Tag: Russia

Categories
internet microsoft piracy PR Russia web

Russian Teacher Case

Given how much publicity the case with Russian teacher Ponosov got (here’s the link to the latest on Wired) I think I also have to shed some light on it, given that most people don’t really understand what’s really going on. However, bear in mind – I am not a lawyer, so whatever you may find below is my personal perception based on knowing the situation in Russia just a bit better then folk on this side of ocean.

Is a nutshell – the principal (called director of school, basically the administrator who runs whole 11-grades establishment between kindergarten and university/college) got apprehended by Russian authorities for having a classroom with computers without Windows licenses on them. As the case unfolded, it was established (judging by information from public sources) that he bought computers with Windows already preinstalled.

Now, this is a spot where I need to stop and make some things clear. Most of schools in Russia don’t have computers, let alone money to pay for the software. However, as it was uncovered in this case, the problem was that Ponosov allegedly bought computers from some third-party that installed unlicensed copies.of operating system. Where did the difference in money go, of course, was not disclosed. Again, it wasn’t Microsoft who chased the guy, it was Russian authorities for good solid reason.

Next thing you know – Mikhail Gorbachev (when did he surfaced?) asks Bill Gates to intervene, Putin is personally overseeing the process, Microsoft (as always) gets all the blame, Ponosov claims he’s not guilty even after he was offered to settle things outside of the court and then – boom!, case dismissed.

Now why would anybody want to have a process like that? Personally, I see several goals of such thing, even though at first glance the whole thing looks like an exercise in moronity:

  • Putin shows to the world that he fights piracy in his country. The fact that in real life in Russia nobody cares about piracy is somehow gets forgotten. No, really, you think someone with salary around $200 – $500 a month could afford buying an OS that costs about that? Plus the Office? Especially when pirated copies cost around $5 – $10 per CD with every possible version of Windows on it? Give me a break.
  • (whoever was behind this idea) got the message out very loud and clear – stop using Windows proprietary/commercial in Russia. Why? Because you never know if and when authorities will come after you. However, with Linux/OpenOffice combo, there are no licensing fees to pay, no restrictions, therefore it’s just plain safe to use.
  • this puts additional pressure on software companies that sell their products in Russian market to lower the price. Not because Russian companies cannot afford it, but because Russian consumers don’t want to pay for it. In simple language – they wouldn’t buy the product if there is any way they can steal it. Practically no amount of meetings, agreements and even discounts would change that type of psychology any time soon. Of course, with larger companies the situation is different, but on the end-consumer market it is considered plain old idiocy to pay for Windows.

First two bullet points are pretty obvious to anyone who have been following (anti)piracy news from Russia. Third one has a very long history, which I have neither time nor wish to go through. Just to summarize the whole thing – it seems very interesting how Russian-produced PR actions get a lot of people very emotional. Looks like they got some kind of gurus back there in Moscow. Nice job, guys.

Categories
piracy Russia sales

Scammers all the way!

Don’t you just love people who are about to social engineer you having no skills and being very stupid? I mean – everyone can fall for a lier if he’s good at it, but some morons lack brains and talent, yet they try to persuade you they’re legit.

Here’s this guy how have been on and off sending me “hello” and “hi” and “can I ask you a question” over and over. Didn’t seem like he needed an answer, so I didn’t mind. I get that a lot.

So yesterday at night he finally managed to talk to me. He asks if he can get a free hosting account. I suggest that he sends the letter through the web form so we can review it. So he does, but it’s not a paid account and it’s 3:12am on a clock, so I decide to look at his letter next day (i.e. today).

Which I certainly did, paid or not, he’s a potential client, so I must pay him due respect unless proven that he’s a fraud. So I went to all his web sites that he sited in his e-mail. First one was empty folder (not even index.html) on something like 1234.net.ru This triggered the alarm, since as far as I know .ru zone belongs to Russia and people there prefer to use free hosting resources of their own country (it has to do with providers paying for traffic from abroad – long story). Then there was a passage that I simply loved. The large red siren blared over my head “Social engineering shmuck is on the way!”. It was so hilarious, I can’ thelp but cite it all here – for all the people who read this. This is dumb!

“And my current website is http://*****.info

I will upload great templates and images to the good hosting and I wish you could wise enough to reply me.”

I went to this site, that had some unspeakable bunch of letters .info. Given that you can get a .info domain for free these days, it didn’t really raised the caution, but added to the suspicion. There was an empty forum about some music, with approximately ten posts total. I thought – yeah, I can set up something like this in 10 minutes. And since it’s already set up – why would you need another hosting? But nevertheless, I kept looking.

At this time the guy went on IM again and accused me of lying on my web site. He said he went to other resource that lists free hostings and there is no feedback about us. My response was that a) we just started offering free hosting less then a month ago and b) he didn’t try us to say we’re lying. I also added that most of people who contacted us wanted to host for free because they were planning to set up illegal download sites. “I would never do that“- he said. Riiight. “If you were a good hoster,YOu may replyed my 2 letters and told me my application was denited,But you never did” – he said. Ah, here comes the mask of “almost angry customer”. At this point I was almost sure that he’s a fraud, given that his info from the e-mail listed “Address: BEijing Normal University,ZHuhai Campus,Uk“… Not sure about Zhuhai, but I doubt the Beijing is in UK… Then there was one last check. I went to whois info to see who owns the .info domain the guy wanted to use. Surprise!

Domain ID:D7724977-LRMS

Domain Name:******.INFO

Created On:12-Oct-2004 02:59:11 UTC

Last Updated On:15-Oct-2004 03:14:10 UTC

Expiration Date:12-Oct-2005 02:59:11 UTC

Sponsoring Registrar:R183-LRMS

Status:ACTIVE

Status:OK

Registrant ID:C6823054-LRMS

Registrant Name:dsfs

Registrant Organization:fs adfsa

Registrant Street1:d fsa

Registrant City:fsd

Registrant State/Province:sdf sd

Registrant Postal Code:24234

Registrant Country:VC

Registrant Phone:+1.24234

Registrant FAX:+1.23424

Registrant Email: hotadv@yahoo.com.cn

Given that the TLD .cn belongs to China, I know no respectable asian person would agree to name dsfs. I suggested that the person should look elsewhere, which he did, eventually, making it look like he was dissatisfied. Ofcourse he was, since his lies got exposed.

Categories
outsourcing

How I ended up thinking of indian guys

There’s this friend of mine, who says he used to run two of largest Russian immigrants message board communities in the past. We got acquainted when he found my forum and I found his. We both (with our associates and fellows) went to fancy place called banya (Russian bath) and had an idea of joining our not-so-crowded forums together, for a bigger impact. Some time had passed and I have found myself managing this huge project that involves not only two forums joining together, but building a huge portal that one day, hopefully, will serve as a home for many people who tired of our competitors.

The first thing was to finalize the specs. We have gathered numerous times, discussed this in the e-mail conversations and on the message board. Finally I got a small, 2-page word document with short description of each feature we want on our web site. It was done just to give the programmers the scoop on the project, merely an idea of what needs to be done. So far so good. After finalizing this first draft I have approached a group of russian programmers who are led (AKA project managed) by a lady, who calls herself Iris on some forums. She’s running a forum on a very popular message board system, giving support and help to russian-speaking users. So far her guys were a great help and I was thinking that they would be more than happy to take on a paid assignment.

So I wrote her a letter, describing in brief the necessary features and asking if she could recommend someone. She, actually, did more then that. She set up a private topic on her own private message board for discussing my project. Which we did – sort of.

It all started with her demanding… okay, not really demanding – rigidly asking if we would agree to her licensing terms. They would be as follows: we’re no more than licenced users, we have no rights to use the software on any other web site except the two that were mentioned in the project description, we have no rights to sell the scripts, we have no rights to any profits they incur by selling those scripts. Basically, it all boiled down to this – they write the scripts for us, per our requests, for our money, but the only right we have is to use them on our site, they hold rights to everything else. Okay, – we said,- it’s not quite fair, but our plan was not to profit from this script, but to profit from use of it. So finally we agreed. It took us one evening (actually – around 20 minutes) to discuss the issue and make a decision. It took Iris almost all day to stop bitching and explain the whole issue to me earlier.

Next thing – we started discussing the project. We had a great time posting same questions over and over again, because she wasn’t answering my questions and I couldn’t answer hers since she didn’t provide enough information. For example she asked three times how, when and on which terms would a programmer receive his pay. First time I replied that we have no problem transferring funds over any service that is similar to Western Union. That was accepted. Second time I answered that I want to see demo of the proposed work first. Was offered to look at third party scripts, but not actual team’s accomplishments. Third time I said – show me at least something you’ve done. I was accused of accusing them in demanding money before work. I was going nuts, instead of polite conversations I have daily with various people, she was talking to me like I was a fraud, trying to steal her own work in a clear daylight. Still, I thought to myself, at the end of the day it’s the programmer who is going to do the work, not her. So I continued patiently to explain our project needs and requirements for the sake of the guy who would (probably) have to implement the whole thing. She ended up saying that they, anyway, developing the portal we’re interested in even without our participation, it’s much lighter than the one we need, and if we’re interested to give them a shout. I responded that I had shouted for two pages already, so my intentions should be (to any clearly thinking person) pretty clear. Now we’re waiting for programmer to show up…

I also posted all the relevant discussions on my forum for my partner to take a look. His reaction was almost same as mine – he said “Start looking at other teams. These guys don’t seem to be really excited with the work”. Which I, ofcourse, already was doing, since the thought was pretty apparent. So, I went to Guru.com (ex ITMoonlighter.com) and posted brief of the project there. Today (one day from posting the project) I have at least one offer from a company (they seem to be guys from India) who’ve done many projects both on Guru.com and beyond. They claim they are happy with pricing/time frame. They have 94 reviews and total of $52, 168 worth of projects. The only con I was able to dig from reviews is that these guys sometime don’t deliver on time, but since we don’t have a deadline – it’s okay. They also claim they can start right away.

Now, with all my respect for Russian programmers and desire to help my former country to get more outsourced jobs, I seriously thinking of giving this project to the guys from India. So much for being supportive of the country and people I like…