[plug] No Joke - MS tries to patent the conversion of characters to emoticons

[Richard Meyer]

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/0,39020645,39210396,00.htm


> The patent application, which was published by the US Patent Office on
> Thursday, covers selecting pixels to create an emoticon image,
> assigning a character sequence to these pixels and reconstructing the
> emoticon after transmission.
-- 
Richard Meyer <meyerri at westnet.com.au>
Cutting the space budget really restores my faith in humanity.  It
eliminates dreams, goals, and ideals and lets us get straight to the
business of hate, debauchery, and self-annihilation.
                -- Johnny Hart