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Miro Asks Users To "Adopt" Lines of Source

soDean writes "The FOSS video player / downloader Miro is asking its users to support development by 'adopting' a line of source code for $4 a month. Each adopted line of code comes personalized with a little avatar character that will grow older over the year. PCF, which makes Miro, says they think the project is the first of its kind and they believe it's a chance to 'to have a truly bottom up funding base.'"

38 of 178 comments (clear)

  1. what happens by binford2k · · Score: 4, Funny

    when your line of code dies?

    1. Re:what happens by Chabo · · Score: 5, Funny

      Or maybe if someone decides to deprecate your method just to spite you?

      --
      Convert FLACs to a portable format with FlacSquisher
    2. Re:what happens by rolfwind · · Score: 5, Funny

      when your line of code dies?

      It gets buried properly, it gets inserted into the Duke Nukem Forever project.

    3. Re:what happens by CrimsonScythe · · Score: 5, Funny

      I just adopted this little gem:

      }

      I hope they won't port it to Python any day soon, though...

      --
      The view was horrible and the smell was even worse; Julie severely regretted becoming a proctologist.
    4. Re:what happens by cstdenis · · Score: 2, Funny

      Too late.

      You'll have to settle for:

              try:
      or
              else:

      --
      1984 was not supposed to be an instruction manual.
    5. Re:what happens by GumphMaster · · Score: 2, Funny

      Just adopt:

      while (true) {

      and all will be well

      --
      Patent litigation: A doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction... in which everyone seems willing to push the button
    6. Re:what happens by nospam007 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Not to mention that I already own tons of files full of lines with 'old' code.
      The room is full of it, some lines have even beards.
      Why adopt another one is beyond me.

    7. Re:what happens by Darinbob · · Score: 2, Funny

      Is this the Tamagotchi model of development?

    8. Re:what happens by paroneayea · · Score: 2, Informative

      Actually, we've stripped all the redundant lines out of the adoptable lines in the database well before we launched. Including that one, including try, except, blah blah. :) And Miro *IS* written in python, fwiw.

      --
      http://mediagoblin.org/
  2. Smart FOSS Marketing! by alain94040 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Finally an Open Source project with some real marketing geniuses on board! That alone deserves celebration.

    I don't think this will quite work, but it's a step in the right direction. Will users get to pick which line they adopt? You could even imagine an auction system. Some lines might become very trendy: "I own the main function declaration of the program, but that cost me $500".

    I'll ask the people on my entrepreneur network if they like the model!

    1. Re:Smart FOSS Marketing! by Propaganda13 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Change $4 to $1 and they might get more bites.

    2. Re:Smart FOSS Marketing! by jvillain · · Score: 2, Insightful

      $4 per line per month?????? This must be the most expensive code in history. What are these guys smoking?

    3. Re:Smart FOSS Marketing! by guyminuslife · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Nonsense.

      Do you really, honestly think that there is even a remote possibility that they'll have more adopters than lines of code? Or even close?

      --
      I don't believe in time. It's a grand conspiracy designed to sell watches.
    4. Re:Smart FOSS Marketing! by hansamurai · · Score: 3, Funny

      Hey, you haven't seen how much my company pays me to write one line of code.

    5. Re:Smart FOSS Marketing! by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 3, Informative

      Well, at 40,000,000 lines of Code Windows XP would have cost $160,000,000...

      --
      You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
    6. Re:Smart FOSS Marketing! by PReDiToR · · Score: 2, Insightful

      WindowsXP has cost the world economy far more than that over it's life.

      --

      Do not meddle in the affairs of geeks for they are subtle and quick to anger
  3. Where's Sally Struthers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    "For only $4 a month, you can give this line of source clean electricity and information to process and grow."

    1. Re:Where's Sally Struthers? by TerribleNews · · Score: 5, Funny

      Oh, yeah, my parents adopted a line of code in Beliz or Botswanna or something and they kept getting printfs from him ever month and then one day they decided to go visit him in his village and when they got there it turned out he'd been commented out years ago and his parents had been keeping the $4 and writing fake output. True story.

  4. Revolutionary by curtix7 · · Score: 4, Funny

    the end of one line if statements and ternary operators as we know them.

  5. Comments? by bughunter · · Score: 4, Funny

    Do I get a discount if I adopt a comment?

    --
    I can see the fnords!
    1. Re:Comments? by AcidDeath · · Score: 5, Funny

      Do I get a discount if I adopt a comment?

      Only if its inaccurate and misleading.
      So yes.

  6. The Sims by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Now the developers at Miro will spend all their time making sure their emoticons age properly instead of actually coding!

  7. Re:$4 a line?? by acordes · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Can't tell for sure if you're joking, but the average commercial programmer only generates something like 10 SLOCS per day (can't remember the exact number). Hopefully companies are paying their developers more than $40 per day :).

  8. Way to make a killing by BitZtream · · Score: 2, Insightful

    At $4/month that would be a nice way to make a killing in profits.

    Of course the result will be something roughly like the whole pixel advertising schemes in the end and Miro itself will suck, but hats off for the a good scam to make money of software.

    --
    Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
  9. Re:$4 a line?? by Chabo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Hopefully companies are paying their developers more than $40 per day :).

    Depends on whether those jobs have been sent overseas.

    On a related note, I'm genuinely curious: what's the average salary for developers look like in the countries to which companies often outsource work, like India and China?

    --
    Convert FLACs to a portable format with FlacSquisher
  10. I have been gypped by DarkIye · · Score: 5, Funny

    // This is line #273523

  11. Whole Function or Class by some_guy_88 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If they let you adopt a whole function or even a whole class, this could be a cool way of not only making money but also minimising bugs.

    People who adopt are likely going to read the code they get so this is a good way to get lots of eyes on the source.

    Just a thought..

  12. Re:Doesn't bode well by ShawnCplus · · Score: 3, Funny

    // This line of code brought to you by Error Establishing Database Connection

    --
    Excuse me while I gather the virgin sacrifice and assemble the pentagram required to solve your problem
  13. rent? by mevets · · Score: 2, Funny

    If I adopt a line, can I charge other lines rent for using it?

  14. Re:$4 a line?? by vux984 · · Score: 2, Interesting


    On a related note, I'm genuinely curious: what's the average salary for developers look like in the countries to which companies often outsource work, like India and China?

    If this is to be believed:
    http://www.payscale.com/research/IN/Job=Software_Engineer_%2F_Developer_%2F_Programmer/Salary

    Software Engineer / Developer / Programmer with 5-10 yrs experience makes a media salary of around 430k Rupees. (between 8.5k and 9k US.) Interestingly, 10-20yrs experience is actually lower. (I'd guess they've got less in demand skillsets.)

  15. Re:$4 a line?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Hah, I know! I write thousands of lines of code a day!

    My coworkers keep telling me I could do the same thing in just 10 lines of code of decent, maintainable code by refactoring and using abstraction, but I'm pretty sure they're all just slackers.

  16. There's the signpost up ahead... by Marko+DeBeeste · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...You've just crossed from "Creative" to "Cute." Next up: An endless stream of tote bags.

    --
    Faith: n. -- That human impulse that drives them to steal appliances when the power goes out
  17. Forget adopt a child... by sourICE · · Score: 5, Funny

    Why support a child when I can support i++?

  18. Re:$4 a line?? by larry+bagina · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The average programmer spends most of that day in meetings or researching/analyzing/testing before modifying existing code to fix a bug or add new features.

    --
    Do you even lift?

    These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

  19. Re:$4 a line?? by Gwala · · Score: 3, Interesting

    We have a group in Shanghai - we've got pretty well qualified guys in our office, we pay them 14,000 RMB per month (~US$2,000). They get about 8,000-10,000 of that with the rest going to the government in payroll taxes.

    More average developers come in at between 6,500 to 8,500 RMB per month.

    --
    #!/bin/csh cat $0
  20. Cheap trick... by Paaskonijn · · Score: 5, Funny

    I get this on the page:

    Hello there! It looks like you are visiting from Europe

    Did you know that there are more Miro users in Europe than in the United States, but more than 99% of our financial support comes from American donations and philanthropies?

    Europe loves open-source, right? Help us make something great!

    Sounds like they're trying to cash in on our hatred for the U.S. :)

  21. Re:$4 a line?? by CecilPL · · Score: 3, Insightful

    When the project you're working on has a total line count in the millions, most of which was written 10 years ago, you better be damn sure those 10 lines of code you're adding don't break some seemingly unrelated area in a seemingly unrelated way that takes someone else a week to debug.

    Don't forget the 1/2 of your time you spend researching, writing documentation, and going to meetings.

    Working as a professional software developer is a lot different than hacking around on your 10k line hobby project.

  22. Having used Miro by Fnord666 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Having used Miro, I want to adopt the following line:
    10 REM

    --
    'The tyrant will always find pretext for his tyranny.' - Aesop's Fables