my heart using the phone battery
    • Just let me die

    Me: Ow! Stop zapping me! I'm not having a heart-attack, I just dropped my phone!

    --
    Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
  7. Typical by ebcdic · · Score: 5, Funny

    You send your patent guy a joke patent application on April 1, and by April 3 he's filed it.

  8. that's nice, but... by niteice · · Score: 4, Funny

    Will it blend?

    --
    ROMANES EUNT DOMUS
  9. Re:Wait, what? by Kamokazi · · Score: 4, Funny

    That was a typo. It was supposed to say Spam (capital S). It invloves a plexiglass deflector for preventing globs of canned processed meat from hitting you.

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  10. Clippy in your pocket... by nick_davison · · Score: 5, Funny

    "It looks like you are looking at an attractive woman. Press 1 to..."

    Ew.

  11. NEWS FLASH by Mike+Rice · · Score: 5, Funny

    Various sources report that Microsoft has been secretly developing a radical breakthrough in artificial intelligence. Several artificially intelligent microspokespersons, who declined to be named due to non disclosure agreements, stated that this has been accomplished by 'accelerated evolution', in a project begun in the late 1980s...

    "We began with Microsoft Bob in the early days, and started by mating him with various other characters, such as ELIZA and ALICE. We then put the resulting offspring through enormous selective pressures, and mated Bob with any surviving females. After a few iterations we had Clippy, who Microsoft Office users soon fell head over heels in love with.

    This success was so, uhh, successful... that we took the project underground for further development.

    Our first thought was to continue with Clippy, but after some analysis, we decided that Clippy had become so inbred that we should just start over again, with Bob.

    Things went fine at first, but we ran into a problem trying to bring 'new blood' into the family. Bob resigned from the program after his first mating with RACTER, leaving us with a lot of messy, uhmm, code, to clean up.

    It looked like the program was doomed, but we discovered that while we were pre-occupied with Bob, Clippy had been engaging in a three way with ALICE and PARRY. Intrigued, we introduced Clippy to RACTER, and they have since been inseparable.

    At last we had found the road to success!

    Though, we have had our ups and downs since then. PARRY commited suicide soon after RACTER moved in to Clippys apartment, and Clippy was so distraught that he could not perform for months.

    Bob, for his part, refuses to speak with Clippy, but we found that we could arrange a channel between them, via ALICE. According to ALICE 'Clippy can be annoying, popping up with unwelcome comments at random moments. But he's a good fellow, he's only trying to help.'"

    According to our sources, the technology will be released to manufacturing once a troublesome tendency for the offspring to speak with a LISP can be solved.

  12. Fuck it by Niten · · Score: 5, Funny

    I give up, I'm going Amish. See you guys later.