6 ms·

I love the fact that he has his own mailing list instead of a blog. The internet continues to surprise me every day.

by _debug_ 15y ago

joeyh 15y ago
The reason it's a mailing list: http://lists.canonical.org/pipermail/kragen-tol/2010-March/000910.html http://lists.canonical.org/pipermail/kragen-tol/2010-March/0... Also touches on the discoverability problems with using mailing lists like this. I wish I'd been reading this list thirteen years ago when it was started.
- LiveTheDream 15y ago
  One of the reasons is: > I want my list mail to serve as prior art to stop obvious patents from being granted, or to revoke them or the obvious claims in them in court Do discussions of ideas really count as prior art, or must there also be at least an effort of implementation ("reduction to practice" according to wikipedia[1])? [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prior_art http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prior_art
  - kragen 15y ago
    In theory, yes; if the invention is "known or used by others in this country [the US]" prior to the date of the invention by the patenting inventor, it counts as prior art. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/usc_sec_35_00000102----000-.html http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/usc_sec_35_00000102----000... It's tricky, though, because that's the invention date, not the filing date, and the "inventor" could lie about the date of the invention. The safest approach is to publish my ideas in print in a foreign country, ideally in a small print run in a language spoken by nobody at Intellectual Ventures, and then wait a year before posting to the list. Prior art does not have to include a reduction to practice; conception of the invention is sufficient. Lore has it that Charles Hall's waterbed patent was narrowed substantially by a reference to Stranger in a Strange Land, which described waterbeds.
    - AppSec 15y ago
      Serious question, not meant to infer anything -- but if you used a centralized server for your blog, wouldn't the date/time stamp of that server provide the same information as a mail server would? In other words: wouldn't that file/database entry timestamp (ie: wordpress' time -- just an example/name of a blog not necessarily available at that time) serve the same purpose?
      - kragen 15y ago
        Yes — but if an evil person were running a blog like that, they could write posts about other people's inventions and put fake old dates on them. They could also fake the timestamps added by their mail server, but not the timestamps added by the mail servers of their subscribers. So the timestamp wouldn't have as much legal weight.
- kragen 15y ago
  > I wish I'd been reading this list thirteen years ago when it was started. Thank you; that's a wonderful compliment.

I love the fact that he has his own mailing list instead of a blog. The internet continues to surprise me every day.

by _debug_ 15y ago

I love the fact that he has his own mailing list instead of a blog. The internet continues to surprise me every day.

joeyh 15y ago

The reason it's a mailing list: http://lists.canonical.org/pipermail/kragen-tol/2010-March/000910.html http://lists.canonical.org/pipermail/kragen-tol/2010-March/0... Also touches on the discoverability problems with using mailing lists like this. I wish I'd been reading this list thirteen years ago when it was started.

LiveTheDream 15y ago
One of the reasons is: > I want my list mail to serve as prior art to stop obvious patents from being granted, or to revoke them or the obvious claims in them in court Do discussions of ideas really count as prior art, or must there also be at least an effort of implementation ("reduction to practice" according to wikipedia[1])? [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prior_art http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prior_art
- kragen 15y ago
  In theory, yes; if the invention is "known or used by others in this country [the US]" prior to the date of the invention by the patenting inventor, it counts as prior art. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/usc_sec_35_00000102----000-.html http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/usc_sec_35_00000102----000... It's tricky, though, because that's the invention date, not the filing date, and the "inventor" could lie about the date of the invention. The safest approach is to publish my ideas in print in a foreign country, ideally in a small print run in a language spoken by nobody at Intellectual Ventures, and then wait a year before posting to the list. Prior art does not have to include a reduction to practice; conception of the invention is sufficient. Lore has it that Charles Hall's waterbed patent was narrowed substantially by a reference to Stranger in a Strange Land, which described waterbeds.
  - AppSec 15y ago
    Serious question, not meant to infer anything -- but if you used a centralized server for your blog, wouldn't the date/time stamp of that server provide the same information as a mail server would? In other words: wouldn't that file/database entry timestamp (ie: wordpress' time -- just an example/name of a blog not necessarily available at that time) serve the same purpose?
    - kragen 15y ago
      Yes — but if an evil person were running a blog like that, they could write posts about other people's inventions and put fake old dates on them. They could also fake the timestamps added by their mail server, but not the timestamps added by the mail servers of their subscribers. So the timestamp wouldn't have as much legal weight.
kragen 15y ago
> I wish I'd been reading this list thirteen years ago when it was started. Thank you; that's a wonderful compliment.