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Robert Bass absolutely doesn't answer his email. So, how can you trust him?

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user
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Robert Bass absolutely doesn't answer his email. So, how can you trust him?

Reply to
user

The problem with reverse engineering the communications protocol will come when you get blindsided by any changes they make to the protocol.

I think you will find ZigBee based devices will come with a myriad of communications protocols so your experience at reverse engineering Z-Wave may or may not be a plus.

PCS has published the UPB protocol. >But I also said that we support it. I think it's a major step forward over

Reply to
Dave Houston

I also had discussions very early on which is where I got the impression they only wanted to work with a certain entity. What irritates me the most is that it appears to be impossible to now get them to stop emailing me weekly (sometimes twice daily) about training seminars, etc. Of course, their US sales honcho came from X-10 which might explain that.

Reply to
Dave Houston

To quote the Princess Bride's Inigo Montoya: "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

Websters:

Main Entry: scha·den·freu·de Pronunciation: 'shä-d&n-"froi-d& Function: noun Usage: often capitalized Etymology: German, from Schaden damage + Freude joy : enjoyment obtained from the troubles of others

Someone might experience schadenfreude watching Martha Stewart do federal time - especially someone guilty of insider trading who didn't get caught. You might feel it watching the Michael Jackson trial just to see him squirm. But I don't see how WGL succeeding with their transmitter would elicit schadenfreude in Dave. I think the more pedestrian term you're looking for is "Sour Grapes."

Main Entry: sour grapes Function: noun plural Etymology: from the fable ascribed to Aesop of the fox who after finding himself unable to reach some grapes he had desired disparaged them as sour : disparagement of something that has proven unattainable

Now that sounds more like what you're accusing Dave of, disparaging something that he was unable to acheive himself.

BTW, I'm not arguing any of the merits of either set of well-chewed charges and countercharges - - just that AFAIK, schadenfreude has a very specific meeting. You could say that others in this thread like Bob B. are enjoying watching Dave take a turn in the gauntlet, and *that* would be schadenfreude - for them, but not for Dave. Recounting all of Dave's alleged gaffs and failures as you have done would be schadenfreude for *you* but not for him, unless, of course, he was seriously masochistic and got pleasure from you getting pleasure from watching him suffer giving you pleasure. But that's way too weird to consider. :-)

I wish there was some process that both you and Dave, each valuable contributors to CHA, could bury the hatchet anywhere but in each other's necks.

-- Bobby G.

Reply to
Robert Green

LOL

Dave Houston developed a commercial product (Commander-X) using interaction with comp.home.automation participants. A Google search for "Commander-X " in comp.home.automation yields 3020 entries. The expressed intention was to create a commercial product for sale. Like many commercial software developers, Dave gave away the beta releases.

But Commander-X was not successful in turning the corner as a commercial product despite its technical merits.

(In a "Tell Us How You Use Commander X Contest" that he sponsored, there were only three entries so he had to give prizes ("Each will receive a free copy of the initial release of Commander X? 1.0.0") to folks that he then publicly denigrated as having submitted mediocre entries ...)

Beginning with version 1.0.0sw, released on December 1, 1999 Commander-X was distributed as shareware. At that time there was an enhanced version that was only available after paying the full price.

(Google comp.home.automation for the words " only available after paying the full price" to see who wrote those words - and who now doesn't want to ;-)

Ten months later, on August 29, 2000, existing Commmander-X customers were informed by email that the product was being withdrawn.

These are facts. They are still in the public record so Dave's posturing about libel is idle bluster.

The BX24-AHT saga is another story of legal and ethical dodgem.

Unwilling/unable to pay for/obtain FCC approval for the BX24-AHT device, a fully assembled version was sold overseas -- and expressly available for shipment to US -- by the same company

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that hosted Dave's site at
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and still hosts Dave's web site
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today.

While Laser was shipping the fully assembled version. Dave claimed that he was not affiliated with Laser. They "were just kind enough to give [him] server space".

Dave has posted his opinion in this newsgroup that he couldn't legally sell his product assembled in the US. But Dave prominently advertised on his site (at

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that Laser sold and shipped BX24-AHT worldwide including US.

Laser, in turn, announced they didn't sell the unit for use in _Europe_ because it didn't have CE approval. Of course, Europeans could buy the unit from the web site that Dave's son and grandson set up in the US.

Noli turbare circulos meos!

The plug was abruptly pulled on the web store that his son and grandson set up. Dave was unable to get admin rights from his family for the yahoo groups BX24-AHT and that went moribund too.

(Folks wondering whether Dave can serve as an objective reviewer of the WGL "Whole House Transceiver" might note that the WGL device has been successfully developed commercially, while Dave's "All Housecode Transceiver" device never turned the corner -- more schadenfreude IMO. )

Marc Marc_F_Hult

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Reply to
MFHult

Kick him in the knee? What a stitch !

Your post, which you intended to be anonymous, was made from IP address

24.73.168.166 which resolves to
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" Pro-stitch Medical We are a Manufacture [sic] for Orthopedic CPM Knee Pad Replacement Kits "

Attacks by anonymous posters are the bane of usenet in my opinion.

Marc Marc_F_Hult wwww.ECOntrol.org

Reply to
MFHult

I answer my e-mail. I just choose not to respond to certain folks.

Reply to
Robert L Bass

WHOIS information for prostitchmedical.com:

[whois.enom.com]

Registration Service Provided By: NameCheap.com Contact: snipped-for-privacy@NameCheap.com Visit:

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Domain name: prostitchmedical.com

Registrant Contact: Pro-Stitch Medical Jeff Tomich ( snipped-for-privacy@tampabay.rr.com) +1.7276433967 Fax: +1.7275470831 P.O. Box 572 Pinellas Park, FL 33780 US

Administrative Contact: Pro-Stitch Medical Jeff Tomich ( snipped-for-privacy@tampabay.rr.com) +1.7276433967 Fax: +1.7275470831 P.O. Box 572 Pinellas Park, FL 33780 US

Technical Contact: Pro-Stitch Medical Jeff Tomich ( snipped-for-privacy@tampabay.rr.com) +1.7276433967 Fax: +1.7275470831 P.O. Box 572 Pinellas Park, FL 33780 US

Billing Contact: Pro-Stitch Medical Jeff Tomich ( snipped-for-privacy@tampabay.rr.com) +1.7276433967 Fax: +1.7275470831 P.O. Box 572 Pinellas Park, FL 33780 US

Status: Locked

Name Servers: NS6.SECUREMATE.NET NS7.SECUREMATE.NET

Reply to
Robert L Bass

It's not a grudge match. Dave lies about his failed ventures, the same as he lied about asking for help when he was in bad shape a while back. He often denigrates viable, useful systems as well as those who build or sell them out of personal malice rather than based on their merits. Marc did the newsgroup a service by exposing Dave for what he is. Dave's reply was to lie again and to accuse Marc of libel. Marc had every right and IMO a responsibility to offer detailed proof of Dave's lies.

I tried that some time back. When Dave asked for help in a page on his website, I offered it. I did so discreetly so as not to embarrass him. I offered him a hand hoping to put past differences behind us. In response Dave publicly attacked me and accused me of trying to steal his work. Frankly, I have no interest in nor have I ever had any interest in buying or selling anything Dave developed.

His atrocious behavior in response to an offer of kindness leads me to believe he's not just a cantankerous old man, but probably more than a little bit disturbed. At this point I couldn't care less what his problems are. They are not the problem of everyone else who reads this newsgroup.

If Marc offered Dave the olive branch, Dave would almost certainly try to hit him with it. That's just the kind of person he is -- bitter and mean spirited. Marc is one of the nicer people who post here. TTBOMK he has never tried to mislead anyone hear especially not out of sour grapes over personal failures.

Reply to
Robert L Bass

He's lying again.

Reply to
Robert L Bass

I don't think you will find any instances where I have attacked either Hult or Bass. Both have been attacking me for 5-6 years. I put both in my kill file years ago and do not see their crap unless someone (got a mirror handy?) quotes them.

Hult has used some 40-50 different IDs to get around killfiles. He has attacked me in other, private forums. At other times he has praised all the things I've done for the HA community. I think he a good candidate for Brian's analysis.

He lies, distorts and fabricates, apparently hoping to provoke a response so he can then call me "abusive".

When the CPU-XA (Ocelot forerunner) was first introduced, I reveiwed it and told everyone who was looking for something beyond the basics to at least take a look at it because it offered the most bang for the buck. That usually provoked a response from Hult trashing the CPU-XA and arguing for a different system (that he had spent $3000 on). He would argue three sides of any particular point. I quit posting on the CPU-XA to avoid all his trash talk but, by that time, there were many others singing its praises.

I spent a lot of years dealing with people from the self-made owners of 10 person job shops to the manufacturing superintendents of Fortune 500 companies. I learned to trust my instincts about people. All my alarms went off at our very first exchange of email. He is a permanent resident of my killfile and as long as no one quotes his crap I won't see it and won't respond.

Reply to
Dave Houston

I didn't have to reverse engineer it or anything. I did get the docs eventually, but just the raw protocol docs. There isn't anything that really explains the big picture, which is often missing in such documentation. There's nothing that describes best practices, error recovery strategy, etc... So you have to really figure these things out by trial and error.

UPB does certainly seem to be a lot smarter about encouraging support. Perhaps they see themselves as a DIY solution while Zen-Sys wants to think that they are not. But I think that they primarily are, since the high has many other solutions.

------------------------------------- Dean Roddey Chairman/CTO, Charmed Quark Systems

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Reply to
Dean Roddey

LOL .. ;-) Thanks. There's another memorable line in that flick. "My name is ...)

But I wrote what I meant, and meant what I wrote -- with no implication that this is the only word or sentiment that applies.

Marc Marc_F_Hult ww.ECOntrol.org

Reply to
MFHult

This is the most fantastical misrepresentation of my actions that (ABIK) anybody has ever said or written anywhere.

I've never changed anything ever "to get around killfiles". Dave's false statement speaks volumes of his paranoia and distorted sense of self-importance. I'm changing my email presence because of Dave Houston? What conceit!

It is a matter of public record that I have used with remarkable constancy the same filterable email:

Dec 10 1999 -- Feb 15 2003 237 results for xxxhydrologistxxx.com Feb 13 2003- present 223 results for nothydrologistnot.com

and that I use my full name (also filterable) in a distinctive informative signature at the bottom - Marc_F_Hult

The change in spam protection from "xxx" to "not" was made because "xxx" in the email address implies something I didn't mean. It had nothing whatever to do filters or with Dave Houston.

I use my middle initial 1) because as best I know, there is no other Marc F. Hult in the US, and 2) for 25 years and 50-60 scientific publications, my authorship was indicated as "M.F. Hult" -- an unbendable requirement of the scientific agency I worked for.

.... Marc Marc_F_Hult

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Reply to
MFHult

This is an *amazing* confession by Dave that explains much.

Our first exchange of email was in 1999 I when I noticed someone posting with an email address from our local broadband provider. Like a good neighbor, I introduced myself and we had a discussion around how to program the Cisco routers we both had. I reviewed today the email that correspondence and find simply that I was courteously helpful by answering Dave's questions. Nothing at all awry or amiss for normal folk.

But apparently Dave -- whose "instincts about people" are based on dealings with _business_ people -- had "alarms [go] off" because in his business experience if someone volunteers out of the blue to be helpful without a self-serving financial angle is, something is awry.

I am scientist, not a business person. And I now spend most hours of most days _donating_ my time and expertise to a variety of matters of public concern (google "Marc Hult"). (The newspaper route that I had in junior high school requiring papers to customer by 7AM in sub-zero Minnesota weather brought needed money, but taught me that I wasn't going to spend my life working primarily for financial remuneration. and I haven't.)

So Dave apparently judges the _content_ of my messages by first filtering them through a wildly mistaken notion what of he thought/thinks are my intentions (rather than focusing on the facts) and then further distorts the information he receives by filtering his newsfeed. No wonder he gets it wrong.

Way sad stuff.

Marc Marc_F_Hult

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Reply to
MFHult

More demonstrable nonsense:

1) The Elk Magic Module and Adicon/Ocelot units both cost in the neighborhood of $200 not $3000! 2) Dave would recommend the Adicon units to anyone and everyone, disregarding the fact that the Adicon -- however useful to those who could learn to program in an arcane proprietary language -- would do absolutely nothing useful for the vast majority of homeowners who can't or won't program in C-Max.

He did not mention this in his posts, which was and is misleading in my opinion. Of course, Dave's HA software (Commander-X) supported Adicon but not Elk ;-) As I recall, Dave eased off his one-sided promotion campaign when Commander-X was withdrawn. I used then and still use today Savoy's CyberHouse which is still --five+ years after I spent the last dime on it -- the best HA software out there for my purposes. And yes, it supported Elk, and yes, a limited version came almost free with Elk modules.

Yes, I did and do and will discuss various "sides of any particular point". That is a good thing. Extended to the formal process of science, this is akin to multiple working hypotheses (FWIW, pioneered by geologists) -- Let's assess which of several alternatives works best by testing each against the available facts of the matter. But Dave seems to have a need has to pick a _single_ "winner". I've grown to understand that Dave has a behavior pattern that resembles a wanna-be horse bettor. (We live in Kentucky where that is endemic.) His ego gets involved in announcing the probable winners even when he doesn't have the money to wage. When he is wagering real money on a venture, nothing seems to matter but winning. Facts that get in the way are dismissed with ad hominem attacks as y'all have seen.

"Old Stewball was a racehorse / I wish he were mine ..."

Marc Marc_F_Hult

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Reply to
MFHult

That night explain why he attacked me publicly for having privately offered assistance when he asked for help on his website.

You and I have done business, carried on various email, telephone and newsgroup conversations over the years. I always got the impression that you're just a decent guy who likes to help. My "instincts about people" are based on the presumption that most people, if given the opportunity, are pretty nice.

That may also explain his attacks on products he's admittedly never seen, those who build them and those who sell them. :^)

Indeed.

Reply to
Robert L Bass

This all hurts my heart. All three of you have repeatedly responded to my questions positively and helpfully.

I've never bothered to listen to the anti-Bass propoganda: I simply don't care what his past ineractions or business practices may have been. Today he's a helpful contributor. Sure, he shows some bias in product selection, but freely admits to it. I can't believe that after putting up with years of people trashing you, Robert, that you would get involved in this thread.

Marc, not long ago you were going on about trying to preserve the integrity of this newsgroup. I'm embarking on a rather large (at least, to me) HA project, and it would sure suck if this group fell apart when I need help most!

Dave: You started this with "If you weren't technically incompetent and illiterate." As someone mentioned, that's ad hominim at its best.

Plleeeeeeeeaaaaassseeee??

Reply to
E. Lee Dickinson

OK, point taken.

Reply to
Robert L Bass

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