Stop being a bunch of doubting Thomases. Gnutella works. Those who don't contribute, doubt. Ritter's been discounted numerously, so don't bother bootstrapping from that.
Pursuant to my previous remark, the XCF has produced a ton of valuable software and technology. I still refer to Ali's networking K0D library, for example. Viola, GTK, GIMP, glib, GNU JSP, lots of Gnutella tending, Linux hacks, FreeBSD hacks, Java hacks, C and C++ hacks and on and on.
But none of that is important. That's all kinetic, or realised potential. The potential to do more than that is what is important.
When I was there I got to learn from Spencer Kimball, Pete Mattis, Ali Rahimi, Tracy Scott, Yaroslav Faybishenko, Misha Dynin, Josh MacDonald and many other people. A team of individuals. XCF members empowered each other by bringing together a great pool of knowledge and experience.
It's been a concern of mine for years that the wide spread of cheap computers and connectivity encourages people to stay home instead of going to labs to interact with their peers. This is the problem the XCF faces now. Having coded in the XCF and at home, I wish entirely that I could return to the days of the XCF. It was just more productive and more fun.
XCF members were brutal against boring projects and idiocy. Praise was rationed. There was no sense of political correctness and ego maintenance typical in the modern workplace. Respect was measured by quality of product, i.e. not by who you knew or how many papers you shipped about the code that stayed moored. I dream of the level of productivity achievable in a commercial XCF.
The XCF was uniquely a place of product staffed by members who transcended the one-dimensional geeky lameness endemic to tech-centric societies. We did cool things like race BMWs in Palo Alto and get drunk together. Huh huh *snort* huh.
Just want to point out that the XCF has produced an immeasurable amount of great software, and that everyone who has made an honest contribution has been proud to associate their product with the influence the XCF had on it.
GIMP, Gnutella, et al.
Spencer, Pete and I just reminisced about building software the good old XCF way, and there was no dissent.
Gene
The idea is that because my Internet connection is finite, and because I could profit from you downloading a track from me, that I would never ever allow anyone to download from me for free again.
If my connection supports ten simultaneous downloads, why would I let any one person download for free when I could have ten paying downloaders?
Anyway, I posit this as a possibility. An option. SDMI, as the only other real possibility, is unlikely to succeed in the face of what is becoming an increasingly fluid Internet.
DecisionMarkets actually establishes an idea market, while ShouldExist is basically just unrated commentary. For all the reasons it doesn't work well on hotly contested issues on Slashdot, ShouldExist will not work well.
Slashdot Mirror
Uhm...IBM Firewire PCMCIA Cardbus card, complete with both types of Firewire cables, 25$.
Stop being a bunch of doubting Thomases. Gnutella works. Those who don't contribute, doubt. Ritter's been discounted numerously, so don't bother bootstrapping from that.
Gene
Here's a little testimony: http://dale.oreillynet.com/stories/storyReader$31.
But none of that is important. That's all kinetic, or realised potential. The potential to do more than that is what is important.
When I was there I got to learn from Spencer Kimball, Pete Mattis, Ali Rahimi, Tracy Scott, Yaroslav Faybishenko, Misha Dynin, Josh MacDonald and many other people. A team of individuals. XCF members empowered each other by bringing together a great pool of knowledge and experience.
It's been a concern of mine for years that the wide spread of cheap computers and connectivity encourages people to stay home instead of going to labs to interact with their peers. This is the problem the XCF faces now. Having coded in the XCF and at home, I wish entirely that I could return to the days of the XCF. It was just more productive and more fun.
XCF members were brutal against boring projects and idiocy. Praise was rationed. There was no sense of political correctness and ego maintenance typical in the modern workplace. Respect was measured by quality of product, i.e. not by who you knew or how many papers you shipped about the code that stayed moored. I dream of the level of productivity achievable in a commercial XCF.
The XCF was uniquely a place of product staffed by members who transcended the one-dimensional geeky lameness endemic to tech-centric societies. We did cool things like race BMWs in Palo Alto and get drunk together. Huh huh *snort* huh.
Gene
Just want to point out that the XCF has produced an immeasurable amount of great software, and that everyone who has made an honest contribution has been proud to associate their product with the influence the XCF had on it. GIMP, Gnutella, et al. Spencer, Pete and I just reminisced about building software the good old XCF way, and there was no dissent. Gene
If my connection supports ten simultaneous downloads, why would I let any one person download for free when I could have ten paying downloaders?
Anyway, I posit this as a possibility. An option. SDMI, as the only other real possibility, is unlikely to succeed in the face of what is becoming an increasingly fluid Internet.
Gene Kan, e pluribus unum
DecisionMarkets actually establishes an idea market, while ShouldExist is basically just unrated commentary. For all the reasons it doesn't work well on hotly contested issues on Slashdot, ShouldExist will not work well.
Gene, InfraSearch Founder