From rjriley@rjriley.com  Thu Jun 14 17:52:48 2001
From: rjriley@rjriley.com (Ronald J Riley)
Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2001 12:52:48 -0400
Subject: [Patents] Re: 80,000 signatures
References: <87k82gv5yd.fsf@mulix.oas.a2e.de> <00cd01c0f431$d11baa80$a9b0fea9@flint1.mi.home.com> <3B27AB14.44CA9B7D@realmeasures.dyndns.org> <03af01c0f471$7297b2c0$a9b0fea9@flint1.mi.home.com> <001101c0f4bd$7851d8c0$5038893e@oemcomputer>
Message-ID: <000b01c0f508$b7225d40$a9b0fea9@flint1.mi.home.com>

----- Original Message -----
From: "Nick Fleming" <Nick@bigfatpanda.fsnet.co.uk>
To: "Ronald J Riley" <rjriley@rjriley.com>
Cc: <epo@mlist.austria.eu.net>; <patents@aful.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2001 6:33 AM
Subject: Re: 80,000 signatures


<<Mr Riley,
As a professional software engineer who has to deal with the very
real problems created by the current patent system,  it is abundantly
clear to me that you do not have the slightest idea as to how
 software is actually written. (My apologies if you
do , but it is not apparent to me in your writing).>>

You are dead wrong.  I have programmed with everything from in raw machine
language without the benefit of an assembler to many high level languages.

Since I am preparing for a week long trip I offer the following comments I made
on another forum:

I started programming in seventh grade (1962) on a GE time share system running
ALGOL.  We saved our work on punched paper tape and used an ASR-33 teletype for
IO.

A year or so latter I started playing with analog computers, but found them of
marginal use.

Then I started programming on an IBM 1134 with 16 K of core memory and a 60 meg
hard drive, punched card and selectric IO,  in FORTRAN.

I started my first business in 1970 and a few years later used an Alpha 16 mini
computer in a project.

When the 8008 came out I was building computers from scratch with evaluation
sample components.  I.E, Altair stuff.

And then the 8080.  To be frank both were garbage compared to ...

The 6800 and the even better the 6500.  I built a computer around a KIM, and a
few years later around an AIM65.  I then designed many products with imbedded
micros.

This was about the time I started writing technical articles for the early
newsletters.

Then I started using an Apple II.  I was a diehard Apple fan until they
introduced the Lisa.  They tried to pull an IBM and alienated a ton of people.

At the same time I was using an IBM desktop, models 5100 and 5150.  These were
$20,000 machines that ran at one third the speed of the Apple II.

In the end I shifted to IBM clones.

Over the years, even though I started as a circuit designer, I have programmed
in scores of languages and hundreds of dialects.  And not just computers, but
also CNC and ladder logic.

By the mid 80's Sun Oil recruited me, and my time became far too valuable to do
the actual work anymore.  But I really missed it.  So I left an upper management
position in 1990 to be an independent inventor.

Today I spend as much time on public service and advocacy as I do inventing.  It
does not pay as well but it is fun.

Ronald J. Riley  www.InventorEd.org/





