Have Microsoft lost the plot?

... it would appear so.

Although I tend to try and defend most of Microsoft's actions where warranted, I find myself leaning further and further toward recommending everyone ditch Microsoft related software and services, especially when they decide to start making extremely stupid decisions such as this.

Unless I've completely misunderstood, this patent essentially see's Microsoft wanting to CHARGE YOU for the privilege of using YOUR COMPUTER, as if the damn things don't cost enough already. Especially given you've already had to pay Microsoft for the damn operating system (unless you're using Linux, in which case this likely shouldn't matter to you).

I've not gone through the entire patent application yet, so do not know all of the details, but the details I do know scare me. We NEED to stop this. We need to send a message that makes it clear that they cannot be allowed to get away with actions such as this. How do we do this? I've no idea, but firing the patent office an e-mail would be a pretty damn good start.

December 29, 2008 (Computerworld) Microsoft Corp. last week applied for a patent that spells out a "pay as you go" concept under which users would be charged for both the software they run and the computing horsepower they use.

According to the patent application filed last week with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the "Metered Pay-As-You-Go Computing Experience" scheme would meter software use and access to specific computer hardware. Fees would be charged against a prepaid or billed account.

Read the full story:
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9124459&intsrc=hm_list

Kudos to darth over at the Avant Browser forums for the heads up

Image used in this post came from a post on the Nick Dupree blog