Quote: Open source as a business model is inherently flawed and cannot support the development of truly innovative software.
Larry McVoy went on to say "It costs a huge amount of money to develop a single innovative software product. You have to have a business model that will let you recoup those costs."
I think he's forgetting passion.
You can employ me, and I write what you want. And you can employ others to integrate what I wrote, and still others to test what I wrote and others integrated. And because you've now employed a small army, you need to charge a lot, which leads to outside sales people and whole slew of related expenses.
Or you can find someone who is really intrigued by a problem and wants to write something on his own time, and fiddle, and try different approaches, see what works well. Someone for whom solving the problem is a passion, not just a job.
As a bonus, consider: the product I write as an employee doesn't carry my name. But the work I do for passion, it is my visible resume. It creates my reputation in the community of my friends, peers, and now with ZoomInfo, prospective employers. Guess which one I truly care about.
In a proprietary world, it may well cost a huge amount of money to develop a single innovative software product. But in open source, I think it costs far less. Open source benefits from a saying that was common 15 years ago when I was coding full time: Any good developer throws out at least half a dozen innovations before lunch.
Friday, May 27, 2005
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Reverend's Finger - an open source source brew
I've been meaning to post this for a while, ever since winning a homebrew competition last fall.
Reverend's Finger
Recipe for 5 US gallons. All temperatures degrees F
3/4 lb British Crystal 77
1/4 lb Belgian Special B
mashed in at 150 for 40 minutes
165 10 minutes
heated to 175, removed and rinsed grains
added 6 lb amber liquid malt extract
Bittering: 2 oz EK Golding 5.5% (boiled 65 min)
Flavour: 1/2 oz Fuggles 4% (15 min)
1/4 tsp irish moss (10 min)
Aroma: 1/2 oz Fuggles 4% (1 min)
WPL007 Dry English Ale yeast
Fermented at 68 for a few weeks, crash cooled to 34 for another couple of weeks
Kegged and aged under 9 lbs C02 for 2 months or so (fresh beer be damned)
[Comments from my previous blog]
Reverend's Finger
Recipe for 5 US gallons. All temperatures degrees F
3/4 lb British Crystal 77
1/4 lb Belgian Special B
mashed in at 150 for 40 minutes
165 10 minutes
heated to 175, removed and rinsed grains
added 6 lb amber liquid malt extract
Bittering: 2 oz EK Golding 5.5% (boiled 65 min)
Flavour: 1/2 oz Fuggles 4% (15 min)
1/4 tsp irish moss (10 min)
Aroma: 1/2 oz Fuggles 4% (1 min)
WPL007 Dry English Ale yeast
Fermented at 68 for a few weeks, crash cooled to 34 for another couple of weeks
Kegged and aged under 9 lbs C02 for 2 months or so (fresh beer be damned)
[Comments from my previous blog]
1. tianye left...
Friday, 1 September 2006 1:49 am
hello 2. glen martin left...
Saturday, 24 April 2010 12:29 pm :: http://blog.glen-martin.com/
A drunk at a bar had a conversation with me once that went just like that comment. "Hello ...." and then nothing. Thanks for the very topical comment. Free beer doesn't hurt
I agree that open source is free as in freedom, not free beer. But free beer is good too, so SpikeSource is having an open house this Friday March 18 at 4pm in our Redwood City office.
If you've ever wondered what we're about, this is a great opportunity to catch us all live. We'll be happy to talk about open source testing, our Spike Asset Manager open source inventory tool, give a preview of some upcoming projects, or anything else that's interesting in the open source world these days. I'm interested to hear what you're doing with open source, including what projects or components you're using together.
We're hiring too. You may know a bunch of folks who already work here, such as Kim Polese, Murugan Pal, Alan Williamson and Calvin Austin. Tim O’Reilly, Brian Behlendorf and Mitchell Baker are on the advisory board. Doc Searls is involved too. We're building a great team, and need some more great developers. And a few more 'overhead' as well.
So if you're in the area, feel free to drop by for an open source brew. If you might come, try to drop me a quick note at <defunct>. I promise I won't use your email for any other purpose - I care about privacy, and I suspect you do too. I'm just thinking headcount and supplies.
SpikeSource Open House, Friday Mar 18 4pm
SpikeSource, Inc.
<defunct>
If you've ever wondered what we're about, this is a great opportunity to catch us all live. We'll be happy to talk about open source testing, our Spike Asset Manager open source inventory tool, give a preview of some upcoming projects, or anything else that's interesting in the open source world these days. I'm interested to hear what you're doing with open source, including what projects or components you're using together.
We're hiring too. You may know a bunch of folks who already work here, such as Kim Polese, Murugan Pal, Alan Williamson and Calvin Austin. Tim O’Reilly, Brian Behlendorf and Mitchell Baker are on the advisory board. Doc Searls is involved too. We're building a great team, and need some more great developers. And a few more 'overhead' as well.
So if you're in the area, feel free to drop by for an open source brew. If you might come, try to drop me a quick note at <defunct>. I promise I won't use your email for any other purpose - I care about privacy, and I suspect you do too. I'm just thinking headcount and supplies.
SpikeSource Open House, Friday Mar 18 4pm
SpikeSource, Inc.
<defunct>
1. a reader left...
Gord
Tuesday, 15 March 2005 8:53 pm
Free beer, and I'm too far away. Damn! Well, have one for me... ;) Gord
Saturday, January 29, 2005
Nerd God
In case it wasn't apparent to anyone, I'm a nerd. This was officially cemented by an official nerd score, see the bottom of the gutter of this page. For the record, I answered all the questions on the test absolutely truthfully.
This all came about because a friend posted his nerd score and amusing logo to his personal mailing list.
Now, many have known or suspected my nerdiness over the years. I was nicknamed 'Syntax warrior' in high school. For fun, I used to wire-wrap simple little electronics projects (like video cards and SBCs) at home. I have 4 computers in my home office, each running different operating systems, and switch cards etc so often that right now only one has a complete case. The vast majority of my TV viewing involves a hdtv card feeding MythTV on a Debian distro, displayed on the 3rd monitor on my desk. And depite being clearly in Marketing these days, I've programmed in 4 languages within the past month.
The only saving grace in my life: my partner ranked in the 35th percentile on nerdiness.
This all came about because a friend posted his nerd score and amusing logo to his personal mailing list.
Now, many have known or suspected my nerdiness over the years. I was nicknamed 'Syntax warrior' in high school. For fun, I used to wire-wrap simple little electronics projects (like video cards and SBCs) at home. I have 4 computers in my home office, each running different operating systems, and switch cards etc so often that right now only one has a complete case. The vast majority of my TV viewing involves a hdtv card feeding MythTV on a Debian distro, displayed on the 3rd monitor on my desk. And depite being clearly in Marketing these days, I've programmed in 4 languages within the past month.
The only saving grace in my life: my partner ranked in the 35th percentile on nerdiness.
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
In war, are there terrorists?
Interesting report of an Italian case in which terrorism charges were dropped because the alleged acts existed within a context of war. The men were accused of recruiting suicide bombers etc to go to Iraq, seemingly after hostilities had broken out in that country.
Unpalatable as this ruling may seem, taking into account the outrage by Italian politicians who see this potentially gutting anti-terrorism laws put in place after Sept 11 2001, and in no way defending terrorism, this legal position seems thoughtful. I mean, bombing bridges, factories, and flying a plane into the Pentagon may be thought of as terrorist attacks under normal circumstances, but during a war a clandestine infiltration of enemy territory to destroy war capacity is if not respected (by the victim) it is at least more common tactic. In fact, clandestine missions (performed by our side) enjoy respect and pride in popular culture.
The true irony would be if the declaration of a War on Terror, so useful in galvanizing American popular opinion in favor of military action against those (arguably) uninvolved in Sept 11, were to result in unsuccessful prosecution of those captured because a war permits different standards of behaviour.
Unpalatable as this ruling may seem, taking into account the outrage by Italian politicians who see this potentially gutting anti-terrorism laws put in place after Sept 11 2001, and in no way defending terrorism, this legal position seems thoughtful. I mean, bombing bridges, factories, and flying a plane into the Pentagon may be thought of as terrorist attacks under normal circumstances, but during a war a clandestine infiltration of enemy territory to destroy war capacity is if not respected (by the victim) it is at least more common tactic. In fact, clandestine missions (performed by our side) enjoy respect and pride in popular culture.
The true irony would be if the declaration of a War on Terror, so useful in galvanizing American popular opinion in favor of military action against those (arguably) uninvolved in Sept 11, were to result in unsuccessful prosecution of those captured because a war permits different standards of behaviour.
Friday, December 31, 2004
Disaster relief opportunism
I did a search on Google for 'tsunami disaster relief', and then had a look at the returned results, both the sponsored results as well as the text matches. Every one I looked at (and I looked at about the dozen top links returned) directed me to contribute to relief funds whose target beneficiaries were unspecified. Yes, they were all relief, but every one of the organisations had a charter far more broad than the disaster whose relief I might want to contribute to.
This is disappointing. I don't donate to the United Way because I'm never sure where my donation will go, nor am I overly pleased with their overhead ratio (admittedly, I researched the overhead several years ago, things might have improved). Instead I usually donate to single-purpose charities whose beneficiaries I specifically want to target.
There are arguments for another approach, of course. A problem inherent in donating to single charities is that high profile problems (notably AIDs, cancer, heart disease) will get the majority of donation, whereas any number of equally (or sometimes more) deserving charities are starved for attention and dollars.
Be that as it may, if I am concerned about where my donation will be used, I wasn't able to develop a comfort level with the tsunami relief funds I found in a brief search.
It seems ironic that those organizations sponsoring ads on Google have had enough time to buy ad space for "tsunami", but not enough time or perhaps inclination to create specific funds that would solicit my interest. But they're happy to use public attention on the tragedy to replenish their general coffers. In a world in which smaller scale tragedies like a single drive-by shooting victim has a charitable fund for their dependents organised through a church or bank, larger organisations should find creation of such targeted funds a simple matter. That is, if they were interested in fulfilling the implied promise of collecting under auspices of a specific named tragedy.
This is disappointing. I don't donate to the United Way because I'm never sure where my donation will go, nor am I overly pleased with their overhead ratio (admittedly, I researched the overhead several years ago, things might have improved). Instead I usually donate to single-purpose charities whose beneficiaries I specifically want to target.
There are arguments for another approach, of course. A problem inherent in donating to single charities is that high profile problems (notably AIDs, cancer, heart disease) will get the majority of donation, whereas any number of equally (or sometimes more) deserving charities are starved for attention and dollars.
Be that as it may, if I am concerned about where my donation will be used, I wasn't able to develop a comfort level with the tsunami relief funds I found in a brief search.
It seems ironic that those organizations sponsoring ads on Google have had enough time to buy ad space for "tsunami", but not enough time or perhaps inclination to create specific funds that would solicit my interest. But they're happy to use public attention on the tragedy to replenish their general coffers. In a world in which smaller scale tragedies like a single drive-by shooting victim has a charitable fund for their dependents organised through a church or bank, larger organisations should find creation of such targeted funds a simple matter. That is, if they were interested in fulfilling the implied promise of collecting under auspices of a specific named tragedy.
Tsunami warnings: how, precisely?
Webmink blogged on conspiracy theories surrounding the tsunami. A poster to his mailing list reported that the Thai government purportedly chose to not warn the public:
We're all thinking about the tsunami and wondering what effect something like that would have on us. Many of my own thoughts are about what kind of warning system could have made a difference.
I have no faith that there is any way to adequately inform people of something like this. No doubt more could have been done in Thailand, Indonedsia, India, Sri Lanka etc to warn in the tourist and 'business' regions that might be affected, but how to get timely warning to residential (and in many cases low-income residential) areas? And somehow I imagine that warning all the rich tourists and leaving poor citizens to fend for themselves would go over ... oh, about as well as lots of research funding for AIDS but much less for TB, despite TB being more prevalent and cheaper to treat (well, historically).
Even thinking out the 'western' world it isn't clear. I live in the San Francisco Bay area in the US. There are a great many areas close to (or sometimes a little below) sea level, and I can't think how people there would be effectively warned. There are a whole bunch of office buildings - are authorities going to call them all? Thousands, of varying sizes? I don't imagine workers are watching the TV for some sort of news flash. Do the authorities have some sort of triage system, priorizing calls based on organization size? I can see the next round of conspiracy theories already.
There are lots of beaches without lifeguards or any other sort of official presence. Coastal hiking trails. Marinas at which there might be any number of people in their boats. Wetlands parks. Low-elevation residential areas.
How is one to get a timely warning to any of these places?
... without definitive proof of an imminent tsunami, the meteorological department dared not issue a national warning lest it be accused of spreading panic and hurting the tourism industry ...
We're all thinking about the tsunami and wondering what effect something like that would have on us. Many of my own thoughts are about what kind of warning system could have made a difference.
I have no faith that there is any way to adequately inform people of something like this. No doubt more could have been done in Thailand, Indonedsia, India, Sri Lanka etc to warn in the tourist and 'business' regions that might be affected, but how to get timely warning to residential (and in many cases low-income residential) areas? And somehow I imagine that warning all the rich tourists and leaving poor citizens to fend for themselves would go over ... oh, about as well as lots of research funding for AIDS but much less for TB, despite TB being more prevalent and cheaper to treat (well, historically).
Even thinking out the 'western' world it isn't clear. I live in the San Francisco Bay area in the US. There are a great many areas close to (or sometimes a little below) sea level, and I can't think how people there would be effectively warned. There are a whole bunch of office buildings - are authorities going to call them all? Thousands, of varying sizes? I don't imagine workers are watching the TV for some sort of news flash. Do the authorities have some sort of triage system, priorizing calls based on organization size? I can see the next round of conspiracy theories already.
There are lots of beaches without lifeguards or any other sort of official presence. Coastal hiking trails. Marinas at which there might be any number of people in their boats. Wetlands parks. Low-elevation residential areas.
How is one to get a timely warning to any of these places?
1. a reader left... Maybe via SMS? The NYT has a story, linked from http://www.boingboing.net/2005/01/01/nyt_sms_as_warning_s.html
Simon Phipps
Saturday, 1 January 2005 9:02 am
Simon Phipps
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