Misc. Ramblings

Not all companies are evil. In fact, a case could be made that the majority aren't. Having said that, even good companies can act evil sometimes if they don't take care of the details.

I posted earlier about the contest rules for the O'Reilly give away linked to the recent publication of " Building the Perfect PC" (ISBN: 0596006632) authored by Daynoter Robert Bruce Thompson and his wife Barbara Fritchman Thompson.

My concern, at the time, with O'Reilly was how they were disenfranchising Alaska and Hawaii by specifically including only the continental US as being eligible to enter the contest.

Daynoters Brian Bilbrey and Sjon Svenson persuaded me to contact O'Reilly to ask them why they were doing this. As indicated in the email I received back, they decided to amend the rules to include all 50 states.

What I didn't mention at the time, and which perhaps affected a wider audience, the original contest rules included another not so nice clause.

Before I go on, I will say I should have copied the entire rule set at the time but I did not. So what I say here is based on my recollection. Be aware that my recollections are not always correct.

With that said, I seem to remember that the rules included an automatic and irrevocable opt-in to receiving commercial e-mails from O'Reilly. If this was true, and I think it was, O'Reilly has subsequently changed their minds on this also as they are now using a system where you have the choice as to whether you want to receive commercial emails from O'Reilly, such as their new magazine Make.

While I must applaud O'Reilly for amending their contest rules, one wonders how they got the original rules so wrong. Was it just following how all other contest rules are done? If so, didn't anyone from O'Reilly review the rules to determine if the draft rules were in line with the O'Reilly philosophy (assuming they had one)?

Speaking of philosophy, the Make site kinds of reminds me of the original Byte's Steve Ciarcia's "Circuit Cellar" (later spun off as its own publication - see the CircuitCeller site here). I realize that putting together a Micromint SB180 is not exactly the same thing as flying a kite with a digital camera attached, but I think the spirit is the same: Make your own rather than buying something off-the-shelf.

But I digress. Based on O'Reilly's willingness to amend the contest rules I don't think they can accurately be described as evil. But whoever came up with the original set of rules might...