Re: mew + gnus + namazu

Re: mew + gnus + namazu

[Jesper Harder]

Per Abrahamsen <abraham@dina.kvl.dk> writes:

> Chris Beggy <chrisb@kippona.com> writes:
>
>> The feature of mew which makes my mail handling easier is the ability
>> to auto-suggest folders based on my past mail handling habits, which
>> mew is recording.  It is possible, but there is no need to edit a
>> list of rules for folder suggestion.  This behavior is called refile
>> guessing, and is created by mew-refile-guess-* functions and
>> variables.
>
> Gnus really ought to get something similar.
>
> Unfortunately, we can't just steal the code, as it isn't assigned to
> the FSF.

It's even more unfornate that IBM is applying for a patent, which might
cover this feature (IANAL):

,----
| SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
| 
| [0020] The present invention is a method for assisting a user with the
| task of identifying and carrying out an appropriate labeling of an
| electronic document such as electronic mail, a news group article, web
| pages or non-textual electronic documents such as images, video clips
| and audio clips.
| 
| [0021] The method of the present invention includes the steps of
| training a text classifier on the user's existing labeled collection of
| documents, running the classifier on newly received documents, using the
| classification results to identify the most likely labels and presenting
| the set of possible labels to the user in a way that accentuates the
| most likely labels. The method further includes the step of updating the
| classifier as documents continue to be stored and labeled.
| 
| [0022] In one embodiment of the invention, the method is imbedded in an
| electronic mail application and assists users in organizing their mail
| in separate folders. In a second embodiment, the method is imbedded in a
| Web browser for the purpose of assisting users in organizing their
| bookmarks (pointers to web pages).
`----

<http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=/netahtml/PTO/search-adv.html&r=1&p=1&f=G&l=50&d=PG01&S1=061706.APN.&OS=apn/061706&RS=APN/061706>

Does anybody know how long Mew has had this feature?  Maybe it's prior
art.

Re: mew + gnus + namazu

[A. L. Meyers]

Jesper Harder <harder@myrealbox.com> writes:

> Per Abrahamsen <abraham@dina.kvl.dk> writes:
>
>> Chris Beggy <chrisb@kippona.com> writes:
>>
>>> The feature of mew which makes my mail handling easier is the ability
>>> to auto-suggest folders based on my past mail handling habits, which
>>> mew is recording.  It is possible, but there is no need to edit a
>>> list of rules for folder suggestion.  This behavior is called refile
>>> guessing, and is created by mew-refile-guess-* functions and
>>> variables.
>>
>> Gnus really ought to get something similar.
>>
>> Unfortunately, we can't just steal the code, as it isn't assigned to
>> the FSF.
>
> It's even more unfornate that IBM is applying for a patent, which might
> cover this feature (IANAL):
>
> ,----
> | SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
> | 
> | [0020] The present invention is a method for assisting a user with the
> | task of identifying and carrying out an appropriate labeling of an
> | electronic document such as electronic mail, a news group article, web
> | pages or non-textual electronic documents such as images, video clips
> | and audio clips.
> | 
> | [0021] The method of the present invention includes the steps of
> | training a text classifier on the user's existing labeled collection of
> | documents, running the classifier on newly received documents, using the
> | classification results to identify the most likely labels and presenting
> | the set of possible labels to the user in a way that accentuates the
> | most likely labels. The method further includes the step of updating the
> | classifier as documents continue to be stored and labeled.
> | 
> | [0022] In one embodiment of the invention, the method is imbedded in an
> | electronic mail application and assists users in organizing their mail
> | in separate folders. In a second embodiment, the method is imbedded in a
> | Web browser for the purpose of assisting users in organizing their
> | bookmarks (pointers to web pages).
> `----
>
> <http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=/netahtml/PTO/search-adv.html&r=1&p=1&f=G&l=50&d=PG01&S1=061706.APN.&OS=apn/061706&RS=APN/061706>
>
> Does anybody know how long Mew has had this feature?  Maybe it's prior
> art.

Jesper, hope some of the mew people have read this and will see if they
have already GPL'ed the code for this feature. Maybe then they could
get IBM to desist or stop IBM's patent effort.

If you are familiar with mew's communication channels, you might want
to send them a wake-up message. ;-)

BTW do you use mew instead of gnus or in some combination or separately?

Lucien
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Re: mew + gnus + namazu

[Chris Beggy]

Here's a reply from one of the mew developers.

Chris

----

On 01 Jun 2002, Tatsuya Kinoshita <tats@iris.ne.jp> wrote: 

> In message [mew-int 00881], on Fri, 31 May 2002,
> Chris Beggy <chrisb@kippona.com> wrote:
> 
> > Jesper Harder copied me on this.  I'd like to make mew users and
> > developers aware of this IBM patent.
> 
> > >> <http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=/netahtml/PTO/search-adv.html&r=1&p=1&f=G&l=50&d=PG01&S1=061706.APN.&OS=apn/061706&RS=APN/061706>
> > >>
> > >> Does anybody know how long Mew has had this feature?  Maybe it's prior
> > >> art.
> 
> On June 7, 1996, Mew 1.06 (ftp://ftp.mew.org/pub/Mew/old/mew-1.06.tar.gz)
> was released under the GNU GPL version 2.  It has the refile-guess feature.
> (Maybe Mew 0.x (on 1994) supports this feature already.)
> 
> IBM's patent was filed on April 17, 1998.
> 
> So Mew's one is prior art, I think.
> 
> > Also, I'll correct him on the nature of mew's license.
> 
> Mew's license was changed from the GNU GPL to the BSD style license.
> 
> Mew 1.93pre1 or later version is released under the modified
> BSD style license.  It doesn't have the advertising clause.  So
> it's compatible with the GNU GPL.
> 
> -- 
> Tatsuya Kinoshita

Re: mew + gnus + namazu

[A. L. Meyers]

Jesper Harder <harder@myrealbox.com> writes:

> Chris Beggy <chrisb@kippona.com> writes:
>
>> Here's a reply from one of the mew developers.
>>
>>> On June 7, 1996, Mew 1.06
>>> (ftp://ftp.mew.org/pub/Mew/old/mew-1.06.tar.gz) was released under
>>> the GNU GPL version 2.  It has the refile-guess feature.  (Maybe Mew
>>> 0.x (on 1994) supports this feature already.)
>>> 
>>> IBM's patent was filed on April 17, 1998.
>>> 
>>> So Mew's one is prior art, I think.
>
> Excellent!  I suppose the Mew developers really ought to file a
> complaint about prior art to the USPTO -- I doubt they'll discover it
> if they're left to their own devices :-(

FWIW IMHO we should encourage Mew developers to become active on this issue.
Even if IBM is helping open source development, "refile-guess" is too
significant to allow it to be swallowed by non-GPLers.

Lucien
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