alex.polvi.net

I really like favicons. So, I created a Firefox 3 add-on that sends all my favicons to a web service. Then, the stars aligned, and google released app engine. Now we’re enabled to collect all the favicons in the world. But I cannot do it alone, I need your help.

You can see the progress here. If you want to add favicons that you encounter (in Firefox 3), please see this page.

The add-on is alpha alpha alpha, so please let me know if you run into any issues.

On my way to Japan I was trying to explain creative commons to the person sitting next to me. My approach involved explaining the notion of “all rights reserved”, and then the licenses that CC offers. I think he got the idea, but it was convoluted and confusing.

Today, I was reading an editorial by Joi Ito (coincidently about recent events in Japan), and noticed how they explain CC: Creative Commons, a nonprofit group that develops flexible copyright arrangements.

That works too!

I recently got my hands on two XO laptops (One Laptop Per Child), so I can help develop the XS (School server).

I got a kick out of the packaging, “DO NOT use in cribs, beds, or playpens.”

I’ve started to play with the laptops. So far, I have been able to get a proof-of-concept server build up. This involved learning a tool called pilgrim, tweaking my stream, and producing some builds. The build doesn’t do anything helpful at the moment (except git rid of all that sugar stuff… :).

Woo for progress!

I don’t read digg anymore (gave up on slashdot awhile ago). It was awesome … but it just got too foolish.

Here are some of my new’ish favorite news feeds:

• Really local: The Barometer (campus paper)
• Semi local: The Oregonian
• National with a hint of global: Google news
• Global: BBC news
• Alt view world news: Aljazeera

Some other great feeds….

• Environmental news: Treehugger
• Young people (fresh grads, etc) personal finance: I will teach you to be rich
• The comic: xkcd

I’m looking for a good non-treehugger’ish environmental issues website. Anyone know of a good one? Any other good feeds people would recommend?

BTW: current feed reader of choice: Google Reader — it rules!

Why the heck isn’t there a “if you liked this movie, you’ll like this movie too” console at rental places? It is waaaay to hard to pick out a movie.

In this edition of “blog about an peer reviewed journal” we take a look at the latest Communications of the ACM. The “President’s Letter” by David A. Patterson regarding Computer Science educations, “Computer Science Education in the 21st Century” will be the focus. I am an Oregon State University (OSU) Computer Science (CS) major, in the 21st century, so this article was extremely relevant. As I read this paper in the Library, I could not keep myself from raising my arms and shouting. The essay touched on topics that have been advocating for years, theories that I have been discussing with my friends, and classes that I am actively considering purposing to my CS department. Even writing this post I am amazed by the pertinence of this paper.

The letter starts with the bold phrase, “To draw students to CS, we must first look to create a curriculum that reflects the exciting opportunities and challenges of IT today versus the 1970s. Future students and faculty would greatly benefit from an reinvigorating CS curriculum. (pg 1)” I could stop reading right there. Those two sentences sum up the problem with computer science in its entirety. To put it in my own words, CS is a field that changes so rapidly it would be foolish if the education did not shift with it. The first raised point in the article is that we should be using more current tools and software libraries. I could not agree more. The paper uses an example in which schools that use the Java programming language should use current development tools like Eclipse and JUnit. My computer science peer circle has been doing just this (even using those tools) and it has contributed directly to our success. We could go even further by encouraging OSU undergrads to use the contemporary languages to complete homework assignments or offer a “Trends in Computer Science” class highlighting current movements in our field. It would be so easy to supplement the piles of traditional CS curriculum with a few relevant hot topics.

Dr. Patterson goes on to talk about “Course I would Love to Take #1, Join the Open Source Movement“. At this point my exclamation in the library was audible enough to turn heads. I have a reason to be excited, the President of the ACM is advocating the exact cause I have been talking about for the past two years. This shows that I am not completely off the rocker. He elaborates on the example of using open source software to help learn large systems. The pitch to incoming undergrads would be that you could work on something relevant. Why do I love open source software? I can contribute to something relevant. With relevance comes practicality, and we are put in a situation where students are learning their discipline by doing. This is a feature of Computer Science. A civil engineer is going to have a hard time building a bridge in class, but a CS major can write a patch and contribute to a real system, even while they are learning.

The Oregon State Computer Science program is in a unique position to adopt open source software into education and successfully become leaders. This paper is further evidence that this is a practice worth pursuing.

Find the full letter here.

I have been thinking a lot about different open source business models. The February Issue of CIO magazine covers with the words “FREE CODE (for sale), Inside the Buying and Selling of Open Source”, so I could not pass it up. In particular, there is a section called, “Your Guide to Open-Source Business Models”. The article outlines five models based around open source; Open Source + Service, Mixed, Open Source + Buy Off, Open Source + Aggregation, Open Source + Hardware.

Open Source + Service
This model is based around the idea that software is a service industry, not a manufacturing one. Open source lends it self to this, so these companies follow the model. The software is free and the customers pay for service contracts. (RedHat)

Mixed
Using closed source addons to generate revenue on top of an open source product. (Tripwire)

Open Source + Buy Off
Licensing tricks so that companies can make modifications to ‘open source’ software with out disclosing their changes. (MySQL)

Open Source + Aggregation
Package up open source software so they are dead easy to use, then sell the package.

Open Source + Hardware
Use an open source platform on hardware. (NetApp)

In my eyes, the model that stays closest to the mantra of free and open source software is “Open Source + Service”. However, this model is also weak. As the article pointed out, “venture capitalists don’t like the service-only model because the margins on service are invariably lower than those for proprietary software.” (p.56) On top of that, it does not seem like it would be that much fun to be in the service industry.

“Mixed” and “Open Source + Buy Off” are clear evil. A mixed model is nothing more then a free trial. Sure, it may be a robust trial, but the developer is holding code back. It seems like a self created conflict of interest. The buy off method seems like a cheap trick in order to make some money. If a company is sold the right to not distribute changes, they effectively became a leach. If companies using this model are successful, the communities will not be, and everything is lost.

What is a good model? We need a model that does not stomp on the contributors, promotes community, and is not a support shop! How do we do it? Not really sure. I am in love with the Ubuntu model (Ubundel), but they have yet to show a sustainable future. This is sort of expected, since they are forging the way. New models will be followed out of their ambitious lead. But what’s next?

I purpose a model that applies open source practices outside of the software industry. This time we do not take Open Source and tack on some money making revenue, we use open source itself.

The Open Source Model
The communities are the core, in fact, they are the company. Start a community that is a revenue generator. Anyone can work for the company, and the individuals are paid via contribution, not via hour. The company would list what projects they are working on and any one interested could come on board.

What sort of projects would this work for? Only the rewarding ones. If this was a development shop creating boring software, nobody would participate. However, if we were working on projects that supported humanity, had people think outside themselves, or were straight up sexy, it would be unstoppable. The pace would accelerate as it grew. The bittorrent of business models!

Free Code (for sale) exemplified that open source models are still limited to one off successes. The models that they and I proposed are not perfect, and will not be, but they are a step in the right direction. Free and open source software has so much inherent value that it has already solidified its future, we just need to do a little backwards thinking to get there.

One of google’s original selling points was how clean the interface was. Google is slowly losing this core value.

I don’t need an option to turn off personalized search results, that should be in my preferences. I don’t need a HUGE reminder that I am logged in. I don’t need you to tell me how long my query took, because a) it means nothing to me and b) my browser said it took 6x as long as you say!

The chances of me needing images, news group posts, news, the best deal, maps, and peer reviewed articles for my query is pretty slim. These choices could easily be dynamic. For example, if I google “apache httpd”, give me my search results, and news groups. I need nothing more. If I google “halloween costumes” give me search results, images, and Froogle. If I search “Isomorphism and the N-Queens problem” give me search results, news group posts, and scholarly articles. Throw a few PhDs at the problem and it will be figured out in a week!

Oh and the ads… obtrusive? yes.

I know there is some engineer in the depths of google that is sad to see his beautiful vision being ruined by the investor. Stand strong loney man, your hesitant mumbles mean the most to the company.

I don’t mean to be a Mark Shuttleworth fan boy or anything, but, he really understands free and open source software and does a good job of explaining it. If you have an hour and want to get it too, listen to this google video (not much to see).