Microsoft Patents Ones, Zeroes | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

Lennart Sorensen lsorense-1wCw9BSqJbv44Nm34jS7GywD8/FfD2ys at public.gmane.org
Tue Nov 18 14:27:06 UTC 2008


On Fri, Nov 14, 2008 at 05:54:51PM -0500, Paul King wrote:
> > http://www.theonion.com/content/node/29130
> > -- 
> 
> They have the best satirists. You have to read all the way to near the end to 
> get this gem:
> 
>     "Because all integers and natural numbers derive from one and zero,
>     Microsoft may, by extension, lay claim to ownership of all mathematics and
>     logic systems, including Euclidean geometry, pulleys and levers, gravity,
>     and the basic Newtonian principles of motion, as well as the concepts of
>     existence and nonexistence," Yale University theoretical mathematics
>     professor J. Edmund Lattimore said. "In other words, pretty much
>     everything." 
> 
>     Lattimore said that the only mathematical constructs of which Microsoft
>     may not be able to claim ownership are infinity and transcendental numbers
>     like pi. Microsoft lawyers are expected to file liens on infinity and pi 
>     this week.

Well cetainly not one of the best pieces the onion has made.  It just
ignores too many things really make sense.  It ignores the whole limited
time of patents, and such, which to me makes it just dumb, not funny.
The onion usually does a lot better than this.

-- 
Len Sorensen
--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists





More information about the Legacy mailing list