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Is The Lone Coder Dead?
CyNRG writes "The little guy. The one-person software company. Can it still exist today? That's me. I'm once again, after many years, writing my own commercial software to sell. A few things have changed: the patent feeding frenzy. This is my main concern. My perception is that one must verify that you don't infringe on any patents when developing new cool software, and that the explosion of patents granted by the USPTO has reached epic proportions. If this perception is true, then that makes it almost impossible for the Lone Coder to create something new that doesn't infringe on other patents. The amount of money required to perform the due diligence research seems like it would be greater than the amount of money needed to develop the software, or even the total revenues that the software could ever generate. Please someone tell me I'm wrong!" Is he?
I just heard some sad news on talk radio - The Lone Coder was found dead in front of his home computer this evening. There weren't any more details. I'm sure everyone in the Slashdot community will miss him - even if you didn't enjoy his work, there's no denying his contributions to programming culture. Truly a geek icon.
Is that what you wanted to hear?
"Cats like plain crisps"
Your real goal though is to write something, get it patented and then sell it for millions to the big boys.
Made me laugh out loud with that editorial comment about RMS :) Classic!
This guy is way out there
That would be the end of innovation in the U.S. and would cause an even greater shift of technology jobs to oversea markets!
Due diligence?
Patent enforcement is the job of the patent holder. You do not need to do "due diligence" unless you are basing your design on someone else's patented product. Or you are attempting to publish your own patent.
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
Feel better?
Seriously though, the one good thing I can think of about all this ridiculous IP litigation is that it actually can drive a good 'lone coder' to really innovate as opposed to create the same old mouse trap in a different way.
In either case, good luck to you. Make us proud.
Patents, patents, patents... :(
Don't be sad... In europe we have the same...
Oh, finally be sad...
Well, I'm not exactly an expert, but it seems to me that he's just over-reacting. The threat of patent infringement to a one-man development team seems to me like it would be miniscule compared to much larger threats like running out of money or being unable to accomplish your goals.
From what I've seen of the software market today, one-man teams still seem to be a way to make money. You just have to find the right market, and avoid overextending yourself - do a good job on the things you can manage, instead of trying to do everything and doing a crappy job of it. I've seen lots of developers succeed by marketing shareware or selling software over the internet (especially as far as indie games go, for example Starscape).
using namespace slashdot;
troll::post();
Take Bittorrent for example. Does anyone know if he actually lives of it or not?
If that kind of success is not enough, I don't know what is.
Coding software to sell is dead, for all the reasons you mentioned.
What's a coder to do?
Code away on an open source project, gove away all your hard work.
THEN...
Offer your services as an implemetation and customization consultant for said open source software for businesses.
Implementations are not fun, but pound for pound, you get serous cash. Especially if you wrote the software to begin with. You can charge the most.
"Piter, too, is dead."
He worked himself to death.
You are probably safe as long as the money you make from your software is less than the legal costs to go after you. If you start making a lot of money and get a lot of attention then someone is likely to come after you, for a variety of reasons including patent infringement. Tho this is true for anyone that comes into a lot of money.
Llamasoft is still just one guy in his house. He has a support crew, but he's really only the one guy, and he's putting out a title for GameCube soon.
So... no. That said, I know lots of other people that have two-three person teams that make a nice bit of cash here and there from coding.
As long as your code is good, it doesn't crash, and my grandma can use it without resorting to profanity, you'll make a nice piece of money.
Not alot, but maybe enough if you hire a good enough marketer.
Voodoo Girl is the bomb!
The Economist has a timely opinion piece about the patent problem in their most recent issue.r y_id=3376181"
http://economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?sto
Write your software. Sell your software. Kill anyone that gets in your way.
As long as your source is 'closed', you shouldn't have much to worry about. Cause how is anybody supposed to know that you used a patented algorithm in your code unless they reverse engineered it--which is illegal according to the DMCA. Go nuts.
It used to be in the old days, if you were on your own a larger company would simply come along and acquire your program, costs them a couple hundred thousand dollars and they get a program out of it.
Now they just sue the shit out of you, doesn't matter if there's any justification to it, legal fees and time spent in court alone can screw you. Costs them a couple hundred thousand dollars of lawyer fees, and you get bankruptcy out of it.
netcraft confirms it
Easy guys, I put my pants on one leg at a time. The difference is after I put on my pants I make gold records!
Incorporate the code freely into your software. If someone sues, claim you had no idea :)
Ok, that might not work. As an alternative, sell the software. if someone sues, pretend someone stole all of your source code and release everything to the public. There are probably dozens of Slashdotters that would be happy to infringe...er, I mean use the code to tweak lawyers' noses.
As I understand it, if you run across a 'possible' infringement and decide to go ahead and then some court deems that it is an infringement, then you knowingly have perpetrated the deed, and the penalty is greater than just simply going ahead and writing the code and letting the chips fall where they may. At that point you won't have knowingly infringed.
Oh yes and sell out to the big boys, get that indemnification and let them worry about the suit.
I'm still doing it, although I don't get to make entirely new programs as often as I'd like these days. Certain areas of work, particularly video and audio, involve more patent licensing issues than others. Even in those cases, though, it's a matter of having some negotiating savvy when and if it becomes an issue.
Check out the Apostrophe open-source CMS: http://www.apostrophenow.com/
http://news.com.com/At+tech+firms%2C+time+again+fo r+flextime/2100-1022_3-5448994.html?tag=nefd.pop/
You're right that a one-man software company is extremely difficult, but that's because most of the low-hanging fruit that one person can accomplish is done.
Among issues for very small software companies, things like idea conception, competition with larger products and companies, and distribution are a hundred times more important. IP infringement is near the bottom of the list.
Spiderweb software is a 10-year old gaming company that only has one coder (President Jeff Vogel).
See http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/.
Thomas Warfield, author of Pretty Good Solitaire, Pretty Good Majongg, etc., is also a Lone Coder.
See http://www.asharewarelife.com/.
See generally discussion on "micro-isvs" at http://www.microisv.com/.
-Richard
But just because software has grown so large (and the computing power needed to run simple applications has increased at the same pace). For most applications, it's simply not possible to have a single person write it from start to finish. If they did, the software would be 5 years out of date when they finished.
It's the same as any other mature industry. A single person can't really build a car from scratch either. At least not one that has any hope of competing with the product of a large design team.
I mean I don't like software patents anymore than most people on Slashdot, but your argument doesn't appeal to me.
-Spyky
I think we nerds need to get ourselves an uninhabited island in the tropics and set up a government with no copyright laws whatsoever.
Si tacuisses philosophus mansisses. If you had kept quiet, you would have remained a philosopher.
Yep. I'm proof. I'm in the process of developing a company myself. As a web developer/designer/database developer/sys admin, I've got a nice enough set of skils to be able to cover all the bases for a web driven business.
:)
Not that I'm a REAL coder doing C++ or anything but I still believe that it only takes a little of each skill to get the job started and halfway through you will be a pro at al of them.
This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
Well, I've been working on Dada Mail (formely Mojo) since I started college (graduated last summer)
It's basically fed me for the past three years now; I work on it primarily alone - it's also open source, I make money on a "Pro" distribution, selling an advanced downloadable manual, installation and consultation services.
Very incredibly low overhead for me to run the "shop", and it's still somewhat fun to do.
Oh and I graduated in art - no CS (or math, sans an accounting class) background.
Dada Mail - Program, Art Project or Absurdity?
I recently received a patent on making a mountain out of a molehill. You owe me $57,310.
Wrap your mind around that ladies and gentlemen!
...when you can write some software to do it automatically?
Beep beep.
The thing is, if you make something easy and good, the free software community(ex:sourceforge) will do it better and for free.
Steve Jobs invented the lone coder.
Oh, that was mighty, mighty brave, but YOU FAIL IT, sir.
A lot of college profs own one-man shops. Every now and then they'll offer jobs to outstanding students for a summer. It's a great way to get into the business.
Colin Dean Go a year without DRM
So, you wanted to read it...
;-)
The lone coder writing clever business or home software is no more. If you dream about developing the next Visicalc, alone or in a small team, forget it. Unless you have a very bright idea nobody had before (and patented) and won't have in a year, you will not be able to compete with anyone bigger than you - if you are really lucky, they may buy your company and ideas. We are talking about competing with gigabuck companies that buy politicians and courts. Be happy if they can't hire someone to get rid of you on a more permanent basis.
I was talking to a friend these days how impossible it is for a small outfit to make a game these days. Unless your game runs on cell-phones, you are talking big money.
http://www.dieblinkenlights.com
The Lone Coder is indeed dead, shot by the Lone Gunman. Only later was it revealed that the gunman was also a patent attorney for Microsoft.
I'm a Lone Coder and I'm Dead Inside.
The lone coder died of neglect because (s)he wasn't appreciated, encouraged, kept trained, kept excited. The lone coder, drunk on his/her own absolute power over the life, death, and shape of his/her projects failed to see that no one was even paying attention and that once the hard work was done, there would be no one to really see what went into what (s)he build because by the nature of a good project the final product makes the process looks effortless.
I'm a Lone Coder and I'm Dead Inside.
Offer your services as an implemetation and customization consultant for said open source software for businesses.
Viva Open Source and the paradigm it brings.
Michalangelo Progr
This is why in Europe both, the free software community and the small and middle sized corporations are all fighting hard to prevent software patents: http://kwiki.ffii.org/SwpatcninoEn6 078,00.htm of not researching what patents you might infringe will help you a bit by possibly avoiding punitive damages when/if you get sued, since you can claim not to have infringed willfully on a patent. But it won't decrease your lawyer bills for defending yourself in the slightest and neither will it decrease the future licensing costs. So if you are stepping on any big corporation's toes or are in the same business as another, failing company (*cough*SCO*cough*), it is highly likely you might get sued successfully for infringement
The Linus defense http://uk.builder.com/manage/work/0,39026594,2027
What about writing open source software on contract? This is how companies like Namesys (ReiserFS) exist. Reiser4 development was paid for by DARPA, SuSE and Lindows.
where there are no software patents. then you can write whatever software you want, and be paid, and never have to worry about the FCC regulating you, the DCMA wiping you out or the FBI investigating you.
this doesnt mean that the usa is excluded from your sphere of access. see Skype.
Ultimately it all comes down to high quality code, great GUI and your being protected by a company. Yes, you are almost sure to stumble over a patent with the current paten monsters out there... but don't let that stand in your way. The trick is to make your money by selling great code... and when the large companies come to sue... just close your doors and walk away. Writing code by dodging patents isn't the way to do it.
Some of the commercial off the shelf products I've used on certain contracts have been from one man shops.
Not dead by a long shot.
GJC
Gregory Casamento
## Chief Maintainer for GNUstep
Some IANAL-ing, but from apparently reputable sources:
Looking through patents to see if you might be infringing is generally a really, really bad idea. If you infringe a patent you may be liable for damages, but if the patent holder can show that you knowingly infringed the patent, you're on the hook for treble (lawyer speak for triple) damages. A friend of mine who's a developer at a big software company got in trouble for looking up a patent for just this reason.
Maybe if there were a reasonably small number of patents of limited scope it would make sense to look through them and try to steer clear of infringment, but given the number and scope of patents that have been granted, it's almost impossible to avoid infringing on something. Therefore, the accepted strategy (even for big companies that could afford to have a team looking at patents) seems to be to avoid looking at patents so as to avoid taking on further liability.
If it's any consolation, a lone developer's pockets are shallow enough that it's probably pretty unlikely that anyone's going to bother with a patent lawsuit. Probably a good idea to incorporate, though, so in the rare event of a lawsuit the worst that happens is the company goes bankrupt; otherwise your personal assets are at risk.
Forget it. Cash is king when you're on your own, and the last thing any prudent developer should be doing is pouring energy into a labor of love while speculating that eventually there will be a some kind of services revenue stream for your so-called free product.
If your software is so good, why does your customer need to spend serious cash for your services?
You're better off consulting on behalf of serious customers respond to your ability to solve their problems. If there is opportunity to productize your work along the way, so be it.
If you don't plan to make money, the market will see to it that you don't.
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/1 6/1846207&tid=134&tid=106
Technology, the cause of and solution to all of life's problems.
If I remember correctly, this is a common place for (IP) pirates to hang out. I believe the FastTrack servers are stored here.
IANAL..but
If you recall Linus's opinion on patents, he encouraged people not to read them. Why? The reason for a patent's existence is to grant a limited monopoly in exchange for publicizing the secret. If you discover the methedology of a patent independently (and without knowledge of the patent), then the patent doesn't apply to you and you can't be sued.
Doesn't mean they won't try to take you to court. But that's why the EFF exists. Have you made your donation?
-- Political fascism requires a Fuhrer.
If you are a small software shop with an employee or two then you are an unlikely litigation target for any broad reaching patent, since the holder is far more likely to go after someone with real money.
The flipside is that if you do become sufficiently successful then you may have to spend some of that to fight them in court.
If you establish a corporation of some kind to do your work as, then you should be able to protect your personal assets from any litigation.
He just has to buy the relevant patents.
You can defy gravity... for a short time
Make it Open Source, and license it under the Free Software Foundation. They'll make the case for you.
You can still sell it. Simply send the source to someone who buys it.
1. Well, "lone coders" can't afford the legal work of performing patent searches. This is true. But you know what? I think small or even medium-sized corporations probably can't afford it either.
2. Even if you ARE clear of existing patents, what if a big company decides to fight you in court? Again, a small or medium-sized company could never afford to fight this.
3. Then again, it's not always in some big company's interest to shut you down or sue you out of existance. Often they probably just want a chunk of your profits. (and a chunk of zero is still zero, so they don't make money if you fold, either)
What a fucking country.
OtakuBooty.com: Smart, funny, sexy nerds.
What about those of us that wish to retain control over the content we create?
In these days you just have to hope that your product is successful, but not so successful that some big business entity decides to shut you down based on some bogus patent.
I used to work for a company that has a patent on the visual representation of latency between to remote connections. Just think of all of the software that is out there that are "violating" these one patent.
Ugg. Just gets me boiling thinking about it. Most great software started out from small unknown groups or even individuals. 1-2-3 spreadsheat, Mosaic web browser, etc. All big companies have to do today is sit back and wait for someone to create something novel and pounce on them once their idea is proven successful.
The downside is you need to find a client, and you need to do what THEY want.
The upside is that you still work for yourself, set your own hours, work from home, etc.
As far as Patents and stuff, make sure your contract indemnifies you - after all the stuff belongs to your client.
Some enlightened clients might even pay you to write open source software that fits their needs.
One or more of the above sentences applies to me, so I know lone programmers can make a living, being, well, almost lone programmers.
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
Yes. I'm a lone coder and I make enough to support myself. I did it by becoming part of an open source community and (presumably) becoming respected enough that people are now willing to hire me to do work based on the assumed merit of my prior work. I don't sell any software, I just sell my time.
I think the "guy selling boxes of software from his basement" model might be a bit harder. You need marketing. Open source gives you marketing in a grassroots kind of way, as long as you're reasonably competent and contribute regularly. Somebody selling software needs a different marketing tact, either by spending a lot of money on advertising or by choosing a field so narrow that you're the only guy on the block (and even then you need to be reasonably competent).
Bram Cohen's BitTorrent should give you some hope.
It's not easy -- you have to stoop to doing stuff like adding gratuitous links to your Slashdot posts.
This isn't going to be a popular sentiment here, but I'd say that the GPL and P2P generally make it tougher to make a living.
Here's what I do: Bitty Browser & Andromeda
Most major software programs are developed by a small core development team with a lot of other developers adding the fluff. Doing it solo might be tough but it's not impossible if you have a novel idea. If you're trying to compete with a big software company in a space in which they already have a well accepted program, you're going to have a tough time doing it. However, if you have an original idea, you shouldn't have a ton of problems. You don't have to worry about the number of patents being granted, but you do have to worry about the number of defensible patents being granted. If your idea is novel enough, you shouldn't have too many problems. Besides, the big guys know there's a lot of money in buying your product and marketing it. More than there is in taking down a small company with very few assets.
I'm a lone coder, too. Not only that, but I do all the artwork for my software. You have to be pretty agile to come up with some good, original ideas. Check it out:
http://www.empiresofsteel.com/
1. Marketing costs are high and price per unit that users are willing to pay are not high. Unless you've got way into six figures to for advertising and marketing, forget about getting your sales out of two figures.
2. This means that you've got to sell high-priced apps. And the best shot at these would be business-specific custom or semi-custom apps for medium-sized companies (big companies have IT shops to write their own custom apps). I used to do pretty well at that sort of thing. Unfoturnately, medium-sized businesses usually by now have some fool who can do just about as good with Excel or Access as you can do with whatever you lone code with. So why wouldn't they let their in-house code monkey enjoy a little job enrichment by writing the app instead of paying you thousands of dollars to write it?
3. Computers are everywhere now, and everyone knows of their risks. Few companies will trust a lone coder with anything important because of all the computer risks associated with 1-man project.
There are still a few that do it, but most of the ones who I've known to be successful in the past are moved on now.
The patent still applies to you.. the damages for past violation are just reduced significantly (because you were not willfuly violating the patent)
You will still have to reckon with the patent holder once they find out, which means stopping distribution or royalties or whatever. If you have an ongoing business model based on this, it means you will likely end up paying regardless.
Patrick (slack) aint dead you insensitive clod !
And you won't be able to "hide" that in your code. What rock have you been under?
(Posting AC because I don't particularly like people knowing how much money I make). I am a 22 year old student who has just finished my undergrad degree in Computer Engineering at a Canadian university. Although I have not made a career out of coding, I can tell you that this year I have made 30,000 USD from my software work. And this is while taking courses as a full time student. Seems to me there is some money out there.
How can one (wo)man ever hope to compete with legions of coders working together?
My sig would have been a lot cooler if
I sure hope the lone coder is not dead yet! After being downsized/outsourced, whatever, a few years back, I decided to hang my own shingle. Haven't made any money yet, but I'm having a pretty good time and I have a pretty good day job now too. There's still room for the lone coder, but you have to be truly innovative which is a lot of work! But if you come up with that one great idea or different take on things, then the little guy can really clean up. Well that's my dream at least! Of course, right now I'd settle for beer money. ;)
But like they always say, don't quit your day job!
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
I'm one of those myself. I'm a one person software company trying to make it with my own product and services. I can't say that hte current environment is better, worse, or the same for the 'little guy' trying to get a leg up in the world. Starting a business anytime where you don't have a financial cushion is difficult.
:)
Mnay of the tech folks were spoiled with the dotcom boom, where anyone with even half an idea would have VC's falling all over themselves to contribute money. No more - now you have to spent the time and money to have a solid basis.
I've managed to get some things starting doing the work full time / and code at night approach. After that it was consulting part time while finishing up the code, and now it's about 80% my business, and 20% consulting. But this has taken almost 3 years of pretty solid workl, not to mention some serious loss of social life, money, and income.
Putting out your own shingle is not for the faint of heart no matter what your business. But stick with it, work hard, and you can succeed.
(of course, i have to plug my business in a post like this
Event Management Solutions : http://www.stonekeep.com/
With lasers on its head!
No, really. If you incorporate (for $800 or so), then the worst that can happen is that your little company is made non-existent.
At least I don't think they'll pierce the corporate veil over a small company. It's simply not worth their time.
Fellowship 9/11
Don't plan on being a lone coder for too long. In fact, plan to grow a business out of what you're doing and to recruit other people eventually, and if you don't see a growth opportunity in what you're doing, then reconsider if it's the best thing you can spend your time on.
The big problem I see is that there are people with insight and vision who can see a possible market and design a nice program, then there are the hordes of "cloners" who just want your software pirated with a hexeditor.
The thing that I find amusing is the Elance insanity that's going on making clones. There are so many projects requests out there that say something like... or my favorite from an actual RFP - this was the entire request.And the projects had close to 20 bids. My guess is they try to lure people in with cheap bids then stick it to them when they are "90% done". People bid on things at $1 per hour.
The point is you can not compete on price in the US. So you have to be the best in your field, and have to secure your app, or file format enough that the average joe can't steal all your work.
programming commodity software is probably a dead-end, due to competition with open source and larger entrenched shops. i'd think there is still room for:
:-)
:-(
- consulting projects writing softare for an individual company
- consulting projects customizing existing open source packages for individual companies
- niche vertical-market applications targeted at specific industries
i'm trying to make all my applications web-based, and i'm thinking of getting into the business of both writing and hosting web applications. this has several advantages - an incidental one being that no one can examine your code for patent violations
of course there are now business process patents added into the mix, so simply doing something in a particular way in the interface could conceivably put you in a ridiculous lawsuit.
pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
Personally I don't see why more independent programmers collaborate more on programming projects. It occurs a lot in Open Source projects, but commercial projects tend to rely on independent programmers. Part of the problem is that more programmers need to embrace a combination of real-time collaborationa and extreme programming.
As long as there are freeware compilers and notepads, there will always be the Lone Coder. Despite the patenting and the proliferation of giant projects with thousands of coding slaves behind them, there's always room for individual innovation. Look at all the concepts that people have discovered by themselves... from General Relativity to the modern day convenience of BitTorrent. That will *never* change... at least not until we all become thoughtless automatons.
Yeah, but only if there is a patent for it.
The more people "think it out" on their blogs, the more difficult it is for companies to patent an idea, because the instant Joe Coder has described the "network thingy that, with gizmo X and with protocol Z does this really cool thing called baka" on his weblog, then company MegaCorp can't later patent it, because there would be "prior art".
The reality is that patents expire in 14 years. A lot of patents expire every year. One place where a software developer can make bucks it to find a patent that just expired (say one filed in November of 1990), implement it in python, and sell it for $30 (or $3000, whatever the market will bear). He is completely safe, because the prior patent would invalidate any other patents still active (because they would have to have been filed later than the now expired one).
As always, this is just off the top of my sleep-deprived skull, so consult the approprate legal resource.
Finally, if someone has a patent for something you've written, all you got to do is google for prior art. It's not hard, and trust me, once their laywers see that in fact you little programmer trying to make a living by yourself in your little town in the midwest could blow the lid off their patent, and as long as you don't threaten their business plans, they will leave you alone.
"Piter, too, is dead."
Perhaps you can exploit those court cases in which a company loses a patent. I would assume that the formly protected patent and technology would be publicated by that time.
Further, the patent-losing company would also have gambled that their patent would hold and would therefore have developed a large cost structure that a small but good coder could profitably compete against.
With a little homework you might be even able to figure out who their current customers are. Or, just get a free demo from Monster.com, find a fired sales guy (no patent, no job) using the company name as a keyword search, and hire him on commission to bring in customers.
I don't know if that would work, should work, or would be positive experience to try. But that's just what I was thinking when I read the post.
Looking into how one follows patent cases, I think I'll put that on my list of things to do someday.
A. You should not do patent research (treble damages). Don't feel bad... big companies don't do this research either, for the same reason.
B. As a small operation, you're not the target of infringement lawsuits.
C. If you're doing closed-source software, they probably won't be able to tell you're infringing unless it's some patented video or audio codec implementation.
Keep in mind that you don't go straight from infringement to a lawsuit. The patent holder may well just want you to take a license, which can be negotiated as a royalty paid to them on copies of the software you sell.
If you can't afford a license, or they won't sell you one, you will have to rework your code not to use the patented idea.
The sky isn't falling. There are all manner of different liabilities that can pop up for any business at any time. There is no way to predict it. That's what insurance and indemnification are for.
I'm a patent holder myself, although in a different field (chemistry). The patent situation isn't nearly as gloomy as some are portraying, primarily for 3 reasons.
First, and most importantly, you can do whatever you want until someone with an IP claim tells you to stop. You may fly under the radar for decades, depending on the kind of software you write, without attracting any attention at all. Second, litigating is **extremely expensive**, so unless you write the next killer app (here's hoping you do!) chances are remote in the extreme that any patent holder that did know you existed (see item 1) would ever come after you. There is no point in spending $100k so that you can win $15k. Besides, if you write the next killer app, you'll have enough resources to defend it. Finally, defending IP is hard....all you have to do is find a single example of the IP in dispute published prior to the patent application date and you have "prior art". I've actually broken several patents this way.....getting a patent for something is ridiculously easy....I know of a company that got a patent that said essentially "to create C, you can only pour A into B, not B into A". Just because someone has a patent, doesn't mean that it amounts to a hill of beans. Like I mentioned before, defending a patent is hard and risky.
Oh, wait, I thought it said Lonely coder.
Blech - the great thing about selling a software package, say targeted for home users/SOHO, is that your income is not limited by the number of hours you put in. You also don't have to go hang out at customer sites, spend you time on the phone trying to close contracts, find yourself changing features so that you can land that "big contract" (which then never shows up).
If you like doing those things, consulting is fine, but it's a really different lifestyle and business than selling a product.
And choice of words.
Please, a little more tact.
I've been in the same boat. I've had some ideas on software I wanted to write, but have worried about patents. Software should only be protected via copyright in my opinion. Software patents should be banished. They are helping the monopolies more than the little guys.
:)
This has led me to thinking of developing games. I've never once seen a video game patent case. Are games immune from patents? They are software, and really it seems like pretty much the same thing to me. For example, Tetris was really unique for its time, but now there are hundreds of clones. What really is different between an inventive form of gameplay vs. some of the foolish software patents that are out there now? Really, I want to know why this is so different! Please any comments welcome.
The Lone Coder isn't dead, he just smells funny.
Has anyone tried to patent "Hello World!" yet?
Swedish television mentioned a very interesting small company which is proof of that: Jösse Car
The story was a couple of years ago so I don't know if they have hired any employees now but then it was a two man luxury sports car manufacturer and their idea was very simple: They'll build a few cars each year (because their manpower is two people) and because there are enough people in the world that have too much money and an interest in collecting every sports car available they'll have a market right there. And they were right.
I've bene looking for a solution to this proble,m for a while... Hopefully there will be other people in the same boat who could help me out.
I do various coding projects, whether they be for clients, companies that I'm sub-contracted by or personal projects.
What I've been dying for is a project management system for single users.
I use subversion for tracking changes, and a manual system for recording the changes I make for invoicing. Invoices and quotes are also made manually. What I'd like is a system that can trace the time I spend on various projects, the files that I change (With comments), etc. Then, the invoice would be generated with time spent, itemised (Using the comments mentioned before).
I've played around with a lot of groupware, crm and project management solutions, but none of them seem cater for the lone coder... Unless I've completely missed one.
So, my question is, what does the lone coder use for this sort of thing: Home grown, off the shelf, manual, nothing, other?
Cheers
I spent years working on a program and came to realize that it simply wasn't worth the risk to bring it public. Others point out that you're more likely going to run out of money or not find a market, etcetera. Probably true. However those are risks whose damage limits are in your own control. With patents you can hide behind an LLC or another legal barrier but it is a huge burden to bear, figuring out how to split up your possessions between the company and yourself and trying to understand the many ramifications a patent suit would have. Moreover, it occurred to me that if I did have to go through bankruptcy due to a patent suit then I would risk losing all of my work. My software is too important to me to make it available and risk losing it to some unfounded lawsuit.
Software patents are an ongoing tragedy. Even small companies like the one I work for have a full time patent attorney and a few others on retainer. If you want to be fairly safe from patent suits, you really need to have a few million available solely for patents. Otherwise, you're like someone riding a motorcycle without a helmet. You'll probably be okay when you're out in public but if some jerk cuts you off, it might be lights out. (Yeah, I know that's not the best way to put it, but I'm tired.)
I sure hope he's not dead, cause I'm in the same boat as you- a lone programmer, trying to make a name for himself working in the big, bad world of code. I think that the lone coder still does exist.. look at the commercial implications of a good idea (like BitTorrent) for example. As long as individuals continue to have great ideas, there will be great "lone coders".
- dshaw
This shareware spam filter made Nick Bolton $3.5 million in 2003 and now he employs 28.
when the Great Collapse of 2047 comes
Everyone knows thats going to happen in 2038.
really, I was told this by lawyers at a very very very large networking company I once worked for. DO NOT INVESTIGATE if you are using someone else's IP. if you investigate, then you are (ironically) setting yourself up. if, otoh, you blindly develop and then, later on, it comes to your attention that you did something 'wrong', its easier to get out of that than the other way around.
what's the phrase, 'its better to ask forgiveness for an act than to ask permission, beforehand'.
IANAL, but this is almost exactly what the big corp lawyers told us, when we gathered at a group meeting and were asking about how to go about developing code that doesn't infringe.
no, temper this with the fact that they have a team of lawyers which is bigger than your whole company. so I'm not sure their advice still sticks. ymmv..
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
A more likely scenario is you build something that's moderately successful and shiit-for-brains-we-don't-produce-anything-but-lit igation company comes after you, and probably a bunch of bigger fish, for royalties. More likely they'll go after the big fish first, then you smaller players later.
The way to beat these kinds of cases is 30 or 40 of you team up to mount a collective defense. FIghting one little company is easy, fighting the Borg is whole different deal. If it's an abusive patent with prior art worth fighting you stand a good chance.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
He has however headed for the hills with a six month supply of DiGourno pizzas and a kilo of white stuff...
-- $G
No... He's just pining for the fiords, he is!
Don't it ever get lonesome?
One could argue that it's the lone ranger that is responsible for real progress in the arts and sciences -- it's always been that way. I think the commercial payoff track record is not as impressive, however. There is no substitute for the focus and drive that an individual can bring to bear on a problem. I only wish that I could be one of the folks that lights the way. Rock on, lone programmer!
... you make a ton of money with your software. So go ahead and write it. Patent defensively, for your own protection and if you can afford it. But nobody in their right business mind is going to sue you unless you have created an untapped $100-million market with your new software. People in business are very greedy, but they are usually not mean just for the sake of being mean (e.g. shutting you down for absolutely no business reason). Why would they waste their energy that way instead of generating wealth? Only the kind of small guy who thinks he invented everything would try to sue you but could he afford it? And if you are infringing on existing patents, when you are making a ton of money, just license those patents and you're fine. Or sell your company. Whatever works best for you. It's like taxes: do not complain if you are paying a lot of taxes; it just means you are making a lot of money.
One of the best flight sims in the world is basicly the work of one guy (OK, he's gotten some help recently). Of course he did accidently upload all of his code to an ftp server by accident one night when he was drunk. And he's a bit, um, unique (comes with the territory I guess). But still, he's made enough money to drive a sweet car and own one of the best private aircraft available today (and own a Segway). So, yeah, it's still possible to live the lone coder dream...
I've been a shareware developer for the last 4 years and I earn about 10cents an hour on average.
It isnt much, but then I dont do any advertising, and it is fun to do.
You can't expect to wield supreme executive power, just because some watery tart threw a sword at you
My dad is a one man coder. He sells software used for statistical analysis, at quite a pretty penny, too. As far as he's explained it to me, he's been selling more or less the same software for 15+ years now, but he keeps making new versions because changes in windows will occaionsally make his software stop working, so the people who need it just go buy a new copy.
I don't know how much he makes annually selling the software, but I assume it's probably not enough to support a family with.
My blog
You should not be looking out for potential infringement of your code on other peoples patents. If you look hard enough ($$$) you will find something that you *may* infringe, depending upon the interpretation of the claims, and *if* the patent is valid. Both of which can only be settled after a long and painful ($500k->$5millon) lawsuit.
So, dont look, start coding, and go nuts.
If you create a good product, people will buy it, and you will make money. The problem comes when you become successful, because someone either wants to buy you, or put you out of business. And in either case, all those patents that you ignored come up to bite you in the ass.
The only way you will have an exit strategy is if your product was good enough (i.e. pulling in enough $$$) that it forced the acquirer to ignore the potential patent problem and buy you anyway.
Luck.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
If you write software correctly, it doesn't NEED "services as an implementation and customization consultant for said open source software for business".
Open Source is NOT a viable business model for small business. What business in their right mind would buy a product which ties them for life to a small vendor for support?
No no he's not dead, he's, he's restin'! Remarkable bird, the Norwegian Blue, idn'it, ay? Beautiful plumage!
The lone coder developing stand-alone desktop applications is probably dead, killed by a combination of open-source, OS encroachment and higher standards -- at least somewhat -- for commercial software. I wasn't really around for what I understand to be the lone coder's heyday, but if that time really existed it's certainly dead now.
But the lone coder who makes things work, whether by customizing the software tools or writing the scripts that get things done is still around, and I think he or she always will be.
The little guy. The one-person software company. Can it still exist today?
Yes. Well, at least so far I'm doing pretty well. But it's only been a year, so I suppose death is still possible.
On patents: Don't worry. You'll only have to be concerned about infringement if 1) you actual infringe a patent and 2) your creation becomes huge (read: popular) and makes the waves that bring in the sharks. And if/when that happens, you'll be able to afford lawyers of your own. Do protect (copyright/trademark/patent) everything you do.
On business: Come up with novel ideas and spend the time on executing them well. Think of niche markets that require solutions. Little steps, not big ones.
Good luck.
I, too, am a Lone Coder. But, I do believe that Love Coders are not dead. Merely...relocated. I do more commercial web applications in PHP/MySQL now than actual desktop applications. Stay strong my brothers.. well, and sisters, too, I guess.
Your ad here.
At least in the US, if something is not done about patent law soon, it will be essentially impossible to maintain an open source software project before very much more time passes. What other countries are still particularly friendly to Americans these days? Any? Hello? *tap tap tap* Is this thing on?
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
For someone that really understands how to leverage modern development tools, you can be really productive and put out some very good products pretty quickly.
Remember the adage that a very good programmer is worth ten average ones? Don't think of it like a lone coder. Think of it as a team of ten developers with telepathy to understand what the goal really is! And then tools to make that happen through one pair of hands.
There has never been a better time to be a lone coder on some software that nobody has bothered to think of yet. And such things do exist.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Hope you're in the same time zone!
This from the genius who gave us this gem during his Salon.com. 15mins of fame:
"Rather than cheering on file sharing, the EFF should be presenting us with the details of its alternative so that we can measure it against our current copyright system, and collectively decide which system we prefer."
And this guy is not THAT clueless, he's just one who think that the bait and switch isnt obvious every time. I was have hoping he'd come out with a Reaganesque "Just Say No" slogan.
Republicans coders.
thomas
Unless you wrote a Slashbot autoposter before you executed "rm -f my.self", you're not dead. Even if you did, you exist - on Slashdot, which is more important than Real Life.
--
make install -not war
I think it was a comment here on slashdot, probably with a link to an article, that talked about patent infringments, and how you could more or less protect yourself from it.
One thing I do remember is that the article said that if you don't knowingly infrige on a patent (ie don't go looking to see if you are), you should be fairly ok. I say 'fairly' because 1: I dont remember exactly what they said about it, and 2: obviously, it's still a problem. But basically it said not to go look for trouble...
I'll try to find it again and post it in a follow up...p.
AC comments get piped to
In a later news release of the Preliminary Autopsy Results:
1. He had Type II diabetes from the consumption of Mountain Dew/Code Red.
2. He has extremity palsy from the intake of Jolt Cola.
3. He was having Grand Mal epileptic seizures from the MSG in his local Chinese takeout.
4. He had become reclusive with the shock of finding out that real, live women DIDN'T have staples in their navels.
5. He hands had become claws due to the carpal tunnel and tendonitis from his non-ergonomic keyboard.
HOWEVER, the proximate cause of death was...
6. He attempted to read the entire set of Don Knuth's TAOCP (The Art of Computer Programming) AND "Regular Expressions in PERL" in the same evening and HIS HEAD EXPLODED!!!
LATE BREAKING NEWS:
In a joint press announcment, Microsoft, Sun, Apple and SCO announced that they were SURE that the Lone Coder's work infringed on their IP, and they would be seeking redress beyond the grave, from the appropriate authorities, saying "If ANYONE thinks that merely by DYING they can escape the reach of our lawyers enforcing our intellectual property rights, they will find out just how far we will go to make sure that every line of ever written has the protection it deserves!"
He is survived by his parents, who will be paying off his student loans from MIT for the rest of their natural lives, and his high school sweetheart, who, unknown to the Lone Coder, due to lack of consortium, became a lesbian several years ago and moved to North Beach.
Richard Stallman has annouced that he's quite sure the Lone Coder's work was pretty much something that he had written in LISP on a napkin, one lunch 30 years ago at the Lampoon, but he was kinda buzzed and "...wasn't sure what i did with the *&)&*(&)( napkin...!"
Ten quid, she's so easy to blind. And not a word is spoken...
Here is a lone coder for you, he is still kicking and churning out some soft:
/.ing
golf training software
I hope he can take
You can't handle the truth.
The so called intellectual property has historic analogon in medieval guild privileges to processing technology. They were supposed to protect income for ruling class, but when they were recognised as a source of inflation and an obstacle to industrial advance, the were dismissed. Often by wars.
There you are, staring at me again.
I've been the sole developer for www.icarusindie.com for going on 4 years now. I built the site up from scratch. I've found that the most popular thing people want is how-to's. Rather than building complete projects, I've begun working on smaller projects and go into detail on how each part works. For example, I took www.Wolf5K.com deobfuscated it and posted detailed tutorials on how each part works. I then converted it to C++ and upped the graphics quality.
That kind of thing got a lot of attention. If I had just made yet another Wolf 3D clone, I'd get no attention.
I also have a complete project which I just need to get the rights to before I can release it. Other than that, single coder that took an existing product and made an on-line version. That's the easy way. Go into a game store (board games et al), find a game that interests you that was made by a small time publisher, and make a computer version of it. A small time publisher is more likely to talk to you about a licensing deal without demanding a lot (if any) up front money.
If nothing else, it's a great way to learn how to make a professional product without having to go through the whole concept development process. The design doc is the instruction manual and you can scan in all the graphics. So no programmer art.
Ben
Work Safe Porn
He left us without a trace. We expected a note, a comment of some sort, but that wasn't his style. He will be missed.
-=sig=-
No, I'm still here. Thanks for asking.
Not to be the wet blanket of this party, but...
A) Large companies, who hate small developers with an awe-inspiring passion, have patented everything under the sun, so even if your project is successful, you're going to get the shaft sooner or later;
B) If your project IS successful, someone's going to come along and yank it right out from under you. Maybe you'll be sued for patent infringement and sign your stuff over in the settlement, or maybe Microsoft will integrate a competing product with Windows, making you irrelevant, or maybe a college kid just as smart as you will come out with competing freeware -- you'll get hosed one way or the other;
C) Anyone who IS interested in your product is going to download it off a pirate site anyway. Think I'm kidding? I can't tell you how many times I've heard some doofus consultant laugh "But I never pay for software! Windows is free, man." I tell them that I religiously pay for everything, that it's a matter of professional courtesy -- and they almost cough up their livers laughing at me. THIS IS THE MARKET YOU'RE IN. You can't make money in it.
Given these basic facts, what should a programmer do? Here's MY position; I see two possibilities, which you can blend a bit if you like:
Possibility Number 1: You write open-source software, you GPL all your stuff, and you sign over the copyrights to the FSF, who have many, many lawyers. You might not make any money doing this, but you get to use your software without restrictions, forever. Also (tasty) you get to seriously annoy the suits who'd like to make money off your stuff. It's no longer possible for someone to take it from you.
Possibility Number 2: the hacker model: you keep all your cool stuff to yourself, and you trade it with your close friends for their cool stuff. You guys are now the only people with this cool stuff. It's like the force; you are different and have secret abilities that the herd isn't aware of. It's fun and interesting. You meet other groups of people with their own cool stuff and trade; thus you become the Ham Radio operators of the programming world.
The lone developer isn't going anywhere. He's just going back to the garage and hacker groups he came from.
Perhaps -- just perhaps -- this is a Good Thing.
Farewell! It's been a fine buncha years!
Start a limited liability company. You become its employee. Ignore the patent system, let it chase you, not the other way around. If someone comes after you fight it until you've had enough, at which point the company releases its software under the GPL (so it doesn't die), you fold the company and walk away from it.
The Courts will also rule in willful infringement based on what you should have known at the time the alledged infringement took place. [Sorry the list of cases have slipped my mind]
Offer your services as an implemetation and customization consultant for said open source software for businesses.
Implementations are not fun, but pound for pound, you get serous cash.
Care to offer any experience in this matter? If not, why should anyone listen to you?
I'm one, and I know a few people who are as well, and have read about some fairly successful ones. I think that you have to make sure that whatever you write is significantly different than anything else so any patent infringement claims are invalid.
Prepare to be squashed.
Proverbs 21:19
Sheesh, kids these days :-)
Why is it that the proponents of "one nation under God" are so eager to get rid of "liberty and justice for all"?
Oh, did I mention that the version that you actually distributed, and kept a copy of, didn't have the poison patent in it so nobody could sue you?
But, now, lone coding is a hobby, not a job, for the most part. I code just for fun, but the GPL has pretty much assured that you have to either offer Professional-grade product and support if you are going to charge for something, and that's something a one-man company can't do. You could try getting a custom-programming type job, but you might be better off to do something else and keep programming as a hobby (which has been made easier with the GPL, because you can look at a nice finished program and think "I was a part of that").
I work on problems that have stumped others. Once in a while I solve one, write software to demonstrate it, patent the technology, and license it to others. I've done this several times. So I put "inventor" on my tax return, below six and seven figure numbers.
Licensing is difficult. You need major legal backup, which is expensive. But it pays off in the end.
I make an excellent living writing code, consulting (not contracting-- there is a big difference) and supporting my customers. I have a few small 'packaged' products as well.
I wouldn't give it up for anything.
The problem with quotes on the internet, is that nobody bothers to check their veracity. -- Abraham Lincoln
I don't know enough about the current trends to know if the lone coder is dead, but I do know a bit about infringement on patents.
If you're going into something, you probably don't want to do research into patents to see if other people's patents cover it. If you do do research, make it a point to make it look like you didn't. Even if you see someone's patent and decide that your work doesn't infringe, you can still get hit with the 3x damages for willfull infringement if a court decides that you actually did infringe upon the patent. The best bet is to just go for it and then claim ignorance after the fact, and try damn hard to argue your case against them. That way you won't get hit with the willful infringement and you still have a slight shot in the dark of getting out of it.
Get a therapist to cure you of your neurosis and social ills and get a job.
and someone come with this IP thingie
I just shoot him in the bollockz
simple
BANG!
A lifesytle, like earning a living at all. Show me something that's actually selling that does not have hoards of nasty competition from garbageware in Tiger direct. With all the junk that's bundled with a Dell and the drek that's promoted to high stink on magazines, all of which has a free software replacement that works just fine, AND the demise of tremendous software firms that had all the support trimmings, what chance does a lone programmer have to sell anything but custom business software to a firm that knows and trusts you?
your income is not limited by the number of hours you put in.
Nor, do I believe, is it augmented.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
...started my own game company after twenty years of on and off casual and professional software development. So, the answer to your topic is no.
Anyway, I'll see you all in about two years when my project is done. After skimming through the message thread, I can't wait to get back to work!
If you don't blow their patent what is stopping them from trying to sue the next programmer that comes along and makes something that is covered by the patent that you have already discovered to be invalid?
I doubt that any large company will pay any attention to you unless you start eating into their profits. Any if you start eating into their profits you are going to be rich. SCO and the like won't sue you since their legal bills would be greater than any money they could get out of you. IANAL so please don't sue me if my advice turns out to be bad.
I have a software company with two other guys. Each one of us is in a different project. I'm handling a project all by myself, writing custom software for a client, and I get to do some small projects from time to time too.
We use open source where we can and contribute back where we can. I'm starting an open source project, writing (yet another) CMS, this one with technologies I'm familiar and feel comfortable with. We plan to use this on some projects with a small web design company, so they can sell a dynamic web site and later we can get to support it (directly or through them, it's all good).
I like to think that the future of software development will be something like mechanics are now (at least here in Mexico). You can take your new or fancy car to the dealer for small repairs and maintenance, but almost everybody takes their car to some small shop run by a couple of guys who know their stuff. They get their clients mostly by word-of-mouth recommendations. Some mechanics try to rip you off, you don't go back, but if you like their work, you'll recommending them to people you know.
So I think there will always be big software companies, making big projects and writing huge complex applications, like SAP and such. Big corporations can make business with this big developers. But many companies will go to the smaller development companies that use open source and run a small shop, to cut costs without sacrificing quality and having more direct contact with the people who are going to write their software.
So maybe the lone coders will not make big big bucks like before, but we can still make a living and enjoy our work.
Go hug some trees.
The guy works for Valve now, not Blizzard.
... only a big company like MS can code....
Honestly... if the lone coder is dead, then who forgot to tell all the lone coder FOSS developers?
if everyone breaks the patent law than they will have to build a jail big enough to house us all... Hmmm, maybe they will call it earth...
Couldn't a lone coder living in a country where software patents exist simply form a distributor arrangement with a person living in a non-software-patent country?
Say, Joe Example writes a great email client, and arranges to distribute it from a website in another country (one not supporting software patents) owned by Mary Sample. She claims credit for "developing" the software, then pays her "contract employee" 90% of the profit from sales (and keeps 10% for distribution costs).
So yeah, that's two people, not one -- but it's conceivable, right? And the laws in question apply to the person/company distributing the software, not necessarily the person who owns the rights, yes? I'm asking, because (unsurprisingly) IANAL.
The person is refering to my article here (click the "free day pass" for the full text -- fwiw, the "coping isn't cool" title itself wasn't written by me, that's by Salon).
Dont forget that the EFF used to suggest that the RIAA should be suing infringers. And their p2p solution hinges on the silly notion that *almost all* rightsholders will all of sudden voluntarily license their work, and *almost all* downloaders will all of sudden volutarily pay.
If you prefer that, then you prefer something that makes even less sense than what we have now.
Here's what I do: Bitty Browser & Andromeda
FROM: Legal Affairs Division, Microsoft, Inc.
Please cease and desist all posting on this topic. The online discussion of patent law is the exclusive intellectual property of Microsoft, Inc., under United States Patent #513307.
Large companies generally don't do patent searches for the same reasons: it isn't worth the cost and it actually worsens their legal exposure.
The term "due dilligence" doesn't really apply here anyway; "due dilligence" is something that matters in professional investment decisions.
I just heard some sad news on talk radio - the Lone Coder was found dead in his Texas home this morning. There weren't any more details yet. I'm sure we'll all miss him, even if you weren't a fan of his work there's no denying his contribution to popular culture. Truly a Slashdot hero.
Another thought: One of the largest problems I see in software development (and one that I have a hard time dealing with) is the proper planning of the project. It's too easy to just jump in without a proper guideline and accomplish a lot, but really nothing at all towards an end result. For very small teams (or single person teams) it's very important the have some methadology in their head about how to break down the problem, analyze it, and turn it into computer code. I think a good, focused small team that has a grasp on analysis and design can do a mountain of work compared to a larger team that is mired down in politics and red tape, and the "i just work for the company" mindset.
Take a look at *some* government-type jobs and how little gets down and how mired down in detail everything is. (Invariably someone will reply and say they're not all like that. Well if the points comes up, I agree with you.) And then look at companies that moreso have to make it on their own to survive. What I'm saying is a lot depends on the mindset of the people.
*cough* piracy
Last Post!
The Lone Coder is far from dead. With credit card processors such as Kagi, it is easier than ever to make commercial products. However, most LCs probably work on a contract basis for former employers producing in-house software that is never widely published. (Come to think of it, that's what most of the Organization Coders are doing also.)
Recently I was asked to do a bit of business research in a certain area of software; I went to download.com and the other usual places and discovered that the niche market for a certain utility was handily covered by 4 or so products, which upon investigation through whois and finding the owners of various LLC's from various State's Secretary's of State turned out to all be Lone Coders. All of them were real people who would answer email and two were willing to chat on the phone.
One issue raised in this post is that the existence of so many patents puts a huge financial burden on the individual who does something new, because "due diligence" requires them to do a lot of research.
I question this. I've read a lot of patent law ( http://uscode.house.gov/download/title_35.php ) but I don't recall seeing any such requirement.
The phrase "due diligence", in Law, generally refers to giving the same diligence to certain tasks involving other people's money that you would give to the same task involving your money -- an example would be a company officier who cares so little for his shareholder's money that he doesn't ask for multiple bids when renovating the company's building, but he gets 4 bids and bargins with all of them when he uses HIS money to renovate his own house. Does it even make sense to talk about "due diligence" when you are a Lone Coder, by definition risking your own time and money ?
You write a custom app. Release it in 1 year. Market it. 6 months. Release v2. Market it more. Release v3. People start talking about it. yadda, yadda, yadda... How do you eat while spending the years it takes to get a good open source project to get even used? How many more years before it develops a cult following, and admins start installign it? Jesus, something like Apache took a fucking decade before it paid to be an Apache consultant. That's a long time being homeless, while hoping that yous stands out among the millions of other programs.
I don't respond to AC's.
Jeez people... not even 11k signatures yet. weak.
But I already own the patent for the idea of a single person creating commercial software.
It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion, It is by the beans of Java that thoughts acquire speed, The hands acqui
A VERY small company I worked for had a product they sold for about $500. Companies would routinely buy it and then ask for several months worth of customization. On average, that little $500 item would generally net about $35-50k. So, you're right, they could just give the thing away and it wouldn't make an ounce of difference, except that they might have more customers.
I hear they're having financial trouble these days. Wouldn't it be ironic if that worked.
How many programs implement just one patent (expired or not)?
The nature of software is that any given program (even a simple one) likely implements dozens of patents without even realizing it. The patents are not necessarily the central basis for the application, but inherent in the nuts and bolts of putting it together.
Ignorance killed the cat. Curiosity was framed.
Your wrong.
Only stupid countries subscribe to stupid software patents, go somewhere less stupid and create to your hearts content.
Come to Europe! Things aren't that bad overhere. Yet...
The new IP-laws will lake just a little longer to pass, now that 10 new countries joined the EU. They need to negotiate and vote over it again.
Privacy is terrorism.
and a good article from the economist giving more examples of homebrew coders and how they fit in.
peterrenshaw ~ Another Scrappy Startup
Is the lone coder dead?
No.
First the individual/company holding the patent must find out that you are "infringing" on it. Thats probably not going to happen if you are a lone coder selling a program that may be used by rather small crowd.
Then they have to justify the legal expenses and other costs related to pursuing the case. Again, if you are just a little guy who is not much of a threat to them, it would be hard to justify those costs.
And finally, just because the Patent Office readily grants software patents doesn't mean the courts will agree. Unless the patent in question is obviously novel, there would be a good chance the judge would throw it out. Whats more the patent holder would know that risk, so add in the potential for losing their patent (which could otherwise be used to sell to other large companies with large bank accounts) to the cost mentioned above.
Mathematics is made of 50 percent formulas, 50 percent proofs, and 50 percent imagination.
Nobody seems to patent them.
Nice post. Give this guy some points (if anyone's still reading this thread).
Also, I believe patents expire in 21 years, not 14 these days, although I believe that also depends on if the patent owner renews or not.
I used up all my sick days, so I'm calling in dead.
Ummm ... prior to 1994 patents were good for 17 years from date of grant. After that it became 20 years from date of filing. So your November 1990 patent would still have 3 or 4 more years to run.
Sorry.
. waterwingz
The main reason for doing this was not to sue other companies who infringed on their ideas, rather, it was to have a bargaining chip when some company would inevitably sue them for infringing.
"Oh yeah, so I'm using your patented "method to display images and text on the same web page"? Well, you're infringing on my patented "method to use only 1 click to send email".
In the end, all the lawsuits, counter-suit silliness exists for one purpose - to make lawyers money. That's why no suit is settled quickly - after all judges all started as lawyers.
My favorite line:
6. He attempted to read the entire set of Don Knuth's TAOCP (The Art of Computer Programming) AND "Regular Expressions in PERL" in the same evening and HIS HEAD EXPLODED!!!
Whats yours?
If you want to develop software yourself, then by all means go for it. Shareware-type software (without spyware or adware) is common, but some is more successful than others.
Software patents are a concern, but it is better to work at fixing the problem than simply worrying about it. Most patent infringement cases have involved large-ish companies. Though it may sound strange, a good policy is not to look for software patents. Previous postings have already mentioned this, but it is meaningful in terms of avoiding "willful infringement" which is much more serious than innocent infringement. Linus Torvalds has said that "no engineer should ever go looking for a patent" and he mentions liability as one of the reasons. Also see this article from an attorney. The best idea is not to be concerned unless you already know about a software patent i.e. compressed GIF images.
May you have the best of luck with your software development. :)
Just so you know, 'implementation' to us coders is the coding part. That other thing involving setting your software up at customer sites, we call 'deployment' or 'installation'. You may have just given yourself away, Mr. Manager ;-)
Just a few days ago Slashdot posted a link to the saga of mp3 player Audion, by a small 2-man development shop. In the end, the program died, but the developers' story is really very inspiring.
Thrill to their tale of almost being bought out by AOL in 1999. Weep at their account of being told offf by Steve jobs at Macworld, as he developed a new program (itunes) that would eventually devour our heroes.
And yet, in the end, the developers' attitude and story inspired the heck out of me. Yes, one guy, working alone, with the right idea, at the right time, can make it big.
Don't blame big government for your fears. Just come up with something brilliant and take the plunge. And see what happens.
"I think small or even medium-sized corporations probably can't afford it either."
Agreed, just look at that little company named Microsoft (or Micro$oft if you prefer). They never saw Eolas coming!
Doing a close remake of a game may be a copyright violation under certain circumstances. Speaking of the Tetris game, a company has been claiming exclusive rights with respect to the Tetris game. Certain games that duplicate the Tetris gameplay and appearance have been targeted. The claim was not about patents, but about the game's "overall look and feel" (in terms of copyright) and "trade dress" (which implies trademarks.) The Tetris game has a known history and its gameplay is quite specific, so the company may be justified in terms of regular copyright.
Just because some programs are big and complicated doesn't mean yours has to be.
You can base your product on high level languages that free you from the mundane details like freeing your pointers. (For example, XUL allows you to write GUIs about as simply as a web page.) You don't have to choose "mainstream" languages because that's the only thing everyone on the team can understand.
You can do your "rapid prototyping" in a system like Lisp/Scheme where you don't even have to compile your code and you can redefine anything you want on the fly.
You can take advantage of existing libraries and tools (parser generators, XML parsers and validators, etc.) to quickly come up with something that is extensible to future releases.
You aren't bound by any of the constraints that guys at the big firms are. You don't have to write code that conforms to arcane guidelines like "we only write Java here" and "you can't use exceptions, rtti, templates, or the standard template library in C++ because some compilers suck."
I mean seriously. Out of the box, Sun's Java comes with a decent GUI library, networking support, threading support, garbage collection, and xml processing. And it's all free, documented, etc. Need an installer program, try NSIS -- it'll take you three days to master, and has amazingly good compression.
The lone coder is only dead if he or she is entirely unwilling to use other people's work. You are connected to a world of software which you can use to whatever purposes you like, even if you aren't willing to make your product truly free.
As for patents and litigation, burn that bridge if you come to it. We need some martyrs.
Yeah, yeah, a little off-topic. But I was pondering this last night. Aren't software patents EXACTLY like cooking patents?
Some recipes are secrets. That perfect cookie. The formula of Coca-Cola. Some recipes are completely free, aired on Good Morning America, for example. Others are copyrighted and available by buying a cookbook. But they're still open, in that you can modify them to suit your needs, making substitutions of ingredients or methods, or improving the recipe in other ways.
But whether the recipe is a secret (closed) or published (open), nobody will ever tell you that you make something that tastes like X. You can legally copy Coca-Cola, in that you can try as much as you want to make something that tastes exactly the same. McDonald's Big Mac is not protected as a food. It's protected as a BRAND, but that's completely different and it's a copyright thing, not a patent thing. McDonald's patents anything they can, including their french fry box. But they can't patent the food itself. Why? Well, we already know the answer. Because it's stupid.
And software patents are stupid in exactly the same way. Programming code is nothing but a recipe, and a running program is no different than a completed dish. If you like the end result, you can try your best to copy it on your own.
Well, I'm sure a lot of big corporate lawyers will make the argument that there will never be any innovation in the cooking industry if investment isn't rewarded by government in the form of protection from competition. Well ask Betty Crocker if she's suffering from the rampant piracy of her Chili Macaroni recipe. She just has to suck it up, either making a better recipe or packaging the same recipe in a better book.
Come on, folks. We don't have to keep tolerating software patents. They're absolutely ridiculous and the policies of the USPTO need to be changed. Get the stinkin' word out.
RP
Here's the primary goal of open source IMO.
Give a set of tools to engineers. With all that code available, you can skip to the core of what you attempt to build, if what you need is available of course. You can even ask for help (if your goal is non-profit). Linus was a lone coder, and what he did was a big get-togheter with a lot of other lone coders.
It's just a paradigm shift.
We should have been
So much more by now
Too dead inside
To even know the guilt
I think you missed the point of what you said....if it is open source, then they are not tied to you for life...someone else can do it...they do have access to the source, but as the originaal author you have an advantage because you have the best understanding of the code.
A Smith & Wesson beats four aces -- Murphy's Law of Poker
First the lone gunmen. Now the lone coder. Who's next on your calvalcade of spoilers?
I'm not really sure. Why doesn't someone poke him with a stick?
Actually, it looks like the EU is bending over as usual for their US Lord and Master, so heading to Europe might not work.
Canada? That probably won't last long either.
Have you considered doing business as usual, and then when you are sued by Microsoft or a Souless IP Mill - cashing out and THEN leaving the country?
Watching Condi Rice appointed Sec of State, for some reason, makes my default answer for just about everything these days involve "leave the country."
Have you thought about setting up shop in another country? Just a thought.
we should be able to have our own stash of rockets and fully automatic patent lawyer deturents.
Please use [ informative / summarizing ] SUBJECT LINES
Flame me here
If you're a top notch salesperson, looking to work in a high-profit industry with interesting and colorful people while having a ball at the same time I'd like you to contact me. My company has just completed development of a specialized kiosk application that will be marketed to the gaming and motel/hotel industries. There seems to be some serious money to be made if we can get our technology into the right hands.
If you're interested and have prior sales experience, drop me a line at adctech@gmail.com or call me at (918) 926-0139 so we can talk.
I would work off of mostly good free small software packages that allow for donations. Then you can make some bigger software that sells for a nice fair price. This is how people like Mike Lin do it. In my opinion, at least for portable programs the GPL is the way to go.
LoneCoder does indeed appear dead. LongCoder started posting to slashdot in early 2000. His 7 short comments receiving a score of 1 each caused him to take a 4 year break from posting to slashdot.
/. moderators, LoneCoder took his own life.
A carefully worded post praising Suse Linux netted him a score of 4 he briefly basked in his own reflected glory. Unfortunately his very successs was also his downfall. Unable to handle the thought of another 1 point post after gaining acceptance for the first time through
On his computer were found many text files containing various drafts of "In Soviet Russia", "Imagine a Beaowulf", and other unposted commemts along with his predictions on their possible scores.
He leaves behind No Friends, No Foes, No Freaks, and No Fans, and no forwarding email.
Remember his final words: SuSE rules!!
Is The Lone Coder Dead?
Well, he is now. I walked up to him and he was lying on the ground, covered in blood and with his eyes closed. But I could see was still breathing. So I asked "Are you pretending to be dead, motherfucker? You're fucking pretending you're fucking dead, aren't you?". Since he didn't answer this simple question in plain American, I shot the bastard and put an end to the uncertainty. He's definitely dead now.
If you ar a lone coder and you are not worth at least 100 million dollars, no one will sue you. The legal costs of a patent suit would cost more than they could get from you. I am reminded of the old saying: "You can not get blood from a turnip"
Jamey Kirby
Of course, over the last year with the alliance between spammers and virus writers, has the business grown to the point that it's become just another wage-slave job? (With the benefit of a possible star-appearance on Bubba-Eye for Script-Kiddy Guy, the complete "lifestyle-makeover" reality show with a 5-10 year run.)
Just how large are the visible sort-of-legal spyware companies in Windows market? (The Bill-Gatorware companies, in other words.)
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
[o]_O
No doubt that's why all their software prints notices that are only a small step above begging for money :-P
If you do something based on the standard java libraries, well then hasn't Sun written the technology that your system is based on? I would think that java is very attractive to coders who have limited resources and want to write commercial software. Sun has already settled in a lot of patent lawsuits, so there's a layer of protection in using the java libraries, they even had to pay out on the Kodak lawsuit over the patents Kodak bought from Wang, and if you do something really ground-breaking with java, Sun certainly has an interest in seeing you suceed with java as a commercial programmer. Although I'm more fond of python as a language, I could see where jython and java are a nice combo for creating commercial, closed source software. Java was designed for commercial use, and with its extensive and now very mature and given that its not just a language, but an extensive library, it makes it a lot easier to do commercial software with limited resources.
"[Selling sex] is dead, for all the reasons you mentioned.
What's a [sex consultant] to do?
[Donate your body to] an open source project, gove away all your hard work.
THEN...
Offer your services as an [sex consultant] for said open source [Masturbation aid] for businesses[men].
Implementations are not fun, but pound for pound, you get serous cash. Especially if you wrote the [Masturbation aid] to begin with. You can charge the most."
If you look for patents you may be violating then ignore it, you'll be charged with willfull infringement and forced to pay 2-3x what it would be otherwise.
So my 'not a lawyer' advise is don't look for patents until someone comes knocking on your door.
--buddy
He's a prime example of the lone coder still existing today. He wrote Rollercoaster Tycoon by himself, and 95% is in x85 assembly to boot!His website
You can always deliver pizza for Uncle Enzo
Check out Tim Bray on software patents.
His basic conclusion is that every significant piece of software infringes on some patent, so get over it.
-m
Another point being that as soon as companies think that they would gain an increased income stream from continually increasing patent lengths, who's to say that they won't force that through the legislature in the same way that the content companies have been doing for copyright?
deus does not exist but if he does
It's always individuals that contribute to projects, especially in large companies.
:)
But there is more incentive for us 'little' guys to learn how to fight and protect ourselves from people like $ill Gates and eventually get our share.
Everyone loves you when you are rich or successful, but when you are struggling as an entrepreneur, nobody will help you.
I personally believe it is MORE important to 'feel rich' inside my heart, than having my bank account over-floweth, than the 'other way around'.
Also, if we DON'T give up, then we get to keep most of our profits, and tell everyone else who discouraged us or were mean while we tried to build a livelyhood, to "..#@&*#$@*+$#@..!!"
LIke most large organizations, the 'Open Source Community' initially started with very few people, probably actually only one at the very beginning.... sooooo.. "take that, Bill Hates!!!"
I will gladly loose all of life's battles.. in order to win the war..
Didn't Slashdot break this story a couple years ago? Oh well, at least we won't be subjected to the indignity of a lame "Lone Coder" spinoff series.
Cheers,
IT
Power corrupts. PowerPoint corrupts absolutely.
For the past week or so, I've been trying to think about ways little guys can survive earning an honest buck in today's patent environment. One way might be for independents and small businesses to form collective bargaining units. So instead of one company with a tiny one or two patent ip portfolio, you have 1,000 companies with thousands of patents. All of a sudden, a big company can't be so sure of what might happen if they try to squash the little guy.
In terms of the lone coder being extinct or not... I think the patent craze we hear about all the time on slashdot is probably a little like RIAA lawsuits. You hear about them everyday, but they only affect a statistically insignificant number of people. I expect that if you are not painting a big red X on yourself by going after big/entrenched players like Microsoft, you're probably not going to get patent-smushed.
Just sort of an add-on... there are ways to be the lone coder without being a one man software development company. For example, I'm a sys admin / developer in a small university department. I provide a lot of integration/misc development to handle the needs of our office, and I'm effectively a lone coder. Because I'm a pretty good worker, I also have a lot of freedom to pursue things that might help out the office. Essentially, they let me self direct within the boundaries of our organization's purpose. Of course that's not the same as being your own boss in your own development company, but some aspects are qualitatively comparable. I guess I'm saying if you can find a job as the-it-guy with a friendly organization with some development needs, you can gain many of the lifestyle benefits of being a lone coder.
oh god, you linked to slashdot, on slashdot. /.'s servers?
worse, it was a +5 funny.
maybe now we'll melt down
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Piracy - That's Where You Need to Battle. Patents only matter if they think you will hurt them in any way, or if they can profit from you in any way. You won't. They can't. Pirates will eat your sales to the point you'll want to go back to McDonalds and flip burgers. Half you "sales" will never come, and eventually, 90% will never come.
No kidding. I recall listening to a friend of an associate bemoan the time involved in the replacement of some component of an automobile requiring six hours. I thought about how nice it would be to have an assignment that only took six hours. I don't even know what that would feel like. People have absolutely no idea how much time software requires to write.
This isn't quite the case. Sure, you probably won't be sued for a game concept' but possibly the related technologies. For example, id got attacked by Creative for some shadowing thing, and some crackpot company went after severas major game developers for something that effectively equated to the basis of 3d rendering. The specifics of each shouldn't be hard to find.
--ReK
md5sum -c reality.md5
reality: FAILED
md5sum: WARNING: 1 of 1 computed checksum did NOT match
look at it the other way - if no one's trying to sue you, then you probably are way below their radar screen and not making much penetration into the market.
sigs are for losers (except to point out that sigs are for losers)
It gives a lone coder the ability to participate in larger projects if they want to, while using the work of the larger group as a basis for filling niches.
There has got to be SOMEONE out there making a living customizing open source software for specific needs, by himself (and lets not kid ourselves here, it's almost certainly HIMself).
Patents are certainly a bigger problem than they use to be. However, it's still somewhat rare that a patent puts an ASP member out of the market. Sometimes a payment deal is struck. Probably the most common event is that people get "patent fishing" letters from IP law firms who send out lots of "you might be violating our patent" letters in the hopes of reeling in some payments. The reason is, it's often hard to prove you're really violating a patent without a look at your source.
But this is just one of many issues you'll face as a shareware developer (I use "shareware" to simply mean the "try-before-you-buy" marketing scheme that almost all independent developers who sell to the public use). If you're serious, do yourself a favor and join the ASP so you can avoid a lot of costly mistakes.
The item brought to mind a question and I'll admit to having not read all 400+ replies to see if it has been mentioned and addressed. Does the concept of IP apply to novelists beyond the current definition of plagiarism? I mean, how many times can a couple walk along a moonlit beach (etc, etc, etc). Seems like someone should hold the "copyright" to that idea and be able to sue any other author that incorporates that idea into their story. Pretty soon, just as in IT, all the known great ideas will be gobbled up by a handful of authors and no original stories can/will be written.
No man's an island, unless he's had too much to drink and wets the bed.
...and you have some venerable company in Dan Bricklin. ,neither of you are likely to get rock-star rich from your spiffy new idea. As for the idea-sewer that the USPTO has become: take advantage of it. The barriers to filing were lowered and you can stake your claim easily enough...just try to make your money before you get sued. The examiners have been forced to leave the real work up to the courts but by the time the process reaches that stage, you should have sold your company and gone on to the next thing. Dan Bricklin would say to
just forget about patents alltogether
The bad news is
SLASHDOT: news for people who can't concentrate on work or have no life at all and got tired of yelling back at the TV.
As a smalltime programmer you need to worry about patent infringment only if the holder goes after you. And holders go after you only if you have made a million dollars and look like you will make a few million more.
I dont think holders (large ones) are scouring all insignificant software to determine if any of their 3988 patents have been broken. Such an exercise can banckrupt even MS!!
But if your product is very successful and you have made a few million dollars, they might come after you. But remember by that time you are no longer the smalltimer you are now and our sympathies are no longer with you:-)
O this learning! What a thing it is - William Shakespeare
I wish my highschool sweetheart would become gay, then we could live on the beach together.
More likely they'll go after the big fish first, then you smaller players later.
I just don't think that's true at all.
The litigation companies go after a series of smaller operators first, forcing them to settle or driving them to a loss in court. They use this series of "victories" to help bolster the legitimacy of their patent when going after bigger companies with deeper pockets who can afford decent lawyers.
Check this file explorer.
Its called xplorer2 and its my favorite program. It is a very successfull one guy effort.
http://www.zabkat.com
Its a gem!!
Setting up shop on Sealand can mean a lot of thing - physically, virtually, or legally.
... let me ask the gurus here --- Is there any way for people like us - lone coders - to be offered any protection from the fascist law firms out there ?
Physically, I doubt that Sealand can hold many a lone-coder, for they are just the size of a football field, in the middle of nowhere.
Virtually, maybe I can get my domain / website to be hosted there, and no one has the legal right to confiscate my server. But this still doesn't offer enough protection.
So we go to the third option - Legal
Unless Sealand is a internationally recognized sovereign country, anything registered there, whether be corporate entity or not, will NOT be recognized anywhere else.
The money made by corporation registered on Sealand - if they offer that - will be deemed "black money" in the rest of the world, and legal agencies from the Tax Department to FBI will harrass you whenever you transfer money out of your Sealand account into your local account.
So
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
As a "Lone Coder," I am always working for someone else. Sure, I have my own ideas and develop some nifty things for others to download, but to keep my finances intact, I have to sell my skills. I have 2 sales people, but as far as actual production, I'm it.
The patent-feeding-frenzy doesn't scare me, as its my clients who will have to deal with any problems that arise from such debates. They tell me what to do, and I do it. Its there ideas, and in the end the products I produce are usually work made for hire.
The lone coder will always live on!
I'm movin' to where you live.
I sometimes thought about changing jobs from IT to Security Guard or something. There must be jobs out there that require you to sit still for really long hours doing basically nothing.
Think of the programming you could get done!
Has anyone actually decided this, in order to be able to properly help code (your own) open source projects?
You don't need to see my
Software is a comodity, rarely a luxury product anymore.
Most programmers do not realize that their role has changed in many instances from IT Designer or Engineer to IT Quick FIx or Janitorial Service.
If you do not understand the nature of software today do not expect to receive sympathy for a vision of the wolrd that is contradicted by day to day reality and facts.
The only thing copyright infringers can't copy is your personaly lended support. The more software you write and release under open licensing schemes, the more software there is out ther to be mantained and customized.
Programmers should not see themselves anymore as designers but mantainers and IT tailors.
Write useful software, release unencumbered of close licenses and make it known you are the final authority regarding the software.
If it is truly useful you will have business expanding its usefulness.
If it is not (yet another window manager for example) then frankly you should not expect much recompense for your efforts, appart from the joy of learning.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
And frankly I despair when I see such nonsense rated insightful.
If you are referring to the software you write yourself, nobody is forcing you to license its distribution under the GPL. Of course people writing similar applications and releasing them under the GPL will have a competitive advantage: I as an user want to own my IT infrastructure and am tired of vendor lock in. If you can't deal with that, thoug, but still nobody is forcing you to release the fruits of your labour under the GPL.
If is other people's software you are complaining about then get a grip, the authors can release it under wathever licensing scheme they see fit and is none of your business dictating how they do it.
So exactly what is your point?
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
I think they all moved to open source models.
So what you are saying is that the GPL is bad because commercial interests can't be arsed to invest in R&D and would prefer to obtain things without any effort?
Well, I welcome that. If well known examples are any indication, companies will run with things, will pretend they are innovating and the most cynical will even start using their "IP portfolio" in creative legal ways.
If the only way to protect the commons is by keeping at bay potential abusers then the GPL is a wonderfool legal tool to achieve just that.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
I am a lone coder, and I make out just great! My one-person company has managed to design, code, market and sell a very popular suite of Software (suite, even!) and outcompete the existing products in about 2 years, making about USD 200.000 in the process.
I'm not saying it's easy - by no means - but it's far from impossible, and if you succeed, you won't have to split the spoils.
IMHO the biggest mistake people who do software startups make is not to wait for the right idea. Far too many of the startups I know off are not really selling software (which scales), but in various ways (direct or indirect) their time, which DOESN'T scale.
http://www.openwatcom.org/?
Or something else?
http://www.thefreecountry.com/compilers/cpp.shtml
"Go to CNN [for a] spell-checked, fact-checked summary" -- CmdrTaco
became a lesbian several years ago and moved to North Beach.
I thought the lesbians took over 24th St and Noe Valley after quietly squatting in the Valencia St area for many years (and of course vacationing amicably with the gay men along Russian River ironically (Hi Alanis!) close to the opposite end of the spectrum who gather over at Bohemian Grove deciding on the fate & future of the world.
Please god don't let them take North beach, too...
As someone who's contemplating doing this very thing myself, I'd like to propose a possible solution (or plan) and pose a new question:
What I would (er, am doing) is forming a limited-liability corporation that will not hold me personally liable in case of legal problems. In case the software produced by the company is found to infringe patents, and hostile action is taken against the company (not mere cease-and-desist), you shut it down, sad day, for sure, but you live to fight another day.
Now my own dilemma is this: it looks like my product provides unique functionality. So unique, in fact, that - you guessed it - it's patentable. But from what I hear it takes tens of thousands of $ to patent something. For some of you a few tens of thousands of $ does not a large sum represent, but for me it does. Some bad luck along the way is involved, too, but regardless, this is my situation. No way can I afford to pay 30-40 large for a patent. Even if I had that kind of money, which I don't, unless I had 10 times that much available, I wouldn't spend it all on a patent for something that is not guaranteed to make me a single cent. So, what are the options I can explore? If I put the product out there w/o a patent, and it does turn out to be a killer app, it will be copied by someone with 10^3 times more resources than me and my product will be killed.
It's pretty hard for us little guys, especially since the monkey in charge is only concerned with the rights of corporations.
Must-not-watch TV!
Well, formally they do. But "the lone coder" will almost always do consulting-type work for small businesses, and you will be under the radar for most IP holders. You can violate patents and trade secrets as you wish, and you can violate copyrights and even trademarks as long as you are not to blatant about it.
Of course, if you want to make shrink-wrap software the software is different because you need to advertise it widely. But I think the room for lone coder shrink-wrap software is very small anyway.
Go for the one-product, one customer market instead. That is where the jobs are.
Congratulations on being the first person I can remember on slashdot to use the word "fascist" correctly. (Collaboration of State and corporations against the interests of the individual.)
http://www.hamrick.com/ Ed Hamrick, Author of Vuescan, supports 100+ scanners/cams HIMSELF. I licensed Vuescan while having Canon's own scanning software. It was simply better.
.
http://www.lemkesoft.de/ Adrian Lemke, Author of Graphics Converter.
You meant single coders, those guys are single coding. I know more like 2-3 coder guys/gals , also use/buy their software.
What about RAR "labs"? We know its a single guy coding (Alexander Roshal)
If people buy the stuff they use, there will be many more "lonely coder" guys.
Yeah the US lone coder is dead but might be resurrected if legislation is corrected. The European lone coder still awaits his verdict, but will hopefully be acquitted. Note that when a man and his dog can no longer sustain business it's probably equally hard for a startup. Patents creates an unhealthy environment for new companies and thus for economical growth!
World company has a patent on breathing so hold your breath!
Personally I wouldn't worry about patents. The original intent of patents were to protect IP but now they're primarily used for two other purposes: to stifle innovation and attract investors. The lone coder doesn't really need to feel intimidated by either of these issues. In a worst-case scenario, if you manage to create an app which attracts the attention of an entity which would threaten you, at the same time you'll probably also be approached by entities that are interested in acquiring your technology (and willing to help defend it).
It's a sad commentary on the state of innovation in our society that something like this is even an issue. Imagine if all the great artists throughout history were discouraged by the thought that their work might infringe upon or offend somebody, or whether or not the prospect was profitable.
Then again, if you're getting into coding merely as a means to an end, you can do us all a favor and don't bother. If you haven't identified an area where you think you can contribute, why bother? You're in the biz for the wrong reason and we have enough lame code from un-passionate producers just doing it to make a buck.
Second, according to the DMCA reverse engineering is NOT illegal. Breaking copy encryption is.
/me ducks
But compiling is a form of encryption, your honor.
My Suburban burns less gasoline than your Prius.
Of course with lamp (linux apache mysql php/perl) being "free" software you can't really make any money of selling it. Although IBM seems to manage it but they are of course not counted because they don't agree with your theory.
You can make a living by using this "free" software to write your stuff. Businesses will always require custom written software. If the tools for making that software is free they safe money wich can then be spend on custom software.
Less work for MS, more work for me. This is bad why? Oh sure, MS is a lot fancier then Factory X wich needs a simple inhouse programmer. But some of us can't or won't work for MS but like their job at Factory X.
All GPL is doing is shifting work and money from the tool makers to the tool users.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
if only i had moderation points today ...
Prior art will hopefully solve that problem in some cases. And as long as the lonesome coder works for dedicated clients and does not make software for the masses, no one will notice any patent infringes. At least I hope so. Am I a naive and not just lonesome?
I've haven't made a living off of it, but I still make an extra $4000-$6000 a year consistantly from writing donation-ware.
I've writen quite a few drivers which take me about a day or two to write and often get about $1000-$2000 from them into my paypal in a few weeks.
I'm writing a new driver now which I expect should yield closer to $4000 since it's a much cooler piece of hardware and I've seen demand is high. I'm even tempted to require payment after 15 days to make $10000 instead
Also, little programs like a vCard editor which I'm working on that includes support for many different extension fields including PGP and S/MIME keys should pay at least a few hundred bucks.
The important part is that when you try to write programs that you intend to make money from, you have to be high quality. Spend less time writing toolkits for things and more time writing what doesn't exist yet.
I would personally recommend investing as much as a year in the development of a contact management/calendar program which focuses on sales person mobility as a start. Many companies aren't willing to let their sales people use Outlook and the others are far too expensive to license on a large scale. So a $15-$20 sales person contact manager has a good market. Integrate it with Skype as well and there's possibly license fees to be made.
what is the sound of a lone coder falling?
the computer is online
i am not at it
what a waste of ressources
So... how many of them had additional belly overhang? (I'm assuming you're writing from the US)
Belly overhang and belly button piercing really is the worst combination.
Actually, 'fascism' is to do with how a system of government is organised.
Fascists believe that a single person making all the decisions is the most efficient method of organisation.
Communists believe that the people should make their own decisions collectively.
Parliamentary Democratists (that's us) adopt a compromise position and believe that a small number of individuals making the decisions, but accountable to the people at regular intervals, is best.
Note that fascism does not include racism (that's Nazism or National Socialism), or any attitude to commercial organisations (except that they should obey the leader like everyone else). Fascism is also irrelevent to capitalism, and vice versa.
he also had Glaucoma due to prolonged screen use
he continues to write software for dead platforms like Gentoo and BSD. If he doesn't put aside his childish feelings about Windows and fanboy ways he'll trod down the path to oblivion, all the way following after the path worn by Gentoo and BSD.
yes it is quite difficult indeed
Chris ,
Php Programmers.
"ethnically biased" is more like it.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
Patents in the US govern any manufacture, use or sale of a product within the U.S., but also any importation or offer to import therein. Most nations have similar rules. Ultimately, if you want to play in foreign markets, you are going to expose yourself to liability elsewhere, for which you can ordinarily be served by international treaty.
I don't know if Sealand is signatory to Hague, but even if it isn't you still can't do much harm to others or good for yourself from the bitsy island, unless that is where all your assets are located, and everything you want is there.
Sure, you can go to sealand and infringe away, but don't imagine for an instant you can exploit the invention beyond its borders without risk.
The more you give, the larger a conduit you become, and the more you are able to transit through yourself in the future. It really works and it's not magic.
Example. .
Two creators are sitting on great ideas. Creator A doesn't want to start development until a third party offers pre-payment and guarantees of recognition and general safety. Creator B understands that giving is power and so jumps right in, develops and distributes the idea, making sure in advance only that the system being created is logical and viable enough to pay for itself. The end result, you've all seen. Creator A goes nowhere and does nothing, while Creator B, if the idea is of true benefit and interest to humanity and the execution was not driven by wishful thinking and the wasteful expenditure of energy through poor planning, will be seen and respected and the money will start to flow. --The more integrity, work and faith Creator B puts into the system, the wider the conduit grows.
The "Homestar Runner" guys are worthy examples. --They put up their work with no promises offered to them, and these days they make a living selling thousands of T-Shirts, coffee mugs, CD and DVD collections. They turned down a TV development offer, which could have vaulted them into an even higher power bracket, but they were comfortable and best suited for their conduit width as it stood. But if they continue to give in earnest and if their work continues to be valued, they will have more offers in the future when perhaps they are feeling ready to grow.
I've met a bunch of guys who have perfectly viable ideas, but who won't start development because nobody is offering to pay them for their time and effort up front. They will not go anywhere.
Finally. . , very few people need to get rich. Being super-wealthy naturally attracts IP lawsuits, etc., and that's where the problems start. Being wealthy is a huge responsibility, because it means maintaining and working with a very wide energy conduit which, while it can do a great deal of good, can also be very demanding. Evil empires are easy to spot, because they are naturally attracted to needless collections of enormous and unwisely used power. It's entirely possible to be quick-moving and healthy on a lower level and not have to worry too much about the behemoth control freaks. --And when people do have to worry, (there is the eternal war on between Good and Evil, after all), then the support network is a powerful device which can protect the really pure gems of its own system. The SCO affair is an example of how evil can be very effectively shut down with minimal effort. Like swatting a bug. Without the current network of giving individuals is in place, SCO could actually have become a real problem. As it was they were swatted down like a bug. Evil is inefficient and stupid because they employ wishful thinking; they don't plan realistically. If they did, they would see that selfishness is ultimately self-defeating and they would choose not to be evil.
So long as you remain part of the 'energy' distribution network and stay on the Light Side, you'll be well taken care of. I stopped worrying about these things a long time ago, and just focus on feeding my community as best I am able, while cutting off those who do not give anything in return to the network. When everybody gives, the system grows and those who are part of it are laughing.
Works like a charm.
-FL
step one Incorporate.
step two pay yourself a salary
step three you are safe.
While this is a grossly oversimplified statement, you are correct in the basic concept that incorporation protects the personal assets of the small businessperson. When I started my own technology services company, the first thing I did was to incorporate to limit my personal liability, even though I was only a one-man shop.
However, I think that misses the larger point under discussion here. While incorporation may protect you personally from loss due to litigation for patent infringement, the corporate entity (the company) must still bear the burden of such potential lawsuits. The question was, can a one-man software shop still succeed in this patent-crazy market?
If I were an independent developer who spent months or years developing a ground-breaking application, founded a company to market my product and invested sweat equity to get the business rolling, and then found myself the victim of patent litigation brought by an IP holding company - I would not consider it a "success" to merely walk away with my personal assets unscathed.
Since the paradigm shift by the USPO we can safely say that anything which can be expressed in technical terms can be patented.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
Other than the government, charity and the merry-go-round of money from one free software house to another, where are we going to get the vast sums of money needed to make free software competitive with commercial closed source software?
Small organizations consisting of a no more then a handful of dedicated coders working on projects that they are deeply interested in are bound to be more efficient then the Suns, IBMs and Microsoft's of the the world.
Such small consultancy firms have little to no advertising, marketing and sales overhead. These groups thrive on word of mouth and a more academia like environment.
That's disgusting! Don't they have any public toilets?
Chernobyl 'not a wildlife haven' - BBC News
actually, stapling is quite different.
-mkb
I'd say that the GPL and P2P generally make it tougher to make a living.
There may be some pressure from fellow geeks to only release GPL products... but the majority of users who won't be modifying the code probably don't care.
One reason GPL code may be harder to compete with, however, is the fact that GPL projects, just like big software companies' products, are generally made by a team of programmers vs your loneness, and it's harder to keep up to their level of work.
The following sentence is true. The preceding sentence was false.
would you preffer they covered the overhang with spandex?
"ask any coder with a "donate" button, you'll see"
I'm afraid that is an overgeneralisation. It's true that OSS projects with a large userbase such as linux and firefox can generate a considerable amount of money, while this is harder for small 'lone coder' type of OSS. Yet, the basic thing is to captivate users, to make something they really want (and want to see continued), and this can be done without a huge userbase too.
Apart from a large userbase, the second way of getting money is to have a 'fan' base. An analoge example would be of 'trekkies'; while not a huge mass, they are fanatic enough for the series that they become economically interesting.
Take the example of Freenet for example. This project is relatively small, it doesn't come close to grand projects as linux and firefox, and its userbase isn't all that huge neither. Yet, it has a small group of die-hards and invokes enough interest on its own, to be able to pay Toad, the main developer - and it has done now for a considerable time. He doesn't earn money like he would in the private sector, but he does have enough for a decent living.
So, it IS quite possible to live from OSS: either you manage to get a large userbase, or you manage to get a profound interest of a small group of fans.
--- "To pee or not to pee, that is the question." ---
I know a few friends who run one man software firms. They aren't true software firms though. Their main focus of work is in devoping bespoke software (scripts, really) to integrate office aplications. Most of their work comes from local companies who would like fancy financial manamgement systems, but can't afford them. So they turn to local programmers to code something that makes MS Office look like SAP. Theres also a fair bit of web development work tied in to their businesses as well.
The days where one man could develop a major piece of software on his own are diminshing fast. Its not a skills issue, nor a patent issues (I live in the UK where software patents aren't an issue, yet!). Its simply a resource issue. Coding tools are expensive. Clients wan't quality control and performance guarantees, that one-man operations can't provide. There is the technology explosion where a coder has to be an expert in multiple languages and technologies so that he can have the widest audience for his work. If someone does get lucky and develops something truly amazing, then there is a risk that a software house with more resources will copy that programs functionality and the lone coder will get nothing for his efforts.
The lone coders I know make a decent enough living, they can pay the bills and go out for a few drinks, but they won't be buying a BMW anytime soon. Theres street sweepers who earn more than they do, which is actually quite a depressing thought.
So much for free trade in Australia...
*** I had a
Put the work of your life to an unrecognized pile of concrete in a middle of sea, which has already had a coup in its short history :)
Lisp is the Tengwar of programming languages.
At my company, we use pdfFactory. Written/sold/supported/advertised by a wopping two guys. We love pdfFactory.
Ultra-Edit. One guy. The greatest text editor on earth.
patents are the worst thing ever to happepn ti technology. when you've got to worry about infringing patents by making your own software right out of your own head without outside influences on it, then there is a concern for freedom of originality. sure, it might not be original. but if some jackass wants to patent something that any idiot can think of, that product should never have been patented in the first place.
1001100 1100101 1100001 1110110 1100101 1001101 1111001 1000010 1101001 1110100 1110011 1000001 1101100 1101111 110111
... industry that lone inventors survive. As much as we would like to think sw dev is different, it is not ... controlled by large corporations like anything else.
My dad's retail point of sale software company for example. He has many employs. However they write manuals, train users, and sell the software. He is the only programmer on the actual software itself.
One of his former employs has recently moved on and started his own company. After interviewing quite a few people he couldn't find anyone he felt would be right for the programming job. So he self-taught himself some clarion and now he is the only programmer at his company which develops business accounting software (though he does plan to expand later on).
Granted those are both niche markets where they might make 3 or 4 huge sales a year and thats about it, but still... the lone coder is out there!
Matt
You have 1 Moderator Point! Use it or lose it! Is that a threat? -vapid
No, I'm still alive. Why do you people keep thinking I'm dead? I'm right here! Sheesh.
... "LI-LO Silver! Away!"
Zarf, aka "The Lone Coder" and his faithful steed "Silver"
[signature]
He means on each other's faces.
This guy doesn't seem to be doing too bad for himself.
What do large corps gain from "lone coders" ? Who funds patent law extension? There is your answer - software patents are nothing more nor less than a barrier to entry to small businesses, from the "lone coder" up to companies with dozens of coders. Ironically, these companies form the majority of coding jobs, but importantly, NOT the majority of political lobbying, by a long long way. You would think that democracy would lead to laws being made for the benefit of the majority of IT professionals and consumers, but apparently it doesn't work that way.
Belly buttons should never "hang"
But I'll post it anyway.
If your software needs "services" and "support" in sufficient quantity to support you, then you are writing impossible-to-maintain junk that is at best customized for each user. At worst, it breaks everytime someone tries to use it and they have become dependent on it so they have to pay you to fix it.
Proper software tools need almost no support, little documentation and works out of the box without a lot of customization that can only be done by the author.
Maybe it is different kinds of software, but mostly I have seen the two kinds mentioned here: junk and quality. I won't even say that "quality" is attained - it is perhaps more of a goal to be sought after. It you really make it there, then you end up losing everything to piracy.
I don't know whether he still is a "lone coder", (it looks like it) but Paul Nolan writes/wrote photogenics by himself afaik.
http://www.idruna.com/
Supposed to be a very good graphics package (for linux as well!)
Cheers,
Roger
Do you have any better hostages?
I'm not dead, I'm just taking a nap, damn it!
Seriously, lone coders are far from dead, just think of products like CoolEdit and you'll see what I mean.
As long as you write quality software enough people will want it so you don't have to starve.
OMG, Adobe bought out the lone coder of CoolEdit! It's now called Adobe Audition! Maybe the lone coder really is dead... Can someone please check my pulse? Hello? Can you hear me? It must be this new Adobe Audition codec crapping out, argh!
Great post ... no, classic post ... I now have it on my wall at work. Oh yeah, your student loans are forgiven if you die. But other than that, I'm quite impressed.
-- (Score:i , Imaginary)
Maybe it was a pierced outie? Now there's an image for ya.......
"I went on a diet, swore off drinking and heavy eating. And in fourteen days, I had lost exactly two weeks. Joe E. Lewis
Method for making a sandwich
Intructions to make toast
Why do you want to work alone so badly? Working on a team is often much better. If for no other reason than to have someone to tell you you're wrong once in a while, it's good to have a partner. Even if they were wrong about your error, at least they got you to think it through more carefully.
A one person coding company could exist as a sole proprietorship, a nonprofit corporation, a corporation, or a one person LLC.
They could build on open source applications, within their licensing rules.
The one person coding firm could also sell his or her software, and offer limited licensing (one to 5 personal copies per user) to whoever buys/leases the software. I realize it probably wouldn't be a EULA.
The software could be copyrighted to protect against pirates.
Trade Secrets are based on state laws. It protects the Coca Cola formula and other "secret" formula.
So when the one person coding firm wants to protect his/her work, copyright could protect the code, trade secrets could protect the "way" in which the software is produced, maybe even the way the box where the CD Rom is shipped.
The app would sit on the shoulders of Open Source giants, and thus friendly users could distribute 1-5 copies maybe. Friendly customer based pirating? Anything more than 5 copies would be considered piracy.
As far as patent infringements, my guess (only a guess) is that these could be avoided as long as a person is building from or on an open source code. Assuming open source code does not use anything remotely like MS or Amazon patents.
Plus two people might disagree all the time. One person can perfect a cool vision!
I've built a small system for the real estate market. I already had a buyer when I started working on it, so the development was more or less 100% funded as it was. Now I've got three partner companies building their own solutions (basically branding and little else) on top of my product, giving me license fees for every system they sell.
Catering to niche markets has it's perks.
dont forget the glaucoma
thanks to Poland
Good karma is going your way!
"Funny" mods don't gain you karma.
Oh, THAT karma. Nevermind.
It is funny that anything with a anti-patent bias readily finds the slashdot approval. How is a lone inventor working in a basement lab different from a lone coder trying to create the coolest software? A mechanical or electrical inventor - there are thousands of them - can carry on creating circuits and machines then why cannot the lone coder? My point is that the patent threat is just over-blown. Yes, if the lone coder is trying to implement a RSA patented encryption algorithm then it could a tough cookie, but how many lone coder sit to recreate RSA algorithms? and the patents are so broad that unless lone coder creates a competing successful product, nobody is going to bother. Just as if I create a Trinitron TV in my basement, Sony isn't going to sue me anytime soon.
Don't waste your money on patent searches. Just incorporate; that way if you get sued, you can just declare bankruptcy and close up shop.
What's you motivation for writing commercial software versus doing consulting work? Are you looking to do this long-term, are you looking to be bought out? It just seems to me that a consulting business would likely be more viable.
GPL provides you the oppotunity to include, modify or derive from the product it covers. A traditional prop' license is not as generous.
I suppose the GPL, if it finishes the revolution, returns the tailor to the high street in place of rows of factory produced clothes in integer, generic sizes. It would make the world a much easier place to get a suit that fits completely.
It depends on what you mean by lone coder.
I've been there, done that, got the T-shirt.
Assumming the coder also brings innovation, good analysis, intermediate business literacy (legal, accounting, etc.) organization and personal discipline, there's plenty of room in this market for lone coders.
Note that few coders will meet this criteria.
Advice:
1. Incorporate.
2. Insure the business.
3. Be very organized.
4. Outsource stuff you suck at, like tele-sales, to someone very good at it.
5. Have enough control over your ego to blame yourself (and fix it) before getting mad at others.
Big organizations have to struggle to feed big overheads (like their patent departments). As a small business, OPP (Other People's Patents) are one of your lowest risks while you're still small. Don't worry about things you can't control. You'll be much too busy for that!
If you truly violate a patent, negotiate a truce in good faith. Sometimes, partnerships come out of it.
Okay fine your wrong. The days of a lone coder writing the latest and greatest Video game are gone, the days of the lone coder writing a Lotus 123 or Wordstar and becoming a huge force in the software industry are gone. The days a a lone programmer making a good living writing embedded code, or vertical market software are still here. There is very good money to be made in "Vertical" markets. Everything from auto shops to storage units use computers now. You may even get small time rich doing it. I am talking a few million here not Hundreds of millions but still not bad. Frankly it has gotten easier for the small guy to do some really good stuff. SQL databases for Linux and Windows are available for free and Postgres frankly is good enough for just about any small business setup you are likely to imagine. Open Source could be a huge help to you take SQL ledger and modify it for some market and add some custom code to maybe run a cash drawer or set up a website for a Pizza place that allows you to order on line and you have a product.
No the lone programmer is not dead he is just making money in the markets that are too small for the big fish to bother with.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
First the post, then the movie, then the movie novel...
When you get the software copyright, just check 2a, Anonymous, for authorship. You could instead check Pseudonymous, and make up a cool name like Anonymous Wyoming Coder (make sure you don't live in Wyoming!).
For the mailing address on the copyright form plus the domain name registration, three options:
1. A foreign country if you live there
2. A friend's address (give them 10% of the take!)
3. A Mail Boxes Etc location registered to either a Nonprofit Association that you and a friend set up (reason being is that many states do not require you to register your nonprofit association unless you want to register it to start a court action on behalf of the asssociation) or just have a friend start a company, have them register it in their name (incorporator, sole Director), but then you would own all the shares of the stock, your friend(s) would be the Director(s) and appear in all the public documents, and basically their job would be to say---Gee, I don't know, and collect a % of the profits from you.
People that would buy your Anonymous Lone Coder Software would buy it by Pay Pal only.
If your friend's last name is Smith, then they can start a sole proprietorship called Smith Software or Smith Software International, and since they are not using a fictitious business name, in many states, a filing will not be required. If a sales tax license is required, those are usually not public knowledge.
What are the great benefits of this Anonymous Lone Coder lifestyle? (Besides being DB Cooper?)
1. Your face will never be on the cover of Time and Newsweek (but your logo might, assuming its not a penguin!)
2. You could even release an 'Official' Anonymous Lone Coder Movie, where of course, the fictional character acts sort of like you, but has a much different name...(Smells like VICTORY at Sundance!)
3. Your Anonymous Lone Coding Firm, way out of the spotlight, never coming into the glare of the limelight, will probably do something incredible that will make Open Sourcers drop their jaws in envy and uncontrolled drool!
4. After you do the "impossible" 3 or 4 times, and you have made a firm decision NEVER to tell anyone who the Lone Coder is, then you could even hand over your Lone Coding business to someone who will keep it in the same Anonynmous name, thus giving the illusion that the Lone Coder lives for 150 years or so (of course, you'd have to be 80 and then hand it over to a 20 year old!)
Of course, your movie and anonymous books will inspire more Anonymous Lone Coders to do likewise!
An Anonymous Lone Coder is the opposite of Bill Gates. He or she will be the Un Bill Gates! Where the software and the anonymous lifestyle are so cool, you will be a legend forever...
Of course, only you will know you are the legend...
This will happen!
It's actually not advisable for you to pursue due diligence on patents within the domain of your creations. This establishes foreknowledge of infringement and will multiply your penalties, and legal costs, in the event that you're brought into court. I know that this seems counterintuitive, but it's true - consult a patent attorney.
~information is entropy~
First the post, then the movie, then the movie novel...
When you get the software copyright, just check 2a, Anonymous, for authorship. You could instead check Pseudonymous, and make up a cool name like Anonymous Wyoming Coder (make sure you don't live in Wyoming!).
For the mailing address on the copyright form plus the domain name registration, three options:
1. A foreign country if you live there
2. A friend's address (give them 10% of the take!)
3. A Mail Boxes Etc location registered to either a Nonprofit Association that you and a friend set up (reason being is that many states do not require you to register your nonprofit association unless you want to register it to start a court action on behalf of the asssociation) or just have a friend start a company, have them register it in their name (incorporator, sole Director), but then you would own all the shares of the stock, your friend(s) would be the Director(s) and appear in all the public documents, and basically their job would be to say---Gee, I don't know, and collect a % of the profits from you.
People that would buy your Anonymous Lone Coder Software would buy it by Pay Pal only.
If your friend's last name is Smith, then they can start a sole proprietorship called Smith Software or Smith Software International, and since they are not using a fictitious business name, in many states, a filing will not be required. If a sales tax license is required, those are usually not public knowledge.
What are the great benefits of this Anonymous Lone Coder lifestyle? (Besides being DB Cooper?)
1. Your face will never be on the cover of Time and Newsweek (but your logo might, assuming its not a penguin!)
2. You could even release an 'Official' Anonymous Lone Coder Movie, where of course, the fictional character acts sort of like you, but has a much different name...(Smells like VICTORY at Sundance!)
3. Your Anonymous Lone Coding Firm, way out of the spotlight, never coming into the glare of the limelight, will probably do something incredible that will make Open Sourcers drop their jaws in envy and uncontrolled drool!
4. After you do the "impossible" 3 or 4 times, and you have made a firm decision NEVER to tell anyone who the Lone Coder is, then you could even hand over your Lone Coding business to someone who will keep it in the same Anonynmous name, thus giving the illusion that the Lone Coder lives for 150 years or so (of course, you'd have to be 80 and then hand it over to a 20 year old!)
Of course, your movie and anonymous books will inspire more Anonymous Lone Coders to do likewise!
An Anonymous Lone Coder is the opposite of Bill Gates. He or she will be the Un Bill Gates! Where the software and the anonymous lifestyle are so cool, you will be a legend forever...
Of course, only you will know you are the legend...
This will happen!
Would you please inform the Slashdot audience about the name and function of your software.
Thanks.
You wrote:
>>I'm once again, after many years, writing my own commercial software to sell.
Regards,
Kilgore Trout
Yup - I'm worried about patent infringement too. But one of joelonsoftware.com's essay comments stuck in my mind: That html is the "next" api. Maybe we should stop looking at the PC as the platform on which we concoct our million-dollar ideas, and turn our gaze towards the web?
- The Kessel run is for nerf herders. I can circumnavigate the entire Central Finite Curve in a lot less than 12 parse
I think individuals can sometimes accomplish more than teams. We know that coders vary widely; if one coder can be 10 times better than another, it seems reasonable that a very good individual can be as productive as a team, unless the team is really top-notch --- and how many such teams can exist? At the risk of sounding arrogant, I often feel that other programmers get in the way. However, a serious reality is that an individual who wants to do something great has to work hard to stack all the cards in his or her favor. This means, I think, both financial and technical preparation, so that true full-time work is possible. I personally don't think one can produce excellent work and be distracted at the same time. One is also better off if one can choose a hard, smooth problem to solved, rather than an easy, hairy problem. Excessive administration will defeat the Lone Coder. A problem with a thousand function points is difficult for an individual.
I think someone who is a real Lone Coder wouldn't want to sell out to the big boys, but just enjoy the happy prosperous lifestyle...
I don't think its a question of just finding a niche. Just doing something cooler better...
We should wear t-shirts that say:
Friends don't let friends code millions of lines!
You WILL be assimilated...
I don't think the lone coder is formally dead in all software markets, but he has better opportunities forming a team. Now he can fight in niche's markets but needs a lot of skills in areas outside programming to promote his products. If he insist to do it alone will need a lot of creativity, imagination, patience and energy.
What porn have you been reading that still has staples in the centerfolds? Not only do the good magazines use glue bindings these days, but the stereotypical Coder is more likely to be reading his porn on the net.
"...My perception is that one must verify that you don't infringe on any patents when developing new cool software, and that the explosion of patents granted by the USPTO has reached epic proportions. If this perception is true, then that makes it almost impossible for the Lone Coder to create something new that doesn't infringe on other patents. The amount of money required to perform the due diligence research seems like it would be greater than the amount of money needed to develop the software, or even the total revenues that the software could ever generate.
Yes, it seem unlikely that the individual/small company could possibly do "due dilligence" in avoiding patents. This may also be partly true of large companies, but they have assets (other than the obvious one of money) that small companies don't: A large body of patents. Another company claiming patent infringement will have its products carefully compared againt the first company's patents, and there will likely be infringement found. At this point, rather than fight it out in court, the companies sign a cross-licensing agreement and go on their ways.
Smaller companies that don't have the IP/patent assetts cannot play this came, and of course cannot defend themselves from infingement claims (whether valid or not).
I keep reading advice not to bother with a patent unless you have literally millions to defend it.
Tag lost or not installed.
The lone developer still can exist there--I've met some, (work with some as part of current work in managing developer relations for a carrier), and they can succeed--but in all honesty someone working in a garage, by his or her lonesome, will have a very difficult time getting to the point of actually making any money on software or services. The ones who succeed are the exception and often do it as a function of procedural flukes/grandfathering or the very rare killer-like application that gets word of mouth.
Setting aside patents and trademark searches for new applications, which are on their own fairly expensive and time consuming processes, a lone wolf building a game, for example, has the following additional barriers:
Some would say "well, that's what the various shareware, freeware sites are out for, for people to make a name and just get name recognition". Yes, but... carriers are in a position as a distribution waystation, a controller of access if you will, and are very unlikely to give that up just because LoneWolf developer in his college dorm room just wrote the next best solitaire and wants to post it on a distro site.
The era of sitting alone in a basement or dorm room avoiding sunlight, falling in love with your compiler because it understands you better than humans, and basking in the pipe dreams of being the next Alexey Pajitnov is almost over.
The next era might still be open to the teams of Mavericks who Know Their Stuff-- sound, graphics, rendering engines, coding, packaging, sales pitches -- and work as a small team. I've seen that work in this space. Small companies have a better shot at it.
***Foucault is watching you..***
In the early 90's you had to pay M$ for every developing tool you got, no matter if you were helping M$ make money. The entry barrier to the market was not how good/creative you were but the US$3-10k you had to fork just start developing. Pretty stiff for a folk out of school, to not mention of those wanting to do the same on less developed countries! plus you would get the development tool, realized that it was a piece of crap and couldn't return it because "the CD seal was broken".
Then GPL/BSD/Linux et al became commercially viable and not only helped forcing companies to give away their development suites but allowed us to develop pretty sophisticated applications with tools as good or better as the best money can buy. So the LoneCoder could do software with less upfront investment and can brag that his code runs the same in a NASA cluster or a humble home PC. Sure, no one is going to pay you to write GCC again, but that's exactly the idea, not to reinvent the wheel.
And as no one owns the application anymore you don't get shun just because 'KillerCert(tm) certified engineers' are the only ones that know the KillerApp(tm) and they happen to work for KillerSoft(tm).
Of course that lowers the entry barrier so much that anyone can compete with you, including people in other timezones with smaller bills and mortgages to pay... sorry LoneCoder, seems you're not alone in the planet! but the competition was meant to be global anyway, so at least be grateful that the dominant language in software is english (no, many of us didn't learn english to read Shakespeare, but just to make a living).
Still, You have the advantage of being able to have a real face with the client and run to his/her office when something goes wrong, no videoconference/telepresence system will ever replace that.
Carlos J. Hernandez
oh please there s still lots , look at Wavelab, that s still a one man show.
seems to have worked well for Patrick Volkerding, who essentially does the entire Slackware Linux distribution himself.
Get well soon pat!
I'd say that it's not "irrelevant", unless you're talking about the strict definition. Fascism IS the most efficient form of capitalism (so far experienced, at least), hands down. Look at how effectively the Nazis produced WHILE under "sanctions" before WW2.
Slashdot is proof that Sturgeon's Law applies to mankind.
I'm in the same boat as the poster.
My latest approach is to just build a prototype and then find a company that would benefit from the product. The next step is to get a job at that company and befriend the people who have influence up the management chain. You can fill in the rest...
The hard part is not the coding or patents. The two things I find hard are:
a) Building the relationship with people who have influence. Influential people are not easy to meet and in many cases are not open to new ideas. It is ironic because many influential people became so because they introduced a company to a new idea. What is key is that the introduction is more important than the idea.
b) Controlling my passion for the technology/product so that I can properly communicate the vision. I have to focus on the business model for the product and not the product. Creating a compelling business model is hard because if it weren't then someone else would have already done it. It is ironic that the best business models are obvious but they are also unknown.
I'm frightened by patents too but there little I can do to fix that problem. The two problems above are more immediate.
i don't know whether to laugh or to cry!
I'm still alive and well thank you, and living a nice middile-class life-style to boot.
There are plenty of us around too.
I went into a patent attorney's office with a buddy of mine. We started talking. I mention software patents. The attorney guy started to laugh. He said "well that is just a game big companies play. Its an excuse to sue each other." He went on, seriously, and said it would have to be a mathematical formula where it could only be done one way. Otherwise, a software patent would be on very shakey ground. Then he went on and said: "Next time you come in bring a physical prototype of an invention. That might get my attention."
By the way, Frodo lives.
I several occasions I have written code and posted it opensource, binary, BASIC (way back when) or just used it at an ISP or something, then find someone filed a patent based on seeing my Code!.
,
First Byte inc. Filed a Patent on playing PWM Audio on the PC internal Speaker, I assume after disassembling my binary (written in Assembly) that I had posted on Compuserve(the copy a bug I had in that code into there patent). They then started suing everyone who had also dissembled my code and started using it in there products. Finally I become an expert witness for Activision and had to sign an affidavit stating that I had prior art to help get the First Byte patent overturned! And a few companes liscenced the code official from me. http://www.dnull.com/zebraresearch/ (code is posted)
The same is true for much of the code I have done. Some of the first audio and video(in and out), on Apple II, CoCo , PC , C64, Lisa, Mac.
Multimedia over BBS's , Multi-tone audio out of 1bit output (1983)(AKA, polyphonic ringtones),
LCD oscilloscope (1986),
Streaming audio over IP now called VOIP , portable compressed music player (1987),
TCP/IP over Spread Spectrum RF and Laser(1988),
Streaming Video over IP Lan in (1989),
Streaming video across Sun Microsystem global IP WAN, TCP/IP over Laser (1991),
Internet Banking web site(for Wells Fargo 1992)
Livecam (1994),
Content Distribution Networks , fault tolerant web server, Single threaded web server and web server with compressed log files output(1995)
Error Correction over IP, CCTV DVR, Streaming audio over JAVA(1996),
Parallel processor Video Compression and HDTV streaming over the Internet (1999).
Silent computers and water cooled blades(2000),
There was even a company that threated to sue me after stealing my code outright! They just changed the authorship names. Fortunatly I had left hidden in the code in the server if you gave it the right URL from a browser it reported my name as the author. I never managed to stop them from selling there version of the product though.
Can't talk about the newer stuff since I have started to file patents So I don't get prevented from using my own stuff.
My biggest problem is how do I protect myself.
Seems like whenever I try to publish something, someone else borrows it, (or at least the concept) and puts it out farther and faster then I can and takes the credit for it. I know I just plan suck a PR and getting the word out , but still.
I at least want to be able to prove original authorship and invention for the ideas and concepts. And it seems anything less then filing patents one each one has been ineffective.
I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso
Yes, I want to improve the world. I need to become rich to do it.
I have been writing software for large companies for over a decade. My software is fast and easy to use, which reduces headaches and improves the quality of life for the users. I have been focused on business software for a very long time: I am good at it, and most of my ideas focus on business software. I would like to spend time fixing Mozilla and other OSS, but my other projects seem more important because there is nobody else to develop them; Mozilla has other developers and they may eventually implement my ideas, or at least solve my complaints.
Of my current products:
#1 is for businesses. It should make me money. No apologies.
#2 is for businesses, and it will help consumers. It requires major investment to develop, which is why it is planned second. It may make me more money, but it will improve the lives of almost everybody.
#3 was originally designed for business. It requires major investment to complete. The original core is still aimed at business, but the fully developed version may change how everybody uses computers. The current plan is to release the consumer version for free, while selling some applications built on the platform to businesses.
A person doing your charitable actions does not "improve the world"; they improve a very small piece of it, usually by helping something return to the "normal" state. Women should not be battered; sheltering them is important for removing evil, but it does not stop all women from being battered. If I could develop software to stop women from ever being battered, I would, but I have no ideas on the subject (yet).
If you want to help one battered woman, go do it. If I want to help every battered women, I need more resources. With enough money, I can put a shelter in every city and pay the staff. Which of us helps more?
Getting rich is not evil in itself. Many of the people running the United Way get paid well, but they are doing it because they believe. I want to make enough to be able to give my software away. I expect most new software product companies to be sued into oblivion; the business model cannot compete against lawsuit factories; we will need money just to survive the lawsuits.
Check back in 10 years and decide if I made a positive adjustment to "the world".
I spend my life entertaining my brain.
Implementations are not fun, but pound for pound, you get serous cash. Especially if you wrote the software to begin with. You can charge the most.
I work as a consultant. I can't code worth a damn. I write the odd Perl script for kicks, and every so often I get it in my head that I'm going to be a programmer and open up a C book, but I'm really just plain awful at it. What I'm really good at is figuring out how to get things to work. I go to clients houses and offices and spend an awful lot of time watching progress bars slide left, at $90-$50/hour (depending on the contract with the customer, and whether it's Windows or MacOS work) plus travel time so they don't have to, and I keep getting checks in the mail, and handed to me. Yeah, there's a fair amount of work, too, but half the time I get paid serious money to do stuff that is so simple and easy to me, but is fiendishly complex to these designers, lawyers, print shop owners, and moms.
I figure I get twice the average return on investment that the average one-man-software-business gets, and I'm just Joe Consultant.
It just doesn't seem like good business sense anymore to spend so much time and effort coding on closed source projects if you are a small-time operator. If you get in on an open source version of the software you are currently writing for profit, you've got many more eyes looking at bugs, and you have a foot in the services door as a comtributor to a piece of software with, 9 out of 10 times, WAY more name recognition than your software will ever have, and access to a far bigger pool of available cash, at a rate of investment far more in your favor.
Of course, why do you think those Diebold machines all run windows?
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I have found that doing legal searches is for the birds when your a one man operation. The best thing for a small firm to do is specialize heavaly in one very small area. Make something terrible usesful, sell it for lots of money, but keep your costumer base extreamly small.
The last part is easy to prevent... how do you keep a large corporation from smashing you flat cause they don't like your program... ect.
Believe it or not... open source is the answer. Just like the stunt that Netscape pulled. If you have a good program... and your only option if you are sued is to drop out of business, would be to stuff your work under the GNU. It would have exactly the oposite effect of putting your company under by making your program even more advailable then before.
In this case the GNU would be used as a barganing chip. Sue me and yes, I will go away, but you will be fighting my work on the net for the next ten years.
Zeelan
You've all be so helpful. I had a feeling of dispair for awhile. I'm so tired of real crap software, and working for most corporations require that you create mediocre work.I hate that. I currently generate most of my income by working for a big corporation. That said, I also understand that if you make software "perfect" it will never be finished. Balance baby!
A better system founded on eminent domain rights could be legislated and might work somethnig like the following proposal:
Seastead this.
Please... your argument is crap...
1. If you wanted to improve the world, you would want to do it right now, not have it happen ten years from now.
2. You said "nobody else could do it". Your original comment said that it does something longhorn already does. Thus, someone has already done it. You've contradicted yourself and have zero credibility.
3. If you really didn't care about the money aspect of it and really wanted to help, you would scream at the top of your lungs and say "HELP ME!" just as many OSS projects have done. But you don't want to do that... you want to horde the cash (which helps absolutely nobody).
Once again... i have no problem with you getting rich. But there are people out there that do good things, NOW, and they expect nothing for it. You are mysteriously talking about something that is going to help the world but you don't say what it is (except that it replaces something in longhorn... and if that's the case... i don't buy that it helps anyone because if you're trying to make me believe that longhorn functionality is some sort of ground-breaking world-helping piece of code, you're insane), you don't care to tell anyone, and it won't be finished for a LONG time because you're doing it alone.
Help the world? Please... climb back into your hole and help yourself some more. And shut up.
Stop thinking big. That's what's wrong with all you ex-capitalists (anyone who says capitalism exists is lying or blind -- it was replaced with greed decades ago). There are millions of problems right in front of your face, but they're not "big enough" for you. There's no profit in the millions of little problems is there?
If each and every person helped to solve 2 little problems per week (pick up trash, clean parks, help elderly, mentally challenged, etc...) people just may realize that the big problems that needed solving were the millions of little problems.
Don't think small? Give me a break...
Looking for some trees? Open your eyes blind man... you're standing in a forest.
Do one of two things: put the greed aside and help the world, or stuff your altruistic crap in the shitter where it belongs and admit that you could care less about helping anyone but yourself.
Well, as a mechanical designer, I seem to be facing the same problems to a lesser severity than are the software programmers out there. Bottom line right now is that it is cheaper to build stuff - be it software or consumer goods - elsewhere. Our free market economy (not that I'm against it, mind you) dictates that consumers will shift toward the best percieved value. This means if there is a cheaper way to do something, it will be gravitated toward. Thanks to high speed networks and better communications, the distance and language barrier is virtually not an issue to outsourcing anymore. That said, my father is an EE and systems engineer with tons of experience. He can design hardware, write code in at least a half dozen different computer languages, reverse engineer just about any software ( yeah, I'm serious - check out his website ) He is doing OK, although finding a job for direct hire recently has been very difficult. He has, mostly by neccesity, branched out on his own this last year. He is finding that companies here are still interested in doing business, but most of them, by their own admission, don't have the funding for new development right now. Of course, this is in the high-tech feild and what goes on there may or not have any correlation to the bulk of the IT crowd, but I think some observations can be made. First, a lot of people are finding that they truly don't need a faster computer now. I know this flies in the face of everything that hardware research is founded on, but I know a good number of average users who don't care anymore about the new hardware because what they have is more than adequate for anything they ever want to do. Granted, I have a Dell Precision 450 with Dual Xeons and 4 GB of RAM and I still have to wait for it, but I am not the average user. So now we have this entire industry founded and maintained by the continuous quest for keeping up with Moore's law, and a customer base that is growing more and more indifferent to the quest. Granted, there is reason currently for increased computer speed in the increased complexity of software, but the time to market for software is getting greater and greater as the program complexity increases also. This being the case, I believe we are seeing the begining of a paradigm shift in the tech business. As things exist now, a very large percentage of the industry is dedicated to producing faster machines. These faster machines are becoming unneccesary save for people in the industry who need them to aid in producing faster machines because everyone else already has a machine that's fast enough. The high-tech end of the tech industry is breaking down into a feedback loop. The rest of the market is now for consumer goods, where the emphasis is features and price. What this suggests to me is that to be successful a programmer needs to focus on new ways to use the technology. The knowledge of different protocols and how they interface is invaluable. Knowledge of multiple OS requirements, embedded systems - all of it is helpful in creating what the industry now demands. This is spoken of as convergance, but really it breeds divergance because every new device that is supposed to bring technological convergance creates one more device that's out there to choose from. This is the key, however you interpret it; get really good at making the technologies work together. If you can code, great. Now go study some hardware and figure out how to make it all talk amongst itself and do what you want. Hiring a team of developers in India is cheap, but not as cheap as hiring one good freelance system designer in the US who has better resources, a faster system, access to all of the info they need in their own time zone in their native language, and can prototype the entire project themselves. Basically, you can still make it as a lone wolf, but the bar has been raised. A LOT.
just write your code and don't worry about patents. If someone approaches you about a patent you are infringing, they are required to have a reasonable license fee. So if your program is really successful, and someone forces you, just pay the fee if a patent exists on something you did.
Plus most people don't realize that the software patent frenzy is mainly by companies to defend themselves and boost their perceived value as a company. Few actually go out and prosecute infringements. There are some, but the vast majority of software patents are designed around legitimacy as a company and avoiding law suits against them if they can't prove prior art.
Not quite yet...open your curtains. I'm almost sighted in.
What about the original roller coaster tycoon? It was all done by one man. Since then though it has been done by a team. Wish I could make a game that good by myself...
Why would a company buy a product that lacks so much of the functionality they want that it would cost $50000 to add it?
... it gets the "trojan" base of the program out to more people who want to add functionality. Still, I think that sounds really risky and unreliable.
I mean, that'd be great, and sounds like an excellent business model, but I think it might work a little better if it were free in the first place
Lack of eloquence does not denote lack of intelligence, though they often coincide.
jaoswald's post about how little actual patent risk there is to the lone developer is dead-on. The patent game is only an issue when at least one party has millions at stake, and there are LOTS of outcomes that are at least not undesirable.
Actually, that's not quite true: if you want to start a VC-funded business, you MUST have a collection of patent applications showing how well-protected your technology will be. This is because patents are something like trading cards: if you don't have any, everyone will assume you're a hopeless loser, but if you do, you can use them to negotiate mutual non-destruction treaties, increase the value of your business for future financing or sale, etc. Either that, or the VCs need the paper to help hold down their desks. I've never known for sure.
Will your patents have any actual value if matters come to litigation? Almost certainly not: the large party will squash you like a bug, err, excuse me, you will unfortunately end up in a position where your resources are stretched too thinly from the costs and efforts of defending your legal rights to be able to continue operating your business successfully. A pity, that, but sometimes those things just can't be helped.
Actually, as insurance goes, patents are pretty cheap. You can file a provisional ($80), then a year later (if you still have the business) file a utility application ($395), then wait 3 years or so for a first office action, and only then get the lawyers involved (again, if you still think the patent will be useful) to define meaningful claims for the patent. In the meantime, you have applications on file at the USPTO, even published after 18 months, and they make your business look more substantial if you're looking for partners, acquirers, or funding. If you decide actually complete the process (4-5 years minimum), you'll probably have spent at least $10K, but by then you'll certainly be in a position to know whether that kind of investment would be worth while for the business.
There is negligible risk that you will be unable to obtain a patent if you actually want it, given the essentially useless review performed by the PTO. If you try to finish the process on your own, you may end up with some rather convoluted claims--getting the best claims is where skilled legal help is really important. This is not just about legal skill, either--for example, a lawyer who has worked with your particular patent examiner may have valuable insight into what kind of claims will and won't be allowed. This is one of the important things that the specialist firms can provide.
Nolo Press's wonderful book, "Patent it Yourself", explain all about the process as it's supposed to work. However, it doesn't talk much about the end-game and the value of skilled help, nor about how to draft specifications that are sufficiently broad to support a wide variety of claims when the time comes.
Customers are more willing to pay for something when it is clear to them that it's costing the supplier something to supply it. Downloading software looks "free" because it only happens once, but if it's clear that an ongoing service is required, that's easier to justify paying for.
That said, with today's hosting and communication costs, services can be pretty darn cheap to provide: even factoring in the need for reserve capacity to handle unpredictable demands, the gross profit margin can be huge.
This model fits as well with GPL software as with proprietary, and it scales much better than the "support services" model. To provide support, you have to have actual people doing work, but to expand an automated service, you just need more hardware.
YMMV: This is not a trivial model to set up: it just can't work for many types of applications. If the cost is too high, or if it's not clear why the service is an essential and valuable component of the offering, customers will resent it. If the service is essential, but unreliable or overloaded, customers won't much like that, either. And so forth. From a technical and cost perspective, however, it's highly practical.
cheap labor conservatives - they want to keep you hungry enough to be thankful for minimum wage.
Mmmmmmmmmmm ... Spandex!
"Please god don't let them take North beach, too..."
No, the Lone Coder's Girlfriend was hooked on the remarkable seafood jambalaya at Hyde Street Raw Bar and so they wanted to live close enough to be able to dine there and then walk over to The Saloon, where they proposed various schemes involving the number "3" to the red-haired wench who tends bar there...
Thanks for reminding readers about an important third category of patent holders. I am a believer in the patent system as a whole, and my discussion left out the important case of a startup that wants to become a major player, instead of staying a one-person show. The VC game is a wholly different arena, with its own strategies, pitfalls, and rewards.
Depends on the uniqueness of your idea, the more unique, the simpler design you can get away with initially.
As technology continue to grow, pretty wide ass gaps are left out there for you explore, as a lone coder.
Of course, if you're the idea-less, non-creative type, you never had a chance to begin with.
The last time I checked, really snarky sarcasm is not informative or insightful. It's not even slightly interesting. Bleh.