Supreme Court Throws Out Bilski Patent 232
ciaran_o_riordan writes "The US Supreme Court has finally decided the Bilski case (PDF). We've known that Bilski's patent would get thrown out; that was clear from the open mockery from the judges during last November's hearing. The big question is, since rejecting a particular patent requires providing a general test and explaining why this patent fails that test, how broad will their test be? Will it try to kill the plague of software patents? And is their test designed well enough to stand up to the army of patent lawyers who'll be making a science (and a career) of minimizing and circumventing it? The judges have created a new test, so this will take some reading before any degree of victory can be declared. The important part is pages 5-16 of the PDF, which is the majority opinion. The End Software Patents campaign is already analyzing the decision, and collecting other analyses. Some background is available at Late-comers guide: What is Bilski anyway?"
More analysis of the decision is available at Patently-O.
Get Out My Life, Why Don't Cha, Bilski (Score:5, Funny)
Apostrophe's (Score:5, Funny)
Dear Mister Language Person: What is the purpose of the apostrophe?
Answer: The apostrophe is used mainly in hand-lettered small business signs to alert the reader than an "S" is coming up at the end of a word, as in: WE DO NOT EXCEPT PERSONAL CHECK'S, or: SUPREME'S THROW OUT BILSKI PATENT. Another important grammar concept to bear in mind when creating hand- lettered small-business signs is that you should put quotation marks around random words for decoration, as in "TRY" OUR HOT DOG'S, or even TRY "OUR" HOT DOG'S.
-- Dave Barry, "Tips for Writer's"
Come on, guys... (Score:5, Funny)
Supreme's Throw Out Bilski Patent
How many time's [sic] do I have to sic Bob [angryflower.com] on you?
Re:"journalism" (Score:5, Funny)
Slashdot. We Know.
Best. Supreme. Court. Ever. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Best. Supreme. Court. Ever. (Score:3, Funny)
Pardon me, but I believe you accidentally failed to flag your comment as ironic.
Re:Come on, guys... (Score:3, Funny)
I don't read .GIF comics. Please convert your comic to .PNG and resubmit.
Re:Neither funny nor accurate (Score:2, Funny)
Damnit, where's our -1, Humorless or -1, Killjoy moderation option's? We could use them right about now...
Re:Come on, guys... (Score:5, Funny)
I don't read .GIF comics. Please convert your comic to .PNG and resubmit.
Mister Stallman? Is that you?
Re:Fucked-up title (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Apostrophe's (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Apostrophe's (Score:4, Funny)
Funny, but incorrect. The grocer's apostrophe can also be used in the middle of a word if that word was originally a compound; for instance, I once saw a convenience store advertising "NEW'SPAPERS".
Re:Neither funny nor accurate (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Don't let the headline fool you (this IS Slashd (Score:5, Funny)
not necessarily the only possible test (and they don't say what the other tests might include.
You just made all Lisp programmers very, very nervous.
Re:Neither funny nor accurate (Score:5, Funny)
So that's how klingon was invented...
Re:Neither funny nor accurate (Score:4, Funny)
you will find out that even greengrocers' apostrophes are not always wrong: they date from an age when new fruit and vegetables were appearing, and their customer needed to know that there was a difference between potato's and asparagus.
You know, if you cannot tell the difference between potato and asparagus then you might have problems that even an apostrophe cannot solve...
Re:No new test (Score:3, Funny)