Freenet doesn't let you push, though. The way Freenet works is that you tell your server- "I have file X, with Hash XX on my computer." Then, if anyone comes looking for a file with hash XX, you respond "Hey, I have that!"
They (who have already ASKED FOR IT), make a copy onto their machine, and start answering that they, too, have hash XX.
The only time the material get's copied out onto the network is when it's being requested.. So Spamming it would be impossible.
How is this system different from Freenet in it's design? Both seem to use a system of specilization for data, so that a specific node carries a series of data is one specific area, more than others. This is VERY useful, in that nodes can learn about what each one carries. It also seems similiar in that routing is intelligent enough that nodes can hint to each other about a specilization, and share routing information..
I'm not knocking either project, I'm just not informed enough. What is the major differences? Wouldn't it be equally do-able to just replace the routing engine in Freenet, if that is the design goal?
The pacakage seems to be a very Freenet/Frost like utility, passing messages about the locations of keys around the anonymous ether.
We're not definitely moving back to 2k, he's just pushing for it. It's currently something we're having to sort out. I'm still pushing for SuSe instead, but I get the feeling he's very nervous about Linux now.. RedHat was my saftey net. I promised him that They would be around, just like Microsoft..
If you read my post, you can see we paid for EL on the servers, but used the Freely available RedHat 9 on the desktops. Which they are ending support for. The $190+CALs difference is what made it so attractive.. Now, it's just the CALs. Still a help, but not NEARLY as attractive.
No more (official RH) support and updates means that it's a far harder sell to get the desktops done. And if we can't get the desktops, he's worried the servers will have compatibility issues. Safer to stick with one company..
So no, I'm not trolling. But thanks for the assumption;)
It seems that RedHat Linux has one of the strongest brandings in the Linux world. While I understand that you want to drive sales of RedHat Enterprise Linux, I must ask why the RedHat name is not tagged to Fedora. RedHat Fedora would be a much more attractive product to many people, who would otherwise be looking at other Linux Distributions.
In my office, on the news of RedHat ending their desktop distibution, our CTO is pushing for us to migrate the Desktops back to Windows 2000, and look into putting Windows Server 2003 onto the fileservers. While we had moved away from MS to avoid their licensing, we've suddenly found ourselves much less able to avoid it.
Although I don't doubt that RedHat has done it's homework regarding dropping the Desktop Version, I'm worried about what will happen to many enterprises, such as our own, who had RedHat Enterprise on the Servers, and the Mass Distributed Red Hat 9 on the desktops. Certainly in such cases it will make my job of arguing to keep RedHat on the servers easier if we could "Maintain a homogeneous environment"
That really is a GREAT finale movie. Far closer to my own vision, but.. It would MAKE MORE SENSE. The version we received failed on many levels, where this worked a lot better..
Oh my, the poor site.. If this ever goes to the FP, it's doomed--
Testing the G5, part 1 Today at work we were surprised to find a brand new black box sitting at our feet, it was the new G5! First thing I did was rip open the tape, and open the beautiful card board box. Once I got it open I noticed there wasnt much special about the manuals, cables and cds. So I pulled out the huge machine (its alot bigger than I thought AND ALOT Heavier!!) And stuck it on my desk. I quickly hooked it all together, and plugged in the monitor. Before I opened it I took the side of the case off and noticed the clear window inside. Its very attractive but I feel its weird because it doesnt go all the way to the top of the case so the DVD-R and harddrives are not behind the window. So I booted it up with the side on and I couldnt believe how SILENT it was. I had to open it again to make sure the fans were moving. So I was playing with it even more and I noticed that if you take the window off the fans go to full RPM and are LOUD. When the window is on they look like they are going in slow motion, no wonder its quiet. So after I got though the registration wizard apple makes you do, I got to my Macosx Desktop. The first place I headed was system profiler. I dont remember what was there exactly but it showed a Sony DVD-R, 1.6 G5, two 128mb DDR 400 DIMMS in slot 1 and 2 and it was running Macosx 10.2.7. Nothing else was really that surprising. Since I had to do real work I couldnt really play with my new machine, so I have to wait until tomorrow to play with it. The first thing I am going to do is Burn a PPC Live CD and see if it runs, hopefully it does, To bad it has a Nvidia graphics card. So Ill report more to you tomorrow.
Talk to you later
Back to top
Compiling KDE in 15 minutes?
Did you emerge 'kde' or 'kdebase' or 'kdelibs' ? Does that 15 minute figure also include dependencies? _________________
I'm away for the weekend on a business trip.. but on Monday, I will post the benchmark tests and everything else for it.
KDE took about 3 hours to download and compiled in under 15 minutes... my Pentium 4 took roughly an hour to compile KDE...
I will run some tests on monday and run some kernel tests and such then post my results.
I used kernel 2.4.22 and kernel 2.6test4
both of which booted fine.. X only worked so far on 2.4.22
I've talked to benh (who gets his G5 from YDL in about a week) he told me that there is a remote possibility for the current kernel to work, but it wouldn't have SATA working and would run at half speed (due to the fans - 1ghz powerbooks had the same problem)
If compiling kde took only 15 minutes, how long is it going to take at full speed? 7 minutes?
Did you have to make a custom livecd to boot or did the current livecds work perfect?
---- I will report back to you on monday with all the information with I get back home
BTW... I did not use the livecd to bootup
I will post an install guide monday
[edit]Forgot to add... for KDE.. I was just talking about the KDEBASE files and KDELIB files.. not all the other stuff like games, and media, etc[/edit] _________________
"SCO said it revoked IBM's license to ship AIX in June. In its countersuit, Big Blue reasserted its position that its AIX license is irrevocable and perpetual, but then added a new twist involving Novell, the company that owned Unix copyrights until selling them to SCO's predecessor in 1995.
IBM's suit revealed that Novell on June 12 effectively forbade SCO from terminating IBM's AIX license. SCO said it revoked the AIX license on June 16. Novell maintained the right to issue such instructions to SCO under the terms of the Unix sale, the suit said. "
Does anyone know anything more about this?
I know tht Novell apparently DID sell the copyrights, but this is a news Item...
Bruce Perens might want to help clarifiy this for us;)
Where can I go to hire artists for individual 3d pieces? It always seems people want to be hired for comission for an entire project, not a little "Make a closet" sort of thing..
I'd love it if you could give us a hand. If you are serious, send me an e-mail, and we can work things out. I'd be happy to have some help with Backgrounds, ships, or whatever you'd be comfortable with.
Hrmm.. You aren't by chance the say Davis Ray Sickmon who used for work on the Freedows/AllOS project, are you?
In any event, what's the difference? Why is it people will code on Open Source projects, but not do 3d work? I guess I come at this from a bad perspective, but I really don't understand the difference. Colin
In my opinion, the hardest part is getting good Artists. I run the open source SQ7.org game project, and we're doing some exciting stuff. We're doing fully voice acted, 3d rendered, interactivty, or a large scale.
While we've always have plenty of programming help (not that we couldn't use more..), I've found that getting 3d graphic artists is amazingly difficult..
Programmers tend to discover the site on their own, or read my sig in Slashdot, and help to volunteer to bring together a project like that. Programming types Rock.
But Graphical Artists tend not to do that, and I'm not sure how to attract them.. I've tried posting to 3d forums, Offering to pay the few bucks I can each month.. But I've never really gotten as much as I need. The people I have are Great, and we're doing some pretty damn cool artwork, but we need more help.
How do other people solve this problem? Can anyone give any advice on how to get their attention? Adwords on Google?
I'd like very much to do EXACTLY that, but there seems to be no coheasive documentation, or even people I can pay, to build this for us!
I'd love to read a how-to someplace that explained how to get PAM to talk to the LDAP server, to talk to Cyrus. People often talk about setting that up, but it is not as trivial as it is made out to be!
Thank you Very much for the suggestions. I do not have the management skill that I might like to be running a project of this scope, and so am very grateful for the suggestions that you offer. I never wanted to head up this project, but am doing so due to circumstances beyond my control.
I'd reply to you in e-mail, but can't seem to find your address listed in your profile.
Regarding Licensing, We're releasing the code under a BSD (no advertising) license. I hadn't had a download/code link because I didn't think anyone would be interested in the code, as it isn't very functional. I've since added one, as I realize it is importaint as a gesture, if nothing else.
If I understand the advice you, and the others in the community gave, things seem to be split into two issues-
1) Getting new Members a. The overwhelming advice here is to release a demo. While I had released an AVI demo movie, it seems that this is not really enough to gather peopleâ(TM)s attention, and show them what the project is about. Iâ(TM)m leery about actually releasing a demo, however, as our engine code isnâ(TM)t complete, the scenes havenâ(TM)t had final renders, etc. Basically, We could put together a kick-ass demo, but it would stall the project. Iâ(TM)m curious as to your opinion as to if the potential gain in developers would offset the time spent creating the demo. b. Your other suggestion, to publicly post the TODO list, and split things out into tasks might be the best suggestion I have heard yet, and I thank you for it. The problem is that it is very hard, for many things, to have it done piecemeal. For example, the 3d rendered graphics really should be done by a key team, to maintain a consistent look. While Iâ(TM)ve been backing off of this idea, due to the slow speed at present, it really seems that if we want the game be visually consistent, we canâ(TM)t have 100 3d contributors. 2) Retaining and encouraging existing developers a. With regards to cash, I think you are right that I should back down on that issue. I canâ(TM)t seem to find a way to avoid the reality that it seems to similar to me hiring people, for an absurdly low wage, which is not at all my intent. b. I could easily start with T-shirts to all of the current developers, made up at Cafepress, or whatnot, and then build from there. Help to encourage people to donate their time, and show that I truly do appreciate it, beyond just my words in e-mail, or IRC c. I am worried about this, however, as it would be very easy for one person to end up with 4 Video cards, or whatnot, if they were consistently the top performer, and I were to stick to a schedule. But sending out a promise for $100 worth or merchandise is too similar to paying people. I would appreciate any suggestions in this department
Overall, I truly appreciate the help, and I welcome any additional suggestions you might have for the project. Please keep in mind my naivety in this area. Again, as Iâ(TM)ve said in other posts, Iâ(TM)m only trying to make sure that we can release a game worthy of the fans, and worthy of the 8 year wait.
I seem trapped, to a degree, however. I donâ(TM)t want to hype the game too much, and raise expectations, as then, if it takes a long time to release, or the final product isnâ(TM)t what people were expecting, they will lose faith in the community. On the other hand, If I donâ(TM)t hype the game, I cannot obtain the development that I need to finish it.
Fair enough. I really understand your sentiment, and to some degree really agree with it..
But there are many cases where it just doesn't pan out. For instance, There have been some coders, who offered to help, but only knew qBasic. We aren't coding in qBasic. I asked if they would like to learn AGAST, and they told me that I should re-write the game in qbasic.
I'm not sure how to make that situation helpful. If they REFUSE to learn, I'm in a bit of a bind.
WRT doing it myself, I am, but I'm slow, as are many members of the team. That is why I'm looking for help. We'll get it done this way, but I don't want to wait until 2008 to play the completed game...
What I'm really looking for is a way to encourage people to volunteer time. I'm NOT looking to pay someone who doesn't care about SQ to work on the project. I'm looking for a way to encourage people to donate their own time..
Ie, "I want to donate, but do I really have the time with everything else in my life"..
That sort of situation. I guess, judging from you post and others, this isn't a good way to do it. Any suggestions on how I should?
We're shooting for a BSD license, as I really feel that the game is community property, and the game, and the code in it, should be used by anyone who wishes to help revive adventure games.
The reason I say shooting for, instead of Are, is that there have been some useful routines in GPL'ed programs. If we ever had to use one of those, then the program would have to go GPL in it's entirety.
The program used to be listed on SF, but I removed it when SF stopped giving out their code, and started changing their EULA.
The old page was at http://sourceforge.net/projects/sq7/, but I haven't touched that in over a year..
For some reason it's listed under symmetric multi-processor, but that might have been them changing their DB categories in the last year.
Go to sq7.org/code There is a.zip there, of AGAST engine tweaks, as well as two add on files, that should be added to it, after the files are unzipped.
We're using the AGAST engine http://www.allitis.com/agast/index.html
The datestamps on the files are wrong. If you're interested, after looking through the code, let me know, and I can send a copy of my todo list. Perhaps some of it might interest you, or you might want to start on your own aspect.
Please keep in mind, I'm really looking for someone who remembers Space Quest from thier childhood, and wants to help recapture the magic. I'm not looking to hire an employee for some rediculously low wage.
Well, I think that's part of the mis-understanding, then, and possibly why this plan won't work.
I'm not interested in people who would only want Some money.. The idea is that, for many people, working on a OSS project is an investment, of time, of mental capital, and of their skill.
Getting people who are willing to volunteer is easy. Finding a way to get qualified people isn't. I'm trying to figure out a way to encourage people who are on the edge. People who would like to donate their time, but can't quite make themselves do it, with their busy schedule and all.
Does that make any sense? Is it morally wrong? (honest question)
That's part of the problem. I don't know that I/could/ take in any money, without risking Legal issues. Everthing I would pay would be out of pocket.
The situation with Vivendi/sierra is murky, and would take too long to get into here, but I don't think they would sponser it at this point in time.
I'm not asking how to get sponcership, I'm asking how to get people to work for free, or cheap;)
But, I guess, in the end, it comes down the the same advice. Get popular, then get help. The problem is, getting popular is hard, and getting qualified help is harder.
We're just doing what we can to get the game released. I don't want money, I want more time, and more team members with it.
I'd love it if you might be able to help out with the project. If you'd like to e-mail me, I'd be happy to work something out.
We're doing the coding in AGAST, just because writing our own engine would be prohibitivly difficult (we had looked into a Python/Pygame engine, but it would take more time than our team has)
I'd love it if you could work either on Characters, but would, of course, also love Background Scenes, or Programming, depinding on what you feel most comfortable with. Of course, switching around is always a possibility.
If you're serious, send me an e-mail at Colin@sq7.org I'd love to talk with you.
"$100 a week is a bit too low (within the US and most Western countries, at least)"
Right, that's exactly the point! $100/week is nearly too much as it is. I don't know if I could even pay that, it's just a number thrown out there. So What DO I do? Is there no way to do this?
I hate it when I feel powerless to help my project. I believe in it so strongly..I just want it to suceed.
And I don't know what else to do.
Is there any solution for me, that Doesn't involve me taking out a loan to make a Free game?
The point is, I/don't/ have $100/week extra.. I really have no where near that.
The only money I have I'm making from working over the summer. I figure if I can make $200/week this summer, I can then pay someone $100/week for a few weeks, and spend the other half on gas.. But I'll still be screwed when school starts again
I really can't afford that much. I should have put $100/month.. If someone could help for that much, I could pay them for several months...
That's not the point.
The point is, I'm very interested in HOW to do it. What the process is..Not the $100 figure.
Does that make any sense? I'm trying to figure out HOW to do it. I doubt I could afford Gas/insurance/and my dorm if I payed much more.
Slashdot Mirror
Freenet doesn't let you push, though.
The way Freenet works is that you tell your server- "I have file X, with Hash XX on my computer."
Then, if anyone comes looking for a file with hash XX, you respond "Hey, I have that!"
They (who have already ASKED FOR IT), make a copy onto their machine, and start answering that they, too, have hash XX.
The only time the material get's copied out onto the network is when it's being requested.. So Spamming it would be impossible.
How is this system different from Freenet in it's design?
Both seem to use a system of specilization for data, so that a specific node carries a series of data is one specific area, more than others. This is VERY useful, in that nodes can learn about what each one carries.
It also seems similiar in that routing is intelligent enough that nodes can hint to each other about a specilization, and share routing information..
I'm not knocking either project, I'm just not informed enough. What is the major differences? Wouldn't it be equally do-able to just replace the routing engine in Freenet, if that is the design goal?
The pacakage seems to be a very Freenet/Frost like utility, passing messages about the locations of keys around the anonymous ether.
-Colin
We're not definitely moving back to 2k, he's just pushing for it. It's currently something we're having to sort out. I'm still pushing for SuSe instead, but I get the feeling he's very nervous about Linux now.. RedHat was my saftey net. I promised him that They would be around, just like Microsoft..
;)
If you read my post, you can see we paid for EL on the servers, but used the Freely available RedHat 9 on the desktops. Which they are ending support for. The $190+CALs difference is what made it so attractive.. Now, it's just the CALs. Still a help, but not NEARLY as attractive.
No more (official RH) support and updates means that it's a far harder sell to get the desktops done. And if we can't get the desktops, he's worried the servers will have compatibility issues. Safer to stick with one company..
So no, I'm not trolling. But thanks for the assumption
Colin
It seems that RedHat Linux has one of the strongest brandings in the Linux world. While I understand that you want to drive sales of RedHat Enterprise Linux, I must ask why the RedHat name is not tagged to Fedora. RedHat Fedora would be a much more attractive product to many people, who would otherwise be looking at other Linux Distributions.
In my office, on the news of RedHat ending their desktop distibution, our CTO is pushing for us to migrate the Desktops back to Windows 2000, and look into putting Windows Server 2003 onto the fileservers. While we had moved away from MS to avoid their licensing, we've suddenly found ourselves much less able to avoid it.
Although I don't doubt that RedHat has done it's homework regarding dropping the Desktop Version, I'm worried about what will happen to many enterprises, such as our own, who had RedHat Enterprise on the Servers, and the Mass Distributed Red Hat 9 on the desktops. Certainly in such cases it will make my job of arguing to keep RedHat on the servers easier if we could "Maintain a homogeneous environment"
That really is a GREAT finale movie. Far closer to my own vision, but.. It would MAKE MORE SENSE. The version we received failed on many levels, where this worked a lot better..
Nice job, man. Really nice!
Colin (I'd e-mail you that, but it's hidden)
Oh my, the poor site.. If this ever goes to the FP, it's doomed--
Testing the G5, part 1
Today at work we were surprised to find a brand new black box sitting at our feet, it was the new G5! First thing I did was rip open the tape, and open the beautiful card board box. Once I got it open I noticed there wasnt much special about the manuals, cables and cds. So I pulled out the huge machine (its alot bigger than I thought AND ALOT Heavier!!) And stuck it on my desk. I quickly hooked it all together, and plugged in the monitor. Before I opened it I took the side of the case off and noticed the clear window inside. Its very attractive but I feel its weird because it doesnt go all the way to the top of the case so the DVD-R and harddrives are not behind the window. So I booted it up with the side on and I couldnt believe how SILENT it was. I had to open it again to make sure the fans were moving. So I was playing with it even more and I noticed that if you take the window off the fans go to full RPM and are LOUD. When the window is on they look like they are going in slow motion, no wonder its quiet. So after I got though the registration wizard apple makes you do, I got to my Macosx Desktop. The first place I headed was system profiler. I dont remember what was there exactly but it showed a Sony DVD-R, 1.6 G5, two 128mb DDR 400 DIMMS in slot 1 and 2 and it was running Macosx 10.2.7. Nothing else was really that surprising. Since I had to do real work I couldnt really play with my new machine, so I have to wait until tomorrow to play with it. The first thing I am going to do is Burn a PPC Live CD and see if it runs, hopefully it does, To bad it has a Nvidia graphics card. So Ill report more to you tomorrow.
Talk to you later
Back to top
Compiling KDE in 15 minutes?
Did you emerge 'kde' or 'kdebase' or 'kdelibs' ? Does that 15 minute figure also include dependencies?
_________________
I'm away for the weekend on a business trip.. but on Monday, I will post the benchmark tests and everything else for it.
KDE took about 3 hours to download and compiled in under 15 minutes... my Pentium 4 took roughly an hour to compile KDE...
I will run some tests on monday and run some kernel tests and such then post my results.
I used kernel 2.4.22 and kernel 2.6test4
both of which booted fine.. X only worked so far on 2.4.22
I've talked to benh (who gets his G5 from YDL in about a week) he told me that there is a remote possibility for the current kernel to work, but it wouldn't have SATA working and would run at half speed (due to the fans - 1ghz powerbooks had the same problem)
If compiling kde took only 15 minutes, how long is it going to take at full speed? 7 minutes?
Did you have to make a custom livecd to boot or did the current livecds work perfect?
----
I will report back to you on monday with all the information with I get back home
BTW... I did not use the livecd to bootup
I will post an install guide monday
[edit]Forgot to add... for KDE.. I was just talking about the KDEBASE files and KDELIB files.. not all the other stuff like games, and media, etc[/edit]
_________________
"SCO said it revoked IBM's license to ship AIX in June. In its countersuit, Big Blue reasserted its position that its AIX license is irrevocable and perpetual, but then added a new twist involving Novell, the company that owned Unix copyrights until selling them to SCO's predecessor in 1995.
;)
IBM's suit revealed that Novell on June 12 effectively forbade SCO from terminating IBM's AIX license. SCO said it revoked the AIX license on June 16. Novell maintained the right to issue such instructions to SCO under the terms of the Unix sale, the suit said. "
Does anyone know anything more about this?
I know tht Novell apparently DID sell the copyrights, but this is a news Item...
Bruce Perens might want to help clarifiy this for us
-Colin
Where can I go to hire artists for individual 3d pieces? It always seems people want to be hired for comission for an entire project, not a little "Make a closet" sort of thing..
I'd love any ideas.
Colin
I'd love it if you could give us a hand. If you are serious, send me an e-mail, and we can work things out. I'd be happy to have some help with Backgrounds, ships, or whatever you'd be comfortable with.
Colin
Hrmm.. You aren't by chance the say Davis Ray Sickmon who used for work on the Freedows/AllOS project, are you?
In any event, what's the difference? Why is it people will code on Open Source projects, but not do 3d work? I guess I come at this from a bad perspective, but I really don't understand the difference.
Colin
Wouldn't it be easier to use Tabs, rather than windows? I suggest this improvement may assist for the 1.1 patch.
In my opinion, the hardest part is getting good Artists. I run the open source SQ7.org game project, and we're doing some exciting stuff. We're doing fully voice acted, 3d rendered, interactivty, or a large scale.
While we've always have plenty of programming help (not that we couldn't use more..), I've found that getting 3d graphic artists is amazingly difficult..
Programmers tend to discover the site on their own, or read my sig in Slashdot, and help to volunteer to bring together a project like that. Programming types Rock.
But Graphical Artists tend not to do that, and I'm not sure how to attract them.. I've tried posting to 3d forums, Offering to pay the few bucks I can each month.. But I've never really gotten as much as I need. The people I have are Great, and we're doing some pretty damn cool artwork, but we need more help.
How do other people solve this problem? Can anyone give any advice on how to get their attention? Adwords on Google?
Colin
IMAP + LDAP + Cyrus + Samba
I'd like very much to do EXACTLY that, but there seems to be no coheasive documentation, or even people I can pay, to build this for us!
I'd love to read a how-to someplace that explained how to get PAM to talk to the LDAP server, to talk to Cyrus. People often talk about setting that up, but it is not as trivial as it is made out to be!
Is there a company which can sell me such a box?
Colin
Thank you Very much for the suggestions. I do not have the management skill that I might like to be running a project of this scope, and so am very grateful for the suggestions that you offer. I never wanted to head up this project, but am doing so due to circumstances beyond my control.
I'd reply to you in e-mail, but can't seem to find your address listed in your profile.
Regarding Licensing, We're releasing the code under a BSD (no advertising) license. I hadn't had a download/code link because I didn't think anyone would be interested in the code, as it isn't very functional. I've since added one, as I realize it is importaint as a gesture, if nothing else.
If I understand the advice you, and the others in the community gave, things seem to be split into two issues-
1) Getting new Members
a. The overwhelming advice here is to release a demo. While I had released an AVI demo movie, it seems that this is not really enough to gather peopleâ(TM)s attention, and show them what the project is about. Iâ(TM)m leery about actually releasing a demo, however, as our engine code isnâ(TM)t complete, the scenes havenâ(TM)t had final renders, etc. Basically, We could put together a kick-ass demo, but it would stall the project. Iâ(TM)m curious as to your opinion as to if the potential gain in developers would offset the time spent creating the demo.
b. Your other suggestion, to publicly post the TODO list, and split things out into tasks might be the best suggestion I have heard yet, and I thank you for it. The problem is that it is very hard, for many things, to have it done piecemeal. For example, the 3d rendered graphics really should be done by a key team, to maintain a consistent look. While Iâ(TM)ve been backing off of this idea, due to the slow speed at present, it really seems that if we want the game be visually consistent, we canâ(TM)t have 100 3d contributors.
2) Retaining and encouraging existing developers
a. With regards to cash, I think you are right that I should back down on that issue. I canâ(TM)t seem to find a way to avoid the reality that it seems to similar to me hiring people, for an absurdly low wage, which is not at all my intent.
b. I could easily start with T-shirts to all of the current developers, made up at Cafepress, or whatnot, and then build from there. Help to encourage people to donate their time, and show that I truly do appreciate it, beyond just my words in e-mail, or IRC
c. I am worried about this, however, as it would be very easy for one person to end up with 4 Video cards, or whatnot, if they were consistently the top performer, and I were to stick to a schedule. But sending out a promise for $100 worth or merchandise is too similar to paying people. I would appreciate any suggestions in this department
Overall, I truly appreciate the help, and I welcome any additional suggestions you might have for the project. Please keep in mind my naivety in this area. Again, as Iâ(TM)ve said in other posts, Iâ(TM)m only trying to make sure that we can release a game worthy of the fans, and worthy of the 8 year wait.
I seem trapped, to a degree, however. I donâ(TM)t want to hype the game too much, and raise expectations, as then, if it takes a long time to release, or the final product isnâ(TM)t what people were expecting, they will lose faith in the community.
On the other hand, If I donâ(TM)t hype the game, I cannot obtain the development that I need to finish it.
I wish I knew the answer to THAT one.
Colin
Fair enough. I really understand your sentiment, and to some degree really agree with it..
But there are many cases where it just doesn't pan out. For instance, There have been some coders, who offered to help, but only knew qBasic. We aren't coding in qBasic. I asked if they would like to learn AGAST, and they told me that I should re-write the game in qbasic.
I'm not sure how to make that situation helpful. If they REFUSE to learn, I'm in a bit of a bind.
WRT doing it myself, I am, but I'm slow, as are many members of the team. That is why I'm looking for help. We'll get it done this way, but I don't want to wait until 2008 to play the completed game...
I do appreciate the comments, however.
Colin
"6. Pink elephants"
Do Pink Elephants code well? I usually only see them when I'm not in much of a state to do a code review..
Read my commments further on in the story.
What I'm really looking for is a way to encourage people to volunteer time. I'm NOT looking to pay someone who doesn't care about SQ to work on the project. I'm looking for a way to encourage people to donate their own time..
Ie, "I want to donate, but do I really have the time with everything else in my life"..
That sort of situation. I guess, judging from you post and others, this isn't a good way to do it. Any suggestions on how I should?
We're shooting for a BSD license, as I really feel that the game is community property, and the game, and the code in it, should be used by anyone who wishes to help revive adventure games.
The reason I say shooting for, instead of Are, is that there have been some useful routines in GPL'ed programs. If we ever had to use one of those, then the program would have to go GPL in it's entirety.
The program used to be listed on SF, but I removed it when SF stopped giving out their code, and started changing their EULA.
The old page was at http://sourceforge.net/projects/sq7/, but I haven't touched that in over a year..
For some reason it's listed under symmetric multi-processor, but that might have been them changing their DB categories in the last year.
Colin
Go to sq7.org/code .zip there, of AGAST engine tweaks, as well as two add on files, that should be added to it, after the files are unzipped.
There is a
We're using the AGAST engine
http://www.allitis.com/agast/index.html
The datestamps on the files are wrong. If you're interested, after looking through the code, let me know, and I can send a copy of my todo list. Perhaps some of it might interest you, or you might want to start on your own aspect.
Colin
How exactly would I do that?
Please keep in mind, I'm really looking for someone who remembers Space Quest from thier childhood, and wants to help recapture the magic. I'm not looking to hire an employee for some rediculously low wage.
Well, I think that's part of the mis-understanding, then, and possibly why this plan won't work.
I'm not interested in people who would only want Some money.. The idea is that, for many people, working on a OSS project is an investment, of time, of mental capital, and of their skill.
Getting people who are willing to volunteer is easy. Finding a way to get qualified people isn't. I'm trying to figure out a way to encourage people who are on the edge. People who would like to donate their time, but can't quite make themselves do it, with their busy schedule and all.
Does that make any sense?
Is it morally wrong? (honest question)
That's why I'm asking Slashdot for Advice.
That's part of the problem. I don't know that I /could/ take in any money, without risking Legal issues. Everthing I would pay would be out of pocket.
;)
The situation with Vivendi/sierra is murky, and would take too long to get into here, but I don't think they would sponser it at this point in time.
I'm not asking how to get sponcership, I'm asking how to get people to work for free, or cheap
But, I guess, in the end, it comes down the the same advice. Get popular, then get help. The problem is, getting popular is hard, and getting qualified help is harder.
We're just doing what we can to get the game released. I don't want money, I want more time, and more team members with it.
Colin
I'd love it if you might be able to help out with the project. If you'd like to e-mail me, I'd be happy to work something out.
We're doing the coding in AGAST, just because writing our own engine would be prohibitivly difficult (we had looked into a Python/Pygame engine, but it would take more time than our team has)
I'd love it if you could work either on Characters, but would, of course, also love Background Scenes, or Programming, depinding on what you feel most comfortable with. Of course, switching around is always a possibility.
If you're serious, send me an e-mail at Colin@sq7.org
I'd love to talk with you.
-Colin
"$100 a week is a bit too low (within the US and most Western countries, at least)"
Right, that's exactly the point! $100/week is nearly too much as it is. I don't know if I could even pay that, it's just a number thrown out there. So What DO I do? Is there no way to do this?
I hate it when I feel powerless to help my project. I believe in it so strongly..I just want it to suceed.
And I don't know what else to do.
Is there any solution for me, that Doesn't involve me taking out a loan to make a Free game?
The point is, I /don't/ have $100/week extra.. I really have no where near that.
The only money I have I'm making from working over the summer. I figure if I can make $200/week this summer, I can then pay someone $100/week for a few weeks, and spend the other half on gas.. But I'll still be screwed when school starts again
I really can't afford that much. I should have put $100/month.. If someone could help for that much, I could pay them for several months...
That's not the point.
The point is, I'm very interested in HOW to do it. What the process is..Not the $100 figure.
Does that make any sense?
I'm trying to figure out HOW to do it. I doubt I could afford Gas/insurance/and my dorm if I payed much more.
<sighs> Colin