So what is the oldest continuous content?
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The Web Is 16 Today
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Given a 16 year old web, what's the oldest continous content? Dr. Fun ceased, User Friendly "only" goes back to 1997 (a mere 9 years), I know of a monthly column that's come out each month since 1996 (RPGnet Soapbox, 10 years), but I'm out of examples.
Sites like photo.net date back to 1993 (13 years), but that's not the same as a single person chugging steadily for all 16. Anyone know of a creator who has hit their deadlines on the web for all 16 years?
Hmm... if suing a spammer, I'd recommend reading their emails via a browser from a computer at a library. Sure, maybe you read them elsewhere, but for the purposes of your complaint, go to the library and read them there, and mention that as your complaint. "I received spam, when I was checking my email as I often do via the PC at the library."
Then, if they need 'the hard drive', it's up to the ALA to fight it, and that's a fight no judge wants to start.
> None of the Linux problem of trying to figure out if there even is a driver.
True, I find Linux hardware issues (for me) to be a simple operation, though I think this mostly says I expect computers to 'just work'.
"Does it install out of the box" (e.g. does cups know my printer, does sane see my scanner, does gPhoto see my camera).
"If yes", I'm all set! "If no", I ditch the hardware and move on. Craigslist, ebay, freecycle, whatever.
The contrast with Windows is, there probably is a windows driver out there but finding it and installing it is always a pain, and even then it may not work. Try looking up jamcam, for example... one could argue it's an older product, but then that changes the entire dialog to 'sure, everything will work as long as you have the latest version of Windows and it's a recent bit of hardware', and that's not really an answer, it's an apology in advance.
I don't have hours to waste with computers any more. So really, my choice is:
'Does it work under Linux with no fiddling... if not, toss' versus 'Will, after a hassle of configuration, the device work under Windows-- if not, toss... but I've also lost many hours.' The latter happens all too frequently... USB mice, iToy, a USB tablet, the stack of 'hardware that should work under Windows but doesn't' in my house is huge.
So I'm rather jaded about the myth of 'windows drivers are available and work', I rank that up there with 'Windows games will run under Windows' as I've hit too many buggy games, copy-protected CDs that fail, and other hassles such that I'd say fully 10% of games I've bought don't run under Windows.
It's odd to say "knowing games won't work under Linux saves me hassles", or that I prefer hardware to either just work or not, without making me spend time. I think computers should just work without making me work.
I admit I'll often research things first to see if they work, e.g. if a piece of hardware is listed as 'works out of the box on Linux', great! If a game says 'runs on Linux', great! When they _do_ get listed that way, they always do work-- I feel there's a high trust level when something is listed as working under Linux. Whereas I get disproprotionatly annoyed when something doesn't work under Windows because the response is usually 'it works under Windows, but not _my_ Windows' setup, so it's somehow my problem now.' That's counter to the myth that 'windows stuff just works and linux needs twiddling.'
So, summarizing, I think Windows has the edge because it's pre-installed and people cut it a lot of slack when you have to jump through hoops installing hardware, and the implication if something doesn't work is it's the user's fault. If Linux were pre-installed and people cut it similar slack, the myth of 'linux is hard' would be gone.
> Until Linux is pre-installed, it won't matter to the majority of home users.
I agree. Most users don't add much to a PC other than printers, scanners, or cameras. And when they do, and run into trouble, it's never a Windows thing. Windows can do no wrong for many users.
Even if I get frustrated installing audio hardware on a Windows box, it's not Window's fault. If it's been a linux box, the user would have just said "can't you just use Windows", but because it was Windows, they meekly accepted that you had to:
* specifically _not_ plug in the new hardware
* go to the website for drivers
* install the drivers
* reboot
* finally plug in the hardware
* hunt down where the installed driver was put and manually specify it
* reboot
In the end, they blamed the audio manufacturer (M-Audio) for the hassles!
So Windows can't lose. What it does right is its credit, when it causes trouble with installing-- it's the other manufacturer's fault.
If Linux had that kind of double standard, it'd be on everyone's desktop. So it's a pre-installed thing, a marketing thing, and a "most users don't run into trouble so they blame troubles elsewhere" thing.
I wish someone would make a gumstick or kurobox that has sound, which is often neglected on these. I need:
USB (for an external drive) Ethernet (to hook it up to the house network) Sound output (soundblaster-era quality is fine enough) Cost under $100
All I want is a gumstick-sized ultra-low power consumption quiet jukebox. Right now I use an old Pentium II that sucks up way too much power. Sound, internet, USB, low power consumption, low price... it's not a tough combination. But I haven't found any out there. Anyone know of one?
I'm still looking for an equivalent to the old Amiga "Fantavision" program. Drop dead simple, basically a 'paint' program with built-in tweening. While its selection of drawing primatives was limited to 'polygon', its user interface was great and it was fun for doing abstract stuff.
Is there anything out there for purely amateur purposes?
The article kept talking about 'indie', but missed the fact that emusic has a huge back catalog of classic rock and earlier. You want Deep Purple or Eric Burdon, they've got it. It's easy to get much of what you hear on classic rock radio. And since so many (too many) stations are switching to 'classic rock', this must mean people want it.
They also have live stuff. Interested in Colin Hay's solo takes on 'Men at Work', or (back to Deep Purple) live Deep Purple? And what they call indie, I'm not so sure-- Tom Waits gets a lot of media coverage and movie deals for an 'indie'. He's there.
They also have a phenomenal jazz and blues section, which is yet another niche not served. Miles Davis or Charlie Parker aren't "indy", after all. And there's folk, and celtic, and world. It's that 'long tail' model. Basically, emusic has a mix of radio stuff, and all the stuff you can't buy on CD at your local Walmart anyway.
I guess I'm tired of anyone not carrying the latest pop being labeled 'indie', particularly given pop's tendency to forget the past. I don't want this to be a commercial for eMusic, just a note that they are offering the kind of stuff that you can hear by dial-hopping on radio, but can't find in most big box stores. That's more than just 'indie'.
Unfortunately, if you look at past items like, oh, IMAX "Mission to MIR", you find a real snoozer. Your great DVD plan only works if NASA can produce a good DVD, and their record is hit-or-miss on this.
There's a joke that, if NASA were trying to sell sushi, they'd market it as 'cold dead fish'.
The best NASA videos, IMHO, are things NASA has supported but not been in charge of. Tom Hanks "From the Earth to the Moon", Sagan's "Cosmos", Morgan Freeman's "Cosmic Voyage", there's many great NASA-supported works. Just don't let NASA be in the director's chair, it's not well set up to do good 'edutainment'.
On the plus side, there's a reason NASA policy is to let anyone use their images with merely attribution-- NASA realizes what people want, and lets others find ways of communicating it.
Okay, the NSA is just making correlations between calls. However, if any actor can be tied to Kevin Bacon in 6 steps, and any person to the President in 6 steps, doesn't this mean the NSA can tie any phone user to a terrorist at will in 6 steps or less?
"I called my auto mechanic, who called a customer, who once called a lawyer friend, who represented a terrorist. So now I'm flagged as 'communicating with a terrorist'".
Worse, the only way to weed out such 'spurious connections' is, of course, to get more detailed records of exactly who was called, and why, and what was said. So the concept is inherently flawed and can only be fixed by further privacy violations.
I think she should be kept in office precisely for her ill-advised comment. Anyone who makes such an assertion is better than their replacement-- who will likely have the same opinion but not be foolish as to state it. Heck, she just gave opponents of DRM ammunition to lobby against any bullying she does, and she's forewarned them of her agenda.
When in doubt, keep the noisy idiot over the cunning schemer.
Tabletop RPG designers do this too, in the 24 hour RPG challenge. It's always running, though they do "Grand Acts" too. One person, one day, make a fully playable tabletop RPG from 'idea' to 'PDF' in 24 hours. It's not a competition but an exercise, more like the Novel in a Month challenge.
Then there's Game Chef, who just wrapped up their 2006 contest. This has the luxury of a full week to make a tabletop RPG from a given list of ingredients and mystery requirement. This is competitive, the best eight get published.
It used to be if you had these things called 'dollars', you got more attention. Dollars let rent other people's time. You could rent it directly, by subsidizing their entertainment (TV ads) or indirectly, by hiring people to go out and get attention drawn to you (marketing).
Now, you can just spend time if you don't have dollars, and get more attention.
Or, you can spend the time getting dollars, to pay other people to get more attention.
So in some ways, search just removed the middleman. The issue is whether it's better to have attention because you're good at earning dollars, or because you had time to burn.
You need to network to find editors, not just toss out open calls via slashdot. There are several organizations for different writing specialities (computer tech writing, medical tech writing, business s/w documentation, game writing) as well as local writing groups. Think of it as joining the Guild for your special quest.
For example, I mostly do science writing (with a little tech writing also). So being in the Nat. Assoc. of Science Writers (NASW) is helpful, but so is the local branch (DCSWA). Mostly the online part of these groups is talking with peers, but they sponsor events where writers can meet editors-- and that's where you get work.
Plus, being a member is handy to list on resumes, shows you take your work seriously.
Someone else mentioned Craigslist, that's not bad for one-shot tech writing. If you just need to get some clips (samples of paid published work), WritersWeekly is a newsletter that lists poor-paying work by desperate companies (well, that's my take on their ads) that can at least get you some samples.
Also check magazines that cover your field, as their classifieds often list calls for work. You can check their online editors or just spend an afternoon at a decent library.
Then again, maybe open calls to/. work. Hey, hire me to! I do tech _and_ science writing! Visit ghostlibrary.com for details! *plug* *plug*
Go to Target or similar general store. Buy one of those little kitchen electronic timers that can count up (not just countdown) and has a 'Start' and 'Stop' button.
When you sit down to work, hit 'Start'. If you get up to get coffee, or decide to take a/. break, hit 'Stop'. At the end of the day, look at the time tallied and bill for it.
Warning: I used this approach for telecommuting-- it results in a great bargain for employers. Stuff that counts as 'on the clock' if you're onsite at work (watercooler stuff or walking around to take an RSI break) doesn't count when you use the Timer method. Instead, you're only tracking actual work time.
If you're really compulsive, you can carry the timer with you and track time spent just thinking on projects while driving, at the park, et cetera. But I don't recommend this-- micromanaging yourself kind of defeats the work-at-home benefits.
So don't be surprised if you only rack up 5 hours of 'work' over an 8-hour period. Just accept it as the downside of telecommuting or contract work.
Short version: visit sourceforge, find a team with skills that actually brought a project to version 1.0 or higher, and offer them money to help develop a hybrid OS/closed source project.
Seriously, browse through sourceforge. Find a project in the same rough skill as your project, e.g. if you're creating a web app in Ruby, find a group that made a web app in Ruby. Don't necessarily look for a group doing the same task, i.e. if you're making a calendar, don't feel you have to get calendar people. Platform and language are more important than domain.
Anyway, find a group that actually brought a project up to "Stable/Production". This means they're probably done except for tweaks and new features. They've worked together, they've delivered something, and they may be looking for a new project.
Tell them you want to fund an Open Source project and pay them to help develop it. Explain it'll start as closed source with open source components and that you have a schedule for slowly releasing the other bits as open source once things are stable.
Pay + Neat Project + Eventual Open Source = Proven Team + Motivation
Re:Google, Books and the internet..
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Reining in Google
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>I'd just like to mention, adding a robots.txt is an opt out scheme.
Yes, but publishing is already an opt-in scheme. By publishing, you already give permission for people to do stuff with your work-- including stuff you might not agree with. 'robots.txt' lets you gain _additional_ control that most publishers do not have.
Imagine if novels had a flag that said "cannot be searched by Cliff Notes publishers". So think of 'robots.txt' as giving web publishing an additional advantage. It's existence certainly takes nothing away.
Sounds a bit like kitbashing, only with software ideas instead of model kits.
Fortunately for wannabe startups, R.A. Lafferty already covered the details in 'Slow Tuesday Night', where a typical entrepreneur can go from rags to riches 3, 4 times in one evening. Instant (POD) publishing, channels for quick creation and distribution, even rapid divorces, a lot of the stuff we use today.
> You need to sit down with your neices and nephews and watch the movies with them.
Tried that, but that only works if they'll actually agree to watch the damn thing in the first place. "Let's watch Zoolander again instead" is a common reply. Aggrevating, to say the least-- they'll go for a branded rerun over something new.
Ever try to get a kid to watch something they don't want to watch? No? Try it sometime... it's doomed. If you have to force them, even if they do sit for it, they'll hate it because their mind is made up.
Not many people can say, "wow, I was wrong, I really liked that". It's easier to rag on it, flake, do something else while it's playing, etc. Looks cooler, see.
Problem is, reviewers like Stephen Hunter at the Washington Post just "simply do not get it" (his own words: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/artic le/2005/06/09/AR2005060901951.html) and trash them in reviews. Seriously, he starts out by saying he's the wrong person to review it, then proceeds to give a negative review. What ever happened to "I don't get it, so I recuse myself", I'll never know.
Anyway, when I try to loan Miyazaki movies to my sister's kids, they never get to watching them-- because they haven't heard of them and "they're different". So a lack of marketing and a lack of a brand really make it suffer.
Too many parents rely on brand (e.g. Disney, Nickleodeon, HBO) as a filter for what they'll let their kids see. Too many kids only want to watch the branded stuff their peers mention.
It reminds me of a John Lasseter (sp?) interview about Pixar, when an executive asked (for Toy Story), "okay, what are the 8 songs?" The idea of doing a movie (to compete with Disney, no less) that didn't follow The Formula and include the marketable songs was considered folly.
So Miyazaki-type movies have an uphill battle because "they're different" and they lack the marketing bit to appeal to 'the consumer masses'.
Realistically, no budgetable task takes 1% of a work week if it requires daily monitoring. 1% is just 24 minutes. Under 5 minutes each day.
Filing out a weekly report, okay, 1%. Filing out a daily report, you're talking 15 minutes min (5 minutes to change gears, 5 to write, 5 to proof).
In fact, 15 minutes is traditionally the smallest billable increment for a lot of jobs, with good reason. And even then, that works for 'known' tasks that you can initiate and complete with no unpredictables.
A more reasonable guess would be 2 hours/week: 15 minutes a day to check things plus 1 hour/week to either probe further or initate things. That's 5% of your weekly time and that's just to monitor and initiate fixes, assuming ordinary stuff.
Add in, say, creating new accountings or adding new features on a monthly basis, and you're talking 4 hours/week (installing, fixing, learning, debugging). 10% of your time, and we're still talking routine stuff.
So, for a well set up system with few users, no special requests, and just ordinary maintenance, 5% of your time. If they actually need to update or modify things, 10%.
And those are minimums. A good IT manager or sysadmin is proactive, keeping up to date on the system so you don't, say, have the disks fill up due to one rogue user. That takes, alas, time.
I set up an elementary school classroom with Linux. Originally, the school wanted it to be Windows so they could use their existing software. But they couldn't actually find their licensed copy of Windows, and after weeks went by, I just installed Linux plus lots of neat stuff.
Turns out they only had one piece of 'educational software', which the teachers didn't really understand and the kids didn't use. The kids used the paint program and the web browser.
So give 'em a system with a paint program-- put in both Stickers and TuxPaint (the former, you can add image sets to match their curricula/units). Toss in any other interesting s/w like other people mention. And include a web browser (like that's hard).
There, you now have something that's probably better than the lame-o stuff they already have. You'd be surprised how little 'legacy sw' actually gets _used_.
> 'd like to see just 1 name of a Nobel laureate that was rejected from admission to university...
Well, Marie Curie was denied admission to the French Acadamy of Sciences... Carl Sagan was denied admission to the National Academy of Sciences, but then he was only the research assistant to a Nobel prizewinner. Baruj Benacerraf was denied admission to many universities, but that was before he won his Nobel prize.
Some Canadian Nobel prize winners were denied entrance to the US, and under HR 2184 the ACLU comments that they (Nobel prize winners as example) would be automatically denied admission to a US university.
Having left the industry to go back for a PhD, here's my input. It may be different for a Masters, in particular for a terminal Masters.
> 1) Typically, how do graduate admissions officials view work experience?
For admissions, mostly not at all. Admissions is really "previous GPA, application, etc." Past work is good if there's an interview stage, but most of admission is just paperwork and weeding out.
Now, if you do get admitted, that's when you talk to your advisor and find out which past work can count as credit hours (saving you time and money).
That said, admissions does have one critical bit-- whether they (the committee/department as a culture) tend to favor returnees and people with experience, or if they prefer fresh-outs with no real-world taint that they can work hard and mold in their own image.
That cultural barrier will be the one big determinant for any application. A department that only wants fresh-outs would turn you down even if you have a Nobel prize.
An easy way to check this sort of thing, is find out the average age of their student body. Most universities post that (or call them), and it'll clue you into which are 'real-world friendly'. Older = more likely to value experience.
Slashdot Mirror
Given a 16 year old web, what's the oldest continous content? Dr. Fun ceased, User Friendly "only" goes back to 1997 (a mere 9 years), I know of a monthly column that's come out each month since 1996 (RPGnet Soapbox, 10 years), but I'm out of examples.
Sites like photo.net date back to 1993 (13 years), but that's not the same as a single person chugging steadily for all 16. Anyone know of a creator who has hit their deadlines on the web for all 16 years?
Hmm... if suing a spammer, I'd recommend reading their emails via a browser from a computer at a library. Sure, maybe you read them elsewhere, but for the purposes of your complaint, go to the library and read them there, and mention that as your complaint. "I received spam, when I was checking my email as I often do via the PC at the library."
Then, if they need 'the hard drive', it's up to the ALA to fight it, and that's a fight no judge wants to start.
> None of the Linux problem of trying to figure out if there even is a driver.
True, I find Linux hardware issues (for me) to be a simple operation, though I think this mostly says I expect computers to 'just work'.
"Does it install out of the box" (e.g. does cups know my printer, does sane see my scanner, does gPhoto see my camera).
"If yes", I'm all set! "If no", I ditch the hardware and move on. Craigslist, ebay, freecycle, whatever.
The contrast with Windows is, there probably is a windows driver out there but finding it and installing it is always a pain, and even then it may not work. Try looking up jamcam, for example... one could argue it's an older product, but then that changes the entire dialog to 'sure, everything will work as long as you have the latest version of Windows and it's a recent bit of hardware', and that's not really an answer, it's an apology in advance.
I don't have hours to waste with computers any more. So really, my choice is:
'Does it work under Linux with no fiddling... if not, toss' versus 'Will, after a hassle of configuration, the device work under Windows-- if not, toss... but I've also lost many hours.' The latter happens all too frequently... USB mice, iToy, a USB tablet, the stack of 'hardware that should work under Windows but doesn't' in my house is huge.
So I'm rather jaded about the myth of 'windows drivers are available and work', I rank that up there with 'Windows games will run under Windows' as I've hit too many buggy games, copy-protected CDs that fail, and other hassles such that I'd say fully 10% of games I've bought don't run under Windows.
It's odd to say "knowing games won't work under Linux saves me hassles", or that I prefer hardware to either just work or not, without making me spend time. I think computers should just work without making me work.
I admit I'll often research things first to see if they work, e.g. if a piece of hardware is listed as 'works out of the box on Linux', great! If a game says 'runs on Linux', great! When they _do_ get listed that way, they always do work-- I feel there's a high trust level when something is listed as working under Linux. Whereas I get disproprotionatly annoyed when something doesn't work under Windows because the response is usually 'it works under Windows, but not _my_ Windows' setup, so it's somehow my problem now.' That's counter to the myth that 'windows stuff just works and linux needs twiddling.'
So, summarizing, I think Windows has the edge because it's pre-installed and people cut it a lot of slack when you have to jump through hoops installing hardware, and the implication if something doesn't work is it's the user's fault. If Linux were pre-installed and people cut it similar slack, the myth of 'linux is hard' would be gone.
> Until Linux is pre-installed, it won't matter to the majority of home users.
I agree. Most users don't add much to a PC other than printers, scanners, or cameras. And when they do, and run into trouble, it's never a Windows thing. Windows can do no wrong for many users.
Even if I get frustrated installing audio hardware on a Windows box, it's not Window's fault. If it's been a linux box, the user would have just said "can't you just use Windows", but because it was Windows, they meekly accepted that you had to:
* specifically _not_ plug in the new hardware
* go to the website for drivers
* install the drivers
* reboot
* finally plug in the hardware
* hunt down where the installed driver was put and manually specify it
* reboot
In the end, they blamed the audio manufacturer (M-Audio) for the hassles!
So Windows can't lose. What it does right is its credit, when it causes trouble with installing-- it's the other manufacturer's fault.
If Linux had that kind of double standard, it'd be on everyone's desktop. So it's a pre-installed thing, a marketing thing, and a "most users don't run into trouble so they blame troubles elsewhere" thing.
I wish someone would make a gumstick or kurobox that has sound, which is often neglected on these. I need:
USB (for an external drive)
Ethernet (to hook it up to the house network)
Sound output (soundblaster-era quality is fine enough)
Cost under $100
All I want is a gumstick-sized ultra-low power consumption quiet jukebox. Right now I use an old Pentium II that sucks up way too much power. Sound, internet, USB, low power consumption, low price... it's not a tough combination. But I haven't found any out there. Anyone know of one?
I'm still looking for an equivalent to the old Amiga "Fantavision" program. Drop dead simple, basically a 'paint' program with built-in tweening. While its selection of drawing primatives was limited to 'polygon', its user interface was great and it was fun for doing abstract stuff.
Is there anything out there for purely amateur purposes?
The article kept talking about 'indie', but missed the fact that emusic has a huge back catalog of classic rock and earlier. You want Deep Purple or Eric Burdon, they've got it. It's easy to get much of what you hear on classic rock radio. And since so many (too many) stations are switching to 'classic rock', this must mean people want it.
They also have live stuff. Interested in Colin Hay's solo takes on 'Men at Work', or (back to Deep Purple) live Deep Purple? And what they call indie, I'm not so sure-- Tom Waits gets a lot of media coverage and movie deals for an 'indie'. He's there.
They also have a phenomenal jazz and blues section, which is yet another niche not served. Miles Davis or Charlie Parker aren't "indy", after all. And there's folk, and celtic, and world. It's that 'long tail' model. Basically, emusic has a mix of radio stuff, and all the stuff you can't buy on CD at your local Walmart anyway.
I guess I'm tired of anyone not carrying the latest pop being labeled 'indie', particularly given pop's tendency to forget the past. I don't want this to be a commercial for eMusic, just a note that they are offering the kind of stuff that you can hear by dial-hopping on radio, but can't find in most big box stores. That's more than just 'indie'.
Unfortunately, if you look at past items like, oh, IMAX "Mission to MIR", you find a real snoozer. Your great DVD plan only works if NASA can produce a good DVD, and their record is hit-or-miss on this.
There's a joke that, if NASA were trying to sell sushi, they'd market it as 'cold dead fish'.
The best NASA videos, IMHO, are things NASA has supported but not been in charge of. Tom Hanks "From the Earth to the Moon", Sagan's "Cosmos", Morgan Freeman's "Cosmic Voyage", there's many great NASA-supported works. Just don't let NASA be in the director's chair, it's not well set up to do good 'edutainment'.
On the plus side, there's a reason NASA policy is to let anyone use their images with merely attribution-- NASA realizes what people want, and lets others find ways of communicating it.
Okay, the NSA is just making correlations between calls. However, if any actor can be tied to Kevin Bacon in 6 steps, and any person to the President in 6 steps, doesn't this mean the NSA can tie any phone user to a terrorist at will in 6 steps or less?
"I called my auto mechanic, who called a customer, who once called a lawyer friend, who represented a terrorist. So now I'm flagged as 'communicating with a terrorist'".
Worse, the only way to weed out such 'spurious connections' is, of course, to get more detailed records of exactly who was called, and why, and what was said. So the concept is inherently flawed and can only be fixed by further privacy violations.
Okay, can someone type in all of Knuth's "Art of Computer Programming" into the wiki? That'll pre-empt any further software patents.
I suppose someone could mass-load the project description for every SourceForge project that actually released a file, just to be safe.
There, no more software patents. Prior art is established.
I think she should be kept in office precisely for her ill-advised comment. Anyone who makes such an assertion is better than their replacement-- who will likely have the same opinion but not be foolish as to state it. Heck, she just gave opponents of DRM ammunition to lobby against any bullying she does, and she's forewarned them of her agenda.
When in doubt, keep the noisy idiot over the cunning schemer.
Tabletop RPG designers do this too, in the 24 hour RPG challenge. It's always running, though they do "Grand Acts" too. One person, one day, make a fully playable tabletop RPG from 'idea' to 'PDF' in 24 hours. It's not a competition but an exercise, more like the Novel in a Month challenge.
Then there's Game Chef, who just wrapped up their 2006 contest. This has the luxury of a full week to make a tabletop RPG from a given list of ingredients and mystery requirement. This is competitive, the best eight get published.
It used to be if you had these things called 'dollars', you got more attention. Dollars let rent other people's time. You could rent it directly, by subsidizing their entertainment (TV ads) or indirectly, by hiring people to go out and get attention drawn to you (marketing).
Now, you can just spend time if you don't have dollars, and get more attention.
Or, you can spend the time getting dollars, to pay other people to get more attention.
So in some ways, search just removed the middleman. The issue is whether it's better to have attention because you're good at earning dollars, or because you had time to burn.
You need to network to find editors, not just toss out open calls via slashdot. There are several organizations for different writing specialities (computer tech writing, medical tech writing, business s/w documentation, game writing) as well as local writing groups. Think of it as joining the Guild for your special quest.
/. work. Hey, hire me to! I do tech _and_ science writing! Visit ghostlibrary.com for details! *plug* *plug*
For example, I mostly do science writing (with a little tech writing also). So being in the Nat. Assoc. of Science Writers (NASW) is helpful, but so is the local branch (DCSWA). Mostly the online part of these groups is talking with peers, but they sponsor events where writers can meet editors-- and that's where you get work.
Plus, being a member is handy to list on resumes, shows you take your work seriously.
Someone else mentioned Craigslist, that's not bad for one-shot tech writing. If you just need to get some clips (samples of paid published work), WritersWeekly is a newsletter that lists poor-paying work by desperate companies (well, that's my take on their ads) that can at least get you some samples.
Also check magazines that cover your field, as their classifieds often list calls for work. You can check their online editors or just spend an afternoon at a decent library.
Then again, maybe open calls to
Go to Target or similar general store. Buy one of those little kitchen electronic timers that can count up (not just countdown) and has a 'Start' and 'Stop' button.
/. break, hit 'Stop'. At the end of the day, look at the time tallied and bill for it.
When you sit down to work, hit 'Start'. If you get up to get coffee, or decide to take a
Warning: I used this approach for telecommuting-- it results in a great bargain for employers. Stuff that counts as 'on the clock' if you're onsite at work (watercooler stuff or walking around to take an RSI break) doesn't count when you use the Timer method. Instead, you're only tracking actual work time.
If you're really compulsive, you can carry the timer with you and track time spent just thinking on projects while driving, at the park, et cetera. But I don't recommend this-- micromanaging yourself kind of defeats the work-at-home benefits.
So don't be surprised if you only rack up 5 hours of 'work' over an 8-hour period. Just accept it as the downside of telecommuting or contract work.
Short version: visit sourceforge, find a team with skills that actually brought a project to version 1.0 or higher, and offer them money to help develop a hybrid OS/closed source project.
Seriously, browse through sourceforge. Find a project in the same rough skill as your project, e.g. if you're creating a web app in Ruby, find a group that made a web app in Ruby. Don't necessarily look for a group doing the same task, i.e. if you're making a calendar, don't feel you have to get calendar people. Platform and language are more important than domain.
Anyway, find a group that actually brought a project up to "Stable/Production". This means they're probably done except for tweaks and new features. They've worked together, they've delivered something, and they may be looking for a new project.
Tell them you want to fund an Open Source project and pay them to help develop it. Explain it'll start as closed source with open source components and that you have a schedule for slowly releasing the other bits as open source once things are stable.
Pay + Neat Project + Eventual Open Source = Proven Team + Motivation
>I'd just like to mention, adding a robots.txt is an opt out scheme.
Yes, but publishing is already an opt-in scheme. By publishing, you already give permission for people to do stuff with your work-- including stuff you might not agree with. 'robots.txt' lets you gain _additional_ control that most publishers do not have.
Imagine if novels had a flag that said "cannot be searched by Cliff Notes publishers". So think of 'robots.txt' as giving web publishing an additional advantage. It's existence certainly takes nothing away.
Sounds a bit like kitbashing, only with software ideas instead of model kits.
Fortunately for wannabe startups, R.A. Lafferty already covered the details in 'Slow Tuesday Night', where a typical entrepreneur can go from rags to riches 3, 4 times in one evening. Instant (POD) publishing, channels for quick creation and distribution, even rapid divorces, a lot of the stuff we use today.
Of course, that was in 1966.
> You need to sit down with your neices and nephews and watch the movies with them.
Tried that, but that only works if they'll actually agree to watch the damn thing in the first place. "Let's watch Zoolander again instead" is a common reply. Aggrevating, to say the least-- they'll go for a branded rerun over something new.
Ever try to get a kid to watch something they don't want to watch? No? Try it sometime... it's doomed. If you have to force them, even if they do sit for it, they'll hate it because their mind is made up.
Not many people can say, "wow, I was wrong, I really liked that". It's easier to rag on it, flake, do something else while it's playing, etc. Looks cooler, see.
Problem is, reviewers like Stephen Hunter at the Washington Post just "simply do not get it" (his own words: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/artic le/2005/06/09/AR2005060901951.html) and trash them in reviews. Seriously, he starts out by saying he's the wrong person to review it, then proceeds to give a negative review. What ever happened to "I don't get it, so I recuse myself", I'll never know.
Anyway, when I try to loan Miyazaki movies to my sister's kids, they never get to watching them-- because they haven't heard of them and "they're different". So a lack of marketing and a lack of a brand really make it suffer.
Too many parents rely on brand (e.g. Disney, Nickleodeon, HBO) as a filter for what they'll let their kids see. Too many kids only want to watch the branded stuff their peers mention.
It reminds me of a John Lasseter (sp?) interview about Pixar, when an executive asked (for Toy Story), "okay, what are the 8 songs?" The idea of doing a movie (to compete with Disney, no less) that didn't follow The Formula and include the marketable songs was considered folly.
So Miyazaki-type movies have an uphill battle because "they're different" and they lack the marketing bit to appeal to 'the consumer masses'.
Realistically, no budgetable task takes 1% of a work week if it requires daily monitoring. 1% is just 24 minutes. Under 5 minutes each day.
Filing out a weekly report, okay, 1%. Filing out a daily report, you're talking 15 minutes min (5 minutes to change gears, 5 to write, 5 to proof).
In fact, 15 minutes is traditionally the smallest billable increment for a lot of jobs, with good reason. And even then, that works for 'known' tasks that you can initiate and complete with no unpredictables.
A more reasonable guess would be 2 hours/week: 15 minutes a day to check things plus 1 hour/week to either probe further or initate things. That's 5% of your weekly time and that's just to monitor and initiate fixes, assuming ordinary stuff.
Add in, say, creating new accountings or adding new features on a monthly basis, and you're talking 4 hours/week (installing, fixing, learning, debugging). 10% of your time, and we're still talking routine stuff.
So, for a well set up system with few users, no special requests, and just ordinary maintenance, 5% of your time. If they actually need to update or modify things, 10%.
And those are minimums. A good IT manager or sysadmin is proactive, keeping up to date on the system so you don't, say, have the disks fill up due to one rogue user. That takes, alas, time.
> It seems NextGen was the only gaming mag that recognized that people over 12 play video games
"Computer Gaming" took up the mantle. They specifically talk about how hard it is to not just give in to payola reviews, fart jokes, and cheap humor.
They also have the best parody ads I've seen. They do a good job, check 'em out at the newsstand.
I set up an elementary school classroom with Linux. Originally, the school wanted it to be Windows so they could use their existing software. But they couldn't actually find their licensed copy of Windows, and after weeks went by, I just installed Linux plus lots of neat stuff.
Turns out they only had one piece of 'educational software', which the teachers didn't really understand and the kids didn't use. The kids used the paint program and the web browser.
So give 'em a system with a paint program-- put in both Stickers and TuxPaint (the former, you can add image sets to match their curricula/units). Toss in any other interesting s/w like other people mention. And include a web browser (like that's hard).
There, you now have something that's probably better than the lame-o stuff they already have. You'd be surprised how little 'legacy sw' actually gets _used_.
> 'd like to see just 1 name of a Nobel laureate that was rejected from admission to university...
Well, Marie Curie was denied admission to the French Acadamy of Sciences... Carl Sagan was denied admission to the National Academy of Sciences, but then he was only the research assistant to a Nobel prizewinner. Baruj Benacerraf was denied admission to many universities, but that was before he won his Nobel prize.
Some Canadian Nobel prize winners were denied entrance to the US, and under HR 2184 the ACLU comments that they (Nobel prize winners as example) would be automatically denied admission to a US university.
So, not quiet a match, but interesting leads.
Hi,
Having left the industry to go back for a PhD, here's my input. It may be different for a Masters, in particular for a terminal Masters.
> 1) Typically, how do graduate admissions officials view work experience?
For admissions, mostly not at all. Admissions is really "previous GPA, application, etc." Past work is good if there's an interview stage, but most of admission is just paperwork and weeding out.
Now, if you do get admitted, that's when you talk to your advisor and find out which past work can count as credit hours (saving you time and money).
That said, admissions does have one critical bit-- whether they (the committee/department as a culture) tend to favor returnees and people with experience, or if they prefer fresh-outs with no real-world taint that they can work hard and mold in their own image.
That cultural barrier will be the one big determinant for any application. A department that only wants fresh-outs would turn you down even if you have a Nobel prize.
An easy way to check this sort of thing, is find out the average age of their student body. Most universities post that (or call them), and it'll clue you into which are 'real-world friendly'. Older = more likely to value experience.
Good luck!