--- "David M. Blocker" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
> Dear R:Base Folks
>
> Those who attended, feel free to add more to my
> notes!
>
Since David invited additional comments from people
who
attended the conference, I've decided to offer mine.
Let me begin by saying there were a lot of wonderful
people there, and many creative implementations of the
available technology. I often found myself in awe of
the incredible intelligence surrounding me.
But unfortunately, there was also a darker side to the
conference. Underneath the "rah-rah, everything is
wonderful, R:Base is the greatest thing since sliced
bread, and let me bow down and kiss the feet of the
wonderful human being who single-handedly rescued this
incredible piece of technology from the recycle bin"
facade, existed a more sinister reality.
It was a reality that involved spies, back stabbing,
untrustworthiness, guilt by association, and false
accusations of negative personal attributes. There
is even reason to suspect that personal electronic
communications were being routinely monitored. No, I
am not speaking of a Mickey Spillane novel. I am
speaking of what really happened at the Radisson
Hotel,
Monroeville, PA., on the weekend of October 22, 2004.
And the characters are not fictional. They were all
members of the R:Base family.
Since I am quite convinced this summary will not be
allowed to reside on the "OFFICIAL" list for more than
a few minutes after being first discovered, I will
also post it to the R:Street List and the RBJunk list,
both of which are available for your viewing pleasure
at YahooGroups. Should you decide to join those
groups, you should be aware that while they are not
controlled by RBTI, they are both closely monitored,
and anything you say in either venue is likely to be
used against you in the future.
I thought my weekend started off quite well. A chance
meeting with some friends in the hallway morphed into
a lively conversation on many topics in the hotel bar
over a few drinks. However, also in the bar at that
time was a LOYAL spy. And word soon made its way back
to headquarters that I was a participant in a meeting
that included someone on the OFFICIAL TERRORIST WATCH
LIST. Therefore, it was immediately concluded that
all
of us sharing a couple drinks and BSing, were actually
involved in a plot to overthrow the ruling authority
and take control of the world.
As a result, my fellow compatriots and I were
subjected
to assaults on our integrity. I was accused of
talking
negatively about people's families, and I was also
told
that my political and religious views (things I've
only
spoken about on the RBJunk list and privately to
friends), showed conclusively that I am a racist and
not to be trusted. In fact, it was deemed to be
unbelievable that my personal conscious would allow me
to sleep at night.
I subsequently learned that the other 'terrorists' who
shared that conversation in the bar Friday evening
were
also similarly attacked by the same person who had
leveled those accusations against me. The only
difference being that each of them were told how the
details of our conversation were passed to
headquarters. And of course, each of them received a
different version of the 'facts'. One version had one
of the people sitting at the table as the spy who
dutifully passed on all the details of our plot to
overthrow the government. Another version had a spy
sitting close by eavesdropping, then passing on what
he heard.
Rather than going on and on and on, suffice to say
that
those of us actually involved in the SUBVERSIVE GROUP
met privately and discussed everything, and the
reality
is that everything we were individually told by 'a
highly respected member of the R:Base family' was in
fact, a lie. There was no spy within our ranks, nor
was there anyone in the bar close enough to overhear
our conversation. The only element of truth in any of
it is that we did, in fact, sit down and have a few
drinks and conversation.
The ugly reality is that paranoia seems to run rampant
within the heirarchy of the R:Base family. And trust
is nothing more than a theroetical concept. Something
that is only embraced by those naive enough to not
realize that life is truly 'every man for himself'.
Other interesting things I learned this weekend
include
the revelation that some people have no qualms about
using network sniffers to acquire private email
account
information and passwords, then use that information
to surreptitiously read personal correspondence. Made
me wonder how much of the wireless network established
within the conference meeting room was being
intercepted for later review and evaluation. Others I
talked to agreed that anything you sent across the
network during the conference should be considered
'public domain', and anything you wanted to keep
private should be done within the confines of your
room. Since I did not have an internet connection in
my room, the things I wanted to keep private were
composed in my room, then encrypted in a password
protected zip file which was then sent via the network
connections available in the hotel lobby.
I also wondered aloud why there were only a handful of
'authorized developers' on the R:Base web site. What
I found out was that most developers opted off the
list
because they never got any leads from it. It seems
that most of the leads generated through that list
were captured by and for headquarters and never passed
on to the developers.
I also heard of several instances where corporate
employees were enlisted to assist with a particularly
challenging project for an important client, and that
client ended up doing business strictly with HQ and
severing ties with the developer who had originally
enlisted the assistance of HQ. Sounded to me like
a scenario that could be construed as 'client
stealing'. But that, of course, is simply my humble
opinion. It has not happened to me personally, but it
has happened, sometimes more than once, to some of the
developers to whom I spoke.
I also had the opportunity to speak with some hotel
employees who filled me in on some of the
conversations
they overheard during the conference. And as is the
case with most intelligence gathering operations, each
bit of information was, in and of itself, innocuous.
But when pieced together and viewed in the context of
some of the other incidents personally experienced,
it painted a real ugly picture. The 'one big happy
family' facade has been exposed to be one infected
with the destructive elements of mistrust, corruption,
unethical and possibly illegal activities.
R:Base is a great product. And many R:Base developers
are fine, upstanding and honorable people.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for everyone in
the family. So I will end my public essay with this
thought that I've adopted from the Fox News Channel's
saying, "We report. You decide." I've related my
personal experience as accurately as possible without
naming specific names which might open myself to legal
repraisals. I do not in any way, shape or form, mean
to insinuate that ALL R:Basers are untrustworthy and
corrupt. But I DO mean to inform all members of the
family that this is truly a disfunctional family, and
to blindly trust anyone simply because they are a
'well respected' family member would be a mistake.
One possibly fatal to your business.
Take it for what its worth. If you feel I am full of
bovine defacation, so be it. If you still feel
comfortable and secure with your predetermined
relationships within the family, God bless you. Good
luck. I hope things work for you. But I would
caution
each of you to do something all fighter pilots are
trained to do.... "watch your six".
As Paul Harvey might say, "Now you know the rest of
the story."
I am convinced this post will result my my being
removed from the "OFFICIAL" list membership, so anyone
wanting to discuss the matter further should go to
Groups.Yahoo.com and sign up on either the R:Street
list or the RBJunk list (or both). There you will
find many qualified developers that can answer most
questions about not only R:Base but PHP, HTML, Visual
Basic, Delphi and several other database products. The
response time from R:Street meets or exceeds that of
the "OFFICIAL" list and the quality is often times
much better. You will get truthful answers and
opinions
about the best course of action to be taken when
contemplating big changes in your business or
application and also recommendations of other software
products you might find helpful. R:Street also boasts
some of the best R:Base technical support from experts
who are nowdays considered "personna non grata" at HQ.
Also, any replies regarding this message should be
considered by the sender to be public, as I would
imagine I am now OFFICIALLY a FORMER R:Base family
member.
Dale Thomas
=====
Dale W. Thomas
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Veteran, USAF, 1972-76
=====
"Anything your mind can conceive
and believe, it can achieve."
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--- RBASE-L
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