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Comment by unwind | Hacker News Reader

I feel somewhat silly after seeing the landing page, and realizing it's about a new physical pocket calculator (a product category I didn't think received all that much attention), I still clicked the calculator in the image, thinking it might have a web simulator.

Which it doesn't, and then I thought "meh". It's truly easy to be spoilt by this clicky-shiny web thing.

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and they have a patent for this one http://www.google.com/patents/US6820800

An electronic calculator having means for enabling a user to input a calculation, characterized in that the calculator has a mode of operation in which the user is required to input additionally at least one estimate of the result of the calculation before the correct result of the calculation is displayed.

Has it any chance of standing in court ? I mean it's as close to patent for idea as it gets. I hope there will be movement of not buying things manufactured by companies filling silly patents. I feel it's my duty to ignore this company after reading it.

The patents I find offensive are the ones held by companies that aren't producing any products, much less a product similar to what's described in a given patent.

I mean it's as close to patent for idea as it gets.

Patents are intended to be for inventions, and this feels like it qualifies.

No, this is pretty far from a patent for a general idea. I mean, how much more specifically do you think they could describe the method, and would it really add anything in your estimation?

I feel it's my duty to ignore this company after reading it

That's nice, but you haven't any understanding of what a patent actually is. It is not an idea, any more than the title of a book is a story. It is an implementation. In the case of Qama, the clever bit is scaling the estimation tolerance with the difficulty of the calculation.

It seems that maths isn't the only area that needs education.

I was disappointed - surely a live web version would be easy to mock up, and give a good feel for how things work?

This wouldn't need to give away any details - if need be, just have 10 example calcs with the tolerance hard-coded.

http://sat.collegeboard.org/register/sat-test-day-checklist#...

Using this on the SATs would be one of dumbest moves ever.

...was a reply to the question of a viable market for physical calculators: there is one.

There's a viable market for them far outside schools and exams - they just don't often receive attention when it comes to innovation.

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