Olav How to get PowerBasic Software when Bob Zale's ego gets in the way.

[Eric]

Olav,
Sorry to hear that you are having problems. As you may have read, Bob
has blocked me from getting upgrades (I guess). I have not tried to do
this, but he said that I have been blocked.

First, I visit PirateBay.org to see if my Software has been cracked. I
notice that PowerBasic (All version) are there often. Here is what I
found today: http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/3515513/PowerBasic_For_Windows_v8.01

I am NOT saying that you should download this if you have not
purchased a legal copy. BUT, if you have purchased a legal copy and
Bob is being a butt, then you have the right to download what you have
paid the license for.

Next, if you still need to buy something from PowerBasic, and you are
blocked, do this.
1 Get a Yahoo or GMail account.
2 Use your credit card to purchase a Simons Gift Card http://www.simon.com/Giftcard
3 Put the total you need on this card.
4 Give the card to yourself (that is, use the NEW email address you
used in step 1)
When you give a card to someone, you enter items about the person who
gets that card.
Since Bob is blocking YOU, he only knows your contact info. So the
card goes to a NEW IDENTITY.
EX:
YOU: Olav Jenson, 123 MainStreet, LittleCity, 12345, Tel 011
123 1234 1234, ***@xxx.com
NEW YOU: Mary Smith, 444 OtherStreet, BigBigCity, 99999, Tel 011 999
9999 9999, ***@gmail.com

5 After you buy the card, an email will be sent to the new address.
Respond to it and ... the card is all set-up.
*** The card is like a credit card, it has a 16 digit number, an
expiration date, and a CVV2 security number.
This will ALL be emailed to you at your NEW YOU email address.

6 Go to the PowerBasic web site and enter the NEW YOU info to complete
the sale with the NEW Simons credit card. NONE of YOUR REAL info will
be tracked back to PowerBasic.

Needless to say, select Digital Download unless the mailing address is
for one of your friends and you want physical delivery.

I used this to set-up an iTunes account. I registered the Simons card
through PayPay. This allows me to download free iPhone apps. If I make
a mistake, and select a non-free app, the card is limited to $.50 and
the sale is halted.

I purchased the card ($20 minimum). Purchased stuff on Amazon until
the balance was fifty cents. When an iTunes account is set-up, it
REQUIRES a funding source. I used paypal which has this Simons card as
the only funding source. Thus, iTunes was satisfied that there was an
active funding source.

Neither PayPal or iTunes has any idea or information about me on these
accounts. I have two PayPal accounts - one with my real information,
and the Simons account. When iTunes requests info about the card,
PayPal requests info from Simons, who ONLY provides info about the
person who I gave the card TO. That includes the NEW YOU address,
phone number, email address, etc.

Hope this helps you Olav

[Olav]

Eric,

Thank you for your support and info. I think I now have come to a stage
where I don't care much more about
programming.I'm just a hobby programmer anyway.Bob Zale has done a great job
to kill the fun I had in
programming.

When he writes in his last message to me in this thread that "You chose to
cancel as your own personal
decision" ; it tells me that he is not in contact with the real world. As I
told him I was encouraged to
cancel.

There is no point to continue with Powerbasic. What ever is lying ahead; it
will only be problems.Problems
which Bob Zale loves to create for his cutomers.
--
OB

Post by Eric
Olav,
Sorry to hear that you are having problems. As you may have read, Bob
has blocked me from getting upgrades (I guess). I have not tried to do
this, but he said that I have been blocked.
First, I visit PirateBay.org to see if my Software has been cracked. I
notice that PowerBasic (All version) are there often. Here is what I
http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/3515513/PowerBasic_For_Windows_v8.01
I am NOT saying that you should download this if you have not
purchased a legal copy. BUT, if you have purchased a legal copy and
Bob is being a butt, then you have the right to download what you have
paid the license for.
Next, if you still need to buy something from PowerBasic, and you are
blocked, do this.
1 Get a Yahoo or GMail account.
2 Use your credit card to purchase a Simons Gift Card
http://www.simon.com/Giftcard
3 Put the total you need on this card.
4 Give the card to yourself (that is, use the NEW email address you
used in step 1)
When you give a card to someone, you enter items about the person who
gets that card.
Since Bob is blocking YOU, he only knows your contact info. So the
card goes to a NEW IDENTITY.
YOU: Olav Jenson, 123 MainStreet, LittleCity, 12345, Tel 011
NEW YOU: Mary Smith, 444 OtherStreet, BigBigCity, 99999, Tel 011 999
5 After you buy the card, an email will be sent to the new address.
Respond to it and ... the card is all set-up.
*** The card is like a credit card, it has a 16 digit number, an
expiration date, and a CVV2 security number.
This will ALL be emailed to you at your NEW YOU email address.
6 Go to the PowerBasic web site and enter the NEW YOU info to complete
the sale with the NEW Simons credit card. NONE of YOUR REAL info will
be tracked back to PowerBasic.
Needless to say, select Digital Download unless the mailing address is
for one of your friends and you want physical delivery.
I used this to set-up an iTunes account. I registered the Simons card
through PayPay. This allows me to download free iPhone apps. If I make
a mistake, and select a non-free app, the card is limited to $.50 and
the sale is halted.
I purchased the card ($20 minimum). Purchased stuff on Amazon until
the balance was fifty cents. When an iTunes account is set-up, it
REQUIRES a funding source. I used paypal which has this Simons card as
the only funding source. Thus, iTunes was satisfied that there was an
active funding source.
Neither PayPal or iTunes has any idea or information about me on these
accounts. I have two PayPal accounts - one with my real information,
and the Simons account. When iTunes requests info about the card,
PayPal requests info from Simons, who ONLY provides info about the
person who I gave the card TO. That includes the NEW YOU address,
phone number, email address, etc.
Hope this helps you Olav

[Wayne Diamond]

Well i've just been banned from the PB Forums after 9 years and 2100 posts,
simply because their new 15yo $5/hr support desk kid Jeff Daniels has
finally figured out that I was posting with an alias rather than my real
full name (even though they know my real name), and seeing as CUSTOMER
PRIVACY isn't as important to them as forcing people to show their full name
they've decided to suspend my account. "Thanks for your 9 years and 2100
posts, now piss off."

Anyone wonder what happened to other longtimers like Semen Matusovski, Steve
Hutchesson, Borje Hagsten, Lance, Vladimir etc etc?? I can take a wild
guess...

[Olav]

Hello Wayne!

Welcome to the club!

It's sad to hear yet another story reagrding PowerBASIC Inc and Bob Zale.
At the same time I'm glad you stepped forward and told your story. I would
hope that everyone which have a story to tell in this regard would also step
forward and tell us about it.

PowerBASIC Inc is apparently de-connected from the real world and common
behaviour.
--
Regards,

Olav B

Post by Wayne Diamond
Well i've just been banned from the PB Forums after 9 years and 2100 posts,
simply because their new 15yo $5/hr support desk kid Jeff Daniels has
finally figured out that I was posting with an alias rather than my real
full name (even though they know my real name), and seeing as CUSTOMER
PRIVACY isn't as important to them as forcing people to show their full name
they've decided to suspend my account. "Thanks for your 9 years and 2100
posts, now piss off."
Anyone wonder what happened to other longtimers like Semen Matusovski, Steve
Hutchesson, Borje Hagsten, Lance, Vladimir etc etc?? I can take a wild
guess...

[Dave -Turner]

Post by Olav
Hello Wayne!
Welcome to the club!
It's sad to hear yet another story reagrding PowerBASIC Inc and Bob Zale.
At the same time I'm glad you stepped forward and told your story. I would
hope that everyone which have a story to tell in this regard would also step
forward and tell us about it.
PowerBASIC Inc is apparently de-connected from the real world and common
behaviour.

G'day Olav,

Yes I read about your case just after I made my post :-/

To me, THE PRIVACY OF MY CUSTOMERS IS _PARAMOUNT_, it is FUNDAMENTAL,
especially seeing as most of my software is security-related.

My guess is that Bob is just being over-protective in regards to not wanting
to help people who're using his software without paying for it. (I've
purchased over $1000 worth myself, from PBCC2, PBCC3, PBDOS, PBDLL6, PBWIN7,
PBForms, PowerGEN etc)

I've developed and released several shareware programs over the years, and
ALL of my programs have had cracks/keygens/serials etc released for them, so
I know how it feels to invest so much time and money into developing a
program only to have it get ripped off. But THATS LIFE ... at least as
software developers we're able to implement SOME protection into our
programs -- people who release movies and music don't exactly have that
luxury besides DRM which is pretty useless.

So I can only assume that that is why Bob is so paranoid about people
emailing ***@powerbasic.com and getting free tech support ...

But ...
1) I was only reporting a bug i'd encountered, i didn't even need any tech
support. Simply for reporting the bug i was asked for a full ID check,
including emailing them my serials.
2) I emailed them out of courtesy rather than posting it to the forum. The
irony is that if I had've just posted it to the forum I wouldn't be banned
(otherwise I would've been banned in 2000 when I was making my first posts).
3) Bob knows my real name - so WHY is it _THAT IMPORTANT_ to him that
everybody else has to??? There is just no sense behind that, and it goes
against EVERYTHING privacy & security researchers are saying in this year -
2009.
4) I've been a registered member for over 9 years ... so why ban me now???
This wasn't the first email I've ever sent. It's just the first email i've
ever sent that Jeff Daniels (who???) has responded to.

I feel Powerbasic have dug themselves quite a hole with this 180-degree
about-face they've done and how they've treated me, some of the things
they've said to me via email is just incredible. Tim Robbins @ PB even
started googling my name to post me various sites he could find -- how's
that for a demonstration of respect of customer privacy.

[Olav]

Post by Dave -Turner

Post by Olav
Hello Wayne!
Welcome to the club!
It's sad to hear yet another story reagrding PowerBASIC Inc and Bob Zale.
At the same time I'm glad you stepped forward and told your story. I would
hope that everyone which have a story to tell in this regard would also

step

Post by Olav
forward and tell us about it.
PowerBASIC Inc is apparently de-connected from the real world and common
behaviour.

G'day Olav,
Yes I read about your case just after I made my post :-/
To me, THE PRIVACY OF MY CUSTOMERS IS _PARAMOUNT_, it is FUNDAMENTAL,
especially seeing as most of my software is security-related.
My guess is that Bob is just being over-protective in regards to not wanting
to help people who're using his software without paying for it. (I've
purchased over $1000 worth myself, from PBCC2, PBCC3, PBDOS, PBDLL6, PBWIN7,
PBForms, PowerGEN etc)
I've developed and released several shareware programs over the years, and
ALL of my programs have had cracks/keygens/serials etc released for them, so
I know how it feels to invest so much time and money into developing a
program only to have it get ripped off. But THATS LIFE ... at least as
software developers we're able to implement SOME protection into our
programs -- people who release movies and music don't exactly have that
luxury besides DRM which is pretty useless.
So I can only assume that that is why Bob is so paranoid about people
But ...
1) I was only reporting a bug i'd encountered, i didn't even need any tech
support. Simply for reporting the bug i was asked for a full ID check,
including emailing them my serials.
2) I emailed them out of courtesy rather than posting it to the forum. The
irony is that if I had've just posted it to the forum I wouldn't be banned
(otherwise I would've been banned in 2000 when I was making my first posts).
3) Bob knows my real name - so WHY is it _THAT IMPORTANT_ to him that
everybody else has to??? There is just no sense behind that, and it goes
against EVERYTHING privacy & security researchers are saying in this year -
2009.
4) I've been a registered member for over 9 years ... so why ban me now???
This wasn't the first email I've ever sent. It's just the first email i've
ever sent that Jeff Daniels (who???) has responded to.
I feel Powerbasic have dug themselves quite a hole with this 180-degree
about-face they've done and how they've treated me, some of the things
started googling my name to post me various sites he could find -- how's
that for a demonstration of respect of customer privacy.

It demonstrate all we need to know - about Powerbasic Inc. By 'all' I mean
we know enough to stay away from them. They have no respect for anyone's
privacy. They do not respect you as a person, as a customer, nor as a fellow
programmer. We are all just shit to them, but I will tell you a secret. A
life without Powerbasic is really a good life. I have found that Bob Zale
and his P.O.BOX company is not important enough to let them ruin my life. I
hope for your own sake that this is something you also will experience at a
later moment.
--
Regards,

Olav

[Bob Zale]

Hi,

I would like to point out that PowerBASIC, Inc. takes all bug reports
seriously, even from non-registered users. The problem was not with
Wayne reporting a bug, but with the fact that he refused to provide
his real name when writing to support. After reviewing the bug that
Wayne reported, the problem is not with the compiler, but with the
customer's assembler code. When you execute an MMX or SIMD instruction
(those that use MMX data), the FPU is placed in MMX state. You may
then execute additional MMX or CPU opcodes. When you wish to exit MMX
state and execute standard FPU opcodes, you must first execute an EMMS
opcode. Failure to do so will result in floating-point exceptions or
incorrect results.

Sincerely,
Steve Rossell
PowerBASIC Staff

[MikeTrader]

My guess is that Bob is just being over-protective in regards to not wanting to help people who're using his software without paying for it.

That's the justification not the reason.

Also let's be clear, Tim Robbins = Steve Rossell = Bob Zale.
These almost certainly all aliases - the very thing he cites as a
reason to ban people that fall out of favor.

Mr Zale quite obviously derives satisfaction from harrasing and
intimidating his user base. I imagine it makes him feel quite powerful
to have admin's turn on their friends and ban people on his say so.

When I read the email sent to Wayne with the phrase "stomping your
feet" I recognized it immediatly from a similar email I had from him
Circa 2005. Clearly this practice is a well trodden path.

The only reason this is significant, is because new users may fall
into the same trap we did, developing 10yrs of code in a language and
building a network of friends that are suddenly and totally unfairly
removed from us.

Had I know this when I chose powerbasic, I certainly would have chosen
another language rather than subject myself to all of this time
wasting pointless drama.

[Bob Zale]

Let be REAL clear here.
Not that I have to prove anything to you, when I do not even know who
you really are. Here is my facebook page at
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1456569287&ref=name. You can
search the Internet for my name (real name is Stephen Rossell), I used
to work for eHelp, Inc. before PowerBASIC - do a search for Steve
Rossell and eHelp, Steve Rossell and MCat, Steve Rossell and JavaHelp,
or look at all my posts in the PowerBASIC Forums.

[MikeTrader]

Post by Bob Zale
Let be REAL clear here.
Not that I have to prove anything to you, when I do not even know who
you really are. Here is my facebook page athttp://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1456569287&ref=name. You can
search the Internet for my name (real name is Stephen Rossell), I used
to work for eHelp, Inc. before PowerBASIC - do a search for Steve
Rossell and eHelp, Steve Rossell and MCat, Steve Rossell and JavaHelp,
or look at all my posts in the PowerBASIC Forums.

Well perhaps you can enlighten us as to why you post under the name
"Bob Zale" and why you sound like Mr Zale almost down to the turn of
phrase?

So Mr Robbins is the only alias. Still proves my point that even Mr
Zale has/is using aliases to post on internet forums

[Marc van Breemen]

Post by MikeTrader

Post by Bob Zale
Let be REAL clear here.
Not that I have to prove anything to you, when I do not even know who
you really are. Here is my facebook page
athttp://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1456569287&ref=name. You can
search the Internet for my name (real name is Stephen Rossell), I used
to work for eHelp, Inc. before PowerBASIC - do a search for Steve
Rossell and eHelp, Steve Rossell and MCat, Steve Rossell and JavaHelp,
or look at all my posts in the PowerBASIC Forums.

Well perhaps you can enlighten us as to why you post under the name
"Bob Zale" and why you sound like Mr Zale almost down to the turn of
phrase?
So Mr Robbins is the only alias. Still proves my point that even Mr
Zale has/is using aliases to post on internet forums

Sorry, but that post didn't sound as it was written by Bob Zale at all.
You may fool others but not me. I don't say that you have written it under
his name, but it wasn't him. It was written by someone who's must really
go on with his life.

[Basic Guy]

Post by Marc van Breemen

Let be REAL clear here. (...)

Sorry, but that post didn't sound as it was written by Bob Zale
at all. You may fool others but not me. I don't say that you
have written it under his name, but it wasn't him. It was
written by someone who's must really go on with his life.

The post that you (Marc) refers to, which claims to have been posted by
Bob Zale, which you dispute, was posted from IP address 67.17.204.214.

The rDNS of that IP address is mail.powerbasic.com.

So the odds are very high that someone within the management or
administration of power basic was the author of that post.

[Thomas Gohel]

On 08 Sep 09, in article "Re: Olav How to get PowerBasic Software when Bob Zale's ego gets in the way.", Bob Zale wrote:

Hello Bob,

Post by Bob Zale
I would like to point out that PowerBASIC, Inc. takes all bug reports
seriously,

What a joke, ROTFL.

Post by Bob Zale
Steve Rossell

It's ok, Rob Sale ...

Regards,

--------------
/ h o m a s