Jamie Cansdale released a free addin to Visual Studio back in 2004 to help developers build unit tests. His only problem was that he enabled his addin for all versions of VS - including the Express addition which isn't supposed to support addins. After over a year of trying to talk with Microsoft and understand how and why he was in violation of their license agreement, during which they would never explain specifically which clause in the license was being violated, they sent the lawyers after him and pulled his MVP status. To top it all off, Jamie is actually a Java developer by day; his addin was originally developed just as a hobby project. A full account is available on his blog, including all email correspondence he had with Microsoft and the now 3 letters received from Microsoft lawyers. The lead product manager for Visual Studio Express has responded to Jamie's posts.
Above is the summary with copy editing enabled. I hope the lawyers don't threaten me too!
"There will very likely never be a working DRM system. And I only say "very likely" because the rest of history is a very long time [...]"
When you consider the rest of history, it's pretty guaranteed that all DRM systems will be broken, becuase the more time passes, the most likely someone has broken a given scheme.
" I can think of lots of people that would love to have the job of just screwing with people on the phone with no or responsibility for producing anything."
Better yet, logs of public money transfers could be made available for anyone to scrutinize, thus catching things like this. Oh, wait, that'd also catch things like this where the thief is also a public official, so I guess this isn't such a viable idea after all.
"Have you ever wanted to ask someone an embarrasing question, but was too afraid to ask? This is the chance. You have their time. Its NOT considered RUDE to interrupt with questions."
As I understand it, it's not even illegal to use profanity or whatever else you want (besides making threats, which are always illegal. So curse on if THEY call YOU (but not if you call them).
"This is actually a great milestone as we humans are really excellent at face recognition. In fact, we are so good at it that we produce tons of false positives and recognize faces where there are none (clouds, toasts etc)."
Yeah, I have so much trouble recognizing faces that these technology advances will really simplify my life. <sarcasm> No, these technologies will help people who want to recognize every face seen all day long for practically zero cost. Hmmm, who could these people be? "Great milestone", hmmm.
"[...] he got a response saying that even if he was getting spammed by an address that he only gave to AmeriTrade, that could be the result of hackers "implanting 'bots' that have the ability to extract e-mail addresses from your computer, even when you have protective spy software engaged". [...] if this were the source of the problem, it would affect everyone's e-mail addresses equally [...]"
This is why you should have done a scientific experiment, where you had at the very least two e-mail addresses of similar random makeup, and only made one available to AmeriTrade. The one you didn't give would be the control. Then you compare the SPAM received between the two, rather than between your single submitted address and an imaginary address that receives none. Perhaps you have a third that you submit to a trusted server you know does not share it (like one you set up yourself with a trusted bandwidth provider).
Ahhh. I couldn't figure out what your error could have been, but per second makes sense now. Obviously I'm not in the bandwidth-providing business where it would have been obvious.:)
I've found some secret hidden tweaks you can make to Slashdot articles, just by editing this thing called a URL. For instance, you can set the comment threshold HIGHER than 5 by editing the number after "threshold=", ensuring only the absolute best comments (apparently none in this story meet that standard yet). Why do they hide useful options like this from us?
On the other hand, if these scummy sites didn't exist, users would quickly learn that typing random crap into the address bar is not the way to find a place, that you do that by using a search engine.
Any information service which I pay for better be on my schedule. That rules out any TV or radio where I have to work my schedule around it. My life won't be molded around the airwaves.
Thanks for the correction. This seems to be the downfall of citizen action: citizens exaggerating things in an attempt to gain more audience, but then losing all credibility when others find out what really happened.
- Cordless phone with backlit display. When you press a button, the display lights for several seconds. So, when press end to hang up, the display lights for several seconds, making you think the phone is still on. My dad always got confused by this, and rightly so. The display even lights when you press an ignored button while the phone is off. "Hey, lighted display even though I'm off!"
- Electronic version of the De Longhi portable oil-filled space heater. Terrible user-interface with hard-to-press buttons and a button layout that seems more guided by aesthetics than logical arrangement. Lost power to the thing, even for just a second? No heat for you until you re-program it. Give me an electro-mechanical thermostat and power switch any day over this electronic crap.
- DVD player often refusing to respond to my commands. Oh, wait, that's intentional.
- Just to contrast, once I got a small programmable electronic outlet timer at a garage sale and had the thing figured out in just a few minutes without a manual. Somehow they managed to pack in something like 14 independent program slots, each able to turn on and off at set times either daily, weekdays only, weekends only, particular day only (separate days for on and off). It only had around 7 buttons (no numeric keypad), yet was logical.
"[...] the displays are only capable of displaying the illusion of millions of colors through the use of a software technique referred to as dithering, which causes nearby pixels on the display to use slightly varying shades of colors that trick the human eye into perceiving the desired color even though it is not truly that color."
Isn't that going to get laughed right out of the courtroom?
I'm sorry, I don't understand the language. I don't really understand what a pixel is. Could you explain it again?
BSD-style freedom is like saying that people can do whatever they want, including hurting and controlling each other. GPL-style freedom is like saying that people can do whatever they want, as long as they don't try to hurt or control others; there are more explicit restrictions but the end result is less overall restriction.
And Microsoft's claims are about patents, not copyright or trademarks. Remember, the term "intellectual property" is nothing more than a fiction designed to confuse people about the patent/copyright/trademark trio.
Slashdot Mirror
Above is the summary with copy editing enabled. I hope the lawyers don't threaten me too!
"There will very likely never be a working DRM system. And I only say "very likely" because the rest of history is a very long time [...]"
When you consider the rest of history, it's pretty guaranteed that all DRM systems will be broken, becuase the more time passes, the most likely someone has broken a given scheme.
" I can think of lots of people that would love to have the job of just screwing with people on the phone with no or responsibility for producing anything."
Wow, you just described my new dream job.
Better yet, logs of public money transfers could be made available for anyone to scrutinize, thus catching things like this. Oh, wait, that'd also catch things like this where the thief is also a public official, so I guess this isn't such a viable idea after all.
"Have you ever wanted to ask someone an embarrasing question, but was too afraid to ask? This is the chance. You have their time. Its NOT considered RUDE to interrupt with questions."
As I understand it, it's not even illegal to use profanity or whatever else you want (besides making threats, which are always illegal. So curse on if THEY call YOU (but not if you call them).
"This is actually a great milestone as we humans are really excellent at face recognition. In fact, we are so good at it that we produce tons of false positives and recognize faces where there are none (clouds, toasts etc)."
Yeah, I have so much trouble recognizing faces that these technology advances will really simplify my life. <sarcasm> No, these technologies will help people who want to recognize every face seen all day long for practically zero cost. Hmmm, who could these people be? "Great milestone", hmmm.
"[...] he got a response saying that even if he was getting spammed by an address that he only gave to AmeriTrade, that could be the result of hackers "implanting 'bots' that have the ability to extract e-mail addresses from your computer, even when you have protective spy software engaged". [...] if this were the source of the problem, it would affect everyone's e-mail addresses equally [...]"
This is why you should have done a scientific experiment, where you had at the very least two e-mail addresses of similar random makeup, and only made one available to AmeriTrade. The one you didn't give would be the control. Then you compare the SPAM received between the two, rather than between your single submitted address and an imaginary address that receives none. Perhaps you have a third that you submit to a trusted server you know does not share it (like one you set up yourself with a trusted bandwidth provider).
Ahhh. I couldn't figure out what your error could have been, but per second makes sense now. Obviously I'm not in the bandwidth-providing business where it would have been obvious. :)
I've found some secret hidden tweaks you can make to Slashdot articles, just by editing this thing called a URL. For instance, you can set the comment threshold HIGHER than 5 by editing the number after "threshold=", ensuring only the absolute best comments (apparently none in this story meet that standard yet). Why do they hide useful options like this from us?
On the other hand, if these scummy sites didn't exist, users would quickly learn that typing random crap into the address bar is not the way to find a place, that you do that by using a search engine.
"Bandwidth prices for us are so outrageous, $300 per mb, and this is only because there is one major seller of bandwidth in our area, NOANET."
Wow, I bet you have to connections to 2400 bps. Even then, a user could cost you $300 after downloading for a little over an hour.
"People are probably too embarrassed to use them in public."
Usually personal affects that do things like "squirt" are only used in private.
"Couldn't the author of the slashdot post have at least used the cut and paste features of his computer?"
If you cut and paste, it's theft! Retyping, on the other hand...
"No doubt you'll find some other excuse once iMP is fully launched."
Like the fact that I live in the USA and only use my TV for watching DVDs?
Any information service which I pay for better be on my schedule. That rules out any TV or radio where I have to work my schedule around it. My life won't be molded around the airwaves.
December 31, 2007 called: it wants its story headline back.
Also, should we be ashamed that TV viewers still put up with this crap? (or even watch TV anymore?)
Thanks for the correction. This seems to be the downfall of citizen action: citizens exaggerating things in an attempt to gain more audience, but then losing all credibility when others find out what really happened.
Here are a few I can remember:
- Cordless phone with backlit display. When you press a button, the display lights for several seconds. So, when press end to hang up, the display lights for several seconds, making you think the phone is still on. My dad always got confused by this, and rightly so. The display even lights when you press an ignored button while the phone is off. "Hey, lighted display even though I'm off!"
- Electronic version of the De Longhi portable oil-filled space heater. Terrible user-interface with hard-to-press buttons and a button layout that seems more guided by aesthetics than logical arrangement. Lost power to the thing, even for just a second? No heat for you until you re-program it. Give me an electro-mechanical thermostat and power switch any day over this electronic crap.
- DVD player often refusing to respond to my commands. Oh, wait, that's intentional.
- Just to contrast, once I got a small programmable electronic outlet timer at a garage sale and had the thing figured out in just a few minutes without a manual. Somehow they managed to pack in something like 14 independent program slots, each able to turn on and off at set times either daily, weekdays only, weekends only, particular day only (separate days for on and off). It only had around 7 buttons (no numeric keypad), yet was logical.
Can we add a new "HD DVD vs. Blu-ray" category for these inane weekly "we have more titles than you" stories?
"[...] I shall proceed to make sure that Microsoft is held to that standard by appropriate legal means."
The appropriate legal means of imposing one's moral standard on others is simple: STFU and deal with things as they are.
"[...] the displays are only capable of displaying the illusion of millions of colors through the use of a software technique referred to as dithering, which causes nearby pixels on the display to use slightly varying shades of colors that trick the human eye into perceiving the desired color even though it is not truly that color."
Isn't that going to get laughed right out of the courtroom?
I'm sorry, I don't understand the language. I don't really understand what a pixel is. Could you explain it again?
BSD-style freedom is like saying that people can do whatever they want, including hurting and controlling each other. GPL-style freedom is like saying that people can do whatever they want, as long as they don't try to hurt or control others; there are more explicit restrictions but the end result is less overall restriction.
And Microsoft's claims are about patents, not copyright or trademarks. Remember, the term "intellectual property" is nothing more than a fiction designed to confuse people about the patent/copyright/trademark trio.
"[...] the One Laptop Per Nerd program hasn't quite started yet."
Is that the program where they take away your extra laptops?