Panopticon Central

a blog on Visual Basic, .NET and other stuff

  Home :: Contact :: Syndication  :: Login
  492 Posts :: 19 Stories :: 3298 Comments :: 628 Trackbacks

News

The information in this weblog is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

My Book

Picture

My Recent Posts

Article Categories

Archives

Post Categories

Microsoft Blogs

Samples

Technical Blogs

VB Links

So every time someone whose blog I read would get Slashdotted, I would wonder to myself, "I wonder if this will ever happen to me?" And then I would start speculating, "Hmmm... If so, I wonder what kind of thing I'd have to do to get myself Slashdotted..." Well, now I know: have Microsoft submit a patent for the IsNot operator, listing me as the principal inventor. Wonderful. Glad to see it's over something that I can be really, really proud of...

(It's not a full Slashdotting I suspect, because the blog is only mentioned in the comments, not the main entry, but even a tertiary flood is interesting...)

Updated: Corrected the misuse of “principle” when I meant “principal.”

posted on Friday, November 19, 2004 11:35 AM

Feedback

# re: Welcome Slashdot... 11/19/2004 2:44 PM Christian Langreiter
Congratulations! Finally an invention where no one can claim triviality, for much of computing is based on this wonderful operator.

# re: Welcome Slashdot... 11/19/2004 3:05 PM Edward
Well you might be reviled by the entire computing community, but at least you get a fancy black cube to play with on your desk.

Did you really think this was a significant innovation not obvious on one skilled in the art?

Will Microsoft freely license this wonderous invention to Mono and Portable .Net so they can create a compiler compatible with VB.Net 2005?


# re: Welcome Slashdot... 11/19/2004 6:01 PM spelling nazi
Did you mean "the principle inventor", as in you are the idea inventor? Or "the principal invector", as in the main inventor? Doesn't look like either. :)

# re: Welcome Slashdot... 11/19/2004 11:17 PM concerned citizen
If you're going to work for a convicted monopolist and help tighten its anticompetitive grip on the industry by abusing the patent system, you deserve all the attention you're getting. Apparently your job security and large paycheck make up for the fact that you're contributing to the strangulation of research and advancement in the field of information technology.

# re: Welcome Slashdot... 11/20/2004 12:43 AM Michael Giagnocavo
Please tell me MS is only patenting this for some kind of protection...

# re: Welcome Slashdot... 11/20/2004 8:23 AM odysseus
I guess you can't say much more, but can we take it from the tone of your "something I can be really, really proud of" that you're not exactly sipping of the patent kool-aid?

Was it your choice to submit this, was it "suggested" that you do so, or was it done for you ("Microsoft submitted")?

John.

# re: Welcome Slashdot... 11/20/2004 10:57 AM Mike Dimmick
Well, IBM just patented rejitting methods based on profiles gathered during execution (US Patent #6,820,258) which they'll now claim that IA32EL on Itanium infringes, so Microsoft has to have something to trade with them... I have no idea whether .NET 2.0 performs profile-guided recompilation - the 1.x versions AFAIK did not.

I was disappointed when I saw Paul and Amanda Silver's names attached to that patent, but I believe the US rules are that a corporation cannot apply for a patent in its own name, the patent must be applied for in the names of individuals who assign the patent back to their employer.

# Software patents 11/20/2004 2:03 PM Panopticon Central


# re: Welcome Slashdot... 11/22/2004 3:16 AM Stanislav
Well. you have been slashdoted and groklawed.
http://www.groklaw.net/

# re: Welcome Slashdot... 11/29/2004 2:51 PM Zian
I'm glad that you're getting a patent for it! :)

Post Feedback

Title:
Name:
Url:
Comments: