RE: E-mail Address as Web Page URL

["Chris Tirpak" <ctirpak@kineticsa.com>]

We did the same sort of thing a few years ago with a cgi/perl script on an
intranet although LDAP was not the back end - but LDAP is just another DB in
this example.  There _should_ be nothing patentable about your method as it
uses standard and _obvious_ methods to accomplish your goals.  This is only
one logical step beyond publishing a link to your personal site itself.

It is a useful trick because as you have observed, LDAP is not something
most people need or want to understand.  It's by computer types for computer
types.

Do us all a favor and withdraw your patent application.

Chris

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-openldap-general@OpenLDAP.org
[mailto:owner-openldap-general@OpenLDAP.org]On Behalf Of Darryl Rubarth
Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2001 11:24 AM
To: openldap-general@OpenLDAP.org
Cc: michael@stroeder.com; John Rudd
Subject: RE: E-mail Address as Web Page URL



Wow, that sure got a reaction.  First off, I don't want to be a "polluter of
the software patent pool".  I want to encourage the use of ideas.  I believe
strongly in this.

Something I've always appreciated about this mailing list is the willingness
to help and the encouragement of sharing ideas.  I must apologize for the
tone of my initial message.  After re-reading it, I see that it was counter
to this aspect which I appreciate so much.

Patents certainly do have a purpose in society, but whether or not this idea
should be patented was not what I was trying to discuss.  Frankly, I'm on
the fence.  This groups inputs are certainly valued and will affect which
way to go, if it's patentable at all.

I should have asked some questions, instead of making an announcement.
Okay, so my questions are, (1) has anyone ever considered the value of using
an e-mail address to redirect users to web pages or LDAP URLs?  This seems
valuable since LDAP URLs are especially difficult for users to deal with.
(2) Do people see any value in doing this?  Advantages? Disadvantages?  (3)
What methods (besides the javascript redirect) may be able to accomplish
this.  When I've tried to get the user name from the server side variables,
either I don't know how, or it wasn't available.  Is this possible?

Again, I do apologize for my poor communication style.  Thanks for the
immediate and blunt feedback -- it was deserved!


Darryl

[http://darryl.exyst.net]
[for contact info and more]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-openldap-general@OpenLDAP.org
> [mailto:owner-openldap-general@OpenLDAP.org]On Behalf Of Michael Ströder
> Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2001 9:17 AM
> To: John Rudd
> Cc: darryl@exyst.com; openldap-general@OpenLDAP.org
> Subject: Re: E-mail Address as Web Page URL
>
>
> John Rudd wrote:
> >
> > >The patent process is underway, so please no unauthorized
> > >use of this technology method.
> >
> > Ugh.  Please tell me there's actually some interesting and novel
> > technology behind "web page lookup by email address", and that you're
> > not just another polluter of the software patent pool.  If your patent
> > is just that cheesey (nothing more than  what I quoted), then you're
> > guarenteeing that I'll avoid anything by or about your company like
> > the plague.
>
> That's exactly what I was thinking...
>
> Ciao, Michael.
>