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http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/28/34148.html
Is this for real?
Cheers, Niall
Hi,
Le Mon, 24 Nov 2003 21:50:29 -0000 "Niall Douglas" s_fsfeurope2@nedprod.com wrote:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/28/34148.html
Is this for real?
I don't know, but at the digital era, every content IS a number (eg a CD is just a number with 650 millions of binary digits). That leads to many roads...
(I replied to this mail already but accidentally sent it to fsfe-ie instead of discussion, apologies to anyone getting this twice)
Beno?t Sibaud benoit.sibaud@wanadoo.fr writes:
"Niall Douglas" s_fsfeurope2@nedprod.com wrote:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/28/34148.html
Is this for real?
I think it's a joke. It's sad that one can't be sure, but a web search for "Dall Swanhuffer" turned up nothing, so I'd guess he's fictional. The claim to patent integers but not floating point numbers, and the "Federation Against Number Theft" also seem too dodgy even for the US.
I don't know, but at the digital era, every content IS a number (eg a CD is just a number with 650 millions of binary digits). That leads to many roads...
yes, but a patent covers an idea, not an implementation. The content of a CD is the work of an author. A CD format could be patented in the US, as could a CD reading or writing technique, but not the content.
-- Ciaran O'Riordan - http://www.compsoc.com/~coriordan/
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On 24 Nov 2003 at 23:41, Benoît Sibaud wrote:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/28/34148.html
Is this for real?
I don't know, but at the digital era, every content IS a number (eg a CD is just a number with 650 millions of binary digits). That leads to many roads...
<wince> what an awful world that would be.
I'm guessing it has to do primarily with encryption and finding large prime numbers. However, if you allow that then what's to stop newly discovered comological constants like planck's constant or the mass or charge of an electron (I don't mean these in particular, but rather new ones discovered - it would have a chilling effect on research).
Do you think it's some form of mass insanity currently going around the US? Let's hope it isn't too contagious and someone finally tells the emporer he's wearing no clothes.
Cheers, Niall