That is an interesting point, but it disregards the notion that I can patent portions of (for example) High Frequency Trading, so that no one else can do it (without infringing) until my patent expires.
Reminds me of the story from The Zen of Programming:
A novice went into the master's cubicle and saw a new computer sitting upon the master's desk. "What is that computer?" asked the novice. The master placed his hand upon a small box that was connected to the computer by a wire. "Behold," said the master, "This device controls what we see on the screen. The screen simulates a desk. For example, here is a filing cabinet and a trash depository. Here also is a typewriter and a calculator." "This is a wonderful invention," whispered the novice in awe. "It is not as wonderful as it seems," said the master. "Can you see the two desks?" The novice nodded. "One is on the floor, the other is on the screen," he remarked. "Just so. Now, is there something missing on one of the two desks?" The novice pondered for a moment. "One of the desks does not have a computer on it," he said. The master shook his head. "Neither of the desks has a computer on it."
The findings illustrate that recent events such as the Stuxnet computer worm attack and the attempted Times Square car bombing may have heightened the American public's awareness of and concern over global and domestic cybersecurity threats.
Sure, because most members of the American public have heard of Stuxnet, and know that it incorporated multiple vulns on multiple devices/OSes, and was targeting Iranian nuke facilities. Puhleeeese.
I think he raises a valid point, since most of the recent talk of "cyberwarfare", "cybersecurity", even "cyberczar" and the like comes from either clueless government types or those trying to sell the government something.
Have you noticed the recent trend in commercials to misuse the word "technology", too? Like "stain-fighting technology" and "odor fighting technology". Here's an idea: don't call it "technology" if it isn't!
What risk? Yer all a bunch of whiners. You've all been to the dentist for a tooth x-ray, just imagine the dentist had to take the picture over and over and over and over...
But three generations later, a child of the survivors started having the dream. Night after night, he dreamed of watching his hands go through a specific set of motions, then drawing strange figures of the motions and carving strange runes. Eventually, he could see the runes even in his waking world, and he knew one day he would carve them, even if he had no knowledge of their meaning: "Method and process for creating fire with portable, non-flammable materials".
...can a Business Analyst be used to write application logic?
No, however, they can be sliced open like a tauntaun and used as a sleeping bag, if you happen to be trapped at night, out in the open, on an ice planet.
The more things change, the more they never do. I'm reminded of nothing so much as the great IP battles of yore, like Lotus and Ashton-Tate over "pull-down menus" (and the inevitable "throw-up menu" jokes); and how everyone with an ounce of sense thought the whole argument pointless, petty and stupid. The whole Xerox Star interface, WYSIWYG, F1 for context-sensitive help, a million other things where one company said "hey, that was our idea" and another company (often Microsoft), or sometimes the whole industry, said "so what, it's an idea - and the users have come to expect it". But today, we have companies who have the ability to patent "pull-down menus" or whatever other lame-ass, self-evident idea that comes their way. Mobile smartphones/computing is going to be a stillborn, schizophrenic hodepodge as a result of this. No Compaq will ever arise in the smartphone space, no CUA, no ISA. In five years, smartphones/mobile computing will resemble nothing so much as computing circa 1966, the "IBM and the BUNCH" days - proprietary hardware, bundled, non-interoperable, proprietary software, aggressive inter-vendor hostility, etc. - not so much walled gardens as armed camps.
It's never ever ever going to get any better, and the reason is software/business process patents.
Oh, if only this were true. If only Patentgeddon were finally here, and Mutual Destruction was truly Assured. If only the big players would unleash their full arsenals on each other, in wave after thoughtless paroxysm of retaliations, until the silos were all exhausted and the landscape were littered with piles of the bodies of slain lawyers. Perhaps then, the starving, horribly disfigured mutants who were never part of the original conflict, yet somehow managed to miraculously, accidentally survive, could try to eke out a peaceful subsistence living, at long last free of the Shadow of Mordor.
My god, the moderator abuse is strong today. Parent is not trolling, he's perfectly correct. Shelby is a Republican (read: hates Obama), actually a turncoat Democrat, (read: Stockholm syndrome) and is one of the Senator's from the home of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (read: NASA center for Shuttle propulsion, external tanks, payloads and crew training; plus ISS design and assembly; PLUS (and here's the rub) the Ares I, Ares V, and Constellation) with thousands and thousands of FEDERAL EMPLOYEES. So yeah, when Shelby mouthes BLATANT OUTRIGHT LIES like "...the Administration's reckless cancellation of NASA's human space flight program..." it's perfectly permissible to point out that he's a LYING self-interested LIAR who LIES and needs to get a clue about the interests of the rest of the country.
Slashdot Mirror
CERN != Fermilab
What about Smoke Emitting Diodes? (or Light Emitting Resistors?)
Why a Duck?
What's the Password?
I have a haddock too.
Whaddya take for a haddock?
Actually, at that altitude, it doesn't make a OW! OW! STOP IT!
Exactly.
Why a chickens?
Why a horses?
That is an interesting point, but it disregards the notion that I can patent portions of (for example) High Frequency Trading, so that no one else can do it (without infringing) until my patent expires.
Clearly this is a job for Wile E. Coyote.
Sure, because most members of the American public have heard of Stuxnet, and know that it incorporated multiple vulns on multiple devices/OSes, and was targeting Iranian nuke facilities. Puhleeeese.
I think he raises a valid point, since most of the recent talk of "cyberwarfare", "cybersecurity", even "cyberczar" and the like comes from either clueless government types or those trying to sell the government something.
Have you noticed the recent trend in commercials to misuse the word "technology", too? Like "stain-fighting technology" and "odor fighting technology". Here's an idea: don't call it "technology" if it isn't!
And who do you suppose is eventually going to pay that debt? Here's a hint, unless you make $100 million a year or so, you are.
Meanwhile, back on topic, I'm the biggest NASA nerd there is, but software patents are evil, I don't care who owns them.
What risk? Yer all a bunch of whiners. You've all been to the dentist for a tooth x-ray, just imagine the dentist had to take the picture over and over and over and over...
Is that so much to ask for safety???
Many researchers are worried that the baculovirus isn't as benign as first thought. Some even claim it killed the Star Trek franchise.
Ah BetaMax, yet another another superior proprietary Sony format. I already feel so lucky that BluRay won this format war.
But three generations later, a child of the survivors started having the dream. Night after night, he dreamed of watching his hands go through a specific set of motions, then drawing strange figures of the motions and carving strange runes. Eventually, he could see the runes even in his waking world, and he knew one day he would carve them, even if he had no knowledge of their meaning: "Method and process for creating fire with portable, non-flammable materials".
Which is exactly what we expect from Slashdot.
No, however, they can be sliced open like a tauntaun and used as a sleeping bag, if you happen to be trapped at night, out in the open, on an ice planet.
The more things change, the more they never do. I'm reminded of nothing so much as the great IP battles of yore, like Lotus and Ashton-Tate over "pull-down menus" (and the inevitable "throw-up menu" jokes); and how everyone with an ounce of sense thought the whole argument pointless, petty and stupid. The whole Xerox Star interface, WYSIWYG, F1 for context-sensitive help, a million other things where one company said "hey, that was our idea" and another company (often Microsoft), or sometimes the whole industry, said "so what, it's an idea - and the users have come to expect it". But today, we have companies who have the ability to patent "pull-down menus" or whatever other lame-ass, self-evident idea that comes their way. Mobile smartphones/computing is going to be a stillborn, schizophrenic hodepodge as a result of this. No Compaq will ever arise in the smartphone space, no CUA, no ISA. In five years, smartphones/mobile computing will resemble nothing so much as computing circa 1966, the "IBM and the BUNCH" days - proprietary hardware, bundled, non-interoperable, proprietary software, aggressive inter-vendor hostility, etc. - not so much walled gardens as armed camps.
It's never ever ever going to get any better, and the reason is software/business process patents.
Oh, if only this were true. If only Patentgeddon were finally here, and Mutual Destruction was truly Assured. If only the big players would unleash their full arsenals on each other, in wave after thoughtless paroxysm of retaliations, until the silos were all exhausted and the landscape were littered with piles of the bodies of slain lawyers. Perhaps then, the starving, horribly disfigured mutants who were never part of the original conflict, yet somehow managed to miraculously, accidentally survive, could try to eke out a peaceful subsistence living, at long last free of the Shadow of Mordor.
Or something like that.
That's just Western chauvinism. For example, in Japan, parents tell their children that chicken "tastes just like squid".
Roughly the size of Cthulhu.
My god, the moderator abuse is strong today. Parent is not trolling, he's perfectly correct. Shelby is a Republican (read: hates Obama), actually a turncoat Democrat, (read: Stockholm syndrome) and is one of the Senator's from the home of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (read: NASA center for Shuttle propulsion, external tanks, payloads and crew training; plus ISS design and assembly; PLUS (and here's the rub) the Ares I, Ares V, and Constellation) with thousands and thousands of FEDERAL EMPLOYEES. So yeah, when Shelby mouthes BLATANT OUTRIGHT LIES like "...the Administration's reckless cancellation of NASA's human space flight program..." it's perfectly permissible to point out that he's a LYING self-interested LIAR who LIES and needs to get a clue about the interests of the rest of the country.
It's a shame this was posted AC, and so late in the discussion, because this is soooooooo IT, it's almost archetypal.