Yes, something like that will work as well. I did not say that they should send the original email, in fact I specifically said it needed to be cleaned up.
Well obviously you do this before installing the pirated software (which shouldn't be hard since you are not going to install it in the first place, right?).
"The only possible reason for CCing the vendor is to try to force the manager into doing the right thing, and this isn't the way to do that."
Absolutely not. There is also the most common reason to contact vendors, the need to inquire about additional software purchases.
"but you've totally screwed any possibility of meaningful sales negotiation with the vendor because they now have inside info."
What inside information? That you need additional copies of software, are on a budget, and are considering open source software? Thats all the information I would include in the letter.
It already involves external parties if you are in the process of purchasing software licenses (the original ones that are to be copied). If you are claiming the manager is just misunderstanding the licensing agreements or miscounting how many licenses they currently have instead of conspiring to commit software piracy, its not snitching. And unless you are fired, HR isn't going to be able to do anything for you, and copying them only makes it look like you are planning to quit over this. The only internal party that could be helpful would be legal.
"(your company's legal counsel) duty is to the company"
Which is why they need to be consulted. No, they would not be able to advise you if your legal needs were at odds with the company's but that is not the case here (at least not yet, that might change if you were to install the pirated software). Your legal needs and your company's are one in the same here, protection from piracy laws. Its the company's financial needs that you are at odds with.
"(I say this because other USians tell me that in many places it's common for 95% or more of the traffic to be exceeding the limit by 20 or 30)."
During the morning rush hour? Please tell me where so I can move there.
Anyways, minor traffic offenses are not considered comparable to other crimes. Generally they are not even considered misdemeanors, and you can just pay a fine without even showing up to court.
And 30 is probably an exaggeration, even in good traffic. Depending on the state, 15-20 over is where you become eligible for reckless driving, and that is something that is taken seriously.
They may not enforce their license to individual pirates, but a whole company? It doesn't matter what country they are based in, a company has a lot of capital to be gained from lawsuits.
You mention crack dealers, believe it or not, they eventually do charge once you get addicted and really need it. In the software side of this analogy, a business is analogous to an addict. They are the ones who really need the software.
Even better, cc your vendor and include a line like "I've included John from {insert vendor's name} whom you can contact to purchase additional licenses" (you might also want to touch it up a bit to make it sound like you suspect your boss innocently did not realize the licensing issues). That will essentially force them to abide by your decision, and if they accuse you of snitching on them you can claim you were just trying to make it easier for them to purchase the additional licenses. Plus the vendor may offer a discount to keep you from going down the open source road and you would get the credit for finding it.
And worst case scenario, if you ever do need a new job, you have a new contact at your vendor who would certainly give you a good recommendation.
Why offer to quit? I'm pretty sure its illegal to fire someone because they won't break the law. Just offer to install Open Office or nothing at all.
Anyways, this isn't the type of question you should be asking on/. This is the type of question you should be asking your (or your company's) legal counsel.
Remember, this is not like installing pirated software on your dorm room computer back in college. That is certainly illegal, but its unlikely that you will ever get in trouble for it as its not worth it for MS to go after you. Your company, on the other hand, is a much juicier target.
First of all, your entire post only covers Flash from the user's point of view, it has nothing on the developer's side of things. As has been mentioned ad nauseum now, the main purpose of silverlight is that it integrates nicely with.NET.
Second, your entire point seems to be "Flash is fine if you first install a bunch of stuff to prevent it from working". But thats entirely the point. You shouldn't have to do all that. Those options (like play only when you want it, or don't play sound, or don't create pop-ups) should be available in the plugin itself. You shouldn't have to install flashblock (which really is a poorly designed plugin) to do all that. Unfortunately that is the case, due to the fact that the plugin is only available from Adobe and they don't feel their users should have those choices.
Does it? Aside from the fact that it cannot be offered with the OS because of license restrictions, I have heard of many people having problems running Flash on Linux. What we really need is something like this that uses entirely open standards so third party players can be developed (not sure if MS will agree to do that for Silverlight, though).
From what I have heard, the main advantage to Silverlight is that it integrates better with.NET applications on the server-side. Besides, how can a little bit of competition be a bad thing? Worst case it will force Adobe to improve their product in order to keep from losing out to Silverlight. If you were to argue we don't need new technologies when there is already something that is "good enough", we should all be running applets in Netscape.
My apartment has something like that too. All the lights are connected to these 'switches' that you could hit when you enter a room to turn on the lights, and then hit again when you leave to turn them back off. Its brilliant, foolproof, and doesn't require me to run a bunch of energy consuming sensors and computer to run everything.
Except if the route with the lit signs is also the route that is blocked.
Also, most large office buildings house a lot of people, if everyone just went out what some algorithm considered the quickest door there would be a huge bottleneck in that exit. Generally the plan is to make use of each and every available exit.
First, I keep on saying "natural selection" and you keep on repeating "evolution". There is a difference between the two. Second, you are not going by Intelligent Design advocate Jonathan Wells's "research" that has been debunked by actual scientists, are you?
We already have plenty of attempts to educate voters, at least here in the States. First, every candidate spends millions of dollars on TV campaign ads that are force fed to voters when they watch TV. That requires even less effort that clicking on a link by a ballot. And of course when you do go to the polls, the area around is flooded with campaign ads, right up to the distance from the actual polls where campaign ads are no longer allowed. What, you think those ads are too often biased, unfair, and favor the candidate who has the biggest pocketbook? Well why do you think your system would be any different?
"Actually, those moths don't "evolve" darker coloration. As soon as the pollution that leads to the rise in proportion of darker colored moths is eliminated the ratio of dark to light moths reverts to its original distribution."
Yeah, thats a process commonly known as natural selection.
No one (including the guy you were responding to) used skin cancer the selecting mechanism. Its generally believed among evolutionary biologists that it is vitamins. Some vitamins (such as vitamin D as mentioned here) need UV light to be produced. Others get denatured by too much exposure to UV light. There have been other theories (for instance women with too pale skin might get sunburned nipples which prevents them from breastfeeding), but I have never heard anyone argue skin cancer is one since it is only recently that people have lived long enough for that to be common. Note that in species like humans, there is a selection to help humans live past their breeding age so the elder populations can pass information on down to the younger generations.
Uh, exactly how long do you think the Native Americans we know today lived in South America near the equator? There is very little in the form of written records until the end of the 15th century, while relatives of modern day Europeans have lived in northern Europe for several millennia. I don't know how long you think it takes for a certain trait like skin color to be selected for among a population, but it can be done within that time frame. Studies of the selection of similar traits in animal populations have been recorded in relatively short time spans, for instance a type of moth has been seen to have evolved a different coloring to better camouflage it against trees that are covered in soot due to modern pollution. Remember we are not talking about evolving a new appendage here, just different amounts of melanin in the skin.
Besides, there are many factors other than distance from the equator that determine how much UV light you take in. Settlers in South America were primarily living in densely covered rain forests, while much of the African population originally came from the Sahara. And of course the native South American population that early European settlers met most likely originated from northern Asia, who likely did not retain many genes for dark skin. And of course no one argued that UV light was the only selecting factor relating to skin color.
That would be fine, though I still feel that when the "perpetual beta" model is used (like it is used by Google), 'beta quality' has to be pretty damn close to 'production quality' as there is never a production release. No, you can never find each and every bug in a complex piece of software (in a beta release or a production release) and a perpetual beta product has the advantage in that it is patched very often, but if it is effectively the end product your end users see then you want them to have a high opinion of it and your company. Thats not going to happen if they are constantly hitting bugs, regardless of what type of release you label it.
I think you are missing the point of beta testing. The goal isn't to nail down critical bugs, but rather to get an understanding of how real world customers like and use your product. Any time your product leaves the walls of your office, critical bugs need to have been dealt with.
Perpetual beta doesn't mean your product takes 15 years to nail down each and every bug (in fact, as any software developer will tell you, no matter how much testing you have done you will never be able to guarantee that each bug has been found). It is a reflection of modern agile software strategies that feedback is constantly taken from customers and incorporated in the evolving product.
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Yes, something like that will work as well. I did not say that they should send the original email, in fact I specifically said it needed to be cleaned up.
Well obviously you do this before installing the pirated software (which shouldn't be hard since you are not going to install it in the first place, right?).
"The only possible reason for CCing the vendor is to try to force the manager into doing the right thing, and this isn't the way to do that."
Absolutely not. There is also the most common reason to contact vendors, the need to inquire about additional software purchases.
"but you've totally screwed any possibility of meaningful sales negotiation with the vendor because they now have inside info."
What inside information? That you need additional copies of software, are on a budget, and are considering open source software? Thats all the information I would include in the letter.
Blame you for what? Offering advice on the company's IT needs? Thats sort of what IT professionals are paid to do.
It already involves external parties if you are in the process of purchasing software licenses (the original ones that are to be copied). If you are claiming the manager is just misunderstanding the licensing agreements or miscounting how many licenses they currently have instead of conspiring to commit software piracy, its not snitching. And unless you are fired, HR isn't going to be able to do anything for you, and copying them only makes it look like you are planning to quit over this. The only internal party that could be helpful would be legal.
"(your company's legal counsel) duty is to the company"
Which is why they need to be consulted. No, they would not be able to advise you if your legal needs were at odds with the company's but that is not the case here (at least not yet, that might change if you were to install the pirated software). Your legal needs and your company's are one in the same here, protection from piracy laws. Its the company's financial needs that you are at odds with.
"(I say this because other USians tell me that in many places it's common for 95% or more of the traffic to be exceeding the limit by 20 or 30)."
During the morning rush hour? Please tell me where so I can move there.
Anyways, minor traffic offenses are not considered comparable to other crimes. Generally they are not even considered misdemeanors, and you can just pay a fine without even showing up to court.
And 30 is probably an exaggeration, even in good traffic. Depending on the state, 15-20 over is where you become eligible for reckless driving, and that is something that is taken seriously.
They may not enforce their license to individual pirates, but a whole company? It doesn't matter what country they are based in, a company has a lot of capital to be gained from lawsuits.
You mention crack dealers, believe it or not, they eventually do charge once you get addicted and really need it. In the software side of this analogy, a business is analogous to an addict. They are the ones who really need the software.
Even better, cc your vendor and include a line like "I've included John from {insert vendor's name} whom you can contact to purchase additional licenses" (you might also want to touch it up a bit to make it sound like you suspect your boss innocently did not realize the licensing issues). That will essentially force them to abide by your decision, and if they accuse you of snitching on them you can claim you were just trying to make it easier for them to purchase the additional licenses. Plus the vendor may offer a discount to keep you from going down the open source road and you would get the credit for finding it.
And worst case scenario, if you ever do need a new job, you have a new contact at your vendor who would certainly give you a good recommendation.
Why offer to quit? I'm pretty sure its illegal to fire someone because they won't break the law. Just offer to install Open Office or nothing at all.
Anyways, this isn't the type of question you should be asking on /. This is the type of question you should be asking your (or your company's) legal counsel.
Remember, this is not like installing pirated software on your dorm room computer back in college. That is certainly illegal, but its unlikely that you will ever get in trouble for it as its not worth it for MS to go after you. Your company, on the other hand, is a much juicier target.
First of all, your entire post only covers Flash from the user's point of view, it has nothing on the developer's side of things. As has been mentioned ad nauseum now, the main purpose of silverlight is that it integrates nicely with .NET.
Second, your entire point seems to be "Flash is fine if you first install a bunch of stuff to prevent it from working". But thats entirely the point. You shouldn't have to do all that. Those options (like play only when you want it, or don't play sound, or don't create pop-ups) should be available in the plugin itself. You shouldn't have to install flashblock (which really is a poorly designed plugin) to do all that. Unfortunately that is the case, due to the fact that the plugin is only available from Adobe and they don't feel their users should have those choices.
It might actually be cheaper to just buy a non-student version...
But if you are one of those lucky few who manages to graduate at some point in your life, it will cost you a bazillion dollars.
"Linux/OSX support it"
Does it? Aside from the fact that it cannot be offered with the OS because of license restrictions, I have heard of many people having problems running Flash on Linux. What we really need is something like this that uses entirely open standards so third party players can be developed (not sure if MS will agree to do that for Silverlight, though).
From what I have heard, the main advantage to Silverlight is that it integrates better with .NET applications on the server-side. Besides, how can a little bit of competition be a bad thing? Worst case it will force Adobe to improve their product in order to keep from losing out to Silverlight. If you were to argue we don't need new technologies when there is already something that is "good enough", we should all be running applets in Netscape.
You mean 'never'? I think they already know that.
My apartment has something like that too. All the lights are connected to these 'switches' that you could hit when you enter a room to turn on the lights, and then hit again when you leave to turn them back off. Its brilliant, foolproof, and doesn't require me to run a bunch of energy consuming sensors and computer to run everything.
Except if the route with the lit signs is also the route that is blocked.
Also, most large office buildings house a lot of people, if everyone just went out what some algorithm considered the quickest door there would be a huge bottleneck in that exit. Generally the plan is to make use of each and every available exit.
First, I keep on saying "natural selection" and you keep on repeating "evolution". There is a difference between the two. Second, you are not going by Intelligent Design advocate Jonathan Wells's "research" that has been debunked by actual scientists, are you?
We already have plenty of attempts to educate voters, at least here in the States. First, every candidate spends millions of dollars on TV campaign ads that are force fed to voters when they watch TV. That requires even less effort that clicking on a link by a ballot. And of course when you do go to the polls, the area around is flooded with campaign ads, right up to the distance from the actual polls where campaign ads are no longer allowed. What, you think those ads are too often biased, unfair, and favor the candidate who has the biggest pocketbook? Well why do you think your system would be any different?
"Actually, those moths don't "evolve" darker coloration. As soon as the pollution that leads to the rise in proportion of darker colored moths is eliminated the ratio of dark to light moths reverts to its original distribution."
Yeah, thats a process commonly known as natural selection.
No one (including the guy you were responding to) used skin cancer the selecting mechanism. Its generally believed among evolutionary biologists that it is vitamins. Some vitamins (such as vitamin D as mentioned here) need UV light to be produced. Others get denatured by too much exposure to UV light. There have been other theories (for instance women with too pale skin might get sunburned nipples which prevents them from breastfeeding), but I have never heard anyone argue skin cancer is one since it is only recently that people have lived long enough for that to be common. Note that in species like humans, there is a selection to help humans live past their breeding age so the elder populations can pass information on down to the younger generations.
Uh, exactly how long do you think the Native Americans we know today lived in South America near the equator? There is very little in the form of written records until the end of the 15th century, while relatives of modern day Europeans have lived in northern Europe for several millennia. I don't know how long you think it takes for a certain trait like skin color to be selected for among a population, but it can be done within that time frame. Studies of the selection of similar traits in animal populations have been recorded in relatively short time spans, for instance a type of moth has been seen to have evolved a different coloring to better camouflage it against trees that are covered in soot due to modern pollution. Remember we are not talking about evolving a new appendage here, just different amounts of melanin in the skin.
Besides, there are many factors other than distance from the equator that determine how much UV light you take in. Settlers in South America were primarily living in densely covered rain forests, while much of the African population originally came from the Sahara. And of course the native South American population that early European settlers met most likely originated from northern Asia, who likely did not retain many genes for dark skin. And of course no one argued that UV light was the only selecting factor relating to skin color.
That would be fine, though I still feel that when the "perpetual beta" model is used (like it is used by Google), 'beta quality' has to be pretty damn close to 'production quality' as there is never a production release. No, you can never find each and every bug in a complex piece of software (in a beta release or a production release) and a perpetual beta product has the advantage in that it is patched very often, but if it is effectively the end product your end users see then you want them to have a high opinion of it and your company. Thats not going to happen if they are constantly hitting bugs, regardless of what type of release you label it.
<sarcasm>Yeah, because the Wikipedia is the authoritative guide on the software development process.</sarcasm>
That is a description of a prototype, not a beta offering. There is a big difference between the two.
I think you are missing the point of beta testing. The goal isn't to nail down critical bugs, but rather to get an understanding of how real world customers like and use your product. Any time your product leaves the walls of your office, critical bugs need to have been dealt with.
Perpetual beta doesn't mean your product takes 15 years to nail down each and every bug (in fact, as any software developer will tell you, no matter how much testing you have done you will never be able to guarantee that each bug has been found). It is a reflection of modern agile software strategies that feedback is constantly taken from customers and incorporated in the evolving product.