Re:Open Source Vehicles
on
VW Goes USB
·
· Score: 1
The motor industry does not want a revitilisation of small business auto repair. They have vigilantly fought the new laws in the EU that disallows the voiding of warranty just because you didn't use a brand name shop.
They have been happy with the cushy income of the licensing scheme for brand name shops and using closed interfaces and advanced computer systems has the glorious side effect of locking in customers.
While I agree with you that it would be much better for the consumer if they opened up, they will never take this route, and it is certainly not because they are idiots.
I call bullshit. It is obvious you haven't tried any of the newer versions of Nautilus.
My AMD Athlon takes 6 seconds to show/usr/bin with 2112 files without having opened it before. After it has been cached it takes 2 seconds. This is with 2.10, not 2.12.
Showing huge directories is also an incredible borderline case that hardly defines the operation of the file manager (and now PLEASE don't ignore the previous paragraph just because I wrote this).
On the LiveCD I can't comment as I haven't tried it. Firefox uses it's own MIME system (sadly),
"Sure enough, Gnome still insists on ignoring the X Windowing system's DPI information and overriding it (and all other applications started after gnome-settings-daemon) with it's favorite 96 DPI."
I agree that it should default to the X DPI information, the GNOME DPI-settings are per user, rather than per machine. A much more sensible way, especially since people's eyesight vary wildly.
"The file open/save dialog boxes STILL don't have a URL field. One can only access this field by hitting an undocumented CTRL+L (that's usability!?)."
The Save dialog obviously has one. The Open dialog NEVER will, because it is ridiculous exposing this to most users who have no clue what it does and get scared by exposure to the UNIX file system.
If it is not documented, that is not good, although it is also available in the right-click menu, a feature which IS documented. Using a word like "STILL" is inflammatory, however, as it assumes that showing it as default would be a good thing. Documenting it is important, but hitting ctrl-L while your fingers are already at the keyboard is not going to slow you down much.
It is also the exact same keysetting to show the address bar in Nautilus and to focus the address bar in Epiphany and Firefox.
"gnome-settings-daemon will start Nautilus and XScreensaver from your session profile gnome-session-restore even if you're using another WM resulting in your root window being clobbered and two screensaver daemons running."
Just remove them from your session profile. While I do agree that this is unfortunate, I doubt this is the GNOME people's first priority.
Re:How to kill Nautilus (sort of OT but useful!)
on
GNOME 2.12 Released
·
· Score: 1
Personally I think most peoples objections to Nautilus is the first impression they got when it was new, raw, slow and buggy. The newer releases are snappy, stable, beautiful and usable.
This latest release adds a whole bunch of new features while remaining clean and simple, and if you really hate the spatial metaphore, there is a very much improved navigational mode in Nautilus 2.12.
Some people will always say "Nautalus is da suck" and you usually recognise trolls by their spelling mistake when writing Nautilus. Most of these are either caught up in old misconceptions, refuse to change their minds on things or just don't realise that something can be good even if they don't like it.
My favourite troll is when people take a borderline case and states that some perfectly good software is unusable until this borderline case is fixed.
However, Europe has traditionally had much smaller sales of game consoles and computer systems than the United States. More game consoles, however, are sold in Europe than in Japan.
As of december 2004, The Sony PS2 had sold 29.06m in Europe, 32.86m in USA and 19.47m in Japan. Given that the launch was later in Europe, it could have sold more in Europa than the US by now Granted, the Xbox have sold more than twice as many units in the US as in Europe.
Also, the EU being the largest market in the world, means that the POTENTIAL for further sales in Europe is larger than the potential for the US. Focusing on the EU as a target market could lead to massive future incomes. Any company would be complete and utter idiots to ignore this market.
The games have changed though. There seems to be less of the calm and quiet type of games such as the adventure games, Sam and Max and Grim Fandango.
The great new games have been more action oriented, like the Grand Theft Auto series, Half-Life.
I enjoyed Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas immensly even after having played the Vice City and GTA3 and consider them more of a other games in a genre, rather than sequels. I also enjoyed Half-Life 2, but I still wish for more of the calm wackiness of the old Lucasarts.
MMORPG doesn't appeal to me. I have plenty of social life and don't feel the need to socialise in a game. I played Ultima Online for a bit and quit because I found it either boring or too involving and ridden with assholes, depending on your angle. If the GTA-series goes MMORPG I will stop buying them as there would be too many assholes fucking up my gaming experience.
I enjoy multiplayer games sometimes, but nothing beats a good single player game for atmosphhere and immersion.
Written by Damien Sandras in the GnomeMeeting team:
GnomeMeeting "opal" should be ready before the end of the year.
It will feature : - a redesigned GUI - a WIN32 port (hopefully) - support for the H.323 protocol - support for the SIP protocol (ie compatibility with many windows softphones including Windows Messenger, XTEN, SJPhone, compatibility with Asterisk, SER,...), with video support - a Voice over IP platform for GNOME users sponsored by OVH.com :
* all users will be world reachable using a SIP address
* virtual conference rooms support
* voicemail support
* talking clock support A bit like what FreeWorldDialup is offering.
The purpose is to give all GnomeMeeting (and GNOME) users a VoIP address to which they are always reachable. If they are online, the softphone receives the call, if they are offline, the call is redirected to their voicemail.
You could for example have a SIP address like sip:luis gnomemeeting net to which other softphones could reach you. You will be able to call any other SIP user worldwide using a similar SIP address. For example, sip:dsandras gnomemeeting net or sip:00312313223 fwd pulver com for PC-to-PC calls, or sip:003210444555 vonage com for PC-to-Phone calls.
SIP URLs will be stored in the Evolution address book.
I would say that GnomeMeeting 2.00 will be a mini revolution : - on the GnomeMeeting side: with more VoIP protocols, still supporting video - on the services side: for a better experience of the GNOME user
I would like to thank OVH.com for their donation allowing to provide this service to GNOME users.
It will be launched as a BETA service in the next months.
GnomeMeeting 2.2 will bring still more features, but that's for later!
"Sony must make the PS3 as easy to program for as possible, but that does not at all mean that it should keep its architecture even remotely compatible with competing platforms."
It requires you to be the biggest player in the market. If you are not the dominating force, people would ignore YOU rather than the others if you are too different. The Xbox 360 will be out before the PS3 which could matter.
It really is just like high school. If you are popular, you can afford to be different. If you are not you had better conform or face the consequences.
There can be no doubt that Microsoft wants a slice of everyones pie. No independent software vendor is immune to Microsoft taking over their market almost overnight by using it's monopoly power on the desktop.
Any antitrust regulations will only give them a slap on the wrist after they have made insane amounts of money from their behaviour. There is simply no way they will stop, it is too lucrative.
Any independent software vendor should ask themselves if they can really gamble their whole future on making software for Windows, given Microsofts track record.
Thus all ISVs should look into cross platform development so that they have some options the day Microsoft tries to eat their lunch. Startups should avoid Microsoft-only solutions and instead go for open solutions that will work on Windows as well as other platforms.
"The companies have declined to confirm or deny the report, which would fit Apple's past pattern of being secretive to maximise the splash on announcement day."
It also fits with there being nothing in the rumour. I'm not saying it is is definitely false, but people should remember that there have always been massive amounts of rumours concerning new Apple products, and most of these end up being false.
The only way of remaining secretive is to refuse to comment on any rumours, whether they are true or not.
People dying are only the most extreme form of defective product which manufacturers are liable for, not the only one.
You can be sued for compensation if some stupid design flaw in your washing machine causes it to burst and spill water all over your apartment.
You can be sued for compensation when some daft design flaw causes your vacuum cleaner to explode ruining your carpet and possible causing some minor injury to yourself.
Likewise, requiring some license that excludes you from any compensation AFTER the product has been purchased is despicable business tactic that should never be allowed.
Requiring a license BEFORE you purchase or download is different, but this should still be very limited if you are actually paying for the product.
Because of the sheer prevalence of people with the intent to mess with your computer when connected to the internet, some limitations to your responsibility is in order, but real, stupid flaws that really should have been discovered before sale should require compensation for loss of productivity, limited loss of files, etc.
Backups of important stuff should be expected from the user, but purchased DRM content that do not allow backups certainly should be compensated for.
In particular decent terms should be required from companies having a monopoly on some product or service, requiring you to purchase from them even if you don't like their license.
Software is highly complicated, but so is many other types of engineering. The worst and most blatent flaws should make the software producer accountable.
When giving away some product however, you should be able to totally remove your accountability except for intentional breakage (malware for instance), as long as the user is made aware of this properly.
What a ridiculous comparison. Please compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges. Gmail is available ANYWHERE with a web browser. Thunderbird and Outlook both require setup. Note that Gmail also has POP-connection so you could actually use Outlook and Thunderbird to connect to it.
Gmail can be compared to Yahoo mail and Hotmail, both of which it destroys. Gmail is in my opinion the first webmail client to be considered acceptable by most technical people, something which says a lot.
And yes, the interface is simpler and the search features are better than Thunderbird and Outlook.
Does anyone seriously think they would have brought out MS Office for the Mac if they thought the Mac platform was a serious threat to Windows? Earning a cushy bit of money from the Mac enthusiasts is fine, but there is no way they would risk that if Apple was actually a threat.
"Did know that a low-end Mac sold with a boxed copy of Office often makes more money for Microsoft than it does Apple? (Gross margins on software are 80%+ compared to gross margins of 20% on hardware.) Yeah, Microsoft must really hate Apple."
And this is nothing compared to the enormous profits Microsoft gets from their total dominance of the industry.
Apple produces fine software and hardware and have a group of loyal enthusiasts for it. They also sell lots of machines in niche markets and to people who like style. Good for them, but taking massive market share has not been the goal or the outcome for Apple, and Microsoft knows it.
Linux on the other hand is scary, because it is a commodity. It could perceivably become a huge threat, and Microsoft knows it.
Hardware manufacturers should realise that they NEED Linux. They have been raped far too long by the software business (mainly Microsoft).
A complete PC for $200, but Microsoft Windows costs as much, despite having almost zero reproduction costs. WTF??? Development costs can only explain so much.
First, thanks for plugging your blog. Second, you have at least one factual mistake (although I do not oppose the main points of your story):
"(and you aspiring inventors should know this) Once you ship (or publish info about) an invention you lose the right to patent it."
This is simply untrue, and you should have checked your fact before so strongly scaring aspiring inventors. You do NOT lose your right to patent after you have published or shipped your product.
You have one year to file a patent after you first make the idea public, offer it for sale or publish it in a paper.
Are you saying that "poor slobs who make mistakes" aren't real bad guys?
Murders, rapes, bank robberies, arson, etc. are all crimes often commited by people who have absolutely no clue about GPS or whatever technology is used. These people can still be incredibly dangerous.
Just because some master criminals might get away doesn't mean we shouldn't try to catch the rest of them.
"REAL bad guys" is such a stupid term. "Resourceful bad guys" might be better.
This is also a problem because it requires you to trust the Free Software Foundation to always make the right decisions. If your software is licensed with the "or later" clause, you might end up with it being licensed under terms you really don't agree with.
Ehm.. Michael Moore became a life time member with the goals of becoming president of the organisation, so that he can dismantle it. So he is technically a member of the NRA, but he is very much against it.
Michael Moore is certainly not pro-gun, although you are right in saying the film was more about a culture of fear and violence (but not just because of foreign policy) than it was about guns.
Xandros is meant to be a typical business os where things Just Work [tm], are simple and user friendly.
These distributions are much better off supporting only ONE desktop solution. The prime target of Xandros doesn't know what GNOME or KDE is, they just want to get their work done. Xandros chose KDE, which is not a bad choice, and did a good job integrating it.
Confusing the issue with two very different ways of using your computer is just not a good idea. It is better to completely integrate one solution.
This is also why Ubuntu should stick to one user interface with their official distribution, and leave KDE to the more unofficial Kubuntu.
For the more technical users / companies, there is always Red Hat, SuSE, Mandrake, Slackware, Gentoo, Debian, etc.
I'm not sure I quite get you. I kind of seems to me that you're saying it is wrong to profit from experience and knowledge you gain in a company.
Profitting from trade secrets is wrong, but nobody can own your thoughts and experience except yourself. The skills you aquire in a workplace are your own. You can't be expected to "forget" them when you leave a company.
The truth is, he was a very high paid executive, with possible access to plenty of Microsoft trade secrets. Secrets that can be very bad in the "wrong" hands.
Microsoft gave this guy a standard 1-year non-compete clause for a reason, and being an executive, he was very well compensated for it.
A contract is about giving away something, and receiving something in return. This is why I despise normal workers being given non-compete clauses, because they normally don't gain anything other than simple employment.
An executive gets loadsamoney in return and all executives know that they will most likely have to sign some kind of non-compete agreement. The guy would have no problem living without work for a year, and have no problem getting a job that is not directly competitive.
Then what is the damn problem? There is nothing wrong with people signing away a few rights, as long as they feel they are well compensated and they know what they are doing.
Most likely, he just got greedy and he thought he could get away with it.
Slashdot Mirror
The motor industry does not want a revitilisation of small business auto repair. They have vigilantly fought the new laws in the EU that disallows the voiding of warranty just because you didn't use a brand name shop.
They have been happy with the cushy income of the licensing scheme for brand name shops and using closed interfaces and advanced computer systems has the glorious side effect of locking in customers.
While I agree with you that it would be much better for the consumer if they opened up, they will never take this route, and it is certainly not because they are idiots.
I call bullshit. It is obvious you haven't tried any of the newer versions of Nautilus.
/usr/bin with 2112 files without having opened it before. After it has been cached it takes 2 seconds. This is with 2.10, not 2.12.
My AMD Athlon takes 6 seconds to show
Showing huge directories is also an incredible borderline case that hardly defines the operation of the file manager (and now PLEASE don't ignore the previous paragraph just because I wrote this).
On the LiveCD I can't comment as I haven't tried it. Firefox uses it's own MIME system (sadly),
"Sure enough, Gnome still insists on ignoring the X Windowing system's DPI information and overriding it (and all other applications started after gnome-settings-daemon) with it's favorite 96 DPI."
I agree that it should default to the X DPI information, the GNOME DPI-settings are per user, rather than per machine. A much more sensible way, especially since people's eyesight vary wildly.
"The file open/save dialog boxes STILL don't have a URL field. One can only access this field by hitting an undocumented CTRL+L (that's usability!?)."
The Save dialog obviously has one. The Open dialog NEVER will, because it is ridiculous exposing this to most users who have no clue what it does and get scared by exposure to the UNIX file system.
If it is not documented, that is not good, although it is also available in the right-click menu, a feature which IS documented. Using a word like "STILL" is inflammatory, however, as it assumes that showing it as default would be a good thing. Documenting it is important, but hitting ctrl-L while your fingers are already at the keyboard is not going to slow you down much.
It is also the exact same keysetting to show the address bar in Nautilus and to focus the address bar in Epiphany and Firefox.
"gnome-settings-daemon will start Nautilus and XScreensaver from your session profile gnome-session-restore even if you're using another WM resulting in your root window being clobbered and two screensaver daemons running."
Just remove them from your session profile. While I do agree that this is unfortunate, I doubt this is the GNOME people's first priority.
Personally I think most peoples objections to Nautilus is the first impression they got when it was new, raw, slow and buggy. The newer releases are snappy, stable, beautiful and usable.
This latest release adds a whole bunch of new features while remaining clean and simple, and if you really hate the spatial metaphore, there is a very much improved navigational mode in Nautilus 2.12.
Some people will always say "Nautalus is da suck" and you usually recognise trolls by their spelling mistake when writing Nautilus. Most of these are either caught up in old misconceptions, refuse to change their minds on things or just don't realise that something can be good even if they don't like it.
My favourite troll is when people take a borderline case and states that some perfectly good software is unusable until this borderline case is fixed.
The European Union is the worlds biggest market:t m
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2266385.s
However, Europe has traditionally had much smaller sales of game consoles and computer systems than the United States. More game consoles, however, are sold in Europe than in Japan.
As of december 2004, The Sony PS2 had sold 29.06m in Europe, 32.86m in USA and 19.47m in Japan. Given that the launch was later in Europe, it could have sold more in Europa than the US by now Granted, the Xbox have sold more than twice as many units in the US as in Europe.
Also, the EU being the largest market in the world, means that the POTENTIAL for further sales in Europe is larger than the potential for the US. Focusing on the EU as a target market could lead to massive future incomes. Any company would be complete and utter idiots to ignore this market.
The games have changed though. There seems to be less of the calm and quiet type of games such as the adventure games, Sam and Max and Grim Fandango.
The great new games have been more action oriented, like the Grand Theft Auto series, Half-Life.
I enjoyed Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas immensly even after having played the Vice City and GTA3 and consider them more of a other games in a genre, rather than sequels. I also enjoyed Half-Life 2, but I still wish for more of the calm wackiness of the old Lucasarts.
MMORPG doesn't appeal to me. I have plenty of social life and don't feel the need to socialise in a game. I played Ultima Online for a bit and quit because I found it either boring or too involving and ridden with assholes, depending on your angle. If the GTA-series goes MMORPG I will stop buying them as there would be too many assholes fucking up my gaming experience.
I enjoy multiplayer games sometimes, but nothing beats a good single player game for atmosphhere and immersion.
"Sony must make the PS3 as easy to program for as possible, but that does not at all mean that it should keep its architecture even remotely compatible with competing platforms."
It requires you to be the biggest player in the market. If you are not the dominating force, people would ignore YOU rather than the others if you are too different. The Xbox 360 will be out before the PS3 which could matter.
It really is just like high school. If you are popular, you can afford to be different. If you are not you had better conform or face the consequences.
Civil disobedience is one of the strongest weapons available to the public when they feel the current laws are screwing them over.
I applaud bnetd's efforts to combat a really, really awful law.
1. Read old recipe
2. Vary the theme slightly, but stick to Star Wars or Star Trek.
3. ??????
4. Profit!!
There can be no doubt that Microsoft wants a slice of everyones pie. No independent software vendor is immune to Microsoft taking over their market almost overnight by using it's monopoly power on the desktop.
Any antitrust regulations will only give them a slap on the wrist after they have made insane amounts of money from their behaviour. There is simply no way they will stop, it is too lucrative.
Any independent software vendor should ask themselves if they can really gamble their whole future on making software for Windows, given Microsofts track record.
Thus all ISVs should look into cross platform development so that they have some options the day Microsoft tries to eat their lunch. Startups should avoid Microsoft-only solutions and instead go for open solutions that will work on Windows as well as other platforms.
"The companies have declined to confirm or deny the report, which would fit Apple's past pattern of being secretive to maximise the splash on announcement day."
It also fits with there being nothing in the rumour. I'm not saying it is is definitely false, but people should remember that there have always been massive amounts of rumours concerning new Apple products, and most of these end up being false.
The only way of remaining secretive is to refuse to comment on any rumours, whether they are true or not.
People dying are only the most extreme form of defective product which manufacturers are liable for, not the only one.
You can be sued for compensation if some stupid design flaw in your washing machine causes it to burst and spill water all over your apartment.
You can be sued for compensation when some daft design flaw causes your vacuum cleaner to explode ruining your carpet and possible causing some minor injury to yourself.
Likewise, requiring some license that excludes you from any compensation AFTER the product has been purchased is despicable business tactic that should never be allowed.
Requiring a license BEFORE you purchase or download is different, but this should still be very limited if you are actually paying for the product.
Because of the sheer prevalence of people with the intent to mess with your computer when connected to the internet, some limitations to your responsibility is in order, but real, stupid flaws that really should have been discovered before sale should require compensation for loss of productivity, limited loss of files, etc.
Backups of important stuff should be expected from the user, but purchased DRM content that do not allow backups certainly should be compensated for.
In particular decent terms should be required from companies having a monopoly on some product or service, requiring you to purchase from them even if you don't like their license.
Software is highly complicated, but so is many other types of engineering. The worst and most blatent flaws should make the software producer accountable.
When giving away some product however, you should be able to totally remove your accountability except for intentional breakage (malware for instance), as long as the user is made aware of this properly.
What a ridiculous comparison. Please compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges. Gmail is available ANYWHERE with a web browser. Thunderbird and Outlook both require setup. Note that Gmail also has POP-connection so you could actually use Outlook and Thunderbird to connect to it.
Gmail can be compared to Yahoo mail and Hotmail, both of which it destroys. Gmail is in my opinion the first webmail client to be considered acceptable by most technical people, something which says a lot.
And yes, the interface is simpler and the search features are better than Thunderbird and Outlook.
1. Extremely quick
2. Very simple, unobtrusive interface
3. Extensive search features
4. Very large storage space
For a Webmailsystem from a commercial operator it is extremely good imho.
It is still clearly marked "Beta" and no links to registration is found on the gmail.com website.
Exactly!
Does anyone seriously think they would have brought out MS Office for the Mac if they thought the Mac platform was a serious threat to Windows? Earning a cushy bit of money from the Mac enthusiasts is fine, but there is no way they would risk that if Apple was actually a threat.
"Did know that a low-end Mac sold with a boxed copy of Office often makes more money for Microsoft than it does Apple? (Gross margins on software are 80%+ compared to gross margins of 20% on hardware.) Yeah, Microsoft must really hate Apple."
And this is nothing compared to the enormous profits Microsoft gets from their total dominance of the industry.
Apple produces fine software and hardware and have a group of loyal enthusiasts for it. They also sell lots of machines in niche markets and to people who like style. Good for them, but taking massive market share has not been the goal or the outcome for Apple, and Microsoft knows it.
Linux on the other hand is scary, because it is a commodity. It could perceivably become a huge threat, and Microsoft knows it.
Hardware manufacturers should realise that they NEED Linux. They have been raped far too long by the software business (mainly Microsoft).
A complete PC for $200, but Microsoft Windows costs as much, despite having almost zero reproduction costs. WTF??? Development costs can only explain so much.
First, thanks for plugging your blog. Second, you have at least one factual mistake (although I do not oppose the main points of your story):
"(and you aspiring inventors should know this) Once you ship (or publish info about) an invention you lose the right to patent it."
This is simply untrue, and you should have checked your fact before so strongly scaring aspiring inventors. You do NOT lose your right to patent after you have published or shipped your product.
You have one year to file a patent after you first make the idea public, offer it for sale or publish it in a paper.
See this from actual attorneys.
Are you saying that "poor slobs who make mistakes" aren't real bad guys?
Murders, rapes, bank robberies, arson, etc. are all crimes often commited by people who have absolutely no clue about GPS or whatever technology is used. These people can still be incredibly dangerous.
Just because some master criminals might get away doesn't mean we shouldn't try to catch the rest of them.
"REAL bad guys" is such a stupid term. "Resourceful bad guys" might be better.
This is also a problem because it requires you to trust the Free Software Foundation to always make the right decisions. If your software is licensed with the "or later" clause, you might end up with it being licensed under terms you really don't agree with.
"If so many people are speeding why don't they just increase the speed limit?
Many studies show that the roads are the safest if everybody is travelling at the same speed."
This is possible, but is there much reason to believe they wouldn't just drive even faster?
"Michael Moore himself is a member of the NRA."
Ehm.. Michael Moore became a life time member with the goals of becoming president of the organisation, so that he can dismantle it. So he is technically a member of the NRA, but he is very much against it.
Michael Moore is certainly not pro-gun, although you are right in saying the film was more about a culture of fear and violence (but not just because of foreign policy) than it was about guns.
Xandros is meant to be a typical business os where things Just Work [tm], are simple and user friendly.
These distributions are much better off supporting only ONE desktop solution. The prime target of Xandros doesn't know what GNOME or KDE is, they just want to get their work done. Xandros chose KDE, which is not a bad choice, and did a good job integrating it.
Confusing the issue with two very different ways of using your computer is just not a good idea. It is better to completely integrate one solution.
This is also why Ubuntu should stick to one user interface with their official distribution, and leave KDE to the more unofficial Kubuntu.
For the more technical users / companies, there is always Red Hat, SuSE, Mandrake, Slackware, Gentoo, Debian, etc.
I'm not sure I quite get you. I kind of seems to me that you're saying it is wrong to profit from experience and knowledge you gain in a company.
Profitting from trade secrets is wrong, but nobody can own your thoughts and experience except yourself. The skills you aquire in a workplace are your own. You can't be expected to "forget" them when you leave a company.
.. calling the guy a "slave" or worse.
The truth is, he was a very high paid executive, with possible access to plenty of Microsoft trade secrets. Secrets that can be very bad in the "wrong" hands.
Microsoft gave this guy a standard 1-year non-compete clause for a reason, and being an executive, he was very well compensated for it.
A contract is about giving away something, and receiving something in return. This is why I despise normal workers being given non-compete clauses, because they normally don't gain anything other than simple employment.
An executive gets loadsamoney in return and all executives know that they will most likely have to sign some kind of non-compete agreement. The guy would have no problem living without work for a year, and have no problem getting a job that is not directly competitive.
Then what is the damn problem? There is nothing wrong with people signing away a few rights, as long as they feel they are well compensated and they know what they are doing.
Most likely, he just got greedy and he thought he could get away with it.