[svlug] Wheel Mouse Optical... Evil?

[Rafael]

On Sun, Jan 06, 2002 at 03:26:53PM -0800, Jeffrey Siegal wrote:
> Rafael wrote:
> > > invention in the general field described in the title and summary, but
> > > some sort of invention.  Some of the patants may be invalid, but it is
> > > unlikely that they all are.

Either they are valid or they are not. Unless somebody challenged them 
then the patents are valid. Such a vague statement is silly in the first 
place.

> > 
> > I never claimed that all are invalid.
> 
> Thank you.  In that case, you must have been talking out of your ass
> when you claimed that they have never invented anything.

I'm glad we have a resident word counter and expert on patents to
interpret them for us. It's not uncommon to see people using personal
attacks to argue their mostly likely loosing side.

> 
> > Something like I had to do with a hard drive bracket, drill 4 holes, in
> > order to install the drives (bought at Fry's) in Dell computer because
> > original; brackets don't have mounting holes. Perhaps I should patent that
> > innovation :-)
> 
> It is likely that drilling holes to fit other holes is both obvious and
> not novel, so it can't be patented. If, however, you came up with some
> clever way of drilling the very same holes more efficiently, accurately,
> etc., that might well be a legitimate invention that is patentable.  It
> doesn't take much.  On the other hand, most patents are not worth much. 
> But they're still inventions.
> > OK, I repeat once more: they did not invent much
> 
> That's not repeating.  That is effectively a ratraction of your earlier
> statement that they have not invented anything.  Thank you very much.

OK, so they did not invent anything important. You failed to produce one
piece of evidence of "great MS invention" to make me think otherwise. From
a minor generic side comment I made you managed to thread into personal
attacks. Not inventive, has been done before.

> > - innovate, [L. innovatus, to renew, to alter, to remodel], to change or
> > alter, to introduce novelties.
> > 
> > - invent, [L. inventio, a discovery, to come upon, discover], to think up,
> > ingenuity.
> > 
> > There is a difference and I go by those definitions representing 2 levels
> > of coming up with (new) ideas.
> 
> There is a difference, but you have misinterpreted a difference in
> definition as meaning that the two categories are distinct.  They are
> not.  By your definitions, something that is thought up as a way of
> changing something is an innovation that is also an invention.

Whatever. Your patently silly mousing with words is tiresome but I'm glad
you made it clear to everybody worldwide. Just fix the Webster's too.

Amen,

-- 
Rafael