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Microsoft Patents OS Shutdown

An anonymous reader writes "You would think that shutting down software could be fairly simple from an end user's view. If I ask you to shut it down, would you mind shutting it actually down, please? Well, it's a bit more complicated than that, because you need to ask the user if they really want to shut down and if unsaved documents should be saved. And that warrants a patent that also covers Mac OS X. Next time you shut down Windows, remember how complicated it is for Windows to shut down. Perhaps that is the reason why this procedure can take minutes in some cases."

24 of 404 comments (clear)

  1. Shutdown patents by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    When can I, um, patent shutting down the USPTO?

    1. Re:Shutdown patents by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      When can I, um, patent shutting down the USPTO?

      No, no, you have it wrong. Please patent keeping the Patent Authorities operational and then refuse to licencense that to anybody.

    2. Re:Shutdown patents by LifesABeach · · Score: 2, Funny

      I always kind of wondered where Dr. Bunsen and Beaker went to work after the Muffet Show was canceled, not any longer...

  2. A BSOD Shutdown Too? by NeverVotedBush · · Score: 4, Funny

    One has to wonder if they are also trying to patent the inadvertent "BSOD" shutdowns. They seem much more complex. ;-)

    1. Re:A BSOD Shutdown Too? by cigawoot · · Score: 2, Funny

      Sad Mac is a failure on startup, and the Bomb was just scary. My mother saw the system error bomb once and thought the computer was going to explode.

  3. Re:Why can't I mod the story submission itself? by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 4, Funny

    Shutting down Windows, evacuating ones bowels.

    Potayto potahto.

    --
    No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
  4. Re:Yet OSX shuts down much faster... by MrHanky · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yes, but an Apple fanboy takes a lot longer to shut up.

  5. Re:Remember this? by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 2, Funny

    that's been my sigfile for at least 10 years now (on slash), unchanged. I guess today's my day, huh?

    (left it intact for this post, as well)

    --

    --
    "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
  6. shoot the lawyers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Is all the fault of lawyers?

    99.9% of lawyers gave all of them a bad name.

  7. Re:Only 1998? by Pojut · · Score: 2, Funny
  8. Re:I don't understand by gorzek · · Score: 2, Funny

    In Soviet Russia, "patent patenting" joke kills YOU!

  9. Re:Hmm by srussia · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's yet another case of Windows taking a "don't tell the user anything, it might scare them" approach.

    Are you sure?

    --
    Set your phasers on "funky"!
  10. Re:Only 1998? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Didn't you know? The magic of a journaling file system makes RAM non volatile. Either that or Tom Hudson is a fucking moron, and every time he posts, the entire internet gets just a little dumber.

  11. Q: Why can't you patent stupidity? by xednieht · · Score: 4, Funny

    A: The USPTO looked in the mirror and found prior art!

    --

    Hope is the currency of fools
  12. Re:BillG hated the concept! by Tablizer · · Score: 2, Funny

    Bill has a point; it shouldn't take long to save 640k of RAM data.

  13. Re:BillG hated the concept! by Seq · · Score: 4, Funny

    Bill Gates had fight through Tier 1 support like the rest of us? Maybe I've been too hard on the guy.

    --
    -- Seq
  14. Re:Remember this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Except for a couple things:

    A) You assume someone gives a shit about your sig, and more importantly,
    B) You got the term wrong. The correct term is "It is now safe to turn off your computer".

    You have had the wrong term in your sig for 10 years. If that isn't an Epic Fucking Fail I don't know what is.

  15. Re:Yet OSX shuts down much faster... by Tablizer · · Score: 2, Funny

    What is ironic is that Microsoft patents this, but my Mac running OS X 10.6 shuts down and off in literally 2 or 3 seconds, whereas Windows 7 on the same machine (and without virtualization) takes 15-20 seconds to shut down and off.

    If I want Windows to shut down quickly, I simply launch MS-Outlook.
       

  16. Re:Hmm by T+Murphy · · Score: 3, Funny

    Even better was the time I told my laptop to shut down because I was low on battery. I came back 5 minutes later to find it hadn't shut down because a Windows dialog had popped up saying I should shut down because I was low on battery (true story).

  17. Re:Only 1998? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    tomhudson is a chick you fucking douchebag. Now who's the fucking moron?

  18. Re:Hmm by jpvlsmv · · Score: 4, Funny

    "sudo dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/kmem bs=8192"

    is a lot more fun than just /sbin/halt

    --Joe

  19. Re:BillG hated the concept! by derinax · · Score: 2, Funny

    Hehe. Tier-1, not Level-1. Maybe I should stop using that term in my resume, perhaps that explains quite a lot.

  20. Re:Hmm by sorak · · Score: 3, Funny

    Shutting down windows is like a bad breakup. It's a long and drawn-out process, that you wish you could just walk away from, but there's always some unnecessary complication that leaves you wondering why you settled for this in the first place and if you will have the willpower to avoid coming back tomorrow.

  21. Re:Yet OSX shuts down much faster... by clarkn0va · · Score: 3, Funny

    Not so fast! I have a patent on that.

    --
    I am literally 3000 tokens away from the chaotic crossbow --Stephen