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8001

Living Room / Re: Fox Sends DMCA Takedown To Google To Remove Link To DMCA Takedown Sent By Fox

« Last post by 40hz on March 11, 2011, 08:52 PM »

I might not be able to out-pun chris,

-wraith808 (March 11, 2011, 03:33 PM)

Few can.  

but surely I can out-joke you...

Most do.

8002

Developer's Corner / Re: "competitive upgrade" - is it ethical?

« Last post by 40hz on March 11, 2011, 08:33 PM »

Does anyone have experience, good or bad, with SpiderOak?

-phitsc (February 02, 2011, 12:24 AM)

Tried it close to when it first came out around the the time Linkup went bust. Spider Oak was offering free accounts (for the first year) if you were a Linkup subscriber. Worked well. Liked it. Didn't see anything special about it as such. Just took a look at the latest iteration. Seems they've jazzed it up considerably since I used it.

My current fav is iDrive. Primarily because I like their client app and all I really want it for is offsite backup. They also have a Wordpress plug-in, which is how I first heard about it. They'll currently give you 5Gb of storage free for personal use.

They also have some other products you can check out on their site. iDriveSync and iDriveLite may also be of interest.

Homepage link here.

Disclaimer: No affiliation whatsoever. Just a free account user.

8003

Living Room / Re: Fox Sends DMCA Takedown To Google To Remove Link To DMCA Takedown Sent By Fox

« Last post by 40hz on March 11, 2011, 07:57 PM »

I know an attorney that would agree. He says: Justice has it's place in the courtroom.

-40hz (March 11, 2011, 09:10 AM)

A Supreme Court Justice would disagree: "This is a court of law, young man, not a court of justice." - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

-Deozaan (March 11, 2011, 04:17 PM)

I think he meant it in the same way a 13th century baron believed a lively and ongoing debate about the rights of his tenants had a place in village discourse. And that place was up on a scaffold, begging for mercy, with a hangman in attendance.  

---------

re: Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. - Interesting guy. And a colorful S.C. Justice. But way too cynical for his (or our) own good at times.

This was the same judge that authored the majority opinion in a case (Buck v Bell) supporting a State's right to sterilize someone deemed an "imbecile" (i.e. mental capabilities below what was deemed an acceptable level of intelligence) against their will. He justified his decision by closing with this less frequently quoted statement:

Three generations of imbeciles are enough.

Less than 20 years later, justices from the United States, along with their counterparts from Britain, France, and the Soviet Union would sentence Dr Karl Brandt, Viktor Brack, and seven other Nazi officials to death for their role in the infamous "T4" euthanasia program. T4 documented and systematically murdered somewhere around 200,000 physically or mentally handicapped people deemed unfit to live in human society.

Apparently some other people shared Justice Holmes pragmatic vision of how to make a more perfect world.  

Nice to see the rest of the world was a bit more interested in justice than in the letter of law. 

8004

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2007 / Re: My System - Index Card Centric

« Last post by 40hz on March 11, 2011, 03:44 PM »

Something I'd like to suggest is to maybe restrict the total amount of characters a card can hold (to keep it within the 3X5 paradigm) but allow 'links.'

I use index card files, and found the restricted space forces me to focus and summarize more than if I had unlimited space to blather around in. (For that I've got a variety of tree-outliner/notes software choices.)

But on a lot of cards, I also put reference notes (mostly on the back), which point me to resources (e.g. URLs, books in my library, file folders, various paper or electronic data collections, photos and clippings I have on file. etc) that I can pull if I need the whole resource the card's text summarizes. Many cards have little more than a phrase or short sentence (to act as a memory jogger) plus a pointer to some other resource. I do most of my formal tech writing using that method.

So allowing some sort of equivalent linking mechanism to files on the system (or in an extended note space) would be great to have. Maybe if you clicked on a hot corner and the card "flipped over" to display a text editor? Ideally one that supported shortcuts?

That's my 2¢  

8005

Living Room / Re: Fox Sends DMCA Takedown To Google To Remove Link To DMCA Takedown Sent By Fox

« Last post by 40hz on March 11, 2011, 03:01 PM »

Q: What's the difference between a bad lawyer and a good lawyer?

-wraith808 (March 11, 2011, 09:47 AM)

The US Center for Disease Control has announced they will no longer be using rats in their scientific research. Going forward, all experiments will be conducted using attorneys.

Reason

The reason for this change in protocol is threefold.

After an extensive study, the CDC concluded that:

1. Attorneys are easily bought, and available in almost unlimited supply.

2. Close observation has proven beyond any doubt that they are completely indifferent to pain and suffering.

3. The CDC occasionally conducts behavioral studies. And when it comes to individual behaviors, there are some which are so dirty, and utterly disgusting, that a rat will flat out refuse to do them.

8006

Living Room / Re: England Is Grinding To A Halt.

« Last post by 40hz on March 11, 2011, 02:42 PM »

I think it's greed combined with a healthy dollop of inertia.

Gerald Weinberg once said: Things are the way they are because they got to be that way.

This was his way of pointing out that we create much of our world. But the problems start to feel insurmountable when we forget that better than half of what we live with is a human invention. After a while, people have a tendency to grant human inventions the same status (i.e. unchangeable, eternal, unavoidable, unstoppable) that we do natural phenomena.

People have to stop thinking about technology and government the same way they do about the weather - something to "deal with" and "get through" - as opposed to something we can exercise direct control over. But only if we're up to the task.

Unfortunately, there's a lot of "learned helplessness" out there. It's taught in our schools, preached from our pulpits, joked about but subtly encouraged in our entertainment, and drafted into our laws.

And from what I've seen, only a crisis provides enough offyerass to break the spell.

Let's hope when this energy situation finally cracks open, it does so gently.

8007

Living Room / Re: England Is Grinding To A Halt.

« Last post by 40hz on March 11, 2011, 12:25 PM »

I sometimes almost wish they'd abandon fuel efficiency and conservation measures.

Because the way things usually work, we won't begin to seriously and collectively start identifying viable energy alternatives until we completely run out of fossil fuels.

"Necessity furthers. It is advantageous to have some goal in view." as the I Ching so nicely reminds us.

8008

Living Room / Re: Fox Sends DMCA Takedown To Google To Remove Link To DMCA Takedown Sent By Fox

« Last post by 40hz on March 11, 2011, 09:10 AM »

I know an attorney that would agree. He says: Justice has it's place in the courtroom. But right, wrong, or indifferent - in the end it's all billable time.

In his defense, he says that to discourage clients who are super gung-ho to file lawsuits he considers without merit. Known this attorney for years. He's an honorable guy. He'd be a lot richer - and probably retired and sitting in a beach house on Nantucket if he were a little less honorable.

8009

Living Room / Re: Fox Sends DMCA Takedown To Google To Remove Link To DMCA Takedown Sent By Fox

« Last post by 40hz on March 11, 2011, 07:23 AM »

It was so much easier in the good old days when people with a mindset like Fox could just burn books; and round up everyone they didn't like and put them in camps for "rehabilitation." Spanking' uniforms they wore too. And it was pretty "fair & balanced" treatment I understand.  Everybody was equally subject to being arrested at whim.

Doesnt get any fairer than that.

Now they have to go to court and file papers and lawsuits. What a hassle.

FoxNews Prevails!

8010

Living Room / Re: England Is Grinding To A Halt.

« Last post by 40hz on March 10, 2011, 05:10 AM »

Not too different where I live. We used to have a little fleet of small form factor busses called PeopleMovers. THey seated about fifteen people each which worked out fine.

Some years ago, a self appointed crusader for "people with disabilities" initiated a federal lawsuit under the Americans with Disabilities Act to make the buses "more accessible" to the elderly and people with disabilities.

The fact that nobody but this crusader (who had no disabilities and was in her 40s) filed the complaint made no difference. The ADA allows amicus filings.

In the end, the town was told it had the choice of retrofitting every minibus with a motorized lift and new entry doors - or face a significant fine.

After looking at the expense such a retrofit would cost the town, and the dollar value of the fines that would result from non-compliance, the Selectman's office did the only thing it was financially possible for the town to do: they ended the bus service.

This rendered the court's ruling moot. Because even though the court could order changes or impose conditions to any buses operated by the town, it did not have the authority order the town to provide (or continue providing) the bus service itself. (Note: Most of our towns have no legal requirement to provide public transportation.)

Bottom line: everybody lost.

8011

General Software Discussion / Re: What the hell is OpenCandy?

« Last post by 40hz on March 10, 2011, 04:47 AM »

I think you're looking for things that aren't there.

@Renegade -I've got no agenda. I'm just asking some questions. (See above quote.)  

And I did forewarn you that some of them might sound dumb to you. And if so, it would likely be because I don't know half as much about OC as you seem to.

But unfortunately, this discussion is now starting to generate more heat than light. Especially with all those 'over the top' analogies and straw man arguments you're firing off - many of which (though clever) don't address the question being asked.

And to repeat a suggestion I made earlier: Can we possibly (to put it politely) do without at least some of those typographic blandishments you seem to be so fond of?

Very often (like tonight) I'll cruise the DC forum while at a client site. (I try to get caught up whenever I'm lucky enough to get a few minutes of slack time time while waiting for server updates or network tests to finish.) Having something unexpectedly scroll up in 36 point red text on my laptop screen has a tendency to raise the eyebrows of whoever may be sitting near or walking by. Hard to pretend I'm just checking email or looking up some technical info when that happens.  

And it really wasn't necessary to repeat the Monty Python clip either. Believe me, I "got it" the first time. (And I still think the hand grenade bit was a funnier. )

However, it now looks like this conversation is starting to aggravate a couple of folks, to say nothing of beginning to go 'round in circles.

So...I think I'm going to back out of this thread and leave it to others. I'll look for clarification on OC elsewhere.

Wishing you success with whatever deal you've cut with the OpenCandy people. Hope it works out well for both you and your users.  

8012

General Software Discussion / Re: What the hell is OpenCandy?

« Last post by 40hz on March 09, 2011, 09:42 PM »

while the app is worth the money, the sector it's target at isn't one that's easy to break into/willing to pay for software?

-wraith808 (March 09, 2011, 05:14 PM)

I understand what you're saying.

But from a business perspective, what you're saying doesn't really hold. Worth is a term that has no intrinsic meaning in business. Worth is a purely relative concept.

--------------

Q: Is any basketball player ever worth a $30 million dollar contract?

A: So long as any team is able and willing to pay him that amount - he is worth every penny of that $30 million - and not one cent more or less.

--------------

Q: I have an extremely valuable software product I want to sell. But nobody is interested in buying it. From a purely business perspective, what is my product worth?

A: It is worth whatever the market is willing to pay for it. So long as the customer is willing to pay no more than $0 for it, the product worth is $0.

--------------

BTW: Business is all about sales. A customer is not a customer until they buy something. So a customer who only offers to 'pay' $0 is no customer at all. And since a business can't be a business without at least one customer- anything which doesn't generate customer revenues can't be considered a business either.

Until somebody buys something, there is no 'business.'

Gratis is a marketing strategy. It's not a business model.

 

 

8013

General Software Discussion / Re: What the hell is OpenCandy?

« Last post by 40hz on March 09, 2011, 09:15 PM »

@Renegade - ok, I think I'm following so far.

Few more questions (there will probably be more later):

0. I have been told that prior to doing any sort of opt-in or opt-out, OC scans the user's drive and sends back information to...someplace...and modifies the users registry without any notification or option to prevent it. This operation is automatic, unstoppable, and runs completely invisibly. Is this true?

1. Why doesn't OpenCandy make it's presence known during the installation like the Ask Toolbar or other (supposedly) "just like" apps do. Why not just call it what it is? It seems OC tries to cloak it's presence by burying itself in somebody else's installer and EULA. Why is that? Why don't they just run OC as an additional installer that tags along (like everybody else's does) if it isn't primarily motivated by a desire to make its presence and actions less noticeable? What good and purely technical reason(s) do they offer for doing it this way?

2. The author of DarkWave Studio uses OC, and says he has set it to default to opt-out. Do you control whether it is set up to follow an opt-in or opt-out methodology? DWS's author seemed to infer it was his choice which way to go. How does his statement square with your statement there is no opt-in or out per se?

3. Is there anyplace where you are given the opportunity to remove all traces of OC regardless of where (registry, etc) they are located without having to manually dig it out? Do they publish a utility to do that? And do they advertise such a utility is available and make it easy to get if they do? If not - why not?

4. Why do they store their stuff in the registry? Is there a demonstrably valid technical reason for doing it that way as opposed to putting it in some sort of cache file elsewhere on the drive?

5. You object to calling OC adware. But then you say it presents "offers." How is an "offer" to consider buying something different than an "ad" which also asks you to consider buying something? Forgive me if I sound obtuse. But I suspect I may be a little 'colorblind' in that end of the spectrum. What in the name of the Purple Buddah is the difference between an ad and an offer?

6. You seem to infer that you're comfortable with OC's business model and modus operandi. Are you comfortable enough with it that you'd be willing to accept personal responsibility for any software problems, privacy breaches, or security issues introduced on one of your user's machines if it was the direct result of something done by OC during it's normal operations? Not to say you should. But would you at least be willing?

7. Does OC in any way indemnify you for any problems their software may cause your user's system? If you get sued by somebody because OC did something and you got blamed for it - does OC offer you any legal protections or warranties?

8. Have you been allowed to examine the source code for their software - or gotten a chance to look behind the scenes and observe their backoffice operation in action? If not, why do you trust them like you do?

-------------------------

I know these are a lot of questions. So don't feel rushed to get back. Sorry to be asking you all this. But you're apparently DC's resident expert on things OC -so You Da Man to ask.

 

8014

General Software Discussion / Re: What the hell is OpenCandy?

« Last post by 40hz on March 09, 2011, 08:17 PM »

^In all fairness, deleting a cookie can't screw up your Windows installation or render your machine unbootable

Doing something in regedit certainly can if you don't know what you're doing or you're not careful.

That's a significant difference from a purely operational perspective - with no philosophical justification required.  

Even Microsoft recommends, as a rule of thumb, that the registry not be manually edited if at all possible.

 

8015

General Software Discussion / Re: What the hell is OpenCandy?

« Last post by 40hz on March 09, 2011, 07:36 PM »

That my blog.

-app103 (March 09, 2011, 07:17 PM)

Cool. I liked it. (Even if some people think it's "evil.")

8016

General Software Discussion / Re: 20 New User Misconceptions about Linux

« Last post by 40hz on March 09, 2011, 07:18 PM »

Thanks for the welcome back I have been eaten by work (big projects and lots of travel)

-iphigenie (March 09, 2011, 06:05 AM)

Forgive me if I'm faux envious. Grass is always greener, no doubt.

In my case it's barely enough small projects - and far too much running around because of.

8017

General Software Discussion / Re: What the hell is OpenCandy?

« Last post by 40hz on March 09, 2011, 07:00 PM »

I never had ads on any of the sites I run/ran (excpet for a brief run at http://renegademinds.com/ on a few pages that I removed). I hate ads. But, putting food on the table and paying bills in more important than my loathing of ads.

-Renegade (March 09, 2011, 06:06 PM)

Understand.

I've switched careers twice because being responsible and paying back money I owed was more important to me than doing what I really wanted to do.

In my case, I compromised by doing something I was good at (and didn't mind doing) which paid well - instead of something I was really good at (and that I very much wanted to do) which didn't.

Too bad I couldn't get people to pay me enough, soon enough, to do what I wanted to do with my life. C'est la vie.

I'll find a way to get back to it some day.  

Or not.

No complaints. No regrets.

Onward!

8018

General Software Discussion / Re: What the hell is OpenCandy?

« Last post by 40hz on March 09, 2011, 06:37 PM »

...helping them deploy their data harvesting client...  

-40hz (March 09, 2011, 05:37 PM)

That is not what it does. You are misinformed.

-Renegade (March 09, 2011, 06:08 PM)

Ok. Fair enough. Nobody said I was infallible. Not even me.

(Also switched the wording on my post above to accommodate your objection.)

Now could you please explain it to me so I won't be "misinformed" any more? I'm always willing to listen and accept correction. But I'm also not much of a coder so please don't get annoyed if I ask a lot of dumb questions afterwards. Ok?

So...starting with the OC thingy itself - who decides how it gets installed? Is it the same in every situation (it's not according to Microsoft BTW) or does each developer get to decide how it will work from a group of ...dunno...options?...deals?...revenue programs?

And if it does, does the choice of options determine the amount OC pays the developer?

 

P.S. No need to shout or get super creative with the font attributes. We're all listening to you even if we won't always agree. This is DC. We can be passionate about something without getting pissed off about it.

(Loved the Monty Python clip BTW. One of my favorite movies, although I thought the Holy Hand-grenade of Antioch scene was the best one. )

 

8019

General Software Discussion / Re: What the hell is OpenCandy?

« Last post by 40hz on March 09, 2011, 05:37 PM »

^ I respectfully submit if you're incorporating OC into your software in order to monetize it, then you aren't selling your software. You're working for OC, and helping them deploy their data harvesting client* software by using your own software product as wrapping paper.  

Maybe it's different now. But when I went to management school, I was taught your real customer is the person who pays you, not the person who's name and address are on the shipping tag.

I have no objection to anybody doing that if they're comfortable with it. (My reservations are with OC.)  But that's not the same thing as successfully marketing your own product.

Just my 2¢
 

-------------
*Note: Renegade is disputing the accuracy of my calling OC a "data harvesting client." (See below.) Since he is in the process of signing on with OC, has carefully researched it, and has promised to get us squared away on what it is and how it really works, I've switched my original wording to the more generic term 'software.'

@Renegade - You have the floor, Sir!

8020

General Software Discussion / Re: What the hell is OpenCandy?

« Last post by 40hz on March 09, 2011, 04:01 PM »

Just out of curiosity: are you going to state right up front on your download and product info pages that it contains OpenCandy, identify it as an adware application, and say that if you don't want to install it you'll need to explicitly tell it not to? and that tracking software may remain on their machine even if they later "uninstall" it.

Or are you going to let them find out about it after they download and start installing like it seems everybody who is including it does?

-40hz (March 08, 2011, 08:11 AM)

Well 40hz, I didn't see you warn me (us?) that the article you linked to was on a page
a) full of ads
b) which used at least 1 type of tracking mechanism
c) left behind files on my PC (numerous cookies, at least two of which were for tracking my browsing habits) even after I browsed away from the page.

That article, was every bit as evil as people seem to claim OC is.

-Eóin (March 09, 2011, 03:44 PM)

Funny. That didn't happen to me. I have a cookie and ad blocker installed on my machine.

But apparently this discussion is getting you upset. So tell you what. Let's just forget it. Ok?

-----

P.S. Perhaps I didn't warn you because I didn't know? It isn't my webpage. Which is a bit different than somebody who signs on with OC and does know what it does. Or at least I assume they would before they started deploying it.

8021

General Software Discussion / Re: What the hell is OpenCandy?

« Last post by 40hz on March 09, 2011, 03:58 PM »

Maybe someone, someday will be able to explain to me why OpenCandy is worse than Google/Bing/etc toolbar.

-Eóin (March 09, 2011, 03:37 PM)

There are times when background scanning may be excused. One example would be to check that the required correct version of a browser or something like .NET was already installed. But even then, obtaining the owner's ok would be preferable before it took any action.

Anything that scans for information not related to the operational software being installed - which it then reports back somewhere without first asking for the user's approval - fits the generally accepted definition of what constitutes spyware.

----

@Eóin - can't help but notice you seem to be willing excuse something wrong (or maybe just think Oh well...) because other people are doing similar things. Do I understand you correctly in that? Reason I ask is because the old "You're Another" argument may bring an accuser's bona fides into question. But it still doesn't answer to the accusation itself. And in that little virtual reality I call "my head," it doesn't matter a dollop how many people may or may not be doing something. Because I refuse base my definition of what constitutes "acceptable behavior" as being little more than a function of the numbers of people or entities participating in that behavior.

I'm not that cynical.

Might does not make right - even if it does get results.

 

8022

General Software Discussion / Re: What the hell is OpenCandy?

« Last post by 40hz on March 09, 2011, 03:31 PM »

It seems like a lot of FUD, because there's a resistance to anyone monetizing software through ads.  A bad state of things, as I think there's a right way, and a wrong way, and it should be a legitimate way to monetize software development.

-wraith808 (March 09, 2011, 02:48 PM)

Might want to read the article I linked to before you assume it's FUD. OC does not do things the way most "monetizing" add-in software does. And the guys operating the freeware review site I mentioned aren't Nervous-Nellie sensationalist type bloggers either.

There's a legitimate concern surrounding OC in particular - which has nothing to do with software authors wanting to make some money from their efforts. So let's focus on this specific software and not get sidetracked.

However, why people who are looking for sales don't just release their app as trialware will always be a mystery to me. Unless, of course, it's because the market has made it clear it doesn't consider the app worth paying for to begin with - hence the author's need to "monetize" as opposed to sell it.

Note too that Microsoft is flagging OC as adware/spyware. And nobody is more committed to the concept of having people pay to use software than they are. Draw whatever conclusions you will from that. But I don't think FUD can legitimately be one of them.
 

8023

General Software Discussion / Re: What the hell is OpenCandy?

« Last post by 40hz on March 09, 2011, 02:10 PM »

Good op-ed piece which includes an eye-opening list of major apps known to include OpenCandy. Link here.

@Renegade- just an FYI. One freeware review site I do some stuff for is currently debating whether or not to de-list all software that incorporates OC because of the way it operates. Don't know if they will. But it's something to tuck in the back of your head. Because it looks like a ground wave of resistance from people in the know is starting to be felt over OC. Much luck with that if it starts gaining traction.

8024

JGPaiva's GridMove and Ahk Tools / Re: GridMove needs a new licensing scheme, please help

« Last post by 40hz on March 08, 2011, 03:26 PM »

^Suggestion: Could this be something DC might consider formally creating for it's software authors and providing as a resource to anybody that does create an app here?

This would have quantifiable monetary value to our coders. And once it was written and reviewed, it would be good for anyone as long as none of the terms & conditions got edited or altered. (Very important that part.) Drop in the app title plus the author's name and relevant contact info, and it would be done. And legal.

Do we have an IP attorney in the membership that might be able to help out, or offer a (hopefully discounted) service to get this reviewed and edited?

Assuming, of course, there's money left over from the fundraiser to do it - and it seems like a good enough idea to other people besides me.

Shouldn't be that expensive to do.


Just thinking out loud.

8025

Living Room / Re: $1,000,000 Bet That Apple Pulls from Retail

« Last post by 40hz on March 08, 2011, 10:41 AM »

More like insurance than a bet. If Apple doesn't pull he can afford to pay it. If Apple does pull he's gonna need it. Probably to sue Apple.

Love the fact he had his lawyers draw up the 'bet' and post it on the web.

Wrestling lost a great prospect when this guy went into electronics instead of cage-match promotion.