galenward

Those who subscribe to the "startup CEOs shouldn't debate with or mentor others" mantra will miss out on working with some of the greatest CEOs in the world.

Josh, you're right - that's why it isn't possible right now. I put that we need a simpler, cheaper way to invalidate patents before a patent-killing x-prize is possible in the post, but maybe not clearly or loudly enough.

I like the use / active-pursue requirement except it seems nearly impossible to enforce. A patent troll could easily spend money to look like they're trying to use a patent.

Interesting!

Granted patents aren't re-reviewed, so someone would have to cough up a few tens of thousands of dollars to do anything with submissions on granted patents.

Is the concept that people are contributing evidence to be used should someone challenge the patent?

Ask Patents is for stopping patents from being granted. I'm suggesting a way to kill patents that are already granted + monetary incentives for the worst / most expensive offenders.

My argument is based on the premise that most software patents are bad for our economy.

Amazon's One-Click patent is a perfect example. Amazon would have developed one-click whether or not it was patentable. By granting the patent, we granted Amazon a monopoly and didn't get anything in return.

I LOVE the shorter patent idea - particularly for software patents. It wouldn't work for pharma, but that's okay.

The problem with this - at least as I understand it - is that patent trolls make a lot from patents on a one-by-one basis - much more than companies want to pay or feel is affordable.

Well said: I too would rather do that than the usual marketing driven thing of wearing a ribbon.

I don't think curing cancer makes much sense in the Kickstarter sense: 1. It is enormously expensive - curing a form of cancer costs well into the millions. So it wouldn't get funded. 2. There are loads of funding sources out there already. 3. "Curing" is actually very difficult to define. Most cancer treatments reduce and you'd need a bunch of expensive studies just to determine if the metric was met if it was anything short of "cured."

That said, it might work on a limited basis if you applied an X-Prize to certain forms of cancer. It could mobilize people to really focus on certain types of cancer and specific goals.

We have an engineer whose name is "john; drop table users." Man does he wreak havoc.

"Google just launched an Evernote killer" is a particularly inflammatory title for Hacker News. Almost all "killers" end up being competitors and more often than not "killers" never beat the product they're trying to kill in terms of userbase and revenues.

"Evernote competitor" seems much more appropriate unless there is clear evidence that Evernote is going to die as a result of Google Keep's release.

"Mystery Meat Navigation" is a very good description of what makes Windows 8 a frustrating first time experience, is the synopsis of all the complaints about it, and is why Windows 8 is going to be a slow sell for the first 6-12 months.

After 3-5 hours, Windows 8 is surprisingly decent, but the first hour is a super frustrating adventure of swiping and gesturing with the hope you can get back to the home screen.