One of them we sent an email to them explaining in detail why we don't infringe (with references to alternate non-infringing, and pre-existing, implementations of the patented idea). On that occassion they actually included the first page of the patent and a "letter of reference" from someone they settled with (which was written so as to attempt to instill fear in us that they were serious and would pursue it). They never returned our email.
In another case, we sent a letter from our lawyer requesting more info, but sounding neither like we wanted to settle or fight, just that we wanted actual details to verify for ourselves, and never heard back.
A few of them we simply ignored and they never contacted us again. Ignoring them might not be the best idea, but it is the least time consuming (and the cheapest). Unless, of course, it's a notice that they've actually filed for a lawsuit!
We've been threatened several times, sometimes about ridiculous patents (one on the usage of the standard diff algorithm, which has been described in papers dating back to the early 1970's, yet their patent was from the late 80's...), sometimes about obviously undefendable trademarks they claim to own.
So far, we haven't given them much credence, and they go away pretty quickly when they realize we're not going to fork your $$$ over so easily.
The bluff is that they have the cash to take you to court to begin with. It's not cheap, and if they don't have a strong case (ie. it's not a legitimate claim), it's not likely they'll actually risk throwing money into it.
Mind you, this is in NO WAY legally sound advice, so don't take my word above that of your lawyer.
Go to small, local diners. Sit by yourself. Bring a laptop, notebook, pen, etc. Have lunch. Have coffee. Take your time. Work at your leisure, but _do_ do work. Talk to the staff. Don't worry about distractions -- they're far fewer than, for example, the distractions of working at home (TV, games, family, hobbies like a guitar, etc.), and they're a LOT less likely to offer free WiFi access, which is a GOOD thing.
Also, the distractions caused by other human beings doing things around you are good. Embrace them, and it'll mean you're actually interacting with other _real_ human beings. That what life's about anyway. Community, family. Starbucks et al don't have that.
I go to work at the diner down the street every chance I get. It costs me lunch every time, and I'm sure it's not the healthiest food, but I accomplish far more that way, and I know when it's time to call it quits when my laptop battery is just about up. Then when I get home, I check my email, answer questions, and then my work day is done. Before I go, I check my email also. You don't have to have your email on all the time. You also don't need to work all the time. The amazing thing is that I used to work like crazy, because that's what small business owners do. Since I decided to stop that, because the lifestyle isn't sustainable, nor enjoyable, I'm much happier, and I get more done than I was before, both work-wise and in my personal life. I read again. I talk to my family. I see my friends. A world of difference.
Not to say I'm perfect or anything like that, or that I've got all the answers (yeah right! the only thing I know for sure is I ain't got a clue!), but it came down to the choice of living to work or working to live. And as much as I enjoy what I do, I don't live for it.
Cherokee and Arabic has three numbers. Not like 1, 2, 3; but, singular, dual, and plural.
But isn't the 1, 2, 3 numbering system of Arabic origin (or rather, Indian and Arabic origin)? Which would imply that even though they only have a limited number of words for numbers, they do have an understanding of mathematics that isn't bound to those three words.
Couldn't both be done via TAB and shift-TAB? It's a simple key combo, so I'd prefer to see TAB continue the way it works now, and shift-TAB cycle through the options.
Maybe we should email our suggestions for bash 3.1-dev...
Our CMS, called Sitellite, is a newer addition to opensourcecms.com, so you might not have seen it before. We've been told (by non-technical users themselves) that it is extremely simple for them to use, but we've really strived not to sacrifice the capabilities of the system in making it so. I think we've struck a great balance myself, however being the lead developer I'm somewhat biased.;)
If you did try it out already (or if anyone else reading this has), I'd be interested to know what you found difficult to use. If not and you're interested in taking a look at it, the web site URL is:
Depends from place to place, and also how you structure your income (if you can, which mostly only company owners can do), but it sounds like it's pretty much the same.
Corporations here can make as much as they want here, and still fall into the lowest tax bracket, whereas if you jump from $35k to 45, suddenly your taxes as an individual go from 20% to 25% (not exact percents, my accountant remembers these things for me). But owning a corporation, I can keep the majority of my money and expenses within the corporation, pay myself enough to fall into the lowest tax bracket, and get away with paying myself extra in dividends at the end of the year. So I can make as much as I want, and still fall into the lowest bracket, whereas an individual employee has no control over it at all.
The downside is that this makes my income look a lot smaller, and combined with having a small business, it's near impossible to get loans or mortgages. So the downside to the tax benefit is that I pay double what I'd pay on a mortgage to rent the equivalent place, for now anyway.
But yeah, your $80k gross becoming 50 sounds about right for employees here.
I noticed that too. I figured the locations were more indicative of the average of the state itself, or at least the average of the more sizeable centres within it. Either way, not very useful IMO...
I stand (partly) corrected. It does provide the average for different cities, however I don't see the average cost of living in each anywhere for comparison. Without that, the stats can still only be compared with the other regions as if they are all on the same scale, which they aren't.
For example, why is Memphis/Nashville so far below everyone else? Is it cheaper to live there, or is something else affecting this area that isn't for others? I can understand why New York is higher than Detroit, for example, but that's just because I've lived near the one and had family in the other.
My other point was that these are used in lower-cost-of-living areas to encourage naive students into Comp Sci, so that universities can continue to profit from the Tech boon even though it died years ago, at the expense of the student, who is left with no employment and a huge debt to repay. Studies like this, when they don't present a basis for fair comparisons, hiring rates, and other accompanying info, make such dishonesty more easily achieved.
I didn't bother with to RTFA because the link said PDF, and I wasn't in the mood to load Acrobat, although clicking through now brings me to an HTML page that links to the PDF, which itself brings me to an HTML page as well...
Unfortunately, apathy is an eventual product of democracies that stop considering free thought about justice to be a meaningful endeavour. We're living for our material desires now (fast food, movies, cable tv, going to the bar, etc.), not for any sort of sense of integrity or "doing what's right". We'll play rhetorical tricks, saying things like "what _is_ 'right' anyway? how do we know for sure?". When we see others doing things like this, as long as it doesn't negatively affect us directly, who cares?
This is a predictable effect of the belief in moral materialism sweeping over many parts of the world right now, which makes it all the sadder to see happening because it's getting worse and there's no end in sight.
A survey that doesn't consider the cost of living for each particular location, is irrelevant to all of them. For example, Joe A in Silicon Valley might be thinking "Gee, that's kinda low... It costs me X just on house payments alone", while Joe B out in OshKosh Wisconsin might say "Wow, I only make $20k/year -- I'm under-paid!!!" yet for him, the same X for housing might be 1/4 what it is for Joe A.
I live in Winnipeg, for example, and the cost of living here is one of the lowest in Canada. My family in Ontario can't understand how I can get by on so little, but I have surplus by Manotoban standards.
The unfortunate thing is, people here are still only catching on that there's a tech slump (up and coming programmers, that is). They're still being fed the same lines as in 1999 about IT being the biggest thing going, and surveys like this are used to boost their confidence in the job market (look, make $80k/year to start!), but in reality there are almost no jobs at all here, and the actual average starting wage for a programmer in Winnipeg is minimum wage, or unemployment.
Fortunately I haven't had to update my resume just yet, since I started my own company (see.sig for details;)).
I can just imagine the heaps of shimmering garbage produced as a result of this idea. Consider how many of these would be produced if each "EZ-D" or whatever the f**k they're called is a one-watch-only disc.
Not to be an environmentalist or anything, but our garbage production is already out of control, and the manufacturing process for CDs and DVDs is already polutant enough. This is over the top.
This is a great example of when scientific researchers should pause and think "is this the right thing to do?" It's time the concept of ethics got reintroduced to science, but that's unfortunately not likely to happen.
Science, meet my good friend Ethics. Ah, you know each other! Well then, here's to old friends!
There's so much to learn out there, much of which is unfortunately not accessible via the modern university (at least not the main paths through it), that would both provide a good mental challenge for you, as well as help channel your intellectual gifts into positive outlets.
The classics and the medievals especially, btw. While the moderns are important, I'd argue that that's so because we need to figure out where we went wrong in order to right ourselves. The classics, on the other hand, and the medieval philosophers especially, had such a huge emphasis on method, which is so critical to making any progress at all (methods beyond the impirical scientific method).
The empirical evidence to the importance of philosophy, in case you're skeptical of it, is that most of the great scientific and mathematical minds throughout history considered themselves philosophers, not scientists, and considered the two inseperable. The major artists too, you'll find, also considered themselves not artists but philosophers.
PS. Philosophy is Greek for "Lover of Learning" or "Lover of Wisdom". Can't top that if your hunger for learning really is insatiable.;)
Is it right for a discredited man to have his pHD removed? Is it right that popular opinion can determine how qualified someone is to make a statement in their field?
Being that PhD stands for Philosophiae Doctor, as in Doctor of Philosophy (since Science used to be regarded as one of the branches of Philosophy), I would say a man who fails to uphold his ethical duties with regards to his profession may very well qualify to have his PhD title removed.
It's not just about how qualified he is at the technical aspects of his area of specialization, but also how qualified he is as a person (ie. Can be be trusted? Is his professional behaviour ethical? Does he contribute positively or negatively to his field? etc.)
You can't strip someone of knowledge.
The crux of the argument, IMO, is that a PhD represents more than just raw knowledge, but also some level of wisdom and insight into the proper application and use of said knowledge. Manipulating results for potential monetary gain, because you think you can get away with it, exhibits a failure in that regard.
Advocating regression? I'd just like to throw in that it may be possible that increasing one's level of skill in a variety of seemingly worthless (because we can buy them at the store now) activities is actually progressive. I don't believe he was advocating regression, that would be saying "you know, grunting can be a surprisingly effective method of communication." I think he was advocating self-sufficiency, and self-improvement.
In fact, it's possible that our society is regressing towards the end point most consider progressive. It's all in the goal, and whether that goal will actually make us better or worse as people (or put us closer to our perfect state, which might not be a state of lounging around watching tv and eating junk food, working 9-5 so our kids can do the same).
Is an increase in prosperity, peace, and health, really progressive when it's coupled with a directly proportionate increase in apathy? Do those things really make us more free and happier, or do they just make us more content leading the materialist existence we're encouraged towards by our education?
It comes down to the classical vs. the modern definition of freedom, and the fact that modern society has dropped the classical concept of someone (or something for that matter) having an actual purpose.
Pandora's box cannot be closed.
Strong statement. I'd probably agree with it more than with the rest of your post, although I think you're generally correct (I think you're mistaken in interpreting the parent post is all I'm really saying, and providing me with an opportunity to rant;)). However, it doesn't seem to be entirely compatible with the rest of your statement. Is society progressing or regressing in your view? This seems to imply that something definitively regressive has occurred, but that society is still progressing. Progressing to what, though? Progress implies a goal, or a purpose, either individually or collectively. I'm not sure modern society has a clear definition or even awareness of that goal. I'd say it's possible that the classics might have had a better idea of that goal than we do.
Two kinds of people exist in the world: Those who put people into categories, and those who do not.
memcached is a really cool cache system that I believe slashdot.org also uses now for caching comments. It's super easy to integrate into an app in various languages (Perl, PHP, Python, Java, etc.) and the protocol is published as well, so it can be made compatible with any language/application. 3 lines of code, and the performance of your site skyrockets. Check it out at:
http://www.danga.com/memcached/
Note: I have no affiliation with memcached, danga, or livejournal -- I just think it's a really sweet solution.
If your CMS isn't flexible enough to handle multiple editing plugins you should examine your architecture (not that I'm accusing Sitellite of anything. I know nothing of your CMS. )
I agree. Our WYSIWYG editor is actually just an add-on like any other, that's simply distributed with the software itself and pre-configured. We used to use Richtext (richtext.sf.net I think?), but it wasn't very actively developed, and when Moz's Midas features first came out, there weren't any open source editors to plug in. Now that there's a selection, it might have saved us the trouble. Oh well.:) With Xed (Xed is our WYSIWYG editor), we try to provide a tightly-integrated editor that is easy to use, flexible (handles pasting from Word, etc.), and feels like a natural extension of the software itself (taking cues from Apple;)). I think we're pretty close to that mark too...
Our form widget configuration, which allow you to choose between a textarea, Xed, or another you install yourself, is simply a matter of changing a setting in our form definition files, like this:
[body]
; type = textarea type = xed.Widget.Xeditor
That's all there is to it. Adding a new WYSIWYG editor to the system would be a matter of subclassing the widget class (lots of examples of that already, and you could use Xed as a basis for it), and changing that one line.
Anyway, I actually tried out the latest version of WebGUI, and I was impressed by it. The drag & drop in the web view was neat. If I was looking for a Perl-based CMS solution (possible, as we do try to use the right tool for the job, and not just pidgeon-hole all problems into our one solution), I'd definitely consider it.
We don't try to hide this, but even the Free Software Foundation require that you assign/grant unlimited copyright to them on contributions. So I don't think it's unfair for us to ask the same thing.
Why do you drag philosophy into this? Why are you getting defensive? I just wanted to know what your policies are because that tells me how likely you are to succeed.
Um, I don't believe I was being defensive, at least not intentionally so. Sorry if it came across that way.
And I wasn't trying to drag philosophy into this either, I was merely appealing to the authority of the FSF to illustrate the acceptable and common-place nature of our contribution policy. I guess I could have slipped a smiley into that last line of mine, to be more clear of my tone. Oops.:)
Also, a commercial version is a good thing for the community as well.
You say that as if it's an established fact. But many of the most successful open source projects are not dual-licensed. And many GPL-only projects have excellent commercial acceptance and commercial support.
Dual-licensed projects, on the other hand, raise concerns about their governance, since one party to the project, the commercial owners, may want to take the project in a different direction from the OSS developers, and the commercial developers are in a different position relative to the other contributors.
I agree, these are legitimate concerns people have. However, one being sometimes the case doesn't mean the other isn't also sometimes true as well. I think that in general though, as long as a company is altruistic and clear in their intentions and goals, it is a benefit to the community that a commercial version exists, namely for the key reason I stated, which was that it puts dedicated developers on the software, instead of reducing it to the time constraints of a hobby. In this respect at least, I think my point stands.
As for the dual-licensing causing concerns about the project being taken in a different direction, a good example of that happening and the community adjusting successfully is the XFree86 project and their recent license change. A license change is not a retroactive thing, so the previous version can still be forked and carried on by the community, however it can definitely cause a pretty big disruption within the community. However, prompting a fork of our software that would then compete against us would not be a smart thing for a small business to do, and we try to avoid making too many stupid decisions.:)
Yes, but [active OSS developer communities] don't come overnight.
In fact, often they don't come at all. That's why knowing about the current user community, history, commercial ties, and governance of a new project is important. Hence my questions.
Agreed. This is why I answered you in detail, and why I'm still answering you long after the discussions have moved on to the next article.:)
To allay your reservations about our dual-licensed project at least, the two versions are functionally and visually identical. In fact, the commercial version is offered simply because a GPL version has some restrictions that are incompatible with some commercial users' intentions (making their changes closed-source). This presents an opportunity for us to offer the same thing to open source folks and to closed source folks alike, while making at least some money offering the same software to the latter group.
To add to the commercial appeal, we do offer additional commercial add-ons in the commercial version, which we also sell separately as well. These are things like a newsletter manager, for example, that are not a necessary part of a well-rounded CMS system. However, we do offer free add-ons as well, to be fair.
Support for an open source project or a commercial product can be a tricky balance, not because of any commercial-leaning interest on our part, but because of the fact that very small companies (2 in our case) tend to have very full plates. That's where hopefully the development of a community can end up helping each other out. We've seen that happen a few times with our software already, but it'll take some time for people to learn the software well enough to help troubleshoot for others as a regular practice. Still, it's exciting to see it starting to happen!:)
Anyway, hope this helps clear up any reservations about our particular project. I think this is also generally the idea that underlies the original dual-licensing idea as well (seems to be).
Yes, but does it have a large, active open source developer community? The community site seems kind of dead.
The community is building rapidly. We're nearly 200 registered users strong now, and the site has only been going since the beginning of February. We're up to 600 unique visitors a day too. We're doing what little promotion we can, but we're a 2-person company/project, so time to get the open source word out there is pretty limited.
However, with those stats, I wouldn't call the developer site dead.:) It's no google.com, but it's a good start.
Where is the CVS site? Are OSS contributors required to license their changes for the corporate version?
Yes, contributors are required to license their changes (changes to the core system, add-ons are a different matter) back to us, for inclusion in both the open and commercial versions (the two being identical, aside from license, warranty, resellability, and a few extra add-ons). We don't try to hide this, but even the Free Software Foundation require that you assign/grant unlimited copyright to them on contributions. So I don't think it's unfair for us to ask the same thing.
Also, a commercial version is a good thing for the community as well. The fact of the matter is that programmers need to eat too, and that costs money. You can't make money offering nothing but free code, free support, etc. So we sell a commercial version for people who have commercial interests in the software (just like MySQL does, for example). So a commercial version helps keep a core of developers working primarily on the CMS itself, not as a hobby, but as their day job.
Without an active OSS developer community, it matters fairly little what license it comes with.
Yes, but these don't come overnight. That's why we're trying to get the word out there, and going an extra mile to get people interested/involved right now. New projects don't just pop up with 10,000 members.:)
Technology-wise, we have one of the top CMSes in PHP, and I know we compare favourably to Open Source CMSes in other languages too. That's not to boast, but it is true (go look). What we're trying to do now is fill in the blanks -- community, documentation, more free add-ons, etc.
Anyway, it's getting late. I should catch a few zzz's.:)
The big benefit we've had so far with it is that a lot of our users come through web design shops, and design shops have traditionally been Mac shops. With Mozilla support, we can offer something our customers can use even on Macs.
Written in PHP, unusually flexible, very strong add-on framework, free add-ons, including a search add-on based on Apache Lucene (no PHP Java extension required though), and HIGHLY usable by non-techies. Cross-browser WYSIWYG editing is built-in, and it's designed for non-techies to use, but real techies to code in. Like any proper template system, standards compliance is up to you however (although our XML-based templates require XHTML or XML output, so we do encourage at least;)).
There's also a commercial version, and commercial support available (this was the qualm that the reviewer had about Plone) at simian.ca. We also sell commercial add-ons (gotta eat too, right?;)).
Anyway, </plug> -- just trying to scare up some more interest, never hurts to try.:)
Slashdot Mirror
One of them we sent an email to them explaining in detail why we don't infringe (with references to alternate non-infringing, and pre-existing, implementations of the patented idea). On that occassion they actually included the first page of the patent and a "letter of reference" from someone they settled with (which was written so as to attempt to instill fear in us that they were serious and would pursue it). They never returned our email.
In another case, we sent a letter from our lawyer requesting more info, but sounding neither like we wanted to settle or fight, just that we wanted actual details to verify for ourselves, and never heard back.
A few of them we simply ignored and they never contacted us again. Ignoring them might not be the best idea, but it is the least time consuming (and the cheapest). Unless, of course, it's a notice that they've actually filed for a lawsuit!
We've been threatened several times, sometimes about ridiculous patents (one on the usage of the standard diff algorithm, which has been described in papers dating back to the early 1970's, yet their patent was from the late 80's...), sometimes about obviously undefendable trademarks they claim to own.
So far, we haven't given them much credence, and they go away pretty quickly when they realize we're not going to fork your $$$ over so easily.
The bluff is that they have the cash to take you to court to begin with. It's not cheap, and if they don't have a strong case (ie. it's not a legitimate claim), it's not likely they'll actually risk throwing money into it.
Mind you, this is in NO WAY legally sound advice, so don't take my word above that of your lawyer.
The Postmodern Generator:
http://www.elsewhere.org/cgi-bin/postmodern/
Every time you refresh, it generates a new essay in postmodern-speak.
Go to small, local diners. Sit by yourself. Bring a laptop, notebook, pen, etc. Have lunch. Have coffee. Take your time. Work at your leisure, but _do_ do work. Talk to the staff. Don't worry about distractions -- they're far fewer than, for example, the distractions of working at home (TV, games, family, hobbies like a guitar, etc.), and they're a LOT less likely to offer free WiFi access, which is a GOOD thing.
Also, the distractions caused by other human beings doing things around you are good. Embrace them, and it'll mean you're actually interacting with other _real_ human beings. That what life's about anyway. Community, family. Starbucks et al don't have that.
I go to work at the diner down the street every chance I get. It costs me lunch every time, and I'm sure it's not the healthiest food, but I accomplish far more that way, and I know when it's time to call it quits when my laptop battery is just about up. Then when I get home, I check my email, answer questions, and then my work day is done. Before I go, I check my email also. You don't have to have your email on all the time. You also don't need to work all the time. The amazing thing is that I used to work like crazy, because that's what small business owners do. Since I decided to stop that, because the lifestyle isn't sustainable, nor enjoyable, I'm much happier, and I get more done than I was before, both work-wise and in my personal life. I read again. I talk to my family. I see my friends. A world of difference.
Not to say I'm perfect or anything like that, or that I've got all the answers (yeah right! the only thing I know for sure is I ain't got a clue!), but it came down to the choice of living to work or working to live. And as much as I enjoy what I do, I don't live for it.
But isn't the 1, 2, 3 numbering system of Arabic origin (or rather, Indian and Arabic origin)? Which would imply that even though they only have a limited number of words for numbers, they do have an understanding of mathematics that isn't bound to those three words.
Either way, very interesting post!
Couldn't both be done via TAB and shift-TAB? It's a simple key combo, so I'd prefer to see TAB continue the way it works now, and shift-TAB cycle through the options.
Maybe we should email our suggestions for bash 3.1-dev...
Our CMS, called Sitellite, is a newer addition to opensourcecms.com, so you might not have seen it before. We've been told (by non-technical users themselves) that it is extremely simple for them to use, but we've really strived not to sacrifice the capabilities of the system in making it so. I think we've struck a great balance myself, however being the lead developer I'm somewhat biased. ;)
If you did try it out already (or if anyone else reading this has), I'd be interested to know what you found difficult to use. If not and you're interested in taking a look at it, the web site URL is:
http://www.sitellite.org/
Cheers,
Lux
Depends from place to place, and also how you structure your income (if you can, which mostly only company owners can do), but it sounds like it's pretty much the same.
Corporations here can make as much as they want here, and still fall into the lowest tax bracket, whereas if you jump from $35k to 45, suddenly your taxes as an individual go from 20% to 25% (not exact percents, my accountant remembers these things for me). But owning a corporation, I can keep the majority of my money and expenses within the corporation, pay myself enough to fall into the lowest tax bracket, and get away with paying myself extra in dividends at the end of the year. So I can make as much as I want, and still fall into the lowest bracket, whereas an individual employee has no control over it at all.
The downside is that this makes my income look a lot smaller, and combined with having a small business, it's near impossible to get loans or mortgages. So the downside to the tax benefit is that I pay double what I'd pay on a mortgage to rent the equivalent place, for now anyway.
But yeah, your $80k gross becoming 50 sounds about right for employees here.
I noticed that too. I figured the locations were more indicative of the average of the state itself, or at least the average of the more sizeable centres within it. Either way, not very useful IMO...
I stand (partly) corrected. It does provide the average for different cities, however I don't see the average cost of living in each anywhere for comparison. Without that, the stats can still only be compared with the other regions as if they are all on the same scale, which they aren't.
For example, why is Memphis/Nashville so far below everyone else? Is it cheaper to live there, or is something else affecting this area that isn't for others? I can understand why New York is higher than Detroit, for example, but that's just because I've lived near the one and had family in the other.
My other point was that these are used in lower-cost-of-living areas to encourage naive students into Comp Sci, so that universities can continue to profit from the Tech boon even though it died years ago, at the expense of the student, who is left with no employment and a huge debt to repay. Studies like this, when they don't present a basis for fair comparisons, hiring rates, and other accompanying info, make such dishonesty more easily achieved.
I didn't bother with to RTFA because the link said PDF, and I wasn't in the mood to load Acrobat, although clicking through now brings me to an HTML page that links to the PDF, which itself brings me to an HTML page as well...
I agree 100%.
Unfortunately, apathy is an eventual product of democracies that stop considering free thought about justice to be a meaningful endeavour. We're living for our material desires now (fast food, movies, cable tv, going to the bar, etc.), not for any sort of sense of integrity or "doing what's right". We'll play rhetorical tricks, saying things like "what _is_ 'right' anyway? how do we know for sure?". When we see others doing things like this, as long as it doesn't negatively affect us directly, who cares?
This is a predictable effect of the belief in moral materialism sweeping over many parts of the world right now, which makes it all the sadder to see happening because it's getting worse and there's no end in sight.
A survey that doesn't consider the cost of living for each particular location, is irrelevant to all of them. For example, Joe A in Silicon Valley might be thinking "Gee, that's kinda low... It costs me X just on house payments alone", while Joe B out in OshKosh Wisconsin might say "Wow, I only make $20k/year -- I'm under-paid!!!" yet for him, the same X for housing might be 1/4 what it is for Joe A.
.sig for details ;)).
I live in Winnipeg, for example, and the cost of living here is one of the lowest in Canada. My family in Ontario can't understand how I can get by on so little, but I have surplus by Manotoban standards.
The unfortunate thing is, people here are still only catching on that there's a tech slump (up and coming programmers, that is). They're still being fed the same lines as in 1999 about IT being the biggest thing going, and surveys like this are used to boost their confidence in the job market (look, make $80k/year to start!), but in reality there are almost no jobs at all here, and the actual average starting wage for a programmer in Winnipeg is minimum wage, or unemployment.
Fortunately I haven't had to update my resume just yet, since I started my own company (see
I can just imagine the heaps of shimmering garbage produced as a result of this idea. Consider how many of these would be produced if each "EZ-D" or whatever the f**k they're called is a one-watch-only disc.
Not to be an environmentalist or anything, but our garbage production is already out of control, and the manufacturing process for CDs and DVDs is already polutant enough. This is over the top.
This is a great example of when scientific researchers should pause and think "is this the right thing to do?" It's time the concept of ethics got reintroduced to science, but that's unfortunately not likely to happen.
Science, meet my good friend Ethics. Ah, you know each other! Well then, here's to old friends!
*slaps head*
Thanks for the correction.
There's so much to learn out there, much of which is unfortunately not accessible via the modern university (at least not the main paths through it), that would both provide a good mental challenge for you, as well as help channel your intellectual gifts into positive outlets.
;)
The classics and the medievals especially, btw. While the moderns are important, I'd argue that that's so because we need to figure out where we went wrong in order to right ourselves. The classics, on the other hand, and the medieval philosophers especially, had such a huge emphasis on method, which is so critical to making any progress at all (methods beyond the impirical scientific method).
The empirical evidence to the importance of philosophy, in case you're skeptical of it, is that most of the great scientific and mathematical minds throughout history considered themselves philosophers, not scientists, and considered the two inseperable. The major artists too, you'll find, also considered themselves not artists but philosophers.
PS. Philosophy is Greek for "Lover of Learning" or "Lover of Wisdom". Can't top that if your hunger for learning really is insatiable.
Being that PhD stands for Philosophiae Doctor, as in Doctor of Philosophy (since Science used to be regarded as one of the branches of Philosophy), I would say a man who fails to uphold his ethical duties with regards to his profession may very well qualify to have his PhD title removed.
It's not just about how qualified he is at the technical aspects of his area of specialization, but also how qualified he is as a person (ie. Can be be trusted? Is his professional behaviour ethical? Does he contribute positively or negatively to his field? etc.)
The crux of the argument, IMO, is that a PhD represents more than just raw knowledge, but also some level of wisdom and insight into the proper application and use of said knowledge. Manipulating results for potential monetary gain, because you think you can get away with it, exhibits a failure in that regard.
Advocating regression? I'd just like to throw in that it may be possible that increasing one's level of skill in a variety of seemingly worthless (because we can buy them at the store now) activities is actually progressive. I don't believe he was advocating regression, that would be saying "you know, grunting can be a surprisingly effective method of communication." I think he was advocating self-sufficiency, and self-improvement.
In fact, it's possible that our society is regressing towards the end point most consider progressive. It's all in the goal, and whether that goal will actually make us better or worse as people (or put us closer to our perfect state, which might not be a state of lounging around watching tv and eating junk food, working 9-5 so our kids can do the same).
Is an increase in prosperity, peace, and health, really progressive when it's coupled with a directly proportionate increase in apathy? Do those things really make us more free and happier, or do they just make us more content leading the materialist existence we're encouraged towards by our education?
It comes down to the classical vs. the modern definition of freedom, and the fact that modern society has dropped the classical concept of someone (or something for that matter) having an actual purpose.
Strong statement. I'd probably agree with it more than with the rest of your post, although I think you're generally correct (I think you're mistaken in interpreting the parent post is all I'm really saying, and providing me with an opportunity to rant ;)). However, it doesn't seem to be entirely compatible with the rest of your statement. Is society progressing or regressing in your view? This seems to imply that something definitively regressive has occurred, but that society is still progressing. Progressing to what, though? Progress implies a goal, or a purpose, either individually or collectively. I'm not sure modern society has a clear definition or even awareness of that goal. I'd say it's possible that the classics might have had a better idea of that goal than we do.
Good one. :)
Thanks for the words of encouragement!
I've been meaning to read the MPL actually, since I've heard that that's the case with it.
Cheers,
Lux
memcached is a really cool cache system that I believe slashdot.org also uses now for caching comments. It's super easy to integrate into an app in various languages (Perl, PHP, Python, Java, etc.) and the protocol is published as well, so it can be made compatible with any language/application. 3 lines of code, and the performance of your site skyrockets. Check it out at:
http://www.danga.com/memcached/
Note: I have no affiliation with memcached, danga, or livejournal -- I just think it's a really sweet solution.
Cheers,
Lux
If your CMS isn't flexible enough to handle multiple editing plugins you should examine your architecture (not that I'm accusing Sitellite of anything. I know nothing of your CMS. )
I agree. Our WYSIWYG editor is actually just an add-on like any other, that's simply distributed with the software itself and pre-configured. We used to use Richtext (richtext.sf.net I think?), but it wasn't very actively developed, and when Moz's Midas features first came out, there weren't any open source editors to plug in. Now that there's a selection, it might have saved us the trouble. Oh well. :) With Xed (Xed is our WYSIWYG editor), we try to provide a tightly-integrated editor that is easy to use, flexible (handles pasting from Word, etc.), and feels like a natural extension of the software itself (taking cues from Apple ;)). I think we're pretty close to that mark too...
Our form widget configuration, which allow you to choose between a textarea, Xed, or another you install yourself, is simply a matter of changing a setting in our form definition files, like this:
That's all there is to it. Adding a new WYSIWYG editor to the system would be a matter of subclassing the widget class (lots of examples of that already, and you could use Xed as a basis for it), and changing that one line.
Anyway, I actually tried out the latest version of WebGUI, and I was impressed by it. The drag & drop in the web view was neat. If I was looking for a Perl-based CMS solution (possible, as we do try to use the right tool for the job, and not just pidgeon-hole all problems into our one solution), I'd definitely consider it.
Cheers,
Lux
Why do you drag philosophy into this? Why are you getting defensive? I just wanted to know what your policies are because that tells me how likely you are to succeed.
Um, I don't believe I was being defensive, at least not intentionally so. Sorry if it came across that way.
And I wasn't trying to drag philosophy into this either, I was merely appealing to the authority of the FSF to illustrate the acceptable and common-place nature of our contribution policy. I guess I could have slipped a smiley into that last line of mine, to be more clear of my tone. Oops. :)
You say that as if it's an established fact. But many of the most successful open source projects are not dual-licensed. And many GPL-only projects have excellent commercial acceptance and commercial support.
Dual-licensed projects, on the other hand, raise concerns about their governance, since one party to the project, the commercial owners, may want to take the project in a different direction from the OSS developers, and the commercial developers are in a different position relative to the other contributors.
I agree, these are legitimate concerns people have. However, one being sometimes the case doesn't mean the other isn't also sometimes true as well. I think that in general though, as long as a company is altruistic and clear in their intentions and goals, it is a benefit to the community that a commercial version exists, namely for the key reason I stated, which was that it puts dedicated developers on the software, instead of reducing it to the time constraints of a hobby. In this respect at least, I think my point stands.
As for the dual-licensing causing concerns about the project being taken in a different direction, a good example of that happening and the community adjusting successfully is the XFree86 project and their recent license change. A license change is not a retroactive thing, so the previous version can still be forked and carried on by the community, however it can definitely cause a pretty big disruption within the community. However, prompting a fork of our software that would then compete against us would not be a smart thing for a small business to do, and we try to avoid making too many stupid decisions. :)
In fact, often they don't come at all. That's why knowing about the current user community, history, commercial ties, and governance of a new project is important. Hence my questions.
Agreed. This is why I answered you in detail, and why I'm still answering you long after the discussions have moved on to the next article. :)
Cheers,
Lux
Hi,
:)
To allay your reservations about our dual-licensed project at least, the two versions are functionally and visually identical. In fact, the commercial version is offered simply because a GPL version has some restrictions that are incompatible with some commercial users' intentions (making their changes closed-source). This presents an opportunity for us to offer the same thing to open source folks and to closed source folks alike, while making at least some money offering the same software to the latter group.
To add to the commercial appeal, we do offer additional commercial add-ons in the commercial version, which we also sell separately as well. These are things like a newsletter manager, for example, that are not a necessary part of a well-rounded CMS system. However, we do offer free add-ons as well, to be fair.
Support for an open source project or a commercial product can be a tricky balance, not because of any commercial-leaning interest on our part, but because of the fact that very small companies (2 in our case) tend to have very full plates. That's where hopefully the development of a community can end up helping each other out. We've seen that happen a few times with our software already, but it'll take some time for people to learn the software well enough to help troubleshoot for others as a regular practice. Still, it's exciting to see it starting to happen!
Anyway, hope this helps clear up any reservations about our particular project. I think this is also generally the idea that underlies the original dual-licensing idea as well (seems to be).
Cheers,
Lux
The community is building rapidly. We're nearly 200 registered users strong now, and the site has only been going since the beginning of February. We're up to 600 unique visitors a day too. We're doing what little promotion we can, but we're a 2-person company/project, so time to get the open source word out there is pretty limited.
However, with those stats, I wouldn't call the developer site dead. :) It's no google.com, but it's a good start.
The anonymous CVS instructions are here:
http://www.sitellite.org/index/cvs
Yes, contributors are required to license their changes (changes to the core system, add-ons are a different matter) back to us, for inclusion in both the open and commercial versions (the two being identical, aside from license, warranty, resellability, and a few extra add-ons). We don't try to hide this, but even the Free Software Foundation require that you assign/grant unlimited copyright to them on contributions. So I don't think it's unfair for us to ask the same thing.
Also, a commercial version is a good thing for the community as well. The fact of the matter is that programmers need to eat too, and that costs money. You can't make money offering nothing but free code, free support, etc. So we sell a commercial version for people who have commercial interests in the software (just like MySQL does, for example). So a commercial version helps keep a core of developers working primarily on the CMS itself, not as a hobby, but as their day job.
Yes, but these don't come overnight. That's why we're trying to get the word out there, and going an extra mile to get people interested/involved right now. New projects don't just pop up with 10,000 members. :)
Technology-wise, we have one of the top CMSes in PHP, and I know we compare favourably to Open Source CMSes in other languages too. That's not to boast, but it is true (go look). What we're trying to do now is fill in the blanks -- community, documentation, more free add-ons, etc.
Anyway, it's getting late. I should catch a few zzz's. :)
Cheers,
Lux
Ours does, and it's cross-platform too (based on Mozilla's Midas extension, available since Moz 1.3). You can check it out here:
http://www.sitellite.org/
In fact, we're not the only cross-browser WYSIWYG editor in town either (ours is already built into the CMS however). Another I know of is here:
http://dynarch.com/mishoo/htmlarea.epl
I'm sure there are others as well...
The big benefit we've had so far with it is that a lot of our users come through web design shops, and design shops have traditionally been Mac shops. With Mozilla support, we can offer something our customers can use even on Macs.
Cheers,
Lux
...to plug another newly-open-sourced CMS I'm the lead developer for:
Sitellite CMS
Written in PHP, unusually flexible, very strong add-on framework, free add-ons, including a search add-on based on Apache Lucene (no PHP Java extension required though), and HIGHLY usable by non-techies. Cross-browser WYSIWYG editing is built-in, and it's designed for non-techies to use, but real techies to code in. Like any proper template system, standards compliance is up to you however (although our XML-based templates require XHTML or XML output, so we do encourage at least ;)).
There's also a commercial version, and commercial support available (this was the qualm that the reviewer had about Plone) at simian.ca. We also sell commercial add-ons (gotta eat too, right? ;)).
Anyway, </plug> -- just trying to scare up some more interest, never hurts to try. :)