Microsoft Wants Patent For Inserting User IDs In Filename
from the patents-patents-patents dept
theodp writes "In its just-published patent application for late-binding/dynamic pathname resolution, Microsoft explains that this invention allows a filename containing a variable such as '@username' to map to completely different files depending on which user is logged on. Microsoft explains to the USPTO that such a mechanism 'has, until now, eluded those skilled in the art,' and its absence has 'plagued computer system users and designers for some time.' "
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This is the same as mail-merge
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Microsoft's patent seems to be copying this.
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No Subject Given
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GFS
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Automounter
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ClearCase
In ClearCase, one can append '@@' followed by all manner of arcane data to the end of a filename to select a specific version of the file's contents, and this has worked for at least a decade.
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Prior art?
Isn't this accomplished with users have different /home directories in Unix? Or "chroot"?
Or how about the "user home directory" in Windows networking? Or using the environment variable %USERNAME% in the pathname? (After all, the Windows registry has many references to pathnames containing %SYSTEMROOT%, so it would work with %USERNAME% too.)
Again, maybe I'm missing something, but this hardly sounds like something that "until now, eluded those skilled in the art."
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What are they doing?
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