As the Apple Turns: Scene 3605: When Harry Met The USPTO (3/4/02)

When Harry Met The USPTO (3/4/02)

Hey, you know how Macs are so elegant and easy to use, they let artists, writers, and musicians reap the benefits of high tech without needing a degree in computer science? Well, good news-- now they're also letting said artists, writers, and musicians get patents on inventions without actually getting their hands dirty at the implementation level. Faithful viewer Mark A. Gangi informs us that Harry Connick, Jr. was just granted U.S. patent number 6,348,648 for "a system and method for coordinating music display among players in an orchestra"-- and according to the New York Times, that system and method is all about Macs.

A few years ago, Connick got fed up with watching sheet music get blown off the stands when his orchestra played in the blustery outdoors. So he signed up David Pogue as his tech consultant, batted around an idea or two, and then rustled up sixteen blue and white Power Mac G3s to serve as electronic music stands and page-turners for his players. Apparently it works like a charm; Connick can upload last-minute changes in the arrangement to everyone's Mac and the new music is immediately available for the whole band to play. And besides the benefit of immediacy, computer displays aren't just more wind-resistant than sheets of paper-- they're also quieter. In studio recordings, it's "no longer necessary to digitally remove the page-turning rustling in the background."

So, yeah, Connick now holds a honest-to-goodness patent on this system, despite the fact that he didn't actually do any of the programming to make it all hang together-- which is actually pretty cool, when you think about it. It's just one more example of the Mac helping to free people of those niggling little details and just get on with the big picture stuff. Now Connick can add Inventor to the rest of his accomplishments: Composer, Singer, Pianist, Actor, and Guy Who Snagged Jill Goodacre.

Interestingly enough, though, Connick originally approached Apple about "helping him develop the system"-- he'd be the idea guy, Apple would serve as the wheel-man, and it would be a match made in heaven, right? Not so. "I thought for sure they would go for it," says Connick, but Apple decided to pass. Perhaps they recognized the danger involved in the project; if you take a quick look at the photo in that NYT article, it just looks like Connick is resting comfortably in a sea of Power Macs. Take a closer look, though, and we think it's pretty clear that the man is at the center of a blue and white feeding frenzy-- seconds after that picture was snapped, those untamed Macs tore him limb from limb. But hey, at least his patent will live on forever. (Or for twenty years. Same difference.) Whaddaya think, is it too soon to make a play for the Widow Goodacre?

SceneLink (3605)

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The above scene was taken from the 3/4/02 episode:

March 4, 2002: Forget that "Not Until April" malarkey; the mid-range iMacs are now shipping (sort of). Meanwhile, a famous musician secures a U.S. patent for a Mac-based electronic sheet music system, and Microsoft insists that if the states' requested sanctions are imposed, it'll be the end of Windows 2000, Windows XP, and all future versions of Windows to come...

Other scenes from that episode:

3604: In Just Under The Wire? (3/4/02) You really have to hand it to Apple: sometimes we wonder if those folks would chew off their own legs to meet a deadline. Remember back in early January when Steve said that the company would ship high-end iMacs by the end of the month, mid-range ones in February, and low-end units in March?...
3606: OS Nazi: "NO XP FOR YOU!!!" (3/4/02) Oh, lordy, it's like some sort of beautiful dream: faithful viewer Jens Baumeister informs us that "Redmond Justice" has just taken a turn for the juicier, as the Washington Post reports that Microsoft's strategy during next week's hearing will be to argue that the sanctions sought by the nine holdout states are so fundamentally crippling, the company "would be forced to pull its latest Windows computer operating systems off the market and be unable to develop new systems."...

Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast...


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