...and Vista Ultimate was one of the "best" products that suited your needs?
I'd love to see your 'Microsoft Plus!' collection sometime. I'm sure it's breathtaking.
What about Microshaft BOB?

...and Vista Ultimate was one of the "best" products that suited your needs?
I'd love to see your 'Microsoft Plus!' collection sometime. I'm sure it's breathtaking.
Sorry. Cat's outta the bag. Aldous is an MS employee who admitted to what we've all suspected (and understood as an unwritten truism for years.)
When an MS employee actually comes right out, names the competition, praises them, and then goes on to say how his company was "inspired" by it, you know that the conversation around his company at some point revolved around "how can we rip off OS X without actually getting nailed for it?"
Aldous didn't just make this stuff up and praise Apple out of nowhere. This discourse was going on around MS.
MS' backpedaling on the issue is half-hearted damage-control. Too late.
LOL, "windowsteamblog." Exactly.
Answer: That all depends on whether it would be obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to modify A to produce B. It's a complicated analysis that takes into account many factors, but my gut feel is that this was not obvious, mainly because despite lots of uses of touchscreens before iPhone, no one seems to have done swipe-to-unlock.
Prior art and obviousness are two separate tests. Obviously they are related, but not identical. When might an invention be obvious, yet there be no prior art? For example, maybe it's obvious but another solution is also obvious but also far better. What's the "state of the art" on this question, for a layman?
Furthermore, Vista was released in Jaunary of 07 (with the manufacturers getting it back in Nov. of 06), whereas Leopard wasn't out until October of 07, at least 8 months later.
Not sure what you're getting at, but it's not quite correct. You may be referring to 35 USC 102 and 35 USC 103. 102 is generally called "anticipation," and it means a single other reference or product (*) has all of the elements of the anticipated claim, and the claim is thus invalid. 103 refers to obviousness. Obviousness generally refers to the need to combine multiple references because no single reference contains all of the claim elements. Sometimes you have one reference, but it is missing a few claim elements, but those claim elements would be obvious. But you never have something invalidated for obviousness without referring to prior art.
OK. That was essentially my question. So "obviousness" generally refers to an "obvious" combination of existing references--not an invention that is somehow "generally" obvious which is how many people seem to use it colloquially--whereas a prior-art invalidation rests on a single reference. More or less accurate?
"The typical problem with objects, or object-oriented components, in an operating system is that they don't really speak each other's language -- or more accurately, that they don't have a common language to speak. In Microsoft's COM, still at the heart of Windows, that problem is resolved through the System Registry."
This is correct for the most part in the upper layer of Windows; however, in NT itself there is the IPC and Object Manager, as NT does communicate internally as a object based OS.
Object oriented communication is the hallmark of the NT architecture model and why the CLI Powershell is impressive, as it is the first CLI to be running on a Object Based OS and able to deal with Objects and References directly instead of textual and pipelining communication methods.
Apple is playing with fire with all of this, because if they go after MS or force MS to get involved, MS could destroy virtually every Apple Product with patent infringement and prior art.
Sorry, but even the logic of this guy's statement has issues. Windows 7 is, well, pretty much the same as Vista, in terms of look and feel. It's more stable, and it has some UI tweaks here and there, but who can argue that it is drasticaly different from Vista? Heck, it's so close that you have a ton of reviews saying "this is what Vista should have been."
So if they designed Windows 7 to seem like OSX, that would mean they would have had to have designed Vista to look like it, but that's not what he said. He said they designed Windows 7 to imitate it. Furthermore, Vista was released in Jaunary of 07 (with the manufacturers getting it back in Nov. of 06), whereas Leopard wasn't out until October of 07, at least 8 months later.
Of course, we could go back to Tiger (November 05) or earlier, but then we wouldn't really be dealing with all of the "graphical" stuff that the MS employee was talking about. So there's a serious flaw here in the chronology of it all.
Interesting that you admit Windows 7 is basically a 'fixed' retread of Vista (NT, 2k, XP)...with the exception of a...vastly improved and more functional...bar...along...the bottom of the...screen...
Wait...what?
Oh, and they added a ribbon to 'Paint' and removed the email client, and made the whole OS slightly less obtrusive and obnoxious. Staggering display of innovation.
Well, the reality is that I personally never had a single problem with Vista. Honestly. In almost 2 years I have never seen what anyone has been complaining about, and I do a ton of stuff on the computer, do it all at once, and do it on a relatively low-powered laptop. I can't remember the last time it crashed. It's always operated fine for me. I never had a big problem with the User Account Controls (the "obtrusiveness") because it's without question the best way to secure a system. I've read things from IT Security people who basically say that short of implementing that kind of system, no computer will ever be all that safe. And honestly, clicking on a button when I wanted to change a system setting here and there is just not a big deal!
I think those are probably the kind of "IT Security" people who get paid to say that stuff to fill training room and column inch quotas. Most of the real security folks seem to regard it as theater, with good reason--in nearly every case, the user who doesn't know enough to know better to begin with doesn't know enough to understand or interpret the warning, and just defaults to "get on with it".
Well, the reality is that I personally never had a single problem with Vista. Honestly. In almost 2 years I have never seen what anyone has been complaining about, and I do a ton of stuff on the computer, do it all at once, and do it on a relatively low-powered laptop. I can't remember the last time it crashed. It's always operated fine for me. I never had a big problem with the User Account Controls (the "obtrusiveness") because it's without question the best way to secure a system. I've read things from IT Security people who basically say that short of implementing that kind of system, no computer will ever be all that safe. And honestly, clicking on a button when I wanted to change a system setting here and there is just not a big deal!
Well, the last place I read it was on Bob Cringely's site, and he's not only certainly not a Microsoft fan, but he's also a very well connected journalist who's sources I'd tend to trust very highly.
I can't believe the USPTO issued the 849 patent.
Unlocking A Device By Performing Gestures On An Unlock Image"
The "method" has been used in movies for decades.
On the other hand, how important is what actually happens when someone swipes the finger? In other words, if someone used/patented the swipe to do action "A" can someone realistically have a good claim for patenting swipe for action "B". While locking/unlocking is a somewhat special action but still it's just one action the device can do. Nothing more to it.
Well, the reality is that I personally never had a single problem with Vista. Honestly. In almost 2 years I have never seen what anyone has been complaining about, and I do a ton of stuff on the computer, do it all at once, and do it on a relatively low-powered laptop. I can't
Interesting that you admit Windows 7 is basically a 'fixed' retread of Vista (NT, 2k, XP)...with the exception of a...vastly improved and more functional...bar...along...the bottom of the...screen...
Wait...what?
Oh, and they added a ribbon to 'Paint' and removed the email client, and made the whole OS slightly less obtrusive and obnoxious. Staggering display of innovation.
Vista was nothing more than the bridge to connect Windows XP to Windows 7
Yup. Consumers and the industry at large were all making it up. One big lie. Vista boxes were downgraded to XP in droves just for kicks.
ROFL. Uh-huh. Don't take Vista seriously while you're using it. Who are you that you think your time is so important?? Be more understanding! It's a bridge!!
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One. Last. Time. NOT REAL! Doesn't matter! Come on, people...try.![]()