FlishFun.com

So, to start… I’m sure those of you who read my Blog noticed there wasn’t a “Part 2″ to my nice day. Well, that’s because we got in late after going shopping and to the movies. Overall, it was a great weekend, in fact, a fish I had long thought was dead, turned up alive and well in my tank (he has been missing for over a month)! Yes, my Bulldog Pleco is alive and well living in a pot in my aquarium! Now I just hope that Levi (you’ll remember him from a previous entry) doesn’t try to kill him. Okay, okay… enough about the weekend, I need to complain.

So, Monday started out nice, we went to work, and decided to come home for lunch. Upon opening the door I noticed something was wrong… the apartment was filled with smoke, and I had been pretty sure I hadn’t left a smoke machine running while we were away. Now it wasn’t a normal smoke, it had a “burnt electronic” smell to it. As Jess (my fiancée) gathered up the cats and dialed 911, I checked the house out. The air conditioning was off, smoke was in every room, the kitchen lights weren’t working… but I couldn’t figure out where the smell/smoke was coming from.

Long story short, we had 7 firefighters (in full gear) in our apartment looking for the cause of the smoke. Seems something in the furnace room (beside our apartment) shorted out and caused the problem. Well, after taking a long lunch, the maintenance man finally came back and fixed the problem (he said). Now everything is working, but the smell is everywhere… and now there’s a horrible noise coming from the furnace room. *sigh* Did I mention that I had to stay in the apartment and wait for him to come back? I breathed those fume (and missed half a day of work) just so he could take his time. Grrrr!

We spent all the rest of yesterday, this morning, and during lunch trying to fan out the smell (we had the windows open and bought more fans to help). While the smell isn’t as bad, it hasn’t gone away. Today we’re probably going to have to buy stuff to clean the carpets, walls, clothes, etc. That smoke was everywhere! Who knows how much this is gonna cost us, I swear, I’m ready to beat someone.

I seriously hope the apartment complex does something to compensate us, I mean, had we not come home for lunch, our cats and our fish could have died (from the smoke, fumes, and heat). This also wasn’t the only issue we’ve had in this place. In the last 12 months we’ve had the following issues:

Leaky pipes under the sink
Dishwasher backing up
Heat not working (Winter)
Air not working (Summer)
Roof (possibly) leaking
Constant power outages
And now the smoke, etc

It seems we’re the only people having problems, the management act like we’re just trying to bug them! The sad thing is, they’re not bad apartments! Just apparently ours is out to get us. Jess is thinking about getting them to move us across the hall, it’s a bigger apartment, and it doesn’t have a direct attachment to the furnace room. I honestly think they owe us either free rent, or that apartment at the rent we’re paying now.

So tonight Jess and I get to buy cleaning supplies, take some things to her parents for safe keeping (so they don’t get too messed up), then start cleaning. Tomorrow after work we get to continue our cleaning binge! Whooo! Just what I wanted to do this week. I’m very glad that we get a three day weekend after Friday, we both need it.

Okay, that’s it for now… if anyone knows how to get the smell of smoke out of a house, please drop a comment.

Well, I woke up to find I had an e-mail this morning, telling me to go check out an eBay entry. You can see it here (if it’s still up): eBay item 3679057994 When I looked, I noticed that it looked very familiar… very familiar like something *I* had written!! This guy burnt the AutoPatcher and was trying to sell it over eBay, and not once mentions me, the website, anything. If I remember, since I wrote it, the AutoPatcher EULA states:

RESTRICTIONS
You MAY NOT: (a) repackage this program and give it out as your own; (b) distribute this package without giving links to the AutoPatcher Homepage (http://www.autopatcher.com); (c) sell or charge any amount of money for the program.

Hmmm… it seems he’s breaking EULA! Now, I normally don’t mind people giving the AP out, or even selling the CD in their own store for just enough to cover costs, but this… this is not right. I’ve contacted eBay and the seller to remove the auction. No word from eBay yet, but the seller did contact me… here’s what he had to say:

Dear Jason;

I have already conferred with legal advice about this issue. As I am a Microsoft Support Partner (as approx 80% of the updates are within autopatcher) you are in breach of Microsoft’s EULA, Section 2, subsection 2 (a), which I will quote;

Support Services. Microsoft may provide you with support services related to the SOFTWARE (“Support Services”), in its discretion. Use of Support Services, if any, is governed by the Microsoft policies and programs described in the user manual, in “online” documentation, and/or other Microsoft-provided materials. Any supplemental software code provided to you as a part of Support Services shall be considered part of the SOFTWARE and subject to the terms of this EULA. With respect to technical information you provide to Microsoft as part of the Support Services, Microsoft may use such information for its business purposes, including for product support and development. Microsoft will not utilize such technical information in a form that personally identifies you except to the extent necessary to provide you with support.

I have already informed my Microsoft client Manager about this issue and
he will be looking further into it.

Regards:

David Roussel
Manager
Spiral Communications
http://web.archive.org/web/20040611231107/http://spiral-communications.net/

Very interesting! It should also be noted that Neowin.net is also a Microsoft Partner, and before putting their name on the program with me, they verified with Microsoft it was okay to do. Also, I don’t see anything in that paragraph that has ANYTHING to say about this not being okay. Anywho, that aside, this guy e-mails me to tell me he’s reporting ME for the AutoPatcher, when HE is trying to sell it on eBay!!! I’m sorry, but someone needs to explain to him that if *I* was breaking EULA by giving the AP away for free, he’s REALLY breaking the EULA by charging for it.

You see, I have no problem with the guy giving out all the patches, they are 100% free, but using my program to distribute them… THAT is what is the big deal here. I’m not sure if he quite understands that yet.

Anyways, it just bugged me that someone would do something like that, and then try to tell me I was the one doing something wrong.

Well, thanks for reading though my rant! No other real news today, most download links are still up and running so get it while ya can!

(Ed. Note – This is from my old AutoPatcher news blog)

So, I’m sure that’s the question on all your minds. What is going on? Where is the release? Well, turns out Microsoft decided to surprise me with a couple last minute patches, so I wanted to include those in the AutoPatcher’s next release. Also, I was caught up with some personal things I had to do over the weekend (read as: Gardening… Ripping up one of my fingers on a brick… and more gardening). So I kinda put the AP on hold till Monday. So, since it is almost ready, but it is semi-late, I came up with an idea. It won’t be called the “April Release”. Instead, it will be the “April/Mid-May Release”. This way it covers me incase anything else is released in May. I plan on it being ready to download on the 15th (very Mid-May of me, eh?) and if all goes well this will be a VERY nice launch. Also, since you’ve all been patient, you get to see the Change Log of the new AutoPatcher XP, so here it comes:

** 14 New Updates, Tweaks, and Bonus Tools:
– Q841720 – Sasser Worm Removal Tool (A-E)
– Q837009 – Cumulative Security Update for Outlook Express
– Q810019 – InstallShield 5.5 Setup May Run Slowly with the Bluetooth Supplement Installed
– Q837251 – IE does not correctly decompress data that uses the GZIP data compression method
– Q837272 – Update for Windows Media Player 9 Series
– Q823980 – Buffer Overrun in RPC May Allow Code Execution
– Q828741 – Cumulative Update for Microsoft RPC/DCOM
– Q831114 – Your USB keyboard/mouse does not work when you resume your computer from standby
– Q835732 – Security Update for Microsoft Windows
– Q837001 – Vulnerability in the Microsoft Jet Database Engine could permit code execution
– Q837633 – Errors in Windows XP applications that start by using the ShellExecute() function
– Q838292 – White text over a dark background prints in black on Windows XP or on Windows 2000
– Q838884 – Slow system performance or your computer stops responding when you use WMI
– Q839876 – You receive a STOP 0xD1 error message when you start your Windows XP-based computer
– Q840374 – Vulnerability in Help and Support Center Could Allow Remote Code Execution

** Updated Following Items:
– CD Covers
– Documentation
– DirectX 9.0b Installation
– MSN Messenger (6.2)
– Messenger Plus (works with MSN Messenger 6.2)

** Deleted Following Items:
– Q822603_WXP_SP2_x86_ENU.exe
– WindowsXP-KB833998-x86-ENU.EXE
– Q823291_WXP_SP2_x86_ENU.exe
– WindowsXP-KB830903-x86-ENU.exe
– Q822603_WXP_SP2_x86_ENU.exe
– Q829558_WXP_SP2_x86_ENU.exe
– WindowsMedia-KB828026-x86-ENU.exe

** Updated flaws in database
** Changed some of the wording in the program
** Added “Estimated time” to installation screen
** Fixed a couple minor bugs with GUI
** Cleaned up Database
** Fixed “My Custom Database” crashing problem
** Updated Version to 4.5.12

Not too shabby, huh? Also for all you Windows Server 2003 fans out there, because of an enterprising AutoPatcher fan, work has been accelerated on the AutoPatcher 2003 project and it just may beat AutoPatcher 2000 to release! Stay tuned for more info!

(Ed. Note – This is from my old AutoPatcher news blog)

Thank you to all of those who helped donate to the Heart Walk. Jess reached her goal and wanted me to tell you all thank you!As far as the AutoPatcher Update is concerned, we’re delayed slightly because of some unforeseen issues (mainly, Antonis is studying for school and has little time lately to fix the couple bugs in the patcher before release. And our other coder Andrew seemed to have forgotten he was in charge of coding the Database Editor. So don’t worry, I’m getting it all sorted out. Just wanted to update you all on our status.

(Ed. Note – This is from my old AutoPatcher news blog)