An open source high-performance project I'm working on needs to keep a cache of parsed/compiled files. A plain LRU or a plain LFU wouldn't fit. Plain LRU wouldn't work as there will be remote batch/spider processes hitting the service regularly. Plain LFU wouldn't work because content will age. ARC seems like the perfect solution but sin...
I was planning to use a dock menu similiar in looks and behavior to the Mac OS X dock menu in an application. It seems that apple have patented their dock about a year ago. I've seen some websites that use a similiar dock, the article also lists a few applications that use a similiar style. What is the legal stand of this? Is this a vio...
I wrote an application which automatically generates and updates Word documents. I store information used to update each document in a CustomXmlPart. How will this be affected by Microsoft's settlement with i4i? I have been unable to find technical details about what exactly will be disabled. Also, if it will be affected, what's the be...
Since Microsoft got slammed with the recent i4i patent money grab I have a big concern. My own product in development uses XML in a similar way to the Custom XML feature of Word I am very annoyed that i4i can get a patent for embedding some XML and mapping it, it's just a bit too simple and already common place I am changing anyway. Ma...
Hi Everyone, First of all, I'm sorry that I can't tell many details about my software and sorry if my English is bad. I'm developing an application that makes use of some new technology. Then there is a rival software. I notice that its author has been trying to copy features (with slight difference) from my program, one by one, and sel...
I'm trying to figure out how to build Mono without the patented, non ECMA components, such as Winforms. Miguel de Icaza said that Mono would be split in two, so that we could build only the parts under Microsoft's Community Promise. It doesn't seem like this has happened yet. Is there any way to do this yet? ...
Very interesting finding that a client brought to my attention today regarding javascript style rollover menus. They got a call from their legal dept that they need to change the manner in which their rollover menu is activated (at the risk of having to pay license to continue using the navigation technique). Its no April fools joke, app...
I have an idea for image copy-protection that I'm in the process of coding up and plan on selling to one of my clients who sells images online. If successful I think there would be a lot of people in a similar situation to my client who would be interested in the code also. I think this is a fairly unique idea that could be packaged into...
Let's suppose I want to "protect" this code about being used without attribution, patenting it, or through any open source licence... #include<stdio.h> int main (void) { int version=2; printf("\r\n.Hello world, ver:(%d).", version); return 0; } It's a little obvious or just a language definition example.. When a source ...
A colleague of mine made an assertion that "your employer owns all patents that you file while an employee". Is this accurate? For example: Suppose I'm an employee of company xyz where I make widgets of type "w". In my spare time I make widgets of type "t" as a hobby. I do not use any resources from company xyz at all for my hobby. ...
I was in process of researching web for potential competitors for a software (web site) I was going to start building, when I found that a patent for a similar software already exist in US (US patent). That patent describes a software application which looks pretty similar to what I have envisaged and it also describes the algorithms wh...
Hi, According to http://www.macobserver.com/editorial/2003/03/04.2.shtml Apple has patented pretty much everything related to UI design. I can certainly see so many systems using the same idealogy, so, I wonder what those patents really mean -- aren't they there to stop people from implementing those design ideas? Can someone really pat...
If I develop software as an European company how much do I have to worry about US software patents? ...
I've made this library virtually allowing porting of features of one software language into several others. Obviously, it rides on several past inventions: the library's underlying language, the method/system for allowing different languages to communicate with each other, and possibly others. But what this library does is allow this o...
Hello all, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Font_rasterization Most other systems use the FreeType library, which falls somewhere between Microsoft's and Apple's implementations; it supports hinting and anti-aliasing, and optionally performs subpixel rendering. Due to problems with patent licensing, many binary distributio...
Hello, I'm interested in image recognition. From what I have found I can say that SIFT algorithm is one of the best of the available solutions. However, SIFT is protected with a US patent, so I wonder if I can use this algorithm in my code? I could found many implementation of SIFT, some of them are open source, what makes me think tha...