My Apology
On 19 May, something of a firestorm seems to have erupted. While I don't know most of what's been said, nor by whom, some friends have expressed concern over what they've seen, so I thought I would take a moment to apologize for my actions. I realize that my actions were wrong, and for that, I sincerely apologize.
Around the beginning of the year (to be honest, I don't remember the exact date), I posted my Jump List parsing code to my Google Code site. The archive I posted consisted of two Perl modules (JumpList.pm and LNK.pm), two Perl scripts (jl.pl and jl2.pl), and a PDF user guide document. During development and testing, I found that the jl.pl script did not work correctly...it failed to function at all and quit with an error regarding a function (i.e., getLNK()) call to one of the modules...that function call did not exist within the module. The Perl interpreter would not allow the script to run. I opted to leave this code in place and post the archive, in order to see how many people would download it, and of those, how many would report any issues.
On 2 Jan, I posted updated, corrected code to the download site.
The Issue
On 15 May, I posted a comment to the Jason Hale's blog. Here's the comment that appears to have caused all of the issues:
well, that's the one I wrote so that it wouldn't work...it was a social experiment, to compare the number of downloads to the number of folks who say anything about it not working. So far, only 2 people have said anything about issues with the script...
On Saturday, 19 May, I received emails from two friends while I was offline stating that there were discussions about my comments occurring online. When I did get back online later in the day, I could not see most of those comments, so I don't know what was being said. Further, I do not have a Google Plus account, so I could not see what was discussed in this forum, either. I did receive an email on Sunday morning (sent to me late Sat night), where someone expressed their concerns and feelings to me.
Was there any deception?
Absolutely not. The jl.pl script did not work. It did not report incorrect or deceptive data. There was no "joke app". The Perl interpreter did not allow the script to complete, regardless of any arguments passed to the script. In fact, the same error would have occurred, regardless of what data was passed to the script. The Perl interpreter prevented the script from processing any data.
Does this issue affect any other code?
Absolutely not.
This script is in no way associated with RegRipper. It is not part of RegRipper, nor any other tool or script I've ever released.
Have you conducted any other "social experiments" without anyone's knowledge?
Absolutely not. Nor will I do so again.
My Apology
I realize that what I said in my comments to Jason Hale's blog, specifically the two words "social experiment", are what appears to have generated the reaction that many are seeing online. I sincerely apologize for the use of the term, and I sincerely apologize for purposely and knowingly releasing code that did not work. It was not the best judgement to do this, and I realize that, and apologize for my actions. I have not done anything like this before, and it will never happen again. I am deeply sorry for any ill feelings of mistrust or betrayal my comments caused.
Around the beginning of the year (to be honest, I don't remember the exact date), I posted my Jump List parsing code to my Google Code site. The archive I posted consisted of two Perl modules (JumpList.pm and LNK.pm), two Perl scripts (jl.pl and jl2.pl), and a PDF user guide document. During development and testing, I found that the jl.pl script did not work correctly...it failed to function at all and quit with an error regarding a function (i.e., getLNK()) call to one of the modules...that function call did not exist within the module. The Perl interpreter would not allow the script to run. I opted to leave this code in place and post the archive, in order to see how many people would download it, and of those, how many would report any issues.
On 2 Jan, I posted updated, corrected code to the download site.
The Issue
On 15 May, I posted a comment to the Jason Hale's blog. Here's the comment that appears to have caused all of the issues:
well, that's the one I wrote so that it wouldn't work...it was a social experiment, to compare the number of downloads to the number of folks who say anything about it not working. So far, only 2 people have said anything about issues with the script...
On Saturday, 19 May, I received emails from two friends while I was offline stating that there were discussions about my comments occurring online. When I did get back online later in the day, I could not see most of those comments, so I don't know what was being said. Further, I do not have a Google Plus account, so I could not see what was discussed in this forum, either. I did receive an email on Sunday morning (sent to me late Sat night), where someone expressed their concerns and feelings to me.
Was there any deception?
Absolutely not. The jl.pl script did not work. It did not report incorrect or deceptive data. There was no "joke app". The Perl interpreter did not allow the script to complete, regardless of any arguments passed to the script. In fact, the same error would have occurred, regardless of what data was passed to the script. The Perl interpreter prevented the script from processing any data.
Does this issue affect any other code?
Absolutely not.
This script is in no way associated with RegRipper. It is not part of RegRipper, nor any other tool or script I've ever released.
Have you conducted any other "social experiments" without anyone's knowledge?
Absolutely not. Nor will I do so again.
My Apology
I realize that what I said in my comments to Jason Hale's blog, specifically the two words "social experiment", are what appears to have generated the reaction that many are seeing online. I sincerely apologize for the use of the term, and I sincerely apologize for purposely and knowingly releasing code that did not work. It was not the best judgement to do this, and I realize that, and apologize for my actions. I have not done anything like this before, and it will never happen again. I am deeply sorry for any ill feelings of mistrust or betrayal my comments caused.