Let's be honest, some products that are OSS'd may be an old pile of junk making nothing for the company. And they see that releasing it gives them some kudos in the OSS community.
So what? There's still some more source code added to the big pot marked OSS. Someone, somewhere may be able to take it and do something else imaginative with it.
The problem for the big movie companies is that the internet is breaking down the barriers to finding the alternative.
People are moving further and further away from a mainstream. The speed at which they can try things out is getting greater and greater. I can hit Amazon or iTunes and listen to a sample of a band, or maybe an MP3 on the band's site. Pre-internet, that was a hard thing to do, unless you went into a record shop, and the record shop would happily play it.
It's not so much a question of choice - it's more that people have far more ways of finding out their choices, which were previously restricted by gatekeepers or high cost barriers to the market.
I've been reading up on the UK position, contacted an MEP and MP, got an invite to that meeting (sadly ill) and to be honest, it looks at best like the UKPO doesn't have a clue over this issue.
However, I just don't know what else I can do. I can't see writing to someone in the House of Lords would be good. Any other thoughts?
Not a great analogy. If they'd really wanted to, they could have done it first time. The only reason it didn't happen was because the government themselves didn't give it the time.
The prime minister himself never voted for it, and the whole question of why it took 3 times etc is all rather murky.
Can you please read my post again... the part about "Hollywood History of the World" in particular. I was referring to how in almost every Hollywood movie, the Americans are there to save the day/make the sacrifice. The major hollywood movie about Enigma wasn't about the Poles or Bletchley park, but a US submarine.
The problem often stems from the constant "make money on everything" attitude, which ignores the point that people have enough of it. A lot of people loathe DVDs with ads that can't be ignored but have to be fast-forwarded through (what's people's view of your company next time they consider buying one of your DVDs).
If you've taken my money for a DVD, don't irritate me. If you want to do ads, either make it that I can press "menu" and ignore them, put them after the movie or have a menu option for them.
I switched off the popup blocker on a site (thinking there was a good content reason) the other day and there it was, everytime I clicked on the site, a new popup appeared telling me another offer, and irritating the shit out of me. Thankfully for them (yes THEM!) I could put the blocker back on, or else I'd have probably cancelled looking for the product on their site and gone elsewhere.
I don't know what goes on in the EU, but a few delays introduces doubt in these areas. Also, a change of any sort can shift balances of power and the like.
Getting it past the Christmas period will also have people more prepared than they are right now.
It's like if a car driver picks up a hitchhiker and says "I'll take you to..." and then tells them that he's going to stop sooner. The hitchhiker can't sue for not getting what was offered.
I worked for an organisation and as part of the induction programme, we got sent to one of the offices to do frontline work for 2 weeks.
You don't get that much from 2 weeks and are treated quite gently, but I noticed that the people who joined after the programme finished had much less respect for the people in the offices than people who had joined during the programme (often quotes about "lazy bastards in the offices").
I've seen companies nearly give away perfectly good, money making parts just because they can raise some cash for this years books to look good for the investment people.
Here's the upside - if you can find yourself a position in this kind of dumping (and people tend to get emotional and desperate in the dumping), there's money to be made.
I've also seen 90+% completed projects (like well through UAT) get ditched, and absolutely no-one looked at the value of what they had in terms of selling it. It just becomes emotional - a dead project - and becomes archived on a server somewhere and forgotten.
It's dead true, and more so than it was years ago. The speed of change, the massive variety of tools and classes out in the wild means that more often the requests I get for work often involve picking up the understanding of a complex class that I've never had the need to use before. That also means dealing with all that soft "experience" stuff (like dealing with errors, tuning your thinking on how best to use the class.
Let's say someone asks me to write out charts on a webpage. There's a whole load of.net classes out there to do that. I could spend trying them all or get a five minute summary from a buddy whose been using one for a while.
I've found that as my network of geek friends has grown (something I've actively worked at), my work gets better.
I've even done it myself. Bought a scanner from a company and when I had to rebuild, went to get the driver and it wasn't on the site and it was down for over a week! Now, the driver isn't on there - you have to buy it.
I stick to the reliable names, and it's a policy that doesn't trip me up. I've seen so many people get burnt on little stuff that saves you very little cash, but if it goes wrong starts taking up all your time.
I'd also count buying from "cheapest retailer". Sure, you'll save $5, but then spend an hour trying to get through to the call centre to get some support. Pay the extra $5, get the support and get on.
One problem in the UK and US is that we have electoral systems that impose polarity - it doesn't matter if you come 2nd in the presidential election by 1%, you lose - in the UK, you can get 5% in all 600+ seats and get nothing. It makes more sense to have systems where electoral share is proportioned.
You see it in business all the time. Exciting business starts, takes on existing businesses with new methods, flourishes, grows fat, defends its position instead of innovating and then either dies or has to be rebuilt.
It's not often that a business that reaches a peak carries on being lean and hungry.
Even if you are not religious, the Bible may have some value as a hyperbolized historical document. I'm quite convinced stories like the flood or the seven plagues are rooted in reality.
I saw a program that explored the seven plagues and worked out how they scientifically could have occurred.
Would you guess the approximate number of heads flipped on 1000 coin flips? You'd say that it would be somewhere around the 500 mark, with it probably being no lower than 400 and no lower than 600. And most likely you'd be right. The bell curve would show that it would be an extremely rare event for your prediction to be wrong (I don't know the actual probability of it falling between these points).
So, how come you can't predict 1 coin flip the same way?
No-one follows a stock progress based on 1 day (unless it's a very dramatic fall). The trend is what matters.
Slashdot Mirror
what about software built for internal use in a company? That's commercial software as well.
No problemo.
Isn't Cloudscape designed to be small, and because it's Java, easy to embed in Java apps?
I am prepared to stand corrected, but IIRC MySQL can be used on an in-house database with no additional license.
Saying that, giving something back (buying a license) helps them to keep developing it, and it's well priced.
So what? There's still some more source code added to the big pot marked OSS. Someone, somewhere may be able to take it and do something else imaginative with it.
People are moving further and further away from a mainstream. The speed at which they can try things out is getting greater and greater. I can hit Amazon or iTunes and listen to a sample of a band, or maybe an MP3 on the band's site. Pre-internet, that was a hard thing to do, unless you went into a record shop, and the record shop would happily play it.
It's not so much a question of choice - it's more that people have far more ways of finding out their choices, which were previously restricted by gatekeepers or high cost barriers to the market.
I've written to my MP and MEP, but was wondering who I should write to who's the UK equivalent of this Polish chap.
However, I just don't know what else I can do. I can't see writing to someone in the House of Lords would be good. Any other thoughts?
The prime minister himself never voted for it, and the whole question of why it took 3 times etc is all rather murky.
Can you please read my post again... the part about "Hollywood History of the World" in particular. I was referring to how in almost every Hollywood movie, the Americans are there to save the day/make the sacrifice. The major hollywood movie about Enigma wasn't about the Poles or Bletchley park, but a US submarine.
If you've taken my money for a DVD, don't irritate me. If you want to do ads, either make it that I can press "menu" and ignore them, put them after the movie or have a menu option for them.
I switched off the popup blocker on a site (thinking there was a good content reason) the other day and there it was, everytime I clicked on the site, a new popup appeared telling me another offer, and irritating the shit out of me. Thankfully for them (yes THEM!) I could put the blocker back on, or else I'd have probably cancelled looking for the product on their site and gone elsewhere.
Getting it past the Christmas period will also have people more prepared than they are right now.
Double-check your Hollywood History of the World, dude. You'll find it was a bunch of Americans.
It's like if a car driver picks up a hitchhiker and says "I'll take you to ..." and then tells them that he's going to stop sooner. The hitchhiker can't sue for not getting what was offered.
You don't get that much from 2 weeks and are treated quite gently, but I noticed that the people who joined after the programme finished had much less respect for the people in the offices than people who had joined during the programme (often quotes about "lazy bastards in the offices").
Here's the upside - if you can find yourself a position in this kind of dumping (and people tend to get emotional and desperate in the dumping), there's money to be made.
I've also seen 90+% completed projects (like well through UAT) get ditched, and absolutely no-one looked at the value of what they had in terms of selling it. It just becomes emotional - a dead project - and becomes archived on a server somewhere and forgotten.
Let's say someone asks me to write out charts on a webpage. There's a whole load of .net classes out there to do that. I could spend trying them all or get a five minute summary from a buddy whose been using one for a while.
I've found that as my network of geek friends has grown (something I've actively worked at), my work gets better.
Even in those cases, many of those names were not household names in the USA 30 years ago.
I stick to the reliable names, and it's a policy that doesn't trip me up. I've seen so many people get burnt on little stuff that saves you very little cash, but if it goes wrong starts taking up all your time.
I'd also count buying from "cheapest retailer". Sure, you'll save $5, but then spend an hour trying to get through to the call centre to get some support. Pay the extra $5, get the support and get on.
Joking aside, does anyone read dead tree computer magazines anymore? The same sort of reviews are on the net, and generally in much more detail.
One problem in the UK and US is that we have electoral systems that impose polarity - it doesn't matter if you come 2nd in the presidential election by 1%, you lose - in the UK, you can get 5% in all 600+ seats and get nothing. It makes more sense to have systems where electoral share is proportioned.
It's not often that a business that reaches a peak carries on being lean and hungry.
I saw a program that explored the seven plagues and worked out how they scientifically could have occurred.
So, how come you can't predict 1 coin flip the same way?
No-one follows a stock progress based on 1 day (unless it's a very dramatic fall). The trend is what matters.