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How To Make Money With Free Software
fons writes "Dutch Python hacker/artist Stani took part in a contest organised by the Dutch Ministry Of Finance to design a 5 euro commemorative coin. And he won, using only free software: 'The whole design was done for 100% with free software. The biggest part consists of custom software in Python, of course within the SPE editor. For the visual power I used PIL and pyCairo. From time to time also Gimp, Inkscape and Phatch helped quite a bit. All the developing and processing was done on GNU/Linux machines which were running Ubuntu/Debian. I would have loved to release the coin under the GPL, which could maybe solve the financial crisis. However for obvious reasons I was not allowed to do that.'"
C# for life!
Just send eight bits to the next eight posters on this Slashdot thread. Within five iterations, you'll have 32 kilobytes of source code!
Here. I'll start.
"00101111"
Oh, I get it.
that's a ice looking coin, well done.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
More like "How to prepare a contest entry using only free software"
I would have loved to release the coin under the GPL, which could maybe solve the financial crisis.
... issuing more credit).
Actually, people printing too much money was how this crisis started in the first place.
(and they are going to solve it by
I would have loved to release the coin under the GPL, which could maybe solve the financial crisis.
Whats next, printing your own cash? Too bad the governments got the market on that cornered.
1. Use free software to collect poop^W^W create porn
2. ???
3. Profit!!
than Canonical.
Step One: Collect Free Software Step Two: ????? Step Three: PROFIT!!!
Wonder if he got permission to use the side of the books.
Excellent plan. Let's devalue everyone's cash.
More like :
- Step one : collect coins
- Step two : collect more coins
- Step three : ???
- Step four : PROFIT !
Votez ecolo : Chiez dans l'urne !
This guy won due to superior design, not due to the fact that he used free software. The free software is in the background, contributing but almost incidental to the final product. That's how is should be though. Free software released the artist from the constraints of having to fit in with someone else's idea of what software or technology he should be allowed to use, leaving him free to be creative and follow his own unique path.
WikiWiki CoinCoin?
(just MY 2 cents..., less depreciation and currency exchange rates)
What's the big deal?
I've seen people recreate entire scenes from "Lost" in MS Paint, but it doesn't mean it's the easier or faster way to do it.
Just means it can be done. I'm not devaluing the work done here, or the benefit of open source software but seriously... I don't see the big deal in this article.
The price is always right if someone else is paying.
This guy is a master of symbolic design. He's the modern heir of the artistic geniuses who did all the dense symbolic religious iconography in early christian churches and for secret societies. It's perfectly fitting, since architecture, particularly classical architecture, is loaded with design secrets and hidden meanings, and the coin is about architecture. This coin being loaded with dense symbolism and being about architecture, I hope there's something masonic hidden on it somewhere. I assume the masons were active in The Netherlands?
My question is - did he just use open-source on principle, or did it confer an advantage on doing this project over the commercial alternatives? Or was it harder to do it with the open source software? Clearly it involved a lot of custom scripting. Did he go as far as to look at the source code to accomplish this, or dig into the software in other ways that couldn't be done with closed source? Anybody know?
Can anyone tell me how to set my sig on Slashdot?
...it made me giggle with joy to see the guy mention he won against people using Adobe products. I teach Adobe products to impressionable college students, and when they sign up to take my class and purchase their own copy of Photoshop or Illustrator, boy do they think they have ARRIVED in cool-town. Many of my new students think that once they *understand* how to use Photoshop better than most, they are now a graphic designer, creative person, illustrator, web designer, etc.
So I started doing an extra credit assignment where I tell them they are not allowed to use Adobe products, and they have to design a postcard. They use any package they want; most use GIMP or Inkscape because they're free. Without fail, they come back and say, "hey, I can't do anything with this. It's not Adobe. It sucks." So I point out to them that their Adobe software skills make them think they're pretty good at design. But what happened to their awesome design skills when they started using another software package? Does the software really suck, or do they just hate it because of its non-Adobeness? I show them nicely-done work by other GIMP or Inkscape users. Blank looks. Lesson ensues.
Relying on a specific software package is fine. *Depending* on it is risky. And *not being able* to design using anything else because of some marketing-infused mental block just means you're spoiled and/or ignorant. Bravo for the true creativity displayed in the article.
For the humor-impaired, it's a pun:
make (earn) money vs. make (design) money
referring to the often asked question, how do you make money with free software.
get it?
How to make a joke with free software?
Seems to be quite difficult on Slashdot. It is like showing a caricature of Mohammed to a muslim. They shurely won't laugh and some of them want to behead you.
All you need to do is this! Its simple and GUARANTEED to make YOU money! $$$!
Pay me $500 for the right to develop my wonderful ideas, and then just recruit TWO MORE PEOPLE to develop it for you, and promise that they get money! GUARANTEED RESULTS!!!! YOU can make FREE MONEY!! FREEEEEEE!!!!!!
The more talent you have, the less important the tools are.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
WikiWiki CoinCoin?
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
sell it!
I'd to love buy a commemorative edition, but the Royal Dutch Mint appears not to ship outside the EU.
and the thoughts that went into it.
I find the design pretty daring and radical. But still, without knowing anything about art or design, I can tell that a lot of thought went into it.
That it's done with free software is ++, and just goes to show how effective it can be, when put into capable hands.
congratulations.
Asked what he was going to do with the award money, the artist said "I'll finally be able to afford Photoshop!" ;)
Sanity is a sandbox. I prefer the swings.
On the topic of open source media applications, does an open source video editor exist? Something in the ballpark functionality of Premier, After Affects, or Final Cut? All I know of is Jahshaka, and that hasn't been maintained properly in forever and a day.
finally. someone. got it.
On second thought, let's not go to Camelot. It is a silly place.
"Free software released the artist from the constraints of having to fit in with someone else's idea of what software or technology he should be allowed to use, leaving him free to be creative and follow his own unique path."
Uh huh, and exactly what constraint was he under that a piece of paper and a number 6H pencil wouldn't solve? I know we all like to cheer on free software but in this example his "unique path" was constrained only by himself.
Shai Schticks:"You don't make peace with friends, you make peace with enemies"
He won a design contest, the logical conclusion? He can't design.
Only in Slashdot ...
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
What's the significance of this story supposed to be? People have been designing things without proprietary software for centuries. Ever heard of pencil and paper? I don't see people bragging about using those tools... so what's the big deal if somebody uses Free software to do the same thing?
... and then they built the supercollider.
So lets get this straight. Someone did something using free software. YAY. But had to do it with custom software using several libraries and then three more external programs?
This is far from news worthy. In fact this is worthy of sweeping under the rug before someone realises how hard this was to do with OSS, and how the creator had way too much spare time on his hands.
.
To my eyes, at least, the coin looks like a technical exercise in mechanical drawing and perspective.
Ingenious, perhaps, but not necessarily emotionally satisfying:
benedick
I am a VI user not an Emacs user.
Why? Because emacs often requires installation, where VI is by default on almost every Linux and Unix system, it's also an extended version of "ed" that is a very useful tool.
Anyhow it's not small mindedness, because C# is closed and proprietary it very limited in it use.
For example you will not see developers porting the language to new systems. Only Microsoft can do that!
Hence it's not a real language in that respect.
How about project usage? Can you write an OS with it. Or program set top boxes or other embedded applications?
real languages can go anywhere. it's not some petty personal bias. It's a real fact, C, C++, Forth, Java can be counted on as running on almost even known CPU and hardware device ever developed.
C and Forth are almost university the first languages to run on any CPU!!!
Where C and Forth goes, Python, perl, php, java, pascal and many other languages are easy to port over on top of the C compiler. Except C#, J++ and other proprietary solutions.
Try that with C#. Oh you don't have the language source code... Oooh too bad. You don't have source for all of your libraries or even a clean spec on how things are supposed to work. Oh well call m$ and see if they can help.
vi for life!
see my site http://www.churchofbsd.org/
I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso
You just got whoooosh'd.
...looks like the Wheel of Fortune.
So, basically, shovels are better than back hoes because with a shovel you can make both small and big holes, but with back-hoes, you can only make big holes. However, what you aren't taking into account is that while backhoes can't make small holes, they are way more efficient at making big ones.
And just for the record, a "small hole" is a low-level project, such as an operating system, and a "big hole" is a higher-level system, like a software program.
I'm not saying that C# is better than C, just that they have different purposes and are therefore better at different things.
So, I saw your site, and see where you have a quote from Ken Thompson. Only, you attribute to him the authorship of C, when everyone knows C was created by Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson invented UNIX.
correct facts for life!
How does the vi get onto the unix and linux systems? Oh it gets installed. Just like emacs. Not using emacs because it's not installed by default is a pretty silly reason. Unless you just stick to whatever software comes with the machine out of the box, you have to install something. So you may as well install emacs. M-x-install-emacs
Not sure how serious you were, but I think I can counter.
First, you say that C# is a closed and proprietary language. You also say there is no spec for the C# language. While Microsoft's C# compiler itself may be closed source and proprietary software, it is an open standard per ECMA. You also state that developers won't be porting the language to new systems, yet I can count at least two compilers (both open source) available for non Microsoft systems.
You then ask if it can be used to create an operating system, if it can program set top boxes, or be used in embedded systems. Well, yes (Singularity), eventually (it has been noted that one use of Singularity would be set top boxes) and yes (.NET Compact Framework or Embedded Linux with Mono).
You may state these solutions are inefficient or inadequate, and I won't argue against that. However, to say they don't exist at all is not true.
I think there are a gaggle of devs on the Mono project who would have to disagree with your sweeping statements about the non-portability of C#. Good on ya, Monodevs (:
NASA design Apollo space project on the back of OSS paper napkins using OSS pencils.
Hooray, isn't OSS just the pants !
This is not news, this is an OSS wankfest.
is that a metaphor for free software, also?
i mean, don't get me wrong, i'm writing this on an Ubuntu box loaded with free software, some of which i even use. but free software in general can be unrefined and unapproachable. and that's exactly how i see this coin. even the denomination is not prominent. it seems to be designed to appeal to nerds (art or otherwise), and not the actual people that need to use it.
I use GIMP on Windows, both XP and Vista.
From GIMP images do not come out "dull", as from other popular image editing software.
And yes, I like this 5 euro coin.
".. Gimp, Inkscape and Phatch" hmm, Phatch? Never heard of that one, but since it's being mentioned in one breath with those two awesome products... Lands me on a page of a utility cobbled together by the winner of the prize himself, Stani. Offering downloads for 3 releases of Ubuntu and nothing more, unless you count the oodles of Google ads.
Guess all he really needed was Python, PIL, pyCairo, GIMP and Inkscape and then some way to do a little batch processing. Which is not to say that I don't like the fact that a coder won a design contest by coding his own tools that were perfect for the job...
it's also an extended version of "ed" that is a very useful tool.
Yesterday my Fedora 9 updater told me that I had a security update.
For ed.
Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
He is Stani who wrote SPE, Stani's Python Editor. A really good IDE for Python. sudo apt-get install spe and have a look at it.
I would have loved to release the coin under the GPL, which could maybe solve the financial crisis. However for obvious reasons I was not allowed to do that.
What are the obvious reasons ? The coin will circulate, will be displayed in many website, its creation is sponsored by the state and is normally in the public domain. What prevents you from GPLing the files used for its creation ?
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
This reminds me how NeXTStep programs were usually written in C#...
No ascii art.
First way: (the redhat method)
Step 1: wait:
for a commercial product to be successful after years of money is spent designing and coding it. keep waiting until someone decides to clone that product on his own for curiosity or because of a belief in free software
Step 2: collect it into a distribution. Hire some people to 'support' it.
Step 3:Profit
Alternately (the stalman method):
1: convince people free software is a great idea
2: collect large speaking fees discussing the work done by others who have taken up your cause.
3: profit
The coin is a Dutch euro, but Stani himself is Belgian, even though he currently lives in the Netherlands.
"I Just Want You To Hurt Like I Do" - Randy Newman
sed users don't get "whooshed".
?
May contain traces of nut.
Made from the freshest electrons.
Stani explained the way he made the coin at a Dutch python user group meeting in Amsterdam. Everyone attending was really enthousiastic about it. http://reinout.vanrees.org/weblog/archive/2008/09/12/python-calculated-coin
Good to see that he's written an article himself with the full explanation and graphs! Nicely done.
Reinout van Rees
"As if an instructor would just cart in Open Source software one day and tell students they are forbidden to use some in-demand commercial package."
That's, of course, not what I said.
Free as in beer not speech. Just to clarify
it's also an extended version of "ed" that is a very useful tool.
Yesterday my Fedora 9 updater told me that I had a security update.
For ed.
So Fedora informed you that you have erectile dysfunction and it's making you insecure...And people complain about Microsoft being "Big Brother".
And just for the record, a "small hole" is a low-level project, such as an operating system
I don't think any operating system qualifies as a "small hole".
in girum imus nocte et consumimur igni
"For example you will not see developers porting the language to new systems. Only Microsoft can do that!"
Sorry, but have you never in your life heard of Mono? I have successfully written and compiled a Linux C# application with Mono. It's a workable language, though it really depends on tastes and purposes, NOT "how portable it is", because it IS if you write your application just right.
I am not devoid of humor.
it's also an extended version of "ed" that is a very useful tool.
Yesterday my Fedora 9 updater told me that I had a security update.
For ed.
Did the update prompt look something like this:
?