A new light on open source development

I never knew that "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" was such a short read. I had always expected it to be a big ominous book. I'm glad I delved in. If you have ever thought of getting involved in open source software or are already a part of it and have never read this paper, it's definitely worth your time:

http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/cathedral-bazaar/index.html

Things I found particularly interesting as benefits of open source software:

• With enough people involved, there's likely at least someone who has the smarts to solve any particular problem
• Make sure before your release your first version of software to the open source community that it at least works enough that people find it useful and interesting
• You're more effective when you work on things that are interesting to you
  

Ping history

I just noticed that, for whatever reason, when I go to test my network connectivity, I always happen to ping yahoo.com. What's funny is that I never actually go to yahoo.com in my browser, but for whatever reason, that's the site I always ping.

Non-technical recognition

I just noticed something I'm pleased with in SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 (our friend we call SLED); human-readable terms for utilities. Not that developers/hackers aren't humans, but it gets really frustrating when a generic task in an operating system is named with what the hackers call it, or some strange acronymn.

Good examples:

• Software Installer
• I think it's actually some sort of ZEN installer that installs RPMs, but it has a great name for the end-user for what it's actually supposed to do.
• As a sidenote, Ubuntu calls their Software Installer, "Synaptic Package Manager"
• Desktop Effects
• XGL & Compiz
  

Bad example:

• YAST
• It's the tool that you use to administer your system (things like graphics card, network card, user accounts, etc.)
• If I click on the "More Applications" button and search for "System", it doesn't show up in the list
• What does "YAST" even stand for?
• I'm sure it's a familiar term to those who have come to learn what it is, but for beginning users (which hopefully SLED will attract many), I don't think they'll really know the difference between YAST and ABC.

I think (I'm stepping out on a limb here) that developers/distributions need to give up their name history in favor of more usable and accesible software names. Go ahead and name the executables something different under the covers, but when presenting to the innocent and valuable end users, make it easy, make it generic.

SLED is definitely headed in the right direction!

My blog address has moved...

My blog now has a new home. The fact that you're reading this shows that you already caught on. It's now:

http://blog.timothy.ws/

This is actually my blog's original home. I didn't want to have "ifolder" in the URL address anymore because it seemed to be confusing and non-identifying. The new address is likely just as confusing because it has my last name in the url, which many people believe is my first name.

Rant "on"...

It never ceases to amaze me when I fill out some form by hand that specifically asks for "first" and "last" name. Inevitably I'll get a letter in the mail addressed to Timothy Boyd or Tim Boyd. I can imagine the data entry laborer, "Man, this guy must not know how to read. I'll switch these names around for him." Idiots!

Rant off.

There is at least one benefit. When telemarketers call:

Me: Hello?

[no response]

Me: Hello?

[more pause]

Telemarketer [droning]: "Hello. Is Mr. Boyd there?"

Me: "Uh, nope. Sorry, you must have the wrong number."