Base-two artihmetic sounds pretty broad. If only you could come up with a scheme for division and multiplication by powers of two through bitshifting.....
On Wed, 26 Nov 2003, Tom Lane wrote: > Randolf Richardson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > >> They've managed to patent ye olde elevator algorithm?? The USPTO really > >> is without a clue, isn't it :-( > > > It's not the USPTO's fault -- the problem is that nobody objected to it > > while it was in the "Patent Pending" state. > > If their examiner had even *minimal* competency in the field, it would > not have gotten to the "Patent Pending" state. Algorithms that are well > documented in the standard textbooks of thirty years ago do not qualify > as something people should have to stand guard against. > > Perhaps I should try to patent base-two arithmetic, and hope no one > notices till it goes through ... certainly the USPTO won't notice ... > > regards, tom lane > > ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- > TIP 3: if posting/reading through Usenet, please send an appropriate > subscribe-nomail command to [EMAIL PROTECTED] so that your > message can get through to the mailing list cleanly > ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 4: Don't 'kill -9' the postmaster