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Python Trademark Filer Ignorant of Python?
WebMink writes "Is it possible that the CEO of the company that's trying to file a trademark on 'Python' was unaware of Python's importance as a programming technology? That's what he claims — despite running a hosting company that's trying to break into cloud computing, where Python is used extensively. Still, he also regards the Python Software Foundation as a hostile American company and thinks that getting attention from half the world's geeks is a DDoS. From the article: '[The CEO, Tim Poultney,] confirmed that he'd not involved any technical staff in the decisions he'd made about the Python product brand, and told me he regretted that as it would probably have helped him understand the likely reaction to his trademark challenge. ... He said he now understood how offended the global developer community are and told me there was obviously only one outcome that was now possible.'"
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
The article seems to end on a cliffhanger. What outcome is the article writer referring to? There are many that spring to mind.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
If I was registering a new company, the last thing I would want to give my company or servers etc is a name that already pulls up millions of pages in a simple web search.
It just sounds like somebody was clueless and doesn't even know how people find services on the internet these days.
If I had a DeLorean... I would probably only drive it from time to time.
The fact that it uses the largely meaningless and sensationalistic "cloud computing" buzzword also harms its credibility.
That's a hard case to make nowadays, whether we like it or not. Not having heard of Python is ridiculous though.
Suicide would be the only honorable thing to do at this point. By reptilian strangulation would be appropriate.
No kidding. EVERYONE who's ANYONE knows the Cloud run on Ruby.
THL phish sticks
[The CEO, Tim Poultney,] confirmed that he'd not involved any technical staff in the decisions he'd made about the Python product brand
Seriously? I know a lot of CEOs have more branding experience than many developers but making single-minded decisions about your company's future, with no input from those who are likely to be affected most by those decisions, does not sound like the thinking of a leader.
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
Much though I despise the term, "cloud computing" is not meaningless or even sensationalistic, and there are some very big companies who have built their success on cloud computing. It is, perhaps, over-hyped and watered down, and it's undeniably a buzzword. It's also pretty misunderstood, as you yourself are evidence of (the basic concept is simply "hosted computing services"). However, to say you think a company lacks credibility because they speak of cloud computing is, frankly, idiotic.
The first part of your post makes sense, though. I could understand a company that wasn't deeply involved with computer software might not be aware of a programming language, even a common one, although you'd think they might make at least a trivial web search. However, for a software-focused company to be unaware of Python's importance is, frankly, unbelievable. This guy is just trying to pull whatever damage control he can.
There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
seppuku
If didn't know about python, then the company wasn't about computers anyway, probably they assumed that computers were just fancy furniture.
CEO, Tim Poultney: All right, we'll call it a draw.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKhEw7nD9C4
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
Never knock cloud computing. Whilst I am thinking through strategies to crack problems I will often stare at the clouds out my window. This is neither meaningless nor sensationalist.
The nice thing about cloud computing is you can do it anywhere where you have a clear view of the sky. It can sometimes work with just photographs of the sky.
A sig is placed here
To display how futile
English Haiku is
Renaming his company to some unique name that others couldn't possibly have thought of, like oh... Apache, or Turbo Gears
Clearly it would be a big foot coming down from the sky to flatten him.
http://www.rootstrikers.org/
That's what happens when you let the suits run the companies.
Folly is the cloak of knavery
It's what happens when the suits are a clueless new nobility chosen due to who they are related to instead of some proven ability to run a large organisation.
It is the equivalent of knowing how to speak English but being unaware that there is a geographic area called England.
So, a not-so-insignificant portion of America?
I was thinking that he could shorten Pobox Hosting Provider to PHP.
It's not like he hasn't used abbreviations before - the company was formerly known as PIS.
Anyone preparing to start a new company and name it "Perl" ?
Perl can do anything Python can do!
Ironically, you misdescribed cloud computing. It's pay as you go hosted clustered computing services. Each of these things has been around and many combinations of these things have been tried before, and really most scientific computing had become like this before anyone was calling it cloud computing.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Resignation?
Sue EVERYONE, with the inevitable end result of infinite monies forever. Clearly.
who let the CEO of SCO on here.
---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
I'm not so sure about this. If you were running a corporation and only cared about the bottom line, the last thing you'd do is choose a high-risk action like getting into a trademark fight that you're not likely to win because you're trying to steal a trademark from an organization that's been using that same name for a long time and is in wide global usage by an extremely large number of people (developers), and which name is extremely well-known in the It industry. A true smart sociopath would not do such a thing. Only a clueless moron (possibly still a sociopath, but not a smart one), probably one who got his job solely because of his frat-buddy connections, would do something this dumb.
I'd say the fact that he thinks Python-the-language is something American is proof that he's pretty much completely unaware of it. Unless Holland was annexed by the US recently, while I wasn't looking, I think it's Dutch. :)
I work for a company deeply involved with software (us being a web design/hosting company) but that doesn't mean that my boss has any idea of how software or the internet works. He has another (non-tech) company and at some point decided that instead of paying someone to build him a website he'd hire a couple techies and open a web design company, leaving the implementation to us while making all the business decisions.
Yes, that leads to a things like deciding that mobile websites are "a big new thing" (which happened last week) and not understanding responsive design despite us explaining it to him several times. At this point we're implementing responsive design and will be selling it as if it was a separate mobile website (complete with a second contract and everything) because that's easier than convincing the boss that it's just a bit of CSS that we can include and exclude at our convenience. The second contract was a business decision made without any input from the developers and we just have to make it happen.
I'm already looking forward to someone canceling their regular contract but wanting to keep their "mobile website". Bonus points if they expect their "mobile website" to remain at the same domain as their new, externally-hosted website. But hey, mobile websites are the future.
So yeah, cluelessness in your field of business is very much possible and is not antithetical to success.
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)