Comment Re: happens all the time, even around you (Score 1) 133
Whoosh!
Disney Turned Down George Lucas's Star Wars Scripts 422
If Video Games Make People Violent, So Do Pictures of Snakes 161
Comment Re:Rock, Scissors, Paper (Score 1) 362
Except, of course, for Rock-Paper-Scissors-Spock-Lizard.
Comment Not a Patent (Score 2, Insightful) 82
Seriously - is it too hard to note that it's only a Patent Application at this point?
Comment Re:Let's stop calling it "Chrome OS". (Score 1) 193
Does that make this Beyond Thunderdome?
Comment Re:cool, but not patent-worthy (Score 1) 209
FYI, the only thing that matters is whether it was novel and non-obvious as of September 13, 2004 (the filing date of the patent).
Comment Other: (Score 4, Funny) 913
I tithe to CowboyNeal!
Comment Re:IT is a customer service group (Score 1) 576
When I heard this one it was a math student giving directions and a business student in the balloon. You get one for every field I guess.
Comment Re:JUST publish it, make it "prior art" (Score 2, Insightful) 233
So, once your idea gets into the public domain at all (regardless of any non-compete/non-disclosure agreements, even), that starts the patent-process clock ticking. Show it to a friend, and you have begun...
Not quite. You need to get it where it would be reasonably accessible by a member of the public were they to be interested, so non-disclosure agreements (or even an implicit understanding of limited distribution, but that's a little murkier) prevent it from being prior art.
Open Source Victories of 2008 378
Comment Re:Irrelevant. (Score 1) 94
Of course claiming media only makes it patentable when it meets certain other particular limitations (i.e. excludes signals, operates on a computer (thus excluding mental processes), etc.).
Comment Re:Economics models are like goat entrails predict (Score 1) 361
To steal from an old RPG: Lies, damned lies, statistics, and computer modeling.