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I am looking into finding the database that has the best fit for my current problem.
I need to log user related events. A bit like Google analytics.
Whenever an event happens that relate to a customer I need to log what The event was.
For example.
The customer reads an article.
I need to log.
User info.
Organisation info in which the user resides.
Info about the article. (Id, how much was read, etc)
Time of event.
In other cases it could be something different but still relatively get to the the customer.
So the data is somewhat unstructured.
Later on Alle these events needs to be analyzed.
Some for behaviour analysis other could be calculated how much the user should pay for the services in They have used.
There has to be some level of real time interaction with the system, f.ex. Having real time analytics running to see specific behaviour or other.
It should be able to handle at least one million events a day and also be able to have an index that holds data for 5 years.
Events will be fairly small.
We are primarily a .NET house so a nice framework around the system that supports . NET would be nice.
I hope that someone has suggestions or can point me at some literature that reflects on my above scenario. I have looked quite a bit but have not found any really good docs about this.
Thanks.
Mongo does have good drivers for .NET and seems like a good choice: https://docs.mongodb.com/ecosystem/use-cases/storing-log-data/
I am working on some application wich will get HDD serial number and then i will use that HDD serial number for licence (cd-key) registration with product. Now the problems wich i can come to:
User have 2 HDD's and once my application gets its serial from first HDD it will register with it so what if user later changes order of HDD's? if the seccond HDD becomes a Master and the first one becomes slave? could be solved with getting both and combine them togather but what if later he removes one then? :D
What if user's HDD dies and he buys new one? Is still same pc only another HDD. So the licence wont be walid anymore just because is another HDD.
Is it possible to fake it? Example i am using VB.net 2010 and application is working on framework(.net) so there is some "dll" wich is responsible to get the serial of HDD so would be possible to replace this "dll" (crack it) so it returns some hardcoded serial of hdd?!?
Could be possible to get processor serial? that would be much batter but could it be done? and does the processor have serial, i mean probably have but is it possible to get it? and same question as abowe could it be faked through changing "dll" or something?
anny other suggestions or experiances?
I seen there are more questions like this but couldnt find some answers so now i ask here!
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As talked below i forgot all .net can be decompiled in few secconds! so...
Making own installer. Why?
if i make an installer in wich you enter serial and only if serial is ok to use then install software so what it does? it extracts my software to your computer and again you have ".net" exe wich you can easely decompile and make a crack for it so where is point in making installation with serial!? or if my software is "protected" with some obfuscator so then installation with serial is unneded here i could then simply include serial registration in my software and using some booleans store registered=1||0
i got email from one person here, btw. duno where you got my mail :) and he says some smart things and why some of you people dont respond to my question and this discussion and what he says is this: "scared that others will see my code and how bad it is." so then people just dont want to spent time on this. well thats not problem i know my code is big "minestrone", big mess much words(variables) some on english some on croatian so on well my software is working thats important and i know i suc* we all suc* everyone knows something(more or batter) that the other one. anyway, thats not problem, problem is that i dont want that the software is open source lets say my software is "photoshop" and now someone downloads click there and there and have the whole code and can easely copy paste change few things and no problem he made good application :)
custom compiler? anyone have experiances? would it be ok for some time? :)
what other solution or language would be good to use in future to avoid this "open source" .net! i been looking around so for vb.net, c#, c++ is all based on .net so is all same. vb6 wich i love again same thing. they all can easely be decompiled! what language could not be so easy to decompile? should i switch to assembler? :D i joke, i hope! :p
maybe i just too much stressed up, much work! duno you decide :)
PLEASE READ MY QUESTION AND PLEASE DONT ANSWER ME SOMETHING LIKE "PIRACY CANOT BE STOPED BLA BLA" AND THINGS LIKE THAT. THAT WASNT MY QUESTION! THANK YOU!
Sorry on bold big latters but some people read just title and then answer stupidities! If you want talk about it then read question and write otherwise dont post some stupidities please
Let me first answer your questions:
If the order of the HDDs changes, your application could still find that serial number within the system. However, in either case I would resort to a scheme where I use the device of the system partition or so.
If the HDD dies, the user will be in trouble. There is no good solution to that as long as you insist on your source for the uniqueness of the user's system: i.e. the HDD serial.
It's absolutely possible, yes. At different levels, though. A cracker would always choose the simplest method.
Yes. I'm afraid that will only work with unmanaged code, though. See Wikipedia. And yes, this could be circumvented again by DLL placement (see my comment on the question).
Now let me give you an advice that worked fine for me. Use the SID of the machine account (not to be confused with SYSTEM, which has a well-known SID). And before you counter with NewSid (which, by the way has been retired by MS), this is much more effort to change, especially in domain environments and can have very nasty and unforeseen effects. Therefore if you want to tie your application to a Windows installation, the SID will be sufficient. The SID has the same advantages as a UUID you could create, but it's not as easy to manipulate as a UUID that you store in the registry or a file.
Oh, and before I forget to mention it. Yes, even using the SID can be "cracked" in various ways. But it balances convenience for the user with your demand for security.
Yes, you have to be aware of that. You'll need several fall back methods to take care of this
You have to be aware of that as well.
Everything is fakeable with some energy behind it. However, why fake such an id if you simply can manipulate the program itself? All .net code can be disassembled and manipulated
I think this is possible as well, but would have the same problem behind it.
Other suggestion:
Just because there is piracy, don't make the experience bad for your customer. Use something that is reuseable (like a serial number or keyfile), invest in a good obfuscator to make it harder for somebody to inspect your code, but beyond all: Make your application stand out so people buy it. And even though you didn't ask for it, I have to say it - you can't stop piracy by enforcing orwellian-like surveillance of your program. This will drive customers away as it is a pain in the *ss to work with your application. With a serial or keyfile you still have some sort of protection, the customer likes it because it is easy to use, he doesn't have to call you/write a support ticket if his computer fails or the stars align unfavourable. Pirates will break it eventually, but your customer is happy, and that is what counts.
Anything you rely on which is in userland can and will be spoofed if it is worthwhile to the end user/attacker. So locking the licence to an HDD serial number will not put of attackers, but it will seriously upset your customers.
The same goes for processor serial numbers - it is too easy to pop some code inline to change what your application will read.
Your only reasonable bet will be dongles - ie specific hardware, or a way to get them to register and run with an online connection, so you can validate them using elements you control (although in saying that, if your app is high enough value, expect the dongle to be hacked/replicated too!)
Your biggest problem may be overdoing the security - if you get it wrong in any way you will alienate your customer base.
People regularly upgrade failed hard drives, or those which are too small, as well as most other components in their computers. If you stop them using your product, even for a couple of days, they are likely to look elsewhere!
You can do what you are suggesting, but there are issues. What you are suggesting is called "machine binding" in the licensing world. There are commercial tools that do this for you (disclaimer: I work for one such provider Wibu-Systems). What YOU are proposing has some pros and cons:
Pros: requires no separate hardware (dongle), you can roll your own, easy solution to implement at a basic level.
Cons: can be cracked in a matter of minutes, will create problems for users when they change the HW config or move the app to a new PC, rolling your own will introduce the oppty for new bugs in an area you apparently have no prior experience with.
Why not use a commercial solution? Would you write your own setup program, too? How about your own compiler, linker, and debugger?
I try to devote certain time everyday to learn new skills while also improve the older skills that I've gained. But, I'm not hitting the sweet spot where I learn what I want and get things done.
So, I was just curious to know how you guys spend time everyday and "hit the spot".
I use Google reader and just add more and more tech blogs as I find them. Then, I read them in the morning with coffee. This site provides quite a bit of education as well.
I read technical websites everyday. I like to use Google reader as well since it tracks what I've read and allows me to easily continue where I left off from any computer I happen to have access to.
I started out with the basics : Slashdot, Ars Technica
, and Dr. Dobb's Journal. These sites will frequently lead to other great sources of information.
When following sites like this using an RSS feed, you don't have to read every article that comes through. Just scan them over and read the ones that catch your interest. Without realizing it, you will store away alot of information that will pop back into your head when you encounter a situation that triggers it.
You won't necessarily be a master of everything you read but you will be at least aware of current developments and technologies.
The second part is to practice. I usually have some simple and enjoyable programming project on the go at home all the time. I may not actually complete anything useful but I use it as a basis to try out new things. Alot of times I will encounter a problem at work and find that I've already explored some of the solutions at home or at least thought about them and will be able to make a much more informed decision.
Tech blogs are a great way to find out basic information on new material and sometimes they will even have a more in-depth feature that can leave you with some take-away knowledge than just another tech headline.
What works best for me is to identify topics that I have read in tech blogs that interest me and then find sources that provide me with more advanced information on the subject. Then as the week goes by spend however much time needed to digest the information learning the material.
Just browsing tech headlines all day, in my opinion, won't leave you with any distilled information beyond basic advances in technology. Actually diving in and spending X amount of time each day learning material that is interesting to you will be infinitely better.
I find the key to getting things done is to manage distrations. I process email in batches only once or twice per day, and try to avoid phone calls, meetings and IM where I can. This leaves me bigger chinks of time available for development.
I learn new skills in a couple of different ways... Firstly reading a load of developmetn related tech blogs via an RSS reader. This allows me to absorb a continuous flow of new ideas without necessarily "learning" a lot, but saves me a lot of time on research later. Then when I run into something new, chances are something I've already read will be of assistance and I can dig in an "learn" something in more detail.
e.g. Through regular RSS reading I became aware that a significant number of javascript frameworks had been developed and it seemed to make more sense to use a js framework than coding DOM manipulation by hand. Later when I started a new project that was going to be heavy on Ajax, I was able to name a couple of frameworks off the top of my head,quickly pick one and really dig in and get to know it.
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One problem I have with a modern office is that people still tend to create physical copies of digital media (such as program manuals and specifications). I understand that for somethings it is prudent to create a physical copy but many of these physical copies go mostly unused, they just sit on a shelf to maybe one day be flipped through to look up a single piece of information. This is not only a waste of paper but also space and the time that it takes to print out and collate all of these printed documents. It also takes more time to utilize because these items are not capable of being indexed and searched like digital copies.
What are some good ways to promote a paperless environment in the workplace? My company has already implemented a company Wiki. So far the it seems to have made an impact on our use of paper, but some people still think of it as being too much of a hassle.
It won't work for everybody, for sure, but I recently spent a year at a small web development company (under 25 employees) that had no printers and no copiers. Only the owner had one little printer in his locked office. Since they never had any printers or copiers, their work patterns had evolved to not use paper.
This was such a shock to me, as I traditionally work with a lot of paper. I use it to partly control my own workflow -- if it needs to be done, there's a piece of paper (email, Word doc, printed-out bug tracker task) on my desk about it. I'd make notes on the document about the steps I needed to do to complete the task.
Of course, we used a bug tracking/change control system. So, all of my to-do's for my web coding were in that system.
I learned to organize my email better, and to have a good file folder structure in Windows. Ironically, I was more meticulous about deleting unnecessary electronic documents. I only kept the useful stuff. My email inbox was always empty, because everything got promptly moved to a folder.
Everybody's desk was really clean, and we had no file drawers. We did all have at least two monitors.
Distribute documents electronically (e.g. Sharepoint) and charge people to print something out. Make sure people have nice, big screens so they can easily read text on screen and LCDs so the refresh rate doesn't hurt their eyes.
Get rid of the printers.
Seriously.
I realize that's not realistic. I've tried to help my wife's store go paperless and that's just 4 employees but because the printer is still there they just won't do it. It helped that I set the default printer on all the workstations to print to a Windows share using a PDF writer print driver so some of the problem is solved (we have a few boxes of daily sales reports in her office which fortunately are no longer generated).
My company brings laptops to our Monday status meetings and then has printed copies of the agenda circulated (which we all have a copy of in email). You just can't win really.
As others have mentioned, you may not win, but if your general inclination is to go green, tips and tricks can be found at my friend's blog:
Green User Group
Don't.
I find having a manual or programming reference a lot more useful when I can have it laying open on my desk next to me rather than tabbing back and forth between that and Eclipse and all the other stuff I have open at once. Besides, I like being able to stuff post-its all over the place, underline important passages, etc. Losing the ability to grep the document really isn't an issue. If it's a reference that I know well, I won't have any problem finding the passage I need, and then it will be handily on my desk where I just glance over rather than moving windows around on the screen.
If, for some reason, this is something you REALLY need to do, get rid of the printers and give your developers two or three large LCDs each. I think a better alternative is to set the printers to do automatic duplexing, and provide a comb binder in the copy room. That will encourage people to treat the printouts as "books", rather than a stack of paper that ends up getting thrown out at some point. Rather than throwing the packet out when they are done, it goes on their bookshelf and they pull it out again when they realize they still need it, rather than printing another copy.
If you're so concerned about being "green", buy recycled paper and have more recycle bins than trash cans. Make it easier to recycle than to throw away.
Go buy yourself a really good document scanner. You will always have some amount of incoming paper, if you can easily convert those to digital it will help greatly. I'd recommend a Fujitsu ScanSnap 510.
And make sure you have really good damn backups :)
This all depends on personal preference. Some people like to read on computer screen. But some people might do not prefer screen. They tend to take the print out of every possible thing.
IMO you can promote the use of duplex printing. Infact printing multiple pages on same A4 sheet. This should reduce the wastage to some limit.
Otherwise I know a company which publishes the weekly list of people who got maximum print outs on working areas. This will certainly discourage some people who just take a print out for the sake of taking print out.
Just because you prefer not to use paper doesn't mean that everyone else can work effectively that way. Some of us find the screen hard to read at times. My boyfriend who recently died couldn't read a resolution smaller than 800X600. That means you can't really see much at one time on the screen.
Personally if I am trying to find something like where a missing end should go in a long stored proc, I find that I can see it much faster by printing the whole thing out and looking at it that way. Plus I find it handier to take notes on a piece of paper than an electronic document.
Also, I read extremely quickly, I can read a document probably 3-4 times faster on paper than on screen (in part becasue I don't have to stop to scroll). Yeah I have a big enough monitor to see a whole page at a time, but with my bifocals, I can't actually read it when the type is that small. Why should I waste my time reading on screen when paper is faster for large documents? And if I need to reference back and forth between pages while reading, it is much faster to flip to a page than to search for it electronically.
And remember not everyone has large monitors or the dual monitors that many developers have. They therefore can't see much on the screen at one time and can't see two pages of a document pulled up simulataneously when they need to refer back and forth while reading.
So basically what I'm saying is that paperless offices are less efficient for many people which is why they aren't really popular.
Fire.
(sorry couldn't resist)
Getting rid of printer adn copiers would force everyone to go paperless, but I don't think it is a ideal solution. I would recommend setting up a good recycling program instead. Paper is easily recycled. Also most paper today comes from managed forests. The impact on the environment is minimal. Also get some good scanners, OCR software, and set up servers with plenty of storage to work as virtual filing cabinets.
I like paper, and I think it's the best surface for reading. In my opinion, you shouldn't ban printing - or force the office to go paperless.
Instead, maybe you could encourage reuse. Once a document has been printed and read - distribute it to colleagues who might also need it. The 'round-robin envelope' (for want of a better name) is a feature of many traditional office environments which is pretty good in this respect.
Also print double sided.
First of all, everybody needs to be using LCD, as it is easier to read off of.
Second, tell everybody they can get a second LCD, only if they promise to not print stuff they can read on their LCD.
Also give a short lesson on how to use two monitors effectively. (Mostly, one for main work, second for reading)
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How can our team gather requirements from our "Product Owner" in as low friction yet useable of a way as possible?
Now here's the guidelines- No posts that it can't be done or that the business needs to make a decision that it cares about quality, yada yada. The product I work for is a small group that has been successful for years. I just want to help them step it up a notch.
Basically, I'm on a 6 or 7 person team with one Product Owner. She does a great job but is juggling a few different roles (as I believe is common on extremely small teams). Usually requirements are given at sporadic times (email convos, face to face discussions, meetings, etc). They are never entered into a system and sometimes this results in features missing a release or the release getting pushed back since everyone forgot about the necessary feature.
If you're in a similar situation but you found a way to overcome this, I'd love to hear it. I'm happy to write code to help ease this situation but it can't be a web site that the Product Owner has to go to in order to get anything done. She is extremely busy and we need some way of working together as a team in order to gather these requirements.
I'm currently thinking of something like this: Developers and team members gather requirements discussed in face to face meetings and write some quick notes on the features discussed on a wiki page. Product owner is notified whenever these pages are updated and it then becomes her responsibility to ensure accuracy.
Pros: We'll have some record of the features. Cons: The developers are taking responsibility for something that they ordinarily wouldn't. I'm okay with that here. I think in this situation it's teamwork.
Of course once we do this, then we're going to see that the product owner probably doesn't have enough time to ensure feature accuracy. Ultimately she is overburdened and I think this will help showcase that fact, but I just need to be able to draw attention to that first.
So any suggestions?
P.S. her time is extremely limited so it is considered unreasonable to expect her to need to type in the requirements after discussion. She only has time to discuss them once and move on.
Although the concept of "product owner" is a littl ambiguous to me, I think I am working in very similar circumstances: the customer is extremely buzy and always is a bottleneck in developing requirements.
On the surface, what we try to do in this situation is quite obvious and seemingly simple: we try to make sure that the customer is involved in "read-only / talk-only" mode. No writing. Minimum reading. Mostly talking.
The devil, of course, is in details. So, here are some specifics about our process (in no particular order):
We often start from recording problem statements, which are the ultimate sources of requirements. In fact, sometimes a problem statement is all that we record initially, just to make sure it does not get lost.
NB: It is important to distinguish problem statements from requirements. Although a problem statement sometimes clearly implies some requirement, in general a single problem statement may yield a whole bunch of requirements (each having its own severity and priority); moreover, sometimes a given requirement my define a solution (usually just a partial one) to multiple problems.
One of the main reasons of recording problem statements (and this is very relevant to your question!) is that semantically they are somewhat "closer to the customer's skin" and more stable than requirements derived from them. I believe those problem statements make it much easier and quicker to put the customer into proper context whenever he has time to provide feedback to the development team.
We do record all the requirements (and back-track them to problem statements), regardless of when are we going to implement them. Priorities govern the order in which requirements get implemented. Of course, they also govern the order in which customer reviews unfinished requirements.
NB: A single fat document containing all requirements is an absolute no-no! All the requirements are placed in "problem tracking database", along with bug reports. (A bug is just a special case of a problem in our book.)
We always try to do our best to minimize the number of iterations necessary to "finalize" each requirement (or a group of related requirements). Ideally, a customer should have to review a requirement only once.
Whenever the first review turns out to be insufficient (happens all the time), and the requirement in question is complex enough to require a lot of text and/or illustrations, we make sure that the customer does not have to re-read everything from scratch. All the important changes/additions/deletions since the previous reviwed version are highlighted.
While a problem or requirement remains in an unfinished state, all the open issues (mostly questions to customer) are embedded into the document and highlighted. As a result, whenever the customer has time to review requirements, he does not have to call a meeting and solicit questions from the team; instead the customer can open any unfinished document first, see what exactly is expected from him, and then decide what's the best way and time (for him) to address any of the open issues. Sometimes the customer chooses to write a email or add a comment directly to the problem document.
We try our best to establish and maintain official domain vocabulary (even if it gets scattered across the documentation). Most importantly, we practically force the customer to stick to that vocabulary.
NB: This is one of the most difficult parts of the process, and customer tries to "rebel" from time to time. However, at the end of the day everybody agrees that it is the only way to make precious meetings with the customer as efficient as possible. If you ever attended one-hour meetings where 30 minutes were being spent just to get everybody on the same page (again), I'm sure you would appreciate having a vocabulary.
NB: Whenever possible, any changes in the official vocabulary get reflected in the very next release of the software.
Sometimes, a given problem can be solved in multiple ways, and the right choice is not obvious without consulting with the customer. It means that there will be a "menu of requirements" for the customer to pick from. We document such "menus", not just the finally chosen requirement.
This may seem controversial and look like an unnecessary overhead. However, this approach saves a lot of time whenever the customer (usually few weeks or months down the road) suddenly jumps in with a question like "why the heck did we do it this way and not that way?" Also, it is not such a big deal to hide "rejected branches" using proper organization/formatting of requirements documentation. Boring but doable. :-)
NB: When preparing "menus of requirements", it is very important not to overdo them. Too many choices or too many choice nesting levels - and the next review may require much more customer's time than really necessary. Needless to say that the time spent on elaborated branches may be totally wasted. Yes, it is difficult to find some balance here (it greatly depends on the always-in-a-hurry customer's ability to think two or more steps ahead and do it quickly). But, what can I say? If you really want to do your job well, I am sure that after some time you will find the right balance. :-)
Our customer is a very "visual" guy. Therefore, whenever we discuss any significant user interface elements, screen mockups (or even lightweight prototypes) often are extremely helpful. Real time savers sometimes!
NB: We do screen mockups exclusively for the customer, only in order to facilitate discussions. They may be used by developers too, but in no way do they substitute user interface specifications! More often than not, there are some very important UI details that get specified in writing (now - primarily for developers).
We are lucky enough to have a customer with a very technical background. So we do not hesitate to use UML diagrams as discussion aid. All kinds of UML diagrams - as long as they help customer to get into proper context quicker and stay there.
I am talking about requirements-level UML diagrams, of course. Not about implementation-level ones. I believe that even not very technical people can start digging requirements-level UML diagrams sooner or later; you just have to be patient and know what to put on a diagram.
Obviously, the cost of such process greatly depends on analytical and writing skills of the team, and of course on the tools that you have at your disposal. And I must admit that in our case this process appears to be quite expensive and slow. But, taking into account the very low rate of bugs and low rate of "vapor-features"... I think, in the long run, we get very good payback.
FWIW: According to Joel's nice classification of software products, this project is an "internal" one. So we can afford to be as agile as our customer can handle. :-)
"Developers and team members gather requirements discussed in face to face meetings and write some quick notes"
Start with that. If you aren't taking notes, just make one small change. Take Notes. Later, you might post them to a wiki or create a feature backlog or start using Scrum or bugzilla or something.
First, however, make small changes. Write stuff down sounds like something you're not doing, so just do that and see what improves and what you can do next. Be Agile. Work Incrementally.
You might want to be careful of the HiPPO in the room. The Highest Paid Person's Opinion is not always a good one. We've tended to focus more on providing great tools and support for developers. These things, done right, take some of the hassle out of development, so that it becomes faster and more fun. Developers are then more flexible in terms of their workload, and more amenable to late-breaking changes.
One-Click testing and deployment are a couple of good ones to start with; make sure every developer can run up their own software stack in a few seconds and try out ideas directly. Developers are then able to make revisions quickly or run down side paths they find interesting, and these paths are often the most successful. And by successful I mean measured success based on real metrics gathered right in the system and made readily available to all concerned. The owner is then able to set the metrics, which they probably care about, rather than the requirements, which they either don't care about or have no experience in defining.
Of course it depends on the owner and your particular situation, but we've found that metrics are easier to discuss than requirements, and that developers are pretty good at interpreting them too. A typical problem might be that customers seem to spend a long time filling their shopping carts but don't go on to checkout.
1) A marketing requirement might be to make the checkout button bigger and redder. 2) The CEO's requirement might be to take the customer straight to checkout, as the CEO only ever buys one item at a time anyway. 3) The UI designer's requirement might be to place a second checkout button at the top of the cart as well as the existing one at the bottom. 4) The developer's requirement might be some Web 2.0 AJAX widget that follows the mouse pointer around the screen. Who's right?
Who cares... the customer probably saw the ridiculous cost of delivery and ran away. But redefine the problem as a metric, instead of a requirement, and suddenly the developer becomes interested. The developer doesn't have to do 10 rounds with the CMO on what shade of red the button should be. He can play with his Web 2.0 thing all week, and then rush off the other 3 solutions on Monday morning. Each one gets deployed live for 48 hours and the cart-to-checkout rate gets measured and reported instantly. None of it makes any difference, but the developer got to do their job and the business shifts it's focus onto the crappy products they sell and the price they gauge on delivery.
Well, ok, so the example is contrived. There's a lot of work in there to make sure that the project is small, the team is experienced, hot deployment is simple, instant rollback is provided, and that everyone's on board. What we wanted to get to is a state where the developer's full potential is not wasted, so that's why they're involved not just from the start, but also in the success. Start out with an issue like the number of clicks during registration is too high, run it through a design committee, and we found that the number of clicks actually went up in the design specification. That was our experience anyway. But leave the developer some freedom to just reduce the number of clicks and you might actually end up with a patented solution, as we did. Not that the developer cares about patents, but it had merit - and no clicks!