Have you ever had someone take your work? Steal your idea? Steal your schematic? Did you get pissed off, shrug, or something in between.
This has happened to me several times (I could give specific examples) in the computers and electronics arena. Up until now, however, there was always a correct attribution and even thanks. I wondered why they would bother to re-publish the whole thing while adding almost nothing, but hey, that was their business.
One time a schematic was used as the basis of “would this work for what I want to do” post. No attribution at all. I wrote in and said where it came from and, in fact, he apologized and edited the link and there was some discussion about the general topic of what he wanted to do. The gist of it was that I told him that the circuit that I designed and built was still working and doing what it was supposed to but he was missing a few points (like a pullup for an OC signal) and some related info. Someone else posted another circuit and so on. No harm no foul. I’m really not that picky about that stuff and never have been.
So, last fall, I made a data logger. Please understand this clearly. Making a data logger is no great feat. It is almost a rite of passage. So, I have no illusions about the significance of the accomplishment. It is not a big deal – I get it.
I had recently purchased an Arduino MKR WiFi 1010 and an Arduino NANO IOT 33 (both of these have an ESP32 variant – they are not UNOs). I actually wanted to re-do a data logger that I had made several years ago and the controller I used went away and that always pissed me off. So, I thought – why not? Nothing beats a project to learn.
I built it, it works, I am happy, blah blah blah. I figured I would go ahead and write it up (sharing and all that rot). PITA – grammar, spelling, photography, removing cuss words from code – all that. But, I did, and it is here https://create.arduino.cc/projecthu...logger-5ab66f?ref=user&ref_id=914988&offset=0
I was rather impressed with the response – thousands of views in a short period of time, a couple of nice comments and some respects (I guess they are “likes”). Cool – maybe someone else will get some use out of it so it was worth the effort.
The other day, I was wondering about a trivial issue about the MCUs…wondering how I had said something and fearing that I had said it wrong (it turned out that I hadn’t). I go search for the project on line and I fine this, instead (the actual project is still there, this was new) https://www.electronics-lab.com/project/yadl-yet-another-data-logger/.
Heyyyy that’s my code (authorship comments removed) and those are my photographs, of my project, and much of the writing (but not all) are my words, that graph is even from my data – and nothing about the original source - wtf?
So I am thinking, I will write this guy and inform him of my perception of the identity of his ancestors, particularly his parents and a few other comments concerning my perception of his general worth.
I never did and pretty much forgot about it. I have no idea why this guy does that stuff – maybe he thinks that if he puts in the word “tested” it means he is not taking it. Maybe if he puts his name and email there, it doesn’t mean he is implying that he wrote it – even if the authorship lines were removed from the code. Heck, maybe there is some fine print on the Arduino project site where I posted it that says I give up all rights and anyone else can take it and act like it is theirs. Maybe it is an AI application to collect content.
While I don’t think any of that is true, I have learned, long ago, that people who take the work products or the intellectual ideas of others are never able to produce those on their own. The inability goes along with the act of taking. By and large, they are no threat. I mean that seriously. That is the message that I, as an old person, would pass on to young people (who are genetically predisposed to not listen to old people).
This has happened to me several times (I could give specific examples) in the computers and electronics arena. Up until now, however, there was always a correct attribution and even thanks. I wondered why they would bother to re-publish the whole thing while adding almost nothing, but hey, that was their business.
One time a schematic was used as the basis of “would this work for what I want to do” post. No attribution at all. I wrote in and said where it came from and, in fact, he apologized and edited the link and there was some discussion about the general topic of what he wanted to do. The gist of it was that I told him that the circuit that I designed and built was still working and doing what it was supposed to but he was missing a few points (like a pullup for an OC signal) and some related info. Someone else posted another circuit and so on. No harm no foul. I’m really not that picky about that stuff and never have been.
So, last fall, I made a data logger. Please understand this clearly. Making a data logger is no great feat. It is almost a rite of passage. So, I have no illusions about the significance of the accomplishment. It is not a big deal – I get it.
I had recently purchased an Arduino MKR WiFi 1010 and an Arduino NANO IOT 33 (both of these have an ESP32 variant – they are not UNOs). I actually wanted to re-do a data logger that I had made several years ago and the controller I used went away and that always pissed me off. So, I thought – why not? Nothing beats a project to learn.
I built it, it works, I am happy, blah blah blah. I figured I would go ahead and write it up (sharing and all that rot). PITA – grammar, spelling, photography, removing cuss words from code – all that. But, I did, and it is here https://create.arduino.cc/projecthu...logger-5ab66f?ref=user&ref_id=914988&offset=0
I was rather impressed with the response – thousands of views in a short period of time, a couple of nice comments and some respects (I guess they are “likes”). Cool – maybe someone else will get some use out of it so it was worth the effort.
The other day, I was wondering about a trivial issue about the MCUs…wondering how I had said something and fearing that I had said it wrong (it turned out that I hadn’t). I go search for the project on line and I fine this, instead (the actual project is still there, this was new) https://www.electronics-lab.com/project/yadl-yet-another-data-logger/.
Heyyyy that’s my code (authorship comments removed) and those are my photographs, of my project, and much of the writing (but not all) are my words, that graph is even from my data – and nothing about the original source - wtf?
So I am thinking, I will write this guy and inform him of my perception of the identity of his ancestors, particularly his parents and a few other comments concerning my perception of his general worth.
I never did and pretty much forgot about it. I have no idea why this guy does that stuff – maybe he thinks that if he puts in the word “tested” it means he is not taking it. Maybe if he puts his name and email there, it doesn’t mean he is implying that he wrote it – even if the authorship lines were removed from the code. Heck, maybe there is some fine print on the Arduino project site where I posted it that says I give up all rights and anyone else can take it and act like it is theirs. Maybe it is an AI application to collect content.
While I don’t think any of that is true, I have learned, long ago, that people who take the work products or the intellectual ideas of others are never able to produce those on their own. The inability goes along with the act of taking. By and large, they are no threat. I mean that seriously. That is the message that I, as an old person, would pass on to young people (who are genetically predisposed to not listen to old people).