Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sounds like an opportunity...
.. to get sued for patent infringement. Or DMCA violation.
This is interoperability. At the very least this is a gray area.
Farmers look for ways to circumvent tractor software locks
221–230 of 359 posts
Re: Farmers look for ways to circumvent tractor software locks
#222Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well you don't even need to look just at commercially available products - just look at the FOSS landscape for what gets produced when there is no financial incentive or IP law to protect the material - certainly we would be in a much different place technology wise if we didn't have FOSS as the backbone for a grand majority of technology that exist on the market today, and all of that FOSS was created without the fi…
It's a great point. I'll add that even big companies and government that push for patents use tons of FOSS software because it's better for them. Says a lot, eh? ;)
As long as they are not violating the licenses I see no problem with that.
Re: Farmers look for ways to circumvent tractor software locks
#223Re: Farmers look for ways to circumvent tractor software locks
#224Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can understand MS but John Deere? Hard to credit that they'd be monitoring HN. I mean how many farmers read HN?
I'm sceptical as well but I imagine people there search Twitter and Google and such to see what is being said by them.
I didn't think of that!
Re: Farmers look for ways to circumvent tractor software locks
#225Earlier quoted context omitted.
>I think we'd all be better off if basically everything was open source, by way of eliminating intellectual property protections provided by governments. Ok, before going a single step farther it has to be prefaced: this entire sentence is utterly non-sensical because "open source" is 100% based upon intellectual property protections provided by governments . That was the whole genius of it from the start, that it ma…
Well, I should say that I respect and appreciate your response. Certainly I can't truly think through the universal problem space, as no one can. I also feel that at least my government (in the US) is so owned by corporations and the wealthy that it no longer represents my interests, and I tend to reject any solutions that endow in that government certain powers. As such I would disagree with intellectual property on…
> It is only the legal means of obfuscation that prevents us as humans from making every book ever written freely available to all people.
I would bet that most writers do not want to make their books freely available. If they did how would they pay the rent? And would they be able to even write them then?
Re: Farmers look for ways to circumvent tractor software locks
#226Earlier quoted context omitted.
It doesn't sound like the farmers are asking to rewrite or replace that software. It sounds like they are just asking to be able to make the same kind of repairs that their local dealer makes.
And what kind of repairs are that? As a software developer I don't understand what equipment is failure needs software change. Software don't wear and tear. Hardware does.
Replace a transmission. It's in tfa.
Re: Farmers look for ways to circumvent tractor software locks
#227I have the feeling that somehow the actual need has been put aside for phylosophical (or Open Source, etc.) reasonings (nice but not the original issue).
More or less what the good farmers are asking for (which is not about the code, the kernel or whatever, they are not "hackers" as much as the authorized JD technicians are not computer experts or programmers or software engineers) is just access to the "database" of parts serial number of the machine.
Loosely the way it works (simplified) is a database where the (say) pressure sensor #42 has been registered (authorized) in the operating system as having serial number #0123456789. When the sensor breaks, after it has been replaced with a new (original or verified third party) sensor, you need to update the database telling it that sensor with serial #0123456789 has bee replaced with sensor serial number #2223334445 and - of course it depends on the specific part - possibly run a "self-test" program to verify that the sensor works properly and maybe tune/regulate it.
The farmers do not want the source code, they don't want to modify it, they don't want to "hack" anything, they simply want to be able to replace a part and have the thingy work.
Going back to software, let's talk of - say - Windows 7 (yeah I know that all the rage is about Windows 10 nowadays) and its activation, imagine that instead of having one month time to activate a new install either through the internet, the automated phone call in case it doesn't work and a support phone call for particular cases where the previous two options do not work, activation was:
1) Immediately mandatory (i.e. the OS wouldn't work until activated)
2) ONLY available through a local visit of a MS agent (9 to 5 , Monday to Friday) at a cost of (say) US$ 100.00/hour + US$ 1.00/mile
Re: Farmers look for ways to circumvent tractor software locks
#228Hey all, I worked on software for John Deere. This is a throwaway account for obvious reasons. Opinions expressed here are MY OWN. I no longer work for John Deere or am associated with them in any way. I was part of one of the many teams that work on this software. Specifically I was part of John Deere's ISG division also known as the Intelligent Solutions Group. The ISG division (was at the time) responsible for tyi…
Your post smacks of "PR". The majority of people that I've talked to regarding their tractors have the issue of needing a replacement part and requiring the JD tech to come out and authorize its replacement or fixing every single time. This is just crazy expensive and time consuming.
If you want people to not modify your hardware or software then you make it so easy that the alternative doesn't look good.
Re: Farmers look for ways to circumvent tractor software locks
#229Hey all, I worked on software for John Deere. This is a throwaway account for obvious reasons. Opinions expressed here are MY OWN. I no longer work for John Deere or am associated with them in any way. I was part of one of the many teams that work on this software. Specifically I was part of John Deere's ISG division also known as the Intelligent Solutions Group. The ISG division (was at the time) responsible for tyi…
What does any of this have to do with repairing a transmission? You're moving the goal post.
Re: Farmers look for ways to circumvent tractor software locks
#230Couldn't they organize and sue the manufacturer for their losses due to the tractor malfunctions in critical periods and being prevented to service them promptly? I understand it's a bit naive, but you don't solve this by hacking around the problem, but by attacking the problem through the institutions of the system.