I hope I  haven't offended anyone with my previous  letter re: back-patters. I
was in a very angry  status, as usual (the fact that I work  12 hours a day in
the machine room, read crowded heap  of paraphernalia with the sound level you
can imagine, does  nothing to improve it), and was  particularly pissed off at
some letter  I had  just read.  I didn't mean  to offend  the people  who were
really wishing me luck (anyway they saw  the replies I sent them privately). I
was mostly referring  to people I had  almost never heard of (if  at all), who
wrote to me for the  first (or second) time in their life to  try to get me to
give LISTSERV  to EARN or  BITNET (they  don't have money  to buy it)  so they
could  keep developing  it (maybe  under  a joint  contract with  IBM, DEC  or
whatever  - and  of  course these  would  want  to sell  it  later), after  an
extensive amount of back-patting  and the like. I am really  pissed off at all
the  pressure I'm  getting  to sign  contracts about  LISTSERV  with EARN  and
suchlike. I just will  not do it, period. I am *especially*  angry at the fact
that these people think  it is my duty to sign this  kind of contracts without
getting any money  in exchange. They should  be glad that I am  kind enough to
let EARN/BITNET  use LISTSERV indefinitely  and free  of charge, and  I really
don't see  how they can  think they are  in a position  to demand that  I sign
contracts or  the like. When  I am  in "pissed off"  status, I tend  to forget
about all the other  nice guys and to make harsh  decisions (or statements for
that matter). I see  no reason why I should stop giving  out new free licenses
for EARN/BITNET  sites, or trying  to discontinue the  use of LISTSERV  on the
network (actually I've just sent 4 more copies yesterday and today). But I see
no reason why I should sign contracts,  nor why I should cooperate with people
who demand them (and are usually not even EARN/BITNET officials by the way).
 
By the way I've just received a new job offer to be inserted in the top three,
which includes VM development  and EARN access. Now if I  could only trade the
PC/MAC offers for VM ones :-)
 
  Eric