Older blog entries for gregorrothfuss (starting at number 10)

I have written a master thesis that aims to establish a Open Source Projects Framework.

The historical roots of Open Source are outlined. A comparison between Open Source projects and classical projects highlights strengths and weaknesses of both, and defines their attributes. Existing Open Source theories are evaluated, and the requirements for a framework for Open Source projects are determined. The framework introduces the notions of actors, roles, areas, processes and tools, and depicts their interrelationships in a matrix. Each aspect of the framework is then further developed to serve both as a conceptual foundation for Open Source and a help for organizing and managing Open Source projects.

I would appreciate any feedback, comments, suggestions, rants, corrections at rothfuss at abstrakt ch

deekayen: what you see in postnuke today is indeed not very impressive, and i think you are right that we cannot expect innovations from the old codebase. i have higher hopes for the new codebase that has proper templating among other goodies.

edd: i see you are interested in OSCOM. lets talk :)

deception
the "phoenix" release looks more like a dodo under the hood. consider this gem:

if (isset($format_type_home) && isset($format_type_body)) {

$format_type = ($format_type_body%4)*4 + $format_type_home%4;

}

way to go on the cruft road.

slideml to opml
i have been playing around with xsl to convert slideml to opml, which should allow to use the buzz outliner to write slides when it is finished.

niceguyeddie: i think one aspect that is underappreciated in the various open source organizational models is the fact that some of these groups have been staffed by the same persons for years. this creates consensus because everyone knows everyone else. i dont think that the apache guys arrived at their current model without some roadblocks.

oscom is coming closer. tomorrow i plan to write my slides using our new, fancy slideml.

I had a very interesting conversation with nisheet from netscape today. he heads the xml dom system and several other initiatives, and is now looking for ways to make the browser do more interesting stuff. we talked about how innovations happened pretty much on the server side (cms, j2ee, xml technologies) and that the browser is still stuck with basic forms for most of the gui.

nisheet is eager to learn more about the content management open source community, and to figure out how to work with oscom to make mozilla a better plattform for accessing cms. I mentioned xopus to nisheet as an example for gui innovation, and we mused about ways to provide stuff like xopus for a wide variety of systems.

there is a lot of good technology out there in the browser that needs to be leveraged. nisheet thinks that the interests of mozilla and oscom are well aligned and I have invited him to our mailing list so that we can start the dialogue.

we agreed that discussions should be result-driven, and that we should start to look for issues that we can solve together rather than talk about interop all day :) going forward, we should ask ourselves what mozilla can do for us, and vice versa. that may be a good approach to getting results.

Joe Q. Random handed me a flyer for No more H1B yesterday in SOMA. What a bunch of crackheads. Blame me for I am a foreigner, and yes I would love to work in the United States. I come from a rich country, and our citizens are scared of foreigners too. Building protectionist walls will do no good though. We live in an international market, and jobs and contracts will follow the rules of the market, no matter what regulations there are. Outlawing H1B will do exactly nothing. Some people seem to have forgotten what the US is all about: Welcoming people from all around the world, and letting them compete on even ground.

I witnessed how outsourcing is done when I worked in Thailand last year. Over time, salary levels WILL reach US levels, as asian companies figure out they can charge more. And they do. In one example, a swiss bank actually shipped furniture to India for their IT staff there, probably eliminating all savings in the process.

Bottom line: Protectionism will save no one. Get over it.

the fork of the fork of the fork
must be a rite of passage or something. some guys forked from PostNuke today to pursue a vision with less radical change (from what i can tell).To put it in other words: Encompass is a fork of PostNuke is a fork of PHP-Nuke is a fork of Thatware.

I wish them luck. Will be interesting to see how they deal with issues as their project grows. Maybe the API will stay in sync (apart from the bone of contention, templating), maybe not, hard to tell.

Its still GPL, which means they are our R&D department as much as we are theirs :)

i had a strange, yet funny conversation with a female friend today. can you tell she is a geek? LOL

purplegreen: let me ask your opinion about a male behaviour...
purplegreen: popped just right now onto my operand stack :)
purplegreen: there is a guy
purplegreen: simon is a friend of his, thats why i know the details
purplegreen: listening?
Gregor J. Rothfuss: yes
purplegreen: thnx
purplegreen: well, he has been single for a while, but hes handsome, ghee
purplegreen: well, he met a girl who was sort of crazy for him
purplegreen: and it happened that he met her blabla
purplegreen: fact is that there is something going on, but he doesn't tell his friends
purplegreen: and you don't see anything in public
purplegreen: no holding hands, no kisses
purplegreen: no nothing
Gregor J. Rothfuss: interesting
Gregor J. Rothfuss: intriguing
purplegreen: but they come together and go together
Gregor J. Rothfuss: i kinda like that approach
purplegreen: what is going on?
Gregor J. Rothfuss: hehe
purplegreen: simon says they are sleeping together, but its nothing to write home about....
purplegreen: still i think its strange
Gregor J. Rothfuss: maybe they dont want to deal with idiotic friends who want to offer "advice"
Gregor J. Rothfuss: i could see that as a problem sometimes
purplegreen: ahhhh, come on
purplegreen: theres no advice needed
purplegreen: right now its about the fun
purplegreen: why not tell his best friends
purplegreen: why not show a bit in public
Gregor J. Rothfuss: well, why tell him?
purplegreen: they are friends
Gregor J. Rothfuss: i dont tell all my trivial stuff either
Gregor J. Rothfuss: if its fun its prolly tivial
Gregor J. Rothfuss: by telling others you make a big deal out of it
Gregor J. Rothfuss: which it maybe isnt
purplegreen: for her it is - i can tell
purplegreen: she not the kinda - fun - girl
Gregor J. Rothfuss: serious romances are not fun
Gregor J. Rothfuss: at least, i wouldnt call them fun
purplegreen: well, when romances aren't fun, so whats the deal in getting started?
Gregor J. Rothfuss: romances are
Gregor J. Rothfuss: wrong word
Gregor J. Rothfuss: love interests are not fun
Gregor J. Rothfuss: fun is too lighthearted a term imo
purplegreen: lets say it like this: it's not really fun to get into the analyse und entwurf phasis... afterwards it should be fun or you better get out
Gregor J. Rothfuss: implemnent
Gregor J. Rothfuss: is fun
Gregor J. Rothfuss: prototyping
Gregor J. Rothfuss: is fun
Gregor J. Rothfuss: throwing exceptions
Gregor J. Rothfuss: is fun
Gregor J. Rothfuss: refactoring
Gregor J. Rothfuss: is fun. NOT.
Gregor J. Rothfuss: man, im reading my first chapter
Gregor J. Rothfuss: and it sucks rocks
Gregor J. Rothfuss: im rewriting it
purplegreen: to make your source code open -> is not fun
Gregor J. Rothfuss: i must have been smoking crack
Gregor J. Rothfuss: hehe
purplegreen: aha
purplegreen: are ya :)
Gregor J. Rothfuss: maybe they should copyleft their relation
Gregor J. Rothfuss: maybe they do not want others being able to modify it
Gregor J. Rothfuss: ahem.
purplegreen: i dont want it to be modified by anybody but me
purplegreen: sure they can send patches
purplegreen: but i might not apply them
Gregor J. Rothfuss: i was going to say that
Gregor J. Rothfuss: LOL
Gregor J. Rothfuss: we are twisted
purplegreen: i simply love to explain life in it terms
purplegreen: it just suits perfectly
purplegreen: i feel like a cvs repository
Gregor J. Rothfuss: word!!
Gregor J. Rothfuss: you are a geek
Gregor J. Rothfuss: welcome.

silly me. turns out, advogato does in fact have a xmlrpc interface. let the fun begin :)