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81 Comments
- oOLiquidNightOo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+74huh, dave seems to have a good eye for application gui design, simplicity & usability.
it's too bad that (based on everything i've ever read) he's an *****. - ahknight, on 10/12/2007, -1/+54He's done this for a while, and on several apps. He knows how to make flashy and usable UIs, but I won't be a customer of anything he's involved in until he can prove that he's become a decent human being.
Of course, one could say something like "this is what you get for using products with product activation" but, in the end, so very few people understand anything more about registration schemes other than "oh, it just needs an email? Well, that's easy..." and then move on, never pondering that in the future that service could refuse to let their software work.
So shareware is software that you can use for a bit and then buy if you like it and subscription is software you can buy for a period of time (rent?) ... but what's the term for software you thought you bought but was only yours until you pissed off the developer? Oh, a sham, right. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+45"Hello, I'm David Watanabe. I'm going to use open source code but pipe it into my own proprietary code, thus removing the need to share my improvements. It breaks the spirit, but not the letter of the GNU licence, and that's good enough for me. If you email me, I will probably respond as if you're a retarded amoeba, and then go back to monitoring registration codes for signs of suspicious activity. My torrent client also breaks several standards and is barred from major sites, but I won't tell you that before you cough up big dough for it."
That's basically what I've gathered about Dave from reading Digg stories about his products. Rebuttal, anyone? - sigalakos, on 10/12/2007, -1/+41I had the same thing happen to me when I installed NewsFire on a Leopard beta. I didn't bother to write to the developer as I didn't have fond memories of him on 1-2 support emails. Instead I switched to NetNewsWire and I couldn't be happier with the fact that they let you install YOUR software to all your macs (I have five and I use them all). Apparently Watanabe things that since I have 3 different network locations and I.P.'s I must be a pirate.
- rksprst, on 10/12/2007, -0/+35It's true, I know some people that registered NewsFire by visiting blogs of people who posted that they bought NewsFire and looking for their email addresses.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+32Just seems like lazyness on his part not making a proper licence system. Then taking it out on the users.
- swordphish, on 10/12/2007, -1/+29Ouch. Developers need to learn proper business etiquitte, or else they risk being slammed on Digg or /.
Play around with people's money, and they play around with your livelihood. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -6/+33Google Reader doesn't have an activation code.. Plus you can use it on more an unlimited number of computers / IPs.
- exiva, on 10/12/2007, -1/+24I had problems with my NewsFire license which resulted in "Paypal Transaction ID or GFY" (pretty much.) after a few email exchanges in which he was an ***** and I was a civilized customer but eventually lost patience and went off on him. (I mean how can I get a Paypal Transaction ID for a product I purchased years ago??) He reactivated my email at which point I ended up switching to Vienna. I will never buy or even use another application written by Dave. Ever.
- betacmag4u, on 10/12/2007, -0/+23why does the term "douche bag" come to mind when I read this story?
- sneeka2, on 10/12/2007, -1/+24Amen. I wrote him once to ask when and if Inquisitor would ever support Japanese input, and received a very curt response stating that it is not supported. Which required me to ask once more if it will ever be supported in the future, which led to another very curt reply.
Inquisitor was gone from my system within the next minute.
Dave really needs to get laid every once in a while. ;o) - fredxor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+21Too bad that the activation system was built so that anyone who knew your email could activate the product. It should have at least required a password with the email. My antivirus software, NOD32, uses a username and password for activation which I think is pretty effective. It's only takes a few seconds to activate it each time I install it. I usually hate activation because there tend to be multiple steps and enormous activation keys (Windows XP+, Symantec Anti Virus). I'd rather that activation or something like that only be used for subscription services like antivirus updates, etcetera.
- vonnie, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17I tried netnewswire and newsfire too. I eventually decided to switch to google reader. It has a nice UI, it is free, is crossplatform, and I don't have to jump through hoops to keep it synced on my windows pc at work and my mac at home.
- vypergts, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14Newsfire aside, product activation should be stopped. Pirates easily avoid it and it annoys the heck out of legitimate customers. It's completely pointless other than forcing most users to turn over an email address which can then be send newsletters and other spam...
I had to reactivate Quark the other week just to install their stupid incremental update. When it wouldn't work I had to reinstall completely. When was it decided that all users should be considered pirates unless proven otherwise? What a load of crap. - a0me, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14Nothing particular against Shrook but I'd give my vote to Vienna for best standalone RSS reader on Mac OS X.
http://vienna-rss.sourceforge.net/vienna2.php
NewsFire's design has a really nice interface like all software designed by DW. However IMHO it's not worth the 20$+ price tag nor the annoying license scheme. - gulmargha, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15hi troll… Newsfire isn't made by Apple. just like Half Life isn't made by Microsoft.
- sneeka2, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15@flashman - Rebuttal:
I don't think Dave uses "Hello, I'm..." in his letters.
=3 - carlfish, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11ahknight: "Of course, one could say something like "this is what you get for using products with product activation" but, in the end, so very few people understand anything more about registration schemes other than "oh, it just needs an email? Well, that's easy...""
Also, unless you've been burnt by this sort of thing before, you don't think about investigating how the system works until _after_ you've paid for the software. - joeroot1, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11Pretty much every single mac forum I've visited will have a thread saying how David Watanabe has revoked their license, or provided them with rubbish customer support, or has just been a general ass. Its solely for this reason that I refuse to buy software from him, however nice it may look.
When he comes out and apologizes for being such a jerk to his customers, and promises to do something about it, I'll but his software. - 1911wolf, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10That's exactly why I refuse to buy anything from that jackass.
- massimo, on 10/12/2007, -4/+12Has this guy ever even tried to install something from Microsoft?
I never had problems with their product activation system.
You are limited on the number of activations on windows copies to something like 5 but, once you get to the limit (I'm a developer and I change often my machine), it just takes a call to the support with a brief explanation (something like "I cannot activate the software and I'm changing machine") and they reset you the counter.
I don't like people blaming Microsoft about things they never tried, specially when their customers are already frightened enough by the activation system;). - Shaman760, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9I've never heard of this product until now and will be sure to steer clear.
This guy wants to rule his sandbox with a heavy hand, let him. I'll go elsewhere - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+11Congratulations jasorn you now look like an uninformed fool.
- clesch, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Even bad press is good press. :/
I wouldn't touch any of his ***** with a 10 ft pole. Seems like he's selling UIs, not full applications. (*cough* xtorrent review on oink *cough*) - janmc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Another vote for Vienna - great program and open source to boot
- sneeka2, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8marwood:
It was the combination of Inquisitor not supporting Japanese input (about 1/3rd of my search queries are in Japanese), Dave's attitude and his apparent unwillingness to even think about including support in future versions that made me uninstall Inquisitor.
Not that he's losing any money because of it, but hey... =D - Marwood, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7sneeka, I had a similar response from him regarding Inquisitor and integration to Shiira. I love Inquisitor though and even paid for it back when it wasn't a free product, I don't think I could live without it now and his attitude (whether real or perceived) isn't going to stop me using it.
For my RSS needs though however I've yet to find a better reader than Vienna, ok it may not have all the bells and whistles of some other readers but it absolutely does everything I need from one, oh and the price can't be beaten either :) - therebbe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I think Shrook is the best RSS reader and it's free.
I've never heard good things about Watanbe. - suppazone, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6David Watanabe is a dick head - period.
- meshman, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7"do you not think he thought long and hard about the fairest way of selling his software and avoiding piracy."
There is no such thing. If you write software, it will be pirated. So you have two choices. You can declare war on anyone that buys your product and make it a living hell or you can provide a product people WANT to pay for. I can name a few companies I would run to, to buy their software. I can name many more that I deliberately pirate because of their draconian activation methods. I won't buy InstallShield ever again. But I'll shovel money at Infragistics. - BenBenMan, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8"has caught some of the Microsoft evil."
Is Microsoft really the inventor of and the exclusive user of Product Activation, like the description is hinting?
Don't get me wrong, i hate product activation, but it's not just a Microsoft thing. - flap, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Vienna FTW
- dgp1, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Yeah, NewsFire is overpriced and the demo was too crippled to win me over, so i switched to NetNewsWire.
Wasted whatever he charged me for Acquisition (another watanabe product) once, though. Liked it for a little while, but haven't used it in about 2-3 years.
Also, a few months after I switched to NNW, I quit RSS. It was like heroin for me and taking too much of my time. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@ahknight
I can totally relate to what you're saying. I remember buying a song on iTunes, thinking I wouldn't have any problems with DRM since I will only play my music from my computer. Then a year later, I updated the BIOS on my Dell to the latest version, and iTunes refused to play my music because it thought I was playing the song on a different computer. It was such a slap in the face to me that you have to call Apple to play *YOUR* music that you bought. - matperk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Yeah. I emailed him asking if Acquisition would ever include the great bittorrent support that was in xtorrent instead of the crappy torrent support it has now and responded with some jackass comment so he and i got into a little pissing fight over it for a few e-mails, until i finally got him to back off. I was proud.
- wastern, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3When I tried Newsfire I liked it a lot and immediately purchased a license, however it took a few day for the paypal transaction to go through and thus I had to use the unregistered version for a few days. Those were some of the most awful days of my life. I paid for this software that was popping up every 3 minutes, had purposefully ugly colors and patterns strewn about and made me fell like a crook for using it unregistered
I like his apps a lot. I use Inquisitor (paid for it back before v3 came out), Acquisition, Xtorrent, Newsfire...I paid for them all, but have grown to hate the activation process of them. Before you enter in that email they are the most awful apps on the planet. I'm not sure how people look at the unregistered apps and think, "this would be something I want to buy". I registered Acquisition before it got bad so I saw value there and then registered all the others quickly to avoid the hell of the unregistered version....maybe thats his intent
I since moved from Newsfire to Google Reader due to needing RSS on multiple computers/platforms, but still use the other apps. They are the best of bread by far, I just wish the process wasn't so awful and that there was a period of time where you could fully evaluate the applications without the nags and popups.
I have recommended his software to people in the past and every time the person dumps it in 5 minutes due to all the crap that they are attacked with right off the bat. People don't even get a chance to like it and are immediately made to feel like pirates....which is funny seeing as half his apps are made to access P2P networks - swordphish, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Nice to know that in the midst of war, campus rampages, corrupt government, and so on, that somebody has the courage to move on. Basically, what your saying weefs, is that everything on Digg should relate to death and destruction and that everybody should be concerned with nothing more than the most awful things in life. You must have a sad existence. Iraq and VT are a tragedy. Respects to those lost and their families. But it's time to move on weefs, really.
- swordphish, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3This article isn't about an RSS reader. It's about product activation gone wrong.
Either way, your futile attempt to stir things up isn't going to work. EPIC FAIL!
*calls truancy officer* - h00ligan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3good for the fishbowl guy - that email from the author of Newsfire was completely out of line. ***** that guy and his product - it's none of his business.
- gorndog, on 10/12/2007, -7/+9Thanks to activation I went from having 4 Windows systems a few months ago to having 4 Linux systems today.
The final straw was when activation wouldn't take my product key. (I bought the $150 upgrade version but did a clean install). Apparently Microsoft doesn't believe anyone would wipe their hard drive clean before moving to a new operating system.
Anyways, I currently still am on Vista's "extended" 30 day grace period (slmgr -rearm), but I usually dual-boot into Linux except for the occasions that I do work in Visio. When that rearm no longer extends, I'll probably VNC or RDP to a work system that has Visio and then just delete the Vista partition -- and chalk up the $150 as a learning expense.
Thank you Microsoft for implementing Activation and motivating me to finally make the switch to Linux that I had been putting off for far too long. - swordphish, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Wow. You have issues man. How do you find the nerve to go from "***** the families" to accusing me of "[ignoring] the rest of the world"?
The real kicker here is how I don't have my "priorities straight", yet you're the one trolling the comments section senselessly. Grow up. There's nothing you or I can do about the world that we live in - no point in "harping" over it unless you actually plan on getting off your ass and doing something. Sorry, but my ass is nice and comfortable right here. Want to make a difference? Join the military and die for your country, and then I'll oblige. - SMITHN4, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Will a product key get this server up again?
- StuartTaylor, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Hello,
I have used many of David Watanabe's applications (if not all).
Acquisition, Inquisitor, Xtorrent and Newsfire.
I have used Aquisition for 3 years but never activated it. I put up with the annoyances. I did pay for Inquisitor for Safari as i felt that although i do not wish to pay for filesharing software i do want to pay something to David Watanabe as a contribution for all of the time and effort he puts in to the developement of the software he builds (on his own). I really like it.
My observation is simple ... David Watanabe started by building filesharing software ... with all of the data that he must have access to regarding the number of people who pirate software and the methods used do you not think he thought long and hard about the fairest way of selling his software and avoiding piracy.
If there was another way i am sure he would have used it.
Also, his server seems to log system info on activation. At which point should he say ... hmmm it looks like someone is using an email address to activate multiple versions. 4? seems fair ... and that seems like the point at which you where challenged. He suggested changing the activation email address which is sensible because then if someone else was using your email address for activation it would stop further piracy of his product (if that was the case).
I really don't see what else he should do other than hire someone to be a bit more sensitive when responding to emails. ( which he probably can't afford as his software is so cheap / free ). - Ouze, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5Hello, BenBenMan. Welcome to Digg! To get "diggs", the story summary & headline need to be as scandalous as possible. Even if the actual story has nothing whatsoever to do with the description - you don't get points for accuracy, just for the most inflammatory sentence possible. To get extra bonus points, try to include references to one of the possible when submitting a story: microsoft, apple (ideally MS *vs* Apple), ubuntu, sony, how much the PS3 sucks, or how awesome the wii is. Remember: you can work in a reference to a few of these companies/products for maximum diggage no matter what the story is actually about! I'll even give you a cheat code to make it to the frontpage - link to someone's ad-laden wordpress blog and submit it with a headline like "Jack Thompson beheaded by Ubuntu disc after tripping on Miscrosoft DRM-laden PS3, while Apple TV hacked to produce waves of positive self esteem". Something like that.
- tawker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The solution is quite easy
2 part authentication, email address AND a one time password to prevent someone from email address harvesting to activate the product. Otherwise, you have people taking emails off blogs and voila, someone gets accused of pirating software. - sybersnake, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I think you should be allowed as many authentications you want as long as you don't go more than 10 per year. Microsoft invalidates your license every 5 authentications.. they then make you call them and explain why your activating soo many times.
- Hercules, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Product activation only works to keep honest people honest.
It's idiotic and doesn't stop piracy. If you want a pirated copy of ANYTHING, you can get it. Why make the users who purchase the product pay for crimes they will never commit? - damage84, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Don't hold back, tell'em how you really feel!
davew@xlife.org - Snarfy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I kept having this problem about my Windows not being 'genuine'. I put a kubuntu CD in the drive and the problem went away :)
- Crusty, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I also bought a license for Newsfire back in the day and used it quite a bit. It really is a very nice RSS reader, but I switched to Google Reader anyway. GR is free and just as handy with the keyboard shortcuts. In fact, I can go through feeds faster with GR than Newsfire. Plus I can use GR from any computer.
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