Just as one data point: here at SnapLogic, our product is open source. Myself and the other engineers are paid to work on GPLed software full time.
It's not just our core product. I'm responsible for the QA infrastructure, and in that role I've been able to contribute code to other projects we use: Django, Trac (onetwothree), Figleaf, and Buildbot (onetwothreefour).
That's just what I have done personally, not to mention the other engineers. And it's not just something we do on the side - the company's upper management actively encourages us to contribute code back.
So in our particular case, just day to day operations intrisically seems to benefit the open source commmunity as a side effect. At least from my perspective (and by the way, I don't speak for SnapLogic). If something dramatic happened and we had to shut down, that would obviously stop.
[Holy cow, I'm being paid to write free software in my favorite language. Pinch me.]
This verion ("POTH" - Package of the Hour) differs from the article feature ("DEBADAY"), in that it is fully automated (subject to some filters for interestingness; libraries, -dev packages, etc. are filtered out.) DEBADAY produces deeper and more interesting descriptions, since they are written by humans. POTH is done by a software agent, so it has greater breadth. It covers more packages, and also crosslinks them to popularity contest data, etc.
I have to recognize CNET. For those who read the article, the author is pretty (constructively) critical of CNET itself for printing articles that hype up the issue. It's pretty neat that cnet is willing to print that article itself.
This is a quick-start guide/excerpt of a book I wrote. It teaches how to solve algebra equations mentally.
Starting in my teens, I always had an ability to do abstract math in my head. (I've met lots of people who are better - no claims to savanthood here.) I liked to examine what I was doing internally that let me do integration by parts, 2d integrals, etc. in my head, so I could work to improve it. (Though with the heavier stuff I'm a little out of practice now:)
I'm working on another, more general book, that would cover algebra, calculus, maybe diff eqns, and the basics of extending it all to other areas of higher math. Describing it in words is HARD. Have you ever been able to do something, but had no clue how to describe how you do it? Or the other way, where you saw someone doing something neat, and asked them to teach you how, but they had a hard time doing so. That's what it is like, but I'm slowly making progress with it.
Some of the most beautiful experiences of my life have involved working equations out in my mind's eye. When I'm in "math mode" it can feel like I'm in another world.
Heh:) Yes, this could be a good thing. The situation is helping to highlight some of the consequences of honoring patents for software.
I guess the city government, after carefully considering everything, decided that a change of platform is worthwhile. If patents on software are recognized, it would lessen or remove that worth - perhaps without giving Munich much in return.
Sure, I think it's pretty simple to solve problems like that. One of the first tricks I would try is to parse the wiki text that someone inputs to see if it contains an external link. If so, then only in those cases, require an answer to a captcha.
Sure, people like money! But let's say Bill Gates gets a tax cut (or some other wealthy businessman). Does this mean the Microsoft will hire more people? Not likely.
Actually, there is a good chance it does. Maybe not with Microsoft (the relatively few companies with more cash than they can intelligently spend can have this kind of "problem"); with the vast majority of companies, though, when expenses go down, some or all of that extra income will go into expanding the business... which includes hiring more people.
Also please keep in mind that when people read statements like the one you made above, they may apply it to all companies, even if it is not an accurate statement for those organizations.
Will Bill spend more money? Well, rich people don't get rich by spending money.
Actually - and this surprised me when I learned it - they do. AFAICT, people who go through life spending as little as possible - personally, or through their businesses - either get rich very slowly (think 50+ years), or never get rich at all.
Most people define "rich" and "poor" in terms of spending power, or in terms of net worth (cash plus value of all that you own minus any debts or liabilities). I think it's more useful to define the words in terms of what a person spends money on. If a person spends what they can on things that will bring greater income in the future, I'd call that person rich. If another person of the same means spends that money on something which, down the road, will NOT have done anything to make them richer... well, to me that person is poorer.
I know people with low income and not much cash in the bank, who I consider much richer than some people I know who have lots of both. It's all about the direction in life that person is headed.
Hm. Ya know, I have run Debian on my desktop for years. I have assumed that it's been essentially un-0w3ned. Maybe I have assumed this because I never noticed any weird behavior. But that doesn't mean my box has never been (cr|h)acked, does it?
Tonyray, can you elaborate? What does your ISP see coming from clients using Linux as their OS?
(btw, if you don't want to post a reply here, can you email me - redsymbol.com at amax, rotate around the @ - thanks in advance)
Most of the posts will be advice about how to get a (better) job. That's fine as far as it goes, and if that is what you want.
There are other options. Make a list of what you get out of having a job - or would get from your ideal job. Most lists would include items like this:
income (high enough to sustain your preferred lifestyle)
benefits like health/dental/life insurance, pension/401(k)s, etc.
security - that is, a defined and likely stable future income and benefits
a larger social circle
a purpose; something fulfilling to do
opportunities to grow personally and professionally
These items are on my list, and I think they are good ones.
Now make a more general list, of what you want to have in your life. My list includes the above and some additions:
freedom to choose what I want to do with my time and energy; not feeling forced to do something because a boss ordered me to
excessive cash that I can donate to causes I support
excessive cash, period
freedom to choose who I work with and how
the ability to travel and live where I like
free time
Time and energy to take care of my health
Time and energy to be with my family and friends
the freedom to do things I believe in, and to not do things I think are sneaky or unethical because "that's my job"
the real security that comes from the ability to always create as much income as I want, ethically, regardless of what anyone else says, thinks or does (yes, this is possible)
If, after reading this far, you sense something important here, do yourself a favor. Go to a bookstore and pick up any book written by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Letcher. "Rich Dad, Poor Dad", "Cashflow Quadrant", and "Retire Young, Retire Rich" are all good. Read a few pages from the intro or early chapters.
Here's a quote I keep on my wall, where I see it every day:
I'm the luckiest guy in the world in terms of what I do for a living. No one can tell me to do things I don't believe in or things I think are stupid.
Warren Buffet said that. It pretty much describes where I would like to be. How about you?
Maybe this idea is a little deep. Any questions, post a reply or email me at redsymbol.com at amax (rotate around the @).
How many thousands of lines of code are there in Linux (or any other OS) and how many blocks of 80 lines are singularly critical to the whole functioning of the OS ?
shiznit% pwd /home/amax/src/linux-2.5.64 shiznit% cat `find . -name "*.[ch]"` | wc -l - zsh: argument list too long: cat 0 - shiznit% find . -name "*.[ch]" | wc -l 12071 (yikes!!) shiznit% touch foo; for i in `find . -name "*.[ch]"`; do cat $i >> foo; done shiznit% wc -l foo 4961600 foo shiznit%
Slashdot Mirror
Just as one data point: here at SnapLogic, our product is open source. Myself and the other engineers are paid to work on GPLed software full time.
It's not just our core product. I'm responsible for the QA infrastructure, and in that role I've been able to contribute code to other projects we use: Django, Trac (one two three), Figleaf, and Buildbot (one two three four).
That's just what I have done personally, not to mention the other engineers. And it's not just something we do on the side - the company's upper management actively encourages us to contribute code back.
So in our particular case, just day to day operations intrisically seems to benefit the open source commmunity as a side effect. At least from my perspective (and by the way, I don't speak for SnapLogic). If something dramatic happened and we had to shut down, that would obviously stop.
[Holy cow, I'm being paid to write free software in my favorite language. Pinch me.]
Disclamer: I made the following, so this post is technically self-promotion.
(Another Unofficial) Debian Package of The Day (updated hourly)
This verion ("POTH" - Package of the Hour) differs from the article feature ("DEBADAY"), in that it is fully automated (subject to some filters for interestingness; libraries, -dev packages, etc. are filtered out.) DEBADAY produces deeper and more interesting descriptions, since they are written by humans. POTH is done by a software agent, so it has greater breadth. It covers more packages, and also crosslinks them to popularity contest data, etc.
I have to recognize CNET. For those who read the article, the author is pretty (constructively) critical of CNET itself for printing articles that hype up the issue. It's pretty neat that cnet is willing to print that article itself.
In case anyone is interested:
Invisible Algebra
This is a quick-start guide/excerpt of a book I wrote. It teaches how to solve algebra equations mentally.
Starting in my teens, I always had an ability to do abstract math in my head. (I've met lots of people who are better - no claims to savanthood here.) I liked to examine what I was doing internally that let me do integration by parts, 2d integrals, etc. in my head, so I could work to improve it. (Though with the heavier stuff I'm a little out of practice now :)
I'm working on another, more general book, that would cover algebra, calculus, maybe diff eqns, and the basics of extending it all to other areas of higher math. Describing it in words is HARD. Have you ever been able to do something, but had no clue how to describe how you do it? Or the other way, where you saw someone doing something neat, and asked them to teach you how, but they had a hard time doing so. That's what it is like, but I'm slowly making progress with it.
Some of the most beautiful experiences of my life have involved working equations out in my mind's eye. When I'm in "math mode" it can feel like I'm in another world.
Beautifully put :)
I guess you can kill other people. They say it's fun.
The possibility of that being taken out of context reminds me of this.
Heh :) Yes, this could be a good thing. The situation is helping to highlight some of the consequences of honoring patents for software.
I guess the city government, after carefully considering everything, decided that a change of platform is worthwhile. If patents on software are recognized, it would lessen or remove that worth - perhaps without giving Munich much in return.
What's a "captcha"? There's no Wikipedia entry :-)
Sure, people like money! But let's say Bill Gates gets a tax cut (or some other wealthy businessman). Does this mean the Microsoft will hire more people? Not likely.
Actually, there is a good chance it does. Maybe not with Microsoft (the relatively few companies with more cash than they can intelligently spend can have this kind of "problem"); with the vast majority of companies, though, when expenses go down, some or all of that extra income will go into expanding the business... which includes hiring more people.
Also please keep in mind that when people read statements like the one you made above, they may apply it to all companies, even if it is not an accurate statement for those organizations.
Will Bill spend more money? Well, rich people don't get rich by spending money.
Actually - and this surprised me when I learned it - they do. AFAICT, people who go through life spending as little as possible - personally, or through their businesses - either get rich very slowly (think 50+ years), or never get rich at all.
Most people define "rich" and "poor" in terms of spending power, or in terms of net worth (cash plus value of all that you own minus any debts or liabilities). I think it's more useful to define the words in terms of what a person spends money on. If a person spends what they can on things that will bring greater income in the future, I'd call that person rich. If another person of the same means spends that money on something which, down the road, will NOT have done anything to make them richer... well, to me that person is poorer.
I know people with low income and not much cash in the bank, who I consider much richer than some people I know who have lots of both. It's all about the direction in life that person is headed.
How about a plugin that warns a Slashdot author if he is about to publish a dupe?
:)
(Sorry guys - I know catching dupes is harder than it appears, and we appreciate the work you do... still I can't resist
Hm. Ya know, I have run Debian on my desktop for years. I have assumed that it's been essentially un-0w3ned. Maybe I have assumed this because I never noticed any weird behavior. But that doesn't mean my box has never been (cr|h)acked, does it?
Tonyray, can you elaborate? What does your ISP see coming from clients using Linux as their OS?
(btw, if you don't want to post a reply here, can you email me - redsymbol.com at amax, rotate around the @ - thanks in advance)
Most of the posts will be advice about how to get a (better) job. That's fine as far as it goes, and if that is what you want.
There are other options. Make a list of what you get out of having a job - or would get from your ideal job. Most lists would include items like this:
These items are on my list, and I think they are good ones.
Now make a more general list, of what you want to have in your life. My list includes the above and some additions:
If, after reading this far, you sense something important here, do yourself a favor. Go to a bookstore and pick up any book written by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Letcher. "Rich Dad, Poor Dad", "Cashflow Quadrant", and "Retire Young, Retire Rich" are all good. Read a few pages from the intro or early chapters.
Here's a quote I keep on my wall, where I see it every day:
Warren Buffet said that. It pretty much describes where I would like to be. How about you?
Maybe this idea is a little deep. Any questions, post a reply or email me at redsymbol.com at amax (rotate around the @).
Can you suggest some action an average, concerned citizen can take to help affect positive changes in the USA's IP laws?