2 ms·

I am reading the patent and it pretty much describes any large scale distributed multi-user application. Their patent is mostly "workflow" and "project" oriente

by mahmud 17y ago

I am reading the patent and it pretty much describes any large scale distributed multi-user application. Their patent is mostly "workflow" and "project" oriented, and I would think they would have had better chance trolling Google and MS for Docs and Office, not facebook. Even IBM for Lotus Domino. Their platform "specs" are so widespread and so far ranging, it has every HPC acronym thrown at it. They even specify bits of the BIOS and EPROMs. Who are these morons and why do they think FB is nothing but intuitive development dictated by growth and everyday contact with a huge user base? Anybody who is anybody would have come up with distributed caching of RDBMs queries, didn't someone implement Memcached at LiveJournal? and the rest of it is self-dictating. Can you imagine being the FB engineers tasked with developing a platform for applications? the last thing you want to read are patents; they're mostly medieval sketches, and arm-chair monday-morning quarterback-engineering that you don't want your mental model cluttered with this crap. Instead, you poach competent people from your competitors (i.e. people who don't have the time to lay patent mines for posterity and instead have shit to do today) A platform for managing information? get fucked!

yason 17y ago
Well said. Patents are so controversial and stifling. It's sickening to observe such hypocritical behaviour but, for example, my employer doesn't allow their employees reading patent texts (at least during work hours, IIRC) in fear of provable infringement -- yet they apply for patents themselves whenever they can, apparently just for defensive purposes! How much more actual, productive work could we do if we didn't have to keep the best of our people writing documents for patent applications, occupying their minds with such frivolous patent games while still working our arses off to make a difference in the real world?
hooande 17y ago
For what it's worth, almost all technology patents read like this. I check out patents on http://www.freepatentsonline.com http://www.freepatentsonline.com sometimes just because it's interesting to see people try to describe incredibly complex processes using the most general terms possible. Most of them seem to describe very common technologies on the web. I don't know how any of them get enforced. I guarantee there is some kind of patent out now for "an interface (possibly a website) that allows users to post messages (possibly comments or urls) to a group and use a signal (possibly voting) to indicate preference (possibly up or down)."

by mahmud 17y ago

yason 17y ago

Well said. Patents are so controversial and stifling. It's sickening to observe such hypocritical behaviour but, for example, my employer doesn't allow their employees reading patent texts (at least during work hours, IIRC) in fear of provable infringement -- yet they apply for patents themselves whenever they can, apparently just for defensive purposes! How much more actual, productive work could we do if we didn't have to keep the best of our people writing documents for patent applications, occupying their minds with such frivolous patent games while still working our arses off to make a difference in the real world?

hooande 17y ago

For what it's worth, almost all technology patents read like this. I check out patents on http://www.freepatentsonline.com http://www.freepatentsonline.com sometimes just because it's interesting to see people try to describe incredibly complex processes using the most general terms possible. Most of them seem to describe very common technologies on the web. I don't know how any of them get enforced. I guarantee there is some kind of patent out now for "an interface (possibly a website) that allows users to post messages (possibly comments or urls) to a group and use a signal (possibly voting) to indicate preference (possibly up or down)."