Morality

posted by pfunk on 2006-07-17 02:43:08 Watching some speeches by Richard Stallman on Google Video. He really believes in Free Software as a moral movement. If I worked on my own, I would want to hold the copyrights to what I do so that I can release it via GPL or LGPL. I thought of charging double for people to buy my time and my software rights, but would it be better for me to not offer that option? If I left my current job on the moral grounds of the GNU Free Software movement, would people just laugh? --- I was thinking about my job while driving back to Pine Bluff today. There's a big project coming up where I'd get to write a lot of code. Talking it over with one of the other guys who will probably code on it also, we're talking about doing things right -- well documented, properly structured, good software practices. When I think of the project and what it has to accomplish, it seems like a trivial software project that we can nearly create perfectly with minimal extra attention. And that thought ... that we are so little intimidated by the project to think that we'll engineer it spotlessly ... just makes the whole thing seem bland. Where's the challenge? Where's the purpose? It doesn't interest me like writing this blog software has interested me. Of course, I'm the end user of this software so of course I'm more interested in it. I haven't released this blog software via GPL yet, but I plan to once my base feature list is complete. If I leave my job, my goal would be to only write free software, and charge by the hour if someone else needs their itch scratched. I don't know if I can pay the bills that way, but I have enough cash saved up to give it a shot for a while. I feel urged to make a decision about this now, because if I get into a lease with the guys I'll be here another year. I may sit with the supervisor and talk it over today. Have the chance to express my goals and reasons for leaving. If possible, ask for suggestions on what I can to do leave on amicable terms, where Entergy would be open to rehiring me down the road. permalink and replies (1)

Musing

posted by pfunk on 2006-07-16 23:45:19 <blockquote> One of the best things about being a programmer is that you can take one of the most complicated machines ever designed by humanity and make it do exactly what you tell it to. - Cory Doctorow </blockquote> permalink and replies (0)

Car Trouble

posted by pfunk on 2006-07-15 12:53:52 On the way down to Magnolia my instrument panel, AC, power windows, and cruise went out. Radio, power locks still work. Car runs fine. Fuse? Belt? I had my phone plugged in with my new charger. The stuff went out when the phone rang. Coincidence? Fuse? [--Update--] Made it back to Pine Bluff. More info on the car trouble: - There was a burnt fuse, simply labelled //panel//. - I replaced the fuse, cranked the car, and the panel lit up. - I turned on the AC. It worked for one second and the fuse burnt again. - I repeated the process to ensure it was the AC. Sure enough, the moment I turned on the AC the fuse burnt again. - I bought a handful of extra fuses and drove home without AC. Everything else is working fine -- power windows, cruise, and the panel are all working. I didn't touch the AC again. The ominous/ambiguous "Check Engine" light is on now. So, something about the AC is causing the 10 Amp fuse to burn out immediately. permalink and replies (2)

Bugs and Feature Requests

posted by pfunk on 2006-07-14 12:02:00 Version 0.9 [x] Verify before posting to root that user is admin [x] Add optional **bold**, __italic__ markup [ ] Add * and - as unordered list markup [x] Add <blockquote> as markup [ ] Separate blog output format function from blog inc [ ] Apply blog output format to Atom feed [ ] Create function to create atom.xml upon root post [ ] Allow includes to specify optional js scripts to load [ ] Make the auth inc specify md5.js when needed [x] Remove "next >" link when no more posts exist [ ] Move "optional" pages' logic to include files [x] Number of replies misreporting on some pages [x] Edit form should have an anchor; edit links should use it [ ] Admin ability to Lock a post, which prevents further replies and prevents editing. Version 1.0 [ ] Install/Config document [ ] Localization files (plus fixing any known bugs) permalink and replies (1)

Distractions

posted by pfunk on 2006-07-14 09:18:47 Have a few favorite online distractions? I'm always looking for more. My latest favorites: [http://overheardinnewyork.com Overheard In New York] [http://overheardintheoffice.com Overheard In The Office] [http://thedailywtf.com The Daily WTF] [http://boingboing.net BoingBoing] And of course, the staples: [http://digg.com Digg] [http://slashdot.org Slashdot] [http://fark.com Fark] permalink and replies (1)