Slashdot Mirror
Open-Source Soft{ware,drink}: "OpenCOLA"
Rahoule writes: "The National Post reports that a Toronto company will release the first open-source cola with its open-source software: 'Steelbridge Inc. will announce today it [will] develop openCOLA, a new software program which automates the selection, discovery, and evaluation of Web sites.'"
FAQ question
2.2:
"Ain't this just a publicity stunt?" Answer: "Sure. But ..."
They describe an interesting-sounding distributed Napsteresque Web crawler, but there's just one thing missing from this open-source project: source. "You'll start seeing code after Labor Day," says today's press release.
this is so trendy it's pathetic.
BTW - i'll be open sourcing my ass next week for all of you who'd like to get a look at it. I figure if i get enough venture capital and go IPO/Open-Source with it, i'll be able to make millions off it. (Yes, that's pronounced GNU/Ass)
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once." -David Hume
Actually, even though Open Source Cola is mere publicity stunt, the idea of Open Source Food itself is pretty good. I think consumers would appreciate knowing what ingredients and processes are involved in producing what they eat. GNU vegetables would only use open-sourced genetic modifications. You would be able to use GNU vegetables in your food, but only if you open-source your recipe.
Mmmm... washing down your yacc and perl onion stew with a glass of OpenCola.
To quote
Or this little gem in the boilerplate:
Imagine a Beowulf cluster of openCOLA! It could quench the thirstiest finite-element analysis researcher!
-- ;-)
Kuro5hin.org: where the good times never end.
I can picture a friendly-looking moustacioed nerd passing out cans of openCOLA...
Nerd: Want some free openCOLA?
Kernel Hacker: Is it free like "free speech" or like "free cola"?
Nerd: Umm... both, I guess... just try some...
Kernel Hacker: Does it have lots and lots of caffeine?
Nerd: This stuff makes Jolt(tm) seem like rainwater in comparison!
K.H.: Is that normal rain or acid rain?
Nerd: Just try it. Come on... the first one's free... everyone's doing it... don't you want to be '1337?
K.H.: Not particularly... but that stuff sounds powerful... lemme try some...
Nerd: (snickering, hands over a can)
K.H.: Ahhhh... this stuff is goo-- URRk! (Plop! The poor Kernel Hacker falls to the ground...)
Nerd peels off fake moustache revealing that he is actually Bill Gates.
Bill: Mua ha ha ha! That's what you get for writing xbill back in college!
A Large, Bald Goon (Ballmer?) drags the corpse of the poor hacker away, then eats it.
Stay up hacking each weekend. Sleep is for the week.
maybe that's what they mean by "root beer"
1. Most Cola comes pre packaged closed to keep contaminents out of the can.
2. An Open Cola is more susceptible to doing harm by "bad" people who poison it. It is less secure than closed cola. (This statement paid for by Microsoft)
3. An Open Cola is more consuming on resources, and management, as improper handling techniques could lead to an unexpected spill, leak, or even crash. Closed Cola somehow magically circumvents this effect.
4. Open Cola is, by it's very nature dangerous stuff. Due to it's high citrus and sugar content, it can and does regularly damage teeth. It is also carbonated, which could allow for the unexpected to inhale through the opening, and suffocate. Closed cola, while also carbonated, high in citrus and sugar content, and generally no better than Open Cola, cannot be tested as thoroughly, due to the restricting "One Tab" EULA agreement vendors place on their customers.
5. An Open Cola is more apt to go stale quicker than a Closed Cola. Unless, of course, you enact the EULA of the Closed Cola.
krystal_blade
It will be easy to motivate our fellow man; there is hardly anything people treasure more than not being annihilated.
Actually, Coca-Cola still uses an extract of the coca leaf. The Wall Street Journal had a really cool piece several years back on the company that does the processing of the leaf for them. The processing company is the only company in the country with a permit to legally import the leaves, and they do all the processing in a bunker-like facility (in NJ, IIRC) so that none of it gets stolen and turned into cocaine. I seem to recall that they also process the leaves for certain pharmaceutical companies. Different components of the leaf for the meds and the drink, I'd assume, but either the WSJ didn't ask or they weren't telling.
~luge
IAAL,BIANLY
That should read "will be brewing up a few thousand cases of cola." It's not ready yet.
National Post: Open Source is a model of software development in which the creators release the source code to a product for free and encourage others to share it, copy it, and modify it, with the caveat that it cannot be sold.
I'm still wincing from reading this, and that was hours ago. I am certain beyond doubt that nobody at the company told them that.
National Post: ...John Henson, the 24-year-old chief technology officer...
John is 27. He only acts like a 24-year-old.