On 16 Sep 2008, at 23:54, tedd wrote:
At 7:40 PM +0100 9/16/08, Stut wrote:
On 16 Sep 2008, at 15:59, tedd wrote:
Then one day, M$ sent out notice that they would no longer support
QuickBasic and that was the end of that. All of our current, and
past work, was on a dead-end street. We were left to fend for
ourselves.
I don't mean any disrespect but devoting your livelihood on a
technology with a single provider is probably not the smartest move
you've made.
No offense taken and what you say at face value is true. However,
that was a past lifetime -- how smart were you 20 years ago?
I was 11 so it's kinda hard to tell, but I remember thinking I was
doing ok ;)
And I didn't really devote MY livelihood to one technology nor
industry for that matter -- never have. That's the reason why I have
several businesses going concurrently. I just wished one of them
would hit the log-ball so I could retire and program for a hobby.
Don't we all!
It's not nice for Microsoft to have pulled support for it but
they're a business and they made that decision because they didn't
see a profitable future there, they weren't out to screw you.
Of course they were not out to screw me, but even if they were,
that's not relevant.
I think the important point here is that if you create a development
product which requires others to have faith in you, then you also
inherent a responsibility to those who have invested their time into
helping you secure your product. Software development is a symbiotic
relationship.
Indeed it is, but in any one to many arrangement the first to go is
the smallest. My guess would be that QuickBasic was *the* smallest in
terms of user base.
If you want to pull the plug and cut that relationship, that's your
choice. But that action comes with a cost. From my perspective, M$
is just reaping what it sowed.
I just love the way everyone ignores all the good they've done and
focuses on the evil. With so many customers/users do you really expect
them to be able to keep them all happy? Seriously?
If you feel you need to hold a grudge, by all means do so, but I
personally have grown out of name-calling and stick to logical
argument instead. Does wonders for my BP!
Besides, grant me my windmills to tilt.
Gimme a sec to mount my trusty steed.
Imagine if PHP suddenly stopped development and you had to find a
different language (i.e., ruby). Sure we could all do it, but we
picked this language for a reason and now we have to choose again
-- and perhaps that choice was our second choice. I don't like
being forced to settle for my second choice.
Speaking only for myself I would have no problem with it at all,
for a few reasons...
I've been there before and survived -- like you, I have numerous
languages under my belt -- in fact they all look the same to me now.
So, that wouldn't be a big problem, just an annoying one.
While I have no faith of which to speak in anything except science, I
try to live by the philosophy set out in the serenity prayer. It's
worked pretty well for me so far.
Now, should have M$ continued to support a product that wasn't
making sufficient money for them? I dunno, but I don't care either
-- they screwed with my life and I'll spend the rest of it calling
M$, M$.
That's your choice, but don't take offence when I say that's
changed my opinion of you somewhat.
No offense taken, but if your opinion of me has changed over that,
be advised I've done far worse than name calling.
I realize that you take the high-road on things like this -- I
respect that -- that used to be my practice as well. It's very
predicable from a business perspective. But times change and I kind
of like telling people what I really think -- somewhat like the
member of the family who no longer cares if he farts in public -- if
you get the drift.
I have no issue with people giving their opinion, but to do so with
childish (IMHO) name-calling makes the reasonable argument, if there
is one, much harder to take seriously.
Similarly, I had a run-in with American Express over 30 years ago
and even to this day I return all their sales promotion in their
self-addressed no-postage envelope they provide. Over the years, I
suspect they have paid postage for over 100 pounds of profitless
correspondence and the time for their staff to examine it.
You're not alone in doing this, but how much a dent do you really
think you've made in their profits? It's like spam, if it wasn't
worth doing they wouldn't do it. Your efforts would be better spent
trying to get your address blacklisted... or learning Scala!
Well... that was the idea, to get blacklisted. Just about every
thing I sent back had my address on it and included a message which
basically said "This what I think of your service and you just paid
the postage for me to say it. Now take me off your list!" But, it
hasn't happened yet.
How much has it cost them? I could estimate, but I'm sure the total
amount wouldn't be substantial. However, if everyone did what I do,
then spam mail would halt pretty quick. Companies don't like
spending more than they take in on anything.
Snail-mail spam relies upon the same basic fact that electronic spam
does... everyone hates it until it offers them something they want.
Unfortunately in most cases it happens often enough to be profitable.
Oh, and because everyone's doing it these days there doesn't seem to
be any noticeable effect on a company's reputation which is unfortunate.
It's possible that if more people returned it, possible with some
extra weight they might stop, but I don't see it happening. You might
have better luck getting removed if you mark the envelope "No longer
at this address" rather than writing a rant. They're less likely to
continue sending you stuff if they don't think you're there anymore. I
do the same with spam email using the bounce feature in Apple Mail and
it's worked pretty well both on and offline.
-Stut
--
http://stut.net/
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