Microsoft's 911 Patent 391
The register is reporting "'Microsoft was today granted a patent for accessing data used by the emergency services.' They quote from the application 'In sum, what is needed is a way to provide users with access to needed emergency information. This should be simple from the user's perspective, so that even very emotional users can find what is needed in a straightforward, yet comprehensive process.' Apparently the patent was filed one month after 9/11."
Like OnStar? (Score:4, Interesting)
Would this be like OnStar? Not the navigational OnStar, the part where even if you don't have a subscription and hit the button they will supposedly guide you out of trouble or call for EMS?
location aware? (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't need to know that 911 is emergency number in USA if I need to call 112 for ambulance in rest of the world.
Re:Hold on, I need to type a message to 911... (Score:3, Interesting)
I can't believe there isn't prior art for this (Score:3, Interesting)
Absurdity aside, what isn't patentable now? I'm getting more and more convinced that the limits on patentability are quickly dwindling to nothing. I'm not sure if it's the patent clerks trying to ensure job security or a misguided vision that the USPTO's job is to approve patents and that the courts should settle disagreements. Whichever it is, or both, needs to be addressed ASAP.
Re:seems valid (Score:1, Interesting)
then I get to sue Google, yahoo, MSN and ther others for patent violation.
unless it is VERY specific and VERY novel it's not valid.
Re:Good and bad (Score:5, Interesting)
You mean, like the corporately made, and profitable rescue vehicles that are driven to the scene of the emergency? Or the corporately made, and profitable Motorola gear that the responders are using? Or the coporately owned and managed telecomm systems that actually carry the 911 calls? Or the countless consulting and systems integration companies that help build and run the emergency dispatch systems that handle 911 calls?
This Corporate = Inherently Bad sentiment has become an embarassment. So, if the exact same patent had been filed, and business plan had been dreamt up by just Little Old Me, would it be Bad then? How about if me and two other guys formed a small incorporated group to do it? Is it bad then? How about 30 of us? 300? 3000? What exactly is the inherently bad corporate number, anyway? There must be some cosmic constant that much of slashdot is working with, and it should be shared for peer review.
In the post-9/11 world (Score:1, Interesting)
It would have been nice, I mean, really really nice, if Microsoft could have left this up to be one of those patent-free things. You know, so that anybody could set up systems to secure themselves with any proper measure, without the idea of having to deal with the behemoth for permission or pay a MS tax to do it.
Instead, we get to see another example of people who were thinking "Cha-ching!" when the planes hit the towers.
(as an aside, the meme needs two mentions of "post-9/11 world" btw)
Re:Makes sense. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Hold on, I need to type a message to 911... (Score:3, Interesting)
And when your dog hits it?!?!
B.
Re:Hold on, I need to type a message to 911... (Score:3, Interesting)
A man had brought her daughter for nice afternoon boat trip on lake, and had a stroke. The 5 years old girl managed to use his phone via the 1 button call feature to warn her mother of the issue, and the man was rescued in time.
So, yes, definitively, one button emergency is a good thing.
Re:seems valid (Score:4, Interesting)
I admit I was distracted by the present progressive [commnet.edu] in my thinking.
English grammar--here to make Perl look consistent...
Re:Hold on, I need to type a message to 911... (Score:2, Interesting)
I often listen to my local police on my scanner. Dropped calls with no answer/busy on call back are a very common occurence. I would say at least 1 every 1-2 hours. An officer is dispatched to the location and checks it out. I have no idea how many more times a dropped call is answered on call back from the 911 operator but the combination of the two is probably high. I've called 911 by accident at least twice and both times my initial reaction was to hang up but I stayed on and explained it was an accident. One time they actually asked to speak to another person in the car.
Great... (Score:4, Interesting)
Way to go, Billy!
Re:Good and bad (Score:2, Interesting)
So your saying that no one makes a profit in this whole process. Ford doesn't make a profit on the crown vic? The company that makes the lights doesn't make a profit? the company that makes the stickers that say "to protect and serve" or "Ambulance" doesn't make a profit? The company that puts this all together for the department doesn't make a profit? All the medical equipment in the back of an evac is sold at costt to produce? I'm sure your not just paying for cost of material, I bet the city/municipality is paying so companies do what companies strive to do, make a profit.
Anr when did we start applying morality to companies?
Re:Hold on, I need to type a message to 911... (Score:3, Interesting)
The US had basically an Idiot Olympics between the "live free or die" bunch who felt that a law mandating the use of seatbelts in a moving vehicle was an affront to the principles that made America great, since seatbelts weren't mentioned in the Constitution nor the Bill of Rights.
Meanwhile in lane two, we had the social busybodies who figured out that if people were not smart enough to wear a seatbelt, then the car should make them. The Airbag (or passive restraint system or supplementary restraint system) was intended to meet this invented need.
And the car manufacturers looked upon this, and saw that it was good, because they could raise car prices for a government mandated "option". And the children were saved. And the elected officials could say that they had passed law to make Americans safer from their own stupidity.
Of course, the first generation airbags could kill people too. So now we have all kinds of misery about how you must wear a seatbelt in a car with an airbag, because otherwise the airbag will kill you! ?
Re:New product in the works? (Score:2, Interesting)
The problem with most retirements systems on the state level is that the actuaries, if any were ever brought in, failed to see that life spans were becoming longer. This means that the retirement system then turns into a Ponzi Scheme.
What really upsets me is the attitude ot the US PTO. They'll just roll over and patent anything so long as you bury them in enough bullshit.
Re:New product in the works? (Score:2, Interesting)
I worked at a university and if its any insight, how it works is that if you don't spend your entire budget, you get that much less the next year. In most governmental budgets, you're not allowed to keep leftover money into the next year. That's why they go on spending sprees at the end of their fiscal year. Why so many governmental budgets aren't allowed to save money would be an interesting question. It appears to be a near-universal way to do budgets in government.