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50K Linux Man Bites At Merkey.net
magnany writes "In a recent article, former TRG CEO Jeff V. Merkey had offered to pay 50K USD for a BSD-licensed Linux. Groklaw did a followup on his offer, to which Jeff responded by notifying the FBI of Groklaw's 'hate crimes violation.' Merkey doesn't exactly have a great record, either, which is made even more apparent by his recent threats to file suit against Merkey.net for slander and trademark infringement, amongst others. In addition, he has also reported Merkey.net to the FBI's hate crime department. What could Merkey.net do to get Jeff V. Merkey off their backs?"
Offer him 50K USD to make him behave as if he was released under a BSD-license.
I could be wrong. I'm always wrong...
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Where's the BOFH when you need him?
"The mission is to rout [Merkey], to find [him] and bring [him] to justice[...] Or, as I explained to the [people of Slashdot] in Western terms, to smoke [him] out of [his] caves, to get [him] running so we can get [him]."
Thanks George.
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. --Will
And, in unrelated news, /. is being investigated by the FBI's hate crime unit...
Dear slashdot,
I demand you rename your "IT" section reachable from "it.slashdot.org" or I'll sue. I'll kick and scream too. Oh and I'll probably get my friends not to visit
Sincerley,
Ian T. Slashdot.
He's probably looking for a new job.
;-)
Maybe a Slashdot editor?
> Or at least seriously mentally handicapped
The guy was Chief Architect for NetWare, so that much should be obvious.
What could Merkey.net do to get Jeff V. Merkey off their backs?
/etc/mail
assuming sendmail...
# cd
# echo "jmerkey@drdos.com REJECT" >> access
# make
I don't think he understands (or wants to understand) the narrowed definition of the word "hate" in that phrase.
I hope some FBI employee had a good laugh over this one.
I'll pay 500 Convertible Pesos for the latest version of Windows licensed under the GPL
Hey! they say you lose nothing by trying...
You expect a toad-licker, described by a judge as...
and self-claimed medical researcher:
...to write perfect English?
Did I mention he's, apparently, a toad-licker?
Well, aren't they the same? :-p
When we run out of money or when we nationalize and regulate the legal profession?
___
It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
Dear moderator
You left your sense of humor behind this morning. Please remember to pick it up at your earliest convenience
Sincerely,
Ian T. Slashdot.
I am totally and completely outraged and offended by your little remark. We at the Church of Satan have no affiliation with the RNC whatsoever. We're evil, but we're not that evil.
--
What would Bill Clinton do?
You insensitive clod, I'm going to sue you!
stuff
Asphyxiation, then?
=Smidge=
Dear Doctor Markley
I write to you with a proposal of business which will be to our great mutual benefit.
Owing to my 3rd wife who's brother's 2nd wifes uncle is the senior director of the Nigerian copyright office, we are in a special position to secure that which you so desire.
Nigerian copyright is granted to whomever delivers to the copyright repository, a copy of said copyrighed material. In order to ensure the sincerity of the copyright applicant and provide funds for defense of said copyright, this material must be printed, one line only, per each, on $US100 notes.
If you will kindly print your kernel source on $US100 notes (one line per note) and have it delivered to my solicitor, the honorable Snatch deMoni, c/o General Delivery, Canton Georgia, 30357, he will see that your copyright application is filed post with.
In all sincerity and offering the blessings of god, your humble servant
Obi Jones
If this guy has some staying power, he could become the Derek Smart of the Linux community!
If any (and I do mean ANY...I don't care if you're a janitor) of Microsoft's staff read this, then please immediately do the following:-
1. Go to the highest person in the Microsoft heirarchy that you have access to, and persuade them to download a copy of the latest stable version of FreeBSD. I don't care HOW you persuade them, either. Use offers of drugs/various family members/their souls etc as needed. Be creative. This is important.
2. Explain to Jim Allchin and the various other hardcore Windows advocates (or get someone else to, if you don't have access to him) that by making a FreeBSD-derivative core with a Windows shell, he'll actually get to have his cake and eat it too:- The security/stability everyone wants, plus Windows' strengths in the user interface dept.
3. Round up MS's gaggle of programmers and make it happen. Don't get hung up on dumb, overly complex features that nobody needs (like WinFS) at this point. Keep the MS emphasis on user interface, (which we know Microsoft are good at) and backwards compatibility with other Windows versions (Which is half done for you - Go download Wine) and let the BSD peeps handle the nuts and bolts stuff. (which they're scarily good at) Wine is under the GPL, so you'll need to behave yourselves there, but you're in the clear with the BSD license, since without the advertising clause now you can basically do whatever you want with it. For PR bonus points, you MIGHT want to release source of at least some of your modifications as did Apple with OSX...and given Microsoft's image over the last couple of years, it's an idea to meditate on.
Do NOT, under any circumstances, remove/attempt to hide bash access, either. Make it so the newbs don't have to use it, sure...but leave it there for those of us who want it.
4. Profit. Which you will, presumably to an insane degree...because while people who need lots of user-friendliness can still have it, the rest of us poor souls who have to help such people in the face of Microsoft's currently non-existent security model will have our burden considerably lightened. (and thus be far more effective at our jobs) So while the first group will continue to give you money, there's a good chance that the second group might start to enthusiastically do so as well.
Dump the current licensing model, and profit from volume, support, and upgrades. (In terms of the number of people needing to install MS upgrades, you'd probably be a lot smarter charging for those rather than using ugly licenses and then making the upgrades freebies...the current licenses are a PR killer, if nothing else. This'd do wonders for the TCO argument, as well)
5. Due to 4, the company will notice that although its revenue level might initially decrease somewhat, it then stands a much more certain chance of stabilising afterwards. (Linux is causing you to start to lose money now anywayz, and the bleeding is only going to get more rapid if you stay the current course)
Because of this, eventually a realisation might be reached that it is truly unnecessary to continue to try to discredit/outlaw/otherwise neutralise those of us who just happen to like using Linux (which is hell on Microsoft's own image anywayz) especially seeing as there'd be a fair chance that this plan would convert a sizable number of them to the new product anyway. We could call off the entire Linux/MS war...Joe Sixpack would be happy, the CLI/blackbox geeks would be happy, MS would still make lots of money, and the world would keep turning.
Think about it. For the sake of everyone, including yourselves. Please.
In some circles, if you offer 50k for a thing that is worth many many times more, you have a large chance to get killed due to lack of respect... Merkey must considder himself lucky!!
A modest suggestion: Start a dating service for netkooks. It might give them something else to do, and the rest of us can be entertained by the listings: "WM abduction victim seeks Reptoid F for tin-foil B&D. No implants." These's a netkook in SLC Utah who might be perfect for him.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Well this isn't a housing dispute. He'll have to try some other law.
Heh, funny - Slashdot these days seems to block more content than it allows for.
That's what you get for trying to present the figures in an easy to read tabular format. What you should have done is what everyone else does: scatter them throughout a long sputtering diatribe full of misspellings, typos, and bad punctuation; being sure to call everyone else fucktard and asswipe; and ending with a few choice links simply cut-n'-pasted into the body of the message without an [A HREF=] tag so they are not only unclickable, but unpasteable because the "no long lines" filter has put a space in them.
Seems to me the lameness filter is more of a lameness ensurer.
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
Joe Llywelyn Griffith Blakesley
[This post is in the public domain (copyright-free) unless otherwise stated]
God forbid, they might get listed under the ESA, and would be protected, along with their habitat.
Certainly, nobody likes being slandered on the Internet, nor do we like our flaws pointed out publicly. But its something you simply have to deal with.
Honestly, in my hasn't-passed-the-bar psychoanalysis, it seems Merkey is suffering from what a friend who also suffers the same malady called "the CEO's disease." That is, manic/depressive or bipolar disorder, or whatever you wish to call it. I personally dislike that cute title of endearment; my father suffers from the same malady. A closer description would be the "white collar felon's disease." Untreated, its a dangerous mix of activity, enthusiasm and an absolute void of self-doubt or concern. Fortunately these things are easily medicated once recognized. A few doses of lithium salts appears to do the trick, for reasons unknown.
Unfortnately, part of being maniacal is not taking these pills. The path they lead until their own neurochemical system comes back to earth is often twisted and dangerous. Its hard to call them liars, but if you've ever met someone unmedicated in society during this state, the word optimistic is wholly inadequate to describe their worldview. What this man needs is help, before the hole he's digging becomes his grave.
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