The Marxist Conspiracy liberates mathematics.

[Audley Strange]

http://www.zdnet.com/new-zealand-bans-s ... 000019955/

Coders of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but technology stifling lawsuits from patent trolls!

[pErvinalia]

software patents one day.... gulags the next. Seth was right all alone.

[Audley Strange]

software patents one day.... gulags the next. Seth was right all alone.

Was that deliberate? Quite funny.

[pErvinalia]

Oops. Not deliberate, but quite an apt mistake.

[klr]

Aptly named Commerce Minister Craig Foss welcomed the modernisation of the patents law, saying it marked a "significant step towards driving innovation in New Zealand".

Unfortunately, it will take more than New Zealand doing this to have a serious impact. At any rate, it's a blunt instrument. There are plenty of scenarios where software should have patent protection.

[klr]

The thread title really ought to be made clearer. I assume it's a reference to this:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013 ... ll-uniloc/

[Audley Strange]

Nah, it shouldn't and nah it was in reference to the article posted.

[klr]

I'll have you know that most programming has little or nothing to do with mathematics - except for logic.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

I'll have you know that most programming has little or nothing to do with mathematics - except for logic.

A fact which I blame for 107% of all bugs.

[klr]

I'll have you know that most programming has little or nothing to do with mathematics - except for logic.

A fact which I blame for 107% of all bugs.

I blame it on overloading [/geek humour]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Function_overloading

And anyway, bugs beget more bugs. Such is life ...

[Seth]

No patents, no profit. No profit, no code. TANSTAAFL.

Imagine:
Windows 7
Windoze 7
Winders 7
Wandoze 7
Winderp 7
Wonduz 7

All based on Microsoft's core code but with different details making each utterly incompatible with the other...and everything else.

Just look at Unix, Apple OS and MINIX, Linux, and BSD descendants (FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, and DragonFly BSD).

Only two of those have any significant market share. The rest are all techno-nerd OS that require substantial computer knowledge just to get them running.

Why should rogue programmers get to profit from the billions of dollars spent by either Microsoft or Apple in creating their systems? And if this notion went worldwide why would Microsoft or Apple even bother?

Then there's cyberwar. If I were Microsoft and I knew someone was ripping off my code I'd develop countermeasures that would do things like wipe the drives of users using my stolen code. Or do what they do now, which is require users to have net access so that the validity of their program can be checked from time to time to make sure it's not pirated.

It's not nearly as simple as the simpletons in NZ think it is. About all they are going to accomplish is to get NZ even more marginalized than it already is. It'll be turned into a North Korean-like pariah state by everybody else.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

No patents, no profit. No profit, no code. TANSTAAFL.

Imagine:
Windows 7
Windoze 7
Winders 7
Wandoze 7
Winderp 7
Wonduz 7

All based on Microsoft's core code but with different details making each utterly incompatible with the other...and everything else.

Just look at Unix, Apple OS and MINIX, Linux, and BSD descendants (FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, and DragonFly BSD).

Only two of those have any significant market share. The rest are all techno-nerd OS that require substantial computer knowledge just to get them running.

Why should rogue programmers get to profit from the billions of dollars spent by either Microsoft or Apple in creating their systems? And if this notion went worldwide why would Microsoft or Apple even bother?

Then there's cyberwar. If I were Microsoft and I knew someone was ripping off my code I'd develop countermeasures that would do things like wipe the drives of users using my stolen code. Or do what they do now, which is require users to have net access so that the validity of their program can be checked from time to time to make sure it's not pirated.

It's not nearly as simple as the simpletons in NZ think it is. About all they are going to accomplish is to get NZ even more marginalized than it already is. It'll be turned into a North Korean-like pariah state by everybody else.

They pass one little law and become North Korea. Seth, you are priceless, Sir!

[klr]

No patents, no profit. No profit, no code. TANSTAAFL.

Imagine:
Windows 7
Windoze 7
Winders 7
Wandoze 7
Winderp 7
Wonduz 7

All based on Microsoft's core code but with different details making each utterly incompatible with the other...and everything else.

Just look at Unix, Apple OS and MINIX, Linux, and BSD descendants (FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, and DragonFly BSD).

Only two of those have any significant market share. The rest are all techno-nerd OS that require substantial computer knowledge just to get them running.

The first statement is correct ... insofar as the traditional desktop/laptop market is concerned. But that is shrinking, both in absolute terms and (especially) in overall terms. Depending on how one counts OS installations across all manner of devices, Linux (including Android) is possibly/probably the most popular OS.

Furthermore, the reason why Windows has dominated the mainstream PC market for so long has less to do with technical excellence, ease of use, etc., and more to do with dodgy business practices by Microsoft.

As for "... requiring substantial computer knowledge ...": I have extensive experience installing, configuring and using operating systems. As things stands, installing most versions of Linux is laughably easy compared to installing Windows 7 or (God forbid) Windows 8. Better still, Linux does not impose restrictions on what other operating systems I can install on my computers. Microsoft goes out of its way to do that.

Also, the supposed lack of standardization that you allude to in Linux does not really exist to the degree that you might perceive. FWIW, it's nearly impossible to find two Windows installations that behave in the exact same way, such are the possible variations in configuration, updates, applications, etc.

Why should rogue programmers get to profit from the billions of dollars spent by either Microsoft or Apple in creating their systems? And if this notion went worldwide why would Microsoft or Apple even bother?

Then there's cyberwar. If I were Microsoft and I knew someone was ripping off my code I'd develop countermeasures that would do things like wipe the drives of users using my stolen code. Or do what they do now, which is require users to have net access so that the validity of their program can be checked from time to time to make sure it's not pirated.

It's not nearly as simple as the simpletons in NZ think it is. About all they are going to accomplish is to get NZ even more marginalized than it already is. It'll be turned into a North Korean-like pariah state by everybody else.

Rant, rant, rant ... You don't seem to get the irony of your posting on a web site which uses free software all the way down.

[Ian]

In Soviet Zealand, CODE programs YOU!

[klr]

In Soviet Zealand, CODE programs YOU!

Let them play Tetris, I say!