tkeller | 15 years ago | on: Software Patents Have Got to Go
Well, maybe so. But I stand by my disappointment at the lack of knowledge about patents around here. We don't understand patents, but we're mad as hell about them!
tkeller's comments
tkeller | 15 years ago | on: Software Patents Have Got to Go
> Do you work in patent law?
Yes. As for the effect on the community... well, are you just talking about the way that patents make software developers feel? Because obviously developers would know more about that than I do. But it's also not a particularly relevant question--patents are what they are, and the way they make you feel doesn't really matter.
tkeller | 15 years ago | on: Software Patents Have Got to Go
Well, that may be. But almost all of the posts you see around here decrying them are just steeped in ignorance. Titles like "Microsoft has patented <whatever the title of the patent is>. Software patents have to go." When the reality is that they have merely applied for a patent (not gotten one granted), and it's actually something really narrow if you read the claims.
Stuff like that does not fill me with humility and make me think, hey, maybe these folks are right and I'm the one who doesn't know what he's talking about. Because I do know what I'm talking about. There are defensible arguments for why software patents may not be a good thing... but you don't see them here. You don't often see anything well-reasoned, just a bunch of groupthink.
tkeller | 15 years ago | on: Software Patents Have Got to Go
No, I don't. I just get annoyed at all the misinformation that gets repeated about patents in general and software patents specifically.
The discourse around HN is generally of a pretty high level, and it's disappointing to see people just blindly accepting the party line: software patents bad, I don't know how to read a patent and that's ok, and anyone who disagrees is just stifling innovation.
tkeller | 15 years ago | on: Software Patents Have Got to Go
Rabble rabble rabble. I hate this attitude: I don't understand software patents, and I'm not going to take the time to learn about them, therefore they need to go.
tkeller | 15 years ago | on: Software Patents Have Got to Go
> Basically, Allen got an omnibus patent that covers all these characteristics
No. He didn't. And regardless of whether software patents need to go, ignorant media coverage certainly needs to go.
tkeller | 15 years ago | on: Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen tries again with patent megasuit
Do I think it's acceptable that adults are required to have some understanding of how the world around them works? Yes, I do.
tkeller | 15 years ago | on: Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen tries again with patent megasuit
The claims really are not particularly vague.
tkeller | 15 years ago | on: Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen tries again with patent megasuit
That's kind of my point. The title means nothing. The abstract means almost nothing. The figures mean almost nothing. Have a look here for a brief guide to reading a patent, written for nonlawyers. http://www.danshapiro.com/blog/2010/09/how-to-read-a-patent-...
tkeller | 15 years ago | on: Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen tries again with patent megasuit
Have you actually read them? Read the claims? They're software patents, so plenty of folk will hate them just based on that... but they really are not poorly drafted patents.
tkeller | 15 years ago | on: A serious drug problem
Why would any of these people have consented to a search? If a cop approaches you in the parking lot, be polite but firm, and waive no rights.
tkeller | 15 years ago | on: The Day I Bought $15,000 From the US Mint
He's trying to write this up as a neat hack ($300 for an hour of work? where do I sign up?), but all he's really done is waste a lot of other people's time to exploit a silly loophole. I wonder how many man-hours the bank spent moving and counting 300 pounds of coins, not to mention how much tax money was spent shipping the damn things to him. What an unproductive waste.
tkeller | 15 years ago | on: Are Companies Scanning Open Source Commit Logs And Patenting What They Find?
"It's funny how often we hear patent system supporters tell us that if you haven't actually gotten a patent for your invention, it's perfectly reasonable for someone else to go and patent it instead."
I'm not sure I've heard anyone say this, ever.
tkeller | 15 years ago | on: Ask HN: Experiences with 'Gödel, Escher, Bach' (GEB)?
I've read it twice. That says it all, I guess.
tkeller | 15 years ago | on: "Please take this down and write your own book."
I see what you're saying, but... it's copyright infringement and license violation. Politeness is not a requirement.
tkeller | 15 years ago | on: IPad "Orientation Lock" becomes "Mute On/Off" in software update
Go back to Linux, this is iOS.
tkeller | 15 years ago | on: USPTO likely to adopt 'peer-to-patent' (Feb 2010)
... eight months ago.
tkeller | 15 years ago | on: Confessions of a Used-Book Salesman
Exactly. There's nothing dishonorable about arbitrage.
tkeller | 15 years ago | on: Thorium Instead Of Uranium: Solution To Our Energy Woes?
Where would the U-232 contamination come from, if it's bred U-233? Does thorium also just sometimes decay into the lighter isotope?
tkeller | 15 years ago | on: How Fake Money Saved Brazil
It is, certainly. My only issue is that it wasn't treated like an approximation.
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