Open Letter to Richard Christian

Unitrunker · #1 (**permalink**) 10-04-2009, 07:33 PM

loumaag · #2 (**permalink**) 10-05-2009, 10:35 AM

Zowie -- go get 'em Rick.

bezking · #3 (**permalink**) 10-05-2009, 05:18 PM

I'll stick this for a bit. I used to do software development and I know how much something like this hurts...

blantonl · #4 (**permalink**) 10-05-2009, 05:34 PM

RE Christian is kind of an interesting fellow. Many years ago he banned me from the trunker mailing list when we (trunkedradio.net) starting hosting the trunker exe's and codebase. He even then continued to name himself as the "owner" of trunker.... oh well. I don't blame you Rick for being irritated with him.

wayne_h · #5 (**permalink**) 10-05-2009, 11:04 PM

What a dirt bag. I noticed him pushing his variant on his (Trunker) Yahoo group. Even his email address is a likeness of Yuni you've used before.

He won't be getting my expertise on his list. I would advise anyone else not to get involved as I wouldn't trust him with info you make available.

Unitrunker · #6 (**permalink**) 10-06-2009, 01:06 AM

My personal experience with Richard was very frustrating. He was a road block to progress. I'd recruit someone for testing or programming - and have to get his approval - to get them added to the main mailing list and the beta list. It was all about him controlling who was allowed onto the mailing list (and therefore access to the files in the Files section). He didn't provide publicly accessible links to download my software until after the unitrunker.com site was up and running.

Bottom line - there are folks wanting access to the program that - for whatever reason - weren't allowed onto Richard's mailing list.

If you download my software from my website - I know what you're getting and can vouch for it. If you have problems, you can come to me. One of my fears is that someone could pass off malware as one of my creations. The person unlucky enough to download it would blame me.

( I know - with all the bugs - you could joke that Unitrunker IS malware, but seriously ... )

The way Richard publishes my software, you have to endure the banner ads of Richard's site plus the banner ads and popups (thank god for popup blockers) of the file hosting service he uses. To be safe - you'd have to compare the download to what I've published on my website. If he would post links to my website, instead of copying my website - there would be NO issue.

The only reason I can think that he insists on doing it this way is for the ad revenue. His goal is to position himself between you and something you want. Economists call this Rent Seeking behavior. It is time to cut out the middle-man.

I've been providing trunking decoder software to the hobbyist community since April of 2002. That's more than seven years. Unitrunker has always been a free program - and will stay that way.

My apologies to the community at large. The drama here is two people disagree over who's the boss. Sorry Richard, you're not the boss of me. You don't own me - or the works I produce.

For everyone else, it should be business as usual.

On a humorous note - I've used the moniker "Yuni T. Runker" in my unitrunker email addresses (both gmail and yahoo). I carried this practice forward when I created my unitrunker account on twitter. From twitter I have learned two things ...

1. Twitter is very popular in Malaysia
2. In Malaysia, Yuni is a girl's name

Now if you will excuse me, I have some bugs to fix.

n5ims · #7 (**permalink**) 10-06-2009, 02:27 AM

While it may not be worth the trouble and cost, you may want to try to get their domain removed and transferred over to you to eliminate the confustion and malware issues. ICANN has a proceedure for this known as UDRP (link --> ICANN | Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy ).

slicerwizard · #8 (**permalink**) 10-06-2009, 09:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unitrunker

My personal experience with Richard was very frustrating. He was a road block to progress. I'd recruit someone for testing or programming - and have to get his approval - to get them added to the main mailing list and the beta list. It was all about him controlling who was allowed onto the mailing list (and therefore access to the files in the Files section). He didn't provide publicly accessible links to download my software until after the unitrunker.com site was up and running.

I hope you're planning on creating your own support group somewhere (even Yahoo Groups is fine) so you can get away from this crap. You should have no trouble finding a willing moderator or two from your user base, so you won't have to dedicate much time to it.

And as your users move off of the Trunker group, it'll slowly wither away into irrelevance. The sooner, the better, IMO.

Speaking of that group - I too saw the unitrunker posting about this Linux-centric micro controller - serial port abom - er, thingie that's going to decode everything. Anyone actually think that's going to pan out and how many users are they actually going to get on board with this audio to serial dongle approach?

mtindor · #9 (**permalink**) 10-06-2009, 09:33 AM

Somebody please clarify... is there NO actual Yahoo Group ran by Rick or Andrew?

I see groups.yahoo.com/group/trunker and groups.yahoo.com/group/unitrunker

I belong to both. If neither is run by Rick, Andrew or another reputable party, I want no part of them... and I'm willing to bet others would agree.

mike

slicerwizard · #10 (**permalink**) 10-06-2009, 10:01 AM

Which "Andrew" do you speak of? (it's not clear, to me at least)

For sure the trunker group isn't Rick's. I suspect the unitrunker group is the beta tester's group mentioned above, and Rick is apparently not the owner of it either.

So they're both slag and I suspect that like you, no Unitrunker users will want anything to do with them from this point forward.

DaveIN · #11 (**permalink**) 10-06-2009, 10:56 AM

Or this one?
opentrunker : OpenTrunker

mtindor · #12 (**permalink**) 10-06-2009, 11:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slicerwizard

Which "Andrew" do you speak of? (it's not clear, to me at least)

Look in the mirror

Of course I know the Trunk88 group, and had forgotten that it was obviously run by you. Didn't know if Trunker/Unitrunker were run by you. You answered the question further below.

Quote:

For sure the trunker group isn't Rick's. I suspect the unitrunker group is the beta tester's group mentioned above, and Rick is apparently not the owner of it either.

So they're both slag and I suspect that like you, no Unitrunker users will want anything to do with them from this point forward.

Yep, definitely I'm out. That's a no-brainer. Not interested in participating in any such group. Wish I'd have known earlier. oh well, better late than never.

Mike

petrol88 · #13 (**permalink**) 10-06-2009, 11:28 AM

Unit Rancor?

slicerwizard · #14 (**permalink**) 10-06-2009, 10:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaveIN

Or this one?
opentrunker : OpenTrunker

Yeah, that's the "variant". I noticed that the group description lists using serial data dumps from the newer scanners as one of the main interface options; that gets you: a) only the few classic systems (LTR/EDACS/Moto/P25) that the scanners understand, and b) really bad OSW data if you're using a Uniden XT model.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mtindor

Look in the mirror

GAH! Now I'm scarred for life...

Quote:

Of course I know the Trunk88 group, and had forgotten that it was obviously run by you.

Hence my confusion, since it/I have nada to do with this mess.

Quote:

Didn't know if Trunker/Unitrunker were run by you.

Not unless I'm the "wpascanner <scanning@wpascanner.com>" who has locked down the trunker group; after Rick's message calling out Richard Christian and followup comments like "Report the guy to his isp - let them sort it out" and "its no wonder people don't write decent software when they get people flogging their stuff and putting it up as their own" by a couple of list members, that tard has been moderating every message - even those posted by longtime list members.

I just took a look at the wpascanner.com site and spotted these gems:

With the recent debut of the Uniden/Bearcat BC235XLT scanner, one firms, (sic) Motorola, form of trunking is now easily followed by scanner users. That still leaves GE/Ericsson & E.F.Johnson/Uniden/Standard LTR trunking systems not as easily monotired. (sic)

Official Support site for UniTrunker / Trunker Variants - (trunker.info site)

Trunk88 is a DOS based utility...

It's pure comedy gold. And it makes it all too clear that these jokers are to be avoided - they're desperately trying to make a few bucks off of others' hard work. It looks like this "Open" Trunker project they're flogging is going to be little more than an attempt to sell this audio to serial dongle. Just say No to dicks...

Quote:

Yep, definitely I'm out. That's a no-brainer. Not interested in participating in any such group. Wish I'd have known earlier. oh well, better late than never.

Don't bother posting any goodbye messages - they'll never get approved.

loumaag · #15 (**permalink**) 10-07-2009, 08:29 AM

I joined the Trunker yahoo group years ago in the belief that it was a source for all things Trunker. Over the years I seldom participated in discussions there (I mean why, I was a member here (or before, TRN)) but did use it as a source for information and software including the source code for Trunker. However, until this thread, I was not aware of the actions of Christian in relation to any of this except the difficulty in getting approved for the group (if I remember it took over a week when I first applied).

Just to add to the list of bad Yahoo groups, there is also the T4Win yahoo group started by someone, not Rick. If I remember correctly, Rick told me at one point he wasn't even a member of the group.

WX4JCW · #16 (**permalink**) 10-07-2009, 03:26 PM

FYI trunker.info now displayes the following

ERROR 403 - UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS !! ! ! !
Your not welcome on this site, go away!
You will now be sent away to someplace you belong.

mtindor · #17 (**permalink**) 10-07-2009, 04:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WX4JCW

FYI trunker.info now displayes the following

ERROR 403 - UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS !! ! ! !
Your not welcome on this site, go away!
You will now be sent away to someplace you belong.

Maybe he's just doing that for you specifically. When i go to the site it comes up. Of course I have no interest in it.

Mike

milf · #18 (**permalink**) 10-07-2009, 05:37 PM

Won't be going back now that I know that crap game... Will still go to the T88 group... Hope you get some kind of action done to stop that junk Rick.