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Looking for Work After 25 Years of Octave

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Re: Looking for Work After 25 Years of Octave

#41

Post by vcistan-inmate »

I don't understand how YC can fund non-profits like VotePlz and the ACLU while not funding stuff like this. All of the startups funded by VCs use free software, often exclusively, but these VCs continue to refuse to adequately fund its development. Marc Andreessen even publicly boasted about how much OSS his companies use[1], which he of course doesn't pay for.

I also shudder to think of how Eaton will fare on the job market should he actually be forced to seek regular employment. Will he be whiteboarded? Will his work on Octave--which by all rights should be able to serve as a strong-enough resume by itself to justify his hiring--even be looked at by potential employers? And what about his age? 25 years on Octave could mean he's pushing 50. I could easily see him getting a "no hire" from plenty of trendy tech companies.

[1] http://www.businessinsider.com/boxnet-2011-9

Re: Looking for Work After 25 Years of Octave

#43

Post by jlarocco »

anigbrowl wrote: post #28

There's something fundamentally broken about the open-source model when you can invest so much time and npt get any sort of economic return. This seems like a huge limiting factor on open-source development. As I've pointed out in discussions on copyright issues, artists value copyright because the patronage model sucked - you're essentially dependent on people's charity and having to beg just to maintain basic econo…

I see what you're saying, but I can't feel sorry for people in this position.

It's a no brainer that giving away a product for free won't be a sustainable way to earn a living. It's not like there's a big mystery around how to make money off of software.

Re: Looking for Work After 25 Years of Octave

#44

Post by [deleted] »

anigbrowl wrote: post #28

There's something fundamentally broken about the open-source model when you can invest so much time and npt get any sort of economic return. This seems like a huge limiting factor on open-source development. As I've pointed out in discussions on copyright issues, artists value copyright because the patronage model sucked - you're essentially dependent on people's charity and having to beg just to maintain basic econo…

[deleted]

Re: Looking for Work After 25 Years of Octave

#45

Post by arjie »

gech wrote: post #38
jlarocco wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No way. I don't know what the relationship between MathWorks and Octave is, but probably the last thing MathWorks wants to do is give the creator their biggest competitor access to their trade secrets and proprietary information.

Maybe as humans we should be thinking bigger than things like secrets

Well, maybe if you convince the MathWorks guys of that they'll hire this dude, but otherwise he's not going to get to do both things.

Re: Looking for Work After 25 Years of Octave

#46

Post by saganus »

Sometimes I dream that if I ever become very wealthy (either because of something I created or because I won the lottery) I would go around and donate some nice money to these under-appreciated developers/organizations/projects.

I mean, if I had billions, wouldn't it be feasible to spend say 1M or even 0.5M to say, 100 projects? 200 maybe?

Does this not happen or do we just not hear about it if it ever happens?

Re: Looking for Work After 25 Years of Octave

#47

Post by kelnos »

was_boring wrote: post #34
anigbrowl wrote: post #28

There's something fundamentally broken about the open-source model when you can invest so much time and npt get any sort of economic return. This seems like a huge limiting factor on open-source development. As I've pointed out in discussions on copyright issues, artists value copyright because the patronage model sucked - you're essentially dependent on people's charity and having to beg just to maintain basic econo…

> Nobody has solved the micro-payment problem yet what is this problem?

I assume the parent is referring to the problem where it's prohibitively expensive (from a payment processing perspective) to receive lots of small, sub-dollar payments.

Also there's a lot of friction if you're relying on your users to pull out their credit card info for such a small amount.

Re: Looking for Work After 25 Years of Octave

#48

Post by brianwawok »

saganus wrote: post #46

Sometimes I dream that if I ever become very wealthy (either because of something I created or because I won the lottery) I would go around and donate some nice money to these under-appreciated developers/organizations/projects. I mean, if I had billions, wouldn't it be feasible to spend say 1M or even 0.5M to say, 100 projects? 200 maybe? Does this not happen or do we just not hear about it if it ever happens?

Most people would rather save 1,000 people from Malaria in Africa than give 1 white college educated man living in one of the richest counties on earth a year's salary to write code from his home office.

(I am sure it happens, but I am sure that it is pretty low on the donation list)

Re: Looking for Work After 25 Years of Octave

#49

Post by josephagoss »

Swizec wrote: post #37
anigbrowl wrote: post #28

There's something fundamentally broken about the open-source model when you can invest so much time and npt get any sort of economic return. This seems like a huge limiting factor on open-source development. As I've pointed out in discussions on copyright issues, artists value copyright because the patronage model sucked - you're essentially dependent on people's charity and having to beg just to maintain basic econo…

> There's something fundamentally broken about the open-source model when you can invest so much time and npt get any sort of economic return. This seems like a huge limiting factor on open-source development. The problem we have is that OSS creators don't realize, and often willfully ignore, the fact that nothing about opensource says you can't charge for delivering value to people. Sure, their ability to copy it th…

You're entirely correct here. These OSS creators have leverage but are either unaware or unwilling to take advantage of their advantageous position.

Re: Looking for Work After 25 Years of Octave

#50

Post by toomuchtodo »

josephagoss wrote: post #49
Swizec wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's something fundamentally broken about the open-source model when you can invest so much time and npt get any sort of economic return. This seems like a huge limiting factor on open-source development. The problem we have is that OSS creators don't realize, and often willfully ignore, the fact that nothing about opensource says you can't charge for delivering value to people. Sure, their ability to copy it th…

You're entirely correct here. These OSS creators have leverage but are either unaware or unwilling to take advantage of their advantageous position.

Is there no middle ground between OSS maintainers/contributors going hungry and them holding businesses hostage for ransom?
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