In theory I agree. But can you afford the lawsuit if the fine folks at Nikon decide to use you as a scapegoat and a shiny example? As a private individual you have no chance in hell of ever sustaining such a lawsuit; specifically in the good ol' US.
Alternately, if all of this is too much bother, and the whole concept offends you, don't buy Nikon.
I totally agree and I will never buy a Nikon product after them pulling off that stunt. In fact I'm so pissed (as a non Nikon-owner) that I just might send a nice, polite letter to the local country office informing them about my decision.
No question, Adobe are a bunch of whining hypocrites.
This doesn't discount Nikon - whoms rebuttal I thought was a larffin' riot! - from fucking their customers over left, right and central.
My easy solution: I will never buy from either of those companies. Thankfully I'm not in the design field and the Gimp works just fine for what I ever need to do with digital imgaes.
That's precisely the attitude of Hollands law enforcement. Opposite to popular believe Marijuana is not a legal substance in the Netherlands. The "Opportunitsprinizp" however allows cops and DAs some leeway in which crimes are prosecuted.
They rather save resources for more serious crimes then pot smoking youngsters; or even - adults, come to think of it.
Can someone in this fine, family type forum please assure me that I'm not in the Twilight Zone?
Nikon, to the best of my understanding, is a camera manufacturer. I have no clue if they do stuff in the whiz-bang imaging market, like Kodak, or Agfa, but it would seem that their business model depends on selling cameras, lenses and other nice gizmos, ideally loads of them.
Assume I'm a Fotografer. Since the times of silver plates and baryt paper (which sure as hell still has it's niche, but I digress) seem somewhat outdated I like to process my digital images with what can be considered the major photo processing application; pretty much the standard in my trade.
And the good burgers from Nikon intend to prevent direct access to crucial parts of the raw data of my images?
Ah hell, I think this can be forgiven, especially after you clarified your point.
From what I know about the whole sordid affair, you are correct at that. Even though I can appreciate making an ass of yourself (in case of Linus' behaviour) in order to back a lifelong friend.
For me it doesn't to a dent in the respect I have for Linus' achievements. Even though I agree with Bruce' stance (and with all the data I am given). He might be an idiot in this specific regard. We are all idiots on occasion and being so much in the spotlight makes you just so much more vulnurable in the court of public opinion.
What's being shown here is exactly why Closed Source is bad.
Hey, you are an open source advocate, after all.:)
Actually you point out the very reason why free databases are a strategically extremely sound decision, as I like to point out to the few execs I get a chance to point this out to.
There is no risk that [insert best hated DB vendor] holds you hostage with your data.
Even though I agree with your general analysis, calling Linus Evil seems a bit rich.
As every human being he can probably be an idiot at times (as Bruce so eloquently pointed out), but I'd apply the label "Evil" more to the likes of Monsanto , Diebold or Halliburton and their executives.
They are the ones that try to monopolize our food supply, they are willing pawns to disolve democracy, or they just lie and steal from the general public.
Mate, your question makes about as much sense as asking "How long is a piece of string?".
For starters: I assume that you're in the US, but could imagine that some of the tax laws, which apart from keeping your liquidity fluid, but for a price, is about the only fathomable reason why you would want to lease in the first place, differ from state to state.
If it's a matter of keeping your gear in top notch condition and fixed 30 minutes after failure you might be better advised with a support contract including a service level agreement.
Cutting to the cheese: You are better advised to ask your CPA, or if you insist on getting fancy, your tax attourney.
thus a smart advertiser would spend more resources exploiting IE.
What has smart to do with it? If people actively block popups this can be safely interpreted as they don't want no fucking popups and by being hit with popups they get extremely agitatet.
In the beginning I actually made a point of informing semi-serious companies that I will never, ever do business with them, due to their sleazy marketing tactics for all good it does.
Popups are another example of a few sleazebags getting rich by urinating into the communal watersupply and companies that advertise with them (or via spam) are dimmer then a 25watt light bulb, since they don't even seem to realize how much they piss potential customers off.
No doubt that there are valid reasons for a commercial database vendor. But that guy makes about as much sense as the drooling drunk at 2am in front of the seedy night club in the bad part of town when it comes to "strategic decisions".
Strategic decisions by definition are dangerous. When you decided on PeopleSoft 10 years ago this looked strategically sound. Until the good burgers from Oracle came along and bought them out in order to squash a competitor. By no fault of your own you are fucking fucked when you're a PeopleSoft customer.
Au contraire I argue that especially in the db market having source access to your database software is about as strategically valuable as it comes.
Sorry mate, but I have seen to many examples of customers being fucked over by vendors of strategic software and you can go and tell the PR department of { Oracle | Microsoft | IBM } that they are just dead wrong and for an "analyst" it's bad form to just reprint their spew.
Not that I accuse you of doing that, but your "analysis" leaves a strong stench of not being quite independant.
If you want to be able to do damn near anything you want with the music you buy, then I suggest going down to the store and buying a non DRMed audio CD and rip it yourself, then you can have it in any format you want and be free of service agreements.
Yep, I'd do that in a blitz, for example with the new Moby CD. Unfortunately I don't have the option to purchase a DRM free Moby CD.
So I guess that I just have to wait a couple of days until it's available from my slightly shady Russian MP3 providers.
Yep, RIAA, IFPI and all you other motherfuckers! Try to sell me a crippled product and I have (in my sticks of the world) a completely legal -, alas morally not quite clean way to circumvent you for 10% of the price.
That might not be nice, but I suggest that it gives you (and the artists) some food for thought.
I forwarded the first couple of them to abuse at ebay
You know I tried the same with the first couple phishing mails that I apparently received from banks with exactly the same result.
It's not that you would expect to get a personal thank you visit by their CIO, but at least something like an acknowledgement would indicate that they are at least interested.
What does that tell you? In all likeliness your bank doesn't give a flying fuck if you are ripped off. It's not their money and hassle after all.
I would wager though, that the attraction of his new job must not necessarily be in financial benefits. Of course this is a pure out of my ass speculation and I'm sure he's sallaried hansomly.
Case in point: One of the top managers of SwissRe left her certainly extremely comfortable position to become chairwoman of the Swiss WWF office. I'm pretty sure that she didn't even make 25% of her old benefits there.
You forgot the good burgers from Sybase Inc. that got creamed out of SQL Server and into a software firm mediocre in terms of relevance when they wanted to go the SMP path. This is despite the fact that they technically still have excellent offerings in the enterprise database and - middleware market.
To be fair, the creaming was sweetened with significant money, but I still regard them as a candidate for Microsofts famous kiss of death [TM] list.
YOU own your data and not any halfwitted, slimebag company that happens to have it in one of their databases.
As a matter of fact, even supplying personal data to third parties is outright verboten without a solid reason to do so. (And no, money grubbing greed is not considered a solid reason, legally)
Sir, that was a very sharp analysis. May I add the following, which might also be vital to HPs survival?
Take a very careful look at enterprise support. VMS and TruUnix customers, who usually run mission critical, no-excuse for anything systems won't take it kindly that you are trying to save on support on those systems. In addition appologise to all VMS engineers that you fired or are in the process of firingand try to retain them, or even get them back.
You fucked up very big time in repsect to enterprise systems. You might have a slim chance to still get it right, but there's not very much time.
Although you are certainly right that even nowadays standard Linux distributions are far to open to attacks I still think there's a huge difference in the security approach of Linux and Windows.
While Unix type systems where designed for multiuser access from the start, Dos and Windows where designed for single user systems.
True that Unix was not designed with security in mind (you would have to jumpe on the RSX/VMS bandwaggon if you wanted something "really" secure at that time) it is far easier to maintain security, since only root can do real damage on a system level. Sure, there are umpteen setuid scripts and programs that can potentially be exploited. Nevertheless it's safer by design.
Add to Microsofts single user workstation design the unbelievably brain dead idea of executing scripts when you only look at your mail in preview mode and directly executable scripts/execs as email attachements. This is not only in hindsight unbelievable idiotic; it is in fact such a dumb design decision that the responsible people should be tarred and feathered for that.
Those design flaws are so gross, that it's almost impossible to patch such a system.
Sure, Microsoft reacted with a service pack, which seems to do quite ok so far. But that was only when their irresponsible - not to say criminal - attitude threatened to explode into a PR desaster.
Slashdot Mirror
Alternately, if all of this is too much bother, and the whole concept offends you, don't buy Nikon.
I totally agree and I will never buy a Nikon product after them pulling off that stunt. In fact I'm so pissed (as a non Nikon-owner) that I just might send a nice, polite letter to the local country office informing them about my decision.
This doesn't discount Nikon - whoms rebuttal I thought was a larffin' riot! - from fucking their customers over left, right and central.
My easy solution: I will never buy from either of those companies. Thankfully I'm not in the design field and the Gimp works just fine for what I ever need to do with digital imgaes.
That's precisely the attitude of Hollands law enforcement. Opposite to popular believe Marijuana is not a legal substance in the Netherlands. The "Opportunitsprinizp" however allows cops and DAs some leeway in which crimes are prosecuted.
They rather save resources for more serious crimes then pot smoking youngsters; or even - adults, come to think of it.
Because it always makes my hemerroids itch, when a manufacturer demands a toll in order for me to access my data.
I hope this helps.
Nikon, to the best of my understanding, is a camera manufacturer. I have no clue if they do stuff in the whiz-bang imaging market, like Kodak, or Agfa, but it would seem that their business model depends on selling cameras, lenses and other nice gizmos, ideally loads of them.
Assume I'm a Fotografer. Since the times of silver plates and baryt paper (which sure as hell still has it's niche, but I digress) seem somewhat outdated I like to process my digital images with what can be considered the major photo processing application; pretty much the standard in my trade.
And the good burgers from Nikon intend to prevent direct access to crucial parts of the raw data of my images?
I think I buy a Canon!
But this was just about the shaprest analyzed and most compassionate and emphatic comment I ever read on Slashdot.
I thank you
From what I know about the whole sordid affair, you are correct at that. Even though I can appreciate making an ass of yourself (in case of Linus' behaviour) in order to back a lifelong friend.
For me it doesn't to a dent in the respect I have for Linus' achievements. Even though I agree with Bruce' stance (and with all the data I am given). He might be an idiot in this specific regard. We are all idiots on occasion and being so much in the spotlight makes you just so much more vulnurable in the court of public opinion.
Hey, you are an open source advocate, after all. :)
Actually you point out the very reason why free databases are a strategically extremely sound decision, as I like to point out to the few execs I get a chance to point this out to.
There is no risk that [insert best hated DB vendor] holds you hostage with your data.
As every human being he can probably be an idiot at times (as Bruce so eloquently pointed out), but I'd apply the label "Evil" more to the likes of Monsanto , Diebold or Halliburton and their executives.
They are the ones that try to monopolize our food supply, they are willing pawns to disolve democracy, or they just lie and steal from the general public.
This is evil. Being an idiot on occasion is not.
To then continue
But those Fonda and Streisand bimbos (you forgot Sean Penn, but he's not a bimbo) shall just shut the fuck up, since they are prominent.
You sir, are the shining example of a hypocrite.
There is no need to thank me.
And I bet that she utilizes a lot of really cute cursors too.
For starters: I assume that you're in the US, but could imagine that some of the tax laws, which apart from keeping your liquidity fluid, but for a price, is about the only fathomable reason why you would want to lease in the first place, differ from state to state.
If it's a matter of keeping your gear in top notch condition and fixed 30 minutes after failure you might be better advised with a support contract including a service level agreement.
Cutting to the cheese: You are better advised to ask your CPA, or if you insist on getting fancy, your tax attourney.
HTH, HAND, etc...
What has smart to do with it? If people actively block popups this can be safely interpreted as they don't want no fucking popups and by being hit with popups they get extremely agitatet.
In the beginning I actually made a point of informing semi-serious companies that I will never, ever do business with them, due to their sleazy marketing tactics for all good it does.
Popups are another example of a few sleazebags getting rich by urinating into the communal watersupply and companies that advertise with them (or via spam) are dimmer then a 25watt light bulb, since they don't even seem to realize how much they piss potential customers off.
No doubt that there are valid reasons for a commercial database vendor. But that guy makes about as much sense as the drooling drunk at 2am in front of the seedy night club in the bad part of town when it comes to "strategic decisions".
Strategic decisions by definition are dangerous. When you decided on PeopleSoft 10 years ago this looked strategically sound. Until the good burgers from Oracle came along and bought them out in order to squash a competitor. By no fault of your own you are fucking fucked when you're a PeopleSoft customer.
Au contraire I argue that especially in the db market having source access to your database software is about as strategically valuable as it comes.
Sorry mate, but I have seen to many examples of customers being fucked over by vendors of strategic software and you can go and tell the PR department of { Oracle | Microsoft | IBM } that they are just dead wrong and for an "analyst" it's bad form to just reprint their spew.
Not that I accuse you of doing that, but your "analysis" leaves a strong stench of not being quite independant.
Yep, I'd do that in a blitz, for example with the new Moby CD. Unfortunately I don't have the option to purchase a DRM free Moby CD.
So I guess that I just have to wait a couple of days until it's available from my slightly shady Russian MP3 providers.
Yep, RIAA, IFPI and all you other motherfuckers! Try to sell me a crippled product and I have (in my sticks of the world) a completely legal -, alas morally not quite clean way to circumvent you for 10% of the price.
That might not be nice, but I suggest that it gives you (and the artists) some food for thought.
HTH, HAND
You probably get to listen to a lot of Barry Manilow.
Well, maybe this provides the ??AA's with a clue that suing your customers is not really a viable business model.
You know I tried the same with the first couple phishing mails that I apparently received from banks with exactly the same result.
It's not that you would expect to get a personal thank you visit by their CIO, but at least something like an acknowledgement would indicate that they are at least interested.
What does that tell you? In all likeliness your bank doesn't give a flying fuck if you are ripped off. It's not their money and hassle after all.
I would wager though, that the attraction of his new job must not necessarily be in financial benefits. Of course this is a pure out of my ass speculation and I'm sure he's sallaried hansomly.
Case in point: One of the top managers of SwissRe left her certainly extremely comfortable position to become chairwoman of the Swiss WWF office. I'm pretty sure that she didn't even make 25% of her old benefits there.
Motivation is not always measured in money.
To be fair, the creaming was sweetened with significant money, but I still regard them as a candidate for Microsofts famous kiss of death [TM] list.
Libertarians want no government intervention for nothing and as little as possible laws as possible.
At the same time they rely on the government to make laws, which prohibits the public to act in its best interest.
Maybe I'm unclear about the concept, but this sounds like a bunch of fucking hypocrites to me.
As a matter of fact, even supplying personal data to third parties is outright verboten without a solid reason to do so. (And no, money grubbing greed is not considered a solid reason, legally)
Take a very careful look at enterprise support. VMS and TruUnix customers, who usually run mission critical, no-excuse for anything systems won't take it kindly that you are trying to save on support on those systems. In addition appologise to all VMS engineers that you fired or are in the process of firingand try to retain them, or even get them back.
You fucked up very big time in repsect to enterprise systems. You might have a slim chance to still get it right, but there's not very much time.
Sincerely
An ex-DECcie under Olson
I mean heck! At one point you have to disseminate an analogue signal to which we are able to listen to.
Methinks that the only feasible technology is to pour tar into the ears of every citizen on earth.
And that really seems a bit intrusive.
While Unix type systems where designed for multiuser access from the start, Dos and Windows where designed for single user systems.
True that Unix was not designed with security in mind (you would have to jumpe on the RSX/VMS bandwaggon if you wanted something "really" secure at that time) it is far easier to maintain security, since only root can do real damage on a system level. Sure, there are umpteen setuid scripts and programs that can potentially be exploited. Nevertheless it's safer by design.
Add to Microsofts single user workstation design the unbelievably brain dead idea of executing scripts when you only look at your mail in preview mode and directly executable scripts/execs as email attachements. This is not only in hindsight unbelievable idiotic; it is in fact such a dumb design decision that the responsible people should be tarred and feathered for that.
Those design flaws are so gross, that it's almost impossible to patch such a system.
Sure, Microsoft reacted with a service pack, which seems to do quite ok so far. But that was only when their irresponsible - not to say criminal - attitude threatened to explode into a PR desaster.