But, tell me, why can't you just say to your boss something like, "The guys that develop this are volunteers and won't be able to get back to us in time because they are at there day jobs right now. How about I figure out who to talk to and send off an email while you get me something else to work on for right now?"
Sometimes they can and sometimes they can't. Sometimes they have the time to do research and other times they don't. They may have fired off requests to half a dozen people and they will use the first 2 or 3 to respond. That is the way of the world.
If they have sold their editor on a feature article on (say) Debian 5.0 then I would expect them to send off a few requests for info or interviews with a deadline of a few days and to be willing to spend some time doing some research on the web. On the other hand, if they have sold their editor on a feature article on trends in the netbook market then they have probably sent requests to Dell, Microsoft, Qualcom,... as well as to Ubuntu, Debian, KDE,... They may be intending to use the first couple of commercial companies who can respond and the first couple of open-source projects who can respond.
My day job is in marketing in the software industry. I often work with the press and other PR targets (e.g. analysts). Sometimes I can respond quickly and other times not. I understand their deadlines (which vary hugely) and they understand my issues. The reality is that sometimes I can help them and other times I can't. If I can't help them then I don't complain when they haven't covered my message.
In my view, more open-source projects should take a semi-professional approach to press coverage. Create good press releases. Have a press page on the website with useful resources for the press. Have a press@... email list for the press to contact, preferably with members in different timezones. Have agreed upon messages that all the people on that list are working towards getting out.
In the case where commercial companies choose to contribute engineering resources I would like them to consider also contributing some PR/marketing resource as well.
Hell, you don't really multitask on a computer either. Or do you edit spreadsheet and presentations at the same time? No you do not. You do your tasks one at a time, switching between different apps. And you can do that just fine on the iPhone as well.
I don't multitask (my wife would say that is because I am a man) but my computer certainly does. While I am switching between my spreadsheet and my presentation my computer is playing my music (streamed or accessed locally) and is also downloading my email in the background so I can read it once I get on the plane. And, as this is a full Linux device, it is probably also updating my svn working copy so that I can work on tracking down that annoying bug in the application I develop while I am on the flight as well.
Or, while I am driving and talking on the phone (using my handsfree, of course), the satnav function is continuing to track where I am and the speed camera application is pinging as I approach cameras.
It says "some condition" so I am assuming it is a conditional expression, must likely a comparison test (e.g. ab). Converting the result of a comparison to an int requires a conditional jump. Exactly the same conditional jump that is required for an if! If it was a boolean I am assuming the poster would have said "some boolean".
If I still had some mod points I would have given you +1 Funny! Just in case someone else sees this and doesn't get the joke: turning a "condition" into a 0 or 1 (for the multiplication) involves at least as much branching (in the assembler code) as having written:
I read Gibson's work first and really liked it. When I tried Stephenson I found him boring and just derivative -- it felt like bad Gibson with no new ideas. Even the characters seemed to be copied (come on, really, Y.T. vs. Molly?).
Maybe Stephenson's tech is more realistic (although spoilt by the Sumerian crap in Snow Crash). But Gibson's writing is so much better and his ideas were fresh at the time. I strongly recommend reading Gibson, skipping Stephenson and going on to Iain M. Banks or Gridlinked by Neal Asher.
If they paid some of us. I did explain that the Linux developers weren't going to be interested otherwise, but that Nokia could do what they wanted with their own paid engineers if they designed it the way I laid out. I will even help them, at my full consulting rate, if they want, and will put some of that back into my work on Free Software. I don't think this is about licences: it is about developers. Nokia want developers to contribute, even though they believe things like SIM-locks and DRM are necessary realities.
As I said in my post to the maemo-users discussion about this, there are some developers (including me) who do accept that. I am willing to accept SIM-locks (although not US-style application locks) and I would even accept some DRM if it was used differently (optional, and provided users with considerable discounts for using it).
I am willing to contribute my time, effort and intellectual property, as long as this remains my favourite toy. In exchange, I would like Nokia to use their commercial power to do things like implement DRM in a fair way.
Slashdot Mirror
Doesn't that just suggest that polar bears love to eat penguins?
But, tell me, why can't you just say to your boss something like, "The guys that develop this are volunteers and won't be able to get back to us in time because they are at there day jobs right now. How about I figure out who to talk to and send off an email while you get me something else to work on for right now?"
Sometimes they can and sometimes they can't. Sometimes they have the time to do research and other times they don't. They may have fired off requests to half a dozen people and they will use the first 2 or 3 to respond. That is the way of the world.
If they have sold their editor on a feature article on (say) Debian 5.0 then I would expect them to send off a few requests for info or interviews with a deadline of a few days and to be willing to spend some time doing some research on the web. On the other hand, if they have sold their editor on a feature article on trends in the netbook market then they have probably sent requests to Dell, Microsoft, Qualcom, ... as well as to Ubuntu, Debian, KDE, ... They may be intending to use the first couple of commercial companies who can respond and the first couple of open-source projects who can respond.
My day job is in marketing in the software industry. I often work with the press and other PR targets (e.g. analysts). Sometimes I can respond quickly and other times not. I understand their deadlines (which vary hugely) and they understand my issues. The reality is that sometimes I can help them and other times I can't. If I can't help them then I don't complain when they haven't covered my message.
In my view, more open-source projects should take a semi-professional approach to press coverage. Create good press releases. Have a press page on the website with useful resources for the press. Have a press@... email list for the press to contact, preferably with members in different timezones. Have agreed upon messages that all the people on that list are working towards getting out.
In the case where commercial companies choose to contribute engineering resources I would like them to consider also contributing some PR/marketing resource as well.
Hell, you don't really multitask on a computer either. Or do you edit spreadsheet and presentations at the same time? No you do not. You do your tasks one at a time, switching between different apps. And you can do that just fine on the iPhone as well.
I don't multitask (my wife would say that is because I am a man) but my computer certainly does. While I am switching between my spreadsheet and my presentation my computer is playing my music (streamed or accessed locally) and is also downloading my email in the background so I can read it once I get on the plane. And, as this is a full Linux device, it is probably also updating my svn working copy so that I can work on tracking down that annoying bug in the application I develop while I am on the flight as well.
Or, while I am driving and talking on the phone (using my handsfree, of course), the satnav function is continuing to track where I am and the speed camera application is pinging as I approach cameras.
(e.g. ab)
Oops. Meant to say: a<b
It says "some condition" so I am assuming it is a conditional expression, must likely a comparison test (e.g. ab). Converting the result of a comparison to an int requires a conditional jump. Exactly the same conditional jump that is required for an if! If it was a boolean I am assuming the poster would have said "some boolean".
If I still had some mod points I would have given you +1 Funny! Just in case someone else sees this and doesn't get the joke: turning a "condition" into a 0 or 1 (for the multiplication) involves at least as much branching (in the assembler code) as having written:
in the first place!
I read Gibson's work first and really liked it. When I tried Stephenson I found him boring and just derivative -- it felt like bad Gibson with no new ideas. Even the characters seemed to be copied (come on, really, Y.T. vs. Molly?).
Maybe Stephenson's tech is more realistic (although spoilt by the Sumerian crap in Snow Crash). But Gibson's writing is so much better and his ideas were fresh at the time. I strongly recommend reading Gibson, skipping Stephenson and going on to Iain M. Banks or Gridlinked by Neal Asher.
Obviously tastes differ.
If they paid some of us. I did explain that the Linux developers weren't going to be interested otherwise, but that Nokia could do what they wanted with their own paid engineers if they designed it the way I laid out. I will even help them, at my full consulting rate, if they want, and will put some of that back into my work on Free Software.
I don't think this is about licences: it is about developers. Nokia want developers to contribute, even though they believe things like SIM-locks and DRM are necessary realities.
As I said in my post to the maemo-users discussion about this, there are some developers (including me) who do accept that. I am willing to accept SIM-locks (although not US-style application locks) and I would even accept some DRM if it was used differently (optional, and provided users with considerable discounts for using it).
I am willing to contribute my time, effort and intellectual property, as long as this remains my favourite toy. In exchange, I would like Nokia to use their commercial power to do things like implement DRM in a fair way.