I rather appreciate the fact that a toy that just about all of us loved when we were still in knee pants has made the transition to a pretty cool game that no fun-loving adult could be ashamed to play. Personally, I would love to see a take on the "Barrel o' Monkeys" where the player controls a team of Navy Seal-like monkeys with an arsenal of hi-tech weaponry. Just a thought. Also, is it just me, or does the Saiyan character closely resemble Goku from the Dragonball Z cartoon?
Perhaps I'll be seen as a wet blanket on this one, but doesn't anyone get the feeling like the amount of useless shit on the internet has gotten way out of hand? From dancing hampsters (though they are rather cute) to pokemon butts to virtual hugs, anything that can be about anything has somehow found its way onto the net. The sad part is that someone actually thought it was interesting enough to put the time into writing the page!
"There is no defense based on the notion that a so-called patent is absurd or covers an obvious activity or business practice."
And therein, my friends, lies the rub. As much as we cry and scream and wail about the lack of fairness in the distribution of patents, there is nothing currently in place that restricts these companies from filing for patents for the most stupid of things. I knew that rock bottom had been hit when I looked at my phone bill and it read "patent pending" at the bottom. And why should companies restrict themselves? Isn't capitalism all about dog eat dog, and who can screw the opposition out of the most money? So why should they care about who will be affected when they apply for a patent for using red text on their billing form instead of blue? And at this point, isn't it a little redundant to say that there are some serious issues in how things are run down at the patent office? I mean, seriously, what did they think would happen when they began rewarding employess for the number of patents they processed? I guess one question is what will happen to the idiotic patents that have already been processed? Will there be some massive review, or will there be a long cleansing period where patents are reviewed as the time limit on them expires?
Hmm... Dismissed because the anti-spam law was too harsh, and burdensome to businesses? Funny how the consumer can get run over while the rights of unethical business owners are protected. I can only assume that this judge has a secretary that checks his email for him, and isn't quite aware of how completely annoying spam can really be. Or perhaps he feels that it's alright to send out massive amounts of unsolicited email that has purposely been misrepresented to mask the cheesy sales pitch within? Excuse me, but that sounds like plain old fraud to me, but perhaps I'm mistaken. Perhaps in protest we should forward all spam to this judge's email address so he can be just as annoyed as we are. Perhaps then he may see the light.
Quite an interesting article from Jon. However, the idea of the geek society participating in its own jihad against the corporate mcworld is rather ironic considering how each of us is what keeps said corporate world running and in control. Each step forward in technology is then packaged and marketed just so in that cookie cutter way that makes homogeneous society so delightful .
Ah, yes... Patents for banner ads. In my roamings for a free i-net provider (I'm cheap, so sue me), I ran across dotNow, who has professed freely (and quite proudly) to have notified "...Alta Vista, America Online, Microsoft, NetZero and others of software's pending patent rights to the methodology of ad-supported Internet access used in its dotNow! suite of free Internet services." Pardon me, but how is it possible to patent free internet service? Both television and radio function on the same premise of free services paid for in part by advertising, so they are certainly not the first company to have this idea, and certainly not the first company to tailor advertisements to the the individual consumer (other mail and internet services have already done so). So what makes this company think it has any right to a patent? Can you imagine how much television and radio would blow if the first stations had decided to patent the way they do business? Can you say "The remote control only has one button"?
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I rather appreciate the fact that a toy that just about all of us loved when we were still in knee pants has made the transition to a pretty cool game that no fun-loving adult could be ashamed to play.
Personally, I would love to see a take on the "Barrel o' Monkeys" where the player controls a team of Navy Seal-like monkeys with an arsenal of hi-tech weaponry. Just a thought.
Also, is it just me, or does the Saiyan character closely resemble Goku from the Dragonball Z cartoon?
Perhaps I'll be seen as a wet blanket on this one, but doesn't anyone get the feeling like the amount of useless shit on the internet has gotten way out of hand?
From dancing hampsters (though they are rather cute) to pokemon butts to virtual hugs, anything that can be about anything has somehow found its way onto the net.
The sad part is that someone actually thought it was interesting enough to put the time into writing the page!
"There is no defense based on the notion that a so-called patent is absurd or covers an obvious activity or business practice."
And therein, my friends, lies the rub. As much as we cry and scream and wail about the lack of fairness in the distribution of patents, there is nothing currently in place that restricts these companies from filing for patents for the most stupid of things. I knew that rock bottom had been hit when I looked at my phone bill and it read "patent pending" at the bottom.
And why should companies restrict themselves? Isn't capitalism all about dog eat dog, and who can screw the opposition out of the most money? So why should they care about who will be affected when they apply for a patent for using red text on their billing form instead of blue?
And at this point, isn't it a little redundant to say that there are some serious issues in how things are run down at the patent office? I mean, seriously, what did they think would happen when they began rewarding employess for the number of patents they processed?
I guess one question is what will happen to the idiotic patents that have already been processed? Will there be some massive review, or will there be a long cleansing period where patents are reviewed as the time limit on them expires?
Hmm... Dismissed because the anti-spam law was too harsh, and burdensome to businesses? Funny how the consumer can get run over while the rights of unethical business owners are protected. I can only assume that this judge has a secretary that checks his email for him, and isn't quite aware of how completely annoying spam can really be. Or perhaps he feels that it's alright to send out massive amounts of unsolicited email that has purposely been misrepresented to mask the cheesy sales pitch within? Excuse me, but that sounds like plain old fraud to me, but perhaps I'm mistaken.
Perhaps in protest we should forward all spam to this judge's email address so he can be just as annoyed as we are. Perhaps then he may see the light.
Quite an interesting article from Jon. However, the idea of the geek society participating in its own jihad against the corporate mcworld is rather ironic considering how each of us is what keeps said corporate world running and in control. Each step forward in technology is then packaged and marketed just so in that cookie cutter way that makes homogeneous society so delightful .
Ah, yes... Patents for banner ads.
In my roamings for a free i-net provider (I'm cheap, so sue me), I ran across dotNow, who has professed freely (and quite proudly) to have notified "...Alta Vista, America Online, Microsoft, NetZero and others of software's pending patent rights to the methodology of ad-supported Internet access used in its dotNow! suite of free Internet services."
Pardon me, but how is it possible to patent free internet service? Both television and radio function on the same premise of free services paid for in part by advertising, so they are certainly not the first company to have this idea, and certainly not the first company to tailor advertisements to the the individual consumer (other mail and internet services have already done so). So what makes this company think it has any right to a patent?
Can you imagine how much television and radio would blow if the first stations had decided to patent the way they do business?
Can you say "The remote control only has one button"?
With a name like "Kinbote" how normal could I be?