

Internet Software Patents - __
http://philip.greenspun.com/business/internet-software-patents

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Eliezer
The modern-day best-and-brightest work on Artificial Intelligence; but they
are obscured by a much larger number of slightly to moderately talented
nutcases who are working on Artificial Intelligence because they think it
can't be that hard.

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Novash
Everyone heard of that project that was dubbed "TeslaNet", right?
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wardenclyffe_Tower> I wonder what would the
world be like if that had been successful.

~~~
xirium
Alternative tech history? We had a few opportunities. One was Wardenclyffe
Tower, which proposed wireless time division multiplexed fax in 1902. We can
only imagine the world today if such developments had succeeded.

Likewise, the computer industry in the 1980s had some promising developments
in massively parallel computing. This included wafer scale integration and
parallel processor microkernels. In 1987, Sir Clive Sinclair was granted a
patent for creating massively parallel, fault tolerant computing. Rather than
making a wafer of chips then packaging and testing each unit, it is possible
for processors to self-test and self-assemble into a working network. This
would allow an eight inch wafer to be packaged with minimal additional steps.
Furthermore, this would have been an asyncronous processor design.
Microkernels, such as HeliOS could have been adapted to run on such hardware
and the user level programs may not have required any changes. You may also
wish to research the Meiko Computing Surface which used Inmos Transputers or
the Connexion Machine. Unfortunately, none of these developments were
compatible with Windows.

Finally, if you enjoy alternative history, you'd probably enjoy The Gernsback
Continuum from William Gibson's book of short stories, Burning Chrome (
<http://project.cyberpunk.ru/lib/burning_chrome/> ).

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edw519
"Our modern day best-and-brightest built Microsoft Windows Vista (TM)."

They also built AutoCAD, ecommerce, Google maps, and put personal
communication devices in a billion pockets. (And hacker.news too!)

Not fair to use Microsoft for comparisons in the history of computing. It is
an aberation that achieved financial success not through technical excellence,
but by building a monopoly with unfair business practices and legal and
political maneuvering.

~~~
koolmoe
I think the point of the Vista comment is to illustrate the theme of patenting
fairly obvious programming technology, not to take a shot a the "modern day
best and brightest."

Microsoft reputedly engages in a fair amount of this kind of inane patent
activity.

~~~
mechanical_fish
Vista is a great example for an essay like this: much of its brokenness is
arguably a direct result of design decisions that were driven by
entertainment-industry IP lawyers.

The other factor affecting Vista, which Greenspun refers to obliquely when he
talks about the "natural progression of an industry", is that the pioneers in
a field get to work in an open space. Backward compatibility is not an issue.
Installed base is not an issue. Your market is too small to have developed
hundreds of independent, politically powerful splinter groups that are each
fighting for their own agenda. And your competitors are too few and too poor
to have hired lawyers to scrutinize your every move and force you to document
exactly how you answer the phone.

This is the real point. In typical Greenspun fashion, he is pretending to call
us all stupid, but he doesn't really mean that we're _intrinsically_ stupid.
He's appalled by the fact that we live and work in a tangle of legal nonsense
that makes us _effectively_ stupid.

~~~
edw519
Shame on me. As usual, a Greenspun article that is 99% quality and I pick on
the sore thumb at the end. I must be still be a little irritable after filling
out that 8th TPS report.

I still say Microsoft is not representative of today's best and brightest.
When you have $20 billion cash, 85% market share (in some sectors), and total
PHB support, you don't have to be as good. So they aren't.

