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Paul's Pontifications
Personal blog · paulspontifications.blogspot.comeconomicsprogrammingpolitics
Paul's Pontifications is a personal blog at paulspontifications.blogspot.com about economics, programming and politics. Since 2007, 15 different Hacker News readers have linked it 16 times, most often “Patent 5,893,120 reduced to mathematical formulae”. The last post was in 2020, but the archive is still widely read.
Too few sampled comments (4) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link this blog for its argument that software patents are patents on mathematics, including a breakdown of a specific patent (5,893,120) reduced to mathematical formulae.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 4 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Random musings on politics, economics and software
Most-linked posts?
- Patent 5,893,120 reduced to mathematical formulae4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2011-04-30
- When Haskell is Faster than C2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-01-18
- Why the banks collapsed and how a paper on Haskell can help next time2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2008-09-29
What Hacker News says?
As far as I can tell all software patents are patents on math. Here is one example of a software patent reduced to mathematics and logic the extends it to all software patents: http://paulspontifications.blogspot.com/2011/04/patent-58931...
Comment linking /2011/04/patent-5893120-reduced-to-mathematical.html
on “When patents attack Android”Submitted Patent 5,893,120 reduced to mathematical formulae as a story · 177 points
HN discussion'Patent 5,893,120 reduced to mathematical formulae': http://paulspontifications.blogspot.com/2011/04/patent-58931...
Comment linking /2011/04/patent-5893120-reduced-to-mathematical.html
on “White House responds to Patent Petition”Submitted When Haskell is Faster than C as a story · 93 points
HN discussionYes. It makes composing larger programs out of smaller programs easier. Especially if functions have to be real mathematical functions, and can't have any side-effects. "Composability means that you can put two bits of code together and important correctness properties will be preserved automatically. This does not mean, of course, that the composition is automatically correct in a wider sense, but it does mean that…
Comment linking /2007/09/composability-and-productivity.html
on “Ask HN: Advantages of immutable variables besides concurrency”Submitted When Haskell is Faster than C (2013) as a story · 69 points
HN discussionhttp://www.google.com/patents?q=online+payment&btnG=Sear... Pretty much all of these are idiotic. See also: http://paulspontifications.blogspot.com/2011/04/patent-58931... Software patents are stupid because you're trying to patent A WAY OF DOING SOMETHING and not A PRODUCT, even if said product is built from ways of doing something. Example: I patent "A method for storing data on physical storage using blocks" and…
Comment linking /2011/04/patent-5893120-reduced-to-mathematical.html
on “Poll: Do you support software patents?”Submitted An Under-Appreciated Fact: We Don't Know How We Program as a story · 33 points
HN discussionSubmitted Is Functional Programming the new Python? as a story · 19 points
HN discussionSubmitted Bilski says software is not patentable as a story · 7 points
HN discussionSubmitted Software has CivEng Envy as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Do software developers have a fiduciary duty to users? as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Why the banks collapsed and how a paper on Haskell can help next time as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Managing Risks in Company IT as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Why the banks collapsed and how a paper on Haskell can help stop it happening next time as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Disruptive Innovation and Walmart Linux as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
