> There was also a lot of discussion about whether the patent was reasonable at the time, including, as stated on Slashdot, a claim that Sim Dietrich from Nvidi

> There was also a lot of discussion about whether the patent was reasonable at the time, including, as stated on Slashdot, a claim that Sim Dietrich from Nvidia had demo'd the technique publicly, months before the patent was filed. Until recently, the US was "first to invent", not first to file, and public disclosure didn't establish a bar date but rather started a count-down to a bar date. In other words, a public disclosure a few months before a filing can be irrelevant. Whether it actually is irrelevant depends on some other details.