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7576

Developer's Corner / Re: Buy & Sell Source Code

« Last post by 40hz on May 30, 2011, 11:26 AM »

I'm an unrepentant open source advocate, but I'm being pragmatic here. Mixing free and 'premium' sends a mixed message. They would have been better of creating a separate site for the payware stuff.

Besides, selling source also brings its own headache for small developers.

If you 'open source' your code, it's out there and you've given up a great deal of your ability to control it. Forever too thanks to internet archives.  

Unless you have deep pockets for attorneys to go after violators - or - you've joined an organization or foundation that can do it for you. Fairness and value have nothing to do with it. People are people. And they do what they do. Doesn't mean they're bad or evil. It's just the way the "chimpanzee brain" we have operates.

So if you're an 'indy,' and it's something you need to maintain control over, then don't release your source code. Period.

I wish things were different. But for most small software developers, "open" equals "free." So if it's not something you can afford to do for free, don't bother with the open dev model. It only has the potential to be 'monetized' (oh how I hate that term) if you have a decent sized organization or business behind it. Gals and guys coding out of their house or small office don't really stand a chance of getting remunerative 'open' to work on their own. But they do have a very good opportunity to make a compiled binary earn money for them as long as it's something people see as worth paying for (an important distinction, that) and they take the necessary precautions (i.e. product activation mechanisms) to cut down on casual theft.

Guess what I'm saying is that selling source code (licensed or otherwise) isn't really a viable business for most small developers. 

Wish it were otherwise.

Just my 2¢ anyway.  

7577

Developer's Corner / Re: Buy & Sell Source Code

« Last post by 40hz on May 30, 2011, 10:07 AM »

I think if the people that want (or need) to make a living writing code would stop trying to figure out how to turn 'open source' to their advantage and just sell compiled product or their services the way the used to, we'd all be a lot happier. And unless your product is a dev library - why do you want to provide your source code at all? (Hint: bragging rights -or- some misguided notion you'll get a lot of 'free' debugging for your commercial product.)

At the risk of sounding like a broken record (my turn! ) open source is NOT a business model. It's a development philosophy.
 

7578

Living Room / Re: Which is more important: the gadget, or the software and apps that runs it?

« Last post by 40hz on May 29, 2011, 02:32 PM »

Success is somebody else's failure. Success is the American Dream we can keep dreaming because most people in most places, including thirty million of ourselves, live wide awake in the terrible reality of poverty.

-40hz (May 29, 2011, 07:21 AM)

See, this I totally disagree with.  For me to succeed doesn't mean that someone else has to fail.  It never has meant that, and it never will.  It can be achieved at such sacrifice, but that doesn't mean it requires such.

-wraith808 (May 29, 2011, 11:53 AM)

There was a time when I would have agreed with you 100%.

And, if we were restricting the discussion to a purely personal form of success, I still would.

But one thing I have observed, over the years, is that no matter how much we wish to talk about the desire to play non-zero sum economic games, in reality, they inevitably morph into zero-sum games once they reach a certain number of players (usually somewhere around 5 or 6) competing for a share of the same pot.

So yes, our own individual success may not depend on somebody else failing or being made to do with less. But when the population of the United States (or the United States and Western Europe to be more correct) continues to consume total planetary resources vastly out of proportion to the population of the rest of the world, one has to wonder why.

And the answer that becomes most apparent is simply because (a) they want to - and even more importantly - because (b) they can.

There used to be the argument that the West could justify acquiring so much material resource because only the West had the technology and manufacturing capabilities to properly use and derive maximum benefit from them. But now that the technology and the manufacturing (along with their environmental and human abuses) have been farmed back as some odd form of 'sharecropping,' this justification merits far less credence than it once did.

You could say (and many have) that such practices represent the return of feudalism, except this time in nation-state form, and on a global scale.

Truth is, much of the current western economy is dependent upon cheap labor and raw materials. Usually provided by corrupt governments that maintain their positions of power by effectively selling off their countries' natural resources and labor pool (on the cheap) to whichever power or superpower will back them with sufficient military and financial resources that they can remain in power.

The western democracies seriously do believe they stand for freedom and democracy. But only insofar as it maintains their own internal status quo. There is no interest now (or ever) in taking a smaller piece of the pie in order to give somebody else a bigger slice. The best those with a smaller piece can hope for is to buy into the capitalist argument that if only the pie itself could be made bigger, then everybody could get a better portion to enjoy. It's the age old "rising tide floats all boats" economic argument. True enough, when and if it happens. But that's not an automatic given.

However, at no time does anyone in a position of power ever seriously suggest that the proportion of one piece to another should radically change. That's what the socialists argue. Oh horror of horrors!

The real problem is we say we believe one thing, yet do another. And when belief and behavior contradict each other, our most common response is to go into denial by saying things like" "It's not always the case" - even if (in practice) it almost always is.

What a dilemma...  

Unfortunately, EVEN the socialists don't have much to point to, since they too have demonstrated a distinct talent for making a complete hash of things once they've been put in complete charge of a nation or economy. And if history is any guide, they've done considerably worse for the "common man" and "the worker" than capitalism ever has.

Barring a fundamental change in global awareness, I don't see anything changing for the better.

Even slavery and child labor, which were largely considered unacceptable during the last century, are now making a major comeback - all decked out in shiny new clothing and called something else in order not to be too obvious about it.

Add in government sponsored religious persecution; genocidal purges and ethnic 'cleansing;' the reintroduction of detention without trial or (in many cases) a shred of legal authority; the sanctioned use of torture as an acceptable part of 'criminal procedure'; and the gradual centralization of all real authority in the executive of many governments (i.e. the return of absolute kings and privy councils) - and you have some strong indications that the "bad old days" are making a big comeback.

Which means when the members of a society reach a breaking point (which they inevitably do) the fact they've been systematically disenfranchised and denied legal remedies will lead to the usual violent form of 'remediation' most human societal change comes out of.

Such a high tariff to pay for "low prices.'" You'd have thought we learned that lesson by now.  

7579

Living Room / Re: Which is more important: the gadget, or the software and apps that runs it?

« Last post by 40hz on May 29, 2011, 07:21 AM »

would be nice if there were more awareness and less acceptance of "this kind of thing".

-tomos (May 29, 2011, 04:34 AM)

Back in 1983, LeGuinn delivered a commencement address where she sounded a note of caution on the growing complacency of American youth towards the stark truth that lies beneath some of its nation's most cherished ideals:

Success is somebody else's failure. Success is the American Dream we can keep dreaming because most people in most places, including thirty million of ourselves, live wide awake in the terrible reality of poverty.

In the 28 years since she spoke those words, nothing much has changed, except that the number of people who now live in poverty has increased drastically. Food for thought...


 
Ms. LeGuinn also wrote a beautiful parable about this sort of thing. It's called: The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.

You can read a copy of it online here.

And you really should. Because few authors can pack as much of a punch into 7 short pages as LeGuinn can.

(WARNING: This story is one of those seemingly small things that might forever change your outlook on life. Proceed with caution.  )

 

7580

Living Room / Re: Post Your Funny Videos Here [NSFW]

« Last post by 40hz on May 29, 2011, 06:44 AM »

This is the ultimate in cute videos.

Mother cat dealing with her kitten's bad dream.

Youtube reports nearly 10 million views so I'd guess you could say it's "gone viral." 

7581

General Software Discussion / Re: WorkTimer: A free web app for freelancers

« Last post by 40hz on May 28, 2011, 12:30 AM »

They're around already

-cranioscopical (May 27, 2011, 11:14 AM)

The definitely are for the iPhone. Last I looked there were close to a dozen to pick from. I'd guess the same holds true for Android and other competing platforms.
 

7582

Living Room / Re: Kaydara - 55 minute Matrix Fanfilm

« Last post by 40hz on May 27, 2011, 05:14 PM »

Interesting comments. I am definitely gonna make it a point to watch this thing sometime this weekend. 

7583

General Software Discussion / Re: WorkTimer: A free web app for freelancers

« Last post by 40hz on May 27, 2011, 09:45 AM »

UPDATE: I'm going to hold off on writing my promised review. Several of the announced features on the website (text reports, invoicing, exporting)  seem to be missing or broken.

I e-mailed their support address some days ago to say I was in the process of writing a review and asked several questions about their product.  I have not received any response so far.

So rather than write a detailed negative review (such reviews are largely useless anyway) I'll just say that as far as I can see, it's not ready for prime time in its present form. Announced features are missing, and what is there is a very basic data collection web tool that's too simplistic for anything but the most basic time logging tasks.

You could do as much (and more) with a GoogleDocs  spreadsheet. Or a quick & dirty little database project implemented in something like MS Access.

(Note: Time tracking is a simple task. Its so simple, in fact, that it's usually used as a teaching project in most relational database tutorials  Virtually anyone could write their own app to do it using a "desktop database" in just a few hours at most. There's only three tuples: Clients, Projects, and Tasks. After that it's just a little elapsed time mathematics, some reports and data entry forms, and as many bells &whistles as you have the desire to code.)

I'll give them a month or two to get it together and then check back.  Hopefully there will be something worth reviewing at that point.

Onward!

7584

Developer's Corner / Re: Thoughts on HTML5?

« Last post by 40hz on May 27, 2011, 09:14 AM »

I think the biggest holdup for faster adoption is that all the big players like Google and Apple and Micrsoft are holding off on better support until they can figure out ways to twist this open standard to their own ends. Apple hopes to use it to kill Flash. Microsoft wants to make it just another extension of their web development product line. Mozilla is hoping to they'll finally figure out a way to make some real money from all this. And Google...well... who knows what Google is up to? Their 'official' story changes almost every other day.

I personally think HTML5 will be the battleground. And HTML6 will be what eventually emerges as the "new" new web coding standard. I'm thinking that will be sometime around 2017.  

7585

Living Room / Re: Skype Outage

« Last post by 40hz on May 27, 2011, 08:49 AM »

^If true, I'd predict Skype will soon discover what it means to be classified as a public utility once the Telcos start bitching and the regulators wake up. I think the main reason they've been left alone so long is because the were pretty much their own thing. But once they start directly tying into regulated communications networks, things will change rather quickly for them .  

However, if that *is* the plan, then it makes even more sense to do it through a giant like Microsoft. Because they'd probably get slaughtered if they made a move like that on their own.
 

7586

Living Room / Re: Which is more important: the gadget, or the software and apps that runs it?

« Last post by 40hz on May 26, 2011, 05:15 PM »

FWIW, I do tend to look at what's available for a platform first. So I guess you could say I am influenced more by available software than hardware because I'm more interested in immediate usefullness rather than technical potential. I figure I can always switch or upgrade hardware if I have to. And there are distinct financial and technical advantages to a reasonable "late adoption" strategy when it comes to hardware. Less so for software, which doesn't usually see price drops due to increased unit sales like hardware does.

7587

Living Room / Re: Building a home server. Please help, DC!

« Last post by 40hz on May 26, 2011, 10:51 AM »

^Agree. I have two nieces that have it down to a science. I have yet to meet a male that doesn't cave the minute they do that little 'prayer-hand & curtsy' thing they do when they say "Oh please can I?"

I just hope they continue to only use their superpowers for good.  

7588

Living Room / Re: Building a home server. Please help, DC!

« Last post by 40hz on May 26, 2011, 10:43 AM »

^Talk about initiative! I'd hire her in a heartbeat.  

When I was younger I always pushed for letting a trusty girl or two into whatever we were getting up to. They often provided a "reality check" when thing started getting really stupid. And they were extremely valuable allies for getting adults to agree to something. (Never underestimate the power of a young female asking for a favor or permission.)

Most of them could also tell a lie (and be believed) much better than we could.

I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Emma, Judy, Kim, Tawney, and all the other so-called tomboys I grew up with.

Kim would have been one of the first to 'sign up' for building something like a personal petabyte cloud. She was handy with a soldering iron, "good with tools", and liked to build stuff. She's the first person I ever knew who had a ham radio license (and shortwave rig) when I was a kid. Self-taught too. Her father owned a dry cleaner shop and her Mom was a homemaker.

So imagine all the contributions your little sister might have made to your club if she'd been allowed in. Given enough time and encouragement, her skills and talents might have really taken off. Which would have been great. Because you just never know when you might need the services of a good forger.  

7589

Living Room / Re: Which is more important: the gadget, or the software and apps that runs it?

« Last post by 40hz on May 26, 2011, 09:02 AM »

^Software does a lot more than just beat Wetware. Those two have a full blown sadomasochistic relationship going. And we're talking the "lifestyle" variety here.  

7590

Living Room / Re: Building a home server. Please help, DC!

« Last post by 40hz on May 26, 2011, 08:55 AM »

I can fill up 60 TB no problem.  Uncompressed movies and music.  Backup.  Done.

-superboyac (May 26, 2011, 08:43 AM)

Yoiks! I'd think you'd be a shoe-in for the coveted 2011 "Swat Fly with Sledgehammer" Tech Achievement Award (also known in geek circles as the Spank the Monkey Medal) if you did that.
 

7591

Living Room / Re: Which is more important: the gadget, or the software and apps that runs it?

« Last post by 40hz on May 26, 2011, 08:40 AM »

Wetware beats all 

-cranioscopical (May 26, 2011, 07:01 AM)

Wow! I think you may have just created the 'geek version' of "Rock, Paper, Scissors" 

7592

Living Room / Re: Which is more important: the gadget, or the software and apps that runs it?

« Last post by 40hz on May 26, 2011, 06:15 AM »

To me, an app is just another device built with software rather than hardware.

Many people talk about virtualization as something new. But we've been doing it ever since the first program was written to emulate the function of a purely electronic or mechanical device. Word-processing programs were probably the first 'virtual device' products the public became generally aware of. Much to the chagrin of Wang and IBM as they watched their lucrative Wang Office and DisplayWriter businesses get devoured by programs like PC-Write, Scriptsit,  and (ultimately) WordPecfect.

But none of that would have been possible if personal computers weren't around to run these programs first.

So which is more important - the device or the apps it runs?

Since it's a synergistic relationship, my answer would have be a simple "yes." 

7593

Living Room / Re: Building a home server. Please help, DC!

« Last post by 40hz on May 25, 2011, 05:40 PM »

I didn't have time to go read the details at work today ... but Damn! 67.5 TeraBytes.

...Now I'm afraid to read it ... 'Cause the wife will freakin shoot me if I come off with an idea like that.

-Stoic Joker (May 25, 2011, 04:35 PM)

Not surprising. If you were temped, it would probably be the only merciful thing to do.

7594

Living Room / Re: Building a home server. Please help, DC!

« Last post by 40hz on May 25, 2011, 03:59 PM »

@ 40hz - A little crazy?!? Zoiks! I wonder how much torque 45 HDDs spinning up at once produces? Do they guage drive activity by how voilently the rack it's mounted in is shaking?

-Stoic Joker (May 25, 2011, 01:46 PM)

That was my first thought too. They address it in their blog however:

A note about drive vibration: The drives vibrate too much if you leave them sitting as shown in the picture above, so we add an “anti-vibration sleeve” (essentially a rubber band) around the hard drive in between the red metal grid and the drives. This seats the drives tightly in the rubber. We also lay a large (16″ x 17″ x 1/8″) piece of foam along top of the hard drives after all 45 are in the case. The lid then screws down on top of the foam to hold the drives securely. In the future, we will dedicate an entire blog post to vibration.

They didn't quite give an entire post to vibration, but there was a follow-up post. You can read it here.

----------

1.5GB x 45 drives to get to 67.5GB seems like a really old design considering they have 3TB drives now.

Helps if I can use the correct multiplier. It is terabytes - not gigabytes as I originally wrote. (Thanks Superboy for spotting that!) 

Note: This article was written in 2009. They were already mentioning plans to go over to 2TB drives in the near future.

Then again my brother does work in a metal shop, so the case would be fairly cheap...

I'd be more likely to just do it in an open cage with a large fan blowing directly across it. Since I don't need to worry about space and density like they do, I don't feel a need to pack every available inch with a drive.

7595

Living Room / Re: Building a home server. Please help, DC!

« Last post by 40hz on May 25, 2011, 01:34 PM »

@SB - sorry Bro. Server design...it's a sickness. I love these things. I really do. 

It's gonna break my heart the day all the SMBs I have as clients finally migrate to the cloud and no longer have their own servers.

I think my great-grandfather felt the same way when the telephone finally replaced the handwritten letter as the primary means of personal communication after F2F conversation.

I shudder to think what he would have thought about something like Facebook or Twitter.

7596

Living Room / Re: Building a home server. Please help, DC!

« Last post by 40hz on May 25, 2011, 12:55 PM »

OK...

Now that we're all finished talking common sense, let's start getting a little crazy once again in the grand tradition of the Donation Coder forum.

I mentioned earlier I didn't feel it made sense to custom build a server unless you  had a specific goal or need in mind.

Here's a blog post by Backblaze (an online storage service provider) who did have a unique need for a very high capacity, high density storage server that was reliable and extremely inexpensive to build. What they came up with was not only unique - they released the full design specs and a detailed parts list so others could build their own. It uses off-the-shelf components except for a custom designed rack case. It packs forty-five(!) 1.5Gb TB hard drives for a total of 67.5 gigaterabytes of total drive space. And it costs about $8000 in unit quantities including their custom designed case.

Here's the little monster, minus its 'skin,' with five drives installed - and another 40 to go!  



While it would be patently insane to exactly duplicate this box for personal use, it would be relatively easy to go with a subset since the bulk of the cost is tied up in the hard drives. If you take the drives and the custom rack case out of the bill of materials (and remove some of the parts needed to handle all 45 drives) the cost drops below $1500. Pretty amazing.

Here's a video discussing the company's business model and it's server design. Interesting to watch both from a business and technical perspective.

A blog post with a cost analysis and full details on the design and construction of this server (with parts list) can be found here.

Here's a couple of illustrations taken from the blog to whet your appetite. Click to enlarge.

   


A couple of points:

Hardware is only part of the equation when building a server. Backblaze has done the hardware spec and component matching. Which is a major time saver for any who wish to follow in their footsteps. But note that this system is also designed to run a customized version of Linux and in-house software specifically set up for Backblaze's own requirements. And they are not providing copies.

Building a cloud includes not only deploying a large quantity of hardware, but, critically, deploying software to manage it. At Backblaze we have developed software that de-duplicates and chops data into blocks; encrypts and transfers it for backup; reassembles, decrypts, re-duplicates, and packages the data for recovery; and monitors and manages the entire cloud storage system. This process is proprietary technology that we have developed over the years.

You may have your own system for this process and incorporate the Backblaze Storage Pod design, or you may simply seek inexpensive storage that won’t be deployed as part of a cloud. In either case, you’re free to use the storage pod design above. If you do, we would appreciate credit at Backblaze and welcome any insights, though this isn’t a requirement. Please note that because we’re not selling the design or the storage pods themselves, we provide no support nor warranties.

If you were planning a Windows Server deployment, you'd still want to check Microsoft's HCL to be sure there were no known problems with components. I'm guessing some of these components (like the port multiplier backplanes and a few of the cards) will not be found on the 'official' hardware list. Which is not to say they won't work. It's just you may have driver or other issues if you use them. The only way to be sure would be to buy them and test them thoroughly before you commit your data if they weren't on the HCL.

But anyway, there you have it: 68GbTB of storage platform for only $8K.

Like I said earlier - pretty amazing.  

7597

Living Room / Re: Kaydara - 55 minute Matrix Fanfilm

« Last post by 40hz on May 25, 2011, 09:22 AM »

^We all do. Nonsense like that hurts everybody eventually. First one region or group of people gets handed the short stick. Next thing you know, they codify and make it the norm for everybody.

You've got one world market for entertainment. It would be cool if the motion picture industry woke up and realized that instead of walking around with a protectionist mindset that dates back to when Heartbreak Hotel was at the top of the charts.
 

7598

Living Room / Re: Kaydara - 55 minute Matrix Fanfilm

« Last post by 40hz on May 25, 2011, 07:21 AM »

@Edvard- Well, yeah. Thanks. But I made that recommendation a while ago. And I try to follow the "6-month recommendation limit" rule. Because AFAIC, if something's not mentioned for over half a year, then the next person who does mention it becomes the 'new' finder.

And yes, I did just make that rule up.

But it does make sense when you think about it. I can't stand when I recommend sonething and some forum historian (and self-appointed hall monitor) sends me a 'friendly' PM to let me know that THEY had already discovered and posted about it back on March 18, 2009 - and could I therefor "acknowledge their contribution" lest others think I was trying to "steal the credit" (???) for THEIR "find." (Thank Buddha that sort of nonsense doesn't happen here!)

Either way it's a great movie site.  

7599

Living Room / Re: Kaydara - 55 minute Matrix Fanfilm

« Last post by 40hz on May 25, 2011, 06:24 AM »

@Edvard - great find!  

The Quiet Earth website is a great resource for post-apocalyptic and dark genre sci-fi and (more recently) horror flicks. I like to visit it whenever I'm feeling a little too optimistic or happy about our future.  

Some real hidden gems coming out of places you normally don't associate with movie making. Amazing what happens once you get out of the mainstream studio system. Apparently, good things occur when you can't afford to spend $100 million on special effects to prop up a badly written script or weak storyline. Also a welcome relief not to have to watch Willis, Reeves, Portman, Cage, and other Hollywood 'names' butcher a sci-fi flick. (Why does Hollywood persist in thinking this group of actors is good for this type of film? About the only two 'mainstreams' that do seem able to pull it off are DiCaprio and Jovovich.)

7600

Living Room / Re: Building a home server. Please help, DC!

« Last post by 40hz on May 24, 2011, 06:51 PM »

I'll agree again with Stoic's comments. (Jeez! It's getting to be a habit lately... )

From an assembly perspective, a server is no more difficult to build than a desktop.

But it is hard to get a good match of components unless you really know what you're doing (as in: you're familiar with a lot of server-type brands and products) or you're willing to spend some time reading and digesting Scott Mueller's massive Upgrading and Repairing PCs book every time you run into something about hardware you don't fully understand. Server hardware is similar enough to desktop hardware that you can make bad decisions if you only think of a server as some sort of 'souped up' PC. Because the entire design criteria is different than that of a desktop.

Then there's the infamous HCL (i.e hardware compatibility list) Microsoft publishes for server system builders that you'll need to consult if you're going with a Windows solution.

In short, more trouble than it's worth unless you have something very specific in mind. But unless you have an exotic application, web, or database server requirement (like Google or some ISP hosts do), it's always easier (and usually cheaper) to buy an assembled system. You could go bare-bones and get something from Super Micro. But for the same or less money, you could also get a very capable used server (with warranty) from a 'name brand' maker.

Kind of a coin toss...

I've pretty much stuck to the big three prior to using Dell: HP, Compaq, IBM.

Of the three, I liked Compaq (ProLiant series) best, then HP, then IBM.

Today, I'd stick almost exclusively with Dell or HP - with my current preference being for Dell.

 
--------------
P.S. if I were engineering a truly massive data center (which I'm not) for something like Facebook or Amazon, I'd definitely call IBM and invite them to buy me lunch (which they would) to discuss their "heavy iron."