Heise, an influential German tech website, stirred the BeOS community up today by reporting that YellowTAB filed for bankruptcy [German]– however, this bankruptcy was not filed from within YellowTAB, but by a 3rd party, possibly to damage YellowTAB. This news quickly spread accross BeOS related websites, but none of them could confirm the story. I emailed Bernd Korz, YellowTAB’s CEO, and he confirmed that indeed someone from outside the company filed for bankruptcy, but that YellowTAB is in fact not bankrupt. Bernd could not disclose full details yet, as the company was still discussing this with its lawyers. Bernd did confirm that within a few days, the company will release an official statement concerning the issue.
From outside the company so probably a discontented supplier (or retailer) of some sort who claims not to have been paid. From what I can make out from the German text an investigation by the court will now run for 4 months to see if Yellowtab is indeed unable to pay their bills. Heise also claims their bankaccount has been frozen.
Edit: yeah it’s a quarter so 3 months
Edited 2006-04-06 21:56
Yeah, I guess it’s pretty much like that. One thing though, it’s a quarter year, not four months (vierteljahr).
Edited 2006-04-06 21:56
I was struggling with the German – mein Deutsch ist furchtbar – so much so I lost my ability to count 🙂
The germanic and nordic calendar had 10 months. The romans introduced 12 month year.
I couldn’t count in german in the first place.
Why don’t countries that use the metric system create a metric year? (10 months or 100 weeks or something)
Because months, weeks, and days and such are based on nature, and not on set standards. We can’t just change how long it takes for the moon to complete a cycle, or how long it takes the earth to make a 360, or how long it takes the earth to circle the sun
.
Back on topic now. Ahem.
Because months, weeks, and days and such are based on nature, and not on set standards. We can’t just change how long it takes for the moon to complete a cycle, or how long it takes the earth to make a 360, or how long it takes the earth to circle the sun
.
Back on topic now. Ahem.
I’m really not sure where weeks come from, 7 days? I really can’t see the nature link there. Also if we were doing months to moon rotations it would be more accurate if we had 13 months per year. Also 24hrs/60mins/60sec????? Can’t see the link to nature there.
Finally: this is pretty low. I hope it’s not always this easy to fake someone’s bankruptcy filing otherwise I can see the potential for a lot of (other) harm.
I realise that it’s probably not the case here but in the UK the government is moving to have lots of forms/applications completed over the internet, unfortunately and predictably this has led to cases of ID fraud.
I wouldn’t be surprised if in the end we’ll all have to connect to the internet (or even make face to face applications) using our personal biometric ID cards. Your computer might also need to take a blood sample just to make sure it really is you.
Finally: this is pretty low. I hope it’s not always this easy to fake someone’s bankruptcy filing otherwise I can see the potential for a lot of (other) harm.
It’s not faked. Details are sketchy but a third party (a creditor ?) presumably filed a complaint at the court, which led the court to declare bunkrupcy (as opposed to Yellowtab filing for bankrupcy). Now Yellowtab has to prove it is solvent, able to pay it’s bills, or they will be forced into liquidation, selling of their assets to pay their creditors. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.
I hope Bernd makes a statement sooner rather than later, this confusion can’t be good for business.
Thanks Tyr, that seems possible.
I was thinking it might have had something to do with the Japanese company that distributed Zeta but didn’t pay for their bills getting angry and vengeance or something. Guess not.
Why don’t countries that use the metric system create a metric year? (10 months or 100 weeks or something)
Horribly off-topic but the French revolution had a 10 month calendar and 10 day “weeks” or decades. They also had a 10 hour clock I believe. We’d probably be using it now if it weren’t for Waterloo.
BTW if you want to know more check out http://www.decimaltime.hynes.net/links.html
Edited 2006-04-06 22:20
Just to drag this further off topic for a second:
The French calendar apparently still DID have 12 months, but it DID use 10 day “weeks”, and a 10 hour clock as a quick perusal of any of the links would have shown.
Additionally the comment re: Waterloo and it’s retention is purely ridiculous as Napoleon abolished the system a mere 13 years after it’s adoption.
In any event a decimal calendar/timekeeping system(ok maybe the timekeeping could be made to work) just doesn’t work, and wouldn’t be worth the expense for whatever perceived value(?! can’t think of anything valuable from it myself as the total number of days in the year aren’t divisible by 10 to begin with) wouldn’t be worth it.
Bankruptcy: Weren’t there some developers a while(years?) back that complained about not being paid? Could it have been something like that? (I never knew that someone outside of a company could file for bankruptcy for them, or is that a German/European feature?)
Ah, well then, that would explain how Mandriva 2006 came out in 2005. With 10-hour clocks and 10-month years, their dates would be ahead of everyone else. I always knew there was an explanation for it somewhere.
“Oh excellent, not only are the trains now running on time, they’re running on metric time. Remember this time people, 80 past 2 on April 47th, it’s the dawn of a new enlightenment.”
“Why don’t countries that use the metric system create a metric year?”
Because it would face slow adoption and any benifits it might have (of which I believe it has practically none) wouldn’t be worth the effort of learning a whole new calendar.
The imperial system of measurement was changed for the sake of science. The number of units of an imperial measure that could go into the unit of measure following it was never consistent. Also, a system of measurement isn’t dependent on a fairly regular natural event or limit (besides zero and infinity if you want to get technical), it had the potential to be fully abstract. Time on the other hand needs to be engineered properly so days and nights take place when the sun is in the right place, and so the seasons remain consistent, in that case.
“The imperial system of measurement was changed for the sake of science.”
Or perhaps more for people not clever enough to figure 3 feet in a yard, 1760 yards in a mile, etc. I grew up in school in England knowing that there are 12 pence in a shilling, 20 shillings in a pound (therefore 240 pence in a pound). Seemed fine to me but then the metric nazis came and forced us all to change! 😉 OK still off topic and VERY much a tongue-in-cheek comment.
Regarding the matter under discussion (YellowTab), I believe that in the UK it was/is possible for a company (or individual) owed money by another company and not receiving it, to begin by using a lawyers letter to the non-paying company suggesting that their non-payment might be due to insolvency and that if payment did not follow swiftly insolvency action would be taken. With companies keen to avoid the kind of situation described in this case, it was often a good way to push bad payers to do the decent thing.
Or perhaps more for people not clever enough to figure 3 feet in a yard, 1760 yards in a mile, etc. I grew up in school in England knowing that there are 12 pence in a shilling, 20 shillings in a pound (therefore 240 pence in a pound).
That’s a testament to masochism, not cleverness.
It is my understanding that BeOS was owned by Palm Source who was purchased by ACCESS.
Does ACCESS even know they own BeOS now? I wonder if they even have the original BeOS source code tucked away somewhere or the last copies of the source code have vanished.
I would bet that since they aquired Palm Source nobody has even contacted them about the BeOS source code.
They might be interested in selling it to the community for a marginal fee or maybe just giving it away for the publicity it would generate.
It is my understanding that BeOS was owned by Palm Source who was purchased by ACCESS.
Actually it’s Palm Inc. the hardware company that bought Be Inc. http://www.palminfocenter.com/view_Story.asp?ID=2236
PalmSource couldn’t really sustain themselves let alone buy out another company.
It was Palm Inc. that bought Be Inc. But I was under the impression that this took place prior to Palm Inc. splitting up into 2 separate companies (PalmSource/Palm). Since PalmSource took over Palm OS I can’t imagine why the IP for BeOS would have gone to Palm Inc. (hardware division) after the split.
I don’t know if anyone has asked them about the BeOS code since before Palm Inc. split into 2 companies. ACCESS may not even know they own BeOS now. It does happen.
It’s not actually frozen cash accounts. It’s as follows: YellowTab is forbidden to access their accounts. The court sends a such called “Insolvenzverwalter” (insolvency administrator) who is responsible at first. YellowTab are able to pay bills etc. using their accounts, but every money going out of these accounts has to be confirmed by this Insolvenzverwalter person who’s one and only job is to search for best methods to get the company out of the mess and operate financially stable again. If there is any need of such actions.
There were rumours reflected on some BeOS-related sites, that in past some discussions and delays happened between YT and “suppliers”, like that with Gobe
Productive current owner.
Maybe this time that delay appeared too long for some YT partner, inspite YT is ready to pay in principle?
P.S. I dislike off-topics here. It remainds me those senseless threads at “/.”
Because months, weeks, and days and such are based on nature, and not on set
standards.
So were things like the foot, but they were superseded in much of the world when someone thought a “meter” made more sense.
Browser: Links (0.99; OS/2 1 i386; 80×33)
The problem with foot is that my foot is not the same size as your foot. Our days, years and months have the same lengths, and so do our meters.
Just checking my second-class citizen tatoo. 🙂
Browser: Links (2.1pre14; OS/2 1 i386; 80×33)
Part of me wishes that we could have an option to toggle a browser ID field on all messages so we can see what people are posting from.
That way folks can have fun using strange browsers. 🙂
Browser: Lynx/2.8.5dev.16 libwww-FM/2.14 SSL-MM/1.4.1 OpenSSL/0.9.6b
Still, the site is mostly useful. Hmmm.ÿ
I find it interesting that here in the US we have two measurements systems in use in parallel. The metric system is used for scientific endeavors and is slowly being used for products and such, but things like gas, milk, and so on are still sold in traditional quarts and gallons.
I was really surprised ten years ago to find that England still uses miles and MPH on the roadways. That was a pleasant surprise, actually, since learning how to shift with my left hand was enough of a learning curve for me. 🙂
Browser: Lynx2/OS/2_Beta_0.7 libwww/2.14
We still use pints in the UK too (for some things anyway e.g, beer). Unfortunately, with-respect-to cross Atlantic homogeneity, the local pint is of a different volume to the US version.
Oops…straying from the original post again.
Beer is always on topic!
grrr… more offtopic, anyways regarding metric speedlimits:
just multiply the metric limit by .6 or by 6 and shift a decimal point if your vehicle only has english units for speed and/or poorly marked metric speed markings(e.g. most US cars). In Canada it’s close enough to get you to the speed limit that law enforcement doesn’t care, but most of the time people are going WAY over the speed limit anyways, so it’s pretty much moot.
As to metric units on other items: most of the items that use metric in the US are because that is what is being manufactured. Milk, etc. are still made relatively locally, and all of the machines and supplied containers are still in english units.
In any event I find the entire thing ridiculous as I find the metric system no easier to use than the english system outside of scientific calculations, although for example, when I do travel to Canada and do see milk, meat, etc. in litres, kg, etc. I find it fairly simple to do a rough conversion, e.g. km/h * ~.6 = ~mph, kg * ~2(or 2.1) = #s, etc. anything that need exact numbers is likely to already be all in metric.
Reading the comments at Heise comes up with this : a guy claiming to have knowledge of “irregularities” in paying some phone support employee ( http://www.heise.de/newsticker/foren/go.shtml?read=1&msg_id=1020597… ).
There’s also a link to the terms of the court-order https://www.insolvenzbekanntmachungen.de/cgi-bin/bl_aufruf.pl?PHPSES… of which the most interesting is the use of “vorläufig” (temporary) 😉
The rest are very low grade trolls.
Edited 2006-04-07 00:51
Whoever buys BeOS will go bankrupt.
Who’s next?
sure hope this isn’t as bad as it sounds. yellowtab looked like it was gathering momentum, and with brand new applications, gcc 4.x and open office ports in the works it would be really sad if company focus would have to shift from expansion to fighting for survival.
I too really hope Yellowtab’s not in any dire state. I was just now starting to really become excited about BeOS again. I’ve been playing with the recent haiku builds, and they’re really starting to take shape. And while that’s inching closer to being BeOS, zeta was getting closer to reaching something close to what BeOS might have been had it survived to this day. The BeOS world would be a ‘lot’ less interesting if only one of these two options were out there.
sent Stephen and I review copies. Haiku will be in beta soon enough, anyway.
Where the heck is Stephen, anyway? Should I log in and post this to BeOSnews.com?
I may be the only one, but this news of possible bankruptcy just made my day. YellowTAB (Bernd Korz) has threatened one Haiku developer (Marcus Overhagen) with a suit. As far as I’m concerned, YellowTAB doesn’t deserve to remain in business another single day. And, frankly, I hope Zeta dies just as quickly.
Here’s the URL for the full details:
http://haikudev.blogspot.com
All hail Haiku! The *TRUE* successor (in heart and spirit) to the late, great BeOS R5!
Luposian
I’m the opposite. yellowTab has worked with Haiku on drivers and such, and now they’re working on OpenOffice. If you want application you’ll need developers and I have a feeling Haiku is going to need all developers working on the OS before apps.
They’re complimentary – hoping yellowTab dies is asking for Haiku to suffer. Haiku might be the successor to R5 but yellowTab is working on the successor to what would have been R6. Keeping them both around encourages developers and broadens the base.
I really don’t understand Haiku supporters who hate yellowTab except for those cases (like your linked article) where someone had direct problems. Even then everything should be taken with a liberal lump of salt as you don’t know both sides of the argument.
Exactly. As far as I can tell, yT is the only commercial supporter of Haiku, donating their source code. Haiku is better off with yT than without.
In all reality, 7 days is a biblical reference, months are generally mythological references, and why would we change it, measuring time has never been problematic?
the problem with the foot was that it was only as long as the current king’s foot, (more accurately, it differentiated, as did many other measurements, between nations,etc.)
anyways, back on topic please!
Whether or not YT is a bad company, I thought they were doing a good job getting alternative OSes out there.
In all reality, 7 days is a biblical reference, months are generally mythological references, and why would we change it, measuring time has never been problematic?
7 day weeks were around long before the Bible. Lunar months are approximately 28 days, and a 7 day week is merely one quarter a lunar month. Lunar months were generally used by most folks for quite some time. We moved away from them since lunar months don’t fit the year exactly. So they switched to twelve 30 day months.
That didn’t quite fit either, so they added a day to some of the months. As Roman Emperors changed the months to honor themselves, they also started taking days from February (among others) to make “their” months longer.
I’m European, and I think metric system is better than that barbarian “foot” “mile”-based system…
Sorry for the OFF TOPIC.
Anyways, GO HAIKU.
yellowTab were porting OpenOffice.org, indeed there had been reports that 50 of the 200 needed modules had been ported to Zeta along with a new build system.
This is a prime example of why open source should be open source.
If yellowTab has indeed gone bankrupt then there are probably slim chances that these changes will ever see the light of day. If they had committed the changes as they were made someone else could have continued with the port, rather than starting again.
f yellowTab has indeed gone bankrupt then there are probably slim chances that these changes will ever see the light of day. If they had committed the changes as they were made someone else could have continued with the port, rather than starting again.
In theory, yes. As something with even a remote chance of happening, I’m rather doubtful. Porting open office is a combination of three things
1. No fun
2. Openings to taunts from people who want a native suite but won’t code or fund development.
3. Requires a high level of both ability and free time.
The haiku development community, from what I’ve seen of it, doesn’t have enough people that anyone will make it through all three of those things to actually make any progress. Most of the people willing to do tedious coding would be working on the OS internals. Same goes for people who meet the third criteria. And who wants to work for free on something that even many people in the community will greet with scorn? This is one of those things that I think really can’t come out of the haiku open source development base at this time.