You know, as I was RingTFA, I was trying to figure out how the reporter didn't mention Monsanto at all. Seriously, your quote is modded funny, but not including the fact that Monsanto owns (and TIGHTLY controls) both in the article seems to be a significant oversight on the part of the press.

-SM

I'd guess this # would go up if people counted their alarms as an App. Mine definitely is, as I use a Droid w/ a Doc and a customizer app to reprogram my camera button into a "snooze". Thus, I use an app before I even wake up.

That sucks for these guys!

I wonder if they'll honor the policy I bought for 12-21-2012 if the disaster is pushed 60 days!

I would guess that if Verizon is the one that is requiring this of Motorola, then they are doing it to restrict people's ability to tether 2.2 without having to pay Verizon.

The Android 2.2 platform has built-in wifi tethering that you have to pay your carrier for in order to use, an extra $20/month or some such. Rather than do that, a quick root and install of a free wifi tether app allows the owner to bypass the carrier Tether requirements and build their own little wifi network to access the 'net from any wifi capable device without paying... The data becomes just another set of packets.

If you're looking for a business reason, that's it.

-SM

Could these newly found pyramids finally unlock the secrets of what will happen (or not) on December 21st, 2012?

Personally, I'm betting we're not going to get these dug out in time. When we do get them un-buried, I'd laugh if they said something along the lines, "Yeah, our whole 2012 thing was just a joke to scare the Inca! See those lines they built at Nazca? We put them up to that too!".

Ahh, the Maya, the great pranksters of the ancient world!

Until then, I'm just going to be happy with the 2012 Insurance Policy I picked up to laugh about this 2012 thing with all my friends!

-SM

That's just COOL! Too bad the writer of the article didn't know enough about Pac Man to realize that he's about to much on a Power Pellet and eat all the ghost-Thetans that are coming his way after liberation by the Scientologists!

and mad.frog especially,

I really didn't want to rekindle the debate about whether patents (or software patents) are a good or bad thing. I've been a /. reader (responder) for quite a while and understand the general consensus about patents here.

I really am only trying to understand what people who have been involved in these programs have seen before. My overall goal of this research is to help develop a program management will accept before anyone says "you work for us, we own the patents anyway" and does away with PIPs all together. Most of the people I work with (including me) love our jobs and I are just trying to get a fair result.

I suppose I should have mentioned that we have a patent/idea review board in place to determine what we would like to spend time on (judge value, creativeness, patentability) before we begin even the provisional process, but I wanted to keep the question simple.

Thank you to all who have chimed in with the various programs you have seen and/or have been involved with.

Thanks again all,

-SoulMaster