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Perl Foundation Awards Perl Development Grant to Larry Wall
Krellis writes: "The Perl Foundation today announced that they have awarded a Perl Development Grant to Larry Wall, the creator of Perl and designer of Perl 6, joining Dan Sugalski and Dr. Damian Conway, the other 2002 grant recipients. The Perl Development Grants are funded by donations; over USD 80,000 has been donated so far, a total of USD 240,000 is needed for the three grants. See http://donate.perl-foundation.org/ for more information on how you can pitch in - every dollar counts! See also the use.perl.org story for more information."
In this age of over-complex user-interfaces, Perl scripts are becoming increasingly useful when you just want to get the job done.
If I need to process a large amount of text, I am constantly amazed to see how Perl can do exactly what I need in a minimum amount of time. Good on them!
I hate to say the obvious, but why wasn't he the _first_ one that the grant was awarded to? After all, he is only the creator and lead architect of PERL. Are there any blindly obvious reasons why this didn't happen earlier?
:Peter
In related news, Ford Motor Company has posthumously awarded Henry Ford for Outstanding Model-T Development.
If you celebrate Xmas, befriend me (538
Am I the only one who thinks it is a bad idea to announce the awards before the money has been raised to pay for them?
The could have delayed the announcement, made fewer awards or made smaller awards.
Now, instead of focusing their efforts on raising money for future activities, they instead have to focus on digging out of a $160K hole.
<wank>
I have a positive modifier on Troll. When I mod someone Troll their karma should go UP!
is here.
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
Perl Foundation Awards Perl Development Grant to Perl Creator
Scott.
Surely, if you're considering a grant Larry is going to be the first name on the list!
...
It seems a bit like a Linux foundation (is there one?) giving money to Alan Cox & Marcelo Tosatti and then as an afterthought letting Linus Torvalds in on the party
Is issuing grants the best way (from a taxation perspective) to use these donations?
/. thread about this but I remember it being rather ambiguous.
If the Perl Foundation is a non-profit (which I assume they are), wouldn't it make more sense to take these guys on the pay-roll so that the money wasn't taxed except for the consideribly smaller amount that would be paid for general living expenses?
The 20K travel budget is what suprised me... Since that's a grant, it's not 20K for travel because Larry would still have to pay taxes on that no?
I'm not terribly proficent in tax laws but something just seems a bit fishy to me... I wonder if it has to do with whether one can claim that writing perl is charity...
If it isn't, then there definitely needs to be a movement to make OSS a charitable act because it certainly is. I know there was a
int func(int a);
func((b += 3, b));
We know what happened the first time the Perl community hired someone away from his full-time job.
Just say no. And send your cash to me.
To grant people money you don't have. As we all should be able to admit, too, most people using something that comes for free generally aren't too willing to donate money to an associated organization. [This is similar to why selling OSS isn't a viable business model - services, probably but OSS, no.]
The perl foundation giving money to the perl founder. It's nice to see someone have some income from a open source project that has helped so many.
"And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the World"
1 John 4:14
Last Thursday, the Microsoft's community received a boost when Microsoft chose software developer Bill Gates as the first recipient of the Microsoft Foundation grant. Microsoft initially donated an estimated $500,000 worth of hardware and software. See http://www.microsoft.com/catalog/default.asp?subid =22 for more information on how you can pitch in - every dollar counts!
"We're pleased to be able to let Bill focus on golf without distraction," said Craig Mundie, lead moron of the Microsoft Foundation. "Through these grants, the support of the monopolization -- including sizeable amounts from victims, can be put to use for the good of everyone!"
Yes, I'm just kidding, you can mod me down now. *close his eyes*
The board consists of four members:
Kevin Lenzo (chairman)
Larry Wall (patron)
Kurt De Maagd (secretary)
Nathan Torkington
in consultation with other leaders within the Perl community.
I DO think he deserves the cash, but...
Could be that this is just a way to honor him and he will never see the cash.
The article said they did not have a enough money for all of the grants and Damian Conway had to have the cash to take the break from the university down under. They are shy of about $160,000 which may take a little while to dig up..:)
Sound good to me.
BWP
Damion Conway was a professor, who took a sabbatical to do his perl thing this year. Larry Wall was an O'Reilly employee, the last I heard, and was being paid to develop (wait for it) perl. So what's the story behind the story here? Is ORA looking for help to pay Larry's salary, or just a tax deduction, or is something else going on
"http://www.stallman.org/"
I didn't know Stallman was so pro-drugs, a man with many ideas.
Crap! How did this end up on the wrong story?
Oh well, moderate it to oblivion, please!
Soko
"Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm." - Anonymous
A former co-worker of mine told me this story one day. I got a kick out of it.
Anyway, apparently my co-worker's fence to the rear of his house had deteriorated to a severe state so he decided to repair it.
Being the polite guy (and probably wanting a little help with the funding of such a project) he is, my co-worker decided to contact the neighbors, all of whom he indicated he didn't know at all.
So he set off around the opposite side of the block to knock on the neighbors door directly behind his house. A gentleman comes to the door and my co-worker introduces himself and the gentleman introduces himself as Larry Wall.
My co-worker doesn't recognize the name since he really doesn't program to any extreme degree, more of a planning/management type guy.
But since the company is a software development house he knows several people who use Perl and they describe what they do with it on an almost daily basis. Thus he is aware of Perl.
So apparently the chit-chat continues on and the topic eventually comes to what each person does for a living.
My co-worker describes his job and then Larry says that he is currently writing a book for O'Reilly.
My co-worker is definitely intrigued by this answer and asks what sort of book and Larry describes that it's a book detailing the (is his a more appropriate adjective here) latest version of Perl.
When my co-worker hears the word Perl he gets all excited. His reaction was basically that it's pretty cool to have a neighbor who has contributed so much to the programming community.
Anyway to make an already long story shorter my understanding is that Larry was really cool about the fence, basically letting my co-worker take care of the details (the way my co-worker wanted them) and I believe he helped with the cost as well.
So if you contribute to the Perl Development Grant be aware that you are helping support some really nice folks! And that is to be commended!
I hope I got the details correct, at least that's how I remember them....
Caution: Contents under pressure
warning: this is just the situation as I see it and have heard.. no official quotes or insider info here
Larry Wall is the founder of Perl, yes.. however, usually he does less active development on the language itself, usually stepping into settle a dispute or submitting the occasional patch.. Since the Perl 6 initiative was launched, he has been busier than in recent years, because of the RFC approval process and being the lead architect for Perl 6.
Damian Conway, in the past year, has contributed (IMHO) enormously to the popularity, usefulness and general knowledge of Perl.. he's toured giving talks and lectures, written more modules per week than even an ordinarily active Perl programmer would write in an year (Ok, some of them, I don't get, and others leave me just scratching my head..) As I understand it, he was given the grant so he could take a sabbatical from his university and concentrate on Perl full time for one year..
so, its irrelevant as to who gets it and in which order.. certainly, I think Larry Wall should get a grant, but to point fingers and question why he wasn't the first to get it, is simply to make a superficial assessment without knowing the facts behind the grants..
One final note: last year, the powers that be committed to funding Damian Conway, and it worked out well, even though they promised money that they hadn't collected (at that point). If you use Perl in any way, please consider making a donation..
I'm personally rooting for Dan Sugalski to work some more on Perl threads :o) hope he finds time for it in the course of the year...
It is an icon aware world, and people like to receive some sort of notoriety or publicity for making contributions to charities. For example stickers such as "i gave blood" or "World Wildlife Fund" are prevalent.
Why not generate a cool gif that people can display on their web sites to signify that they contribute to the Perl Foundation. Might encourage contributions.
I wonder if the Microsoft Foundation will be giving a grant to Bill Gates.
Steve's Computer Service, Hobbs, NM
Figured it would end with the fence being built with a swiss army knife and some duct tape, or something.
Perl might be great an all, however let us not forget the amazing power of awk
After all, what other lovely tool is extremely powerful, and yet fits on those boot floppies you guys use to install *nix?
(Keep in mind that a floppy only has 1440k, which isn't a whole lot when you start adding various needed tools.)
Sunny Dubey
Is that actually conceivable?
if you could read you'd see he mentioned that in his topic. sure they "involve" the integrals but how much do you wanna bet its stuff like the linear properties of differentiation, bah.
This is a Troll? Sounds like a testament to Perl to me.
"Perl has helped me in so many ways. Like the way my laptop formatted itself at 8PM on Friday.
Cost of loading Perl == Free
Getting a call from my boss on Monday, "What's wrong with the laptop?" == Priceless"
This
who cares, perl sux..
> I know there was a /. thread about this but I remember it being rather ambiguous.
Aren't they all?
that all this money is going to waste supporting Perl, when it could be supporting a programming language instead. Like Python.
What is this... he's not taking PayPal??!
Kudos to the Perl community. They are building something truly great here. However, I won't give them a dime until they put more effort into being a bit nicer to people who need help. Personally, I've found them to be extremely helpful and a great resource. I've also seen them be downright nasty and arrogant towards people they perceive to be less than "elite". I know there's been some effort to do that in the past, however it seems to have died out from a public image point of view.
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
The Windows 2010 Foundation announced today that they have awarded a grant to Bill Gates, CEO of Microsoft.
"We are proud to present this award, and we hope it will help Mr. Gates to stimulate growth and innovation within the industry, and especially with their operating system MSN/Windows," said chairman Aisuk Bollz. "Without Microsoft, this industry would be slaves to communist-nazi-jewish brigands like Richard Stallman."
RMS was unavailable for comment at press time (though we heard he was in an underground meeting somewhere, plotting to overthrow the neo-American concept of intellectual property. He actually thinks ideas should be free! What a weirdo.)
-- Rocme Bhabie, MSN Press
Firstly, this year's YAPC::Europe is in Munich, and is on the week before the "Oktober Fest". Now, I am sure a few of the attendees at the conference will want to go to this unfortunate event, but not the majority. So the Munich.pm people have set up the conference for the busiest and most expensive time of year (accommodation and travel-wise). They are asking people to make reservations now. Excuse me? The conference is over half a year away. I don't want what I'm going to be doing in September, do you? The theme of the conference is some silly quasi-intellectual "Science of Perl" nonsense. Surely the theme should have been Perl 6? Apparently not....
Secondly what the hell makes the Perl Foundation think they're going to get enough money? In nearly 2 months they've barely got enough for one grant, let alone 3! I despair. (And before you ask, I did make a contribution).
I know these comments seem a bit harsh, but please don't mod this down. I think I make valid points, and please forgive the tone since this is just annoying me so much.
Another fag raising money to pay for him scratching his balls all day, so he can pay another $100 to an obscure software firm from bangladesh, to write perl 7.. don't believe the hype!
Just sit down and try to "prove" that the Riemann sum of the integral S a->b x^2 = (b^3-a^3)/6. It's a simple proof, really, and good practice for the limit of a Riemann Sum.
Enjoy!
That would be money well spent IMO
The Polaris Foundation today announced an award of $1 million to Polaris, in recognition of his occasional postings to Slashdot discussions. A total of $1 has been raised so far, and donations to make up the difference can be made at the Foundation's website.
Damian is an amazing person. He breathes life into topics that might otherwise be dull. He is a great speaker. He is highly self motivated - has the ability to stay on the road for months at a time. He is one of those people who always seems to be bursting with energy.
IMHO he is far to focused on himself. He has a fine set of tools to sell himself and does so extremely well. Take a look at any interview with him. He is always ranting about how busy he is and how much work he is doing.
I knew Damian from college. Even though he was my supervisor it was impossible to spend any quality time with him. He was always off touring foreign countries for conferences (at this time his obsession was with the then trendy C++), or working on a paper so that he could go overseas again to present it. Otherwise he was at the gym.
I did not learn much from Damian. He did make one thing _very_ obvious though - always look after number one. Also to a lesser extent - the squeaky wheel gets the grease. If you do a good enough job of telling everyone how good you are, eventually it will stick.
Damian is good at determining who to rub shoulders with and whose palms require oil.
I supported him getting the first award because he evangelizes my favorite language so well (and as a side effect himself). I object like that he may be getting another. He is a player. It sickens me that he has managed to big note himself into further support from our community - one that places product above politics.
Larry would be better off working on the design of Perl 6 without him. Larry is a wonderful man - to me he embodies up the language that I love. He is a quiet achiever who does not need to sell himself - his work does that for him. Do we really need to pay someone to churn out another Exegesis?
I say allow showy Damian be an instructor on his own time (and dollar) - or better still a politician. Then he can jet around the globe all he likes. That is what he does best. It would also mean he would have to spend his _own_ time working on those damn Latin modules.....
Can I get some money too?
Yes, Heidi is.
Check out all the pics on the page, including our beloved/despised CmdrTaco.