Weekend Blog Readings

Dezignstuff

Mat Lombard rants away at how poorly some CAD vendors treat their primary reason for existence -- customers:

Here’s my measure: if you treat customers any differently than you would treat your own mother, you’re part of the problem.

Or...

It sucks when you pay for subscription, but you can't use what they offer. They won't let you pay for only what you use. When you ask why, you're told several things such as, "We need that money to develop the next new thing you won't use and don't want"...

Read it all at "We suck less."

Outside The Box

Also worthwhile reading,  Owen Wengerd's "What's New in the AutoCAD 2010 EULA." He uncovers the sorts of gems that-- well, let's put it this way: The rate that Autodesk's lawyers are going, the day may come when users will have to hire lawyers to understand EULAs [end user license agreement].

...you may not write any "programs, modules, components, or functionality" unless they "contribute significant value-added functionality or enhancements" to AutoCAD. Furthermore, if you do manage to write a program that adds significant functionality, you may not redistribute all or any part of it. 

Or, users could just keep on doing what they've always done: not read the EULA and ignore its terms. As Mr Wengerd put it:

Since there's no way to divine the intended meaning from what is written, I decided to just ridicule it instead.

Comments

[Patriiick]

What is EULA??!!

[End user license agreement. - Ed.]

[Kevin Anderrson]

Mr. Wengerds' rehtorical commentary on the final assessment of the EULA is classic -", I decided just to ridicule it instead." Perfect. Genuis! Bravo...