[thelist] [OT] cfdecrypt, was: (Gift Culture)
Raymond Camden
jedimaster at macromedia.com
Mon Aug 20 11:09:59 CDT 2001
> on. You aren't renting the use of a product, you are *buying* the
> product. That means that you *own* it. By and large, when you own
> something, you get to do what you want with it. Software companies don't
> seem to understand that they aren't special.
Um, no, your not. If you buy the license to use the software, that's all you
get. What's crazy about this? There are _plenty_ of things in the world that
are like this. For example, you buy membership to a gym. There is nothing
tangible about the purchase (well, maybe an ID card), there is really just a
license to use the gym for a period. Other example - movie tickets. You
purchase the right to watch a movie. You can only watch it once with that
ticket.
> If I buy a hammer, the hammer company doesn't get to tell me I
> can only use
> it to pound on nails. I get to pound on anything I damn well please.
Correct. But consider the gym example. They can dictate how often you use
the gym, or certain facilities. Ie, maybe you only buy a "Simple" membership
and can use the gym 2 times a week and you can't use the pool. Or you buy a
one month membership. Right there they are telling you how you can use your
'product'.
> In spite of the fact that I create software, I'm going to reiterate my
> point: Software isn't special. If you sell a product, its a
Hogwash. (Sorry for cursing. ;) You can't compare a software product to a
hammer or a book. It would take a lot of effort to copy the book and resell
it. You _cant_ copy a hammer, you have to make it from scratch. It takes
little to no effort (sometimes) to copy and redistribute software.
Anyway - consider this. Who cares WHAT it is - if I come to you and say, "I
will sell you this hammer but you can only use it on Microsoft nails" and if
you agree to it, then that's a contract. Yes, it's a silly contract. Yes,
it's not fair. But if you agree to it, that's your problem, not mine.
<tip type="ColdFusion UDFs" author="Raymond Camden">
Do not forget that when you create a variable in a CF UDF, for example:
for(i=1; i lt 10; i=i+1)
i will exist in the local page scope, and, if i already existed, it will be
overwritten.
ALWAYS use VAR statements with variables in UDFs.
</tip>
=======================================================================
Raymond Camden, Principal Spectra Compliance Engineer for Macromedia
Email : jedimaster at macromedia.com
ICQ UIN : 3679482
"My ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is." - Yoda
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