Mr. Mosher's claim to fame: As a restaurant owner in New York, he back in the day. He writes:
I have been designing graphic touchscreen widgets, GUIs and touchscreen apps since 1985. I would love to take the stand in defense of any person or company being sued by Apple or by any other company seeking to enforce a touchscreen widget or GUI patent. ... I've never patented anything I've done and the world has been free to copy and innovate with what I have shown to all. That is why, in my opinion, the world is covered with graphic touch-screen systems in restaurants, supermarkets, malls and public places. I didn't become a billionaire, but I did create, freely show, and encourage others to freely copy my achievements. A flood of innovation followed and a massive amount of prior art is in place.
[ Want to cash in on your IT experiences? InfoWorld is looking for stories of an amazing or amusing IT adventure, lesson learned, or war tale from the trenches. Send your story to . If we publish it, we'll keep you anonymous and send you a $50 American Express gift cheque. ]
Memo to HTC: If you want Gene to take the stand on your behalf, you can contact him via his company, .
Cringester T. P. adds:
The best way to keep market share and brand recognition is through innovation, not litigation. Competition should bring out the best in all involved in the game. Perhaps Apple has forgotten it's roots. ... We are a litigious society who would rather sue you for your buck, than go out and make our own. Now I know why technology cost so damn much!
Especially when it comes from Apple (ahem). Finally, Cringe reader John Oram adds that he's on the prior art preceding many of Apple's patents (including that of ViewTouch).
Reader L. C. has a bone to pick with me (and the publishing industry) over whether readers are willing to pay for quality content on a platform like the Apple iPad (). I'm skeptical; L. C. says I'm full of it:
I'm a fairly Internet/computer savvy consumer, and I'd jump at the chance to pay to receive the full-text content of my daily newspaper ... downloaded into my iPod ... But nobody will sell it to me....
Someday, someone is actually going to try selling full-text content online, and they'll get rich (because there are millions of folks like me out there, just waiting to reach for a credit card).
So lose the presses, stop buying paper and ink, stop buying delivery trucks and paying for maintenance and gas. Use the money to hire some copy editors, and cash in on the incredible pent-up demand for full-text content. It's not that hard -- just do it.
Or stop whining.
Wired's Ryan Singel wrote in with a correction to my item on cyber fear-mongering (): Red Bull is not the rocket fuel behind , as I had suggested. He's strictly a Darjeeling Tea kind of guy. He adds that his article was also driven by his "longstanding aversion to [former National Intelligence Director] Michael McConnell's convenient exaggerations."
On that subject, Cringe fan C. W. has this to add:
...as a genuine combat veteran of a real live bullets flying, bombs bursting kind of war, I find all this BS about "war on drugs" or "cyber war" to be faintly amusing and simultaneously somewhat offensive. If your life is not on the line son, it just, is not, a war! SO, as usual a vote for the Cringe viewpoint, it's about the dollar$ $tupid
Finally, a tip of the fedora to reader M. L., who spurred me to write about Newegg and the ridiculous saga about the bogus Intel processors (). It made me take a second look at the story, which got more ridiculous the deeper I dug.
Thanks to everyone in Cringeville who reads, writes, and comments. Keep those e-cards and letters coming.
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