One of the comments in the article was that the patent clerks have very little authority to stop things just because they can tell that they're blindingly obvious. They effectively have to prove to a legal standard that the thing is obvious, which means for all practical purposes they have to have prior art.
The comments from the patent clerk who approved the Amazon One Click patent hint at more than a little frustration at the fact that she couldn't stop what she perceived as an obvious abuse of the system.
Amazon claims that it spent thousands of programmer-hours on its one-click method
Thousands of hours means at least two thousand. That's one person full time for a year. Honestly, a coder that dumb should never be allowed near a keyboard. That demonstrates an incredible (literally, as in, not at all credible) level of incompetence. I honestly can't believe a programmer that dumb exists, even against the dumbest coders I've ever encountered.
Perhaps Amazon's new slogan needs to be "Patents Are Like A Box Of Chocolates".
A single entity to control more than 50% of all certificates. Actually, about 90% if their pending merger with forgot the name will not bite the dust. It is under investigation at the moment
That merger closed long ago. It's now an unavoidable part of history.
When I heard about this I almost threw up. VeriSign is, without a doubt, the new number 1 enemy of the Internet. Network Solutions is not far behind.
To those who think they are getting away from this bohemoth by using other registrars, think again. They will still own the root registry database.
Both companies have appalling records on customer services and privacy. Both refuse to allow people to opt out of privacy intrusions (OK, VeriSign *say* they let you opt out, but they won't honor the opt out request). Both companies suck.
Stratton Sclavos is an Internet cretin, who has no place at the helm of any privacy, trust or Internet business, let alone at the helm of such an all encompassing one.
With all of these consolidations we're getting a new class of corporation. Some of these companies are getting big enough to directly rival the power of the United States government. In some ways, the new megacorps are already more powerful than the US, and certainly Bill Gates has far more power than Bill Clinton.
Watch for more megamergers coming over the next few months, and be afraid. Be very afraid. These will trigger a revolution of some sort in a relatively short space of time - 20 years at the outside.
I don't use an IDE, so this is pretty damned good for me. Besides, if you want an IDE, I'm sure I recall there being an open source one available - plug that in and do as you please.
Re:This is why I'm considering law...
on
Perens on Patents
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· Score: 1
By all means do a law degree, but don't become a hired gun lawyer except as a pit stop on the way to the political arena. That's what I plan to do, not because I want to be a politician, but because I want to stop the stupid things politicians are doing. One of the first things on my hit list will be sotware patents. Lawyers per se cannot change the law only politicians can do that. What is required now is for some of us to get our hands dirty in real politics - but a law degree is extremely helpful in that.
Say with certainty that if a bug has been reported than you can find the report?
Um, as a matter of fact, yes...
Know whether the bug has been fixed or not?
Actually, yep
Know who fixed it (or is supposedto) and when and what they did to fix it?
Yeppers
Say which versions contain the bugfix and which do not?
Damn, yes
If you can answer yes to each of those questions then your bug tracking system is fundamentally ISO9000 compliant.
Bugger - I always said I'd never go for that ISO9000 crap. Incidentally, we don't use paper in this process at all (OK, rarely, but then the online system refers to the paper "in hardcopy file).
Slashdot Mirror
The comments from the patent clerk who approved the Amazon One Click patent hint at more than a little frustration at the fact that she couldn't stop what she perceived as an obvious abuse of the system.
Thousands of hours means at least two thousand. That's one person full time for a year. Honestly, a coder that dumb should never be allowed near a keyboard. That demonstrates an incredible (literally, as in, not at all credible) level of incompetence. I honestly can't believe a programmer that dumb exists, even against the dumbest coders I've ever encountered.
Perhaps Amazon's new slogan needs to be "Patents Are Like A Box Of Chocolates".
That merger closed long ago. It's now an unavoidable part of history.
When I heard about this I almost threw up. VeriSign is, without a doubt, the new number 1 enemy of the Internet. Network Solutions is not far behind.
To those who think they are getting away from this bohemoth by using other registrars, think again. They will still own the root registry database.
Both companies have appalling records on customer services and privacy. Both refuse to allow people to opt out of privacy intrusions (OK, VeriSign *say* they let you opt out, but they won't honor the opt out request). Both companies suck.
Stratton Sclavos is an Internet cretin, who has no place at the helm of any privacy, trust or Internet business, let alone at the helm of such an all encompassing one.
With all of these consolidations we're getting a new class of corporation. Some of these companies are getting big enough to directly rival the power of the United States government. In some ways, the new megacorps are already more powerful than the US, and certainly Bill Gates has far more power than Bill Clinton.
Watch for more megamergers coming over the next few months, and be afraid. Be very afraid. These will trigger a revolution of some sort in a relatively short space of time - 20 years at the outside.
I don't use an IDE, so this is pretty damned good for me. Besides, if you want an IDE, I'm sure I recall there being an open source one available - plug that in and do as you please.
By all means do a law degree, but don't become a hired gun lawyer except as a pit stop on the way to the political arena. That's what I plan to do, not because I want to be a politician, but because I want to stop the stupid things politicians are doing. One of the first things on my hit list will be sotware patents. Lawyers per se cannot change the law only politicians can do that. What is required now is for some of us to get our hands dirty in real politics - but a law degree is extremely helpful in that.
Take a bug tracking system, can you:
Say with certainty that if a bug has been reported than you can find the report?
Um, as a matter of fact, yes...
Know whether the bug has been fixed or not?
Actually, yep
Know who fixed it (or is supposedto) and when and what they did to fix it?
Yeppers
Say which versions contain the bugfix and which do not?
Damn, yes
If you can answer yes to each of those questions then your bug tracking system is fundamentally ISO9000 compliant.
Bugger - I always said I'd never go for that ISO9000 crap. Incidentally, we don't use paper in this process at all (OK, rarely, but then the online system refers to the paper "in hardcopy file).