OT: Microsoft patents "timed button presses"

[Bill Vermillion]

On Mon, May 03, 2004 at 10:37:42AM -0400, Walter Vaughan thus spoke:
> Kenneth Brody wrote:
> 
> >US Patent 6,727,830 dated 27-April-2004

> >    A method and system are provided for extending the functionality
> >    of application buttons on a limited resource computing device.

> <rant mode=on> /* I believe that's valid xaml which MS now owns
> */ This is not off-topic. It's about the end of computing as
> we know it. Over the past few days microsoft has been getting
> almost 10 patents per day. The end game is that Longhorn client
> computers will ONLY be able to communicate with Windows based
> servers "reliably".

Maybe they are trying to be the next IBM - as IBM [if I recall
correctly] still gets the most patents issued each year.

To communicate 'with Windows based servers "reliably"' almost seems
an oxymoron.  And Longhorn has been delayed yet again.

> Meaning that the FUD will start and bring us back to 1993
> when Microsoft had a plan that did not include dirty non
> ms-servers. Windows everywhere, and without independent
> software developers. ISV's aren't bound to come up with
> Windows from cradle to grave solutions. Kill the ISV's off and
> everythings coming up rosy in Redmond.

Only if the clients put up with it.  I have one person that I
started with solving problems on an old Xenix system where they got
royally screwed by the orignal vendor.  They wound up on a Dataflex
database where the developer decided he'd move to something else.
The bought a package another person in their specific field used,
and it was built upon Progress - and it was custom with having only
one person being able to modify the code.

Target date for the move to the new platform is the end of this
month.  They looked at several, and one or two people were
impressed with the 'pretty' look of some of the MS based offering,
but they wound up with a custom database that will be running on
MySQL on SuSE.  I was not in the group selecting them, but I have

As opposed to many small businessmen they hired some consultants
who went looking for solutions and this group was selected from 
an eventual small set.

One selling point was the code was to be wide open, so they client
can do anything they wish, with the proviso the code can not be
sold.  The extreme reliability of Unix based systems, and they had
been running Xenix since 1988 and I've been involved with the
since about 1991,  made the owner almost insist on a Unix type
platform.

> Think about it. Robert at Anzio doesn't help sell a product that
> sells more Windows products. The whole concept of even allowing
> a Windows computer to talk to a unix computer doesn't make
> money for MS stockholders. And it's dangerous at that. Those
> dangerous Unix computers, gotta stop 'em.

MS from my POV is still coming from a small single computer idea
upwards to the larger environments, while the IBM's and Unisys like
manufacturers of the world are looking at the problem from the top
down, and have seen many of the problem that MS is having expanding
to the larger environments.

....

> Visit a website or use a server that is not Longhorn based....
> "This service does not meet the Trustworthy Computing Initiative.
> In order to protect your computer you should disconnect immediately."
> And of course Windows XP servers which are virus ridden will also
> cause that message to be presented, so it'll be a good thing to
> obey that message.

Is that the default in some current browser, or is that in the
future.  MS lost [and it only cost them $150,000,000 {best guess
from their announcement of earnings forecast} when their programs
detected that DR Dos [Now Caldera DOS] was running an MS
application and presented a warning message.  Of course that case,
decision, and award came after DR had been purchased by Caldera,
but putting messages out like that could work against them based on
past rulings.

> You think people will install Mozilla to avoid nag screens like that?

I'm one of the holdouts running Netscape.  I thought it was
interesting in that one of the downloads from Netscape is a popup
blocker that runs on IE 5.0 or later.

> It's not even subliminal. Look at any major web site today.
> MS's running all sorts of ads talking about how Windows servers are
> 300% faster than any unix solution and TCO is about 25% of a unix
> solution. We all know that is garbage, but enough money spent in
> that direction also gets editoral to eventually get on board with
> the "Unix is Evil" campaign.

To bad there is not a group backing Unix as a whole has we had in
the past.  The first group came around, and within months a second
group came into being because they felt the first group had too
much say in the directions of the platforms.

MS has the size advantage that they don't need an industry group.

...

> The only variable in this is if Microsoft decides to stay out
> of the PORN business, and cause problems in the delivery of porn.
> Then the marketplace will respond. On the other hand, if Microsoft
> makes it easier to deliver Porn and make more money for Porn content
> delivery agents, then it's game over.

MS doesn't decide what content you put on your machines.  The
operating words in the last paragraph 'are make more money' and
whoever can deliver a platform that does that will win that game.

Bill
-- 
Bill Vermillion - bv @ wjv . com