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Warning to Those Who Steal (or are Complete Lunatics)
Rod Elliott, ESP
Updated 27 December 2010
Every so often, people let me know about ESP material that has been found on other sites. In some cases, it's just the schematic, but there have been cases where an entire project has been hijacked, with the new "author's" name inserted. Such blatant abuses don't happen very often, and several offending sites have been shut down because they have simply (and very obviously) used material stolen from my site.
This page will normally (and hopefully) have very few listings at any one time. If you know of a site that has stolen material, please let me know. All normal avenues will be pursued before an offender appears here, and listings will be removed once the material is removed and replaced with a link. Sometimes, a satisfactory agreement can be reached - and again, the listing here will be removed if that happens.
To anyone contemplating stealing material from the ESP site ... don't. Not unless you'd like to have your details published here (not a pleasant thought at all).
I really hate having to do all this - it shouldn't be necessary, and is a terrible waste of time that could otherwise be spent doing something useful. Having said that, I will not allow people to just steal stuff from my site - especially if they claim it as their own work. This is very dishonest, and shows a person's character for what it is. Plagiarism is a pretty low act, and anyone who does so has revealed themselves for what they really are - dishonest and untrustworthy.
For anyone who is interested, the progression and date of publication of any site (or part thereof) can usually be found (and viewed) using The Wayback Machine at archive.org - an immensely useful site for finding old web pages that may have disappeared over the years.
Lunatics was included because some people are just so unbelievably stupid or rude that I need to illustrate just how bad things can get. In the majority of cases, I get an e-mail that appears innocuous enough, and send a reply. Then the fun starts, so I figured "Ok, let's make sure that everyone sees just what morons can be like".
Google Adwords
It is worth noting that many of the sites that use plagiarism or theft as their only method of obtaining content use Google Adwords. This means that they get paid for stealing the work of others. This is an unacceptable situation, and one that I intend to campaign against.
No contact information on the site, but I did manage to find out that the site is registered in Japan. The original site has been shut down.
The site registration says that it's a "Free Persian Weblog Service", but little else was available. Again, no contact info, but idiot boy has a photo of himself on the site. Should you see him in your travels, feel free to shoot him on my behalf.
Several of the 'articles' about opamps have been plagiarised almost word-for-word, with original ESP drawings used as well. As is usual with the useless turds who are happy to steal the words of others, there is no reference to the original ESP page, acknowledgement of authorship or original copyright.
This particular thief has cheerfully included several ESP pages about opamps, and one can assume that much of the remainder of the site has been stolen from other sites.
Since no contact information is included, I just decided to do a 'name-and-shame'.
The site is hosted in Germany, but the domain name registration details are hidden from view. This simply should not be allowed - if you put up a website, then people should be able to see who (and where) you are. The current system seems almost designed to encourage plagiarism, theft and deceit.
Since there are plenty of sites with proper circuits that someone has thought through, drawn, and written descriptions, all these cretins have to do is steal it. They hide their details so they can't be prosecuted, but no doubt still expect to be paid by Google for the views of the advertisements displayed by Adwords.
For what it's worth, the details for this thief are as follows ...
Apichet Garaipoom
106 moo.9
Nakhonsithammarat
Krung Thep Maha Nakhon Bangkok, 80000
Thailand
Tel. +66-534 3812
The page was word-for-word as near as I can tell, ESP logos visible on the drawings, but zero acknowledgement as to where the material was originally published.
Again, since no contact information is included, I have just done a 'name-and-shame'. This is truly shameful behaviour for an institution such as the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico (that's what PUPR stands for).
I really don't know what some of the sites I see are for, other than to raise revenue via Google Adsense with material that's simply stolen from other sites. On the positive side, most of them are utterly useless - with material taking a month of Sundays to load, and often files (stolen or otherwise) are presented in a manner that is fundamentally useless.
Unfortunately, there are too many to list, and even doing so is a bad idea because it gives the thieves a credible link. I suggest that if you do ever happen across any site that "features" material that is stolen (not just from me, but from anyone), never, ever, click on any of the advertising links. Doing so increases their illegitimate income, which should be zero.
Normally, the contents of e-mails are not disclosed without the writer's permission, but there are a few exceptions. In the cases below, I have removed anything that specifically identifies the writers (and I use that term with some reservations, as you will see), but I may have accidentally included email addresses .
The first is a cretin who calls itself Shane. The e-mails went like this (verbatim, including all spelling, language, etc.) ...
Hmmmmm I have decided that I like the look of this base (bass??) guitar.. so I will make it. Oooooooooo Waaaaaaaaaaa etc. And I love them podcasts of all sorts of different educational subjects and I love my little MP3 player... However, when I am riding my bicycle, there is two problems, some of the tracks can be quite quiet and the MP3 player has limited amplification capacity; and the wind noise above 15kmh, tends to "whistle" (air turbulence) over the holes of the ear phones; effectively silencing all but the loudest and clearest of tracks. Also the ear phones are uncomfortable after any significant period. So I said "Uhh fuck this - there has to be a better solution." So I made up a special box (hand planed and properly glued and reinforced the plastic), stuck in a 4 x AA battery box with switch (Jaycar) and 2 x 1 watt Jaycar amp kits. I bought a set of cheap speakers from the reject shop and I also bought all the proper cables and connectors.. and rewired up the whole thing, and made a portable PA system that is permanently affixed to my backpack... The 1/2 watt 4 ohm speakers sit about 6" under my ears and well sometimes if the tracks are recorded with a good strong signal, with the MP3 player at the lowest setting it's loud enough to be a bit too loud.... But with the very quiet sound tracks, riding my bike into a strong head wind... I can hear everything at 1/3 - 1/2 volume. Very good. Here is my system. http://www.jaycar.com.au/ CAT. NO. KG9032 CAT. NO. GE4003 So the next idea came up... I'd like to have a small portable MP3 player, that uses a flash drive, to stick in my workshop.. so I can keep on listening to all these U Beaut podcasts.... Character building, educational, inspirational and informative... Jaycar has these units.. $40 perfect. CAT. NO. XC5161 Whack the podcasts off the PC into the flash card and away we go. But I thought, Hmmmmm I have an mp3 player.. I can pick up some 1W amp kits, and I'd like to maximise the opportunities that this situation presents. Since I am going to make a bass guitar, I want an amp to go with it. What I want to do is check out the things like sound pressure levels, and speaker box designs - by making up a 1 watt amp, and then rigging up accurate miniature speaker boxes (of assorted designs), that run configurations of single, dual and quad speaker arrangements.. CAT. NO. AS3000 CAT. NO. AS3006 I think this is an excellent way to introduce myself to the subject of amplifiers and PA systems... To get an idea of the fundamentals and proof of concept... There is a lot of really good information out there, but I don't want to make up 50 full sized boxs and amps, to check out the best but to get some cheap scale models.. And go with the ones that sound the best. It's interesting to note that in a generalised way (fucked designs aside) that there is NO real right way to make a good PA system; there are great designs, "optimised set parameter designs" and there are personal preferences. Anyway, by the time I can justify a HUGE and really fucking brilliant PA system, my playing abilities should have matured enough to complement it. I think I have some work to do. Keep yourself Nice. Regards Shane. ( 2shane@iinet.net.au ) |
As you can see, there's really not much that I could say - no image of the 'base' guitar planned was shown so I really had no idea what he was on about. I replied ...
Shane, Please note that I have better things to do than read through huge e-mails with no apparent point. You can't make a miniature PA to work out what will work in full size. The characteristics of everything are so different that you would need very sophisticated software indeed to even attempt to scale the results. Too many variables, and too difficult to scale everything properly (speakers, damping materials, wall thickness,and frequency all have to be scaled *perfectly* or the results are meaningless. Cheers, Rod P.S. There is no such thing as a base guitar - the word is bass |
As you can see, nothing nasty, and a few helping hints that may have assisted. The second reply was somewhat less than complimentary ...
Dear Rod... having imagination is better than constipation. And it's BASE not BASS ( ass, crass etc.) - (moon BASE, face, erase etc.) <Here, he included an image from Wikipedia with a picture of a fish and text describing the bass (fish)> And YES I can build a miniature PA to work out exactly what I want, no matter what the size the final size the unit turns out to be. You know why I can do it? Cause I'm fucking better than you - that's why. So shut up till you know what your talking about - fool. Shane ( 2shane@iinet.net.au ) |
At this point I must confess I was less than impressed (obviously the "character building", "educational" and "inspirational" podcasts aren't working), so told Shane he was wrong on all counts, and that he is a fuckwit - I thought this would get rid of him, but ... not to be deterred, he then replied ...
You are just so ungay. |
I promptly sent these e-mails into a special folder, named to describe the mentality of the sender(s) Some (considerable) time later, this moron e-mails me again ...
I only emailed you because I miss you. It's not that your self righteous indignation is a real issue, cause as far as electronics go, you know fuck all anyway - which is just so ungay. My microspeakers work exactly as described. I have the mathematical formula and readouts to prove it. Cheers Shane ( callmeshane303@internode.on.net ) |
Needless to say, no details of his 'proof' were offered. One fully expects to get this kind of useless banter on UseNet Newsgroups and the like, but I don't often get the loonies invading my mailbox. Note that the email address changed - perhaps he's annoyed a few too many people.
Another lunatic sent me an e-mail about his cables ...
Dear Sir, I read carefully your very interesting articles about cables. F.... Art Technology is a french, established near Paris, manufacturer of high-end cables and more distributed all over the World since 1987. If you want you read the scientific basics of the conception and the manufacturing of these items, please do visit the web site : www.f....art.fr .This web is containing all scientific informations people or engineers need but in french language. We have a other web sire in English : www.f....art.com but poor in technical informations. Hope that your are going to see what we are doing here in France, Music is only our matter. Best Regards. Jean F.... ( info@fadelart.fr ) |
Fair enough I thought. I looked at the site, but there was absolutely nothing of any use in the English language section - just the usual rubbish about musicality, and how much difference these cables will make, but zero technical detail. Again, my reply was courteous and in keeping with the vast majority of engineering reports on the audibility of cables ...
Jean, While I have no doubt that your cables are manufactured to a high standard and perform as described, for the vast majority of loudspeaker systems there will be no audible difference. The only test that is worthwhile to determine the audibility (or otherwise) of any component is a properly conducted double-blind test. So far, all such tests have revealed no differences with cables. There are exceptions - Quad ESLs are known for a radical impedance dip at ~18kHz, and low inductance cables are essential. As for power cables, there is zero evidence that any of them make the slightest difference unless shielding lowers the noise floor. Cheers, Rod |
The reply was somewhat less considered (ok, it was deliberately rude and insulting)...
Sir,I don't want to polemicize ¹ with you. The only think I now is that the intelligence lived our earth to live in other planet since the day some people like you was born. Congratulation, Jean F.... |
The remainder of the e-mail looks a like word-salad, but seems intended as an insult. I was rather expecting a bit of technical explanation, or perhaps some blind test results, but received this rubbish instead.
If I were in the market for cables, such a reaction would instantly eliminate this idiot and his company's products. For anyone who might be contemplating products from this manufacturer, I suggest that you reconsider your options.
¹ polemicize - To engage in an argument, disputation or controversy. (In case you were wondering, and that's exactly what he's doing anyway.)
Dear Rod, I just happened upon your site while conducting a google search pertaining to phono interconmnects, and became quite fascinated as I read many sections of your site. Try as I might, I was unable to log off without writing. And try as I might, I was unable to heed my mother's advice to not say anything at all if I couldn't say something nice. And yes, I know you indicated people should "be nice" when writing you. With that said, the nicest thing I can say is that you are certainly one of the biggest audio douchebags on the planet, and your sound system must sound like pure dogshit. There, now I feel better! Cheers, Greg ( gw@rampant.com ) |
Predictably, I chose not to bother answering this rather pointless exercise in moronic behaviour. It should be noted that there are a few others, but many are complaints because I won't answer a whole series of questions (some of which are obviously from university assignments), or those who believe in magic so strongly that any scientific methodology is heresy. Some just don't seem capable of seeing what is right before their eyes, and there are also a few complete nutters who have apparently escaped from their institutions (the same can be said for those above).
Considering that I've been operating on-line since 1998, I can't complain too bitterly - the number of nut cases is very small in reality. Still, it does make one wonder about the motives of people who seem to have nothing of the slightest value to contribute to audio or anything else. Although I no longer update this section, as of 2021 there have been a couple more cretins since that have wasted my time (and patience) with meaningless (and endless) emails, and when I point out that enough is enough, I just get a rude and generally insulting reply - some people seem to think that the world owes them something, and anyone who won't 'play along' with their constant drivel is a bastard. So be it. My 'fuckwits' folder doesn't have many correspondents, but those that reside there richly deserve it.
Copyright Notice. This article, including but not limited to all text and diagrams referred to herein, is the intellectual property of Rod Elliott, and is © 2006. Reproduction or re-publication by any means whatsoever, whether electronic, mechanical or electro-mechanical, is strictly prohibited under International Copyright laws. |