Jim Lawrence
accessd at shaw.ca
Thu Aug 22 18:15:23 CDT 2013
Hi Arthur: That seems about enough for now. My projects right now seem to be related to internal maintenance issues and managing legacy software for clients but this winter all my servers should be run correctly. To that end there are so many web frameworks that warrant further investigation and as for the BEs I need IIS, Apache, Node and Nginx. Then there is Zimba (mail server) and Mumble (VoIP) server. Right now I am assembling a couple of fully loaded Ubuntu 13.04 boxes for clients. Proof of concept. It will have DosBox for all the real old classic games, Wine for any Windows, Adobe application and games you can not normally get on Linx that you just have to have, Arronax for building desktop icons for batch files or any application, Haguichi (It uses LogMeIn's Hamachi OSS), Remmina for all network any OS RDP, SplashTop (the fastest remote desktop program built), Banshee (a very good iTunes replacement, podcasts, videos, radio, movies, books etc.), VLC media player (the best), Gimp, (an Photoshop replacement), OpenShot Video editor (a nearly full professional movie editor), HandBrake (a video converter), Skype and many other enhancements. Ubuntu also, comes right out of the box with a huge number of features (LibraOffice, Thunderbird (mail client), Firefox, backup, UbuntuOne (cloud storage) and so on). I have been trying to think of any features that a user may want...it is only limited by your imagination. Jim ----- Original Message ----- From: "Arthur Fuller" <fuller.artful at gmail.com> To: "Discussion of Hardware and Software issues" <dba-tech at databaseadvisors.com> Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2013 12:07:52 PM Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Why is there so many OSS projects? Jim, I'm working on several projects currently, as part of my in-depth mental conversion to Alpha Anywhere. One is a volunteer-management system for a non-profit housing outfit called Woodgreen. I am doing it for nothing. How's that for recursive? Another one is an app for safety engineers, which I'm also doing for nothing. A while back I wrote an Access + SQL app for the premier safety engineering firm in Canada. The app is perfect for tablet and/or smart phone so I'm rewriting it in Alpha Anywhere. (For those unacquainted with the term, safety engineering involves inspecting workstations in a factory, taking measurements of response times and in the event of non-compliance, making recommendations for fixing the problem.) Currently the users lug a laptop from workstation to workstation; a tablet makes a lot more sense. I've also got something that is part-time, and involves mentoring rather than hands-on development. The app is the largest Access app I've ever seen (700,000 lines of code); it talks to a MySQL back end. I'm providing help and analysis of the app to optimize it for performance; lots of replacing Access queries with Pass-Through queries that fire stored procedures in the BE. So far the results have been quite dramatic, in some cases a tenfold increase in performance. That's about it, at the moment. Arthur On Thu, Aug 22, 2013 at 1:02 PM, Jim Lawrence <accessd at shaw.ca> wrote: > Hi Arthur: > > A very interesting set of comments, Arthur. My question is why so many of > the best young (or should I just say younger) programmers in the world > spend so much of their time working on projects that will bring them no > financial gain... IOW it appears that money is not the main driving factor, > especially in the computer world...or is that financial motivation is > easier to quantify in this particular business. Is this the case in most > businesses? > > So what projects are you working on Now? > > Jim > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Arthur Fuller" <fuller.artful at gmail.com> > To: "Discussion of Hardware and Software issues" < > dba-tech at databaseadvisors.com> > Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2013 3:17:45 AM > Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Why is there so many OSS projects? > > Jim, > > I can think of four reasons: > > 1. it is so difficult to find the funding for any given project; > 2. if one has the passion for programming, then funding and subsequent > corporatization of the concept is way too much pain in the ass; > 3. Jjust because I had the idea doesn't mean that I have the best > implementation; > 4. It's social networking on an intelligent plane, as opposed to the nude > sex-vids so popular among those with no other claim to fame. > > My partner Peter Brawley and I are both working on separate apps, which we > will both place in the OSS community as soon as they are ready for public > consumption. > > This could be because we are both now senior citizens and thus receiving > pensions, and therefore have enough to subsist, and consequently, money is > no longer a goal. Which is not to say that I am averse to money, but merely > that it is no longer a significant motive. At the moment I'm doing some > part-time mentoring for a client in San Francisco, and I bill him for about > 1 hour in 8, because a large part of the task involves research, so that > part is on my dime not his. I'm doing it because it's intellectually > interesting. The occasional check is nice, and I invest it in toys such as > my spanky new laptop, but it is certainly not the goal. As the > aforementioned Peter is fond of saying, "The best defense against > Alzheimer's is to Keep Thinking." The virtue of being old enough to collect > a pension is the freedom to choose which projects are worth your time. In > days of yore, we used to have an acronym in our company: YAFOES (yet > another f**king Order Entry System). Been there, done that. Now I'm on to > more significant problems, almost none of which pay money. And guess what? > I don't care. I can't afford fancy vacations in sunny climes but that too > is OK. > > Arthur > > > On Wed, Aug 21, 2013 at 11:10 PM, Jim Lawrence <accessd at shaw.ca> wrote: > > > One of these strange questions... It sure can not be the money? So why is > > there any Open Source projects at all...no money no work may seem logical > > to many but according to the following article this is not the case. > Humans > > are strange animals to say the least and programmers are probably the > > strangest humans. ;-) > > > > > > > http://readwrite.com/2013/08/14/mobile-developers-its-not-about-the-money#awesm=~of1TClo7jXYlzl > > > > Jim > > _______________________________________________ > > dba-Tech mailing list > > dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com > > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech > > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com > > > > > > -- > Arthur > _______________________________________________ > dba-Tech mailing list > dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com > _______________________________________________ > dba-Tech mailing list > dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com > -- Arthur _______________________________________________ dba-Tech mailing list dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com