There are a lot of missing dates, but it looks to me like whitehouse.gov had a major site redesign sometime between Jul 13 and Sep 13 2001, and that when the new site was released they started putting in lots of the disallow statments for certain paths.
It seems to me like the simplest explanation is just that their redesigned site has multiple paths to the same information, and for some reason they felt that their search engine rankings would improve if they eliminated superfluous paths. Although I'll admit it's suspicious that their old robots.txt from 2 years ago had 151 Disallows, and the one from today has 1552 Disallows, while the site uses basically the same navigation structure.
They tried the same exact tactic last year using their broadly defined shopping cart patent. Let's hope this action ends the same way, divine was out of business 4 months later. (But succeeded in licensing the right to use a shopping cart for $25,000 to a couple dozen small companies before they went under)
My guess is this DE Technologies will soon be bankrupt, so I'd just ignore any of their demands. As with divine, I think the only company that's dumb enough to try something like this is one that is already going under and so has nothing to lose. These companies know their patents are bullshit and will never stand up in court, that's why their licensing fees are always in the $10k to $25k range, just low enough so that it's cheaper for the mom and pop shops they abuse to pay the license rather than hire a lawyer. Their worst nightware would be to end up in court, I don't think a company would even have to actually hire a lawyer to make them go away, just tell them you're not paying the license and will see them in court, they'll back off just out of fear of going to court and seeing their whole ponzi scheme fall apart.
It took some searching but, here's your free link:
http://www5.msnmessenger-download.com/thankyou.asp x
1. Fill out the form and enter the contest.
2. Log on to MSN Messenger 6.0 on Fridays 7/25/03 through 8/15/03 between 9am and 7pm Pacific time.
3. If you're selected, we'll send you an alert. Clicking on the alert will take you to a Web page. (If you miss the alert the first time, you'll get 2 more tries!)
4. Confirm the email address from your entry form.
5. Decide what to do with your $1,000!
You don't pay anything, you do have to use their software, but I don't see how that would fall under a no purchase necessary provision.
I've been in your shoes a few times with the web consultancy where I used to work. Here's my take:
Since your company is asking you to do this for them, they are probably badly hurting financially. Otherwise, Why would they worry so much about pissing off the client by pushing out the end date? So, even in the best case scenario, if you and all your co-workers pull off the project on time and the client is happy, the company will be a little better off financially....but they probably won't be a company that can offer you much in the way of job security. What work do they have lined up for you after this project?
The more likely scenario is that the timeline was estimated too short to start with. 4-6 week timelines are a big red flag, unless you're working on something really simple, they probably didn't leave much if any time for testing, bug fixing, or unforeseen issues.
I think you're project will go a lot like this: You'll end up working 16 hours a day 7 days a week, and many of your co-workers will too, but you'll miss the deadline anyway. About 2 weeks before the deadline your client will figure out that it's getting behind schedule and will insist on having a Come to Jesus with everyone even remotely related to the project where you will make the "Go / No Go" decision regarding moving forward with the proejct. This "Go / No Go" decision always results in your project manager getting fired and replaced by one of your client's project managers (who has more experience motivating people), your client will never choose "No Go" at this point because they feel like even though they'll miss the deadline, they have too much invested in the project, and believe it will be finished within 2-3 weeks after the deadline which is faster than they could find replacments for you. Your new minimally experienced project manager will conduct a meeting with all the developers where he will be trying to create a checklist of all tasks on the "Critical Path", once this checklist is developed he will check up with you daily to make sure you've gotten a few items checked off his list. Eventually, there won't be anything left to check off his list, but your software still won't work, which will really piss of your PM, who can't understand where things went wrong since everything on the list is done. Another Come to Jesus, Go/No Go, another new PM. About 4-6 weeks past your deadline you'll finally go live. Client will be pissed, your management will be pissed, your company will be worse off financially than before the project.
If I'm ever in this situation again, I'm leaving for the first decent job I can find. I'd recommend you do the same, yeah the job market is bad now, but it's better than it will be when your co-workers are laid off with you and competing for the same jobs as you.
If you stick it out (like I did), tell your management you won't work more than your regular work schedule without overtime. If you're lucky, they'll fire you and you'll get some severance. If they'll concede to give you overtime then work as much as possible, get a couple of fat paychecks before the company goes under.
Slashdot Mirror
There are a lot of missing dates, but it looks to me like whitehouse.gov had a major site redesign sometime between Jul 13 and Sep 13 2001, and that when the new site was released they started putting in lots of the disallow statments for certain paths.
From Jul 13:
7-13 Whitehouse.gov
7-13 Robots.txt
From Sep 13:
9-13 Whitehouse.gov
9-13 Robots.txt
It seems to me like the simplest explanation is just that their redesigned site has multiple paths to the same information, and for some reason they felt that their search engine rankings would improve if they eliminated superfluous paths. Although I'll admit it's suspicious that their old robots.txt from 2 years ago had 151 Disallows, and the one from today has 1552 Disallows, while the site uses basically the same navigation structure.
Maybe those in Chicago remember divine.
They tried the same exact tactic last year using their broadly defined shopping cart patent. Let's hope this action ends the same way, divine was out of business 4 months later. (But succeeded in licensing the right to use a shopping cart for $25,000 to a couple dozen small companies before they went under)
My guess is this DE Technologies will soon be bankrupt, so I'd just ignore any of their demands. As with divine, I think the only company that's dumb enough to try something like this is one that is already going under and so has nothing to lose. These companies know their patents are bullshit and will never stand up in court, that's why their licensing fees are always in the $10k to $25k range, just low enough so that it's cheaper for the mom and pop shops they abuse to pay the license rather than hire a lawyer. Their worst nightware would be to end up in court, I don't think a company would even have to actually hire a lawyer to make them go away, just tell them you're not paying the license and will see them in court, they'll back off just out of fear of going to court and seeing their whole ponzi scheme fall apart.
Sorry, here's the link: MSN Site
It took some searching but, here's your free link: http://www5.msnmessenger-download.com/thankyou.asp x
1. Fill out the form and enter the contest.
2. Log on to MSN Messenger 6.0 on Fridays 7/25/03 through 8/15/03 between 9am and 7pm Pacific time.
3. If you're selected, we'll send you an alert. Clicking on the alert will take you to a Web page. (If you miss the alert the first time, you'll get 2 more tries!)
4. Confirm the email address from your entry form.
5. Decide what to do with your $1,000!
You don't pay anything, you do have to use their software, but I don't see how that would fall under a no purchase necessary provision.
I've been in your shoes a few times with the web consultancy where I used to work. Here's my take:
Since your company is asking you to do this for them, they are probably badly hurting financially. Otherwise, Why would they worry so much about pissing off the client by pushing out the end date? So, even in the best case scenario, if you and all your co-workers pull off the project on time and the client is happy, the company will be a little better off financially....but they probably won't be a company that can offer you much in the way of job security. What work do they have lined up for you after this project?
The more likely scenario is that the timeline was estimated too short to start with. 4-6 week timelines are a big red flag, unless you're working on something really simple, they probably didn't leave much if any time for testing, bug fixing, or unforeseen issues.
I think you're project will go a lot like this: You'll end up working 16 hours a day 7 days a week, and many of your co-workers will too, but you'll miss the deadline anyway. About 2 weeks before the deadline your client will figure out that it's getting behind schedule and will insist on having a Come to Jesus with everyone even remotely related to the project where you will make the "Go / No Go" decision regarding moving forward with the proejct. This "Go / No Go" decision always results in your project manager getting fired and replaced by one of your client's project managers (who has more experience motivating people), your client will never choose "No Go" at this point because they feel like even though they'll miss the deadline, they have too much invested in the project, and believe it will be finished within 2-3 weeks after the deadline which is faster than they could find replacments for you. Your new minimally experienced project manager will conduct a meeting with all the developers where he will be trying to create a checklist of all tasks on the "Critical Path", once this checklist is developed he will check up with you daily to make sure you've gotten a few items checked off his list. Eventually, there won't be anything left to check off his list, but your software still won't work, which will really piss of your PM, who can't understand where things went wrong since everything on the list is done. Another Come to Jesus, Go/No Go, another new PM. About 4-6 weeks past your deadline you'll finally go live. Client will be pissed, your management will be pissed, your company will be worse off financially than before the project.
If I'm ever in this situation again, I'm leaving for the first decent job I can find. I'd recommend you do the same, yeah the job market is bad now, but it's better than it will be when your co-workers are laid off with you and competing for the same jobs as you.
If you stick it out (like I did), tell your management you won't work more than your regular work schedule without overtime. If you're lucky, they'll fire you and you'll get some severance. If they'll concede to give you overtime then work as much as possible, get a couple of fat paychecks before the company goes under.