KGB Report

It's surprising what pops up on Google...

It's U.S. Patent #7,249,057 B2, issued July 24, 2007: "Product Information Supplying Method, Product Information Acquiring Method, Product Information Registering Method And Recording Medium," and the description is equally enlightening:

"There is provided a product information supply method for supplying a user who desires to purchase a product with proper information about a related product that could be bought in combination with the product, so that the user is assisted in purchasing products. Registration of combination information to be supplied to the user is made with a database managed by a service provider server by a person who has bought the above product by means of a registration page so that a lot of combination information is accumulated in the database. The registered information includes not only information specifying a combinable product but also information about the effects of the combination and the ways of using products in combination. The database is searched in response to inquiry information from the user who makes reference to a page of products. Thus, corresponding combination information is extracted from the database and is sent to the user."

I'm no expert in intellectual property law, but- this is something patentable? A database of related products, with the added twist of returning information on "effects of the combination and the ways of using products in combination." You mean like peanut butter and jelly? Gin and tonic? Water and Alka-Seltzer tablets?

Even more puzzling is the reference to one of my old DEC Professional DCL Dialogue columns. It deals with referrals and recommendations for computer hardware and software, but its relevance to this patent eludes me. You can read the column here.

Other stuff that passed across the desktop this week:

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Categories: Cleaning off the desktop, Computers, Holidays, Miscellany, Star Trek, Technology, WTF?

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(Today is also the birthday of James Thurber)

Golda Meir (May 3, 1898 - December 8, 1978) was an Israeli teacher, kibbutznik and politician who became the fourth Prime Minister of Israel. (Click here for full Wikipedia article)

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A leader who doesn't hesitate before he sends his nation into battle is not fit to be a leader.

Ability hits the mark where presumption overshoots and diffidence falls short.

Being seventy is not a sin.

Don't be humble... you're not that great.

Even paranoids have real enemies.

Fashion is an imposition, a rein on freedom.

I must govern the clock, not be governed by it.

Let me tell you something that we Israelis have against Moses. He took us 40 years through the desert in order to bring us to the one spot in the Middle East that has no oil!

Men who have reached and passed forty-five, have a look as if waiting for the secret of the other world, and as if they were perfectly sure of having found out the secret of this.

Not being beautiful was the true blessing. Not being beautiful forced me to develop my inner resources. The pretty girl has a handicap to overcome.

Old age is like a plane flying through a storm. Once you're aboard there's nothing you can do.

One cannot and must not try to erase the past merely because it does not fit the present.

Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us.

There's no difference between one's killing and making decisions that will send others to kill. It's exactly the same thing, or even worse.

Those who don't know how to weep with their whole heart, don't know how to laugh either.

To be or not to be is not a question of compromise. Either you be or you don’t be.

To be successful, a woman has to be much better at her job than a man.

What person with any sense likes himself? I know myself too well to like myself.

Whether women are better than men I cannot say- but I can say they are certainly no worse.

Women's Liberation is just a lot of foolishness. It's the men who are discriminated against. They can't bear children. And no one's likely to do anything about that.

You can get used to anything if you have to, even feeling perpetually guilty.

You'll never find a better sparring partner than adversity.

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Categories: Golda Meir, Quotes of the day

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