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diegocaleiro comments on The Growth of My Pessimism: Transhumanism, Immortalism, Effective Altruism. - Less Wrong Discussion
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Very sorry about that, I thought he held the patent for some aspect of computers that had become widespread, in the same way Wozniak holds the patent for personal computers. This was incorrect. I'll fix it.
What patent for personal computers does Wozniak hold?
Possibly answering my own question, I see that Woz is sole inventor on a patent with the impressively broad-sounding title "Microcomputer for use with video display", US4136359, and that this fact is remained on in various places on the web. But if you look at the patent's actual claims, it's not so general after all -- they're all about details of controlling the timing of the video signals.
[EDITED to fix an autocorrect typo.]
US Patent No. 4,136,359: "Microcomputer for use with video display"[38]—for which he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. US Patent No. 4,210,959: "Controller for magnetic disc, recorder, or the like"[39] US Patent No. 4,217,604: "Apparatus for digitally controlling PAL color display"[40] US Patent No. 4,278,972: "Digitally-controlled color signal generation means for use with display"[41]
Yeah, as I said above US4136359 is doubtless an excellent patent but it really isn't in any useful sense a patent on the personal computer. It's a patent on a way of getting better raster graphics out of a microcomputer connected to a television.