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At some point hitherto, mlw hath spake thusly:
> Nathan Meyers wrote:
[snip]
> > Forgive the confusion - my response wasn't about your technology. My
> > point is that it's a long road from a technology to a business. It
> 
> I asked for opinions about a software program I had written. 

Actually, you didn't.  See below.

> honestly wanted to hear some points of view. I thought it would be
> an interesting discussion. I was asking a technology group about
> technology. I thought it would be an appropriate line of discussion. 

I agree it might be an interesting topic.  However if that was your
intent, you definitely didn't convey it.  The only question you asked
was about packaging and selling it.  There were no questions about
technology whatsoever.

> I really do not need and do not want anyone telling me that I have
> no idea how hard it is to start a business. I am really offended at
> your condescension and it is completely uncalled for.

I think you need to relax...  You definitely appeared to be asking
business-related questions, about how to market and sell a product.
Nathan offered an opinion about exactly that.  Your offense seems
really out of place.

Quoted directly from your original message:

> I have written a search engine system, similar to something like
> Google and altavista.  I think it is pretty cool. I wrote it because
> I had an idea, not because of any projected customers.  It is mostly
> command line based and does have a mode where, using MPI, a search
> cluster can be managed through one machine.  It is pretty raw, but
> works fairly well. It compiles and functions under Windows, Linux,
> FreeBSD, and I am working out some last bugs on Darwin.

If it was your intention to discuss the technical merits of such a
thing, you're going to have to go into some detail about what it is
that you're doing, and how you're doing it.  The description above, by
your own admission (in subsequent messages) doesn't even really tell
us what the thing does.  You offered only very vague, background
detail, for what appears to be leading to what came next.

Then, the only thing you did say which suggests leading to a topic of
discussion was the following:

> Anyone have any ideas on how to package the system or to whom to
> sell it?  Would I be a fool to open source all of it. (A good part
> of it is already open sourced.)

Not only did you ask the very thing you claim you did not ask, but you
really never gave us anything to suggest you wanted input any other
topic of discussion.  Nathan's response didn't seem at all
condescending to me; he made an honest effort to offer input on the
topic that you seem to have put forth.

I'm not trying to browbeat you, and I really hope you don't get that
idea.  But if you would like some intelligent discourse on a
particular subject, please tell us what it is.  Insulting the other
members for answering your question will not likely result in any
useful discussion.

Cheers.

- -- 
Derek Martin               ddm@pizzashack.org    
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