Dear Dave,
I've known you for quite a few years, and I'm kind of surprised that you
would try to publicly paint me as a slimy, no-good, take-advantage-of-the-
taxpayer's-net marketeer. If only because Gene Codes Corp gets more than
its fair share of publicity on the net through the postings of users. I
don't feel any urge to lessen the impact of unbiased customers by salting
the net with my own, completely biased opinons, so I really have no urge to
repress.
Now, let me go through what happened and maybe you'll feel more comfortable.
Dr. Chihara asked for restriction mapping software that he will use to
teach a class of advanced undergraduates. I'll mention in passing that since
Dr. Chihara is teaching undergraduates he is not likely to buy a commercial
copy of Sequencher.
The demo disk for Sequencher lets you generate and print restriction maps.
I wanted to offer a copy to Dr. Chihara so I logged on to our technical
support account at America Online and tried to send him the note that you
saw. The mail, originally sent from GeneCodes at AOL.com did not go through so
I later went back to my university account and tried to reply from there.
It was not my intention to post to the net, but if someone complained to you
perhaps you should refer them to me directly. If he or she feels taken
advantage of, perhaps I can make it up to them.
This morning I received messages from three people who wanted to see
Sequencher demo disks as a result of the posting. Again, it was not my
intention to solicit inquiries, and I will contact each of these researchers
and tell them that. Since there is somone who has complained (perhaps
someone not from IntelliGenetics) I will be happy to pass these contacts
on to whoever wants them. Further I will delay sending any material to them
for a week to insure that Gene Codes gets no unfair advantage from this
inadvertant publicity.
I can't think of anything else to try to relive your angst, David. I think
highly of you personally and professionally and respect your work to make
the network such a valuable reseach tool. I will pass your complaint and
copies of these postings along to the appropriate authorities here at the
University of Michigan. I will repeat there that I was not "trying anything"
and that even more care will be taken in the future to avoid any anger from
you, your employer, any other companies or the researchers on the net.
If you think there are additional steps that, in good faith, I should take,
please feel free to call me directly.
Most sincerely,
Howard Cash
President
Gene Codes Corporation
