I heard rumors of this a couple months ago...
on
GPS for GBA
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· Score: 2, Interesting
A couple months ago I heard about a GPS system for the gameboy. It seemed more aimed at the Japanese market at the time. The one really cool idea I heard about the GPS was that Nintendo was going to be making games that relied on where you were in both time and space (the space they envisioned using was Tokyo). For instance, if the player is at the fish market at 4am instead of 7am with his gameboy, his character might be able to buy some really rare fish that he might not otherwise have been able to get. I know it's a strange example, but this of the wacky dynamics this could add to a game!! This would be similar to Majora's Mask, EXCEPT, it matters where the PLAYER is in time and space, not the character! I believe this was another attempt to by Nintendo to get gamers out of the house. Really, the idea is kind of a cross between Zelda: Marjora's Mask, the light sensing game (whatever it was called), and Animal Crossing. Not much good for us that don't live in Tokyo though. It'll be interesting to see what other more generic ideas they can come up with.
Possibly the patent was filed a while ago but was just awarded. While the patent is pending, there really isn't much the filer can do but wait until it is accepted before filing lawsuits.
However, if eBay was already using the technology before the MercExchange filed for the patent, then eBay has every right to continue using the technology and the MercExchange patent will be overturned.
Assuming the patent was just awarded (which is why they are just filing suit now), it usually takes about 2-3 years for a patent application to go through. This means the patent would have been filed in or around Apr. 2000. In that case, I am certain that eBay has been using this technology long before the patent was filed as eBay has been around since circa 1995.
In court the MercExchange will lose if this is the case (no puns intended).
I think the author of this article has his head up his A$$. Linux will NEVER overtake Windows. I know most of the people on this board are *nix users and have slight delusions of grandeur, but the fact of the matter is... *nix is not (and most likely never will be) an average consumer-friendly OS. Everyone one of us on this board had to spend some time when starting out with *nix to learn the OS... and I'm sure most of us had to struggle to get the damn sound drivers working properly. And... it didn't bother us one bit... because we WANT to learn about the OS and want to be fluent *nix users. But like one of the other replies said... the average user doesn't want to learn the OS. They don't even want to KNOW about the OS. They just want to boot their machine and start their word processor.
You have to remember that we are not your average computer users. Most of us on this board work directly with computers, and most do development as well. Think truly of the average user (think about your mother or your grandmother... these are the average users), can you imagine them trying to learn/master the intricacies of *nix? Because of this the BestBuy's, CompUSAs, HPs, Dells, etc. who want to continue to make money will offer Windows because that is what the average user wants/needs. If my grandmother brought home a Linux box... she would get frustrated and return it immediately... this is exactly what these companies DON'T want!
Any developer that decides to focus purely on Linux will quickly realize that it is a niche market, and if they want to make any money they will need to expand to support windows. Then, when they realize that 90% of their revenue comes from the windows products, they will quickly drop support for Linux because the stock holders want the company to have higher revenue.
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A couple months ago I heard about a GPS system for the gameboy. It seemed more aimed at the Japanese market at the time. The one really cool idea I heard about the GPS was that Nintendo was going to be making games that relied on where you were in both time and space (the space they envisioned using was Tokyo). For instance, if the player is at the fish market at 4am instead of 7am with his gameboy, his character might be able to buy some really rare fish that he might not otherwise have been able to get. I know it's a strange example, but this of the wacky dynamics this could add to a game!! This would be similar to Majora's Mask, EXCEPT, it matters where the PLAYER is in time and space, not the character! I believe this was another attempt to by Nintendo to get gamers out of the house. Really, the idea is kind of a cross between Zelda: Marjora's Mask, the light sensing game (whatever it was called), and Animal Crossing. Not much good for us that don't live in Tokyo though. It'll be interesting to see what other more generic ideas they can come up with.
Possibly the patent was filed a while ago but was just awarded. While the patent is pending, there really isn't much the filer can do but wait until it is accepted before filing lawsuits.
However, if eBay was already using the technology before the MercExchange filed for the patent, then eBay has every right to continue using the technology and the MercExchange patent will be overturned.
Assuming the patent was just awarded (which is why they are just filing suit now), it usually takes about 2-3 years for a patent application to go through. This means the patent would have been filed in or around Apr. 2000. In that case, I am certain that eBay has been using this technology long before the patent was filed as eBay has been around since circa 1995.
In court the MercExchange will lose if this is the case (no puns intended).
I think the author of this article has his head up his A$$. Linux will NEVER overtake Windows. I know most of the people on this board are *nix users and have slight delusions of grandeur, but the fact of the matter is... *nix is not (and most likely never will be) an average consumer-friendly OS. Everyone one of us on this board had to spend some time when starting out with *nix to learn the OS... and I'm sure most of us had to struggle to get the damn sound drivers working properly. And... it didn't bother us one bit... because we WANT to learn about the OS and want to be fluent *nix users. But like one of the other replies said... the average user doesn't want to learn the OS. They don't even want to KNOW about the OS. They just want to boot their machine and start their word processor. You have to remember that we are not your average computer users. Most of us on this board work directly with computers, and most do development as well. Think truly of the average user (think about your mother or your grandmother... these are the average users), can you imagine them trying to learn/master the intricacies of *nix? Because of this the BestBuy's, CompUSAs, HPs, Dells, etc. who want to continue to make money will offer Windows because that is what the average user wants/needs. If my grandmother brought home a Linux box... she would get frustrated and return it immediately... this is exactly what these companies DON'T want! Any developer that decides to focus purely on Linux will quickly realize that it is a niche market, and if they want to make any money they will need to expand to support windows. Then, when they realize that 90% of their revenue comes from the windows products, they will quickly drop support for Linux because the stock holders want the company to have higher revenue.