Bill Evjen's Blog

My wife is getting her Masters degree in Finance at the moment and she has to get ready for a class presentation. The teacher gave them instructions to present using ..... get this ... transparencies! What, is that correct? Her question to me was where do you do this sort of thing? Kinko's I guess. But I was just stunned that people are even still using these things? Hello ... knock, knock ... 21st century calling. Last I came across these things was in high school ('84-'88). I thought we had progressed a little further since that time. Oh well. Here is some of that for you if you want the memory:

Note: I had to remove the images as they were being downloaded that often from the other site. Sorry.

After my first post on this 'Interesting Interview: Software Patents Will Destroy Development', I started reading a little more about this issue and came across this editorial called 'Another Fine Patent Mess'. It seems that Microsoft now has a patent for sticking multiple scripts into an XML file and the author was wondering how such a thing could be patentable. I tend to agree and think we have a definite situation here. It also isn't Microsoft's fault as they are forced to play the patent game in order to not lose out because of the situation the US Patent Office has created. All the major vendors are forced to play this game so that they won't be the one on the negative end of the stick (such as the EOLA patent). What is happening is that all the vendors are madly trying to get patents so that they can have the tools in place to stop innovation of occurring in areas where they have an interest. It is a situation where vendors are forced to have the ability to stop the brakes on another companies product only because that company might have the ability to stop them in their own innovations. It is like the vendors are arming themselves up for protection against each other and to me it is only happening because of the patent offices rules and regulations that the patent office has established. The question is then, are code algorithms worth patents or not? Do patents help instill innovation or inhibit innovation? What is the better course of action for the industry as a whole? I think we all know the answers but we just won't simply admit it.