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IBM Wants Patent For Lotus Notes-Free Meetings
theodp writes "Over at IBM, the Lotus Notes team has 'invented' preventing the use of their own product during meetings. Self-described patent reformer Big Blue has asked the USPTO for a patent covering Suppressing De-Focusing Activities During Selective Scheduled Meetings by forcing meeting attendees to 'submit to the computing system suspension requirements.' What's next — a patent for Verizon for blocking cellphone usage during movies?"
"What's next - a patent for Verizon for blocking cellphone usage during movies?"
DON'T. GIVE THEM. IDEAS.
3M Patents sticky notes for use when lotus notes has been restricted... :-P
This is the tip of the iceberg. If IBM ever invents a method of stopping people reading slashdot then we're screwed.
Other companies. You really aren't thinking like a capitalist!
called "cranio-rectal inversion".
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
...would be to send a robot killer back in time to take out Ray Ozzie's mother before he was born.
The only winning move is not to play.
~Philly
I'm guessing that they're trying to reform patent law by coming up with such ridiculous patents that the patent office can no longer take itself seriously, if indeed it still does.
Either that, or they have some seriously messed-up people in charge over there - c'mon, patenting non-use of software? Am I the only person who laughed at this article? Never even mind the patent summary itself, which keeps referring to the act of not using Lotus Notes as an "invention".
I think I'm going to go out and patent not using my personal computer between the hours of 6 pm and 10 pm EST. That way everyone else has to pay me for not using my PC during that timeframe.
The good posts always come when I don't have mod points. Slashdot would be a much better place, if the phrase "My mocking something does not necessarily mean that I support the government suppressing it," were half as popular as that damned Franklin quote about security and liberty.
"They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
Do nothing. Schedule meetings all day. Prevents termination by Lotus Notes. Works for middle management!
Game: Player 'Donald J Trump' now has AI skill level 'experimental'.
Newsflash: Woman patents rejecting a guy's advances. The technology, dubbed Method and Apparatus to Block Male Advances, is patented under U.S. Patent #562434645779680584735235644. What that means for us geeks is that if you ask out a girl, she must say "Yes" unless she licenses that patent.
What happens if it is your boss who is not paying attention? Do you report him to HR?
What if an attendee is not actually goofing off, but being distracted by email from his boss or subordinates who are not actually in the meeting?
...I've run into a number of browser plugins and other utility programs designed to stop timewasting).
You can just stick slashdot.org in your hosts file and be done with it, no need for a plugin...
it also enables you to totally turn off your brian and makes time pass quickly
I hope you are a girl. Actually that doesn't make it good either.
Yes, they are a poor indicator.
I fully agree with everything you've said. The US branch of my company switched from Exchange to Notes when we merged witht he European network. And Notes has been completely asstarded. Client side it has a huge memory foot print, it's damn near impossible to customize, and just recently we discovered a really nasty security issue with it (lotus script in emails FTL). Server side, well, it's called Domino for a reason. If one server dies, they all fall down.
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
Nope.
Since the Lotus Notes server is called "Domino", then the time traveling robot obviously must be called a Dominator .
(And of course any female version would be a Dominatrix)