OT: patenting an old year/date concept, to make millions

From: Lawrence LeMay <lemay_at_cs.umn.edu>
Date: Fri Nov 12 22:17:14 1999

>
> >Check outghis article, it appears that somone recently patented the
> >idea of using a pivot date, such as 30, and having the computer
> >consider numbers below that pivot point as being in the year 20??, ie
> >as being from 2000 - 2029. and he's trying to force companies that
> >used that programming technique to fix their Y2K problems, to pay him
> >millions. 70% of companies supposedly use that concept.
>
> Just another argument for me to believe that no individual programming
> techniques should be patentable, only total products... How many of
> us have used that technique for years for things even before Y2K was
> an issue?!
>
> Megan Gentry
> Former RT-11 Developer

Well, just as long as you give me a chance to patent MY great idea.
I figured out a great way to fix many problems due to using non
initialized variables in programs, by adding a statement similar
to: variable = 0. And i've worked out techniques to initialize
variables to values of 1, 2, and 3 as well. I believe further
research will make more values possible, but of course i maintain
that these future developments would all be covered by my patent idea...

-Lawrence (future billionaire) LeMay
Received on Fri Nov 12 1999 - 22:17:14 GMT