I didn't ask for Forbes to send these things to me; I haven't installed the hardware or the software, and I certainly never agreed to any relationship of any kind with DigitalConvergence. Given that, I don't see why am obligated to hold onto these things until DigitalConvergence decides that they want them back (and if they do they can send me pre-paid shippers: I have no intention of footing a postage bill to return something I never asked for.) In fact, as I understand it, these things came in the mail, which places them under postal regulations and I seem to recall a postal regulation which says that if someone mails you something you didn't ask for, it is yours. Like I said above, IANAL but I wish someone who was would comment.
Another thought: I never installed the hardware or the software, so how can I be bound by some purely hypothetical (from my view point, since I have no way of verifying it,) license agreement? If I don't install the software, which links me to their web site in order to register the product (as I understand the instruction sheet,) then why can't I hack the hardware any old way I want?
Here are a couple of e-mails I sent. The first was to DigitalConvergence, makers of this toy:
"Our company has received several of your CueCat scanners via Forbes recently and I would like to know whether you would prefer us to return them to you or to Forbes, or to just trash them. While there is some potential value in this device, your company's business practices are offensive enough that we have no desire to use them at this time (re: "Cease and Desist" letters to developers of Linux drivers for your device.) Better luck next time.
Sincerely,
etc etc
Then I sent this one to subscriber@forbes.com:
"Please stop sending the CueCat device to subscribers of Forbes magazine at XYZ Corporation. We find CueCat's business practices deeply offensive and will simply dispose of any such devices which we receive. As subscribers to your magazine, we find your association with these predatory and possibly illegal business practices to be deeply disturbing and we hope that your choice of business partners is merely an temporary aberration, not an indication of future trends. Thank you very much.
Respectfully,
etc etc
Possibly they can be educated, possibly not. But I won't do business with either of them until they demonstrate some enlightenment.:)
So THAT's what you have to do to be successful in the software business! Geeze... I've spent the last 20 years writing software. *sigh* Well, at least that explains why you guys have all the cool geek chics while all I've got is a clapped out Ford Escort - and that's borrowed!:)
In my humble opinion, one of the things Linux needs the most is a system registry to replace the anarchic mess of config files scattered all over the friggin' place. From a practical viewpoint it shouldn't be that difficult to do (a simple text file and a parser, even better if the parser is implemented as a kernal API.) From a philosophical point of view the mass of configuration files is a mess -- its uncivilized and I don't care whether Windows already has one or not; just put all of the app necessary info in one place where anyone can get to it easily.
Hmm. to boycott or not, that is the question: whether 'tis nobler to voice a little innocent protest or just keep back and watch while free market forces inexorably crush this puny obstacle. Look, it's been pointed out before: this is nothing new. Technology is a one-way door; once released, it can't be forced back into the bottle. The technology base is out there: digital recording, distribution, content, motive. Napster's centralized servers were the only chance the RIAA had to participate in the future distribution of music. They shouldn't have sued Napster, they should have bought it and figured out how to charge for the files using Napster's unique choke point. Napster was version 1.0 in the new content distribution model. Version 2.0 is already out there: it is decentralized and unaccountable and killing version 1.0 just feeds the baby. Maybe Lars and his crew should get a medal for killing off a widely despised industry monolith: RIP RIAA, for better or for worse.
What struck me most strongly about this was the amazing continuation of MS's attempts at obfuscation and confusion. They appear to believe that their courtroom tactic of challenging the definition of every word was so successful that it deserves to be repeated here. At some point their apparent inability to understand simple English has to irritate someone besides me; for example, for Microsoft to complain that they don't understand what the term "web browser" means is disengenuous at the least! And is anyone besides me as tired of MS claiming in one breath that their applications developers have no special access to the OS and in the very next breath claiming that the applications and OS portions of the company are too closely linked to be successfully separated? This gets more amazing every day. What do you suppose are the chances that Uncle Bill just closes the whole thing down and starts a new enterprise in Fiji?:)
My Linux box is a newer motherboard shoehorned into an old IBM AT case (garage sale: $5.00. Daughter collects old boards, drives, etc. so I got the case & she got the rest.) I had to rip out one of the 5 1/2" drive bays to get things to fit and that was a pain in the a**: these things aren't just steel, they're -thick- steel! Between the crow bar, rotary tool, and other assorted large implements of destruction it still took most of an afternoon. I never worry about anyone bumping the thing, setting stuff on top of it (or even knocking it off the desk.) Ditto with the old IBM keyboard. These things can be a bit dangerous, though: drop the case on a foot or the keyboard on your hand and you'll feel the pain!
(Ok, bad joke. But my eyes are changing again and I need new glasses. *sigh* Aging sucks.)
My own experience says that the industry and location you are in has a lot to do with it. I've been doing the code thing for over 20 years now and I couldn't get a job at a web company if I had to: kids don't hire old farts, they want to be surrounded with people like themselves. The fact that I'm current with C, C++, Java, etc. is irrelevant. On the other hand, getting a job at a manufacturing company or something like that would not be difficult; I get calls all the time. And hey, Linux may be cool and WinX may suck donkey donuts but the AS/400 is still a killer box (C is a bit doggy, tho'.) REAL easy to debug.
Once you've gotten too old for the new media crap (or more likely based on the people I know, burned out,) you gotta start thinking out of the box if you want to stay productive.
Trust me on this: after a certain age, a family is more than adequate compensation for missing those 20-hour days!
I mean no disrespect to my wife (whom I love and adore and *ouch*! Yes, dear!) but if that was what I had to go home to, who'd care whether Daikatana ever went gold!
After moving into the house two months ago I've just finished running all the Cat 5 to our 7 PCs and the vacant ports in the family room. *sigh* Anybody know where I can get a good deal on fiber?:)
...is to make every effort to get Microsoft out of the position where they believe they can dictate technical "standards" to everyone else, then protect those "standards" so that no one else can use them. Don't use MS products. Don't go out of your way to build code that works with their stuff. Lobby at every opportunity to get others to avoid their products. Their arrogance and deceit will continue as long as they own the PC market.
Let's hope they take a while to get to novels like "The Diamond Age" or "Snow Crash". I'm not sure I'm ready to be a working peasant in a nanotech world...
>>In the era of McCarthyism and the Cuban Missile Crises>>
They did pursue it relentlessly back in the late 50s and early 60s. By the time they figured out how to actually do it, sub-launched missles were just as effective and much cheaper. Instead of spending a few billion for a FOBS satellite or two, they just built Trident.:)
Mike
Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get me.
The stereotype of the geek is that of a disinterested loner. Not exactly rich fodder for political activism, methinks. When was the last time that you saw two (sober) geeks agree on anything? Wanna see an example? BSD/Linux/Win-Nt. There: I've started another catfight.
Another problem I see is that geeks are, by and large, pretty honest people. I might not trust a 256MB Dram laying unprotected in a room full of geeks but at least my view camera is safe (Oh, I'd get the camera back, eventually.) When was the last time anyone knew of an honest politician? I think this would be another example of, 'the meek shall inherit the earth -- in four by six plots.' In case you hadn't noticed, the existing power establishment doesn't exactly play fair or nice.
I'll be interested to see if anything comes of this but, frankly, the first new kernel or Quake patch will probably doom the movement to dissipation.
Hmm. On re-reading that I sound like a really sarcastic bastard. Hah! For once I agree with my wife! Apologies in advance: I wish something would happen to shake the old-boy network down to its spit-shined Oxfords: they disgust me beyond belief. But I'm dubious about our chances.
Perhaps Mattel would get a clue if a few thousand Barbie dolls were to go up in smoke. Given Barbie's popularity at the least it ought to get some media attention. Anyone interested?
Student radicals in the 60s (and others) learned early that the real law of the land is designed to protect businesses, not individuals. City dwellers, for example, have long known that if you are being assaulted on a street, the quickest way to get cops on the scene isn't to yell 'Rape!' or even 'Fire!'. If you need a cop fast, throw a brick through a store window.
It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone: look at who makes the laws, who interprets them, and then see how they got into those positions. How many 'grass roots' candidates supported by students or other groups outside the establishment elite have been elected to national political office? Who today remembers John Anderson, Senator Muske, and who ten years from now will remember John McCain? Few. How many get elected twice? Fewer. The rule is simple: business spends a lot of money and in return their voice carries further and faster than does yours or mine. Notwithstanding the moral issues, isn't this exactly what one would expect?
This is now and always has been a 'market economy' in which money is the currency not only of commerce but of politics as well (understandably: from an historical viewpoint it can be argued that, in many countries including the United States, the real purpose of politicians is to make sure that commerce is interrupted as little as possible.)
I'm not belittling you nor making fun of this or any other idea. But free software supporters are now making the same mistakes that 60's radicals made, and are following the same path to societal and historical oblivion. Nice ideas have finite lifetimes because the vast majority of us don't care. The real way to change the world is, apparently, to buy it.
AOL may not be fashionable but they have access numbers in places where nobody else does. I work for a -very- small company and we maintain AOL accounts for several execs who travel to out of the way places on business. AOL gets the job done and, with like 500 free hours he could do the whole thing for free.
Dividends were never the measure of a company's (or stock's) value. The only value in a share of stock is in the share's increasing value. A share is a product; it can be bought, sold, and traded freely (that's the contribution of a stock market, and why its called a 'market'.) The increase in value of a share over time is in fact the way the typical shareholder recovers their investment and makes a profit. I mean no offense, but Katz's original comment was not inaccurate.:)
They just don't get it -- once it was posted to the web it can't be called back. The source they're trying to control has passed irretrievably beyond the control of any human being -- there are certainly thousands, perhaps tens or hundreds of thousands of copies floating around the net by now (not to mention T-shirts. Anyone for a wet crypto T-shirt contest?)
Lawyers and judges aren't used to situations which they can't control. They can't control this in the same sense as they are used to being able to control things, and it frustrates them and gives them evil authoritarian thoughts of revenge. They're probably next for bondage and S&M scenarios because that's just about the only venue where they can still exercise their control fantasies. I'm not sure how that last effects crypto but hey, the mental imagery is compelling, don't you think?:)
At any rate, it seems to me that the only real purpose of further legal proceedings will be to 'punish' the 'miscreants' as a warning to others. Given that the interesting portion of the net is mostly the adolescent (and the adolescent at heart, despite our balding domes,) this is almost certainly a waste of time but then the courts never have minded a good exercise in wasting the time of as many people as possible.
As for making an example to others, I must have e-mailed over 500 copies of the source to sundry destinations over the past week, using various IPs and accounts. And erased the server logs. If you can figure out how to get all of them back I'd love to know how you did it.
Slashdot Mirror
I didn't ask for Forbes to send these things to me; I haven't installed the hardware or the software, and I certainly never agreed to any relationship of any kind with DigitalConvergence. Given that, I don't see why am obligated to hold onto these things until DigitalConvergence decides that they want them back (and if they do they can send me pre-paid shippers: I have no intention of footing a postage bill to return something I never asked for.) In fact, as I understand it, these things came in the mail, which places them under postal regulations and I seem to recall a postal regulation which says that if someone mails you something you didn't ask for, it is yours. Like I said above, IANAL but I wish someone who was would comment.
Another thought: I never installed the hardware or the software, so how can I be bound by some purely hypothetical (from my view point, since I have no way of verifying it,) license agreement? If I don't install the software, which links me to their web site in order to register the product (as I understand the instruction sheet,) then why can't I hack the hardware any old way I want?
mjs
Here are a couple of e-mails I sent. The first was to DigitalConvergence, makers of this toy:
:)
"Our company has received several of your CueCat scanners via Forbes recently and I would like to know whether you would prefer us to return them to you or to Forbes, or to just trash them. While there is some potential value in this device, your company's business practices are offensive enough that we have no desire to use them at this time (re: "Cease and Desist" letters to developers of Linux drivers for your device.) Better luck next time.
Sincerely,
etc etc
Then I sent this one to subscriber@forbes.com:
"Please stop sending the CueCat device to subscribers of Forbes magazine at XYZ Corporation. We find CueCat's business practices deeply offensive and will simply dispose of any such devices which we receive. As subscribers to your magazine, we find your association with these predatory and possibly illegal business practices to be deeply disturbing and we hope that your choice of business partners is merely an temporary aberration, not an indication of future trends. Thank you very much.
Respectfully,
etc etc
Possibly they can be educated, possibly not. But I won't do business with either of them until they demonstrate some enlightenment.
mjs
Wait -- do you *know* of a good Teletubby song? Could you sing it for us?
So THAT's what you have to do to be successful in the software business! Geeze... I've spent the last 20 years writing software. *sigh* Well, at least that explains why you guys have all the cool geek chics while all I've got is a clapped out Ford Escort - and that's borrowed! :)
"Forgive him, Caesar: he is a barbarian and believes the customs of his tribe are laws of nature."
In my humble opinion, one of the things Linux needs the most is a system registry to replace the anarchic mess of config files scattered all over the friggin' place. From a practical viewpoint it shouldn't be that difficult to do (a simple text file and a parser, even better if the parser is implemented as a kernal API.) From a philosophical point of view the mass of configuration files is a mess -- its uncivilized and I don't care whether Windows already has one or not; just put all of the app necessary info in one place where anyone can get to it easily.
mjs
Hmm. to boycott or not, that is the question: whether 'tis nobler to voice a little innocent protest or just keep back and watch while free market forces inexorably crush this puny obstacle. Look, it's been pointed out before: this is nothing new. Technology is a one-way door; once released, it can't be forced back into the bottle. The technology base is out there: digital recording, distribution, content, motive. Napster's centralized servers were the only chance the RIAA had to participate in the future distribution of music. They shouldn't have sued Napster, they should have bought it and figured out how to charge for the files using Napster's unique choke point. Napster was version 1.0 in the new content distribution model. Version 2.0 is already out there: it is decentralized and unaccountable and killing version 1.0 just feeds the baby. Maybe Lars and his crew should get a medal for killing off a widely despised industry monolith: RIP RIAA, for better or for worse.
What struck me most strongly about this was the amazing continuation of MS's attempts at obfuscation and confusion. They appear to believe that their courtroom tactic of challenging the definition of every word was so successful that it deserves to be repeated here. At some point their apparent inability to understand simple English has to irritate someone besides me; for example, for Microsoft to complain that they don't understand what the term "web browser" means is disengenuous at the least! And is anyone besides me as tired of MS claiming in one breath that their applications developers have no special access to the OS and in the very next breath claiming that the applications and OS portions of the company are too closely linked to be successfully separated? This gets more amazing every day. What do you suppose are the chances that Uncle Bill just closes the whole thing down and starts a new enterprise in Fiji? :)
My Linux box is a newer motherboard shoehorned into an old IBM AT case (garage sale: $5.00. Daughter collects old boards, drives, etc. so I got the case & she got the rest.) I had to rip out one of the 5 1/2" drive bays to get things to fit and that was a pain in the a**: these things aren't just steel, they're -thick- steel! Between the crow bar, rotary tool, and other assorted large implements of destruction it still took most of an afternoon. I never worry about anyone bumping the thing, setting stuff on top of it (or even knocking it off the desk.) Ditto with the old IBM keyboard. These things can be a bit dangerous, though: drop the case on a foot or the keyboard on your hand and you'll feel the pain!
:)
(Ok, bad joke. But my eyes are changing again and I need new glasses. *sigh* Aging sucks.)
My own experience says that the industry and location you are in has a lot to do with it. I've been doing the code thing for over 20 years now and I couldn't get a job at a web company if I had to: kids don't hire old farts, they want to be surrounded with people like themselves. The fact that I'm current with C, C++, Java, etc. is irrelevant. On the other hand, getting a job at a manufacturing company or something like that would not be difficult; I get calls all the time. And hey, Linux may be cool and WinX may suck donkey donuts but the AS/400 is still a killer box (C is a bit doggy, tho'.) REAL easy to debug.
Once you've gotten too old for the new media crap (or more likely based on the people I know, burned out,) you gotta start thinking out of the box if you want to stay productive.
Trust me on this: after a certain age, a family is more than adequate compensation for missing those 20-hour days!
1 = "L" 3 = "E" 7 = "T" so "1337" = "leet", which is "Elite" (think of it as 'leet. Honestly: I think these kids grew up on 'B' movies!)
:)
I mean no disrespect to my wife (whom I love and adore and *ouch*! Yes, dear!) but if that was what I had to go home to, who'd care whether Daikatana ever went gold!
After moving into the house two months ago I've just finished running all the Cat 5 to our 7 PCs and the vacant ports in the family room. *sigh* Anybody know where I can get a good deal on fiber? :)
...is to make every effort to get Microsoft out of the position where they believe they can dictate technical "standards" to everyone else, then protect those "standards" so that no one else can use them. Don't use MS products. Don't go out of your way to build code that works with their stuff. Lobby at every opportunity to get others to avoid their products. Their arrogance and deceit will continue as long as they own the PC market.
Let's hope they take a while to get to novels like "The Diamond Age" or "Snow Crash". I'm not sure I'm ready to be a working peasant in a nanotech world...
>>In the era of McCarthyism and the Cuban Missile Crises>>
:)
They did pursue it relentlessly back in the late 50s and early 60s. By the time they figured out how to actually do it, sub-launched missles were just as effective and much cheaper. Instead of spending a few billion for a FOBS satellite or two, they just built Trident.
Mike
Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get me.
<>
:)
Try "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex" by Poul Anderson.
The stereotype of the geek is that of a disinterested loner. Not exactly rich fodder for political activism, methinks. When was the last time that you saw two (sober) geeks agree on anything? Wanna see an example? BSD/Linux/Win-Nt. There: I've started another catfight.
Another problem I see is that geeks are, by and large, pretty honest people. I might not trust a 256MB Dram laying unprotected in a room full of geeks but at least my view camera is safe (Oh, I'd get the camera back, eventually.) When was the last time anyone knew of an honest politician? I think this would be another example of, 'the meek shall inherit the earth -- in four by six plots.' In case you hadn't noticed, the existing power establishment doesn't exactly play fair or nice.
I'll be interested to see if anything comes of this but, frankly, the first new kernel or Quake patch will probably doom the movement to dissipation.
Hmm. On re-reading that I sound like a really sarcastic bastard. Hah! For once I agree with my wife! Apologies in advance: I wish something would happen to shake the old-boy network down to its spit-shined Oxfords: they disgust me beyond belief. But I'm dubious about our chances.
Mike
Perhaps Mattel would get a clue if a few thousand Barbie dolls were to go up in smoke. Given Barbie's popularity at the least it ought to get some media attention. Anyone interested?
<>
Student radicals in the 60s (and others) learned early that the real law of the land is designed to protect businesses, not individuals. City dwellers, for example, have long known that if you are being assaulted on a street, the quickest way to get cops on the scene isn't to yell 'Rape!' or even 'Fire!'. If you need a cop fast, throw a brick through a store window.
It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone: look at who makes the laws, who interprets them, and then see how they got into those positions. How many 'grass roots' candidates supported by students or other groups outside the establishment elite have been elected to national political office? Who today remembers John Anderson, Senator Muske, and who ten years from now will remember John McCain? Few. How many get elected twice? Fewer. The rule is simple: business spends a lot of money and in return their voice carries further and faster than does yours or mine. Notwithstanding the moral issues, isn't this exactly what one would expect?
This is now and always has been a 'market economy' in which money is the currency not only of commerce but of politics as well (understandably: from an historical viewpoint it can be argued that, in many countries including the United States, the real purpose of politicians is to make sure that commerce is interrupted as little as possible.)
I'm not belittling you nor making fun of this or any other idea. But free software supporters are now making the same mistakes that 60's radicals made, and are following the same path to societal and historical oblivion. Nice ideas have finite lifetimes because the vast majority of us don't care. The real way to change the world is, apparently, to buy it.
Mike
AOL may not be fashionable but they have access numbers in places where nobody else does. I work for a -very- small company and we maintain AOL accounts for several execs who travel to out of the way places on business. AOL gets the job done and, with like 500 free hours he could do the whole thing for free.
Dividends were never the measure of a company's (or stock's) value. The only value in a share of stock is in the share's increasing value. A share is a product; it can be bought, sold, and traded freely (that's the contribution of a stock market, and why its called a 'market'.) The increase in value of a share over time is in fact the way the typical shareholder recovers their investment and makes a profit. I mean no offense, but Katz's original comment was not inaccurate. :)
<>
How 'bout Whackers? Which is what their daddies should have done to them a long time ago...
They just don't get it -- once it was posted to the web it can't be called back. The source they're trying to control has passed irretrievably beyond the control of any human being -- there are certainly thousands, perhaps tens or hundreds of thousands of copies floating around the net by now (not to mention T-shirts. Anyone for a wet crypto T-shirt contest?)
:)
Lawyers and judges aren't used to situations which they can't control. They can't control this in the same sense as they are used to being able to control things, and it frustrates them and gives them evil authoritarian thoughts of revenge. They're probably next for bondage and S&M scenarios because that's just about the only venue where they can still exercise their control fantasies. I'm not sure how that last effects crypto but hey, the mental imagery is compelling, don't you think?
At any rate, it seems to me that the only real purpose of further legal proceedings will be to 'punish' the 'miscreants' as a warning to others. Given that the interesting portion of the net is mostly the adolescent (and the adolescent at heart, despite our balding domes,) this is almost certainly a waste of time but then the courts never have minded a good exercise in wasting the time of as many people as possible.
As for making an example to others, I must have e-mailed over 500 copies of the source to sundry destinations over the past week, using various IPs and accounts. And erased the server logs. If you can figure out how to get all of them back I'd love to know how you did it.
:)
Ok, so I live in a box. Who's Sarah Michelle Gellar?