>However I find fault with the idea that we should have blind loyalty
>to a business that chooses to support the 2400. It's a business and
>as soon as they decide cardbus is not worth the bother, it'll be
>dropped and then what?
>
>I aggree that we should support vendors that support the 2400, but
>the cardbus activation is a hack that would surely void Apple's
>warrenty were it in place. To critisize someone for reverse
>engineering someone elses hack seems inconsistant, which makes the
>ethical argument somewhat baseless.
It was never an issue of blind loyalty, nor was I critical of the
investigation of the procedure. What alarmed me was:
1. An on-list request for look at an MCE modified 2400c for the stated
purpose of copying their work and undercutting their business.
I have *no problem* with anyone doing the work, research and
testing, but just to compare and copy, specifically to damage
a business *is* ethically dubious in my book.
I know that MCE did a lot of work and research to come up with the
cardbus activation procedure... I know because I helped them. I don't
begrudge Kevin whatever small profit he gets from the procedure,
because I know he earned it. However that said, I do NOT believe that
MCE has any sort of monopoly on the procedure at all. *But if you are
going to compete with them head to head, the only ethical way to do
it would be to 'clean room' the procedure, NOT directly copy it.*
2. The poster's lack of knowledge about what he was doing.
There were at least 4 rev's of the 2400c MB (maybe more...
'Rev D' is the 'highest' I have encountered to date), but it was
obvious to me that this guy had only seen and tried two.
3. The last issue, which Paul Vail & I discussed off-list, was one of
trust. I've been on this list for 4+ years. Paul has been on here
that long or longer. MCE has been an active supporter of the 2400c
since day 1. I had *no* idea who this 'LifeIzCool/Calvin' person was
beyond his/her email address... and a look through my archive of this
list puts the request to see an MCE-modified 2400c the fourth post
from that address ever (with #1 being three weeks ago), and the first
discussion thread started by that address. That was a third strike
for me. In subsequent off-list discussion it has become obvious
that the original poster is a minor, which explains much about
discretion and judgement.
Yeah, I totally went off the handle, and my tone was less than
friendly that night. (I should have been asleep instead of playing
catch-up with list traffic.) Apologies for tone have been exchanged
off-list, but I'm sure the points I raised above, especially #1 & #2,
are still true.
--chuck goolsbee
geek wrangler, digital.forest inc, bothell, wa <http://www.forest.net>
list mom, mac-mgrs mailing list... <http://www.mac-mgrs.org>
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