Geoff McInnes answered:

> Paul Reeves coaxing me out of early retirement wrote:
>
> >So, just what were Ann and Paul and the rest of the team doing for the

last six

> >months, if they weren't working with Inprise?
>
>
> Being jerked around.

I think that's but to true. I would use more appropriate language myself.
I'm quite new (about four or five old days actually) to this community, but
during this time I've gotten the strangest impressions. Dave Fuller seems to
be an untrustworthy bastard to the bone. Ted Shelton character seems to
either be brown-mouthed or so clueless about this deal that he's considered
"expendable"! Oh joy, what a company! Trust in us, crash and burn. "Smile
wile you're burning, 'cause WE MADE IT HAPPEN!". Stupid schmucks.

But I feel *really* sorry for, and actually I suffer a bit with, the persons
that were going to start ISC (also called NewCo here). How the hell could
anyone do something like _Fuller_ done to these people that have invested
*their life* in InterBase?! Yes, their life! They apparently still worked
for the enterPrice empire under the implression that they would get the
sources and everything with it on the day of the release of IB. If it wasn't
against the law I'd ask how much a hitman is in the ju ess of fuckin' aj.

I've been (and apperently righfully) led to believe that in the USA the love
of money and power (pretty apparent by Fullers acknowlegement that "I want
my own Jet") can make you to do anything and rip people off left and right.
Cool country. I'm quite convinced that this is the proof that unregulated
commercialism doesn't work. Either hitmen or a law regulating this is needed
I think. In this particular case I'd vote #1. Have the IRS checked him
lately? (just hoping to trigger the NSA sniffers :-) ).

Would *anyone* say that Ann Harris and the other that were to start NewCo
have had a fair treatment? Probably not. It wouldn't surpise me the least if
the first they heard about it was from the news or from some of these lists.
But according to the current rules they're (in legal terms) "fucked". Isn't
there any legal department in USA that (without a company or person paying
lawyers) would deem this illegal and sue? I'd say that from "a developers
point of view, Interbase has decieved and lied to us for many months, and
ended it by using - not fine grained - salt and ... (you get the picture)".

To me it's pretty obvious: A deal where they (number gotten by rumor) demand
TEN MILLION DOLLARS for the rest of IB, that Fuller himself promised earlier
this year would be OSS, and now he shits on the ones that delivered that
relese, is IMO a crime and should be punished accordingly.
1. Interprise didn't deliver what was promised. Several consultants and
companies have lost money because of this stupid (and hopefully unlawful)
game.
2. BarterPrice requests an *absurd* amount of money that Borland/Interprise
*publicly* said that they were going to ditch! How the hell can they then
put a take at $10e6 on something they were going to throw in the trash?! I
just can conclude they're insane and should be intoxicated for the rest of
their life at an American low-budget asylum.

Either Fuller is a completely lunatic (or possibly his staff of advisors,
lawyers, ass-kissers and boot-lickers), or he's completely out of his mind.
Either way, I think an asylum is the best place for such a fuckup. That the
bord re-elected him just displays what I said, and what they apparently only
should care about in the US, "$".


Sorry about the somewhat pissed off attitude in this post, but I think you
all understand why if you read it.

/Mike