Hi Geoffrey, On Tue, 09 Oct 2012 15:02:18 +0200 "Geoffrey S. Mendelson" <geoffreymendel...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Shlomi Fish wrote: > > > One proponent of software patents on this list is Geoffrey, who > > claims it helped protect some obscure startups against people > > copying their ideas. However, given the huge and increasing > > spending on patent litigation, the problem of patent trolls and the > > fact that “In particular, between 1987 and 1994 , software patents > > issuance rose 195%, yet real company funded R&D fell by 21% in > > these (software) industries while rising by 25% in industries in > > general.” (see http://www.dwheeler.com/innovation/innovation.html ). > > Just to amplify that fact, the cost of the computer I used in 1979 to > do operating system development was about $5 million dollars. It was > a dual processor system and on Sunday mornings, I got one of the > processors to myself if I needed it. This was back in the days when > you single stepped an operating system by pushing a button on the > console. > > By 1989, a similar system was about $250,000. > > By 1994, everyone was doing their development on SUN computers at > $10,000 each, or developing for Windows or BSD on 486 and pentium > computers, which sold for $2,000. > > So the cost of development shifted from hardware in the 1970's to > salaries in the 1990's. During which time the salaries in dollars > (not adjusted) doubled. > > Note that in 1979 I did my software development in BAL and PL/I until > around 1991 or 1992, and from there on in C and later in PERL. > Just a note: one should never write perl or Perl in all-capital letters: http://perl-begin.org/learn/Perl-perl-but-not-PERL/ Writing "PERL" is usually an indication that the person does not really know what they are talking about. Regards, Shlomi Fish -- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Shlomi Fish http://www.shlomifish.org/ Parody of "The Fountainhead" - http://shlom.in/towtf Q2: Busy people are unproductive. We are very productive and so we’re never busy. — Star Trek, “We, the Living Dead” by Shlomi Fish Please reply to list if it's a mailing list post - http://shlom.in/reply . _______________________________________________ Linux-il mailing list Linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il http://mailman.cs.huji.ac.il/mailman/listinfo/linux-il
