Free doorstop! Packaged and ready to ship!

[alenppc]

This is the official reply from Elbox posted yesterday on the Mediator mailing list:

Hello Chris,

> This is a bit bad.
> http://platon42.de/poseidonreg.html
>
> What is elbox verdict on this ?

We have no idea why Chris Hodges goes along this line
once again. He does not contacted us on this issue. It
all looks as if he had the need, from time to time, to
slander us.

> Will they be offering refunds for hardware?

According to our mutual agreement with Chris Hodges, he is
obliged to provide stack registrations for the USB cards
for Mediator. (Writing and supplying USB drivers for
Poseidon has been an Elbox task, and registering USB stack
has been Chris Hodges task.) See: http://www.elbox.com/news_02_09_11B.html

You have every right to require Poseidon registration from
him.

> The author claims Elbox where using pirated Keys.

It is not true that we used pirated keys.
I responded to this slander at www.ppa.pl. This info was
also translated and forwarded by one Mediator user (thanks
Valwit!) to www.amiga-news.de, so Chris Hodges knows it.

The registration keys for Poseidon, used in the DRAGON
presentation at Amizaduszki, were fully legal. They were
registered through the ppa.pl registration service by Elbox
employee, who manages the computer, which was used in the
presentation.

> Will they be providing replacement software?

Possibly, especially when Chris Hodges refunds us the
costs of writing by Elbox drivers to his USB stack.
Writing of such EHCI drivers is about six months of
software programmer.


I really hope Chris Hodges would rethink it and stop this
weird action against Mediator users, himself and us.

Best regards,
Darek Smietana

Support Department of ELBOX COMPUTER
http://www.elbox.com
http://buy.elbox.com

[alenppc]

I do not understand how can someone hold such a grudge against Elbox for somthing so stupid. Yes, Elbox might not be the perfrect company and yes their cards are overpriced, but hey, they are one of the few, if not the only amiga hardware developer left.

So, what is Chris trying to do? To help kill Elbox? And even if he managed to do it, what would that accomplish?
A personal vendetta? Maybe, but certanly not a service to the Amiga community...

I really cannot understand this.

[alenppc]

OpenPCI does not support Mediator. The OpenPCI page is very misleading as it says in one place that it does and in another that it doesn't. But the fact is, if it did it would be a lot easier for us. OpenPCI drivers do not work on the mediator (if anyone has gotten them to work please let us know how). :-)

--------------------------
February 9, 2003:
- OpenPci.library v1.0 (with powerpci.library 1.76 for Amithlon included)

Information: The mediator support of a well-known company is definitively canceled because of their poor developer policy and their questionable attitude towards customers.
--------------------------

The problem in this case was that Elbox wasn't willing to open source their drivers. But fair enough. OpenPCI is open by definition so I can see why they do not want to support the Mediator.

I agree that calling Chris a loser is definitely an exaggeration, after all, we all must recognise his talent and contribution to the Amiga. On the other hand, if he were a person who really valued his own hard work why on earth would he reject registrations for his product? After all, if I am a Windows user and I want to register a program I am never going to use why shouldn't I be able to do that if I want to?

For instance, I haven't got an Xbox, but I bought its controller, and rewired it in order to use it on the PC because I wanted to. Should Microsoft imposed me to present my Xbox at the local store or else they wouldn't sell me the controller? It wouldn't make sense, would it?

Then again this is the last comment he posted on his website:

Small update (21.12.06):
Although Elb*x subbornly state that they have an agreement with me, this is not valid for several years now. This agreement has been canceled. Elb*x knows this very well.
[...]

Ok, there might or might not be an agreement. It's his word against theirs. Depending on the jurisdiction a verbal agreement might have the same value as the written one, but I'm not going to go into that. There is no way to know...

And some notice to some of the Elb*x fan boys out there demanding legal action against me for not selling them licences: Get a life! Using or spreading an illegal keyfile is still piracy, no matter if the product is abandoned or not.
[...]

"Elbox fan boys"? Isn't this a bit harsh? Just because you are buying hardware from perhaps the only classic amiga hardware manufacturer that makes you a "fan boy"? Besides, did anyone actually threathen him with a legal action? That sounds silly. Yes, we all know that you cannot use an illegal keyfile, no debating there.

Dude, if you don't want money for your product either you already have enough and maybe you should release the product for free?! Either that or destroy it alltogether...

I expect to see some cracking instructions for Poseidon on the Mediator mailing list (which is ruled by the kings of censorship and spindoctorism themselves) rather than anything constructive.

This doesn't make sense. The Mediator mailing list is simply made by users trying to help each other with hw/sw issues and I certanly wouldn't define it as "ruled by kings of censorship". The ML has had its fair share of Elbox criticisms. I don't think the moderators would ever allow "craking instructions" to be posted, and I suppose you could call that "censorhip" if you like.

[alenppc]

Hi Chris, I appreciate you taking the time to reply here and explain your point of view.

Anyway, I might find a way to exclude Elbox products only from the next releases on, so I can resume giving out keyfile to the classic Amigans and Amithlon users out there.

That IMHO, would be the best solution. If you don't want to support the mediator that of course is your right, and at least the other classic users would not be penalised becase of it.