Morning news
Josh points out a Register article that takes a look at the EULA for Win2000 Service Pack 3. The wording is enough to give you pause, I would think.
Jevon and Geek are both pointing to this story about Activebuddy’s patent win. I’m not a programmer, so I don’t know for sure, but I’m fairly certain that writing a bot to interact with IM apps is not all that difficult, and was probably done before ActiveBuddy came up with their “invention” of the technology in 2000. I mean there were IRC bots that did the same thing back when I started online in 1994, and I assume well before that. Some of them were not exactly written by programming geniuses either, so I don’t think it would take the discovery of a new technology to write one for AIM, Yahoo or ICQ, would it? Certainly not anything worth a patent.
James Jarrett discovers some problems running Radio from behind Zone Alarm.
Frank pulls an interesting quote from a Peter Drucker article:
The management of knowledge workers should be based on the assumption that the corporation needs them more than they need the corporation. They know they can leave. They have both mobility and self-confidence. This means they have to be treated and managed as volunteers, in the same way as volunteers who work for not-for-profit organisations. The first thing such people want to know is what the company is trying to do and where it is going. Next, they are interested in personal achievement and personal responsibility — which means they have to be put in the right job. Knowledge workers expect continuous learning and continuous training. Above all, they want respect, not so much for themselves but for their area of knowledge.‘
I work for a not-for-profit. I’ve seen how the “volunteers” are treated, compared to how I’m treated. I’ve seen how some other employees are treated compared to how I’m treated. Some better, some worse. I hate my job, any questions? 🙂
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