OT: Microsoft patents "timed button presses"

[Kenneth Brody]

Keith F Weatherhead wrote:
> 
> Sounds like the person that invented the lights for stoves and
> clothes dryers should sue M$.  Those were "limited resource
> computing devices" as they timed cooking meals or drying clothes and
> you had to press and hold the button to turn the light on or press
> and release to turn it off.  I figure this should cost M$ a few
> billion as these were established LONG before M$ existed.
[...]

And car radios that change stations when you press one of the "pre-set"
buttons, but set that pre-set to the current station if you hold the
button.

And programmable calculators that execute macros when you press the
button, but display the macro code if you press and hold the button.

And so on.

Of course, "prior art" didn't stop Amazon from getting a patent on
"one-click shopping".  Or the guy who got a patent on a sliding window
solution to 2-digit-years holding dates beyond 1999.  Or any of a
zillion other software patents that have been given in recent years.
(There's a patent on fund raising via the web.  He sued the Red Cross
for patent infringement.)

I think it's time for me to patent "a method for obtaining e-mail
addresses from Internet websites", and "a method for sending bulk
e-mail advertisements".

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| Kenneth J. Brody        | www.hvcomputer.com |                             |
| kenbrody at spamcop.net | www.fptech.com     | #include <std_disclaimer.h> |
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