On Tuesday 28 August 2007 10:32, you wrote:

quoted text
>There is a bill before Congress now to roll back patent protection,

>notably in the field of software. American users of OpenBSD might

>want to follow this struggle, which is running into massive opposition

>from non-comp-sci patent holders.

Software patents were just a bad idea to begin with. Patenting numbers

and algorithms is ridiculous.
I wish i had a patent on determining the total number of objects in a

set when the numbers of objects in all mutually exclusive subsets of

the set are known [my lame attempt to translate "addition" into

patent-speak]. Imagine how much money i could make if i controlled such

a basic operation! Oh wait, civilization as we know it would never have

been able to develop and instead of working a "civilized" job at a

computer i'd be in out hunting and gathering or (more likely) wouldn't

have been born at all.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dan Ramaley                            Dial Center 118, Drake University

Network Programmer/Analyst             2407 Carpenter Ave

+1 515 271-4540                        Des Moines IA 50311 USA