This just hastens the end of the patent system. Seriously -- the American patent system is going to fall apart soon, and things like this are the reason.
Exactly the point M$ is shooting for.
Front page, local news paper, future:
Due to the proliferation of inappropriate and indefensible patents issued by the USPTO, the USPTO has been disbanded and the current patent system is null and void. The U.S. attorney general is currently in negotiations with all fifty states attempting to establish an improved system of protecting...
Front page, M1cro$oft, future:
Welcome to the OS of the future. On the outside it looks like the OS you have come to love and admire. On the inside are all the things you have come to depend on. An OS that combines the best of all the major OS's. *nix and @pple on the inside W1ndow$ on the outside. And tools! We have it all! Every major competitor you have come to know and enjoy can be found on W1ndow$ 2008 (code named Pilfer) all for the low price of...
The collapse of the system could be the best thing that ever happened to them. They could legally continue to rip people off and at the same time undercut any competition to the point that they can't keep up...er..o.k., I guess there wouldn't be much change, would there?
Lenina Huxley: Taco Bell was the only restaurant to survive the Franchise Wars.
John Spartan: So?
Lenina Huxley: So, now all restaurants are Taco Bell. --Demolition Man--
Can someone "make" themselves a great hacker. Hmmm, good question. Perhaps.
But my personal experience has been that hacking is not a choice. I am not saying that I program because I can't help it, I can. I like to program. But it goes beyond this.
I have stopped programming on several occasions and found that I didn't do very well. When I program something goes on in my cranium (which I always suspected was a bit on the empty side anyway) that doesn't happen any other time (that I am aware of. I can think clearer, I can solve problems faster. Yeah, o.k., those things are part of the package. Anytime we set our mind to a task similar to programming that will happen (like writing or solving math problems - both of which are a part of programming). But there is more. I actually feel better.
When I sit down and start programing I feel like I have just come out of a stuffy dark room and into a wide open field or city street that is full of life, places to go and things to see (some things might even be people). This is quite a paradox really. You would think sitting down in a room, devoid of people, and staring at books and computer screens all day would be that room that is stuffy and dark. But the emotional response does not fit the environment. I think some of us would be just as happy sitting in a dark dungeon with a steal door locking us in as long as we had a computer, a line to the net, our favorite programming books and a constant flow of joe.
I remember when the people I work with came in and saw that my office had no windows. It was literally just a box (mostly white). They said, ``You really need a window up here. Want a window.'' Notice I didn't put a question mark at the end of that. I said don't bother, I won't look out it much anyway and sure enough, a few days later they had cut a hole in the side of the building and stuck a window in. They did actually prove me wrong though. I do look out it on occasion. Sometimes I even open it.
But the fact is, I could have done without it. I rather just read and program (and write).
People are always asking me how I can stand doing this. One reply I give (besides saying, ``I duno'') is to describe programming like a continual Christmas day all day long. When I write code and run it, (or compile it and run it, depending on what I am working with) and see my work actually doing something, I am like a little kid on Christmas day staring wide eyed at the thing and saying, ``Wow!''
It has always been like that. From doing my first, ``Hello World'' in BASIC, to my first regexp in Perl to the first time I was able to program something for a Pocket PC; it has always been, ``Wow!''
The article by Graham pointed out that hackers (unless forced to at gun point, and even then) won't work on a project they don't want to work on. I agree with this. I program because I love it. The fact that I get paid is secondary. It is necessary that I get paid, but you wouldn't believe the feelings I had when the revelation struck me that I could actually get paid for something I like to do anyway.
He also talked about the hackers use of programming tools and the choice for opensource, etc. Here I would have to disagree. Or at least, my experience would have to disagree. The fact is (and this may sound cheap) that I will program in almost anything once. I'll even do it a second time if I like it.
As I mentioned before I have (and still am) having to program Pocket PCs. The choice of the hardware had a lot to do with our users. However, the language was somewhat up to me. Originally I wrote the app in evc++. It was free and worked fairly well. But there were porting issues (as is typical of ms, stuff written in 2003 didn't work well, or at all, in 2002 unless herculean efforts were made). So I decided to rewrite it in something that would port better. After some testing I decided that (for at least 2002 and 2003).NET would have to do. Since I was new to
Slashdot Mirror
Exactly the point M$ is shooting for.
Front page, local news paper, future:
Due to the proliferation of inappropriate and indefensible patents issued by the USPTO, the USPTO has been disbanded and the current patent system is null and void. The U.S. attorney general is currently in negotiations with all fifty states attempting to establish an improved system of protecting...
Front page, M1cro$oft, future:
Welcome to the OS of the future. On the outside it looks like the OS you have come to love and admire. On the inside are all the things you have come to depend on. An OS that combines the best of all the major OS's. *nix and @pple on the inside W1ndow$ on the outside. And tools! We have it all! Every major competitor you have come to know and enjoy can be found on W1ndow$ 2008 (code named Pilfer) all for the low price of...
The collapse of the system could be the best thing that ever happened to them. They could legally continue to rip people off and at the same time undercut any competition to the point that they can't keep up...er..o.k., I guess there wouldn't be much change, would there?
Lenina Huxley: Taco Bell was the only restaurant to survive the Franchise Wars.
John Spartan: So?
Lenina Huxley: So, now all restaurants are Taco Bell.
--Demolition Man--
Can someone "make" themselves a great hacker. Hmmm, good question. Perhaps. But my personal experience has been that hacking is not a choice. I am not saying that I program because I can't help it, I can. I like to program. But it goes beyond this.
I have stopped programming on several occasions and found that I didn't do very well. When I program something goes on in my cranium (which I always suspected was a bit on the empty side anyway) that doesn't happen any other time (that I am aware of. I can think clearer, I can solve problems faster. Yeah, o.k., those things are part of the package. Anytime we set our mind to a task similar to programming that will happen (like writing or solving math problems - both of which are a part of programming). But there is more. I actually feel better.
When I sit down and start programing I feel like I have just come out of a stuffy dark room and into a wide open field or city street that is full of life, places to go and things to see (some things might even be people). This is quite a paradox really. You would think sitting down in a room, devoid of people, and staring at books and computer screens all day would be that room that is stuffy and dark. But the emotional response does not fit the environment. I think some of us would be just as happy sitting in a dark dungeon with a steal door locking us in as long as we had a computer, a line to the net, our favorite programming books and a constant flow of joe.
I remember when the people I work with came in and saw that my office had no windows. It was literally just a box (mostly white). They said, ``You really need a window up here. Want a window.'' Notice I didn't put a question mark at the end of that. I said don't bother, I won't look out it much anyway and sure enough, a few days later they had cut a hole in the side of the building and stuck a window in. They did actually prove me wrong though. I do look out it on occasion. Sometimes I even open it.
But the fact is, I could have done without it. I rather just read and program (and write).
People are always asking me how I can stand doing this. One reply I give (besides saying, ``I duno'') is to describe programming like a continual Christmas day all day long. When I write code and run it, (or compile it and run it, depending on what I am working with) and see my work actually doing something, I am like a little kid on Christmas day staring wide eyed at the thing and saying, ``Wow!''
It has always been like that. From doing my first, ``Hello World'' in BASIC, to my first regexp in Perl to the first time I was able to program something for a Pocket PC; it has always been, ``Wow!''
The article by Graham pointed out that hackers (unless forced to at gun point, and even then) won't work on a project they don't want to work on. I agree with this. I program because I love it. The fact that I get paid is secondary. It is necessary that I get paid, but you wouldn't believe the feelings I had when the revelation struck me that I could actually get paid for something I like to do anyway.
He also talked about the hackers use of programming tools and the choice for opensource, etc. Here I would have to disagree. Or at least, my experience would have to disagree. The fact is (and this may sound cheap) that I will program in almost anything once. I'll even do it a second time if I like it.
As I mentioned before I have (and still am) having to program Pocket PCs. The choice of the hardware had a lot to do with our users. However, the language was somewhat up to me. Originally I wrote the app in evc++. It was free and worked fairly well. But there were porting issues (as is typical of ms, stuff written in 2003 didn't work well, or at all, in 2002 unless herculean efforts were made). So I decided to rewrite it in something that would port better. After some testing I decided that (for at least 2002 and 2003) .NET would have to do. Since I was new to