Recently, I watched a video from JSConf.EU by CJ Silverio on the economics of open source development. She recounted the story of the start of Node.js and the Node Package Manager (NPM), and how the creator of Node.js gave the source code to the Node Foundation, but the creator of Node Package Manager retained all rights and created a company to continue development of NPM and took VC money. The video is a good watch, with lots of excellent examples on how business get value from open source software, but don’t (in general) pay anything for the software (either development or support costs). My additions to this video: (1) people who want to make money from the software they create should think hard about how they are going to do that before they start releasing that software, and (2) people who use open source for profit should invest some of their profits in keeping the wheels of progress turning (pay the developers something), otherwise the supply may dry up.
October 2019
Got problems with Windows 10 sound/app focus? It might be a stuck key…
Recently, I had two problems with my Windows 10 computer at work. The first one was an inability to control the volume of the computer during Google Hangouts. The volume would always go to 100%, and I could not reduce it. Eventually, I figured out that there was a function key on my keyboard for increasing the volume, and it was pressed down and stuck. After fiddling with it for a few seconds, I managed to loosen it, and was able to control my PC volume again.
The second problem was that a Radeon Graphics setting pop-up started popping up. At first, I thought it was a computer problem again, but then I started searching and found that this particular pop-up is tied to Alt-R. Sure enough, when I looked at my keyboard, the left Alt key was stuck, and after more fiddling, I was able to type the letter “r” without bringing up this pop-up.
Moral: Look at your keyboard when weird things start happening on your PC. If they persist, maybe get a new keyboard…..
Jeremy Keith: Building the World Wide Web in Five Days – recreating the original CERN web browser using modern web technology.
CodeDrome.com: Martian gravity: An Exploration in Python