In MIT's words: For the "proof of concept" pilot...the Web pages of the MIT OCW site were built by..."brute-force HTML." Utilizing Web content editors such as DreamWeaver, a team of programmers from MIT and Sapient...designed and built the first 32 subjects. However, that model was not scalable for 500 courses, so MIT OCW has implemented a Content Management System (CMS) in order to achieve MIT OCW's long-term publishing goals. The CMS we have been using since the beginning of 2003 is a customized implementation of Microsoft Content Management System 2002...there wasn't a viable open source solution...Microsoft made a serious commitment to the MIT OCW project...The hope is that utilization of open-source model CMS products could lead to less expensive implementations...
Microsoft Dream (2003) End users are beginning to ask for it. They get jazzed about the idea of being able to start an IM session with somebody, then if that person goes offline at some point, the message being sent would be saved and retrieved at a later time. IBM Reality (1972) You can also leave a message for wdd to receive when he logs on by typing: send 'message' user(wdd) logon.
Even though he said he was 'blown away' by Amazon's new Search Inside the Book feature, Tim O'Reilly has decided not to participate in the program for now. 'If they end up being a Google for published content...we need to think better about what publishers get out of it,' he said.
"...he sent in a huge binder of IBM mainframe documentation..." Nope. A link to a complete online book was provided with the submission (see BountyQuest confirmation screen below). The link provided was also used by BountyQuest (#25) on its website.
"...without any comment about what part of it he considered prior art. When pressed for details, he gave some section numbers..." Wrong-o. Both narrative and direct links to pertinent sections for each of the twelve requirements to match were provided as required at the time of submission (see BountyQuest confirmation screen below). No "pressing" was required.
"...for the life of me I couldn't see its relevance, and neither could any of the bountyquest patent attorneys...it seemed to me to be one of the most useless and irrelevant of all the submissions..." Funny, BountyQuest singled it out as one of four "terrific submissions" (#25) on its website (the other three were the "runner-ups").
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Bounty ID: 1025 Author: IBM Corporation Title: Interactive System Productivity Facility (ISPF) User\'s Guide Journal: IBM Corporation Publication Date: 10/09/95 ISBN: Edition: Version 4 Release 2 for MVS URL: http://www.s390.ibm.com/bookmgr-cgi/bookmgr.exe/BO OKS/ISPUGD02/CCONTENTS
Description/Comment: This is an IBM mainframe software product that\'s been around since the mid-70\'s! The model used by programmers to order, bill, accumulate, and deliver file listings, reports, etc. is virtually identical to Amazon\'s patented \"one-click\" model that\'s used to order, accumulate, and deliver books. In the IBM system, one prespecifies names, delivery destinations (global), chargeback account numbers (for automated billing systems), etc. that\'s store on a mainframe (server). Subsequently, individuals can list files and select one or more of them for delivery in one step by clicking a mouse, function key, light pen, or ENTER key that\'s attached to a PC or dumb terminal (client). These client-initiated selections are merged together with the prespecified server-based information to bundle (fulfill) the ordered information together on the server and deliver it to the specified individual at the indicated destination. Individuals can view the status of their orders at any time and cancel them if desired. If delivery problems are encountered (e.g., printer problems, no paper), a partial delivery is made. Sound similar to Amazon\'s \"innovations\"? Sure does! The more things change, the more they stay the same... SHOW ME THE MONEY!!!
"Mrs McCarthy...stated that she was against going down the US route of patenting software and cited the "one click" Amazon patent as an example of a bad patent law." Nice of the USPTO to issue another arguably bad Amazon patent on the eve of the EU vote.
Amazon was granted a patent today for Alternative Browse Graphs, after showing the USPTO how they can be used to find a Marvin the Martian Pez candy dispenser.
Lots of it in fact, from Microsoft's minority stake in Groove. With his old-school geek roots, it's probably just the principle of the thing that's motivating him here.
"One interesting thing we've found is taht there are many issues resolved by "the community", i.e. non-MS employees that are subject matter experts. I don't know the details on this but I think we make an effort to track who is and isn't a great contributor and maybe they get some sort of compensation or recognition or something."
In vacating the injunction Amazon obtained to force Barnes and Noble to eliminate their single-click ordering function, the U.S. Court of Appeals concluded that the district court erred in failing to recognize that one of the references cited by BN - the CompuServe Trend System, which automatically charged purchasers' accounts 50 cents for each stock chart ordered - raised a substantial question of invalidity. The district court dismissed the significance of this system partly on the basis that it "was not a world wide web application," a distinction the U.S. Court of Appeals found irrelevant, noting that Amazon's '1-Click' patent specification explicitly notes that "[o]ne skilled in the art would appreciate that the single-action ordering techniques can be used in various environments other than the Internet."
"...does anyone know whether there is a web interface to this system and if so whether it existed before September 12, 1997?" Here's a 1990 post discussing ISPF access using tn3270 (a 3270 terminal emulator running with tcp/ip transport) via the internet. And this 1996 press release announced Netscape's licensing of IBM's Host On-Demand, a Java-based tn3270 solution that provided 3270 terminal emulation for intranet and Web users and was integrated into Netscape 4.0.
A few MSDN links that show Microsoft not only was aware of, but also supported the decades-old mainframe Partitioned Data Set (PDS) file structure in its product offerings...
--> http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/his/htm/_sna_a.asp Microsoft Host Integration Server 2000 Glossary data set members Members of partitioned data sets that are individually named elements of a larger file that can be retrieved by name. partitioned data set (PDS) A data set in direct access storage that is divided into partitions, called members, each of which can contain a program, part of a program, or data.
--> http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/his/htm/_sna_platforms_supported_by _the_host_file_transfer_activex_control_oledb.asp Microsoft Host Integration Server 2000 On the mainframe platform, the Host File Transfer ActiveX Control supports the following data set types: Basic Partitioned Access Method (PDS) data sets * Partitioned Data Set Extended members (PDSE) * Partitioned Data Set members (PDS)
In one breath, "For example, we can sense and disable an Xbox modified with third party "modchips" and not allow it to play online." In the next, "Telling us what we can or can't create, we think is unconstitutional."
From the SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION section of the patent application...
[0013] To assist potential buyers in efficiently locating the marketplace listings for a particular product, each product detail page preferably displays or summarizes the existing marketplace listings for the corresponding product. These listings may be associated with a variety of different sellers (including individuals and small merchants), and may be for both new and used units of the product. Thus, by accessing the detail page for a particular product, a buyer can efficiently and accurately locate all of the current marketplace listings (if any) for that product, as well as view detailed product information from the product database (typically including product images, third party product reviews, etc). The user can also preferably compare the prices, product conditions, and other parameters of the various listings, and can initiate purchasing of the product from a particular seller.
Ad Age: A day after consumer groups accused Amazon.com of violating federal children's privacy laws, the company announced it has removed children's identifying information from its Web sites. Amazon said it never intended to disclose the information, and that the children who were identified online had bypassed steps intended to list their comments anonymously. The children, who are 13 and younger, had revealed their e-mail and home addresses in reviewing toys on the online retailer's toy-shopping channel. "The information was information supplied at the instigation of children," said Bill Curry, a company spokesman...
Oops...guess I should have double-checked their math before I posted--good catch! Even at $97.8B, that's still a whole lot of hours at a part-time Kinko's job.:-)
With apologies to The Amazin' Polka Writin' CyberMonkey...It has been said that given enough time, seventy six Microsoft code monkeys locked in Microsoft HQ with seventy six NT workstations would eventually write all the code for a.NET patent.
According to this story, '...the attack "was 100% preventable." This view was shared Howard Schmidt, cyber security adviser to US President George W. Bush, who on Monday suggested that six months was more than enough time for systems administrators to plug the hole.'
The circa-1994 version of IBM's BookManager Library Reader for Windows predated (and outclassed!) the circa-1996 SBC/Ameritech 'Structured Document Browser'. This 1994 User's Manual figure clearly shows the concepts of frames, icons, and menus all at work in one screen two years before the initial Ameritech patent filing. As others have mentioned, the Ameritech patent specifically notes that it covers "any computing environment", so you needn't restrict yourself to the web (Ameritech didn't!).
"More fundamentally, there is a confused notion that being productive is the same thing as working long hours. It isn't. As Jim Goodnight, the wise co-founder and CEO of SAS Institute, has said, "If you've put in a full day, by 6 o'clock, you shouldn't have anything left, so go home." Amazingly for the software industry, SAS thrives on a 35-hour work week. Long hours also are partly responsible for the defect-filled products we have come to expect and accept. People who work when they are exhausted make mistakes. And as the quality movement taught us, it is more expensive to find and correct errors than it is to prevent them."
Slashdot Mirror
In MIT's words: For the "proof of concept" pilot...the Web pages of the MIT OCW site were built by..."brute-force HTML." Utilizing Web content editors such as DreamWeaver, a team of programmers from MIT and Sapient...designed and built the first 32 subjects. However, that model was not scalable for 500 courses, so MIT OCW has implemented a Content Management System (CMS) in order to achieve MIT OCW's long-term publishing goals. The CMS we have been using since the beginning of 2003 is a customized implementation of Microsoft Content Management System 2002...there wasn't a viable open source solution...Microsoft made a serious commitment to the MIT OCW project...The hope is that utilization of open-source model CMS products could lead to less expensive implementations...
Microsoft Dream (2003)
End users are beginning to ask for it. They get jazzed about the idea of being able to start an IM session with somebody, then if that person goes offline at some point, the message being sent would be saved and retrieved at a later time.
IBM Reality (1972)
You can also leave a message for wdd to receive when he logs on by typing: send 'message' user(wdd) logon.
Even though he said he was 'blown away' by Amazon's new Search Inside the Book feature, Tim O'Reilly has decided not to participate in the program for now. 'If they end up being a Google for published content...we need to think better about what publishers get out of it,' he said.
"...he sent in a huge binder of IBM mainframe documentation..."
Nope. A link to a complete online book was provided with the submission (see BountyQuest confirmation screen below). The link provided was also used by BountyQuest (#25) on its website.
"...without any comment about what part of it he considered prior art. When pressed for details, he gave some section numbers..."
Wrong-o. Both narrative and direct links to pertinent sections for each of the twelve requirements to match were provided as required at the time of submission (see BountyQuest confirmation screen below). No "pressing" was required.
"...for the life of me I couldn't see its relevance, and neither could any of the bountyquest patent attorneys...it seemed to me to be one of the most useless and irrelevant of all the submissions..."
Funny, BountyQuest singled it out as one of four "terrific submissions" (#25) on its website (the other three were the "runner-ups").
______________
*** BOUNTYQUEST SUBMISSION CONFIRMATION ***
Submission Successful!
Thanks for your submission! Your Submission ID is 1025-theodp@aol.com.
Verify the information on this page and then print it out. If any of the fields are incorrect, write the correct information in next to them.
Don't Forget, you still need to send us the complete document!
via email: 1025@bountyquest.com
via fax: 415-723-7823
via snail mail:
BountyQuest Corporation
Attn: 1025
20 Park Plaza, Suite 462
Boston, MA. 02116
Be sure to attach this page to the document you submit to help us with tracking it. If you're submitting via email, send this page as an attached file.
Bounty ID: 1025
Author: IBM Corporation
Title: Interactive System Productivity Facility (ISPF) User\'s Guide
Journal: IBM Corporation
Publication Date: 10/09/95
ISBN:
Edition: Version 4 Release 2 for MVS
URL: http://www.s390.ibm.com/bookmgr-cgi/bookmgr.exe/BO OKS/ISPUGD02/CCONTENTS
Description/Comment: This is an IBM mainframe software product that\'s been around since the mid-70\'s! The model used by programmers to order, bill, accumulate, and deliver file listings, reports, etc. is virtually identical to Amazon\'s patented \"one-click\" model that\'s used to order, accumulate, and deliver books. In the IBM system, one prespecifies names, delivery destinations (global), chargeback account numbers (for automated billing systems), etc. that\'s store on a mainframe (server). Subsequently, individuals can list files and select one or more of them for delivery in one step by clicking a mouse, function key, light pen, or ENTER key that\'s attached to a PC or dumb terminal (client). These client-initiated selections are merged together with the prespecified server-based information to bundle (fulfill) the ordered information together on the server and deliver it to the specified individual at the indicated destination. Individuals can view the status of their orders at any time and cancel them if desired. If delivery problems are encountered (e.g., printer problems, no paper), a partial delivery is made. Sound similar to Amazon\'s \"innovations\"? Sure does! The more things change, the more they stay the same... SHOW ME THE MONEY!!!
Answers:
(0) Selection Fields (Print) - http://www.s390.ibm.com/bookmgr-cgi/bookmgr.exe/BO OKS/ISPUGD02/1%2e1%2e2%2e6.
(1) Selection Lists - http://www.s390.ibm.com/bookmgr-cgi/bookmgr.exe/BO OKS/ISPUGD02/1%2e1%2e2%2e6.
(2) Function Keys, Light Pen, Cursor Select - http://www.s390.ibm.com/bookmgr-cgi/bookmgr.exe/BO
So why was prior art submitted by others ruled out for not being specific to the web (e.g., "Unfortunately it doesn't say anything about the use of HTML, the Web, and such, so it wasn't a winner.")? Didn't anyone inform you or the BountyQuest lawyers that a Federal Court had rejected a similar argument made by Amazon just a month earlier?
"Mrs McCarthy...stated that she was against going down the US route of patenting software and cited the "one click" Amazon patent as an example of a bad patent law."
Nice of the USPTO to issue another arguably bad Amazon patent on the eve of the EU vote.
Amazon was granted a patent today for Alternative Browse Graphs, after showing the USPTO how they can be used to find a Marvin the Martian Pez candy dispenser.
Lots of it in fact, from Microsoft's minority stake in Groove. With his old-school geek roots, it's probably just the principle of the thing that's motivating him here.
"One interesting thing we've found is taht there are many issues resolved by "the community", i.e. non-MS employees that are subject matter experts. I don't know the details on this but I think we make an effort to track who is and isn't a great contributor and maybe they get some sort of compensation or recognition or something."
... The MVP program will no longer be in operation effective 12/1/99.
Due to customer feedback and requests for more direct Microsoft involvement, we are changing our newsgroups strategy.
--Joseph Lindstrom, Director Business Development, October 22, 1999
In vacating the injunction Amazon obtained to force Barnes and Noble to eliminate their single-click ordering function, the U.S. Court of Appeals concluded that the district court erred in failing to recognize that one of the references cited by BN - the CompuServe Trend System, which automatically charged purchasers' accounts 50 cents for each stock chart ordered - raised a substantial question of invalidity. The district court dismissed the significance of this system partly on the basis that it "was not a world wide web application," a distinction the U.S. Court of Appeals found irrelevant, noting that Amazon's '1-Click' patent specification explicitly notes that "[o]ne skilled in the art would appreciate that the single-action ordering techniques can be used in various environments other than the Internet."
"...does anyone know whether there is a web interface to this system and if so whether it existed before September 12, 1997?"
Here's a 1990 post discussing ISPF access using tn3270 (a 3270 terminal emulator running with tcp/ip transport) via the internet. And this 1996 press release announced Netscape's licensing of IBM's Host On-Demand, a Java-based tn3270 solution that provided 3270 terminal emulation for intranet and Web users and was integrated into Netscape 4.0.
A few MSDN links that show Microsoft not only was aware of, but also supported the decades-old mainframe Partitioned Data Set (PDS) file structure in its product offerings...
= /library/en-us/his/htm/_sna_a.asp
= /library/en-us/his/htm/_sna_platforms_supported_by _the_host_file_transfer_activex_control_oledb.asp
--> http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url
Microsoft Host Integration Server 2000
Glossary
data set members
Members of partitioned data sets that are individually named elements of a larger file that can be retrieved by name.
partitioned data set (PDS)
A data set in direct access storage that is divided into partitions, called members, each of which can contain a program, part of a program, or data.
--> http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url
Microsoft Host Integration Server 2000
On the mainframe platform, the Host File Transfer ActiveX Control supports the following data set types:
Basic Partitioned Access Method (PDS) data sets
* Partitioned Data Set Extended members (PDSE)
* Partitioned Data Set members (PDS)
Here's Microsoft's patent application that covers disallowing participation in online services.
In one breath, "For example, we can sense and disable an Xbox modified with third party "modchips" and not allow it to play online." In the next, "Telling us what we can or can't create, we think is unconstitutional."
From the SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION section of the patent application...
[0013] To assist potential buyers in efficiently locating the marketplace listings for a particular product, each product detail page preferably displays or summarizes the existing marketplace listings for the corresponding product. These listings may be associated with a variety of different sellers (including individuals and small merchants), and may be for both new and used units of the product. Thus, by accessing the detail page for a particular product, a buyer can efficiently and accurately locate all of the current marketplace listings (if any) for that product, as well as view detailed product information from the product database (typically including product images, third party product reviews, etc). The user can also preferably compare the prices, product conditions, and other parameters of the various listings, and can initiate purchasing of the product from a particular seller.
Ad Age: A day after consumer groups accused Amazon.com of violating federal children's privacy laws, the company announced it has removed children's identifying information from its Web sites. Amazon said it never intended to disclose the information, and that the children who were identified online had bypassed steps intended to list their comments anonymously. The children, who are 13 and younger, had revealed their e-mail and home addresses in reviewing toys on the online retailer's toy-shopping channel. "The information was information supplied at the instigation of children," said Bill Curry, a company spokesman...
The CNET article links to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 on the FTC site.
I pledge allegiance to the Easter Peeps Flag of the United States...
Oops...guess I should have double-checked their math before I posted--good catch! Even at $97.8B, that's still a whole lot of hours at a part-time Kinko's job. :-)
Sorry, Sun!
With apologies to The Amazin' Polka Writin' CyberMonkey...It has been said that given enough time, seventy six Microsoft code monkeys locked in Microsoft HQ with seventy six NT workstations would eventually write all the code for a .NET patent.
According to this story, '...the attack "was 100% preventable." This view was shared Howard Schmidt, cyber security adviser to US President George W. Bush, who on Monday suggested that six months was more than enough time for systems administrators to plug the hole.'
The circa-1994 version of IBM's BookManager Library Reader for Windows predated (and outclassed!) the circa-1996 SBC/Ameritech 'Structured Document Browser'. This 1994 User's Manual figure clearly shows the concepts of frames, icons, and menus all at work in one screen two years before the initial Ameritech patent filing. As others have mentioned, the Ameritech patent specifically notes that it covers "any computing environment", so you needn't restrict yourself to the web (Ameritech didn't!).
Already patented by Amazon.Com Holdings, Inc.?
From What's Wrong With Management Practices in Silicon Valley? A Lot.
"More fundamentally, there is a confused notion that being productive is the same thing as working long hours. It isn't. As Jim Goodnight, the wise co-founder and CEO of SAS Institute, has said, "If you've put in a full day, by 6 o'clock, you shouldn't have anything left, so go home." Amazingly for the software industry, SAS thrives on a 35-hour work week. Long hours also are partly responsible for the defect-filled products we have come to expect and accept. People who work when they are exhausted make mistakes. And as the quality movement taught us, it is more expensive to find and correct errors than it is to prevent them."