That's an incredibly large generalisation to make, based on the small amount of 'bogus' patents that have been reported on this website and others.
Out of the 30,000 patents granted per year by the US Patent Office, I think I've seen articles attacking the usefulness of no more than fifty.
Which is, like, about 0.002% of the yearly grant of patents.
Until you've actually gone and read a sizeable portion of these I don't think you're in any position to claim that there is an "obviously decreased usefulness of patents in promoting actual innovation".
I don't know if you read the patent, but it actually describes a fairly sophisticated system for advert management.
We're not talking a few simple lines of code to insert a random image into a webpage here. This is a well thought out automatic process of obtaining, tracking and releasing adverts to many different types of newspaper website.
These patents are terribly long-winded and verbose.
They said:
A method of placing a plurality of online newspaper advertisements according to claim 1 further comprising the step of associating at least one packet of information which is downloaded onto an online accessing device and which causes said online accessing device to send a signal to a website displaying a derivative advertisement link if that website is subsequently accessed by said online accessing device with said derivative advertisement link.
This method sounds like a very sophisticated form of interlacing often found on TVs and monitors.
But instead of just merging in adjacent horizontal lines in subsequent frames, he is applying - like it says in the article - a more seamless approach in two dimensions rather than one.
Actually it is quite possible for a cult to be accidental. That is, an organisation of people develops cult-esque behaviour without the intent of doing so.
Any group with the intention of 'converting' new people over to join them has that danger. Of course, it is very difficult to detect intent in such situations.
I liked your advertising / marketing comparison, by the way. Reminds me of when I was talking with someone defending the cult I mentioned earlier, and he claimed they just had 'good marketing techniques' for their religion.
But this reminds me of a girl I used to know way back in '97. She was a nice, caring person, and damn cute. Intelligent and creative too, but unfortunately far too guillible for her own good. Her name was Rachel. I have to admit, I kind of fancied her.
And in the November of that year, she starting hanging around with what I can only describe as a cult. Through careful manipulation of her most vulnerable points, she was slowly sucked in to their bizarre culture. We saw her less and less as she spent more time with the other cult members, and what we did see of her.. well, she changed. She became quiet and withdrawn whereas before she was relatively carefree and happy. And then there were the cases of the unexplained bruises.
She's dead now, you know. Died in a car crash last year. We didn't know her at all then, really.
I think I had a point somewhere.. oh yes..
She could have left at any time, she didn't have to do what they said, right?
This license has yet to be approved by the Open Source Initiative board, or accepted by the Free Software Foundation, or even fully reviewed by yours truly. It may have to be modified before it is worthy of acceptance by the community.
You say 'acceptance by the community', but what you really mean is acceptance by the dictatorship that is the FSF and the OSI. Everyone else interested in whatever sort of 'free' or open source software there might be can do what the hell they like.
I detect gross misuse of the words 'community' and 'free' here.
And certainly a step along the way, but not quite what I meant. The idea is to replace the kernel without having to restart the kernel from scratch - that is, replace the kernel while leaving most processes intact.
Slashdot Mirror
Why do these people want you dead? Have you been sleeping with their girlfriends or something?
User Info for Skyshadow (508)
User Bio
I have nothing to say for myself.
Skyshadow has posted 782 comments.
So did any of you trolls turn up and dilate your rectums while screaming "first p0st!"?
Because they copied it. He meant "easily recreated" as in it's a trivial thing to think of.
In Amazon's case, there was no prior art for their particular implementation of a 1-click system. The point being - they thought it up first.
That's an incredibly large generalisation to make, based on the small amount of 'bogus' patents that have been reported on this website and others.
Out of the 30,000 patents granted per year by the US Patent Office, I think I've seen articles attacking the usefulness of no more than fifty.
Which is, like, about 0.002% of the yearly grant of patents.
Until you've actually gone and read a sizeable portion of these I don't think you're in any position to claim that there is an "obviously decreased usefulness of patents in promoting actual innovation".
No, it doesn't.
Read the patent carefully (it's here) - you'll notice it describes a fairly involved system of advert distribution.
Which is why the patent was granted.
I don't know if you read the patent, but it actually describes a fairly sophisticated system for advert management.
We're not talking a few simple lines of code to insert a random image into a webpage here. This is a well thought out automatic process of obtaining, tracking and releasing adverts to many different types of newspaper website.
They said:
- A method of placing a plurality of online newspaper advertisements according to claim 1 further comprising the step of associating at least one packet of information which is downloaded onto an online accessing device and which causes said online accessing device to send a signal to a website displaying a derivative advertisement link if that website is subsequently accessed by said online accessing device with said derivative advertisement link.
They meant:This method sounds like a very sophisticated form of interlacing often found on TVs and monitors.
But instead of just merging in adjacent horizontal lines in subsequent frames, he is applying - like it says in the article - a more seamless approach in two dimensions rather than one.
Interesting stuff, indeed.
Maybe if you think it's that good you should put your money where your mouth is and buy it?
Does the fsck.ext3 program help at all?
Chill out a bit, dude.
(And btw I've submitted plenty of stories.)
Yes, it is, according to the vulnerability rates for different OSes at securityfocus.com.
That is a really good idea!
I hope they patent it quick before someone steals it and makes millions off their hard work.
Actually it is quite possible for a cult to be accidental. That is, an organisation of people develops cult-esque behaviour without the intent of doing so.
Any group with the intention of 'converting' new people over to join them has that danger. Of course, it is very difficult to detect intent in such situations.
I liked your advertising / marketing comparison, by the way. Reminds me of when I was talking with someone defending the cult I mentioned earlier, and he claimed they just had 'good marketing techniques' for their religion.
Nice try, but you forgot about the dozens of security holes in sendmail. (Remember the Morris Worm?)
And do remember that RedHat is the most insecure OS around in its default install.
Excuse me, how is this 'news for nerds'?
Was the squid running Linux? Did they find anime videotapes on the beach also?
No. And no 'squid proxy server' jokes either, please.
I noticed it earlier - thanks. Unfortunately when you then posted to the article, the mod point was removed. But I appreciate the thought.
Unfortunately, insightful comments that don't 'toe the party line' here do tend to get moderated down as 'Flamebait', or even 'Troll'.
Such is Slashdot, eh?
Interesting point.
.. well, she changed. She became quiet and withdrawn whereas before she was relatively carefree and happy. And then there were the cases of the unexplained bruises.
.. oh yes ..
But this reminds me of a girl I used to know way back in '97. She was a nice, caring person, and damn cute. Intelligent and creative too, but unfortunately far too guillible for her own good. Her name was Rachel. I have to admit, I kind of fancied her.
And in the November of that year, she starting hanging around with what I can only describe as a cult. Through careful manipulation of her most vulnerable points, she was slowly sucked in to their bizarre culture. We saw her less and less as she spent more time with the other cult members, and what we did see of her
She's dead now, you know. Died in a car crash last year. We didn't know her at all then, really.
I think I had a point somewhere
She could have left at any time, she didn't have to do what they said, right?
No hack required. Just run a network sniffer on your PC and recreate your streams from the traffic going over your modem/NIC.
Success in this industry isn't about following the rules, son. It's about greed and deviousness.
You'll go far if you learn to be a complete bastard sooner rather than later.
- This license has yet to be approved by the Open Source Initiative
You say 'acceptance by the community', but what you really mean is acceptance by the dictatorship that is the FSF and the OSI. Everyone else interested in whatever sort of 'free' or open source software there might be can do what the hell they like.board, or accepted by the Free Software Foundation, or even fully reviewed by
yours truly. It may have to be modified before it is worthy of acceptance by
the community.
I detect gross misuse of the words 'community' and 'free' here.
They could share WAVs and just burn them onto CD. No need for them to take up hard drive space.
Thanks for the link, that was most interesting.
And certainly a step along the way, but not quite what I meant. The idea is to replace the kernel without having to restart the kernel from scratch - that is, replace the kernel while leaving most processes intact.
On the contrary, 3am California time is in the middle of the average working day in the UK.