Slashdot Mirror
Did an Apple Engineer Invent FB Messages In 2003?
theodp writes "Q. How many Facebook engineers does it take in 2010 to duplicate a lone Apple engineer's 2003 effort? A. 15! On Nov. 15th, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg introduced Facebook Messages, which uses whatever method of communication is appropriate at the time — e.g., email, IM, SMS. A day later, ex-Apple software engineer Jens Alfke was granted a patent for his 2003 invention of a Method and apparatus for processing electronic messages, which — you guessed it — employs the most appropriate messaging method — e.g., email, IM, SMS — for the job. Citing Apple's lack of passion for social software, Alfke left Apple in 2008. After a layover at Google, Alfke landed at startup Rockmelt, whose still-in-beta 'social web browser' also sports a pretty nifty communications platform."
Before moving to the iChat team, Jens Alfke worked on Apple's Java VM. He was incredibly active on their Java development mailing list, and spent more time helping people to solve their programming problems and generally going beyond the call of duty than almost anyone else I've ever seen. He's a smart, creative guy, and I'm not at all surprised to learn he was doing innovative work in this area man years before Facebook.
"I'm too busy to research this and form an educated opinion, but I do have time to tell everyone my uninformed opinion."
"Xerox engineers themselves have said Apple didn't rip them off"
Which is an understatement, really, since Apple formally licensed Xerox technology.
you had me at #!