RE: DirectX 9 SDK, Microsoft have got balls....

[Ron DuFresne <dufresne () winternet com>]

On Wed, 29 May 2002, Silcock, Stephen wrote:

> Under a free GPL or BSD license I have no problem with it - when I'm paying
> money for a product though I want it to work and if it doesn't I would
> expect the vendor to compensate me.  It won't happen though... imagine being
> able to sue Microsoft if your computer crashed.  The legal system would self
> destruct.

This won't happen until two things take place;

folks contact their representatives and ask that they address these issues
in the legal process, and additionally folks just stop paying for software
that allows the vnedor to take no responsibility for.  Vendors want cash,
and don't wnat their CDroms to look like the home stepladder with warning
tags all over it.

Take a good look at the wireless mapping projects taking place the past
few years, then look at the vodors of these toys and trinkets, and
understand even here much of the issue with open access devices being
placed in some pretty hairy settings are in a great part due to vendors
pushing out poor default configurations to their clients.  We are
wondering here how well clued the fed auditors are going to be to these
issues when HIPPA comes into full swing.  I have a new paper  on some
issues related to this soon to be pushed out to demonstrate some of these
issues in current practise <remember the best buy plaintext thread of a
few weeks past>.

But, the main thing is, as long as folks just bitch in these lists and do
not really take some action on their own to try and change matters, this
will remain...


Thanks,

Ron DuFresne
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Cutting the space budget really restores my faith in humanity.  It
eliminates dreams, goals, and ideals and lets us get straight to the
business of hate, debauchery, and self-annihilation." -- Johnny Hart
        ***testing, only testing, and damn good at it too!***

OK, so you're a Ph.D.  Just don't touch anything.