Three years ago, Timothy Vernor quit his day job to enjoy life as a full-time eBay junkie. His online store, Happy Hour Comics, typically sells comics-related collectibles and vintage toys, but about 24 months back, he walked into a "garage sale" and stumbled onto a copy of AutoCAD, the professional design tool that Autodesk prices at roughly $4000 a pop - and he decided to sell that on eBay too.

Well, Autodesk got all huffy. The software maker chucked a DMCA claim at eBay, insisting that Vernor's AutoCAD auction was in violation of the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). eBay promptly yanked the auction, but in an act of defiance rare among internet users, Vernor sent Whitman and company a counter-claim, insisting it put the auction back up. You know, he pulled a Chris Knight.

In doing so, Vernor risked legal action from Autodesk. The software maker had two weeks to either take Vernor to court or allow the auction back online. In this instance, the company backed down, but recently, when Vernor went to another "garage sale", found a few more copies of AutoCAD, and listed those onto eBay, the DMCA notices kept coming.

Vernor continued to counter-claim, but eventually, eBay put a hold on his account. "After four or five [DMCA] claims, they restricted my account, and I couldn't list any items for sale," Vernor said.

A month later, after an appeal to the online auction house, the account was restored. But Vernor is going ahead with that $10m lawsuit, which was officially served this week. In suspending his account, he claims, eBay cut off his sole source of revenue.

Autodesk usually has three to five full-time employees monitoring eBay and other on-line auctions for seats of Autodesk products.  When they find them, they will shut the sale down, if they can, and they usually send a threatening letter to the seller.

 

My big concern is for the buyer...will the buyer be able to register and use the software?  In the case of Vernor, he was selling really old seats of AutoCAD R14, which included the serial number and authorization codes, so the buyer probably would have been OK.  But, if you are looking to buy software...please be careful...you really are best off buying from an Authorized Reseller.  It is always a gamble buying software through an auction or unknown seller.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From a post by Scott Latch, the new Technical Product Manager for Revit Architecture, at AUGI's Revit community forums.

Open Revit.ini file in Notepad.
The file is typically located in C:\Program Files\Revit Architecture 2008\Program.

Add the following line to Revit.ini in [Graphics] section:
TempDimFontSizeInPoints=N

Where N is a number larger than 8 (default hardcoded value). Good starting point is twice the default size (i.e. 16-17).

Save Revit.ini.
Restart Revit.

If the size of temporary dimensions is still small, repeat from step 1 with larger number.

Please note, the [Graphics] section may not exist. If this is the case ,add a line that contains [Graphics].

 

I don't know if I should feel jealous, but after my thank you last month to Larry for sponsoring a month of CADzette, I got a torrent of fan mail from all over the world - all directed to Laertes, my horse.

 

This month's sponsor, Amicus Technology, in Ireland sent a very kind note with their donation.  Well, the Irish are great horse lovers and horse racers, so that should not be too much of a surprise.

 

 

Since Laertes can't read, I told him all about the kind words of encouragement from all around the world.  But, like most horses, he was more interested to know if the good wishes translated into grain, carrots, or cookies.  I assured him that it did indeed. 

 

Satisfied, he wants you all to know that he is the happiest he has ever been, the healthiest he has ever been, and he is happy to give a ride to any child that brings him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  He will not charge for pets or hugs.

 

He also will play "Follow the Leader" or "Red Light, Green Light" with any child for free.  He likes these games and sees that whoever he plays with has a good time as well.  He would like to issue an invitation to children of all ages to come down to his barn and play with him in the arena...as long as it isn't raining.  He does not care for mud.

 

Well, it is a fine thing for my ego to take a back seat to a horse, but I truly can't begrudge Laertes his moment of fame. 

 

My vet has offered to perform cosmetic surgery on him to repair his nose, but Laertes says it gives him character and he has been poked enough by doctors.  So, he will keep his silly face...he's still a fine looking horse and the beauty within him shines through.

 

 

 

 

I'll be teaching a FREE three hour class in Inventor 2008 at the San Francisco State Market Street campus (conveniently located near the Powell Street BART station).

 

This is a hands-on class - every student will have a workstation.  I'll be walking the class through how to create parts and put them together into a simple assembly.

 

This is to act as a teaser for the five week Saturday class I will be teaching there this Spring.

 

The class is already half-full, so if you are interested, you had better sign up today.

 

If the workstation seats fill up, I'll allow people with laptops 

with Inventor loaded to sit in, but I can't allow more than 20 people in the class.