If this "shutdown date" is not documented and agreed to by the customer, I
would consider this unethical and borderline fraudulent. It's nothing short
of extortion. As a software engineer, I would never put code like this into
a client's software, and I would let the powers that be know about any that
I find (I have - and removed them; other companies have been sued because
of these).
--
Mario
http://mario.silent-tower.org/
On Wed, Feb 12, 2014 at 6:27 AM, Ian Wilson <> wrote:
>
>
> Hi,
>
> The real issue in all this maybe cost, and to a degree copyright.
>
> The Traveller universe works differently in regard to its commercial
> relationships with individual planets. The Imperium strives to make no
> world truly independent and self sustaining.
>
> So would it be commercially viable for a starship crew to 3D print or cnc
> cut their own firearms, against a world of 3 billion who make nothing but
> shotguns and carbines.
>
> A slobbering tale to add with reference to computer boards etc. I work in
> telecoms, a company I work along side brought several telephone exchanges
> via another company. With the supplier they had a maintence package (all
> normal industry stuff). To save some money they decided to unofficially
> drop the support package. Unknown to the the supplier had fitted a date
> code into its software, which when the maintence was performed was reset.
> Predictably the date expired at 4pm on a Friday afternoon, all the
> exchanges shut down, much to the duty on calls misery.
>
> The point being when being pursued by star destroyers, the last thing you
> need is copyright issues with your jump drive :-) due to dodgy parts.
>
> Ian
>
>
>
would consider this unethical and borderline fraudulent. It's nothing short
of extortion. As a software engineer, I would never put code like this into
a client's software, and I would let the powers that be know about any that
I find (I have - and removed them; other companies have been sued because
of these).
--
Mario
http://mario.silent-tower.org/
On Wed, Feb 12, 2014 at 6:27 AM, Ian Wilson <> wrote:
>
>
> Hi,
>
> The real issue in all this maybe cost, and to a degree copyright.
>
> The Traveller universe works differently in regard to its commercial
> relationships with individual planets. The Imperium strives to make no
> world truly independent and self sustaining.
>
> So would it be commercially viable for a starship crew to 3D print or cnc
> cut their own firearms, against a world of 3 billion who make nothing but
> shotguns and carbines.
>
> A slobbering tale to add with reference to computer boards etc. I work in
> telecoms, a company I work along side brought several telephone exchanges
> via another company. With the supplier they had a maintence package (all
> normal industry stuff). To save some money they decided to unofficially
> drop the support package. Unknown to the the supplier had fitted a date
> code into its software, which when the maintence was performed was reset.
> Predictably the date expired at 4pm on a Friday afternoon, all the
> exchanges shut down, much to the duty on calls misery.
>
> The point being when being pursued by star destroyers, the last thing you
> need is copyright issues with your jump drive :-) due to dodgy parts.
>
> Ian
>
>
>