The one sentence summary itself should be innovative, if we really must have patents. The summary should blow my mind and make me think the inventor is a genius.

What would a better deal look like in your opinion?

> What about police dash cams?

Laws don't apply to police. See all traffic laws as an example.

> What does that mean for students who record lectures?

Happier professors... some professors don't like being recorded.

> What does that mean for students who record lectures? For that matter, I have a digital camera on my desk that can record audio

So can, I would think, all modern cell phones

You don't see the difference between government/cooperate mass spying and private small scale spying?

I don't think Novell is a competitor with Microsoft at this point. This particular code only benefits Novell through their Microsoft partnership, and +200 patches by Mr. Kroah-Hartman must cost Novell a lot of money for someone of his position.

I think the point is, that kernel contributions in general, even if it's MS, don't get included just because they exist. In fact, it is my understand that patches more often get rejected than accepted. If this contribution less public, and not not from MS, it might have been rejected outright.

They are modular. The even call what they are placed in 'modules'.

I have used Core 2 Duo machines running MS Windows which show jitters with Flash, I come to assume that that is simply a feature of Flash.

The impression I get from these stories is that once Google scans them, no one else can. Is that somehow the case?

I'd argue that doesn't make sickness good or okay.

It sucks, but their position is understandable. Also, Python is fairly easily parallel installable.

I thought that I read that i4i actually produces software, and hence is not a patent troll.

Almost every time there is a story about Microsoft getting/applying for a new patent, I see upmodded comments saying that Microsoft doesn't like patents either, they are just playing along. This seems to suggest otherwise.

And I am not sure that that is a good thing. That aside? How about Qt support and better Linux functionality?