An Unbelievable Demo • Hacker News Board

Re: An Unbelievable Demo

#271

Post by phkahler » Fri, Jun 04, 2021, 1:23 PM UTC

vanderZwan wrote: post #80

cperciva wrote: post #49

Reminds me of when Apple started providing "smaller size updates" to OS X. I was curious about the details since my doctorate had touched on the topic, so I worked my contacts (I had a few in Apple engineering from the FreeBSD / OS X relationship) and after a few months I got back as answer: "We're using a tool called bsdiff, are you familiar with it?" I was indeed, since I was the author of said tool. (Just to be cl…

While I'm not the author of anything, I did on one occasion share Russ Cox' articles on regexes with a fellow developer, only for that developer to reply "that guy is making a mountain out of a molehill, just use re2" .

>> "that guy is making a mountain out of a molehill, just use re2"

That's an odd thing about the tech world, it's accessible. As you get better in different areas you are actually more and more likely to make contact with important people (big names? people who did important stuff?). This can creep up on you if you're not aware what level you're operating at. It can be a small world.

Re: An Unbelievable Demo

#272

Post by erosenbe0 » Fri, Jun 04, 2021, 1:32 PM UTC

stdbrouw wrote: post #214

knolan wrote: post #196

My stories are very minor. I did my PhD in a reasonably well regarded mechanical engineering lab. My area is experimental fluid mechanics. I ended up writing a lot of Matlab code while there and even worked with a spin out company from the lab in the biotech sector for a while. I'd get a lot of other students coming to me for coding help. Most just wanted me to do their job for them and I was too naive to say no. One…

> I'd get a lot of other students coming to me for coding help. Most just wanted me to do their job for them and I was too naive to say no. One wanted to count cells in a microfluidic device using image processing. I sat down with them for a couple of hours and walked them through a few methods they could look into to get started collecting all the examples in a script. Basic stuff so they wouldn't feel overwhelmed.…

IMO, academia is not better or worse -- often they do apply their citation culture to code.

The overall problem is that people tend to think only in terms of first order consequences. A little copying here and there might have minimal financial or reputational risk. But the second order consequences of that becoming the example and the norm for the junior ranks and the next generation causes larger organizational risk. So got to consider the bigger picture and nip the ethical lapses immediately.

Re: An Unbelievable Demo

#273

Post by erosenbe0 » Fri, Jun 04, 2021, 1:38 PM UTC

alkonaut wrote: post #198

Aachen wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> having to rapidly re-architect the tool around a non-GPLv3 licensed library ... or just go with it and have it be open source? The old version is already open and free for anyone to request the code of. No rush at that point, you can withhold updates for a little while while you rearchitect this or take the situation as it is and have the next few bugfix releases also fall under GPL until you get around to replacin…

> Quickly removing the code doesn't change the previously released versions' license. But would $BIG_CORP publish source on request for a proprietary product just because they built one version with a GPL library by mistake and later fixed it? Has this been successful, ever?

Depends on the composition of CORP. If it is comprised of developers with strong respect for OSS or FS community they might not stand for non-disclosure. OTOH, plenty of orgs would be mainly folks without a strong opinion either way and would just follow executive direction.

Re: An Unbelievable Demo

#274

Post by codefreakxff » Fri, Jun 04, 2021, 1:38 PM UTC

OldTimeCoffee wrote: post #255

throwaway3699 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Implementing software updates where you don't want to ship entire binaries again (and only the diff) would be one. In some video games the assets are also packed into massive binaries, so you don't want to ship gigabytes of data because you replaced one icon. Sadly many games do this anyway nowadays.

There are other solutions to this problem that the game industry uses. Binary diff patching is slow, incremental, involves large diffs and has the possibility of corruption. It was used back in the mid 90's (RTPatch was the big name), but really isn't used anymore because of the drawbacks. Games frequently use an override directory or file. The patch contains only the files that have changed and is loaded after the m…

Fun fact. This is not a new concept. Doom used overrides with their WAD file format. Mod authors could release their mod files replacing or adding content without stealing the game level files.

There may be prior art to that, but as a young coder that was the first time I’d seen it

Re: An Unbelievable Demo

#275

Post by toddmatthews » Fri, Jun 04, 2021, 1:40 PM UTC

phkahler wrote: post #271

vanderZwan wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I'm not the author of anything, I did on one occasion share Russ Cox' articles on regexes with a fellow developer, only for that developer to reply "that guy is making a mountain out of a molehill, just use re2" .

>> "that guy is making a mountain out of a molehill, just use re2" That's an odd thing about the tech world, it's accessible. As you get better in different areas you are actually more and more likely to make contact with important people (big names? people who did important stuff?). This can creep up on you if you're not aware what level you're operating at. It can be a small world.

yep. i remember asking a question on google groups about some AppEngine query early on a Saturday morning thinking, "this will never be answered".

about 15 minutes later Guido van Rossum answered my question.

Re: An Unbelievable Demo

#276

Post by bostonsre » Fri, Jun 04, 2021, 1:40 PM UTC

brendangregg wrote: post #138

bilalhusain wrote: post #99

> I've learned ... instead to simply say "I have a lot of experience with that technology" and leave it at that. Shows Brendan's maturity. I am not sure what should be the appropriate reaction or corrective measure in these situations. We should talk more about handling these unfair situations. Someone else can become more successful building on top of one's open source project. On a resume, a top contributor and a m…

Thanks. There was a time when many observability products were adding latency heat maps, and at one conference expo floor there were three companies with latency heat maps on their screen at the same time, pitching them as a flagship feature. If I walked near them they'd start trying to explain them to me, and I never figured out an appropriate response. If I said "hey, great to see you added them, I invented these b…

Thank you for sharing some of what you've learned with everyone in everything that you've published. I've been reading the latest addition of your systems performance book the past few weeks and it is amazing. You're work is pretty awe inspiring.

Re: An Unbelievable Demo

#277

Post by axiosgunnar » Fri, Jun 04, 2021, 1:41 PM UTC

dhosek wrote: post #267

axiosgunnar wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a textbook copyright violation and could earn the author at least four to five figures when he settles.

Only if the copyright was registered before the infraction can you file for punitive damages. Otherwise you’re only eligible for actual damages.

Interesting, thanks

Re: An Unbelievable Demo

#278

Post by jjkaczor » Fri, Jun 04, 2021, 1:41 PM UTC

zwischenzug wrote: post #102

throwaway2037 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you share your blog URL?

https://zwischenzugs.com

Thanks... first article I see about "IT Transformation" is soooooooo painfully accurate!

Re: An Unbelievable Demo

#279

Post by gpm » Fri, Jun 04, 2021, 1:45 PM UTC

ivanbakel wrote: post #183

rorykoehler wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there no legal recourse options for breaking the license so blatantly?

Was there a license violation if the software wasn't distributed?

Yes. Making copies internally is also copyright infringement... Performing it to Brendan might also have been (but not sure on that one).

Re: An Unbelievable Demo

#280

Post by _l4jh » Fri, Jun 04, 2021, 1:51 PM UTC

fifilura wrote: post #257

thinkindie wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

did you follow up with that company to make sure they granted you recognition and money for your tools?

Recognition - yes, but money - why? It was open source. This meeting does not sound at all awkward to me if I was the sales person. To me this sounds like how lots of companies work with open source to make a business. They take some open source tools (maybe they built it themselves, maybe not), package then and maybe sell some cloud service around it or simply just support. If I was the sales person I would be delig…

Yes the tools were all open source. This was in 2004 and I just zipped up a compiled exe, the src directory and a license.txt (GPL2) and put it on my website. Similar to Nirsoft which is what inspired me.

The reason behind it being awkward was for half an hour the sales guy had talked up how they were the only company developing tools like this, etc, etc. How the 'big players like VMware don't care about these pain points admins have to deal with' or words to that effect (which was true and why I made the tools in the first place).

Then the moment he finished the sales pitch and I see these 'one of a kind tools' they have been developing I respond with "That's my tool, see..."

I believe the sales guy, at least, believed all the tools he was talking about were made in house. Open source wasn't a widely understood thing back then with Microsoft talking about Linux and open source being a "cancer" and such. Really knocked him off course as I guess he had never been in that situation before (I doubt many have?).

As for following up with the company. I did nothing. I was young and while I knew what they did was wrong (they literally removed my name, link to my website, etc. and put their company name but changed no functionality of the tools as far as I could see and certainly no source code was available!) I didn't have the confidence (or desire tbh) to chase up on some little tools I made to learn and make my life a little easier at work. The company disappeared (I don't know why) sometime around 2010 iirc.