Structuring The Forum

[jblackann]

What is the chance of adding some form of a structure to the forum? This would make it a bit easier to try track down information. I have used the forum through the Microchip webpage and have found tons of useful information. The Microchip forum is setup to discuss different topics, so for example, with the PBP pro forum thread could be divided up into different topics such as ADC, different models of PICs, RF, LCD, etc. I am new to PICBASIC and am just finding it hard to find useful information because searching doesn't always work the best.

Any thoughts?

[Melanie]

The Microchip forum is owned by Microchip and managed by Microchip employees getting paid by Microchip.

This forum is owned by Crownhill, an independent distributor of MeLabs products as a SELF-HELP forum for purchasers of MeLabs products. Despite a tiny bit of Advertising, this COSTS Crownhill considerably more to run than they receive in business from it. The Admins give their limited time freely to Administer the forum and we sure don’t get paid or receive any benefits whatsoever for our involvement here.

The forum is used by everyone - not just customers of Crownhill. In fact 99% of the users are NOT customers of Crownhill. Students who've never spent a cent on the products, people looking for ideas, folks who've got pirate software, the clueless who are in way out of their depth... Microchip provide their site because somewhere along the line you'll end up buying a Microchip product. The majority of users of this forum do not benefit Crownhill in any way - and are not likely to EVER! Personally, if I was running Crownhill, any customer of mine would get a password to access my forums... you spend money with me, and in return I'll give you some goodies, but then I'm not as generous as some folks...

The limit of structuring is to give you a number of sub-headings into which to post. Many threads cut across several topic headings already. If your problem is about using PICBasicPRO as a SERIAL to USB adaptor, you've got a choice of three headings into which to post already – which one are you going to use? Topic choices are endless. You put in a Header for RF Wireless, and somebody else will want to split that into AM, FM and SSB. There are limits as to what you can do with this forum software which is a pretty-much an off-the-shelf package. The SEARCH option isn't the greatest, but it's better than nothing.

[Luciano]

The majority of users of this forum do not benefit Crownhill in any way - and are not likely to EVER! Personally, if I was running Crownhill, any customer of mine would get a password to access my forums... you spend money with me, and in return I'll give you some goodies, but then I'm not as generous as some folks...

Hi Melanie,

Some of the people who answer questions here are not Crownhill customers.
The return for Crownhill is free support. (Give-and-take basis).

Best regards,

Luciano

[sayzer]

....Personally, if I was running Crownhill, any customer of mine would get a password to access my forums...

Personally, if I were running Crownhill, I would consider password-access for the future - not at this time. By at this time I mean the next 4-5 yrs.

Look at Microsoft; they made their products widely available and did not push very much on crack issues or widely available password combinations.
Their products have become as "need" for office environment.

Now, they will no longer allow crack or pirate software of theirs to be run.
They allowed it purposely up to now to have people learn it, use it, access it, find it for free…but starting from 2007, it will no longer be possible as the validity will be continuously checked online. I see their strategy as a highly intelligent investment that was made years ago, and now they are harvesting.

By the way, their stock price from 2007 will have a significant trend as addicted people will have no choice but pay for their products.

Good example for the others.


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[mister_e]

But as all human made stuff, another one will crack it. Nothing is 100% safe, there's always a method. always

[malc-c]

There have been orgainisations and individuals who hate Microsoft for what it is or for no reason at all, but still like the fact that any product (not just Microsofts) can and will be cracked or circumvented. Its not just the expensive mainstream products, sometimes software costing as little as $20 will have a key gen or serial patch made if the software proves popular.

Whilst its nice of Crownhill to make the forum available to everyone and not just its customers, and at a finacial loss according to Melanie, I suspect that there is some return where people end up making a purchase based on the support it finds in these forums be that a PIC chip or something more expensive.

[sayzer]

As programmers, we all know that there is no such thing as “crack”.

There is “finding the key” or “finding the pass code”; but never there has been a “crack”!

It is, technically, possible to find the key for 128-bit encoded message.
Even for 512, 1-Mbit or more.

But, practically, it is not that easy.

If all computers in the world come together and work for us continuously, it will take at least a decade to find the key for 64-bit encoded message (somebody did try that already).

Now imagine, by the time you find the key just for 64-bit with all that computer power, we will be using 1-Mbit of encoding.


Take a look at Crownhill.
They are now providing a USB key which is a hardware key (still there are ways to go around it).
MS or any other well recognized products could also use hardware key. But they have never considered it. This is their strategy and it is working well.

IF the owner of Crownhill takes a step forward and makes its product free for schools, for the next, say, 5 yrs, THEN afterwards there will be millions of potential users in the market; but by the time they become potential users it will not be free. Repeat this every 10 yrs (5+5) and have more and more potential users for the future.


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