Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] Ettus Research News

[Don Fanning]

Marcus D. Leech wrote:
> On 02/05/2010 04:59 PM, Don Fanning wrote:
>   
> > Am I denying that he shouldn't be paid?  No. 
> > He has done a great bit of work and much congratulations to him for
> > taking his business to the "next level".
> >
> > I'm not going to get all "awestruck" about the guy.  No one is worthy
> > of that.  He may be your friend, but this is just business.  Nothing
> > personal.
> >
> > When someone touts a product that doesn't include all the pieces, then
> > they should be given a chance to respond and make it right.
> >     
> So, near as I can tell, the "missing piece" that you're all bothered
> about is that the PCB design
>   files were never released, and this, somehow, makes the product "not
> include all the pieces".
>   
I'm sure there are a few other files such as a true schematic so that 
the PCB layout could be reconfigured to meet a different form factor.  
But no worries, we all know that in open source: "Some assembly is 
required..."

>   Last time I bought an LCD TV, for example, I didn't even get
> printed-on-paper schematics, let
>   alone electronic design files.  Matt could have chosen to not give
> away *any* of the hardware
>   design information in an e-useful format, and he'd *still* be a
> towering member of the Open
>   Source community.  There is no "code" that says that "if you give away
> any of it, you have to
>   give away all of it".
>
>   
You're right.  And lauds to him.  But don't blame me if you chose to buy 
a LCD TV without schematics.  Any true hacker worth their salt I'm sure 
could find a TV with such details.  And you probably didn't get the SAMS 
manual with your TV... that costs extra. :)

> Not only is *all* the firmware, fpga designs, software (via gnu radio),
> available openly, but so are
>   other "manufacturing" files like the BOMs, and schematic-capture files. 
>
>   
Which the USRP2 is missing.... at least with my checkout of the SVN I 
found...  But to give him the benefit of the doubt, he did say he's 
cleaning it up and re-releasing the BOM's so I'll just be patient unless 
NI takes control of the information.
> Matt, as the owner of this stuff in the intellectual sense, has chosen
> to hold-back a rather-small
>   piece of the pie--that's his choice, and he's been very public about
> that choice from the very
>   early days--and I've been around since the very beginning so I think
> I'm speaking with at least
>   some authority on the subject.  I have a USRP1 with a very low serial
> number, and I was one
>   of the BETA customers for the DBS_RX, and even in those days, the
> policy was that the PCB
>   files were held back.
>
>   
Good for you to support the project at an early stage.  But what happens 
when your project won't fit into the square form factor?  What if you 
have this great idea but can only fit into the form factor of say a cell 
phone... then what?   I'm not the only one with the same idea... Look at 
the beagleboard guys doing their USRP work. 
> Seems to me that the only people really affected by such a decision are
> those who want to put
>   *zero* effort into exact-cloning his work.   If the *real* reason is
> that you want to "integrate pieces of
>   the design into your own product", then *everything* you need is
> already openly available.
>   Implying otherwise is disingenuous in the extreme.
>
>   
Umm... plagiarism has been said to be the greatest form of flattery.. 
but no, having the files helps *expand* a device's potential... an 
example would be a USRP2 with 4 ports instead of two on one board.    
And if this were really true, wouldn't you think some board manufacture 
in asia would be flooding the market with USRP knockoffs?  I think you 
give too much credit to being a early pioneer and having all the arrows 
in your back...

> Currently, there's a "glitch" in that websites got shuffled and Matt
> chose to take that opportunity
>   to clean things up before putting all of that stuff back up.   I think
> it really sucks that you're
>   effectively accusing Matt of having a hidden agenda.  Perhaps, I might
> suggest, Don, that maybe
>   you're the one with the hidden agenda.
>
>   
WTF?  Doesn't anyone backup files?  Or leave the old site up while they 
migrate the information?  That's IT 101 there...
> Some peoples children....
>
>
>   
I give Matt major props for developing the hardware, I really do... The 
rest of you are just appliance users.