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$1000 Bounty For Podcasting on the Neuros
PDA_Monkey writes "Neuros Audio, makers of the Neuros Digital Audio Computer and the Neuros MPEG-4 Recorder, have announced on their open development blog that they will pay $1,000 USD to the first developer to enable sending and receiving podcasts from/to the Neuros."
A pod cast combines RSS, blogging, and mp3/aac: basically, an RSS feed reader picks up the URI for the mp3 file, downloads it automatically, then hands it off automatically to the music synching program which itself automatically synchs it to the player. The point is that once you subscribe to a podcast, it magically appears on your player the next time you synch the player after a new edition. The reason folks call it a "podcast" rather than just an "mp3cast" is because it is very easy for software on the client computer to stick something into iTunes for synchronization. So that's basically what Neuros wants: a program that will automatically download and synch mp3 files on a schedule.
People are complaining about this off the bat.
...
/. "Developers", so it gets about 1% the traffic of a normal post, its not exactly a marketing coup.
... a developer doing this on their own (which likely would have happened eventually assuming Neuros users care about podcasting) for nothing or have the company say "hey, while you're doing all this free stuff, try this and if it works we'll pay ya for it"?
... well .. I'm procastinating because I'm still pissed). I have never worked for DI nor have I developed anything for it (I'm thinking of getting back into it, but my SqueezeBox is also a tempting hack target). Point is ... I know the product and the company. Those who don't shouldn't make comments about things they don't know about.
1) Yeah, you have to own a Neuros first to even develop this.
2) Yeah, you could look at this like Neuros is changing contract pay to a prize.
But
A) No one said you personally must participate -and- the neuros community has alot of developers. This was targetted as a bonus for existing Neuros owners who develop, not to try and snooker a bunch of non-Neuros-owning people. Face it, it got put on
B) Which is better
NOTE: Yes, I own a Neuros (had 2 until one was stolen) and yes I know the owners of Digital Innovations which created the Neuros and when I had the time I was even helping them start to open source parts of the Neuros. However, I don't use my Neuros right now (when the other got stolen they got my upgraded drive and both sync cables and
It is more productive to voice thoughtful opinions (reply) than to judge (moderate) others.
Well, this really is something of an experiment. We'll see how it goes. We're certainly not averse to paying contractors or developing stuff in house, but we figured we'd throw this out there and see what happens. This way we don't have to choose a developer based on a resume and anyone can take a shot at it.
Honestly, it might wind up a horrible failure, and we'll learn something from that too.
What works and doesn't work in encouraging open source development is a tricky issue and honestly the best way to figure it out is through experimentation and trying a lot of different things.
If you're going through hell, keep going -Winston Churchill