Iambic Under Fire

[Jason Dunn]

<a href="http://www.brighthand.com/newsite/features/iambic.html">http://www.brighthand.com/newsite/features/iambic.html</a><br /><br />This Brighthand article is about two companies that make Palm software, but it has the feel of a gripping "true crime" story with two companies, obviously arch-rivals, gunning for the same market - and one of them doing something rather questionable with a domain name.<br /><br />"What a difference a week makes. If you'd asked any Palm handheld user what they thought of iambic a week ago they'd likely have mentioned its excellent software. Now, however, you'd get a much different answer. It all changed on May 7 when word got out that Pimlico Software had released a new version of its popular Palm calendaring and scheduling software, DateBk5, which competes head to head with iambic's Action Names. Handheld enthusiasts rushed to <a href="www.datebk5.com">www.datebk5.com</a> hoping to either download a demo version of the new software or upgrade their handhelds from DateBk4. What they soon discovered was that Pimlico's competitor, iambic, had registered the datebk5.com URL and redirected unsuspecting consumers to its website. Further investigation showed that iambic had also done this for www.datebk4.com."

[en passant]

and there's a petition, with over 250 signatures as of this writing:
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/iambic/petition.html

[dma1965]

I used Datebk when I was a Palm user, and loved it, but what I thought was really great is the fact that the owner used the proceeds for running a gorilla haven. Now, I am not a bleeding heart by any stretch of the imagination, but I found this admirable. I know most of the members of this discussion board are no longer on Iambic's radar, but I hope the Palm community really socks it to Iambic on this matter, unless they admit wrong and publicly apologize. This is the kind of crap porn sites pull on our children (i.e. Whitehouse.com) to suit there interests, and the internet community needs to let the world know that it is not an acceptable practice, especially for a good guy like Dewar at Pimlico software. :evil:

[ChrisW]

Much of the iambic's support seems to center around the argument that their action was (probably not) illegal, and that capitalism demands every effort to make the sale. I respectfully submit that anyone whose actions are only limited by legislation needs to reevaluate their personal philosophy, and I hope never to make your acquaintance. There is a chasm of difference between, on one hand, an act that's so damaging to society that all must be banned from it; and on the other, our personal vision of what would make a better society and our desire to achieve it.

Unfortunately, people on both sides of this divide seem to forget that it's there. Our legislators (liberals and conservatives both) forget that they have no authority to subjectively determine what form of society would be best, while libertines abuse us all by doing whatever they can simply because they can.

I also note many silly posts of the form "Datebk sucks, AN rulez!". It's long been accepted by all but the most irrational that both applications are among the best created for the Palm platform, each addressing their need in a different way. AN has a reputation for its ease of use, while Datebk is praised as the Swiss Army knife of calendar applications. To ignore the vast functionality of Datebk while concentrating on its memory usage and AN's cosmetics is doing oneself a disservice: at the very least, learn what Datebk can do, and how AN could be made better by matching those features. (And conversely, how Datebk could be prettier and easier)