That's an interesting claim given it's from the author (or someone pretending to be a "fan" of the "author") of apkapp2backgrounddaemonprocessengine.exe:
There is one person involved in this conversation who has written software identified as "malware" by the security community. That person is the one promoting the idea of using a HOSTS file to block malware. That same person says that even after using HOSTS the way they claim, they're getting hit by two viruses a month, two more than the vast majority of Windows users.
Well, for what it's worth, Michael Mann and a few others contribute regularly to the arguably political website known as Real Climate, a website which isn't exactly known to allow dissenting views.
Excuse me, but why would it? There's information that has scientific credibility and there's stuff that isn't. I would expect a site like Real Climate to post what is generally thought by real scientists to be accurate, not publish "dissenting positions" for the sake of "balance".
Balance can mean a lot of things, but when balance is advocated for balances sake, to the point that for every truthful statement, a lie must be told as well, then it serves nobody, and is utterly unethical to engage in.
you know that Dr. Mark Russinovich of Microsoft and Nir Sofer of NIRSOFT have also had some of their applications classified as spywares like APK did?
The word is not "did", it's "does". It's present tense, dear. Your software, right now, is classified that way.
And yes, my customers (strictly speaking, my employer's customers who use the software I developed) have never felt the need to report my software as malware. Neither fleetingly, nor presently, not at all. Nor do I have a reputation across the Internet as being a malware developer, fairly or otherwise, and I also don't have the reputation of being an uptight cretin who threatens to sue everyone for no good reason.
Being serious for a moment: I no more need to write snake-oil and have it reviewed favorably in a collection of Windows magazines than Jon Stewart needs to run a giant, corrupt, corporation in order to poke fun of Kenneth Lay.
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(Screen shows head popping out of PC, wearing Ski-mask)
"Hey! Hey! Stop that! I'm one of Alexander Peter Kowalski's many anonymous admirers and you're LIBELING HIM by describing his habit of replying to all your comments with threats of legal action and bizarre misogynist insults as MALWARE!"
(Screen shows second head popping out of PC also wearing ski-mask. "Head with ski-mask' looks suspiciously like black sock over hand with a hole cut in it showing lips drawn in crude lipstick
"What Anonymous Coward says is right! Alexander Peter Kowalski is a great person, why look at all these articles he's written! Thanks to him, I now know the secret of dealing with all spammers except for Kowalski himself who isn't a spammer and that's a GROSS LIBEL he's just someone who posts the same thing over and over and over again, which is to edit my hosts file!"
(Screen shows third head popping out of PC also wearing ski-mask, looking suspiciously like the second hand... er, head.)
"Hi, I'm also not this APK person, whoever he is, but I just wanted to say that APK is in the right here and you are in the wrong! Sure, Kowalski writes applications that work terribly well as malware components such as programs to crudely hide other programs, but that's just because Kowalski writes great programs that everyone wants to use, even malware writers! How dare anyone suggest otherwise! They're just LIBELING me... er, him!"
As you can see, ordinary anti-malware tools not only don't work, they cause you to end up with even more Kowalskis than you started with!
But now watch what happens when you use All New KowalskiBeGone! Just sprinkle some of the magic formula on your PC, and watch what happens.
(Exactly the same thing happens as last time, but this time with a laugh track)
You see? Suddenly your Kowalski invasion is Kowalski Entertainment Time!
Don't believe us? Just listen to these totally real and honest testimonials!
"the use of KowalskiBeGone has worked for me in many ways. for one it makes APK hilarious, it helps speed up your computer as well. if you need more proof i am writing to you on a 400 hertz computer and i run with ease. i still get 200++ replies from APK to all my posts as i use to. but now everyone's laughing at them. if you want my opinion if you stick with KowalskiBeGone then you will be safe and entertained, but if you do get upset because it doesn't work then it will your own fault. keep up the good fight SquiggleIndustries!" - Anonymous Coward, Slashdot.org
"Its 1987 - still laughing at Kowalski! I was told last week by a co worker who just avoids mentioning APK by name, and he said I was doing overkill. I told him yes, but now I get a good laugh every time I check the responses to my posts. He said good point. I will say it again, KowalskiBeGone is FANTASTIC! Although it did kind of ruin Madagascar as it took out that penguin and now half the jokes surrounding the penguin don't make any sense" - Anonymous Coward #2, user of KowalskiBeGone
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Forget MPEG-1, its predecessor H.261 is far too old to be covered by patents.
Interestingly, there isn't much difference quality wise between better implementations of H.261 and early implementations of MPEG-1 (largely because early implementations tended to avoid using things like B-frames.)
So far as I can tell, the porn industry, as a whole, never went for either of them. Yes, some producers came down on one side or the other, but the industry is massive, and only a small portion ever bothered to look at either format.
Porn went with online high definition video. Holy crap, Lucid's Firefox doesn't have the word "online" in its dictionary. Not sure that beats its annoying habit of moving the page every other time you try to click on a link, but, anyway...
Uh, yeah, OK, anyway porn went with online video. I suspect, like the rest of us, they don't think plastic discs are the future of video.
I'm about 99% sure that Apple does, indeed, own H.264 patents.
The various *LAs are licensing consortiums. They don't own the patents they license, they're authorized to license them (and then only in limited ways) by the patent holders.
Steve Jobs would indeed know if there was a group assembling a patent pool to "go after" Theora. And from what I've read of Xiph's attitudes to patents, I suspect they have a case. It'll be interesting to see.
(Maybe this'll help Dirac, which in many ways is a more promising codec, and has the advantage that the BBC did quite a bit of work on making it "Free")
Well, Blu-ray hasn't "won", it's just HD DVD already lost.
I don't think BD can "win", as in become a successful format, while this kind of crap is going on. The studios supporting BD over HD DVD was a stunning set-back for high-definition video, but at the time too few people understood the issues with BD - most of us who pointed out BD's DRM was the height of stupidity were dismissed as only interested in issues ordinary consumers didn't care about (because ordinary consumers don't want a reliable playback system?) - for there to be any resistance.
Blu-ray remains a niche format. With high profile cock-ups like this one, and a complete unwillingness by the BDA to mandate fixes to the flaws, it'll probably always be one, living out its last days as Laserdisc to DVD's VHS until both formats are replaced by something viable, popular, cheap, and great.
[ you're not ERIC RAYMOND. You're...] A nobody nothing that has never done anything useful with his time or life, and now you waste others time here on slashdot
My goodness! What a terrible story! These people sound like awful, awful people!
You know what you should do? I suggest calling your local news station. They love doing specials on things like this, where there are obvious scandals when someone posts something on the Internet and someone else disagrees with it.
I'm sure the publicity will help your cause immensely, and people who watch that news special will sit around and nod at one another and say things like "Goodness, that poor Mr Uhwhateverhisnameisyouknowsamenameasthatpenguinonmadagascar, what with people going onto the Internet and saying he's wrong, and then criticizing him for posting the same comments over and over and over again even though all he's trying to do is get his point across."
What makes flash so attractive is the environment it uses to create animations.
What makes Flash attractive to webmasters is that it's ubiquitous, and that it implements DRM. While HTML5 may supplant one of these (ie all web browsers will become able to render regular embedded video), the DRM angle will remain an issue for the time being, and despite the bravado of those refusing to support it, it seems improbable that all major sites (especially in cases like Hulu.com and Amazon.com) will allow non-Flash video for the foreseeable future, except in extremely limited cases where the destination platform is so locked down (ie iPad) that the ability of a user to save the streamed video is almost impossible.
You realize that was a joke don't you? It was a response to someone who thought you have to drop into the command line when you install software under GNU/Linux.
Like I said, step back, take a deep breath, and calm down. You're your own worst enemy.
Well, if you're not a spyware maker then obviously it's unfortunate, but in the US libel does require an element of malice, and from some quick Googling, it does appear that multiple sources believe you are, indeed, a spyware author. They may or may not be correct, but someone can legitimately, in good faith, say you are one because it's very easy to believe you are.
Now, in the above posting, you threaten the author of a spyware removal tool because his tool (and apparently others too) have identified one of your programs as being spyware. As with Jeremy Reimer and, indeed, Clone here, you were, apparently quick to yell "Libel", and your responses appear (to me - and I'm just giving you my honest opinion, this is how you're coming across to me) as hysterical and nutty. The impression anyone reading the article gets is not "My, Mr Kowalski has been given a very rough time, poor thing.", but "Some Spyware manufacturer is trying to intimidate anti-spyware people."
And, for what it's worth, doing some googling on the executable described by the above link continues the theme whereby apparently rather a lot of people are under the impression your software is spyware. The first eight links I get when I Google are all from anti-spyware organizations, and the other two on the first page aren't flattering either.
Coupled with the fact that respected agencies such as CA are apparently standing behind their claim your software is spyware, there is nothing libelous about Clone's viewpoint. It might be wrong, I can't comment, I've never been privileged enough to have your software on my PC (I'm a GNU/Linux guy personally), but it's not a malicious written falsehood that damages your reputation.
So, no, Clone isn't libeling anyone here. Here's what to do about it if you're telling the truth:
Take a step back. Honestly, take a deep breath, and stop getting angry.
Determine why CA and others believe your software to be spyware. If there's an innocent explanation, give it. If there isn't, well, the difference between a spyware author who harasses those who point it out, and one who keeps quiet, is that more people hear about the allegations against the stalker.
Be the man. You've upset a number of people, and a quick Google reveals it to be more than Jeremy Reimer and Clone over here. If your software is being tagged as spyware then it rather suggests that intentionally or not, you've also upset a number of people who use your software. Fess up, fix the issues, and take some steps to mend fences between you and your critics.
I'm saying this not because I think you will, but because it's what you have to do. At this point, Alexander Peter Kowalski's name is mud. It's mud not so much because someone got confused and thought you were making spyware when really you were making the coolest app evah, but because you haven't handled the criticism of the app particularly well.
Well, I was only referring to my original comment wondering what the hell he was doing, which was about two days ago. It had obviously been going on for a day or two before that, but I'm surprised by your link.
I have to say, I'm completely baffled by this one. I have no idea what the original argument was about, but, put it this way: I've certainly had arguments with people that went on for too long and drove me nuts, my normal response - and I assume the response of most sane people - is to walk away after a bit, make your point as calmly as possible, and let it go. Maybe have a final rant in a journal to get it off one's chest. This... this doesn't make sense.
Clone hasn't disappeared, he posted yesterday. And believe me, most of the responses to you are from me, not him. In his shoes, I would be laughing at you. I'm a tad surprised that he removed the link from his signature, but I doubt your campaign is doing anything seriously to upset him.
And why am I posting? Well, I enjoy a good train-wreck as much as the next guy. This is one of the most bizarre meltdowns I've ever seen. Seriously dude, because of a link to an unflattering article in a signature, you're stalking Clone, and running some kind of campaign against some nobody from Ars Technica?
Really?
REALLY?
I told you two days ago how this looked. You're STILL DOING IT!
I'm going to get the pop-corn, this is going to be fun.
You do not need to encrypt content on a BDROM - go and read the AACS spec
The mandate is from the BDA, not the AACS LA. What the AACS spec says is entirely irrelevant to whether you can release pressed Blu-ray video discs without encryption that can be read by a conforming, licensed, Blu-ray player.
As the fuckwits who maintain this site are forcing me to wait before I post this because I replied to someone else's comment (which makes me a spammer, I guess), I'll post some other stuff below to use up their storage and bandwidth.
The '''Florida East Coast Railway''' {{reporting mark|FEC}} is a [[Class II railroad]] operating in the [[United States|U.S.]] state of [[Florida]]; in the past, it has been a [[Class I railroad]]. It is currently owned by [[RailAmerica]]. The FEC is renowned for building the first railroad bridges to [[Key West, Florida|Key West]], that have since been rebuilt into road bridges for vehicle traffic and are now known as the [[Overseas Highway]]. It was originally known as the Jacksonville, St. Augustine & Halifax River Railway, then became the Jacksonville, St. Augustine & Indian River Railway and then, for just a few months prior to becoming the Florida East Coast Railway in September 1895 was known as the Florida Coast & Gulf Railway. for more information and other former railroads merged into the line, see the [[#Family tree|family tree]] below.
==History==
===Henry Flagler: Developing Florida's east coast===
The Florida East Coast Railway (FEC) was developed by [[Henry Morrison Flagler]], an American [[tycoon]], real estate promoter, railroad developer and [[John D. Rockefeller|John D. Rockefeller's]] partner in [[Standard Oil]]. Formed at [[Cleveland, Ohio]] as [[Rockefeller, Andrews & Flagler]] in 1867, Standard Oil moved its headquarters in 1877 to [[New York City]]. Flagler and his family relocated there as well. He was joined by [[Henry H. Rogers]], another leader of Standard Oil who also became involved in the development of America's railroads, including those on nearby [[Staten Island]], the [[Union Pacific Railroad|Union Pacific]], and later in [[West Virginia]], where he eventually built the remarkable [[Virginian Railway]] to transport [[coal]] to [[Hampton Roads]], [[Virginia]].
Henry Flagler's non-Standard Oil interests went in a different direction, however, when in 1878, on the advice of his physician, Flagler traveled to [[Jacksonville, Florida|Jacksonville]], [[Florida]] for the winter with his first wife, Mary, who was quite ill. Two years after she died in 1881, he married Mary's former caregiver, Ida Alice Shourds. After their wedding, the couple traveled to [[St. Augustine, Florida]]. Flagler found the city charming, but the hotel facilities and transportation systems inadequate. He recognized Florida's potential to attract out-of-state visitors. Though Flagler remained on the Board of Directors of Standard Oil, he gave up his day-to-day involvement in the firm in order to pursue his Florida interests.
When Flagler returned to Florida, in 1885 he began building a grand St. Augustine hotel, the [[Ponce de León Hotel]]. Flagler realized that the key to developing Florida was a solid transportation system, and consequently purchased the [[Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Halifax River Railway]] (JStA&HR) on December 31, 1885. He also discovered that a major problem facing the existing Florida railway systems was that each operated on different [[Rail gauge|gauge]] systems, making interconnection impossible. Shortly after purchasing the JStA&HR Railway, he converted the line to [[standard gauge]]. The small operation was incorporated in 1892.
The earliest predecessor of the FEC was the [[narrow gauge]] St. John's Railway, incorporated in 1858, which constructed a now-abandoned line between St. Augustine and Tocoi, a small settlement on the east bank of the St. Johns River, midway between Palatka and Green Cove Springs. In 1883, [[Henry M. Flagler]], now retired from Standard Oil, mo
Unsurprisingly, the Wii's sales have slowed, while the PS3's sales have risen.
But are still higher.
Anyway, you're both wrong. The Wii is an everyman console, designed and heavily marketed with an unusual game set that has obvious appeal to virtually everyone. While both Sony and Microsoft have made some steps in that direction, they're still well behind and to a certain extent have already lost - Man On The Street already associates Wii with those kinds of things, and X-Box 360 and PS3s with more traditional "gamers games".
Price doesn't really come into it, especially given the fact that for the first year or two, the Wii's $250 advertised price was far below the real prices for the consoles, which in practice tended to be somewhat higher than the '360's, and had the added disadvantage of only being available from "people who know people" or eBay. The Wii's perceived value was much higher than the perceived value of the other consoles, and people were prepared to pay those kinds of prices.
(I think it's funny BTW that the Wii is being held up as an example of a barebones console without any gimmicks. Has the GP ever used a Wii? Or, you know, read about one?! OK, it doesn't play DVDs, does that really mean it's bare bones?)
I agree, if I were to find an iPhone lying around, I'd hand it into the police assuming that the owner was just some ordinary person off of the street. But this guy didn't, he contacted Apple.
Either he's utterly stupid and would have handed a 21xx to Nokia, or he knew what this phone was. It's extremely suspicious.
That being said, this isn't a matter of free speech. You're suggesting that I should have the right to freely redistribute Avatar if I accompanied it with political speech.
Well, no. There's violating copyright while making some kind of political statement, and then there's torturing the very people you're trying to convince. Why would you do that? Why distribute Avatar? There are far more humane ways of communicating your message.
Forget about the patents. In order to publish any Blu-ray content, you have to encrypt it, which means buying a key from the AACS. Blu-ray players are not allowed to read unencrypted pressed BD discs (some will play unencrypted BD-Rs with a BD layout, though as I understand it that's increasingly rare.)
This project is about as useful to the free software movement as a "free software" iPhone development kit.
Slashdot Mirror
That's an interesting claim given it's from the author (or someone pretending to be a "fan" of the "author") of apkapp2backgrounddaemonprocessengine.exe:
CA
PestPatrol
SpywareDB ("Dangerous!")
Freedom Anti-Spyware
Spycheck (Spanish-language) - "Recomendacion: DESACTIVAR Y ELIMINAR"
Spyware No-More [spynomore.com] ("Threat risk: High risk", "Advice: Remove This is a very high risk threat and should be removed immediately as to prevent harm to your computer and / or to protect your privacy")
There is one person involved in this conversation who has written software identified as "malware" by the security community. That person is the one promoting the idea of using a HOSTS file to block malware. That same person says that even after using HOSTS the way they claim, they're getting hit by two viruses a month, two more than the vast majority of Windows users.
Your gall is astonishing.
Excuse me, but why would it? There's information that has scientific credibility and there's stuff that isn't. I would expect a site like Real Climate to post what is generally thought by real scientists to be accurate, not publish "dissenting positions" for the sake of "balance".
Balance can mean a lot of things, but when balance is advocated for balances sake, to the point that for every truthful statement, a lie must be told as well, then it serves nobody, and is utterly unethical to engage in.
The word is not "did", it's "does". It's present tense, dear. Your software, right now, is classified that way.
And yes, my customers (strictly speaking, my employer's customers who use the software I developed) have never felt the need to report my software as malware. Neither fleetingly, nor presently, not at all. Nor do I have a reputation across the Internet as being a malware developer, fairly or otherwise, and I also don't have the reputation of being an uptight cretin who threatens to sue everyone for no good reason.
Being serious for a moment: I no more need to write snake-oil and have it reviewed favorably in a collection of Windows magazines than Jon Stewart needs to run a giant, corrupt, corporation in order to poke fun of Kenneth Lay.
You know what I also don't have to my name? An application listed as dangerous by large numbers of authoritative anti-spyware companies.
My customers have always been pretty happy with my software. What am I doing right that you're not? I think it probably involves not being an ass.
Are you tired of all those problems on the Internet? The viruses? The spam? The netkooks who just WON'T leave you alone?
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Here's what happens when you use a normal anti-malware tool to clean a PC infected with Kowalski.
(Screen shows head popping out of PC, wearing Ski-mask)
"Hey! Hey! Stop that! I'm one of Alexander Peter Kowalski's many anonymous admirers and you're LIBELING HIM by describing his habit of replying to all your comments with threats of legal action and bizarre misogynist insults as MALWARE!"
(Screen shows second head popping out of PC also wearing ski-mask. "Head with ski-mask' looks suspiciously like black sock over hand with a hole cut in it showing lips drawn in crude lipstick
"What Anonymous Coward says is right! Alexander Peter Kowalski is a great person, why look at all these articles he's written! Thanks to him, I now know the secret of dealing with all spammers except for Kowalski himself who isn't a spammer and that's a GROSS LIBEL he's just someone who posts the same thing over and over and over again, which is to edit my hosts file!"
(Screen shows third head popping out of PC also wearing ski-mask, looking suspiciously like the second hand... er, head.)
"Hi, I'm also not this APK person, whoever he is, but I just wanted to say that APK is in the right here and you are in the wrong! Sure, Kowalski writes applications that work terribly well as malware components such as programs to crudely hide other programs, but that's just because Kowalski writes great programs that everyone wants to use, even malware writers! How dare anyone suggest otherwise! They're just LIBELING me... er, him!"
As you can see, ordinary anti-malware tools not only don't work, they cause you to end up with even more Kowalskis than you started with!
But now watch what happens when you use All New KowalskiBeGone! Just sprinkle some of the magic formula on your PC, and watch what happens.
(Exactly the same thing happens as last time, but this time with a laugh track)
You see? Suddenly your Kowalski invasion is Kowalski Entertainment Time!
Don't believe us? Just listen to these totally real and honest testimonials!
"the use of KowalskiBeGone has worked for me in many ways. for one it makes APK hilarious, it helps speed up your computer as well. if you need more proof i am writing to you on a 400 hertz computer and i run with ease. i still get 200++ replies from APK to all my posts as i use to. but now everyone's laughing at them. if you want my opinion if you stick with KowalskiBeGone then you will be safe and entertained, but if you do get upset because it doesn't work then it will your own fault. keep up the good fight SquiggleIndustries!" - Anonymous Coward, Slashdot.org
"Its 1987 - still laughing at Kowalski! I was told last week by a co worker who just avoids mentioning APK by name, and he said I was doing overkill. I told him yes, but now I get a good laugh every time I check the responses to my posts. He said good point. I will say it again, KowalskiBeGone is FANTASTIC! Although it did kind of ruin Madagascar as it took out that penguin and now half the jokes surrounding the penguin don't make any sense" - Anonymous Coward #2, user of KowalskiBeGone
How much would you pay for a tool like this? I mean, KowalskiBeGone, obviously. How much? Well, what if we were to tell you that if you order in the next five minutes, we'll include this HILARIOUS Hosts file containing such gems as:
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Forget MPEG-1, its predecessor H.261 is far too old to be covered by patents.
Interestingly, there isn't much difference quality wise between better implementations of H.261 and early implementations of MPEG-1 (largely because early implementations tended to avoid using things like B-frames.)
So far as I can tell, the porn industry, as a whole, never went for either of them. Yes, some producers came down on one side or the other, but the industry is massive, and only a small portion ever bothered to look at either format.
Porn went with online high definition video. Holy crap, Lucid's Firefox doesn't have the word "online" in its dictionary. Not sure that beats its annoying habit of moving the page every other time you try to click on a link, but, anyway...
Uh, yeah, OK, anyway porn went with online video. I suspect, like the rest of us, they don't think plastic discs are the future of video.
I'm about 99% sure that Apple does, indeed, own H.264 patents.
The various *LAs are licensing consortiums. They don't own the patents they license, they're authorized to license them (and then only in limited ways) by the patent holders.
Steve Jobs would indeed know if there was a group assembling a patent pool to "go after" Theora. And from what I've read of Xiph's attitudes to patents, I suspect they have a case. It'll be interesting to see.
(Maybe this'll help Dirac, which in many ways is a more promising codec, and has the advantage that the BBC did quite a bit of work on making it "Free")
Well, Blu-ray hasn't "won", it's just HD DVD already lost.
I don't think BD can "win", as in become a successful format, while this kind of crap is going on. The studios supporting BD over HD DVD was a stunning set-back for high-definition video, but at the time too few people understood the issues with BD - most of us who pointed out BD's DRM was the height of stupidity were dismissed as only interested in issues ordinary consumers didn't care about (because ordinary consumers don't want a reliable playback system?) - for there to be any resistance.
Blu-ray remains a niche format. With high profile cock-ups like this one, and a complete unwillingness by the BDA to mandate fixes to the flaws, it'll probably always be one, living out its last days as Laserdisc to DVD's VHS until both formats are replaced by something viable, popular, cheap, and great.
Actually that does sound a lot like Eric Raymond..
My goodness! What a terrible story! These people sound like awful, awful people!
You know what you should do? I suggest calling your local news station. They love doing specials on things like this, where there are obvious scandals when someone posts something on the Internet and someone else disagrees with it.
I'm sure the publicity will help your cause immensely, and people who watch that news special will sit around and nod at one another and say things like "Goodness, that poor Mr Uhwhateverhisnameisyouknowsamenameasthatpenguinonmadagascar, what with people going onto the Internet and saying he's wrong, and then criticizing him for posting the same comments over and over and over again even though all he's trying to do is get his point across."
Cool, does it work with Hulu?
I'd ask about Amazon VOD but I'd be more wary of using it with that, given that Amazon knows where I live ;-)
What makes Flash attractive to webmasters is that it's ubiquitous, and that it implements DRM. While HTML5 may supplant one of these (ie all web browsers will become able to render regular embedded video), the DRM angle will remain an issue for the time being, and despite the bravado of those refusing to support it, it seems improbable that all major sites (especially in cases like Hulu.com and Amazon.com) will allow non-Flash video for the foreseeable future, except in extremely limited cases where the destination platform is so locked down (ie iPad) that the ability of a user to save the streamed video is almost impossible.
*shrug* Oh well, at least I tried.
You realize that was a joke don't you? It was a response to someone who thought you have to drop into the command line when you install software under GNU/Linux.
Like I said, step back, take a deep breath, and calm down. You're your own worst enemy.
Well, if you're not a spyware maker then obviously it's unfortunate, but in the US libel does require an element of malice, and from some quick Googling, it does appear that multiple sources believe you are, indeed, a spyware author. They may or may not be correct, but someone can legitimately, in good faith, say you are one because it's very easy to believe you are.
I say this because I googled "Alexander Peter Kowalski". The very first link is this one:
How to Respond When People Threaten to Sue You on the Web.
Now, in the above posting, you threaten the author of a spyware removal tool because his tool (and apparently others too) have identified one of your programs as being spyware. As with Jeremy Reimer and, indeed, Clone here, you were, apparently quick to yell "Libel", and your responses appear (to me - and I'm just giving you my honest opinion, this is how you're coming across to me) as hysterical and nutty. The impression anyone reading the article gets is not "My, Mr Kowalski has been given a very rough time, poor thing.", but "Some Spyware manufacturer is trying to intimidate anti-spyware people."
And, for what it's worth, doing some googling on the executable described by the above link continues the theme whereby apparently rather a lot of people are under the impression your software is spyware. The first eight links I get when I Google are all from anti-spyware organizations, and the other two on the first page aren't flattering either.
Coupled with the fact that respected agencies such as CA are apparently standing behind their claim your software is spyware, there is nothing libelous about Clone's viewpoint. It might be wrong, I can't comment, I've never been privileged enough to have your software on my PC (I'm a GNU/Linux guy personally), but it's not a malicious written falsehood that damages your reputation.
So, no, Clone isn't libeling anyone here. Here's what to do about it if you're telling the truth:
I'm saying this not because I think you will, but because it's what you have to do. At this point, Alexander Peter Kowalski's name is mud. It's mud not so much because someone got confused and thought you were making spyware when really you were making the coolest app evah, but because you haven't handled the criticism of the app particularly well.
Well, I was only referring to my original comment wondering what the hell he was doing, which was about two days ago. It had obviously been going on for a day or two before that, but I'm surprised by your link.
I have to say, I'm completely baffled by this one. I have no idea what the original argument was about, but, put it this way: I've certainly had arguments with people that went on for too long and drove me nuts, my normal response - and I assume the response of most sane people - is to walk away after a bit, make your point as calmly as possible, and let it go. Maybe have a final rant in a journal to get it off one's chest. This... this doesn't make sense.
Clone hasn't disappeared, he posted yesterday. And believe me, most of the responses to you are from me, not him. In his shoes, I would be laughing at you. I'm a tad surprised that he removed the link from his signature, but I doubt your campaign is doing anything seriously to upset him.
And why am I posting? Well, I enjoy a good train-wreck as much as the next guy. This is one of the most bizarre meltdowns I've ever seen. Seriously dude, because of a link to an unflattering article in a signature, you're stalking Clone, and running some kind of campaign against some nobody from Ars Technica?
Really?
REALLY?
I told you two days ago how this looked. You're STILL DOING IT!
I'm going to get the pop-corn, this is going to be fun.
In the mean time, this is hilarious and deserves to be spread more widely: http://www.jeremyreimer.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=4128&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
I'm tempted to tweet it actually.
The mandate is from the BDA, not the AACS LA. What the AACS spec says is entirely irrelevant to whether you can release pressed Blu-ray video discs without encryption that can be read by a conforming, licensed, Blu-ray player.
As the fuckwits who maintain this site are forcing me to wait before I post this because I replied to someone else's comment (which makes me a spammer, I guess), I'll post some other stuff below to use up their storage and bandwidth.
The '''Florida East Coast Railway''' {{reporting mark|FEC}} is a [[Class II railroad]] operating in the [[United States|U.S.]] state of [[Florida]]; in the past, it has been a [[Class I railroad]]. It is currently owned by [[RailAmerica]]. The FEC is renowned for building the first railroad bridges to [[Key West, Florida|Key West]], that have since been rebuilt into road bridges for vehicle traffic and are now known as the [[Overseas Highway]]. It was originally known as the Jacksonville, St. Augustine & Halifax River Railway, then became the Jacksonville, St. Augustine & Indian River Railway and then, for just a few months prior to becoming the Florida East Coast Railway in September 1895 was known as the Florida Coast & Gulf Railway. for more information and other former railroads merged into the line, see the [[#Family tree|family tree]] below. ==History== ===Henry Flagler: Developing Florida's east coast=== The Florida East Coast Railway (FEC) was developed by [[Henry Morrison Flagler]], an American [[tycoon]], real estate promoter, railroad developer and [[John D. Rockefeller|John D. Rockefeller's]] partner in [[Standard Oil]]. Formed at [[Cleveland, Ohio]] as [[Rockefeller, Andrews & Flagler]] in 1867, Standard Oil moved its headquarters in 1877 to [[New York City]]. Flagler and his family relocated there as well. He was joined by [[Henry H. Rogers]], another leader of Standard Oil who also became involved in the development of America's railroads, including those on nearby [[Staten Island]], the [[Union Pacific Railroad|Union Pacific]], and later in [[West Virginia]], where he eventually built the remarkable [[Virginian Railway]] to transport [[coal]] to [[Hampton Roads]], [[Virginia]]. Henry Flagler's non-Standard Oil interests went in a different direction, however, when in 1878, on the advice of his physician, Flagler traveled to [[Jacksonville, Florida|Jacksonville]], [[Florida]] for the winter with his first wife, Mary, who was quite ill. Two years after she died in 1881, he married Mary's former caregiver, Ida Alice Shourds. After their wedding, the couple traveled to [[St. Augustine, Florida]]. Flagler found the city charming, but the hotel facilities and transportation systems inadequate. He recognized Florida's potential to attract out-of-state visitors. Though Flagler remained on the Board of Directors of Standard Oil, he gave up his day-to-day involvement in the firm in order to pursue his Florida interests. When Flagler returned to Florida, in 1885 he began building a grand St. Augustine hotel, the [[Ponce de León Hotel]]. Flagler realized that the key to developing Florida was a solid transportation system, and consequently purchased the [[Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Halifax River Railway]] (JStA&HR) on December 31, 1885. He also discovered that a major problem facing the existing Florida railway systems was that each operated on different [[Rail gauge|gauge]] systems, making interconnection impossible. Shortly after purchasing the JStA&HR Railway, he converted the line to [[standard gauge]]. The small operation was incorporated in 1892. The earliest predecessor of the FEC was the [[narrow gauge]] St. John's Railway, incorporated in 1858, which constructed a now-abandoned line between St. Augustine and Tocoi, a small settlement on the east bank of the St. Johns River, midway between Palatka and Green Cove Springs. In 1883, [[Henry M. Flagler]], now retired from Standard Oil, mo
Really? You own a multi-million dollar Blu-ray duplicator? Or did you misread what I wrote?
But are still higher.
Anyway, you're both wrong. The Wii is an everyman console, designed and heavily marketed with an unusual game set that has obvious appeal to virtually everyone. While both Sony and Microsoft have made some steps in that direction, they're still well behind and to a certain extent have already lost - Man On The Street already associates Wii with those kinds of things, and X-Box 360 and PS3s with more traditional "gamers games".
Price doesn't really come into it, especially given the fact that for the first year or two, the Wii's $250 advertised price was far below the real prices for the consoles, which in practice tended to be somewhat higher than the '360's, and had the added disadvantage of only being available from "people who know people" or eBay. The Wii's perceived value was much higher than the perceived value of the other consoles, and people were prepared to pay those kinds of prices.
(I think it's funny BTW that the Wii is being held up as an example of a barebones console without any gimmicks. Has the GP ever used a Wii? Or, you know, read about one?! OK, it doesn't play DVDs, does that really mean it's bare bones?)
"Sorry I'm late boss, got stopped by a cop and had to go home to... I'm fired? Why?"
Which kinda seals the deal really doesn't it.
I agree, if I were to find an iPhone lying around, I'd hand it into the police assuming that the owner was just some ordinary person off of the street. But this guy didn't, he contacted Apple.
Either he's utterly stupid and would have handed a 21xx to Nokia, or he knew what this phone was. It's extremely suspicious.
Well, no. There's violating copyright while making some kind of political statement, and then there's torturing the very people you're trying to convince. Why would you do that? Why distribute Avatar? There are far more humane ways of communicating your message.
Forget about the patents. In order to publish any Blu-ray content, you have to encrypt it, which means buying a key from the AACS. Blu-ray players are not allowed to read unencrypted pressed BD discs (some will play unencrypted BD-Rs with a BD layout, though as I understand it that's increasingly rare.)
This project is about as useful to the free software movement as a "free software" iPhone development kit.