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8401

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

« Last post by 40hz on January 13, 2011, 02:30 PM »

The obligation of a US Corporation is to maximize profit for the shareholder.

-Carol Haynes (January 13, 2011, 01:25 PM)

Highly debatable. Especially in actual practice (and jurisprudence) as opposed to academic discussion.

Most companies interpret this obligation as do anything you can get away with to make money and WTF are ethics anyway (or the law come to that).

You paint with a very broad brush here. I've lived and worked in the US for most of my life. And I have not found what you're saying to be the case for "most" companies. Quite the opposite actually.

It would be nice if you could spend a year or two working here and really getting to see what US life is like. I think (or at least hope) you would discover we're nowhere near as selfish, arrogant, or evil as I sometimes suspect you think we are from some of your comments.
 

You only have to look at the way the oil companies behave around the world to see how much influence law and ethics have on their behaviour.

The behavior of giant multinational industries and market segments such as oil has as much to do with politics, military and security issues, international and local politics, religious posturing, and miscellaneous cultural differences as it does with the ethical strengths or weaknesses of the companies themselves. So I really don't think the oil companies (US, Dutch, British, Arab, Russian, South American et al) are that strong an argument for how "most" companies do business - even if oil makes up a significant percentage of the world economy as a whole.

Make no mistake. Oil companies are a problem. For all of us. No matter who owns them. And while BP may have been the firm most identifiably responsible for the Gulf of Mexico spill, there's still plenty of blame to go round. And that blame extends to government regulators, an international slate of business contractors and consultants, university academics, and especially politicians.

So yes, by all means look at the oil companies. But don't only look there. And don't extrapolate too much about general business practices or attitudes from what you observe them doing.

Oil is its own thing. Something that frequently blurs the distinction between a business activity and a government function. And that's only when it doesn't erase the distinction altogether. Nations don't go to war over laptops or automobiles. They do over oil. Which is why "Big Oil" is such a complex beast to get a handle on. It's so much more than "just" a business.

 

8402

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

« Last post by 40hz on January 13, 2011, 01:42 PM »

It's a common misinterpretation of the law regarding public companies stemming from this case: Dodge v. Ford Motor Company.

-Eóin (January 13, 2011, 12:43 PM)

Commonly misinterpreted by whom, if I may?

I haven't heard anybody ever seriously try to make that arguments since it's been a considered a non-precedent setting case with US courts almost immediately after the ruling got handed down. It's right up there with the Dred Scott decision as a glaring example of bad jurisprudence.

It does crop up from time to time with politicians of the yahoo stripe. But few in business or the community ever take it seriously.

----------
Note: I'm actually very familiar with that particular case. My management school's required corporate law course spent two class periods on it. And its required ethics course spent the better part of a week examining the arguments and decision from every conceivable angle.

What came out of the law course was: regardless of the ruling, the decision is neither respected by the US courts, nor has it set any precedent for subsequent legal cases. So don't even try it.

What came out of the ethics course was: the decision was both immoral and ethically in error.

-----

I see the Wikipedia article says this case is widely mistaught. I wonder who is supposedly misteaching it?

8403

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

« Last post by 40hz on January 13, 2011, 12:48 PM »

Oh, I think your reaction is quite understandable. That's the easy part. The big question is what you're going to do about it.

FWIW I've long since stopped trying control how I feel about things. The most I'm able to do is control how I behave in response to them.  That and accepting the fact there are benefits to be gained from exercising both 'careful consideration' and restraint.

    

8404

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

« Last post by 40hz on January 13, 2011, 12:24 PM »

@vlastimil - Maybe I'm a little (or very) dense, but what exactly is it about your competitor that has you the most annoyed right now?

Is it that they're offering what you feel is an 'unfair' cash incentive to try their product? Or that they're making arguably false claims about the capabilities of their product. Or that they're directly (or by strong inference) maligning your product?

Because right now, I'm getting a bit confused about what it is you feel the need to be doing something about.

I can't really suggest effectively until I know what you feel the real problem is.

 

8405

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

« Last post by 40hz on January 13, 2011, 12:09 PM »

Ethical? Not in my view but then who said business is ethical - the definition and obligations of a US corporation is to be as unethical as it can get away with.

-Carol Haynes (January 13, 2011, 11:31 AM)

Interesting...

I've been operating a US corporation since the mid-80s.

I wasn't aware that "unethical as it can get away with" was both its definition and obligation.

 

8406

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

« Last post by 40hz on January 13, 2011, 11:59 AM »

Funny thing about competitive discounts...they don't prevent you from using the original application. They only make the competing application cheaper.

If I already am a user of Product A and take advantage of the discount on Product B, then I will have both A and B and be able to use both for whatever they are best suited for.

-app103 (January 13, 2011, 11:11 AM)

Bingo!

In my case, that is exactly what a competitive "upgrade" would accomplish - put an application I might not be inclined to try (or otherwise be able to afford) onto my machine.

It will not get the old product off my machine unless it can demonstrate it is so clearly and obviously superior to what I am currently using, that it becomes a no-brainer.

And since I was already very picky when I selected what I currently use, that won't be an easy thing for a new product to do.

Best case scenario: price incentives may get you into the party. But it won't guarantee you an exclusive audience once you get there.

April absolutely nailed it when she said:

work on making your application the best it can be and service to your customers the best it can be, because in the end, that's what really counts.

8407

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

« Last post by 40hz on January 13, 2011, 09:17 AM »

Here is a thought:
What if I offered my customers 50% of their money back if they switched to a competing product? Sounds crazy? What do you think?

-vlastimil (January 12, 2011, 04:19 PM)

In the absence of more detail?  

Yes. It sounds crazy.  

How would you see that work for you? I'm not sure what message you would be trying to convey by doing that.

--/--

BTW: exactly what is your product? How about a weblink? Are you the same vlastimil that has apps up on the RealWorld Graphics website?

8408

Developer's Corner / Re: Just How Many Programs Have You Written and Never Released?

« Last post by 40hz on January 12, 2011, 09:12 PM »

Several.

I like to think the world is a better place for them not being out there.

8409

Living Room / Re: R.I.P. MySpace

« Last post by 40hz on January 12, 2011, 09:06 PM »

Like the guy who won and lost $100K in a poker game, it must be incredibly depressing to live with the certain knowledge you HAD it -and totally blew it.

-40hz (January 12, 2011, 08:23 AM)

I don't know. They had it - and they sold it (for a pretty good price, given that they were already losing out to Facebook).

It's Murdoch taking the loss (& the responsibility for its decline).  

-Dormouse (January 12, 2011, 11:04 AM)

Oh no doubt about it. The money they got for it was definitely good. Maybe even too good.

But what I meant (and obviously expressed badly) was more that they were sui generis; and how frustrating it must be to own an entire concept - and later realize you just gave it away.

That part happened long before Murdoch crawled out from under his rock and approached them.

If Murdoch wasn't out to pwn MTV at the time of the offer - and Elliot Spitzer wasn't breathing so heavily down Intermix Media's neck - I wonder if the deal would have been consummated just then.

Ah well...we can speculate endlessly about what that deal was really all about.

Either way, like the Admiral Greer character said in Patriot Games; It's over.  

8410

General Software Discussion / Re: Which is the real KMPlayer?

« Last post by 40hz on January 12, 2011, 08:27 PM »

^And it runs on everything! Even Microsoft's newest WinTablet PC.  



How cool is that?  

8411

General Software Discussion / Re: Best PORTABLE video player?

« Last post by 40hz on January 12, 2011, 08:18 PM »

MPC-HC, just download the zip file and extract, you can delete everything except the executable.

-4wd (November 13, 2010, 08:45 PM)

@4wd - nice find!

Just went over to the website. Found a very interesting tutorial there about using MPC-HC (with additional software) as a home theater system. Gets into some good detail about how it all works together. Great read!

Now maybe I can get caught up on my backlog of...um...educational television shows!  

Thx for sharing.  

8412

General Software Discussion / Re: Which is the real KMPlayer?

« Last post by 40hz on January 12, 2011, 07:09 PM »

+1 w/JavaJones

Tried Potplayer. Didn't like it.

I have a copy of VLC Media Player installed "just in case." But I rarely (if ever) use it.

AFAIC it begins and ends with KMPlayer. Lovely piece of software.

 

8413

General Software Discussion / Re: Upgrading RoboForm from v6 to v7: worthwhile?

« Last post by 40hz on January 12, 2011, 05:07 PM »

FWIW SFFS works well for me. (Or should that have been FWIW SFFS WWFM?)

-cranioscopical (January 12, 2011, 04:40 PM)

LOL! 

8414

General Software Discussion / Re: Upgrading RoboForm from v6 to v7: worthwhile?

« Last post by 40hz on January 12, 2011, 03:56 PM »

40hz, have you considered Super Flexible?
http://www.superflexible.com/

-superboyac (January 12, 2011, 03:03 PM)

@SB - Not yet. But I will definitely give it a look. Thx!

8415

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

« Last post by 40hz on January 12, 2011, 03:45 PM »

+1 w/JavaJones

Doing it for any reason, other than a sound business one, is simple foolishness.

Because if your action is primarily motivated by the desire for "payback", it will only be a matter of time before your competition figures out which buttons they can push to play you.

When it comes to your competition:

Never complain. Never explain. Never ever let them see you sweat.  

8416

General Software Discussion / Re: Let's try to create our own suite for internet security.

« Last post by 40hz on January 12, 2011, 03:24 PM »

re: 3rd party firewalls

The only possible reason I could think of for running a 3rd party inbound/outbound firewall is if you were interested in seeing what your apps were quietly getting up to internet-wise. Most will be checking for and fetching updates. But some programs will also try to do quite a bit more 'behind your back' than you'd expect.

If you're suspicious or concerned about any of that, you'll need something that monitors and reports on both directions. Otherwise, stick with Microsoft's built-in firewall. When used in conjunction with NAT, and the hardware firewall that's found in most home gateway routers, it will provide more than sufficient security for general use.

I used to use Comodo. It's a very capable firewall. And Avira - an excellent AV. And...  

Nowadays I can't be bothered, so I just do the Win7+MSE+HW Router combo - plus a few browser add-ons (NoScript/Adblock+/BetterPrivacy) - and some common sense I'm when out on the web or reading email.

After that, I call it a day.  

I'll also use a few additional on-demand antimalware scanners if I'm particularly worried about something. But that's pretty rare.

So far (knock wood) I seem to be every bit as secure as I ever was without all the extra 3rd-party baggage bogging down my machines.

----------
Note: if you're a heavy-duty "ru" TLD pr0n hound, or you like to cruise the warez and bootleg media sites, you might need something a little more industrial grade. But for the rest of us, Windows + hardware router will do it.

8417

General Software Discussion / Re: Let's try to create our own suite for internet security.

« Last post by 40hz on January 12, 2011, 02:47 PM »

I'd like to suggest Secunia Personal Software Inspector.

Not really a security app per se. But it's useful in that it helps you stay on top of updates to your installed software, many of which have serious security implications (e.g. Acrobat Reader, Flash, etc.)

The scanning process is very quick. Subsequent scans take even less time once your profile is populated. And unlike many similar apps, Secunia provides explanations and links to any recommended updates. Free for personal use.

Secunia Personal Software Inspector (PSI)

The Secunia PSI is a FREE security tool designed to detect vulnerable and out-dated programs and plug-ins which expose your PC to attacks. Attacks exploiting vulnerable programs and plug-ins are rarely blocked by traditional anti-virus and are therefore increasingly "popular" among criminals.

The only solution to block these kind of attacks is to apply security updates, commonly referred to as patches. Patches are offered free-of-charge by most software vendors, however, finding all these patches is a tedious and time consuming task. Secunia PSI automates this and alerts you when your programs and plug-ins require updating to stay secure.

Note: the default installation is to load it on start up and to close it to the tray rather than exit out. I personally don't feel it's necessary to autoload or leave it running, so I suggest you just run it when you want to and close it completely when you're done.

A once a week scan is more than sufficient to keep your software current.

Very cool tool. One of the first things I put on any personal machine I'm setting up.  

8418

General Software Discussion / Re: Upgrading RoboForm from v6 to v7: worthwhile?

« Last post by 40hz on January 12, 2011, 02:22 PM »

Sorry why not use the free version of SyncBack from 2brightsparks.com

Does everything that GoodSync can do and is free.

If you want a more powerful option go for SyncBackSE or SyncBackPro - reasonable prices and helpful company.

See http://www.2brightsparks.com/

-Carol Haynes (January 12, 2011, 01:17 PM)

@Carol - do you have any strong opinions about the paid versions of SyncBack - performance and stability-wise? I'm due to update some similar software I'm not über happy with, so I'm open for recommendations right now.

Anything you'd care to share would be appreciated.

8419

General Software Discussion / Re: Anyone else here have an unhealthy fascination with progress bars?

« Last post by 40hz on January 12, 2011, 01:49 PM »

Just out of curiosity, where would you go to study to become an actuary?  

-40hz (January 12, 2011, 09:41 AM)

What else do you need to know to be an actuary?  I always thought if you were good with statistics, you can do actuarial work fairly easily.

-superboyac (January 12, 2011, 10:42 AM)

I was under the impression that it's becoming a discipline in it's own right now that "risk" is such a critical issue for so many businesses. And especially since "going global" is more the rule than the exception these days. Many different countries - many different rules.

But what do I know? My degree was a dual in Comp Sci and (wait for it!) Accounting!
-----

Old management school joke:

Q: What's an accountant?

A: Somebody who really wanted to be an actuary, but didn't have enough personality for it.

 

8420

General Software Discussion / Re: Anyone else here have an unhealthy fascination with progress bars?

« Last post by 40hz on January 12, 2011, 10:27 AM »

Just out of curiosity, where would you go to study to become an actuary?  

-40hz (January 12, 2011, 09:41 AM)

Most Universities offer Actuarial Science courses and/or degrees.  Some colleges that specialize in business do too.  Of course that completely bypasses your little joke (if that was the intent), but hey, it answers the question.

-steeladept (January 12, 2011, 09:56 AM)

Thank you and much obliged!  

It really was a serious question.

8421

General Software Discussion / Re: Anyone else here have an unhealthy fascination with progress bars?

« Last post by 40hz on January 12, 2011, 10:24 AM »

We now are the key monitors for ALL network connections, server up time, mainframe operation, and UPS operations.  Oh, and we got manpower cut by 50% in 2008 and won't beef us back up as operations ramped up because "we are still accomplishing the job".  All because some one thought we needed to look important.

-steeladept (January 12, 2011, 08:20 AM)

Maybe...

Sorry to hear what went down with you guys. But FWIW, if that's the way your company operates, it probably would have eventually happened without your mid-manager's riff on Epcot.

Around where I am we're seeing lots of in-house IT manpower either "being sent to HR to learn all about COBRA" or simply getting worked to death. And the only thing that attempting to discuss reality seems to accomplish is to make senior management even more anxious to will The Cloud (brass-fanfare, rumble of thunder on the soundtrack) into existence and make IT "go away" once and for all.

But even so...it's true. Your guy did seem to go way over the top. Maybe if he just did one big screen and two PCs...???



----

Note: I don't normally leave SoW running on any of these machines unless I'm actually doing something with it. I'll just pull it up when I need to show somebody who's totally and happily clueless what's 'sup without the need to say too much.

8422

General Software Discussion / Re: Anyone else here have an unhealthy fascination with progress bars?

« Last post by 40hz on January 12, 2011, 09:41 AM »

Life Bar or Death Bar?

Life Bar fills up with roses, rainbows and unicorns, while the Death Bar fills up with skulls & crossbones.

-Renegade (January 12, 2011, 12:26 AM)

Might be a nice project to pass off to a team of students at a university that are studying this kind of stuff. (this was mouser's suggestion)

-app103 (January 12, 2011, 09:24 AM)

Just out of curiosity, where would you go to study to become an actuary? 

8423

Living Room / Re: R.I.P. MySpace

« Last post by 40hz on January 12, 2011, 09:29 AM »

But then again, considering how they let the kiddies run riot over there, it probably serves them right.

-40hz (January 12, 2011, 08:23 AM)

Yeah, they allowed people to use arbitrary HTML in their profiles, didn't they? That, or they had massive security vulnerabilities, but with the same end result: drive-by exploit heaven.

-f0dder (January 12, 2011, 08:25 AM)

Absolutely.  

I can't begin to describe the amount of grief I had to deal with at one point, cleaning up client PCs that got pooched courtesy of people cruising MySpace on their lunch hour.

Can't wait to see where some of the idiots who were still hanging in there end up roosting once they shut it down completely...

8424

Living Room / Re: R.I.P. MySpace

« Last post by 40hz on January 12, 2011, 08:23 AM »

Like the guy who won and lost $100K in a poker game, it must be incredibly depressing to live with the certain knowledge you HAD it -and totally blew it.

Very sad...

Then again, considering how much they let the kiddies run riot over there, it probably serves them right.

8425

General Software Discussion / Re: Anyone else here have an unhealthy fascination with progress bars?

« Last post by 40hz on January 12, 2011, 07:32 AM »

I don't have much of a thing for progress bars. I usually walk away and get coffee when one of those pops up. (And thank you f0dder and all those other coders who add "wait" loops to their apps. Some of us appreciate your doing that. )

I'm more of the blinkin-lights school when zoning out in front of a computer.

Probably has a lot to do with seeing my first mainframe when I was in high school. It was a Honeywell (remember them?) and it had the most amazing operator console I had ever seen. Something like the bridge on the Starship Enterprise - except this looked like it really was doing something.

Most of those old behemoths had those huge blinking-light arrays.



Supposedly, they were for the use of the operator - that god-like figure who sat next to it and actually flew the thing. But mostly, consoles were put there for marketing purposes. Because let's face it kiddies - blinking lights are cool! Very cool. Wasn't a geeky kid anywhere that didn't want to sit in the chair and boss that big noisy room full of "heavy iron" around.



Later on, when I finally made it into a position of niggling authority in my university's computer center (and was allowed into that holy of holies commonly referred to as: The Cold Room) I finally got my chance to examine the "console" close up...and was extremely disappointed.

It was strictly La Tourista. Something to impress the "unchurched." It was otherwise useless for anything except (maybe) diagnosing the occasional hardware problem. And even then, the techs that serviced the beast had been issued their own smaller and vastly more informative test rig. They kept it in their field kit - along with a spare necktie. (Note: Back then, IBM required their service personnel to wear a necktie at all times. Even when servicing printers and card readers. They actually taught them how to drape it out of the way over their shoulder - and secure it to the collar with a clip - so they wouldn't accidentally get sucked into the machinery! Anything rather than allow them to take their ties off like everybody else did.)

However, once I did get over my disappointment about the console (and learn a valuable lesson about how this world really works) I discovered something almost as good: status monitors.

As it turned out, the thing that did show the real action was a bank of unassuming green-screen CRTs which displayed job queues and other system logs. These, and a clunky electric typewriter keyboard, were what the operator really used to do his (there was no 'her' back then) job.



I think that's when I first acquired my fascination with system logs. For some reason, I find them...relaxing.  

I still enjoy screens full of graphics (or even green or amber colored text) reporting on "stuff." Real time firewall status, message header queues on busy e-mail servers, tracers, performance monitors - even scrolling news feeds and stock tickers. As long as it represents real data, and it's in realtime, I'm happy.

------

If you've got a blinkin-light jones, something fun (and potentially useful) to download is Quest Software's freebie Spotlight on Windows.

Spotlight on Windows

For a busy IT professional, it is nearly impossible to diagnose, troubleshoot, and resolve every component affecting Windows Operating System (OS) performance using manual methods.  Without a clear view of I/O and system activity, you learn of performance issues only after problems erupt.

With its unique graphical view of the Windows OS internals, Quest® Spotlight® on Windows empowers you to quickly identify and eliminate bottlenecks in the Windows environment. Displaying the real-time flow of data within your Windows OS, Spotlight enables you to quickly identify and resolve performance problems.

Please Note: Spotlight on Windows is unsupported freeware. The license key is provided in the download package and expires one year after installation. To renew, please revisit this website.  An activation key will be made available prior to the expiration date of your current key.

Spotlight offers a pile of useful graphs and logs (click to enlarge):

 

But that's not what's important here. What you want it for is this:



This is the main console page. It shows a lot of information about the system it's running on. Most of the info falls into the "So what?" category.

But it's animated!

     Things spin.

          Things go up and down.

               Things change color.

           Alerts pop up!



So alive with motion and color...a static screenshot just can't do it justice. 

If you like blinking lights, grab a copy pronto. 

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

Note: I like to throw a copy of SoW on servers. It's actually not a bad little system monitor. And it looks very impressive when you want to have something on the screen for senior management to look at. Very handy when they hit you with those "probing" and "piercing" managerial-type comments such as: "Are you sure it's running?" or "Doesn't look like it does very much for something that costs five grand, does it?"

Give em candy!