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GeekNights Monday - Contributing to Open Source Projects

MrPeriodMrPeriod
edited October 2012 in GeekNights

Tonight on GeekNights, we discuss the contribution of code or other assets to Open Source projects, focusing on some of the barriers to doing so (e.g., drama, non-code assets, community issues, and so forth). Also, Amazon engages in full DRM-dickitude, and Italy jails scientists for failing to predict an earthquake (echoing North Carolina's ridiculous proposed anti-science legislation).

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Post edited by Rym on

Comments

  • GauntletWizardGauntletWizard
    I love drama, just for the record. Drama is fantastic - There's no better way to make certain things get done than by making someone feel like they've got something to prove. No better entertainment than watching people talk around each other, be horrible to each other, or miss each other completely.

    Also, Korean soap opera is delicious, but I cannot watch them on my own.

    I have a hard time believing the Amazon DRM story - There's been enough negative press, and it's so easy to get this kind of negative press, I doubt that amazon would dare be so callous. I do completely empathize with their decision to not reveal, not to talk at all about the "related account". Fraudsters are actually really high tech, and the war to figure out ways to commit fraud on a mass scale/block fraud is pretty freaking intense now. Confirming any 'relating factor' can give a good idea to the attackers how they got caught, and the heurestics are constantly being tweaked from one side, and fuzzed from the other.
  • ChurbaChurba
    edited October 2012
    I have a hard time believing the Amazon DRM story - There's been enough negative press, and it's so easy to get this kind of negative press, I doubt that amazon would dare be so callous.
    True. Despite how this situation looks, it'd do us well to remember that this is the company that gave you the ability to use whatever books you like right out of the box, even if you don't buy them from amazon, who know they're actively assisting you with putting pirate books on their kindle(you can trivially do it via their whispernet, they'll even convert the books for you if they're in the wrong format), and whom don't care what you do with their device in terms of jailbreaking or other software modifications to their device, they've even made it clear that it won't void any warranties, and they've made it clear that none of these activities will ever cause you strife with them.

    Likely, this is just a mistake on their part, an error - maybe they mistook her for one of the aforementioned book scammers. Maybe she is one, who knows? We don't have any details with which to speculate, other than what we're given by one of the involved parties, one with a vested interest in getting her way. I think it would be an error not to think critically and rationally about this situation.

    Edit - there has been an update, that came in just before I duck out of the house. From some Norwegian interviews it becomes clear that this is a second hand Kindle bought in Denmark, but was from the UK. She contacted Amazon UK customer support about replacing the broken screen of her Kindle. She was told they couldn't send it to Norway as it was a device bought in the UK. When she entered a UK address (company address of partner), and tried to login afterwards she found her account closed down. Apparently, she was likely accessing content that was not licensed in her country via the Amazon store, which is a big no-no in their TOS because of international copyright law - though I doubt she thought of it, or was doing it with the knowlege that it wasn't on, or that she may have been circumventing international copyright law.

    Post edited by Churba on
  • GauntletWizardGauntletWizard
    circumventing international copyright law.
    Gods, I hate that. I really don't see any reason for international copyright licensing to exist - The big guys are large enough that they should be handling it entirely in-house, the small ones small enough that they aren't publishing things for many markets. It adds mostly unnecessary complication, that adds layers of laywers and idiots to the mix.

    Speaking to a different part of the show: There's a real simple reason to pay for Red Hat - Because your boss wants to save his ass. Support Contracts and someone to pass the buck to are an absolute must for a wide variety of businesses; They won't take "I can figure it out or it's not possible" for an answer - They want a vendor to pay to take the blame when there's a failure.
  • AriaAria
    Turn 13 up link is wrong.
  • AprecheApreche
    Turn 13 up link is wrong.
    Here is correct link.

  • StarfoxStarfox
    20121022.mp3:
    image

    image
    Dafuq?
  • RymRym
    20121022.mp3:
    image

    image
    Dafuq?
    Episode appears fine. Your players probably don't interpret VBR streams the same way (i.e..: correctly).
  • AriaAria
    His player is Windows Media Player. It can do variable bit rate, and is super common on Windows. You should test your encoding on popular players if you're using something you have any reason to believe wouldn't work somewhere.
  • MattMatt
    If you're looking for a decent con in-between Burning Con and MagFest, Metatopia is the first weekend in November.

    It's a NJ hotel con so all warnings apply. The one I tried this summer was a mixed bag, but Metatopia is very unique. Weekend pass is only $25, because you basically serve as a guinea pig for game designers. It's all prototypes all weekend long, so you are their playtesting bitch. I would be extremely skeptical and have zero interest in going to play people's crappy prototypes, but they actually have some fairly talented designers lined up.
  • RymRym
    edited October 2012
    His player is Windows Media Player. It can do variable bit rate, and is super common on Windows. You should test your encoding on popular players if you're using something you have any reason to believe wouldn't work somewhere.
    Audition standard encoding, so nothing special there.

    Windows Media Player has known issues with variable bitrates in mp3s, specifically in calculating the total length of the work. It samples the first bit of the file itself and uses that to estimate the length, rather than actually calculating it. It needs some silly optional id3 values to read: it can't calculate the length on its own.

    Post edited by Rym on
  • MattMatt
    On the topic of needing Monday show ideas, I would be interested in a discussion on the product manager career path in tech. I do product management for the DoD, but would like to hear other people's take on the field, especially from the private sector, so I can gauge whether it'd be worth looking into a switch.

    It seems that all of the private sector opportunities around NYC are software focused, but my experience is mostly hardware. Would love to know what sort of processes and methodologies are often used, what technical skills are important for the PM to have, and where they are expected to step in and use them.
  • RymRym
    It could be an interesting show.

    Though, spoilers: I use my natural knack for this sort of thing and just do what makes sense given the constraints under which I work.
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