[Info-vax] OT: The New Face of HP

[John Wallace]

On Oct 16, 12:00 am, "John Smith \(not the one @ HP\)"
<a... at nonymous.com> wrote:
> "Arne Vajhøj" <a... at vajhoej.dk> wrote in message
>
> news:4ad67378$0$286$14726298 at news.sunsite.dk...
>
>
>
> > John Wallace wrote:
> >> On Oct 15, 12:17 am, Arne Vajhøj <a... at vajhoej.dk> wrote:
> >>> seasoned_geek wrote:
> >>>> On Oct 13, 6:17 pm, Arne Vajhøj <a... at vajhoej.dk> wrote:
> >>>>> 1)  Why do you expect someone to fix this problem for you without you
> >>>>>      paying?
> >>>> I said I didn't care if the bug was fixed or not.  I didn't contact
> >>>> HP, I contacted the registered volunteer maintainer of the package and
> >>>> not only reported the bug, but provided them with the compilation
> >>>> results and identified what need to be changed.  The response was to
> >>>> direct me to HP's contracted services and fork over some 1200 or so
> >>>> Euros and they would get right on it.
> >>>> You cannot be the registered volunteer maintainer _and_ direct all bug
> >>>> reports to a billable service.  You are only allowed to say that you
> >>>> will put it on the list of things you might get to, but to jump ahead
> >>>> in the list you can contact this other service and pay money.
> >>> As a volunteer maintainer he can do whatever he wants to do.
>
> >>> If you want some specific service then you pay.
>
> >>> You have gotten software for free. You have gotten access to the source
> >>> code for free so you can fix problems yourself. But you apparently
> >>> have a mistaken and rather absurd idea that you also get support for
> >>> free. You don't.
>
> >>>> The "negro" slur was his response to my pointing this out.
> >>>> Once again, I don't care if it is fixed or not, as I stated, I was
> >>>> simply offended by the crime.  Yes Arne, it was a bait and switch.
> >>>> They didn't say they don't maintain the package anymore, they didn't
> >>>> say they would add it to the list, they said somebody had to pay them
> >>>> before they would look into it.  If they want HP to be paid for their
> >>>> time, that is fine, they simply cannot be the registered volunteer
> >>>> maintainer, therein lies the fraud.
> >>> Get a grip on reality.
>
> >>> Volunteer maintainers are not obliged to act in certain specific ways.
>
> >>> If you are unhappy with the maintainer then you fork the code
> >>> and create your own version.
>
> >>> And while no one can demand any specific service from you, then you are
> >>> free to provide 24x7 support with bug-fixing guaranteed within
> >>> 4 hours if you want to.
>
> >>>>>      I cannot see why HP or this gentleman should offer you support
> >>>>>      for free.
> >>>> Because you don't read.
> >>> More likely I just know what volunteer maintainers do.
>
> >>>>> 2)  And accusing him of of supporting KKK sounds like slander to me.
> >>>> Regardless of what it sounds like to you, he made a racial slur and
> >>>> accused me of being an overseer abusing slaves which is and was
> >>>> completely inaccurate.
> >>> He noted that you wanted service for free and that slave owners
> >>> actually fed their slaves. That seems to be two accurate
> >>> statements.
>
> >>> I would consider it a rather rude comparison.
>
> >>> But it does not mean that he is supporting KKK.
>
> >> "Volunteer maintainers are not obliged to act in certain specific
> >> ways."
>
> >> The clue is in the name.
>
> >> Volunteers do not demand payment.
>
> >> I suspect that most people in most parts of the world would think that
> >> any maintainer who demands payment (be it a personal payment or a
> >> payment to their employer) before doing maintenance work has
> >> voluntarily relinquished the position of VOLUNTEER maintainer.
>
> > A volunteer is doing what he/she consider useful and like to
> > do for fun.
>
> > If you want him/her to do something your way and/or on your
> > schedule, then you will have to pay.
>
> > Volunteers are only volunteering to do what they want to do
> > not what you want to do.
>
> > Arne
>
> The guy at HP was a prick - sorry, but there's no other way to describe his
> actions and what he wrote.
>
> I know many people whom I would consider to occupy similar roles as the
> 'maintainer', and many of them *prefer* to be the ones who fig the bugs in
> order to ensure that there is a continuation of the coding
> style/conventions, that debug code is left in-place or removed (as the
> preference dictates), etc..
>
> If you are listed as a volunteer maintainer then at least be polite about it
> when you don't have time/the desire to do anything about what you
> volunteered to do.
>
> It would have take the HP guy 5000% less effort to say:
> 'Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
>
> a) [ ] I will get to it when I can.
> b) [ ] I can't get to it for a long time - why don't you take a stab at it?
> c) [ ] If either a) or b) don't work for you, consider finding somebody else
> who can help you with this problem.
>
> Please send any code you/others create to fix this problem back to me so I
> can merge it into the beta/gold code.  Thanks."

And your suggestion would have avoided any harm to HP's reputation or
to Phillippe's or any of the other folks at HP who have let themselves
be sullied by this sad little story. Phillippe used to support some of
the DEC stuff my colleagues dealt in. This doesn't sound like the same
Phillippe; we already knew it isn't the same company.

Is there something special about French management in high-tech
industries? France Telecom has had 24 suicides in 18 months, and the
2nd in command has seemingly been forced out, which is an interesting
(but belated) turn of events:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113492753 (and
many others)