Microsoft attempts to patent smilies

[ceptimus]

Link

Watch out liv! Microsoft will be laying claim to your hoard!

[livius drusus]

As long as there's a second amendment he best back off. I protect my preciouses.

I read the patent description and didn't really get it, though. Are they talking about some MSN app which would allow people to use their own smilies?

[MonCapitan2002]

It looks like our smilie collection may go the way of the dodo.

[Sauron]

Fuck Microsoft. This is why people hate them. Their chief product is marketing and litigation; software is only an afterthought.

-- Sauron, 13 year veteran of Microsoft

[viscousmemories]

Originally Posted by livius drusus

Are they talking about some MSN app which would allow people to use their own smilies?

They're talking about a new technology they've created (or stolen?) that allows users to convert existing images into emoticons and/or create their own emoticons, then transmit those images via a string of alphanumeric characters in an IM client, to be reconstructed on the other side.

The main gist is that they can't provide every possible emoticon someone might want to use in a palette of graphic images because there are just too many, and sending graphics whole across an IM connection degrades the performance.

In short, the patent appears to cover a proprietary method of creating and transmitting emoticons via an IM client.

[Corona688]

oh man... patented or not, I hope they do a better job of this than MSN did with other custom smileys... my dad thinks he's careful with his computer but given the amount of spyware he installs and the number of "free smileys" he has I think this is a premature conclusion. He has to put periods in odd places to prevent things like the word "mad" turning into an image. Unwary typers find their messages filled with dumb little unintended smileys.

[ChuckF]

Originally Posted by livius drusus

As long as there's a second amendment he best back off. I protect my preciouses.

That's the one about a well-regulated smilitia!