- Sidekick/T-mobile fiasco continues with lost cloud data. Still lost for good? So far, yes.
- Google says Q3 will be hot.
- Snow Leopard has issues.
- LG has new solar powered e-Reader.
- Photoshop on the iPhone.
- Oracle slams IBM.
- Facebook poke gets woman arrested.
Right click here and select ‘Save Link As…’ to download the mp3 file.
What on earth is a Facebook poke?
We need more solar-powered stuff. Maybe if the Sidekick servers had been solar-powered, they’d still be running…
We need more solar-powered stuff. Maybe if the Sidekick’s servers had been solar-powered, they’d still be running…
I agree EULAs should go away completely. They are used to blanket a developer from any and all responsibility for their products.
I guarantee you if an accounting firm tried to do a EULA for its work they’d be out of business within a week. And yet, we allow software development to hide within layers of “we don’t have to do squat for you”, even supposed freeware products.
The thing is John, if EULAs were kicked entirely, it would mean the industry as a whole would have to begin certifying their developers and analysts in order to protect themselves. There would HAVE to be mandated certifications on security, coding practices, and UI and integration processes. This would be so that companies would have a path to follow to someone to be “responsible” for any issues for their sold software.
And developers would then have to accept that personal responsibility for their work. Right now, outside of freeware, there is no trail of responsibility for MOST code in our systems that isn’t custom.
An example would be a spellchecker — it’s a service functionality that was, at some point, coded by SOMEONE. Do any of you know WHO did it? Who added to it? Who adjusted the dictionary? Who added the French version or the Spanish one?
We only have a company to look at, which they then conveniently hide behind a EULA so we have no recourse if their dictionary software mis-corrects an important word that then loses you a contract.
Even freeware tends to not have direct responsibility chains for most of it — can you name 3 people who definitely worked on the coding for a particular implementation of the TCP/IP stack in each of the versions of Linux? What about Windows? Or BSD and Mac OS?
I’m continually surprised that our software works at all based on how many hands have been in the huge garbage pies we use.
A LOT of the security issues that windows has had would likely NOT have existed if there was true, clear certification and trails back to the coders themselves.
Would YOU like to be named as the person who broke the TCP/IP stack by not doing any variable overflow checking in one buffer? You’d never have another job in the industry.
And so EVERYONE hides behind EULAs so they don’t have to own up to their mistakes. Great world, that internet.
Without the EULA Windows would cost $5000 per copy.
An early story of microcomputers involves a man writing a control program for a subway train or elevator or some other life or death situation. He specifies the Intel 8008 as the microprocessor to be used. He was asked why the 8008? There were much more powerful chips available. His response was that he knew every possible state the 8008 was capable of assuming. That was not possible with the larger processors. He also specified that enough 8008s be purchased to maintain the system through its entire life. There was the danger that Intel could stop making or change the chip. The Mars Rovers ran on 8080 chips for some of the same reasons.
Holding a software company totally responsible wouldn’t be too easy anyway.
“Your crappy software crashed my 7-core 14GHz, hydro-cooled system with Rambo graphics!”
Software company “Yeah, it does that, but we wrote it to run on an 80486.”