Authored by: RMAC9.5 on Friday, April 12 2013 @ 01:25 PM EDT |
This technique (saving a history list of previously entered data for possible
future use) has been used since I began programming on IBM mainframe
computers in 1975! My head hurts, and like PJ, my mind can't get past the
"they got a patent on that!".
Here, for what it might be worth, is a
specific example of prior art. In 1992, I started using (and still use)
MoneyCounts, a DOS based check balancing/accounting program, that keeps a
history list of every payee that I have ever written a check to. It pops
up a previous payee for each character that I type on the payee line and allows
me to scroll through my payee history list by pressing the Page Up and Page Down
keys. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: lnuss on Friday, April 12 2013 @ 03:10 PM EDT |
I currently use this "choose from a list" mechanism in several
different ways in Firefox (search window, many styles of forms, etc.). I've seen
this function so many times over the years, in so many ways, that I can't
envision it being patentable material.
I even wrote (in C) something similar (probably not identical) in the '80s as
part of a trouble ticket program I wrote for our support group within AT&T.
Unfortunately, I doubt that either the program or the source code are available
now, since the code was owned by AT&T, the systems we used it on are long
since scrapped, and there is certainly no external publishing that ever
happened.
---
Larry N.[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, April 13 2013 @ 01:40 AM EDT |
How many times have you wished it did not suggest to you,
depending on who else is also watching the screen?
This would have to be the original user tracking mechanism.
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Authored by: MadTom1999 on Saturday, April 13 2013 @ 08:18 AM EDT |
ISTR using this in the office functions on VAX VMS on an 780 in 1985 ish on a
vt100 and nearly wetting myself with glee until I got a few hundred entries in
it...[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, April 13 2013 @ 12:24 PM EDT |
In my work its "shall" or "may". One is compulsory, the
other is permissive, and sometimes the difference can be crucial.
But in my work, the situation requires the language; i.e. one of those words
MUST be present. Here, its Samsung's legal team throwing dookey to the wind to
see what sticks where. To the patent, the sentence in question is almost an
aside... 'oh, by the way, once its on the list, other apps can use it...' If
that sentence is removed, little or nothing is changed.
Samsung is making a mountainous huffing and puffing, but they are arguing
against the plain language (remember how that worked for SCO) of the patent, and
I predict the molehill will be ignored.
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Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, April 13 2013 @ 05:08 PM EDT |
Best waitress I knew asked that of patrons, the third time they were in the
establishment she worked at, if she hadn't served them at previous
establishments. If she had served them at previous establishments, they might
get that question the first time they were in the establishment she was working
at. More often than not, people didn't realize that they had a
"usual".[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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