Saturday, March 7, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
AH OH !
Hello all,
Recently, I have noticed a distressing trend among younger programmers.
Actually it is a regression.
When listening in on some of the major projects that are out there for Linux, I have heard some of the younger developers say in response to how the app is compiles from svn, git. etc,...well if we fix that, it won't keep out the "lusers"
I thought most younger developers had relized the "old" out of date approach of linux as being a self centered self indulgent activity a useless and inappropriate mind set!!!
Apparenlty not!!
Well guys here's a bit of news for you!
It's fine if a hand full of you developers start coding a neat little application or even major application and keep it to yourselves. Then that mind set is fine, HOWEVER...once you put it out there into the public's hands it no longer is yours and becomes a responsiblility that you the developer have to take on. Most especially if it has swept across the linux community!!
you DO NOT have the right to just stop creating it.. or stop fixing it.
Unless you keep it private and unavaiable to anyone except your close friends.
We are in a period of time when Linux is making a real threat to the desktop market.
We cant have self centered developers deciding things and de-railing the hard work, money and time put into getting linux where it is today.
So keep your little apps to your self if you are not prepared for the responsibility of making it avaiable to the public!!
thanks
Recently, I have noticed a distressing trend among younger programmers.
Actually it is a regression.
When listening in on some of the major projects that are out there for Linux, I have heard some of the younger developers say in response to how the app is compiles from svn, git. etc,...well if we fix that, it won't keep out the "lusers"
I thought most younger developers had relized the "old" out of date approach of linux as being a self centered self indulgent activity a useless and inappropriate mind set!!!
Apparenlty not!!
Well guys here's a bit of news for you!
It's fine if a hand full of you developers start coding a neat little application or even major application and keep it to yourselves. Then that mind set is fine, HOWEVER...once you put it out there into the public's hands it no longer is yours and becomes a responsiblility that you the developer have to take on. Most especially if it has swept across the linux community!!
you DO NOT have the right to just stop creating it.. or stop fixing it.
Unless you keep it private and unavaiable to anyone except your close friends.
We are in a period of time when Linux is making a real threat to the desktop market.
We cant have self centered developers deciding things and de-railing the hard work, money and time put into getting linux where it is today.
So keep your little apps to your self if you are not prepared for the responsibility of making it avaiable to the public!!
thanks
Friday, February 6, 2009
Compiz
Hello all,
It is good to make an entry here about the compiz project.
It had been suffering for some time now with lack of direction and developers leaving the project.
However, with Kristian Lyngstol's leadership and management skills, the project appears to have grown up!
The personality of the project feels more calm and certainly more organized.
I am sure Kristian feels the pangs of "management" for various reasons, but I hope he is aware that his approach is going to most likely save the project.
It is also good to see Quinn Storm again, although I am not clear on how much time Quinn has to be involved.
There has been a brief discussion about Emerald, as to it's rewrite as well as the concept that compiz does not need to be limited to just kde or gnome window borders or even Emerald themes.
The idea of movable window title bars, to the side or even the bottom of windows, as well as tabbed window title bars with movable tabs had a brief appearance in the conversation.
This new approach to the decorator concept opens up a much broader creative potential. It will be interesting to see some "feature requests" or rather ideas , for window decorations. The possibilities are exciting!!
As I mentioned, the overall "feel" of the project is quite a bit more relaxed. Even those of us on the support team are feeling the "ease" of tensions.
I have said something similar since Beryl had been out, that I am very honored to be involved, even in the small way that I am, with a group of people, both developers and support, who are the best out there. Now, with those that have not left the project, and the introduction of much better leadership, I can confidently say that these people are bright, confident, and "user friendly" , and definitely the best!
coz
It is good to make an entry here about the compiz project.
It had been suffering for some time now with lack of direction and developers leaving the project.
However, with Kristian Lyngstol's leadership and management skills, the project appears to have grown up!
The personality of the project feels more calm and certainly more organized.
I am sure Kristian feels the pangs of "management" for various reasons, but I hope he is aware that his approach is going to most likely save the project.
It is also good to see Quinn Storm again, although I am not clear on how much time Quinn has to be involved.
There has been a brief discussion about Emerald, as to it's rewrite as well as the concept that compiz does not need to be limited to just kde or gnome window borders or even Emerald themes.
The idea of movable window title bars, to the side or even the bottom of windows, as well as tabbed window title bars with movable tabs had a brief appearance in the conversation.
This new approach to the decorator concept opens up a much broader creative potential. It will be interesting to see some "feature requests" or rather ideas , for window decorations. The possibilities are exciting!!
As I mentioned, the overall "feel" of the project is quite a bit more relaxed. Even those of us on the support team are feeling the "ease" of tensions.
I have said something similar since Beryl had been out, that I am very honored to be involved, even in the small way that I am, with a group of people, both developers and support, who are the best out there. Now, with those that have not left the project, and the introduction of much better leadership, I can confidently say that these people are bright, confident, and "user friendly" , and definitely the best!
coz
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Maybe there is a god!
Hello all,
Well, we now have a new president of the United States.
A man with great vision based on a very simple phylosophy..."Do what is right".
I admit I was not confident when I first "saw" this man running for the presidency.
I had not heard him speak at that point and was for Ms Clinton at that point.
Then I watched the debates and was sold immediately on Obama!
However, President Obama has a long road to travel with many obstacles and dangers.
His ethnic background alone has, at the moment of his inaugural speech, begun healing the wound of international trust!
Now, with the many many internal and international obstacles to heal, change, and throw out, President Obama is also faced with more of a threat to his, and his families lives as a result. I am sure he is more than keenly aware of that fact.
At the moment of his inaugural speech, I was again interested in politics since John F. Kennedy, as well as believing that there may be, in fact, a god.
I had, as a boy, had the opportunity to speak with John F. Kennedy, when he spoke in the town we live in. We had arrived early and my brother n' law had put me onto his shoulders. Kennedy was also early. I looked around and saw all of the security on the roof tops with their rifles , and as I turned I saw President Kennedy step up to the platform. Not many people had arrived as of yet, and we were right up front close enough to a private conversation. Kennedy then turned to me and asked my name, and we talked about my goals and desires and he was absolutely focused on me for those few moments. It changed my childish thoughts to include politics.
Then he was murdered,, and then his brother Bobby, and then Martin!!
I was devastated, as were many in our country. I no longer believed in or trusted politics and those that were members of it, not did I believe that a god was around who could have stopped this.
After those murders, I watched the concept of "assassination sans gun" creep into,,and mature, within politics, the press, and our communites.
"Take what I can for myself" "It doesn't matter what I do, as long as "I" survive" were the commandments of this new regime!
I watched Gary Hart being "assassinated sans gun" by the press most likely initiated by the republicans. I watched Clinton being railroaded out of office again "assassination sans gun"
ON and ON , regardless of who the people were or what they stood for, the press and the politicians, assassinated anything and anyone that could do good for our nation.
This has not changed !
However, I do believe it will change now that Obama is in office. He brings to the table, honesty, dedication, determination, and courage to do what is right, for the most part, for this country.
There was not a single incident at the Mall in DC the day of his inauguration. Not a single incident! That means something.
The man, the times, and the need have met at the right moment!
We need to take this approach in our own neighbourhoods., We must as communities expose the criminals, including local thugs. We must make our lives as safe and profitable as possible without allowing criminals to effect us!
Obama's approach is correct and based on simple ideas...do what is right... the laws are already on the books...lets follow them.. and make sure others do as well.
thanks
p.s.
This is not a great blog entry by any means , but one that I do believe in.
Well, we now have a new president of the United States.
A man with great vision based on a very simple phylosophy..."Do what is right".
I admit I was not confident when I first "saw" this man running for the presidency.
I had not heard him speak at that point and was for Ms Clinton at that point.
Then I watched the debates and was sold immediately on Obama!
However, President Obama has a long road to travel with many obstacles and dangers.
His ethnic background alone has, at the moment of his inaugural speech, begun healing the wound of international trust!
Now, with the many many internal and international obstacles to heal, change, and throw out, President Obama is also faced with more of a threat to his, and his families lives as a result. I am sure he is more than keenly aware of that fact.
At the moment of his inaugural speech, I was again interested in politics since John F. Kennedy, as well as believing that there may be, in fact, a god.
I had, as a boy, had the opportunity to speak with John F. Kennedy, when he spoke in the town we live in. We had arrived early and my brother n' law had put me onto his shoulders. Kennedy was also early. I looked around and saw all of the security on the roof tops with their rifles , and as I turned I saw President Kennedy step up to the platform. Not many people had arrived as of yet, and we were right up front close enough to a private conversation. Kennedy then turned to me and asked my name, and we talked about my goals and desires and he was absolutely focused on me for those few moments. It changed my childish thoughts to include politics.
Then he was murdered,, and then his brother Bobby, and then Martin!!
I was devastated, as were many in our country. I no longer believed in or trusted politics and those that were members of it, not did I believe that a god was around who could have stopped this.
After those murders, I watched the concept of "assassination sans gun" creep into,,and mature, within politics, the press, and our communites.
"Take what I can for myself" "It doesn't matter what I do, as long as "I" survive" were the commandments of this new regime!
I watched Gary Hart being "assassinated sans gun" by the press most likely initiated by the republicans. I watched Clinton being railroaded out of office again "assassination sans gun"
ON and ON , regardless of who the people were or what they stood for, the press and the politicians, assassinated anything and anyone that could do good for our nation.
This has not changed !
However, I do believe it will change now that Obama is in office. He brings to the table, honesty, dedication, determination, and courage to do what is right, for the most part, for this country.
There was not a single incident at the Mall in DC the day of his inauguration. Not a single incident! That means something.
The man, the times, and the need have met at the right moment!
We need to take this approach in our own neighbourhoods., We must as communities expose the criminals, including local thugs. We must make our lives as safe and profitable as possible without allowing criminals to effect us!
Obama's approach is correct and based on simple ideas...do what is right... the laws are already on the books...lets follow them.. and make sure others do as well.
thanks
p.s.
This is not a great blog entry by any means , but one that I do believe in.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
On Programming and the Artist
Hello all,
First let me apologize for the incorrect date attached to this post. I posted this on October 21, 2008. The reason for the error is because I am an idiot with blogs :)
Now,
I often like to post about this particular subject because, it has fascinated me for years and I have noticed that attitudes and concepts are changing.
I posed the question "How do you perceive the programmer and programming, and how do you define the roles of the artist/ non programmer, as part of the the process?"
I asked this of a few people I met from Carnegie Mellon University who are programmers.
This is their (combined) answer;
""I've always felt that there's a strong aesthetic aspect to programming. 'Beautiful' and 'elegant' solutions and APIs, but in the end those aspects are subjective, and the objective measure is, how well does the code solve the problem?
So aesthetics are important, but pragmatism overrides. Some people get hung up on the aesthetics and the code suffers for it, but when beauty and efficiency can coexist, so much the better.
I lived with both artists and programmers for about five years and the mindsets are so very different as to be virtually mutually exclusive. Artists tend to be concerned with emotion while programmers tend to be concerned with logic. One is concerned with form, the other with function.
Artists are invaluable, though, in that they can advise the programmer how to best present his software to an audience of non-programmers.
The best programmers are often horrible at user interface design. emacs is amazing software, but for Joe the Plumber (forgive me), it is incomprehensible.""
""I like to view each function i write as a poem, and try to stick to 'haiku' sorts of things rather than long epic sagas, although the occasional sonnet is good too!
It really depends on the project, I like to work on back-end things more though, so I've never had to work on a project where I really needed to interact with artists on a regular basis.
To be fair, I definitely appreciate it when there is some artistic forethought into any program with an external interface, but how to incorporate art, industrial engineering, and computer software is a complex issue.""
In my opinion, although many will disagree, the statements above are indicative of the the modern programmers coming up!
Having worn both shoes, being trained as a fine artist and doing some programming for personal use only, I can speak with some confidence, and hopefully, some insight on this topic.
The tools are certainly different, yet, both require the identical amount of concentration and dedication to the job at hand. Although, I will argue to the death that it is far easier, and realistically more profitable, to train a fine artist to be a fine programmer than it would be to train a fine programmer to be a fine artist, that scenario is not the norm nor will it be any time soon, but for a few individuals who may have taken both paths.
Still, it is clear that the gap in perceptions continues to exist, but also that it is narrowing! Slowly!
thanks for reading
coz
First let me apologize for the incorrect date attached to this post. I posted this on October 21, 2008. The reason for the error is because I am an idiot with blogs :)
Now,
I often like to post about this particular subject because, it has fascinated me for years and I have noticed that attitudes and concepts are changing.
I posed the question "How do you perceive the programmer and programming, and how do you define the roles of the artist/ non programmer, as part of the the process?"
I asked this of a few people I met from Carnegie Mellon University who are programmers.
This is their (combined) answer;
""I've always felt that there's a strong aesthetic aspect to programming. 'Beautiful' and 'elegant' solutions and APIs, but in the end those aspects are subjective, and the objective measure is, how well does the code solve the problem?
So aesthetics are important, but pragmatism overrides. Some people get hung up on the aesthetics and the code suffers for it, but when beauty and efficiency can coexist, so much the better.
I lived with both artists and programmers for about five years and the mindsets are so very different as to be virtually mutually exclusive. Artists tend to be concerned with emotion while programmers tend to be concerned with logic. One is concerned with form, the other with function.
Artists are invaluable, though, in that they can advise the programmer how to best present his software to an audience of non-programmers.
The best programmers are often horrible at user interface design. emacs is amazing software, but for Joe the Plumber (forgive me), it is incomprehensible.""
""I like to view each function i write as a poem, and try to stick to 'haiku' sorts of things rather than long epic sagas, although the occasional sonnet is good too!
It really depends on the project, I like to work on back-end things more though, so I've never had to work on a project where I really needed to interact with artists on a regular basis.
To be fair, I definitely appreciate it when there is some artistic forethought into any program with an external interface, but how to incorporate art, industrial engineering, and computer software is a complex issue.""
In my opinion, although many will disagree, the statements above are indicative of the the modern programmers coming up!
Having worn both shoes, being trained as a fine artist and doing some programming for personal use only, I can speak with some confidence, and hopefully, some insight on this topic.
The tools are certainly different, yet, both require the identical amount of concentration and dedication to the job at hand. Although, I will argue to the death that it is far easier, and realistically more profitable, to train a fine artist to be a fine programmer than it would be to train a fine programmer to be a fine artist, that scenario is not the norm nor will it be any time soon, but for a few individuals who may have taken both paths.
Still, it is clear that the gap in perceptions continues to exist, but also that it is narrowing! Slowly!
thanks for reading
coz
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