The loss of a consumer advocate

July 28, 2008 6:36 PM

In Memoriam -- Ed Foster, Infoworld Ed Foster, the Infoworld columnist who often went to bat for consumers screwed by tech companies that misrepresented their products and services, died on Saturday. He was 59. :-(
posted by tcv (13 comments total)

Anyone who goes into bat for the little guy gets my "."

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Also, without any snark intended, this post could have used some links to his more famous battles and victories, thus saving me the trouble of having to do my own research into whether he did indeed help the little guy, or just technophobe retards.
posted by nudar at 6:56 PM on July 28, 2008

Not that his helping out "technophobe retards" with their problems lessens his deserving my respect upon his passing, of course.
posted by nudar at 7:09 PM on July 28, 2008

That the link opens to an ad for HP is way not classy.

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posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 7:31 PM on July 28, 2008

Ed Foster was Consumerist before Consumerist was even a gleam in Nick Denton's eye; I was reading Ed Foster way back in college and he was working hard to keep folks in the tech industry honest. I might even go out on a limb and say that he inspired me to have similarly high expectations of the vendors and companies with whom I deal day-to-day; he will indeed be missed.
posted by delfuego at 7:35 PM on July 28, 2008

?
posted by ZachsMind at 7:44 PM on July 28, 2008

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posted by lupus_yonderboy at 8:56 PM on July 28, 2008

whether he did indeed help the little guy, or just technophobe retards.

The so called "technophobe retards" are the little guys.
posted by dhammond at 9:21 PM on July 28, 2008

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posted by VulcanMike at 9:52 PM on July 28, 2008

Ed deserves a lot of credit for getting tech issues in front of people. For instance, he played an important role in exposing the Federal CAN-SPAM act (or, as he called it, the "Yes, You Can Spam" act) for the sham it was. CAN-SPAM did two terrible things: it legalized email spam and it overturned strong state laws that outlawed spam.
posted by chipr at 10:16 PM on July 28, 2008

←
posted by turgid dahlia at 10:19 PM on July 28, 2008

Not always, dhammond.
posted by nudar at 11:00 PM on July 28, 2008

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posted by arse_hat at 11:53 PM on July 28, 2008

He was one of the people leading the fight against UCITA, which was an absolutely horrible attempt to shaft all purchasers of software. I have no doubt that his strong criticisms helped to derail that proposed legislation.
posted by Malor at 11:57 PM on July 28, 2008