Sure, live is not black and white and I hope other people got better experience. Thanks for reporting that. As I said this was not an easy message. I asked the mail admin to remove this message so that it cannot be archive endlessly.
Stef On Mar 4, 2011, at 12:28 AM, Germán Arduino wrote: > I would not opine about things I don't know, wouldn't be serious. > > But my own experience was that Merik contacted some years ago to some > work but the true is that he never promised me nothing more that > revenue on sales. Was my entire decision invest time or not. (May be > at beginning I was a bit angry, but was my own missunderstanding). > > Now, some years after such first contact, I'm using a vpn service of > him and seems to work ok, and started trying also a seaside hosting > plan. > > I repeat, is my own experience and he don't lied me. About other > things and other people, of course, I can't talk. > > Cheers. > > > 2011/3/3 Janko Mivšek <[email protected]>: >> Stef, >> >> you were right to warn us about that guy, he approached me as well, but >> I somehow have a feeling to detect such suspicious "business" people in >> advance so I declined upfront. >> >> Best regards >> Janko >> >> On 03. 03. 2011 19:46, Stéphane Ducasse wrote: >>> Hi guys >>> >>> Marcus was mad against me that I sent this mail public but I TAKE >>> RESPONSIBILITY FOR THIS MAIL! >>> I was ***really*** thinking before sending it. I send this mail to protect >>> our community. >>> >>> In the Ruby community, YYY XXX (not our guy) was asked to leave the Ruby >>> community by both Matz and DHH, and that's after he was asked to leave the >>> PHP community by Rasmus. >>> >>> Stef >>> >>>> Hi guys >>>> >>>> I do not like to do that but in the past we got problems with Merik >>>> Voswinkel. So I would like to warm you against >>>> him. Several of you got approached and my advice is run away. Here are >>>> some simple facts that happened to us. >>>> >>>> Stef >>>> >>>> From Lukas: >>>> >>>> Starting in 2007 Merik contacted various people from the Smalltalk >>>> community offering them to take part in his startup. His projects and >>>> goals constantly changed and nobody quite followed what he wanted to do. >>>> When he discussed with me it was a mash up of Pharo, Seaside, Pier, Cola, >>>> and Croquet all running on some custom cloud hardware ... >>>> >>>> Merik was working together with a "fake" research institute that only >>>> existed as a website. I also learned that Merik is broke and lives from >>>> support of the dutch government. Merik aggressively applies for venture >>>> capital and writes huge proposals with weird ideas. On some of these >>>> proposals (that I found on the web) he added Avi Bryant and myself as key >>>> team members (with picture, bio and all), even if we both never accepted >>>> to do anything with him. >>>> >>>> >>>> From marcus: >>>> We got a note from the local organzier that a "Venture Capitalist" wanted >>>> to attend ESUG and we could even use his Boat for the social event. But >>>> strangely, this Venture Capitalist was not able to pay 400 EUR to attend. >>>> But he was not able to say that. (we later learned that he is living of >>>> social wellfare... so it would have been no problem to get him a free >>>> entrance). So he offered to make videos. With very expensive >>>> "Professional" equipment. >>>> >>>> Later it turned out this kamera was actually the one of the guy organizing >>>> the remote croquet talk, and he got somehow pissed too because Merik >>>> promised him something for the camera use... >>>> >>>> Of course, Merik did have to operate the "Professional" Camera himself >>>> (not often, maybe a day he did?). We had to threaten him violently to get >>>> the completely useless tapes. (which are in some strange format and >>>> unprocessed). >>>> >>>> so, that's Merik. >>>> >>>> He was sending around "Business Plans" to people using team members that >>>> never agreed. For example Lukas was used like that. If Lukas does not >>>> object, I can send these "professional" business plans.. so you can ROFL, >>>> too. >>>> (Lukas an me did a course right at that time about venture funding: >>>> http://venturelab.ch/, so we know a little bit about these things...) >>>> >>>>> Then people could hack his machine on his seaside hosting because the >>>>> ports were open so :) >>>> No, he was running seaside with development tools enabled. He is >>>> completely clueless. >>>> >>>> So pay attention. >>>> >>>> Stef >>> >>> >>> >> >> -- >> Janko Mivšek >> Aida/Web >> Smalltalk Web Application Server >> http://www.aidaweb.si >> >> > > > > -- > ================================================= > Germán S. Arduino <gsa @ arsol.net> Twitter: garduino > Arduino Software & Web Hosting http://www.arduinosoftware.com > PasswordsPro http://www.passwordspro.com > ================================================= >
