Knowing what to pay attention to

One of the things that this blog is going to look at is times when other people out there just don’t get it.  Case in point:

Microsoft Patents “Pg Up” and “Pg Dn”

I ran across this post on Slashdot, and it immediately drove me nuts:

An anonymous reader notes that Microsoft has been granted a patent on “Page Up” and “Page Down” keystrokes. The article links an image of an IBM PC keyboard from 1981 with such keys in evidence.

Seriously? That sounds like a dumb move by the Patent Office. And, of course, such stories spawn all sorts of comments about patents being evil, and how patent reform must happen NOW or else all innovation will cease and Western Civilization will grind to a halt, yadda, yadda.

Of course, it’s not true.