The Site With the Lamp

November 2, 2004

Computer Associates seems to think that software is used only in a handfull of countries. At least that is the impression you might get if you read up on their so called 'Million Dollar Challenge.

The pdf that describes this contest says in bold capital letters:
THE CONTEST IS INTENDED FOR PRESENTATION IN THE UNITED STATES, CANADA (EXCEPT QUEBEC PROVINCE), MEXICO, INDIA, CHINA, THE UNITED KINGDOM, AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND. DO NOT PROCEED WITHIN THIS SITE IF YOU ARE NOT A RESIDENT OF ONE OF THESE COUNTRIES.

This is a company that was once headed by a CEO from Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka isn't in that list of countries either. What about european countries? Singapore, Malaysia? they are all conspicous by their absence.

I am not surprised that CA needs to spend 1 million dollars to persuade open source developers make tools that will migrate from other databases to ingres. This $1,000,000 probably does not include the advertising budget.

You would think a software company would know how to filter their banner ads by region, but they do not because I came to know of this 'challenge' through an ad on freshmeat (or was it SF?). Where do I live? Sri Lanka Of course.