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49 Comments
- dragonmantank, on 10/12/2007, -4/+49And dupes.
- hipnerd, on 10/12/2007, -4/+49And dupes.
- spiderland, on 10/12/2007, -2/+47And dupes.
- hipnerd, on 10/12/2007, -2/+23This is the third or fourth front page story on this. Digg loves a scandal.
And Macs.
And free software. - garrettmurray, on 10/12/2007, -0/+19I am going to release the source, I just have to get it all ready and put it online. I hope to this weekend or early next week.
- Heiliger, on 10/12/2007, -1/+164. kidhero is a Digger.
5. Logical thinking leads me to conclude that kidhero is an idiot.
6. I, as a Digger, am also an idiot... so what do I know? - dcconz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15xPad is a great app and even though it is now freeware I hope people will still show their support for this app in hope Garrett continues developing xPad.
- garrettmurray, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14I am currently developing SimpleLog, my Ruby on Rails weblog app, and two other Rails apps yet to be released. Thanks for your interest. I am not currently developing any Mac OS X software, though.
- garrettmurray, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13The universal version (1.2) was an update created by Brian Ball's hired developer. The last version I developed was PowerPC only (1.1), so that's the version available currently. When I open-source the app, I'm sure someone will quickly be able to make it universal. In the meantime, it should run quickly under Rosetta.
- garrettmurray, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13(Follow-up: None of the apps I'm currently developing are shareware, there's all free and open source.)
- PathDaemon, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13I don't know the specifics, but if it's freeware MacZOT can't make a profit on it by selling unlimited licences. Maybe that's the point.
EDIT: This doesn't link to a page with any information whatsoever about the dispute mentioned in the headline. Where can I find it? - mikev, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12This is good. What Brian Ball did was very low. I hope everyone boycotts MacZOT as well. ;]
- ben_nushmut, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9@greymarketbrain:
What does Maczot have to do with Apple's reputation? They have nothing to do with Apple. As a so-called "Mac zealot," I can still tell the difference here. The Maczot guy seems to be a greedy bastard. Welcome to the state of humanity in the 21st century. - colincornaby, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8I'm not sure getting out of the game just because you got scammed is the best choice (assuming he made it free because he is upset over how MacZOT treated him).
- kraagenskul, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7"Welcome to the state of humanity in the 21st century."
Um... I'm pretty sure that's been the state of a good portion of humanity in the last 20 centuries as well... - digrob, on 10/12/2007, -4/+11Brian Ball is a con. He even had his friends bury the other 500+ digged story so it would be taken from the front page.
- iAlex, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Both. Smultron/Textmate for programming and xPad for notes.
More information about this: http://maniacalrage.net/
"Wow. First of all—I've never in my life received so many kind words and support and all that good stuff. The Mac community is a tight-knit group of truly excellent people and I'm definitely bathing in that feeling right now. Honestly, the emails and messages and comments and everything have been overwhelming and I thank everyone for what they've written. I wanted to post a quick follow-up to make a few important points.
I wrote the so-called "xPad Debacle" post for two reasons:
To apologize to xPad users for the mess and to announce that xPad was now freeware, soon to be open-sourced (it will take me a few days to get it all online in logical order)
To post public record of what happened in my business deal with Mr. Ball, and how I felt the situation was handled on his part, which I felt was unprofessional
One thing this was not about, at all, was me getting money. I want to make it perfectly clear that this is not about the money.
A lot of people have kindly offered donations, to buy (the now-free) xPad, et cetera, and I really appreciate the thought, but that's not what I want. As I wrote on Digg, all Google Adsense profits from the xPad website will be going to The National MS Society.
In addition, if you want to donate money, please donate it to the MS Society as well. There are a lot of people out there suffering and I'd much rather you donate the money to help them than to me."
Looks like a nice guy. I am glad I have never bought anything on MacZot or MacHeist (which is kind of a partner to MacZot).
Lets boycottt the MacZot *****!
And btw this story is not a dupe, I have seen other stories about the scam but not that xPad is free now. - drakethegreat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5In order to boycott something you have to use it first so I guess that doesn't apply to me and probably a lot of others here.
- hoyaman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4xPad ain't that bad, but if you need notes, you might consider KIT, DEVONnote or Mori. They offer notes with better organization and a load of other features.
I doubt Garrett will continue to develop this, as he has stated he won't, be he will make it GPL, so you and I can if we'd like. It doesn't appear that Garrett is developing any software right now - not according to his own site. - Switchfoot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Note: I am not a lawyer, as such anything here is not legal advice...blah, blah, blah. Don't sue me.
It seems that a lot of people are arguing that Brian Ball is legally okay in his actions (yet, was still unethical), I'm not sure if that holds water if this were to actually go before the courts. In contract law there is the presumption of good faith in your dealings. That negotiations are based on free will, that all parties will faithfully respect the stipulations in the contract, and basically be morally and ethically responsible.
The big thing that strikes me as why this may fail the good faith test in US law is the fact that Garrett was not given back control of the xPad domain until sometime after the termination of the contract and during this time xPad continued to be sold by Ball, in addition to the fact that there were numerous good faith efforts to contact Ball prior to the 90 day expiration. There is also the email sent by Ball which, in the way it was written, demonstrates that Ball was keenly aware of the situation and acted in bad faith.
Again, I have no idea if this interpretation of good faith is true, if there is a contract lawyer among us, would they like to correct or assert this? - insomniac8400, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3The claims:
http://www.tuaw.com/2007/01/04/xpad-developer-says-maczot-and-brian-ball-ripped-him-off/
And the Rebuttle:
http://www.tuaw.com/2007/01/04/brian-ball-responds-to-xpad-developers-claims/ - ilgaz, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6It means you should really read Mr. John Gruber aka daringfireball.net owner.
Guy alerted about such schemes long time ago right after they appeared.
Of course, if it switches to Freeware, it should rather have "donate" menu for people wanting to support it. - fishbert, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@PathDaemon
Not quite...
MacZOT can't make a profit on xPad anymore because, when they exercised the option to drop xPad, MacZOT released all rights to the program back to the developer. - brenthals, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I thought there was a univeral version (1.2) but all I can find is PowerPC (1.1).
- Jetpac, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2anyone know of a windows alternative to one of these note programs?
- xqb4dpx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1What do you guys pick ... Smultron or xPad ?
- cooldude127, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1if the source is released, does that mean a universal binary is in the near future?
- kupodan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Here is the developer's blog post
http://maniacalrage.net/ - psionicman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1 Hell, I'm going to go ahead and speculate it's probably more like the last 200 centuries, if not more
- Flowbee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I had never used xPad before reading this. I'm LOVING it. I usually work on several documents simultaneously, and xPad is a great way to keep track of them all. Sorry about the scamness. Thanks for the freeness!
- sembetu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2notepad++
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Well I read it over, And I read the clause. And unless I'm missing something the contract must be honored up until the point it is voided, and thus the contract ends. A contract does not retroactively end unless specified. So even if he did not pay for 3 months such to void the contract, he is still legally bound to make them. The contract is still in force up until the agreed termination criteria. Id kind like to see a helpful timeline here.
Regardless of if maczot's actions are legally defensible, it sounds, prima facie, damned unethical. And I will not be leery of anything from maczot, well basically forever. - CritCol, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1The whole story's over at www.tuaw.com.
- jhkilroy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1
Next time get CASH and payment in full ! I would not have sold it on installments at 5k! Now 50k yes but no self respecting company would need installments on 5k . - cauldron, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1He didn't get out of the business because he was upset at MacZOT. The MacZOT deal was his first attempt to get out of the business, because he didn't have the time to develop the software further.
And, @cooldude127, xPad is already a Universal Binary. - cauldron, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Oh — sorry, according to Garrett (lower in this post), the version on getxpad.com is not Universal (it's v1.1). I have 1.2 from MacZOT, which is Universal. Now that fact makes me feel dirty.
- sembetu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1meh... smultron ftw.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2He should release the source code.
- hipnerd, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Buried again. Perhaps there is a conspiracy.
- sleepwalkers, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2It figures that the MacZOT!/MacHeist guys pull some ***** like this.
They pocketed about a half-million dollars from MacHeist after shafting developers by not offering them a percentage of the package price they pushed on you after not letting you get your reward for the last third of the game.
Not surprised by this. - rickcarson, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1Why is that?
- hifiDesign, on 10/12/2007, -6/+3amen. and no digg, because this is news that was a byproduct of other dugg articles and the caption is inflammatory.
- oOLiquidNightOo, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2free is great but i really don't see how this software is practical?
- superKduper, on 10/12/2007, -10/+3Gosh! If Mac Programmers have to work for such measly wages (4K for a complete deliverable), it's no wonder nobody develops for that platform
- gr00vy, on 10/12/2007, -11/+4wow it crashes on launch for me
- g3buz, on 10/12/2007, -12/+3you forgot poland.
And dupes. - greymarketbrain, on 10/12/2007, -16/+4It is another dupe but the mac zealot's keep burying it for fear of having a bad apple come to the surface.
- g3buz, on 10/12/2007, -21/+4this is great news! let's post it every day! people might have missed it when the exact same news was posted yesterday.
- kidhero, on 10/12/2007, -21/+1How I can tell you people are idiots:
1. xPad is lame, it's just textedit with a drawer. BBedit or TextMate trumps it.
2. It hasn't been worked on for 3 years.
3. Diggers are idiots.
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