Russ Nelson says the open source train has left the station. I’m not sure what this means. It appears that what he means is, if you’re not already on the open source train, you’ve been left behind and can never catch up. This doesn’t seem like a good metaphor to me.
Filed under: Business, Politics, Software
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This seems obvious, but I’m going to say it anyway.Â
When looking at support options for software, it is a good idea to look for options where the company makes more money if you need less support.
Given the choice between support providers charging annually, monthly, weekly, daily, and hourly, the longer options always present the most incentive to reduce support time. So it’s the company offering a multi-year support plan that will do the most to ensure you don’t need support, and even if this is more expensive than other plans, the support provider has an incentive to provide better service.
Well… not really. The longer options above don’t really make the support provider money if you need less support. They make the provider money if you get less support. There’s a subtle difference there. And it’s not actually whether you need the support that matters, it’s whether you think you need it enough to pay for it.
Filed under: Business, Philosophy
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If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, which you almost certainly haven’t as of this writing, you know I frequently revisit the question of what is wrong with open source. And I’m about to do that again. The idea here is that if I keep poking around the subject, I should eventually say something brilliant that makes people sit up and pay attention.
Today, I’m going to tell you how open source can be used as a scam, with the developer getting the short end of the stick.
Filed under: Philosophy, Software
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There’s an old saying that if a rabbit knows he is being chased by a fox, he will always win the race… because the fox is only running for his dinner, but the rabbit is running for his life.
This is why open source fails when used against spammers and phishing scams. The solution relies upon the programmers running faster and harder than the scammers. Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen for three reasons.
1. Programmers don’t tend to fall for these scams in the first place, and are frequently perplexed when other people do.
2. Programmers obsessively tweak their own personal installations to match their own personal problems, which are generally not like other people’s.
3. Scammers make their living from these scams.
So the programmer is running for a little temporary status and recognition, while the scammer is running for his paycheck. If the programmer doesn’t get a pat on the back from his peers this week, it’s no big deal to him. If the scammer doesn’t get his paycheck, on the other hand… he might not be able to keep a roof over his head this month.
So the open source solution is more rapidly broken by scammers than it is repaired by programmers. Therefore, the solution must be an actual cultural movement, not a piece of software.
Filed under: Philosophy, Software
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Bill Buxton works with Microsoft Research Labs. In a recent interview, he said this.
“As a product designer, if you think that what you’re designing is a thing in a box that gets shipped, you’ve got it completely wrong. You’re designing the experience afforded by the contents of that box. That’s a much, much larger thing. A mountain bike is not about the bike, it’s about the adrenaline rush you get when you’re screaming through a mud puddle and over rocks. That should be true about everything we do in our products.”
Let’s apply that to the CSS issue in my previous post.
Filed under: Business, Microsoft, Philosophy
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I was discussing an IE7 issue with someone named Nanobot during an ExpertZone chat yesterday, and the gist of it is this.
His position is that while rgb(128,128,128) and rgb(50%,50%,50%) are both completely proper, rgb(128,50%,128) is not; IE7 should ignore it completely, even if it can be parsed correctly and do precisely what the designer intended, because this is what Firefox does.
My position is that choosing to do nothing is usually the wrong decision.
So the question becomes whether this is a choice at all, or a mandate imposed by the standard.
Filed under: Microsoft, Philosophy, Software
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Posit the following scenario: A major company writes a program that should only be used by an administrative user. This program is properly installed and can only be used by an administrative user. Another person then writes a program which needs to use that program, and thus must run with administrative privileges, but which needs to be internet-accessible. He isn’t sure how to do this, so he asks a public forum. (more…)
Filed under: Microsoft, Philosophy, Software
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