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New Message on BDOTNET
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From: GreatScorpion75
Message 1 in Discussion
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<st1:place><st1:City>REDMOND</st1:City>,
<st1:State>WA</st1:State></st1:place>--In what
CEO Bill Gates called "an unfortunate but necessary step to protect our
intellectual property from theft and exploitation by competitors," the
Microsoft
Corporation patented the numbers one and zero Monday.
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With the
patent, Microsoft's rivals are prohibited from manufacturing or selling
products
containing zeroes and ones--the mathematical building blocks of all computer
languages and programs--unless a royalty fee of 10 cents per digit used is paid
to the software giant. <o:p></o:p>
"Microsoft has
been using the binary system of ones and zeroes ever since its inception in
1975," Gates told reporters. "For years, in the interest of the overall health
of the computer industry, we permitted the free and unfettered use of our
proprietary numeric systems. However, changing marketplace conditions and the
increasingly predatory practices of certain competitors now leave us with no
choice but to seek compensation for the use of our numerals."
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A number of
major <st1:place>Silicon
Valley</st1:place> players, including Apple Computer,
Netscape and Sun Microsystems, said they will challenge the Microsoft patent as
monopolistic and anti-competitive, claiming that the 10-cent-per-digit
licensing
fee would bankrupt them instantly. <o:p></o:p>
"While,
technically, Java is a complex system of algorithms used to create a
platform-independent programming environment, it is, at its core, just a string
of trillions of ones and zeroes," said Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy,
whose
company created the Java programming environment used in many Internet
applications. "The licensing fees we'd have to pay Microsoft every day would be
approximately 327,000 times the total net worth of this company."
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"If this patent
holds up in federal court, Apple will have no choice but to convert to analog,"
said Apple interim CEO Steve Jobs, "and I have serious doubts whether this
company would be able to remain competitive selling pedal-operated computers
running software off vinyl LPs." <o:p></o:p>
As a result of
the Microsoft patent, many other companies have begun radically revising their
product lines: Database manufacturer Oracle has embarked on a crash program to
develop "an abacus for the next millennium." Novell, whose communications and
networking systems are also subject to Microsoft licensing fees, is working
with
top animal trainers on a chimpanzee-based message-transmission system.
Hewlett-Packard is developing a revolutionary new steam-powered printer.
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Checkout the below
link.<o:p></o:p>
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http://www.ece.villanova.edu/~thanneru/zeroesAndOnes.html
Naveen
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