This writer is correct. I have been through the same patent appeals system and won. The test of obviousness is not just individual prior art items (patents and anything used or published anywhere in the world) but CONJUNCTIVE prior art items. If two previously known processes can be used conjunctively (even though widely separated in time and place) the obviousness test invalidates the patent. From my experience, this is a huge win for Amazon. Many, many patents look "obvious" in restrospect.
Branding ala Tom Peters' writings seemingly is not the strong suit of the Open Source community. The author is right... Mozilla is a strong name. But the logo fails because it is only a "partial dinosaur" (the head) that doesn't have enough internal contrast or definitive external outline. Check out this stylized whole dinosaur that scales well to see how this might be resolved.
I am not a fan of Microsoft, but this time they are really on the right track. I work in the imaging field and got a chance to play with a Tablet PC over a two day period in July. I attended a conference with Microsoft's Bert Keely (who is in charge of the project) who guided me through its features.
Comments from people who have never or barely used the machines should be discounted. The work done at Microsoft Research in the area of merging bitmap and vector algorithms and compression/journaling (per the "behind the scenes account") is far beyond anything of which I am aware on any competing platform.
That said, the resources necessary to accomplish the promoted tasks are large and will affect battery life. When the machines debut on November 7th and become integrated into the lives of the targeted audience, I believe it will become clear that, this time anyway, Microsoft is farther down the road than anyone else.
About half of all Americans cannot type or efficiently use a keyboard. Not surprisingly, that's also about the penetration of PC use in the general population. This could be Microsoft's bid to achieve similar penetration of such appliances as the television and the telephone.
Slashdot Mirror
CNET for getting the technology wrong or /. for saying it's Toshiba not Hitachi? Standards sinking ...
This writer is correct. I have been through the same patent appeals system and won. The test of obviousness is not just individual prior art items (patents and anything used or published anywhere in the world) but CONJUNCTIVE prior art items. If two previously known processes can be used conjunctively (even though widely separated in time and place) the obviousness test invalidates the patent. From my experience, this is a huge win for Amazon. Many, many patents look "obvious" in restrospect.
Branding ala Tom Peters' writings seemingly is not the strong suit of the Open Source community. The author is right ... Mozilla is a strong name. But the logo fails because it is only a "partial dinosaur" (the head) that doesn't have enough internal contrast or definitive external outline. Check out this stylized whole dinosaur that scales well to see how this might be resolved.
Comments from people who have never or barely used the machines should be discounted. The work done at Microsoft Research in the area of merging bitmap and vector algorithms and compression/journaling (per the "behind the scenes account") is far beyond anything of which I am aware on any competing platform.
That said, the resources necessary to accomplish the promoted tasks are large and will affect battery life. When the machines debut on November 7th and become integrated into the lives of the targeted audience, I believe it will become clear that, this time anyway, Microsoft is farther down the road than anyone else.
About half of all Americans cannot type or efficiently use a keyboard. Not surprisingly, that's also about the penetration of PC use in the general population. This could be Microsoft's bid to achieve similar penetration of such appliances as the television and the telephone.