IBM Patents Tweeting Remote Control

Fluffeh writes "IBM has applied for a patent on a network-enabled smart remote control that sends out a message to Twitter, Facebook or a blog when you start watching a TV show." Hopefully this launches an exciting patent landgrab of devices that are socially enabled. Your car can tweet when you leave your garage. Your dishwasher can tweet when the load is done. Your skillet can tweet when your eggs are burnt. And they say innovation is dead.

Comments

Wow.

[moogied]

There goes using a remote control to watch porn. The naked walk to my TV to change the channel is gonna get annoying real fast :(

Re:Wow.

[Chrisq]

Not so fast...
You may avoid the twitter enabled remote but your wife also installed a motion-detector webcam that will post to twitter with a link to youtube.

Re:Wow.

[statusbar]

But the reality is that no one will care to read your tweets unless you are a politician or a star.

--jeffk++

Re:Wow.

[moogied]

Woah woah woah.. wife? INSTALLING?

Re:Wow.

[commodore64_love]

This whole Twitter phenomenon seems to reinforce the narcissistic personality common in today's 25 or younger crowd. They think 'Everyone will want to know I watched Top Model tonight, and 90210 and Gossip Girl last night.'

Re:Wow.

[russotto]

This whole Twitter phenomenon seems to reinforce the narcissistic personality common in today's 25 or younger crowd. They think 'Everyone will want to know I watched Top Model tonight, and 90210 and Gossip Girl last night.'

I patent using twitter to obtain viewer information for TV ratings. (Claim 2 is "The system of claim 1 where the viewer demographic is persons 25 or younger")

Re:Wow.

[cayenne8]

Am I the only one left in the US that doesn't want everyone to know my every move of every day life??

Frankly, I prefer being anonymous for most of the time, until "I" choose to make myself known to my friends. I call it 'getting together with them for drinks....'

Re:Wow.

[palegray.net]

Mine's at home learning Perl right now... on her Linux laptop... of course, she is pregnant, so the moodiness does balance out the cool factor a little ;).

Re:Wow.

[slim]

They think 'Everyone will want to know I watched Top Model tonight, and 90210 and Gossip Girl last night.'

If this hypothetical twitterer has an appreciable number of followers, it would appear they're right. I mean, not "everybody" is interested, but if a handful are, then where's the harm?

I just don't understand the hostility.

I follow quite a few people on Twitter. If they bombarded me with drivel, I'd unfollow them.

Re:Wow.

[Duradin]

I can neither confirm nor deny that you are the only one in the US that doesn't want everyone to know their every move of everyday life.

Re:Wow.

[eln]

It's not necessarily that I do or don't want anyone to know what I'm doing, it's that I have this overwhelming feeling that nobody gives a shit. I've tried twitter, and I will "tweet" maybe once or twice a month, but even at that pace I pretty much assume that no one cares about what I decide to tweet about and I'm essentially just wasting time shouting into the ether. So, I mostly stick to the occasional humorous (to me, anyway) comment, and don't bother with the day to day details of my life.

It seems to me that people who regularly tweet about every little thing have some sort of deep-seated need for constant validation from the outside world. They post personal details in order to evoke some kind of response just to show that someone, somewhere is paying attention to them. I find that sort of mentality kind of sad, but apparently it's a lot more common than I would have thought.

Re:Wow.

[SoupGuru]

"Only around 15% of all the Twitter users are less than 25 years old.

20% for people over 55 years and 16% for those under 25. Yeap, you read it right, 20% of Twitter users are over 55 years."

http://crenk.com/twitter-is-for-old-people/

Kind of scary, isn't it?

Re:Wow.

[locallyunscene]

of course, she is pregnant

...

Re:Wow.

[kpainter]

Mine's at home learning Perl right now.

Women and Perl are a lot alike. You can't figure out how women work either.

Re:Wow.

[quadrox]

Using twitter to communicate friends who live the same place as you do is somewhat redundant and stupid, yes.

But I use it and related services to stay in touch with several friends who do not live close by and who do not know every detail of my life anyway. This enables me to stay close to these people even if we only see each other a couple of times a year. I find it very useful. But then again, I don't (usually) post silly stuff like when I'm eating or watching TV or stuff. But if I'm going out with some other people, go to watch a movie, acquire a new gadget that is just too cool and stuff like that, I may post a short notice about it.

Twitter messages are easy to ignore if you don't care about them, don't take up much of your time, yet allow you to stay updated with your friends when geography would make it difficult otherwise.

Re:Wow.

[rtaylor]

In IT all the 25 through 40 years olds stand around the water cooler discussing what they watched the previous night (sports, sitcom, whatever...). Smoke breaks, coffee breaks, lunch, before/after work; all seemed to revolve around this at the small office in Toronto where I worked.

I didn't understand it when it was manually done and I fail to understand it when it is automatically done; but at least the ones using tweets will be have something else to talk about because TV watching habits will already be known.

Re:Wow.

[palegray.net]

Sorry, forgot where I was posting for a moment. :)

Re:Wow.

[Kemeno]

While I don't deny that there are a *lot* of people who are probably doing exactly this, I think this has become a bit of a stereotype for the average twitter user. I have quite a few friends who will tweet when they find a new/interesting app or article online, or if they're looking for suggestions for a place to eat/an application/whatever else pops into their head. I don't care who watched what on TV last night either, but if one of my friends finds a cool iPod/iPhone app or some interesting bit of news online, Twitter is a good way to share that info.

I don't use twitter myself, but I do visit occasionally and don't think it's exclusively used to the entirely pointless ends that are constantly suggested here.

Re:Wow.

[Jurily]

Woah woah woah.. WIFE?

Fixed that for you.

Re:Wow.

[Temujin_12]

Am I the only one left in the US that doesn't want everyone to know my every move of every day life??

No, you're not. I've yet to join twitter, facebook, myspace, flickr, etc. I enjoy searching for myself on the internet and finding next to nothing.

It's kind of weird since I am a webservices developer (emphasis on services). I enjoy reading about what things people are doing with these social networks and what the latest trends are, but spending my time on them seems too much like work I guess.

Besides, Google already provides a way for people who want to keep their privacy online.

Re:Wow.

[curmudgeous]

You're not the only one, but I suspect we're a dying breed. I don't have a facebook account, or a twitter account, or any other social networking crap account. Heck, I even refuse to get those stupid store discount cards. True, they might save me a buck or two occasionally, but I don't want people tracking what I do, what I think or what I buy.

Re:Wow.

[Blakey Rat]

Yes. You are the only one left in the US that doesn't want everyone to know your every move. You are in no way setting up a strawman argument.

Re:Wow.

[HaZardman27]

If it's functioning somewhat properly and not making your life a complete hell, just leave it alone and forget about any attempts to improve it ^_^

Re:Wow.

[steve.howard]

Do what I do with discount cards: find the phone number of someone who has one of those, then punch it in when you shop (I know Safeway lets you do this). The added bonus is that it throws off tracking of whomever you got the number from as well.

Re:Wow.

[roggg]

I call it 'getting together with them for drinks....'

Interesting. Is that patented?

Re:Wow.

[FatdogHaiku]

Oh that poor kid... how will he/she rebel when the time comes, go out and buy a copy of "Windows Whatever Deluxe" and leave it running for Mom to discover?

Re:Wow.

[rednip]

They think 'Everyone will want to know I watched Top Model tonight, and 90210 and Gossip Girl last night.'

No, they think that everyone who follows them will want to see such posts, and why shouldn't they, isn't that what the service is about?

A tweet about a TV show becomes a shared event, shared events are a basic form of human interaction. I don't text much, mostly just SMS with the gf, or ex. I tend to type longer ones, rarely resorting to 'lol' or 'OMG', but it does help make a connection, and I'm not tied up with a phone call. Heck, I'm sure that mass transit has fewer cell phone talkers since texting started taking off; you should try to look for the good in change rather than the just the bad.

Also, there hasn't been a generation where some of the older people loudly complain that the young people who follow them are lazy, unmotivated, and narcissistic. Congratulations, you're a stereotype!

Re:Wow.

[Thinboy00]

Do we know that Microsoft will still be solvent by then?

Re:Wow.

[Yaa 101]

Yes it is, with almost all extroverts.

Re:Wow.

[K. S. Kyosuke]

I've heard that being pregnant can cause a woman to crave for strange food and to have nausea, but *Perl*? Wow, I hope there is a medication for that.

Re:Wow.

[Hurricane78]

The "25 or younger" are a myth. The average twitterer is rather old. It's a thing for midlife-crisis type of people. Young people couldn't care less about Twitter. Check it for yourself!

Re:Wow.

[vux984]

I didn't understand it when it was manually done and I fail to understand it when it is automatically done; but at least the ones using tweets will be have something else to talk about because TV watching habits will already be known.

Yup. Now we have this to look forward to:

Hey, did you catch my tweet last night about watching "So you think you can dance"?
Yeah. Did you catch mine about the cat? Man that's a stupid cat. You should have seen it... it was just like I said in the tweet... hey... you never responded to my tweet about the game last night! ...

Re:Wow.

[ajs]

This whole Twitter phenomenon seems to reinforce the narcissistic personality common in today's 25 or younger crowd. They think 'Everyone will want to know I watched Top Model tonight, and 90210 and Gossip Girl last night.'

Either you grew up in a bubble or you forgot what high school was like. There's nothing unique about this generation other than the frequency with which they yammer with people on the other side of the globe.

Re:Wow.

[palegray.net]

I asked her if she wanted the red pill or the blue one, but the just glared at me.

Re:Wow.

[nickdwaters]

Think of the bias in this. The people who "buy" the remote watch what kind of TV? And what of the potential lawsuits when people who didn't really "get it" realize they have been tracked. Speaking of which, when are supermarkets gonna starting twittering my groceries? Holy cow I just bought a pack of Trojans. What will mom think?

Re:Wow.

[xgr3gx]

That makes 2 of us. I want to be anonymous as possible, not to mention who gives a crap about every little thing I do. And who has the time to post dumb crap like that.
I joined Facebook only so I can stay in touch with a friend serving in Iraq. Facebook is the easiest way for him.
I was suprised to see facebook won't let you be invisible. I supposed the whole purpose is for people to find you. Oh well.

Re:Wow.

[Culture20]

They think 'Everyone will want to know I watched Top Model tonight, and 90210 and Gossip Girl last night.'

No, I'm pretty sure they think that only someone will want to know that, or at least will find it comment-worthy. I'm seeing the same thing in my 30yo+ friends (who have kids old enough that allow the parents free time); they'll tweet or FB status update about minutiae, and usually at least one person will write a "me too" type response.

Re:Wow.

[RomanesEuntDomus]

Does that mean you can give her a Perl necklace?

Re:Wow.

[Capt.DrumkenBum]

My Safeway card thinks I am a 97 year old Transsexual hooker. At lease that is to character I created when I was filling out the demographic portion of the application.

Re:Wow.

[palegray.net]

You know, things like that have a lot to do with my having a kid on the way...

Re:Wow.

[Darby]

Holy cow I just bought a pack of Trojans. What will mom think?

"Hoorah, I thought he'd live alone in my basement forever"?

Re:Wow.

[Omestes]

But it isn't really a shared connection. What did you learn about the person, what insight did you gain into your common humanity, by knowing that they really think about tonights American Idiot contestant, or that they just bought eggs at Safeway? If it is like most cell conversations, or text message conversations, its one person say "I did so-and-so", and another person saying "I did this, then", which isn't even a connection. Its mouth noise, empty and meaningless.

A connection involves caring, not just communications (as such). Do you really care that Bob Smith went shopping today, or watched Deadliest Catch? Do you care that I'm reading Slashdot today, and might finish out the day by a quick jaunt to the store for some beer and smokes, and oh-lord the traffic this morning during the daily commute (which I do daily, through the same traffic), and that secretary has no taste in make-up. Or worse the stupid "I'm doing fine" bullshit, as if fine wasn't the default condition for most of us... I'll let you know when things change, not that things are boringly, banally, normal.

None of this means anything, nor is the motivation to form some deep "connection" with our fellow man, its nothing but a cry for attention. The act of broadcasting or boring, insignificant lives is an attempt to make us matter, to make us more real. Its like blogging, you want people to know you exist, you want tons of hits, but you really don't care about what others say. No one thinks "if I was reading this from someone else, would I give two shits?" Its just a meaningless attempt at being special, a purely egotistical goal, and a purely shallow one.

When I go out with my real friends, I actually care about the updates, and generally they aren't vapid enough to think I want to hear them merely list the events of the days since we've last seen each other, only the significant ones, the ones that have some meaning. This is a connection, a two way play, I speak they listen, they speak and I listen, and the whole thing is loaded with genuine interest and significance. After this small period, then we move on to talking about things with actual content, things not specific to any one of us, but general to existence. You know, real conversation.

By the way, Fluffy the cat is doing fine.

Re:Wow.

[cayenne8]

"Yes it is, with almost all extroverts."

I know the craving for attention, but, I like to be an extrovert around real meatspace people.

Cyber attention, while it has some gratification, isn't nearly as satisfying or addictive.

Re:Wow.

[carolfromoz]

Woah woah woah.. wife? INSTALLING?

I must have forgotten that I'm a wife when I was installing that email server today...

Re:Wow.

[moogied]

I'm here for the +5 funnys. Not the +5 accurate and not a sexist jerk. :P

Re:Wow.

[tompaulco]

Not where I work. Where I work all the 25 and older IT folk work all day long and spend maybe 5 minutes a day interacting with other people, and all the 25 and under folks watch Youtube, use twitter, and IM all day long. Well, not all day, they are not usually there for a full 8 hours. I wish the same nepotism policy that applies to me also applied to the higher ups, because their kids are useless.

Re:Wow.

[tompaulco]

Am I the only one left in the US that doesn't want everyone to know my every move of every day life??
I don't want people to know what I am doing. I further don't care that people don't care what I am doing. But as far as the crux of this article goes, the ONLY way I would ever update Twitter is if it updated automatically via various mechanisms. I have no time to be dinking around with blabbing about what I am doing. If Twitter can't figure out what I am doing automatically, then my Twitter page would always say "I just installed Twitter!"

Re:Wow.

[cayenne8]

"But I use it and related services to stay in touch with several friends who do not live close by and who do not know every detail of my life anyway. This enables me to stay close to these people even if we only see each other a couple of times a year. I find it very useful. But then again, I don't (usually) post silly stuff like when I'm eating or watching TV or stuff. But if I'm going out with some other people, go to watch a movie, acquire a new gadget that is just too cool and stuff like that, I may post a short notice about it."

You're kidding, right?

I mean, I've got 15+ people I'm extremely close with....knowing them from time ranging from 20-34 years. We keep in touch what I think pretty often, and most of them are scattered around the US, we phone, we email. But I swear, it would drive me bat shit if they were emailing, texting or twittering when they did something as banal as go to a fucking movie or out to a bar?

Unless it was something special, or they got pictures of a stripper at a bar, that's not the kind of detail I need about anyone's life.

Ok, if I get a new toy like a motorcycle or car, someting fairly major, yeah, I'll email some pictures of it...but it sounds like some people out there send people notices when they get a toaster that's new.

Like I said, I'm VERY close with all these long time, long term friends...half of which have keys to my place so what when they come to town, they can just let themselves in...and none of us feel the need to give day to day details of our lives...just the interesting and unusual stuff, you know?

Re:Wow.

[quadrox]

Yeah I know, the way I wrote it it sounded pretty banal. But as you said it, I wouldn't dream of posting about just anytime I went out with friends or bough something new, only when the occasion warranted it and there was something special about it. I suppose I didn't get that point accross very well.

And even then, twitter is hardly my main way of communicating with them. I do that through skype, either chatting or VoiP. But twitter helps in its own way and its fun.

You know, it's like sometimes one of my friends suddenly would tell me "you never told me about THAT" - thats where I use twitter now, small details that are interesting but which I might not just drop into a conversation - either because I have forgotten, thought it didn't matter or well for any reason basically. Maybe I'm odd, but twitter certainly does have its appeal for me and it works.

Re:Wow.

[pclminion]

20% for people over 55 years and 16% for those under 25. Yeap, you read it right, 20% of Twitter users are over 55 years."
Kind of scary, isn't it?

I had to think about this for a second. No, I don't think it's scary. Think about when the Internet first started to hit public consciousness. What, 1994, 1995 or so? Those 55-year-olds were in their early 40's then. Is it so hard to imagine people of that age clicking with the new order right away? We're talking about people the age of your high school teachers. It's hard to remember sometimes, how much time has passed. 55 isn't old anymore, in Internet terms.

Re:Wow.

[N Monkey]

I asked her if she wanted the red pill or the blue one, but the just glared at me.

Surely she should be taking the red pill if you are taking the blue...

Re:Wow.

[selven]

I, for one, am quite happy they're patenting it.

Re:Wow.

[cayenne8]

Ok...I can see your point on this.

Re:Wow.

[palegray.net]

Sir, I am in awe.

Yes!

[MyLongNickName]

Now when I go to a friend's Twitter, I can know when his toilet has finished filling up after a flush.

I LOVE THE TWENTY FIRST CENTURY!!!!!!111!!!!

Re:Yes!

[Anonymous Coward]

Better than knowing it's filled up before a flush.

Re:Yes!

[DigitalCrackPipe]

Finally. Instead of me having to thumb in a message, my toilet can automatically broadcast how long I spent on the can and other vital information every time I have to go.

Re:Yes!

[thePowerOfGrayskull]

That's the stereotype that a lot of people have formed. But there's more to it than that. various forms of creativity, silliness and even some actual information. The way people use twitter goes well beyond reporting on the color and consistency of bowel movements -- though of course, there are those too if anyone /really/ wants to find them. There is plenty of inane garbage out there to be had - but since you control what you actually see, there's no need to ever become aware of it.

Above all, it's a form of entertainment. Some people like to poke holes in animals. Others like to poke holes in themselves. Some like to read the random ramblings of strangers. And still others like to read very short random ramblings of strangers...

(Hopefully I got those links right - I can't confirm them here at work. )

Re:Yes!

[MyLongNickName]

Did you read the summary?

Re:Yes!

[thePowerOfGrayskull]

I did; but I was responding more to the sentiment of your post than in context of the article - one can easily lose count of the number of times a slashdot comment derides twitter as a way for people to communicate every time they take a crap.

this should be easy

[blitzkrieg3]

Ugh, can someone say prior art?

Re:this should be easy

[Richard_at_work]

I really wish people would stop saying the equivilent of 'oooh oooh prior art' without ever reading the actual patent.

The primary reason why AutoProfile is not prior art is because the IBM patent specifically refers to a:

remote controller, suitable for use while viewing media programming and content

and:

The enhanced remote controller allows the viewer to both communicate with a blogging server, and thus to a blogging service, as well as to display responses to and from other bloggers with whom the viewer is communicating. These blog communications may be accomplished without the viewer having to leave the broadcast receiver of the television.

which AutoProfile is not and has no functionality for.

Read the patent before jumping to conclusions.

Re:this should be easy

[denis-The-menace]

But it's done via Twitter not "by Internet" (TM) or "by hand" (eew, eew, eew) /Sarcasm

Re:this should be easy

[iamhigh]

allows a viewer to autoblog about currently experienced media programming in real-time without having to resort to direct interaction with a computer to perform the autoblogging

It's a device run on electricity, controlled by a logic board/proc, uses a display device and keyboard/buttons for input/output, that sends and receives data via http, and can send IR signals to a compatible device.

How is this not interacting with a computer? And it doesn't sound all that novel now, does it?

Re:this should be easy

[Desler]

How is this not interacting with a computer? And it doesn't sound all that novel now, does it?

According to this logic no invention in the history of computing has ever been novel because it can all just be broken down to "interacting with a computer".

Re:this should be easy

[duguk]

According to this logic no invention in the history of computing has ever been novel because it can all just be broken down to "interacting with a computer".

To me that seems more fair than the current Patent system.

Re:this should be easy

[Anonymous Coward]

Read the patent before jumping to conclusions.

I can't, the jump to conclusions mat has been patented too!

Re:this should be easy

[Ardaen]

I really wish people would stop saying the equivalent of 'oooh oooh read the patent' without ever considering how unoriginal these minor variations being patented are.

The primary reason why the patent shouldn't be granted is it's a minor variation on existing ideas that takes no real effort to dream up or create. A 10 minute brain storming session could come up with dozens of ideas of equivalent value. Also, a prototype of the device could probably be created in minutes using a computer or smartphone with an IR port. Or look at a custom pvr setup.

This is hardly a patent protecting any real R&D. This is like patenting different configurations of three blocks of Lego. Oh yes, my patent is original! The top block is shifted one peg farther to the right! It's a completely new design!

Re:this should be easy

[Theaetetus]

allows a viewer to autoblog about currently experienced media programming in real-time without having to resort to direct interaction with a computer to perform the autoblogging

It's a device run on electricity, controlled by a logic board/proc, uses a display device and keyboard/buttons for input/output, that sends and receives data via http, and can send IR signals to a compatible device. How is this not interacting with a computer? And it doesn't sound all that novel now, does it?

"Portable fusion device to power your flying car? It's just a power plant, and a car, and a plane. That doesn't sound at all novel now, does it?"

(hint: you're wrong)

Re:this should be easy

[blitzkrieg3]

The primary reason why AutoProfile is not prior art is because the IBM patent specifically refers to a: remote controller, suitable for use while viewing media programming and content

I primarily use my computer to "view media programming and content." The remote controller in this context is usually called a computer mouse.

and:

The enhanced remote controller allows the viewer to both communicate with a blogging server, and thus to a blogging service, as well as to display responses to and from other bloggers with whom the viewer is communicating. These blog communications may be accomplished without the viewer having to leave the broadcast receiver of the television.

which AutoProfile is not and has no functionality for.

Sorry, wrong plugin.

If it's the fact the remote can post twitter updates, how is it any different than a nokia tablet with mythetomer? Or a phone that can also be used as a remote control? I use bluetooth to change the channels on my MythTv for example, and could you really say your tivo isn't technically a computer?

I'm aware that Nokia and Motorola didn't specifically design a phone for this purpose, but it probably is already used as such by some users.

Re:this should be easy

[iamhigh]

Except we don't have fusion power, certainly not portable... and we don't already have flying cars buzzing around. Your post is a good example of a straw man argument. You have heard of that before, right?

Re:this should be easy

[dohboy]

My 4 year old Palm Treo cellphone already does this - I have a programmable IR remote builtin and I can surf the web, twitter, send email, etc. Again, how is this not prior art?

Re:this should be easy

[Desler]

To me that seems more fair than the current Patent system.

No, the logic would extend to any invention in the history of computing not just things being done today. Any research from Bell Labs or PARC or any other such research institute was just mundane and not novel because according to the GP's stupid logic that it's all just "interacting with a computer".

Re:this should be easy

[Theaetetus]

Except we don't have fusion power, certainly not portable... and we don't already have flying cars buzzing around. Your post is a good example of a straw man argument. You have heard of that before, right?

Considering your post boiled down to "interacting with a computer is known, therefore nothing can be invented that involves a computer," I wouldn't be throwing stones, lad.

Re:this should be easy

[iamhigh]

Alright asshole... have you read the patent? It constantly mentions "not having to use a computer" to do this "autoblogging". However, you are using a computer. A small one, designed for a specific purpose, but still a regular old computer. By your thinking the netbook is patentable. The laptop was too (although perhaps when first thought of this might have been patentable). But with the amount of small computer devices (phones, pdas, even computer controlled led-screened remote controls, netbooks and much more) that already have an IR port and can do all of this with a computer... this invention of a small computer to reproduce things that can already be done does not constitute a novel idea. If you think so, that's fine. But I will conclude that you are the one using stupid logic. If you think adding the words "facebook" and "twitter" make it novel, more power to you and your lifetime of following the crowd.

Re:this should be easy

[mea37]

How easy it is to build a prototype really doesn't matter.

What does matter is whether the approach is novel. A novel approach can be very easy to implement once you have the key insight, and reaching that insight (not constructing a prototype) is the work that earns patent protection.

My problem with this patent is this: I don't think you can state a problem to which this is a novel soltuion. The reason this hasn't been done isn't that nobody could figure out how - it's that nobody cared. If somebody had said "I want to do X", what aspect of the patented invention wouldn't have been an obvious part of the solution?

This patent covers a solution looking for a problem. In a certain demographic, it may carry a certain "cool" factor that allows it to catch on. "Hey, cool, I hadn't thought to do what this invention does." But that's not what patents are for.

Don't get me wrong - it's possible to have a "solution looking for a problem" that is novel and merits a patent. In those cases, when someone hears about the invention they would say "hey, cool; I hadn't thought of it, but I'd like to do that... however, I can't say I understand how you did it".

Re:this should be easy

[FlyingBishop]

It seems like the crux of their argument is that this is somehow novel because it cuts the computer out of the loop. However, the remote doubtlessly contains a computer, as does the TV itself, thus invalidating their argument that they have thought of a means to communicate with microblogging services without a computer.

Re:this should be easy

[duguk]

No, the logic would extend to any invention in the history of computing not just things being done today. Any research from Bell Labs or PARC or any other such research institute was just mundane and not novel because according to the GP's stupid logic that it's all just "interacting with a computer".

Yeah. That sounds fine by me! The patent system is pathetic. This would clearly be an improvement. (btw... whoosh.)

Re:this should be easy

[iamhigh]

Already answered.

Re:this should be easy

[Theaetetus]

Already answered.

Yeah, and that post also shows you know nothing about patent law. And calling someone an asshole just because they disagree with you? Go back to school, kid.

Re:this should be easy

[Jedi Alec]

And just in case anyone feels like being smart, so has the method for cushioning one's fall by sticking one foot in one's mouth and one's head up one's ass.

Re:this should be easy

[tronbradia]

This just sounds like a bluetooth keyboard.

Re:this should be easy

[SCHecklerX]

According to this logic no invention in the history of computing has ever been novel because it can all just be broken down to "interacting with a computer".

Wow. I think you just figured it out. Computer hardware can be patented. Instructions you feed to it shouldn't be. Same for business processes.

Fixing the patent system:
1) physical devices only (you don't need capital to write a computer program, hence you also don't need any patent protection.)
2) working model within reasonable timeframe, or you lose the patent (you can't patent the warp drive, transporter, etc. and squat on it)

Re:this should be easy

[Culture20]

The reason this hasn't been done isn't that nobody could figure out how - it's that nobody cared.

Advertisers will care. Oh, yes... they will care. This is almost as good as Eye-focus information.

Re:this should be easy

[lainproliant]

Not only is a twittering remote not a new design, its something that few will ever want to use. Sadly, its just as easy to think of an unoriginal patent that people would actually use. "An electronic device used to connect to a blogging service to deliver updates as a result of user input or the device's state due to external observations." Could be a remote, could be a mobile phone, or even a computer. Let's patent "microblog service provider"!

Re:this should be easy

[Ardaen]

The point is, this isn't novel, original, or insightful. My examples of how easy it would be to prototype was to illistrate all the parts exist and have probably been put together in that form or nearly that form already.

Take for example all the plugins and applications that give status updates on what music you are playing to any number of communications platforms. Look at all the automatic posts already being made to twitter. Hey, some of the media players that have plugins that post what your listening to play video, and surprise surprise some post what you are watching just as they post what you are listening! Look at all the examples of attempts at integrated and omni devices including tv remotes.

The only place I can see you could really claim is anywhere near innovative is putting it on the remote. But really, when trying to capture data such as what a user is doing, where are the two places you look to hook in? The output and/or related metadata, or the user input and/or related metadata.

Suppress innovation

[slim]

Hopefully this launches an exciting patent landgrab of devices that are socially enabled.

... or suppresses any such innovation, since there's a prior patent.

Re:Suppress innovation

[Dr. Eggman]

For once, I would welcome the squashing of these 'innovations'...

I for one welcome our new "digital DDT" patent overlords!

Re:Suppress innovation

[christurkel]

That was a joke, son.

Re:Suppress innovation

[Mendokusei]

Well on the bright side, any patent application that is merely a regular device that is "socially enabled", filed after IBM's application, can probably be easily rejected under 35 USC 103(a) using art that reads on the regular device, combined with IBM's art on a socially enabled device.

That's patentable?

[dfn5]

I've got to patent the tweeting toilet

Re:That's patentable?

[six11]

I've got to patent the tweeting toilet

Nah... prior art. Sort of. Obligatory Penny Arcade Twitter Comic.

Re:That's patentable?

[Trebuchet]

It's been done.

Re:That's patentable?

[c_sd_m]

Not sort of: Toronto Hack Lab Toilet and Mike's Toilet. They're both following a flatulent office-worker's chair.

Re:That's patentable?

[blitzkrieg3]

Mikes Toilet seems to be 1000x more interesting, if only for the fact that the updates seem automatic, meaning someone actually did hook up a twittering device to his toilet!

Re:That's patentable?

[blitzkrieg3]

whoops, didn't read Trebuche's comment.

Eureka!

[SydShamino]

For all those entrepreneurs who were innovative enough to come up with the original idea of doing [something] on the internet, this represents the next revolution to come out of their R&D parks.

And they say that fundamental research is dead.

Yeah... Well...

[Monkeedude1212]

My Mouse Tweets anytime I click on anything, if its inside the web browser it tweets the URL I'm at, if its inside a game it tweets my headshots, and if I'm working it tweets how much I'm NOT on /.

Re:Yeah... Well...

[CopaceticOpus]

My mouse is similar, but every time I move it, it tweets the current (x, y) screen position, the current application, and twitpics with a screen shot and a webcam image. My keyboard works in much the same way for keypresses.

I've produced 743 tweets while writing this message. Oh wait, I just scrolled a bit - 1142 tweets.

My door can tweet when I forget to lock it!

[jeffb (2.718)]

My sidearm can tweet when it's unloaded! The possibilities are endless!

Re:My door can tweet when I forget to lock it!

[camperdave]

"His door is unlocked AND his sidearm is unloaded, lets get him now!"
<BLAM!>
"AAAHH! The tweet was a lie!"

Re:My door can tweet when I forget to lock it!

[Culture20]

Having a sidearm tweet when discharged might be nice.

Guys, I don't get it

[mcgrew]

Twitter, I mean. I don't understand why it's so popular, am I just getting old?

What's its draw?

Re:Guys, I don't get it

[Anonymous Coward]

It's like an RSS feed, but you don't need any measure of competence to use it.

Re:Guys, I don't get it

[Hoplite3]

There's a lot of twits out there, and they needed their own messaging protocol.

As far as I see it, it doesn't break my leg or steal my car. They can have at it. Just like they had at Second Life and whatever the revolution-of-the-future was before that.

Re:Guys, I don't get it

[Spad]

Twitter is just an extension of MyFace & SpaceBook in that it allows you to create an even greater illusion that the mundane and tedious facets of your everyday life are something that thousands, nay millions of people are desperate to read about. So desperate, in fact, that they can't even wait for a daily rundown and must instead know about them within seconds of them occuring.

Now, not only can you pretend that you've got more friends than some random people on the internet, but also that said friends care in the slightest about what you do.

Re:Guys, I don't get it

[TheGratefulNet]

pretty much spot-on.

for the short-attention-span gener-

OH, SHINY THING. look at that!

sorry. what was I saying again?

Re:Guys, I don't get it

[Monkeedude1212]

Instantaneous updates about whatever you want whenever you want -

Even if you don't Tweet yourself, you can follow your favourite Bands, Companies like NASA, conferences like TED, etc etc... To recieve the latest and greatest updates as fast as possible without having to look it up on a site like Slashdot, or potentially missing it if it passes the front page.

Also, if you're of the socially active teenager age, its easy for parents and friends alike to know whats going on when. One of your friends comes down with the flu, they tweet about it, you know they won't be at the party. Etc etc.

Essentially what you're asking is "Why are quick updates so popular? Back in my day we had to WAIT for the MAIL" and I hope that after reading my comment you realize how ridiculous it is to bash Twitter so much. I agree alot of people tweet about nothing, and their lives are uninteresting, such devices like the TV Tweeting remote are marketted to these people. However, that is NOT the "Draw" of twitter.

Re:Guys, I don't get it

[tomhath]

Technology reporters need to report on something, Twitter will get coverage until the Next Big Thing comes along, then it will fade away.

Re:Guys, I don't get it

[RingDev]

You have managed to tweak my interest in Twitter.

I am suddenly compelled to tweet about someone else's life. Since my life is infact boring.

I think I'll go tweet about using hypnosis to escape from a hungry tiger. That would be exciting!

-Rick

Re:Guys, I don't get it

[earlymon]

I don't understand why it's so popular, am I just getting old?

As obnoxiousness and laziness increases in popularity, so too does its codec, Twitter.

Re:Guys, I don't get it

[slim]

You get a '+1 Insightful' for not 'getting' something nowadays?

The appeal is that you can very conveniently get updated whenever some person/organisation/thing has something to broadcast.

Likewise if you're the person/organisation/thing it's very convenient to broadcast things. Yeah, there's the 140 char limit, but that can include links.

So far, this doesn't really outdo RSS. The big plus is the ability to query the whole "twitterverse" using a centralised API.

Re:Guys, I don't get it

[Minwee]

Essentially what you're asking is "Why are quick updates so popular? Back in my day we had to WAIT for the MAIL" and I hope that after reading my comment you realize how ridiculous it is to bash Twitter so much.

So basically all you have to do is believe that every other form of communication takes a Really Long Time to complete and then suddenly the advantages to doing everything Instantly(tm) with Twitter(tm) become obvious.

Now if you'll excuse me it's almost time for the emailman to come by and make his daily delivery. I don't want to miss this or I'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out anything.

Re:Guys, I don't get it

[L0rdJedi]

Also, if you're of the socially active teenager age, its easy for parents and friends alike to know whats going on when. One of your friends comes down with the flu, they tweet about it, you know they won't be at the party. Etc etc.

If a friend comes down with the flu, I'd expect them to be staying in bed, not up using Twitter. Geez, it's not like they can't make a quick phone call to say "Hey, got the flu, can't make it tonight". Next thing you know people will be tweeting about catching on fire, expecting someone to read it and call the fire dept. Or they'll be tweeting about breaking an arm or leg instead of calling for help and getting to the hospital to get it fixed.

Yes, I know that teenagers these days find it necessary to text their every move to all their friends. I don't understand it one bit. Twitter takes attention whoring to a whole new level.

Re:Guys, I don't get it

[Sobrique]

Hmm, there is a difference though between twitter and email - twitter's more of a 'broadcast' - I might mail a party organizer to say 'sorry won't make it' but the rest of my circle of friends who might or might not already be attending? *shrug*. Put up a 'broadcast' on a blog (or twitter) and then people who care enough to read it will know, and those that don't ... well, don't care.
I think it's a very elegant solution, because it encourages people to drivel ON TWITTER rather than anywhere else. And thus I can minimise my drivel by just not reading twitter at all.
At least, until they find the '... and replicate to my blog' functionality, which is an internet-face-stabbing-offense.

Re:Guys, I don't get it

[SydShamino]

Of course if you are Sockington the cat you do in fact have 1.1 million people interested in the things your owner pretends you say.

Re:Guys, I don't get it

[maharb]

Text Messages, phone calls, facebook 'status', blogs, etc. Many things solve the problems you propose twitter is solving.

It really is all about celebrities and marketing. Twitter has no real uses as the whole instant communication/posting thing has been solved for ages. Companies like NASA and conferences like TED don't need to instantly update over mobile devices. Someone from those organizations should have access to a real computer and they can create a real post to a website/blog.

The real question is why anyone sees twitter as new or innovative. People like me hate twitter because it allows people to say twit, twat, tweet when there was no reason for it to happen. Regular People: get a facebook and update your status. Only your friends care about you anyway and why do you want strangers to read your stuff. Businesses: Get a professional website and use modern technology to make it easy to update. Use AJAX if it needs to be instant. Celebrities: Keep using twitter, the idiots that follow you will love your every update and it will make you rich and them dumb and poor.

Twitter may have a future once they start offering it as a full service social networking site (and I am willing to bet it will soon convert to that). But the current service is nothing new, nothing innovative, nothing anyone should care about. The reason it is so big is because of wonderful marketing and the person who created it having lots of connections to hype it up. Without the celeb's, tv shows, and constant 'product placement' this fad would have died a quick death. Now it is around and popular enough to be able to re-brand before everyone realizes the idea is nothing more than a facebook status.

Re:Guys, I don't get it

[slim]

At least I put it in "ironic" quotes for you.

Frankly though, I don't see what's wrong with having a short word to mean "the domain of objects that communicate with one another via Twitter".

Re:Guys, I don't get it

[Monkeedude1212]

You can send an email, and that person can take all day to read it and get back to you. You can send an email to Your favourite band for an update and hope they respond back to you. You can send an email to your favourite Physicist and hope he doesn't toss it in the trash. You can send an email to EVERYONE on your friends list and hope they all care enough to read it.

-OR-

You can buck up, use twitter for its USEFUL purposes and stop bashing its downsides. Subscribe to a feed you want to know about, and those who want to know about you can subscribe to you.

You don't HAVE to tweet if you have nothing interesting to say. You don't have to subscribe to someone who you don't find interesting. I don't know why people who are otherwise on the cutting edge of technological updates seem to have this notion that Twitter is bad because its popular for social networking - when its popularity is what makes it better than RSS feeds and other such technologies. INTERESTING individuals use twitter as much as the uninteresting ones. You decide who you listen to.

Re:Guys, I don't get it

[Jesus_666]

And with this remote you can inform the world that you just switched to whatever your sat receiver calls channel 1049 because you're too lazy to put it back into a sensible position every time the damn channel changes transponders. Well, actually you only inform them about channel 1049.

Re:Guys, I don't get it

[c0y]

You are in fact just getting old.

The kids use it to figure out what everyone is doing on Fri night, and plan their social lives. Knowing where your friends are at any time when you're planning to meet up with them is a good thing.

I'm getting old too. I use twitter... just barely, and only for work.

Re:Guys, I don't get it

[SQLGuru]

It think Twitter as a "protocol" is much more interesting than Twitter as an application. Facebook starter more like MySpace where it was a "static" place you went to but FB evolved to have the status updates (merging Twitter like updates). But FB is tied to the PERSON. Twitter is not (it also doesn't have all of the fluff like quizzes and apps and what not). So, if Twitter is tied to non-people, it can become very useful. There is a simple REST API with subscription based on your preferred notification method (SMS texts? iPhone app? etc.) So, if my nightly replication process fails, it can simply tweet notification and any support person who subscribes can find out in whatever communication method they choose. Tweeting toasters and microwaves have the same type of potential.

Twitter provides a common language that any device can learn to speak. There have even been methods whereby devices can be controlled via twitter (i.e. @mymicrowave query time_remaining). There isn't much security in place, but I could easily see it as being possible opening up tons of options. Setting your feed to invite only would go a long way towards that goal.

Can the functionality be done in other ways, sure, but so can many other things (gopher was hypertext long before http -- http just did it better). But here is a simple method by which many things (including humans) can communicate with wide platform and language support.

Re:Guys, I don't get it

[Minwee]

You decide who you listen to.

For example, I can choose not to listen to people who are so terrified of rational discourse that they consider every dissenting opinion to be "bashing".

Re:Guys, I don't get it

[Monkeedude1212]

Text Messages, phone calls, facebook 'status', blogs, etc. Many things solve the problems you propose twitter is solving.

Companies like NASA and conferences like TED don't need to instantly update over mobile devices. Someone from those organizations should have access to a real computer and they can create a real post to a website/blog.

Get a professional website and use modern technology to make it easy to update. But the current service is nothing new, nothing innovative, nothing anyone should care about. Now it is around and popular enough to be able to re-brand before everyone realizes the idea is nothing more than a facebook status.

Text messages, phone calls, etc - do not update the entire world in real time. A Single Text message does not reach millions of people, neither does a phone call. Some big Organizations don't use facebook because the Company entity itself has no need to socially network. Blogs are only updated by someone AT a computer, FOR a specific website. Hey, you need to hire an out of highschool web developer for 25k a year to update your website? Why bother updating a website when you can post an RSS feed, once setup (which has easy to use instructions) its easy enough that anyone who understands email can update an RSS feed. But you want to reach more people, link your news postings to a twitter account.

Of course, no one NEEDS instant updates, but they are nice. Its like saying Email is not needed. Todays day and age, you'd argue, but big companies were around long before the internet. Is it innovative? Absolutely not. Is it new? Not really. Should people care about it? Yes. Because its ALREADY a big thing and if you choose to ignore it, you'll be left in the dust. It IS nothing more than a facebook status update, but lets face it, (pun intended) - facebook while great for social networking does NOT handle news broadcasts as well as Twitter does. I don't want to have to filter my news posts to keep out events, photo uploads, new notes, just to look at status updates of people on my friends list, who have to be confirmed in the first place.

NASA discovers an asteroid heading to earth few hours to live - I want to know about that in the middle of my Monday Morning meeting rather then waiting till I get back to my desk to find an opportune moment to look at a browser.

Re:Guys, I don't get it

[mcgrew]

I am suddenly compelled to tweet about someone else's life. Since my life is infact boring.

There are no boring lives, only boring writers.

A night at the bar can be boring, or not. It's how you approach it. The linked diary starts out with boredom.

Re:Guys, I don't get it

[maharb]

You missed my point entirely. The OP was stating that twitter provided instant communication. I was giving various examples of services that provided the same thing. Text messages can be sent to a distribution list of people, and many technologies have done the same things as twitter.

You don't need a web developer to update a web page. Technology has gone way beyond that. You will be left in the dust if you think one tech is the solution to everything instant and everythign else requires a web developer. Just as you don't need a "twitterer" to update your twitter page. Any person in an organization can navigate a php/ajax/java interface, type a few words, paragraphs etc, and you have a PROFESSIONAL update to a website. You can even have this information put in an RSS feed and now I have accomplished far more than twitter just as easy.

You seem to be taking most of my comments out of context. I never said anything about not needing instant communication. The whole point of my post was that thousands of ways of instantly communicating exist. Many of them much better suited than twitter is for the goal.

Do you REALLY want to be alerted about impending doom via twitter and not some other service? My university offers a text message program for campus alerts. Class canceled? Shooter on the loose? You get an alert via text message. I think text alerts clearly beat out twitter in this area and they are more standardized and more universal and more likely to be true. My whole point is that twitter is no better and often worse than the alternatives. You even mentioned RSS yourself. Why not use that tech alone rather than twitter?

Twitter's best application is not for people but for businesses looking to get free traffic in this hype war. Since millions of people go to twitter to look at shit, marketers are using it to capture that crowd. Essentially all Twitter does is allow time square to be in everyone's living room. You get to look at all the pretty advertising of celebs and businesses, and the advertisers get to subject you to it.

The real question though is what would happen if it instantly disappeared? Would the same information be able to be posted elsewhere with equal ease? I believe so, and that why I say twitter is not innovative or special.

Re:Guys, I don't get it

[maharb]

Does this really have anything to do with twitter though? It seems to me that a TCP/IP request sent to your microwave would be just as if not more efficient at retrieving the desired information... why do we need to add another layer of complexity?

Maybe I don't get it but I don't see why it needs to go through twitter.

Re:Guys, I don't get it

[mcgrew]

You get a '+1 Insightful' for not 'getting' something nowadays?

I just wrote it, I didn't mod it. Actually I was just hoping for a few cogent comments that would explain why people are so nuts over it before it was modded to oblivion.

Re:Guys, I don't get it

[SQLGuru]

Twitter servers provide historic view and in sequence. As long as they are up, no need to worry about missed messages. You get queuing "for free". Your device can be simple because it doesn't have to worry about missing a message (just keep up with last tweet processed) or with buffering messages while processing another. As I said, there are plenty of ways to accomplish the same thing.....this one just seems easy. By having a common language (Tweets) you don't have to worry about working with a GE or LG or Westinghouse microwave. It's even publish/subscribe with multi-broadcast, so it would be very easy for this scenario (pieces borrowed from another example in this thread):

Alarm clock triggers @ 6:30am
Human snoozes
Alarm clock tweets "@Lights powerlevel 35"
Lights automatically turn on at power level 35%.
Alarm retriggers @6:45am
Human turns off alarm
Alarm clock tweets "Begin wake scenario"
Lights (subscribed to alarm clock feed) automatically turn on a power level 100%
Coffee pot (subscribed to alarm clock feed) begins brewing coffee and tweets "Begin coffee brewing"
Human turns on shower.
Shower tweets "Begin shower"
Toaster (subscribed to shower) does nothing because it ignores begin shower messages.
Coffee finishes brewing and coffee pot tweets "End coffee brewing"
Human turns off shower.
Shower tweets "End shower"
Toaster (subscribed to shower) begins toasting bagel
etc.
Human turns off light
Lights tweet "End morning routine"
All appliances subscribed to lights feed would automatically power down

If the toaster had a network hiccup, that TCP/IP request would have failed and would need to be resent (how many retries?). The Twitter method would be event triggered with message queuing. The "End morning routine" message could go to multiple recipients based on subscription and the "@Lights powerlevel 35" message could be directed at a single recipient. Not saying it's a perfect solution, but I do think it's feasible.

Re:Guys, I don't get it

[Maniacal]

The problem is that you don't see what's wrong with it. Try this:

"The big plus is the ability to query twitter using a centralized API."

See there. I shortened it by a dozen or so characters without having to use "twitterverse" "the twittersphere" "twittopia" "twitamundo" or any other lame reincarnation of the name Twitter.

Re:Guys, I don't get it

[anegg]

Yes, but they wait until Friday night to plan Friday night. My wife and I had some friends (younger) who did the whole "instant communications" last-minute planning thing using cell phones... we almost always had to tell them "sorry, can't make it, we already have plans." We figured out in advance what we were going to do Friday night and were already doing it. The instant communications enables last-minute "planning", but is that really a good thing overall for socialization? (That's a real question from me to whoever, by the way.)

I've never even thought of using Twitter because I'm too busy doing things to be sending little infomercials about what I'm doing. Maybe its because I'm old... but maybe its because I'm old enough to not need the constant hand-holding that some folks seem to need, whether by cell phone or by Twitter.

Are we evolving into a society requiring constant validation of our place in the society? Are we becoming that insecure? Or are we evolving into some kind of geographically-disperse human-herd animal now that we have the enabling technology?

Hooray for Patents

[donutello]

This patent will prevent most remote-control manufacturers from ever producing a device that does this.

I'm going to go out and patent all kinds of devices being "socially"-enabled. It's the only way to be sure.

Re:Hooray for Patents

[NevarMore]

Hardly. It ensures that since an engineer at IBM had the idea on the company dime, that IBM gets first crack at implementing that idea

A patent does not automatically mean that IBM won't license the technology. A patent does not mean that IBM won't just say "we recorded this for posterity, do what you want with it". A patent does not mean that IBM will give two flaming shits about a cheap remote that Tweets.

Re:Hooray for Patents

[xouumalperxe]

A patent does not automatically mean that IBM won't license the technology

No, but a man can hope.

Getting out of control

[bogaboga]

In my opinion, this patent business is fast getting out of control. Now that's my opinion.

Tweeting mouse trap

[hansamurai]

Couple of months ago I was in Agile training at work and our ad-hoc group was tasked with making a better mouse trap. We decided to create a mouse trap (on paper) that would report its status via Twitter. Whether the trap was sprung, caught a mouse, was out of bait, etc.

Seems like it would be great to have a private network of twitter-enabled devices where only you or friends would be able to monitor their status. There's way too many privacy concerns with an open network like Twitter.

Re:Tweeting mouse trap

[iamhigh]

SNMP? Email? FTP? Hell even a web-service to upload the files to... There are a million ways of doing "twitter updates" already. The ubiquity is what makes it special... but just like you said any real use of this type of service probably shouldn't be broadcast to the world.

Re:Tweeting mouse trap

[SCHecklerX]

email, sms, a web page, FINGER (that's all twitter really is), etc etc. It's all been done before, and done better.

Re:Tweeting mouse trap

[gad_zuki!]

Why send that out to a third party? snmp, syslog, smtp, etc on the local LAN are all far better solutions. If you need a notification on your cell phone then use an SMS gateway.

Even if you have a reason, twitter cant scale to handle everyone's mousetrap/mailbox/toilet/toaster.

Re:Tweeting mouse trap

[trawg]

Seems like it would be great to have a private network of twitter-enabled devices where only you or friends would be able to monitor their status. There's way too many privacy concerns with an open network like Twitter.

RSS with optional VPN sounds easier, more flexible, and more useful to me :>

Re:Tweeting mouse trap

[jrumney]

If you're going to network a freaken mouse trap why not use snmp instead of freaken twitter?

SNMP is overkill for a mousetrap, personally I use a simplified version of the protocol I cooked up myself, which I call SNAP.

I know how to monetize this...

[Red Flayer]

Your car can tweet when you leave your garage. Your dishwasher can tweet when the load is done. Your skillet can tweet when your eggs are burnt.

We all know the actual means of monetizing of this... your vibrator will tweet when it turns on.

Actually, I should rephrase that. The vibrator will tweet. It's never *your* vibrator, of course.

Re:I know how to monetize this...

[gbjbaanb]

Your car can tweet when you leave your garage

I think we all know the actual means of monetizing this - nip round after he's announced he's left the building and help yourself to his TV.

Re:I know how to monetize this...

[Jedi Alec]

We all know the actual means of monetizing of this... your vibrator will tweet when it turns on.

Actually, I should rephrase that. The vibrator will tweet. It's never *your* vibrator, of course.

Doesn't matter. As long as it turns on the webcam(s) anyway.

Re:I know how to monetize this...

[amplt1337]

your vibrator will tweet when it turns on.

Sounds like you'd have a better business model if the vibrator tweets you when you're turned on.

I for one...

[gestalt_n_pepper]

welcome our new tweeting masters (i.e. twits)

Re:I for one...

[slim]

Hahahahaha.

It's funny because you call people who "twitter" "twits".

I bet you're the first person to think of that.

Oh...

Re:Another idea!!!

[Half-pint HAL]

Can my condoms tweet when I come?

And that would generate how many more tweets a lifetime? 1? 2

HAL.

Twitter aware tweetting application

[dam.capsule.org]

I am tweetting
I am tweetting
I am tweetting
I am tweetting
I am tweetting
I am tweetting
I am tweetting
^C^C^C

Mmmm maybe that is not such a good idea, forget it

Awesome!

[HalAtWork]

Now you don't even have to write your own blog, you just do stuff and something online records it! Oh well, I guess it puts the "log" back in blog.

Re:Another idea!!!

[matria]

I was just thinking they should tweet if they break!

Men of the world, be afraid

[The Archon V2.0]

I'm watching: CBS
2 minutes ago from IBM TwitteRemote

I'm watching: ABC
2 minutes ago from IBM TwitteRemote

I'm watching: NBC
2 minutes ago from IBM TwitteRemote

I'm watching: ETWN
2 minutes ago from IBM TwitteRemote

I'm watching: Playboy Channel
5 minutes ago from IBM TwitteRemote

I'm watching: ETWN
5 minutes ago from IBM TwitteRemote

I'm watching: Playboy Channel
5 minutes ago from IBM TwitteRemote

I'm watching: CNN
5minutes ago from IBM TwitteRemote

I'm watching: ABC (Mountain Time affiliate)
6 minutes ago from IBM TwitteRemote

I'm watching: NBC (Central Time affiliate)
7 minutes ago from IBM TwitteRemote

I'm watching: CBS (Mountain Time affiliate)
7 minutes ago from IBM TwitteRemote

I'm watching: Bravo!
7minutes ago from IBM TwitteRemote

I'm watching: Cartoon Network
7minutes ago from IBM TwitteRemote

I'm watching: CBS
7 minutes ago from IBM TwitteRemote

I'm watching: ABC
8 minutes ago from IBM TwitteRemote

I'm watching: NBC
8 minutes ago from IBM TwitteRemote

Re:Men of the world, be afraid

[amplt1337]

You watch Cartoon Network? PIG!

Overboard much?

[kheldan]

Twitter-enabled refrigerator, so everyone knows you're cheating on your diet? How about a twitter-enabled condom, so everyone on your friends list knows when you get lucky? Twitter-enabled shoes, so you send a message with every step? Twitter-enabled toilet? After all, don't all your friends need to know every time you go take a dump?

Chicks Twitter

[mindbrane]

Twitter's a girl thing. Guys won't put up with it anymore than they'd ask for directions. And we've got to have a knack or secret decoder ring, some blatant twitter thing ain't gonna cut it. "Your skillet can tweet when your eggs are burnt. And they say innovation is dead." Innovation is refusing to time boiling eggs with a clock but using the toaster settting to pop toast at just the right darkness that after the toast is butter and set out it's time to take the eggs out. It's deep dark secret guy stuff. Like cave paintings. Twitter is for chicks.

Re:Chicks Twitter

[tekrat]

I believe your headline should have been "Chicks Tweet".
Fixed that for you.

Re:Chicks Twitter

[mindbrane]

Twitter's probably a great way to hit on girls. Has anyone written a guide to social hacks for twitter? Formated into twitter the world's greatest collection of one liners guaranteed to get girls to talk to you? Grandpa had a bunch of books on how to win friends and influence people, maybe it's time to revive those, rebrand everything and feed it to the noobs? ...profit!

Re:Chicks Twitter

[RetroGeek]

I believe your headline should have been "Chicks Tweet".

So in Britain they would be known as "Tweety Birds"?

Re:Chicks Twitter

[story645]

Except the male/female split is 45/55, and men and women tweet at the same rate. (Source) (critique of source) Another study has a 47/53 split (source 2).
Dunno, I think it'd be cool if the washing machine sent a twit (or any alert) when it's done so that I know when to run to the basement to check on it.

can I shut down tweeters remotely with a tweet?

[jollyreaper]

Cuz that would be awesome.

question

[Tom]

That kind of leaves the question: What the f*&$ do you talk about when you meet your friends? I mean, they already know every detail of your live from Twitter, and then there's weather.com...

Re:question

[glop]

Well, there is always a good Emacs vs. Vi conversation. That somehow always seems fresh, lively and important. Of course, you need the right kind of friends ;-)

Patent cooked food, air, water, clothes.

[h00manist]

Why did nobody patent breathing, drinking mechanisms, water filters, bottled water, and clothing, or sewing? How about the process of applying heat to food? Then they could sue any human being for being alive and not paying royalties. No matter. The race to patent human DNA is on, lawsuits over the right included.

All I hear is Tweet

[HikingStick]

Tweet...tweet...tweet...tweet...tweet...tweet...

Would someone hurry up and give those baby birds some chewed up worm pieces? I'm trying to get some rest here.

And this is new how??

[dyfet]

I recall an annoying plugin for pidgen that advertises what music people are playing/listening to. Heck, there are far older examples of such things for irc, and over 5 years ago we had an annoying plugin for Bayonne that would announce incoming calls and other noteworthy events over im. Nice to see IBM has finally "caught up" ;).

If my toilet seat could tweet...

[dpbsmith]

I think it would be sweet if my toilet seat could tweet, and announce each major feat every time that I excrete. If the flowing bowl's replete I don't want to be discrete; I would tweet to the elite "Look at how I can compete!"

Re:If my toilet seat could tweet...

[dpbsmith]

Aw, jeez, I meant "discreet," of course. "Preview" is just no substitute for "Edit," darn it.

text me or tweet it to the world?

[egburr]

I wouldn't mind if my car texted me when it left the garage, especially if I wasn't inside it! It would be nice if my dishwasher, washing machine, and dryer would text me when they finish. But why would I need or even want to announce things like that to the rest of the world? And why would the rest of the world even care?!

As for the TV remote, I guess it would make an interesting replacement for Neilson's ratings. I guess it would be good for friends who really, really like to keep up with shows to talk about. But, even if I wanted to, I wouldn't ever be able to use it, since my computer doesn't have an interface for it to select the shows I watch on Hulu.

Got a better one...

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey tweet tweet...

"Dumped a log... Pretty big, clogged the toilet!"

Oh wait, tweet recognizes this and sends out message to plumber...

"big log dump alert, backed up... Address X, Y, Z" .... I want to see that patent!

Re:Got a better one...

[Dutch Gun]

Penny Arcade was on the right track...

Prior Art

[aethelwyrd]

This totally infringes on my patent for doing something stupid with twitter.

Worthless Patent

[Rob Riggs]

My MythTV makes my viewing habits network accessible. I may not publish it for general consumption, but that's a choice, not a patentable design decision.

TMI

[Cro Magnon]

It's bad enough when someone I know announces that they're taking a dump. Now, the TOILET can announce it!

To Twitter. Why?

[PPH]

Better to send me an SMS message directly (prior art). Twitter is for one to many broadcasts. How many people out there want to know when my eggs are burnt?

Re:To Twitter. Why?

[Cro Magnon]

Twitter is one too many broadcasts

Fixed your post.

the good new is...

[mcouper]

that Twitter's systems will get completely overwhelmed and the cost of remaining in 'business' will finally become obviously unjustified.

Ok, but you have to tweet about that

[mollog]

Ok to get together with your friends...as long as you tweet about it.

Seriously, this whole auto-tweeting thing has a lot of useful applications; a real-time life logger. Now we need to make triggers based on the tweets that start other activities. Tweet my dog when I get into my car at the end of the work day. Actually, that dog knows when I'm coming home, so that's a waste. Some sort of weird, semi-obsessive dog radar.

How about tweeting when my mother-in-law pulls into my street? I can turn out the lights.

Re:Ok, but you have to tweet about that

[nigelo]

How about tweeting when my mother-in-law pulls into my street?

You'll know it's her when the mice start throwing themselves on the traps... (Les Dawson)

Defending Twitter

[RabidMoose]

You guys do realize that Twitter accounts can be set to "Private", right? Only the people you let in can see what you post, if you want it to be that way.

Lets say I create four private accounts; "Dad", "Mom", "Big Kid", "Little Kid". I allow all of them to see each other, but nobody else can see them. You now have an instant, anywhere-you-are, refrigerator family note system. For the record, it is also easy to send a direct message to somebody, like when Dad asks Mom to call the babysitter so they can have a romantic night out.

My friends and I (all in our mid twenties) use it for impromptu planning. Last night's BSG board game wouldn't have happened without Twitter. One quick text message, and my friend had let 12 of us know that he was getting off work earlier than expected, and were free to drop by. Five of us RSVP'd, and a fun night was had.

Lets take the idea presented by this article. I create a group of private twitter accounts: "MyHouse", "MyWasherDryer", "MySprinklerSystem", "MyModem", "MyServer", etc. My family are the only followers, and choose the things they care about to send them a SMS when an event occurs. With a proper setup back on the home side, you can direct message back to one of these accounts, and suddenly have a DIY home automation system.

I believe that the only people who haven't found a good use for Twitter yet, just aren't being creative enough with it, or flat out refuse to have anything to do with it because of the stigma that it's only used by idiots to keep up with celebrities. Give it a try, poke around for a bit, and be creative.

Re:Defending Twitter

[JSBiff]

"You guys do realize that Twitter accounts can be set to "Private", right?"

You do realize that once data is out of your hands/computer, you have NO REAL CONTROL over it, right? You cannot guarantee that such info will remain private forever. Crackers could breach the security system, courts could subpeona the info, governments can order it revealed. Someone might sniff the data at a router (since this is twitter traffic, I bet it's probably not ever encrypted, even when it's 'private', though I'd be happy to be wrong about that).

Re:Defending Twitter

[gad_zuki!]

>. One quick text message, and my friend had let 12 of us know that he was getting off work earlier than expected, and were free to drop by. Five of us RSVP'd, and a fun night was had.

Or he would have just selected all of you on his cell phone and sent one group sms.

It looks more and more like twitter is a way to get around some of the more crappier SMS cell plans. I wonder if its not as popular in Europe and Asia where you can cheaply get SMS.

Re:Another idea!!!

[PPH]

Hypothetically, yes.

Alright, poop time.

[spidrw]

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/4/23/

Oh Good!

[greyspectre]

A few thousand twits channelsurfing should be enough to prove that this is a *really* bad idea.

Re:Oh Good!

[JSBiff]

Yeah, it'll be good times when the next Iranian crackdown happens, and when the people being persecuted try to tell the world about it, twitter has crashed because of 10,000,000 tweets telling us people are watching American Idle.

Oblig XKCD

[spuke4000]

Tangentially related, but pretty funny: http://xkcd.com/596/

Re:Oblig XKCD

[Svartalf]

I like the "Hospital Burn Ward" line in the second frame on that one...

But then, I've this vision burned into my head with regards to Twitter:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/4/23/

All I ever do is post humorous observations, epiphanies, and the such on my Twitter account. It COULD be useful, but in the end...unless you're someone like Cory Doctorow or the like, there's likely to not be much of anyone caring what you post there. It's a big waste of bandwidth and resources overall. If it were to go down, there'd be a lot of annoyance and little of value being lost.

social everything

[fulldecent]

We need alternate implementations of the twitter API. And these social devices... that's a good thing.

If your TV can tweet every program you watch, then it could instead tweet to your own server at 192.168.0.x - this is useful information. This is a simple protocol and its widespread adoption could be useful in home automation and monitoring.

They remind me of little children...

[Xiver]

These patent guys remind me of little children who see a toy in a magazine and get in a fight over who saw it first. They also remind me of the 'frist post' guys here on Slashdot. They aren't being innovative, they aren't producing anything, and they are a general pain in the rear. They should all be taken out to the toolshed and beaten.

Socially-enabled computer

[bobdehnhardt]

Hey, my laptop can tweet when I press the keys. Same things with my Crackberry. Time to take out a patent!

Now my computer or cell phone can tweet

[onemorechip]

whenever I post to twitter...Oh, wait.

The best fitting quote of the day:

[Hurricane78]

There is something about yourself that you don't know. Something that you will deny even exists, until it's too late to do anything about it. It's the only reason you get up in the morning. The only reason you suffer the shitty job, the blood, the sweat and the tears. This is because you want people to know how good, attractive, generous, funny, wild and clever you really are. Fear or revere me, but please, think I'm special. We share an addiction. We're approval junkies. We're all in it for the slap on the back and the gold watch. The hip-hip-hoo-fuckin' rah. Look at the clever boy with the badge, polishing his trophy. Shine on you crazy diamond, because we're just monkeys wrapped in suits, begging for the approval of others.
— Jake Green, Revolver (2005, Guy Richie)

And that is why there is Twitter.

The cause is personal insecurity in those types. A lack of a own set of values. Of a own reality. A kind of passivity that can be described of living your life in a walking daze.

The cure: End that state. Think for yourself. Build your own values, and stand behind them. Stop caring what others think. (Including me!)
Interestingly this will create more real followers/fans, than any attention-grabbing other method ever would be able to.

too much data

[roggg]

Twitter and FB statuses where useful and/or interesting because the amount of data was manageable. When you have 50 friends auto-tweeting channel changes and every other bit of daily minutia, the data will only be useful to other computers (ie marketers and advertisers).

*sigh*

[SCHecklerX]

what jumps out at me first, is that the non-word 'blogging' is used in this patent. WTF, over? Good or not, I expect better from IBM's patents.

Finally, no more toilet tweeting

[wembley fraggle]

It's really annoying to have to manually launch a browser and tweet every time I take a dump. Automated poop-tweeting (at least from home) is a godsend.

I want this technology on my toilet

[Quila]

Everybody will know when I've taken a dump.

I want a sensor next to my ass to tweet whenever I fart, too.

And the ladies will love my tweet-enabled erection sensor.

Washing Machine and Dryer

[tthomas48]

That's all I want. Washing Machine and Dryer. I'd get so much more laundry done if I knew the minute the Dryer was done.

too dependent on other service

[SCHecklerX]

Maybe if this was a design for an entire infrastructure. But you're talking about using some service to do something ... that it's already designed to do. And what happens when twitter no longer exists? Will people in the future be able to even make any sense of this patent? WTF.

Nuh-uh, IBM.

[John Pfeiffer]

Woah there, Big Blue. I call bullshit, shenanigans, and prior art. All it takes is a look at Hackaday to show that people have been doing stuff like this for months now.

Dear Twitter User...

[phatslaab]

Thank you so much for telling us your lifestyle habits. It's especially useful to know exactly when you leave your house and to be informed of your daily activities while you're out so that we know when you'll return. I also like receiving information about your purchasing habits as well as knowing the names of your dog, fish, and children. I'm especially fond of the little red-head. Perhaps I will visit the school she goes to so we can get to know each other better. Afterall, I know exactly when you usually pick her up.

Your television in your living room is a 52" plasma?! Awesome! I'll be over shortly to take it as well as any other valuables you constantly blab about on your twitter account. You make it so much easier for me to do my job. Thank you ever so much!

-Your Neighborhood Nice Guy

Since when did DeVry do economics?

[Hognoxious]

you don't need capital to write a computer program

Most people use a computer and peripherals, which last time I looked are counted as capital.

What about lost remotes

[ZERO1ZERO]

I would want it tweeting the location of my tv remote. I am always losing them.

Cat door: Prior work

[cramhead]

I would think that this cat door (http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/09/intelligent-cat-door-utilizes-twitter-rfid-masterfully/) would be considered prior work, depending upon when the patent application was submitted. Seems the patent site is currently being slashdotted.

Why it's useful vs why it's so popular

[hellfire]

In the media and communications, tweeting appears to me to be very useful. It's a type of "ticker" that might show important information. In the media people use it as a quick "blast" that everyone can see when something important happens. On the ground during a major event, like say an Iranian revolution, you can quickly tell lots of people something they need to do or some place they need to be, or alert someone to some goings on they might be interested in.

This is only about .01% of the tweets out there. In other words, it's just like the internet. Everyone can use it, most people post completely useless information, but a small percentage of the stuff you see on it is actually rather useful.

The reason why it's popular is a completely different matter. Most people on Twitter, like most people on the internet, are not using it for something that's generally considered "useful." Why it's popular is covered in other posts but I personally do see it has some usefulness.

This is scary

[tchdab1]

Did I miss some posts? Did any else see this as scary?
Did anyone see that this will be used by orgs like, let's see, Sony to see how you use remotes and TVs, Neilsen (sp?) to check your TV habits, The US Department Of Homeland Security and Redundancy to see if you're worth waterboarding (too many visits to the brown channel?), IBM to see if you're controlling any 3rd party servers, etc. etc.
Here's a technology that will turn my daily activities into a big database and share it with whoever wants it.

What a great idea! ( read : meh no)

[Assassin_for_Atari]

I'm usually all down for dumb tech ideas but twitter, by far is the most asinine thing since people started to getting CELL PHONES....to txt message.

....and this remote...is just as dumb as the service it posts too!

Re:Oh, crap

[thePowerOfGrayskull]

Oh, crap, there are tweets for you too

http://twitter.com/search?q=%23pooptime

Makes sense, what are things that tweet known for if not pooping?

Sure, if you search for it you'll find it. If I search the Internet for goat-roping pig-sticking donkey fuckers, I'll find them too. That doesn't make the Internet useless.

New slogan:

[socceroos]

"Twitter - showing everyone else how crap your life is."

Innovate me this

[Khyber]

Make me a Corona bottle that'll tweet to the net every time I crack one of its bretheren open.

Corona Bottle is watching brother number 4 get picked and his cap pried off with brute force.

I wonder how many people would like that kind of comment?

Router tweeting

[reytagger]

Okay, I have made my OpenWRT-enabled Linksys router tweeting about network status update. Am I already violating some patents?..

Stupid technology

[Nephrite]

I don't get it. Why anybody would want it? I mean, ok, I tweet that I'm having a party, so my friends would know. But why would I want my friends to know if my washing machine has finished doing my laundry? I mean, yes, it's useful to make me know that, but that can be done much much easier and without twitter.

privacy concerns?

[rilian4]

What happens if government or law enforcement get into this game? Sounds like it could easily get abused. Just because there is an off switch for it now doesn't guarantee that there might be a future version of the technology embedded into TVs or other devices that will automatically report on everything the user is using that remote for.

my $.02