True.. I code because I can, and because I enjoy it.
I'm currently working on an audio streamer. This is because I personally wanted one, and the few I could find weren't quite right for me.
So to be nice I made the code available and it appears to be growing in popularity. (In the sense that I have users, and it's in Debian GNU/Linux, Gentoo GNU/Linux, and FreeBSD ports collection.)
I have no expections that this will generate revenue for me, although I do know that writing it helped me land my current job. Other than that I've stuck a small Amazon wishlist on the front page - and if people wish to make donations they'll be accepted with suprise and thanks.
A recent case in point was somebody wanting a new feature which I did have planned, but wasn't going to get round to for a while. The requestor wasn't a coder - so we struck a deal. He bought me a DVD from my wishlist, and I implemented the feature which he wanted; Now everybody has it; which seems to be a win for all concerned.
Now the forth road bridge is a stunning design to look at. Opened on the 4th of September 1964 the bridge connected North and South Queensferry replacing the regular ferry service that had stood for 800 years.
I don't think Railways at the southern Regions of the Italian Mainland are currently up to the task. As Americans, we might fail to realize that railways are a primary mode of transportation in most of Europe. Although Expressways do exist, Many people choose to not drive at all because train rides are cheap yet convienient.
In Europe possibly.
In the UK we've been having a terrible time over the past few years with the national train service 'British Rail' having been broken up into several indepedant commercial companies.
Maintainence has become a joke, as has the ability to stick to timetables. To make matters worse we've have several high profile accidents over the past few years which have been linked to the poor state of the rails themselves, and the age of the rolling stock.
The drivers have been holding one day strikes to get more pay - and quite frankly it's hard to hear somebody from the UK say something good about our tran service.
I can press CTRL+J to get a window with all the links on a pageWhen exploring large link-collections I can use the special 'create linked window' to browse efficiently without having to open/close lot's of windows.
Both of these things are cool tricks which I accomplish with the use of Bookmarklets
I agree with everything that's already been said about knowing the value of pipe's and the standard tools.
In addition to screen which has already been mentioned the two things that I've noticed impressing other people recently are, splitvt, and Emacs
Emacs is impressive because in the hands of an expert you can do almost anything - and splitvt is a stunning program which will turn one shell into two - I highly recommend you check it out.
It has to be said, though, that a lot of those questions are very artificial and would be trivial to answer if you were in front of a computer. (Very hard to answer if you were doing this over a phone..)
There are two main ways to give an interview, in my experience as a candidate:
A complete technical Q / A session.
Just sit and chat for 30-60 minutes.
I got my current job by just sitting and chatting to a couple of guys that were 'interviewing' me. There were a few technical questions but mostly it was assumed that I'd not lied on my CV, and they were just trying to decide if they could get along with me.
The gruelling technical question interview is the kind of thing that I personally dread - I find that I do mostly OK, but I will wimp out and say 'search google' for things that I don't know. Sometimes that's an acceptable answer, sometimes it isn't.
When I was last looking for a job I did come across these interview questions for SysAdmins.. - the only question that appears to be missing is 'What's your username...?' clickity-click;)
Over in the UK ADSL is just beginning to take of. However there are some things which make it pricey for users such as 'setup' fees. You're almost certain to have to get a 1 year contract as a minimum as well. (This is a shame; as it stops most Students from getting ADSL).
When I signed up I bought a cablemodem+router for around 130UK pounds. On top of that I had to pay 50 UK Pounds setup fee.
The alternative was to pay 240 UK Pounds for a provider loaned modem and setup - clearly much more expensive.
There is no way I would have the providers modem at a price like that; (not to mention the fact that the providers modems usually are USB based...)
I see where you're going with this; and the standard stock answer is 'support'.
But with a fine manual your users aren't going to need it - and if there isn't a manual and you have a userbase all the users will help each other out..
It seems like you can only rely upon support if your application has few users; or has very big clients using it who are used to paying for support contracts - whether they need it or not.
(Or perhaps if customization/installation is different for each user - so no users have a situation in common with each other).
I think the best way forward is a compromise give most stuff away under GPL, and keep the juicy bits for yourself. Much like what Trolltech does with the Windows port of Qt.
I wrote a lot of software for DOS systems which would display a screenfull of random rants/information when called with cmd "/?+ALT+255"
I've often wondered how many people discovered this... (Fair enough the text of the rant would have been visible in the binary itself; I didn't use any encrption initially, then later I discovered rot13 and started using that).
Slashdot Mirror
True .. I code because I can, and because I enjoy it.
I'm currently working on an audio streamer. This is because I personally wanted one, and the few I could find weren't quite right for me.
So to be nice I made the code available and it appears to be growing in popularity. (In the sense that I have users, and it's in Debian GNU/Linux, Gentoo GNU/Linux, and FreeBSD ports collection.)
I have no expections that this will generate revenue for me, although I do know that writing it helped me land my current job. Other than that I've stuck a small Amazon wishlist on the front page - and if people wish to make donations they'll be accepted with suprise and thanks.
A recent case in point was somebody wanting a new feature which I did have planned, but wasn't going to get round to for a while. The requestor wasn't a coder - so we struck a deal. He bought me a DVD from my wishlist, and I implemented the feature which he wanted; Now everybody has it; which seems to be a win for all concerned.
Now the forth road bridge is a stunning design to look at. Opened on the 4th of September 1964 the bridge connected North and South Queensferry replacing the regular ferry service that had stood for 800 years.
If anybody doesn't know it take a look here:
In Europe possibly.
In the UK we've been having a terrible time over the past few years with the national train service 'British Rail' having been broken up into several indepedant commercial companies.
Maintainence has become a joke, as has the ability to stick to timetables. To make matters worse we've have several high profile accidents over the past few years which have been linked to the poor state of the rails themselves, and the age of the rolling stock.
The drivers have been holding one day strikes to get more pay - and quite frankly it's hard to hear somebody from the UK say something good about our tran service.
I don't know I think it's a great job!
I'm an ex-programmer who made the switch to sysadmin (+toolsmith) work .. Much more varied than programming - plus I still code when I get home!
I've had a Honda motorbike once which had a big sticker on the fuel tank which says:
Remember - preserve nature, always wear a helmet, think safety
Made me laugh anyway...
I don't remember having seen it in a manual before, either, but I do remember seeing it all the time when I was at school.
The exam papers I had for both GCSE's and A-Levels often had 'This page intentionally left blank' written on pages.
Maybe it was some for of added intelligence test ;)
I use links in preference to W3m and Lynx nowadays - but I really wish it had a different name:
"So you're using Links then?"
"Yeah - I've been using lynx for years.."
"No not Lynxs - Links..."
Both of these things are cool tricks which I accomplish with the use of Bookmarklets
The biggest single command which saves me time is 'cd -' which changes to your previous directory under bash.
It doesn't sound terribly useful, but it is... Take my word for it.
I agree with everything that's already been said about knowing the value of pipe's and the standard tools.
In addition to screen which has already been mentioned the two things that I've noticed impressing other people recently are, splitvt, and Emacs
Emacs is impressive because in the hands of an expert you can do almost anything - and splitvt is a stunning program which will turn one shell into two - I highly recommend you check it out.
I'm glad I'm not the only one to do badly!
It has to be said, though, that a lot of those questions are very artificial and would be trivial to answer if you were in front of a computer. (Very hard to answer if you were doing this over a phone..)
There are two main ways to give an interview, in my experience as a candidate:
I got my current job by just sitting and chatting to a couple of guys that were 'interviewing' me. There were a few technical questions but mostly it was assumed that I'd not lied on my CV, and they were just trying to decide if they could get along with me.
The gruelling technical question interview is the kind of thing that I personally dread - I find that I do mostly OK, but I will wimp out and say 'search google' for things that I don't know. Sometimes that's an acceptable answer, sometimes it isn't.
When I was last looking for a job I did come across these interview questions for SysAdmins.. - the only question that appears to be missing is 'What's your username ...?' clickity-click ;)
Trust me if you're looking for a pay rise you want the servers to die at around midnight; then rush in and fix them.
Works every time ... ;)
No he wants to send the sound from the windows box - not to it.
(Besides if he wanted to stream MP3's he would be using my MP3 streamer, right? ;)
Nope you're not alone. I've never thought she was that special - except the acting in Leon; which was great considering her age at the time.
Don't worry Slashdot will cover the story again on Thursday .. and probably next month too!
Over in the UK ADSL is just beginning to take of. However there are some things which make it pricey for users such as 'setup' fees. You're almost certain to have to get a 1 year contract as a minimum as well. (This is a shame; as it stops most Students from getting ADSL).
When I signed up I bought a cablemodem+router for around 130UK pounds. On top of that I had to pay 50 UK Pounds setup fee.
The alternative was to pay 240 UK Pounds for a provider loaned modem and setup - clearly much more expensive.
There is no way I would have the providers modem at a price like that; (not to mention the fact that the providers modems usually are USB based...)
Sure point taken ..
Sounds like you could use some Lesbian GNU/Linux
Seriously you made some good points - but not all the people (men?) that will be at the parties will be the stereotype you present.
Some of us will be decent people who just happen to like Mozilla - well I say us, but there's no party in Scotland :(
I see where you're going with this; and the standard stock answer is 'support'.
But with a fine manual your users aren't going to need it - and if there isn't a manual and you have a userbase all the users will help each other out..
It seems like you can only rely upon support if your application has few users; or has very big clients using it who are used to paying for support contracts - whether they need it or not.
(Or perhaps if customization/installation is different for each user - so no users have a situation in common with each other).
I think the best way forward is a compromise give most stuff away under GPL, and keep the juicy bits for yourself. Much like what Trolltech does with the Windows port of Qt.
I wrote a lot of software for DOS systems which would display a screenfull of random rants/information when called with cmd "/?+ALT+255"
I've often wondered how many people discovered this ... (Fair enough the text of the rant would have been visible in the binary itself; I didn't use any encrption initially, then later I discovered rot13 and started using that).
Wow - that's stunning; thanks for the link!
I'm an open source programmer - and I suck at designing graphics. This is why I asked other people to design logo's for me.
Thankfully there are capable artists who are prepared to give their work away for free, (or perhaps for recognition .. who knows?).
I have to disagree with your claim that open source games suck - picking an arbitary example Armagetron (a 3D tron game) looks great
Nope - I want a BMW for $5, which is much more likely ;)
Seeing this reminds me that we need an "ironic" moderation option...