If you didn't specifically state which version of the GPL and explicitly state that it was released under that version *only* without future license changes being applicable to your code, then yes, it would.
"The other business model (trying to hide your source code) results in distrust between you and your users"
I don't know how to break this to you, but most users (wether buisnesses or individuals) don't care if you provide the source with it or not unless they hired you to create it, and even then some of them don't.
What they care about is software that does what they need it to do and "just works" (in quotes becuase I've heard it from buisnesses and people so often. "I don't care about that. I just want it to work."
For all they care, you could hire someone to stand on the street and shout out each individual line of the source code while spinning plates on long poles, balancing a ball on his head, and riding around on a unicycle and it wouldn't make any difference. The source doesn't really matter to most of them as long as it meets their buisness or personal needs and is what they consider a reasonable price.
You really want to know the big draw that open source stuff has for buisnesses? Most of it doesn't cost them any money to get a copy.
As for the places that spend money to make open source stuff, they get money from other sources - support, advertising, hardware sales, etc etc etc. Not everyone can do that. It tends to take an existing pile of cash and a reputation to pull that off.
It only hit 60 where you are? It was 77 according to the banks I passed when I went into Chillicothe today. That's a heck of a change from the snow and sleet this weekend.
I swear this place is insane. Freaky weather and ultra conservative people (Chillicothe, not the state in general, though a lot of it tends to be...)
Honestly, who did you get on the wrong side of? They're sending you to Japan when you have absolutely no Japanese language skills in order to work on translating a program written in a language which is not going to be suppored by its creator in a few months.
To top it off, you have only two assistants for this on the native language side of things, only one of which is any help and he's not going to be there all that often.
It sounds like a project someone wants to fail before it's even started. I'd be asking myself if you angered one of your bosses (or if it's a power play between two higher ups and you're just a pawn).
Please tell me your boss didn't catch you in bed with his daughter or wife;)
In all seriousness, though, this may be (though is not necessarily) a rather negative indication of your life expectancy at the place you are currently employed (wether it is because of something you did or if you're just a sacrificial lamb...)
My advice? Do the best you can without killing yourself and try to have some fun while you're there. Good luck. You're going to need it...
Using member money to influence congress? You mean like most large corporations, including ones dealing in software?
I've got news for you. Most larger companies either have their own lobbying group or band together to have enough clout to afford one. That, and less legal things, is their way to influence congressmen, governors, etc in order to get laws that are beneficial to the company.
Please tell me that you didn't think the legislators made those laws because they were bored.
It's about bloody well time that the workers were able to do much the same. Otherwise, they're just going to continue getting shafted with even longer hours, worse wages, and various other forms of "fun".
For a good employer, I would not have any problem with giving an extended notice (provided that I could).
However, from what he said, he's been their sole technical person for almost two years (the other two left shortly after he joined) because his boss did not hire replacements. Requiring one person to do the work of three is not the mark of a good employer...
Depending on how Machiavellian the boss was trying to be, I would probably give him a max of 2-3 weeks notice and entertain the possibility of contracting work (at a rate which I chose. He is, after all, free to refuse and find someone else) if I had the time and/or inclination.
The more Machiavellian the boss, the less likely I would be to entertian him. That tends to be a personal thing with me, but then I had to carve my authority (which was required to do my job as a team lead) out from under my supervisor (who wanted nobody to have *any* power but him) in ways that would have made Niccolo, not to mention Sun-tzu, proud all while maintaining excellent relations with the directors and, indeed, most of the other employees in general.
Reminds me of my favorite math prof in college. When he came into the country, he had two employment options. One was with NASA (his latest book that I know of was concerning the orbits of artificial satelites). The other was at my university.
He likes to teach. Basically it gives him more of a sense of accomplishment than what he would have been doing with nasa. Go figure.
Personally, I'm glad he made the choice that he did. I miss the demented leprechan...
In most places that I know about, only the illegal portions of the contract don't hold. The rest of the contract can stand on its own (one invalid portion does not invalidate the entire document, only that portion).
It should behoove us to remember, however, that contracts are negotiable from *both* ends and that you don't have to sign something as is just because they put it in front of you.
There's something a bit more interesting that just the GPL'ed code in question here...
"When I started working for my employer several years ago I signed an IP agreement that states anything I think while working for them is theirs, as well as anything I've ever thought in the past if it enters their building;" (note: everything he has worked on in the past enters the building every time he does because it's all in his head.)
The wording concerning "anything in the past" is of real interest. It could be seen as the company trying to claim ownership of things which he did while employed at another company in the past. This, clearly, is not legal as it potentially violates the IP of every company he has worked for in the past and not just the IP concerened in this piece of GPL'ed code...
I dislike when people go making changes without making any changes in the documentation (CVS logs don't count. I don't tend to look at the log files when I'm working on code. Just to see who's done what).
The documentation is important not only for existing people working on the code months down the line, but also for the new people who get brought in. It allows you to get a general overview of what the code really does and where it does it without having to sit down with a ton of source and reading every line.
There is one very important thing that the Self Documenting Code fans often don't get - the code is no longer "self documenting" when someone goes in and makes significant changes to it, and if the program stays around long enough, someone will. That is assuming that the code was really "self documenting" to begin with (and most of it isn't) instead of being an excuse to not write documentation. (and if I see the comment of "does stuff", I beat people)
There's a BIG difference in doing something because you want to do it and doing something because you *have* to do it. (Sure, you can NOT do it and then be the first one out the door in the next round of cuts).
Until companies that enforce policies like this get smacked around (wether legally or through lost revenue, nobody at all willing to work for them, etc), this won't change.
People either love me because of my commenting and documentation or they look at me like I've sprouted a couple of extra heads. I have a set comment block at the top of each function and class (name, purpose, date created, creator, date modified, modifier, calls, uses, and notes) and then comments for meaningful portions of code.
I usually hang the following quote in any office that I occupy as a reminder - "Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live. (Martin Golding)"
Unfortunately, I tend to end up being the violent psychopath because I know too many people that go "the code should be self explainatory..."
"And 9-11 was carried out by bankers who lost their jobs at the WTC? Get real . This is serious stuff . You shouldnt be joking abt it -- **Life is too short to be serious** "
"From what I can tell from the article, the law is more meant for Auctioneers."
The bill *supposedly* wasn't meant to apply to casual sellers. However, the way it is currently written, it applies to everyone who sells on ebay. They are trying to backpeddle and swear that they are going to revise it, but I really don't buy it.
There are many times that I want to smack our legislaters (I live in Ohio). The amusing thing was that the state rep for where I used to live was a friend of my family's, so I really *could* smack him. =]
If the managers don't see you, they don't think of you nearly as often. While this may not seem like a bad thing at times, it has one major downfall. If they don't think about you, they also don't think about your contributions to the company.
This is bad because when the time to cut people comes around, you aren't seen as being necessary (what does that guy do, anyway?). The same also applies to future raises and promotions...
Actually, a lot of the "forgiveness" comes from the victim feeling that they were somehow at fault and that the blame was theirs. I've known several people who were raped and most of them felt that it was somehow their fault that it happened. Aparently it's fairly common from what I learned from my ex mother in law and a friend of mine who is a psychologist.
As far as the "think of his family" argument goes, I've got news for you - he wasn't thinking of hers OR his. Raping someone is one of the worst things you can do to someone. In a lot of ways, it's worse than killing them outright because they're left with that trauma for the rest of their life and they often wonder what was wrong with them that caused that to happen.
Due to experience, that is something that I have very little tolerance for. I've seen it truly wreck the lives of the people it happens to.
Actually, you'll find that a lot of people who commit rape will do so again even after the prision sentence. It tends to not be about sex as much as control.
But then, I'm speaking as someone whose ex was raped by a guy that had done it before to someone else and whose mother in law (the mother of the afforementioned girl, actually) was a social worker and saw that sort of thing on a fairly regular basis.
Personally, I think rape should be punishable by, shall we say, more drastic measures. Turning the other cheek is fine for some things, but in a lot of cases, it just means that the people who do wrong will keep doing it because they know that they'll be forgiven.
The death of someone who commits a crime like that may not take the memories away from the person it happened to, but it will keep the individual from doing it to anyone else. Sometimes wrath is truly justified...
Okay, let me make it as clear as I possibly can. It literally never occured to him that he could just install XP pro. The thought never crossed his mind.
The only time he *didn't* use windows was in the programming labs. The rest of the time, it was all Microsoft for him.
I wish I were kidding.
To give you some more insight into this, I gave him the URL for a free hosting site that does ASP. He asked me if he could install it on XP home. It took me 20 minutes to explain to him that it was like geocities only with ASP...
The whole conversation made my head hurt. I love the boy to death. He's a great guy and a friend of mine, but sometimes I wonder how he made it through.
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At least I wasn't the only one that thought that. Heck, the 300 acres that my family has is still pretty small.
You forgot "Mostly Harmless", but for some reason a lot of people like to forget that one. heh
If you didn't specifically state which version of the GPL and explicitly state that it was released under that version *only* without future license changes being applicable to your code, then yes, it would.
"The other business model (trying to hide your source code) results in distrust between you and your users"
I don't know how to break this to you, but most users (wether buisnesses or individuals) don't care if you provide the source with it or not unless they hired you to create it, and even then some of them don't.
What they care about is software that does what they need it to do and "just works" (in quotes becuase I've heard it from buisnesses and people so often. "I don't care about that. I just want it to work."
For all they care, you could hire someone to stand on the street and shout out each individual line of the source code while spinning plates on long poles, balancing a ball on his head, and riding around on a unicycle and it wouldn't make any difference. The source doesn't really matter to most of them as long as it meets their buisness or personal needs and is what they consider a reasonable price.
You really want to know the big draw that open source stuff has for buisnesses? Most of it doesn't cost them any money to get a copy.
As for the places that spend money to make open source stuff, they get money from other sources - support, advertising, hardware sales, etc etc etc. Not everyone can do that. It tends to take an existing pile of cash and a reputation to pull that off.
It only hit 60 where you are? It was 77 according to the banks I passed when I went into Chillicothe today. That's a heck of a change from the snow and sleet this weekend.
I swear this place is insane. Freaky weather and ultra conservative people (Chillicothe, not the state in general, though a lot of it tends to be...)
Honestly, who did you get on the wrong side of? They're sending you to Japan when you have absolutely no Japanese language skills in order to work on translating a program written in a language which is not going to be suppored by its creator in a few months.
;)
To top it off, you have only two assistants for this on the native language side of things, only one of which is any help and he's not going to be there all that often.
It sounds like a project someone wants to fail before it's even started. I'd be asking myself if you angered one of your bosses (or if it's a power play between two higher ups and you're just a pawn).
Please tell me your boss didn't catch you in bed with his daughter or wife
In all seriousness, though, this may be (though is not necessarily) a rather negative indication of your life expectancy at the place you are currently employed (wether it is because of something you did or if you're just a sacrificial lamb...)
My advice? Do the best you can without killing yourself and try to have some fun while you're there. Good luck. You're going to need it...
Either someone is really confident in him or he really cheesed someone there off.
First, you're right. It won't be easy. Heck, accurately translating plain text isn't easy and this is worse.
Second, with VB6 on the chopping block since MS is ending support, why are they wanting to translate a VB6 program *now*?
Just a couple of things to consider...
Using member money to influence congress? You mean like most large corporations, including ones dealing in software?
I've got news for you. Most larger companies either have their own lobbying group or band together to have enough clout to afford one. That, and less legal things, is their way to influence congressmen, governors, etc in order to get laws that are beneficial to the company.
Please tell me that you didn't think the legislators made those laws because they were bored.
It's about bloody well time that the workers were able to do much the same. Otherwise, they're just going to continue getting shafted with even longer hours, worse wages, and various other forms of "fun".
For a good employer, I would not have any problem with giving an extended notice (provided that I could).
However, from what he said, he's been their sole technical person for almost two years (the other two left shortly after he joined) because his boss did not hire replacements. Requiring one person to do the work of three is not the mark of a good employer...
Depending on how Machiavellian the boss was trying to be, I would probably give him a max of 2-3 weeks notice and entertain the possibility of contracting work (at a rate which I chose. He is, after all, free to refuse and find someone else) if I had the time and/or inclination.
The more Machiavellian the boss, the less likely I would be to entertian him. That tends to be a personal thing with me, but then I had to carve my authority (which was required to do my job as a team lead) out from under my supervisor (who wanted nobody to have *any* power but him) in ways that would have made Niccolo, not to mention Sun-tzu, proud all while maintaining excellent relations with the directors and, indeed, most of the other employees in general.
Reminds me of my favorite math prof in college. When he came into the country, he had two employment options. One was with NASA (his latest book that I know of was concerning the orbits of artificial satelites). The other was at my university.
He likes to teach. Basically it gives him more of a sense of accomplishment than what he would have been doing with nasa. Go figure.
Personally, I'm glad he made the choice that he did. I miss the demented leprechan...
In most places that I know about, only the illegal portions of the contract don't hold. The rest of the contract can stand on its own (one invalid portion does not invalidate the entire document, only that portion).
It should behoove us to remember, however, that contracts are negotiable from *both* ends and that you don't have to sign something as is just because they put it in front of you.
There's something a bit more interesting that just the GPL'ed code in question here...
"When I started working for my employer several years ago I signed an IP agreement that states anything I think while working for them is theirs, as well as anything I've ever thought in the past if it enters their building;" (note: everything he has worked on in the past enters the building every time he does because it's all in his head.)
The wording concerning "anything in the past" is of real interest. It could be seen as the company trying to claim ownership of things which he did while employed at another company in the past. This, clearly, is not legal as it potentially violates the IP of every company he has worked for in the past and not just the IP concerened in this piece of GPL'ed code...
Just some food for thought.
I don't think it will be that difficult to find QBasic
What the heck. Let's go one better.
In Japan, only old Korean people use powerline internet to access a beowulf cluster of Natalie Portmans with grits. =]
I dislike when people go making changes without making any changes in the documentation (CVS logs don't count. I don't tend to look at the log files when I'm working on code. Just to see who's done what).
The documentation is important not only for existing people working on the code months down the line, but also for the new people who get brought in. It allows you to get a general overview of what the code really does and where it does it without having to sit down with a ton of source and reading every line.
There is one very important thing that the Self Documenting Code fans often don't get - the code is no longer "self documenting" when someone goes in and makes significant changes to it, and if the program stays around long enough, someone will. That is assuming that the code was really "self documenting" to begin with (and most of it isn't) instead of being an excuse to not write documentation. (and if I see the comment of "does stuff", I beat people)
There's a BIG difference in doing something because you want to do it and doing something because you *have* to do it. (Sure, you can NOT do it and then be the first one out the door in the next round of cuts).
Until companies that enforce policies like this get smacked around (wether legally or through lost revenue, nobody at all willing to work for them, etc), this won't change.
People either love me because of my commenting and documentation or they look at me like I've sprouted a couple of extra heads. I have a set comment block at the top of each function and class (name, purpose, date created, creator, date modified, modifier, calls, uses, and notes) and then comments for meaningful portions of code.
I usually hang the following quote in any office that I occupy as a reminder - "Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live. (Martin Golding)"
Unfortunately, I tend to end up being the violent psychopath because I know too many people that go "the code should be self explainatory..."
"And 9-11 was carried out by bankers who lost their jobs at the WTC? Get real . This is serious stuff . You shouldnt be joking abt it
--
**Life is too short to be serious** "
Now THAT's irony...
"From what I can tell from the article, the law is more meant for Auctioneers."
The bill *supposedly* wasn't meant to apply to casual sellers. However, the way it is currently written, it applies to everyone who sells on ebay. They are trying to backpeddle and swear that they are going to revise it, but I really don't buy it.
There are many times that I want to smack our legislaters (I live in Ohio). The amusing thing was that the state rep for where I used to live was a friend of my family's, so I really *could* smack him. =]
Don't forget one other very important thing -
If the managers don't see you, they don't think of you nearly as often. While this may not seem like a bad thing at times, it has one major downfall. If they don't think about you, they also don't think about your contributions to the company.
This is bad because when the time to cut people comes around, you aren't seen as being necessary (what does that guy do, anyway?). The same also applies to future raises and promotions...
Actually, a lot of the "forgiveness" comes from the victim feeling that they were somehow at fault and that the blame was theirs. I've known several people who were raped and most of them felt that it was somehow their fault that it happened. Aparently it's fairly common from what I learned from my ex mother in law and a friend of mine who is a psychologist.
As far as the "think of his family" argument goes, I've got news for you - he wasn't thinking of hers OR his. Raping someone is one of the worst things you can do to someone. In a lot of ways, it's worse than killing them outright because they're left with that trauma for the rest of their life and they often wonder what was wrong with them that caused that to happen.
Due to experience, that is something that I have very little tolerance for. I've seen it truly wreck the lives of the people it happens to.
It's a ghost that never really goes away...
Actually, you'll find that a lot of people who commit rape will do so again even after the prision sentence. It tends to not be about sex as much as control.
But then, I'm speaking as someone whose ex was raped by a guy that had done it before to someone else and whose mother in law (the mother of the afforementioned girl, actually) was a social worker and saw that sort of thing on a fairly regular basis.
Personally, I think rape should be punishable by, shall we say, more drastic measures. Turning the other cheek is fine for some things, but in a lot of cases, it just means that the people who do wrong will keep doing it because they know that they'll be forgiven.
The death of someone who commits a crime like that may not take the memories away from the person it happened to, but it will keep the individual from doing it to anyone else. Sometimes wrath is truly justified...
"For some reason the United States aren't part of it"
Might have something to do with that little disagreement we had with the British a couple hundred years ago...
I'm hoping that by POS system, you mean "Point of Sale" and not "Piece of Sh**", but it sounds like it might be both =]
Okay, let me make it as clear as I possibly can. It literally never occured to him that he could just install XP pro. The thought never crossed his mind.
The only time he *didn't* use windows was in the programming labs. The rest of the time, it was all Microsoft for him.
I wish I were kidding.
To give you some more insight into this, I gave him the URL for a free hosting site that does ASP. He asked me if he could install it on XP home. It took me 20 minutes to explain to him that it was like geocities only with ASP...
The whole conversation made my head hurt. I love the boy to death. He's a great guy and a friend of mine, but sometimes I wonder how he made it through.