5 ms·

Why I turned my back on FOSS

40 points by risk 10y ago

0x00_ 10y ago
I recognize this github from some fun c puzzles! The developer is intelligent. What gives? I don't understand why it is difficult for someone like that to find employment. Could someone from the bay area give some insight into this kind of thing? The scene is different than that in Boston.
- flukus 10y ago
  Well the writing style is nonsensical for one.
  - pawadu 10y ago
    Reminds me of Terry Davis of TempleOS. With that said, some people just don't work in a team but on their own they can do miracles. I wish we could start a small pateron or flattr fund for these guys and let them do whatever they want. While there would be no immediate ROI, the world be a much more interesting and fun place to live...
    - ab5tract 10y ago
      We used to have a thing called welfare that would have done a decent job of taking care of him.
    - majewsky 10y ago
      This could also be an argument for UBI.
    - falcolas 10y ago
      > While there would be no immediate ROI Well, this particular author is the creator of libevent, so there's probably enough ROI already.
- gcp 10y ago
  https://www.linkedin.com/in/ellzey https://www.linkedin.com/in/ellzey Summary seems to be that his open source libraries are very widely used but he couldn't find a job in the Valley and became homeless.
  - pawadu 10y ago
    Had a good laugh reading his "skills" on his linkedin page. I understand "Unicorn" and "Wizard", but what the hell is "Wheel Throwing"?
    - csixty4 10y ago
      It's a pottery technique
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
  - thinkMOAR 10y ago
    Being able to write good and cool code is nice. Though there is more then coding skills to be a nice person to work with. Wild (personal opinion, though many corporate would see the same https://avatars1.githubusercontent.com/u/125894?v=3&s=360 https://avatars1.githubusercontent.com/u/125894?v=3&s=360), erratic(see post and his GitHub history) communication; You can be the fanciest rocket science software coder, but i'm not surprised he has an employment issue. (do not read this as, i think its correct he has an employment issue)
_hao 10y ago
I mean that was an interesting read, but if that person is even half as weird as his writing I don't blame the companies. Or the guy was drunk/high while writing this, dunno...
- adiabatty 10y ago
  Then again, if all that happened to me I'd be four times as weird as his writing. At least.
  - peatmoss 10y ago
    I appreciate this empathetic response. If you've never encountered a "brain won't go" moment in your life, it's nearly impossible to understand how a bright person can quickly go from presenting as such, to presenting as as a train wreck. In the past several years, I encountered a mild form of "holy shit, a lot of stuff that was intuitive and natural just got hard for me because stress and other factors." Circumstances changed, and I pulled out of it, but I could have just as easily augered in. It's probably going too far to wish that everyone here can experience a short-lived, non-catastrophic, empathy inducing mental health scare.
dvko 10y ago
I don't know anything about the actual story here and the writing does not help either. Impossible to read, sorry author... He got turned down for a lot of jobs (in shitty ways) despite having published some reasonably successful open-source libraries? How is open source to blame for him not getting a job exactly?
- sreenadh 10y ago
  What did he develop? How popular is his code?
  - arpa 10y ago
    libevent, as far as I can tell. The author seems to be in dire need of counseling I feel; problems he experiences with employment are most probably caused by his personality/mental state rather than particular technical skills...
- Veen 10y ago
  I wondered if this person had mental health problems. It reads like the ravings of a schizophrenic. It's possible they need help rather than a rational analysis of their claims. Edit: Of course, I have no real insight into this person's mental state, it just pattern matched for me with long circuitous paranoid emails a schizophrenic friend of mine used to send me.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - gspetr 10y ago
    This unfortunately reminded me of Ian Murdock's (Debian founder) final tweets before he died under mysterious circumstances: http://archive.is/vBS6N http://archive.is/vBS6N I just hope the author does not take his life, his thoughts are barely coherent and this entire gist is disturbing.
- cLeEOGPw 10y ago
  Majority of people who become homeless are actually mentally ill and that is the main reason for homelessness. I'm afraid this might be the case as well. I can see him walking into interview, acting obnoxiously, being twitchy/shaking/sounding desperate, talking chaotically. Healthy people instantly feel, especially those who are trained to read a person from his interview. He probably came off as a mentally ill, and probably is, which got him turn down. Everyone just tried to be polite with "not fit for company" line, because telling you are mentally ill might land a lawsuit, and because it's basic human decency. If you are the author and you are reading these comments, hear this: mental illness is a serious condition that can quickly degrade your life to nothing. It is not unbeatable. Just seek medical examination explaining your situation. If your joy of development is back it may mean your worst part of the episode is already over, and with assistance you will be back on track much sooner. Good luck!
gjjrfcbugxbhf 10y ago
Sounds like she should dual license AGPL/custom licence her code, require copyright assignments from contributes and charge companies for the custom licence. Then they would be forced to pay her if the work were truely vital to their bottom line. Sounds harsh but what I'm trying to say is you have to take care of yourself or no-one else will.
- sreenadh 10y ago
  Kindly provide the details on how would one go about licensing the code. I am a developer with no knowledge about the law. How can I license my code so that non-profit & hobbyist can use it for free, while the ones earning money off the code has to pay me.
  - gspetr 10y ago
    https://choosealicense.com/ https://choosealicense.com/
  - gjjrfcbugxbhf 10y ago
    Try google.com
Tharre 10y ago
I don't get what any of this has to do with FLOSS. Seems just American Capitalism as usual?
- falcolas 10y ago
  Reading between the lines here, so keep that in mind. Author wrote something popular (libevent) in a permissive license. A company took libevent and ran with it, refusing to hire the original author. Author is now in a bad place. Sadly, that's one of the risks of releasing code under permissive licenses: it effectively no longer belongs to you. You may think that you're OK with that (like the author originally did), but human nature is likely to curb stomp you when you do lose that control.
i_have_to_speak 10y ago
Author of libevhtp [1], used in Chromium [2]. He holds 5 patents [3]. [1] https://github.com/ellzey/libevhtp https://github.com/ellzey/libevhtp [2] https://chromium.googlesource.com/external/github.com/ellzey/libevhtp/ https://chromium.googlesource.com/external/github.com/ellzey... [3] http://patents.justia.com/inventor/mark-ellzey-thomas http://patents.justia.com/inventor/mark-ellzey-thomas
- foo101 10y ago
  All patents in the 3rd URL seem to be the same patent.
fareesh 10y ago
The angst and passive aggression in that post is off the charts - near-manic levels. Based on this alone I'd say the author is "not a good fit" for my reading preferences, can't imagine what working with them would be like.

40 points by risk 10y ago

0x00_ 10y ago

I recognize this github from some fun c puzzles! The developer is intelligent. What gives? I don't understand why it is difficult for someone like that to find employment. Could someone from the bay area give some insight into this kind of thing? The scene is different than that in Boston.

flukus 10y ago
Well the writing style is nonsensical for one.
- pawadu 10y ago
  Reminds me of Terry Davis of TempleOS. With that said, some people just don't work in a team but on their own they can do miracles. I wish we could start a small pateron or flattr fund for these guys and let them do whatever they want. While there would be no immediate ROI, the world be a much more interesting and fun place to live...
  - ab5tract 10y ago
    We used to have a thing called welfare that would have done a decent job of taking care of him.
  - majewsky 10y ago
    This could also be an argument for UBI.
  - falcolas 10y ago
    > While there would be no immediate ROI Well, this particular author is the creator of libevent, so there's probably enough ROI already.
gcp 10y ago
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ellzey https://www.linkedin.com/in/ellzey Summary seems to be that his open source libraries are very widely used but he couldn't find a job in the Valley and became homeless.
- pawadu 10y ago
  Had a good laugh reading his "skills" on his linkedin page. I understand "Unicorn" and "Wizard", but what the hell is "Wheel Throwing"?
  - csixty4 10y ago
    It's a pottery technique
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- thinkMOAR 10y ago
  Being able to write good and cool code is nice. Though there is more then coding skills to be a nice person to work with. Wild (personal opinion, though many corporate would see the same https://avatars1.githubusercontent.com/u/125894?v=3&s=360 https://avatars1.githubusercontent.com/u/125894?v=3&s=360), erratic(see post and his GitHub history) communication; You can be the fanciest rocket science software coder, but i'm not surprised he has an employment issue. (do not read this as, i think its correct he has an employment issue)

_hao 10y ago

I mean that was an interesting read, but if that person is even half as weird as his writing I don't blame the companies. Or the guy was drunk/high while writing this, dunno...

adiabatty 10y ago
Then again, if all that happened to me I'd be four times as weird as his writing. At least.
- peatmoss 10y ago
  I appreciate this empathetic response. If you've never encountered a "brain won't go" moment in your life, it's nearly impossible to understand how a bright person can quickly go from presenting as such, to presenting as as a train wreck. In the past several years, I encountered a mild form of "holy shit, a lot of stuff that was intuitive and natural just got hard for me because stress and other factors." Circumstances changed, and I pulled out of it, but I could have just as easily augered in. It's probably going too far to wish that everyone here can experience a short-lived, non-catastrophic, empathy inducing mental health scare.

dvko 10y ago

I don't know anything about the actual story here and the writing does not help either. Impossible to read, sorry author... He got turned down for a lot of jobs (in shitty ways) despite having published some reasonably successful open-source libraries? How is open source to blame for him not getting a job exactly?

sreenadh 10y ago
What did he develop? How popular is his code?
- arpa 10y ago
  libevent, as far as I can tell. The author seems to be in dire need of counseling I feel; problems he experiences with employment are most probably caused by his personality/mental state rather than particular technical skills...
Veen 10y ago
I wondered if this person had mental health problems. It reads like the ravings of a schizophrenic. It's possible they need help rather than a rational analysis of their claims. Edit: Of course, I have no real insight into this person's mental state, it just pattern matched for me with long circuitous paranoid emails a schizophrenic friend of mine used to send me.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- gspetr 10y ago
  This unfortunately reminded me of Ian Murdock's (Debian founder) final tweets before he died under mysterious circumstances: http://archive.is/vBS6N http://archive.is/vBS6N I just hope the author does not take his life, his thoughts are barely coherent and this entire gist is disturbing.
cLeEOGPw 10y ago
Majority of people who become homeless are actually mentally ill and that is the main reason for homelessness. I'm afraid this might be the case as well. I can see him walking into interview, acting obnoxiously, being twitchy/shaking/sounding desperate, talking chaotically. Healthy people instantly feel, especially those who are trained to read a person from his interview. He probably came off as a mentally ill, and probably is, which got him turn down. Everyone just tried to be polite with "not fit for company" line, because telling you are mentally ill might land a lawsuit, and because it's basic human decency. If you are the author and you are reading these comments, hear this: mental illness is a serious condition that can quickly degrade your life to nothing. It is not unbeatable. Just seek medical examination explaining your situation. If your joy of development is back it may mean your worst part of the episode is already over, and with assistance you will be back on track much sooner. Good luck!

gjjrfcbugxbhf 10y ago

Sounds like she should dual license AGPL/custom licence her code, require copyright assignments from contributes and charge companies for the custom licence. Then they would be forced to pay her if the work were truely vital to their bottom line. Sounds harsh but what I'm trying to say is you have to take care of yourself or no-one else will.

sreenadh 10y ago
Kindly provide the details on how would one go about licensing the code. I am a developer with no knowledge about the law. How can I license my code so that non-profit & hobbyist can use it for free, while the ones earning money off the code has to pay me.
- gspetr 10y ago
  https://choosealicense.com/ https://choosealicense.com/
- gjjrfcbugxbhf 10y ago
  Try google.com

Tharre 10y ago

I don't get what any of this has to do with FLOSS. Seems just American Capitalism as usual?

falcolas 10y ago
Reading between the lines here, so keep that in mind. Author wrote something popular (libevent) in a permissive license. A company took libevent and ran with it, refusing to hire the original author. Author is now in a bad place. Sadly, that's one of the risks of releasing code under permissive licenses: it effectively no longer belongs to you. You may think that you're OK with that (like the author originally did), but human nature is likely to curb stomp you when you do lose that control.

i_have_to_speak 10y ago

Author of libevhtp [1], used in Chromium [2]. He holds 5 patents [3]. [1] https://github.com/ellzey/libevhtp https://github.com/ellzey/libevhtp [2] https://chromium.googlesource.com/external/github.com/ellzey/libevhtp/ https://chromium.googlesource.com/external/github.com/ellzey... [3] http://patents.justia.com/inventor/mark-ellzey-thomas http://patents.justia.com/inventor/mark-ellzey-thomas

foo101 10y ago
All patents in the 3rd URL seem to be the same patent.

fareesh 10y ago

The angst and passive aggression in that post is off the charts - near-manic levels. Based on this alone I'd say the author is "not a good fit" for my reading preferences, can't imagine what working with them would be like.