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Yeah. I also like how people stopped writing software, the kind that actually takes skills and time to make (and customers to bill for), and switched to free "a

by tx 18y ago

Yeah. I also like how people stopped writing software, the kind that actually takes skills and time to make (and customers to bill for), and switched to free "apps" that seem to take as much time to build as time required to blog about it. Notice how few open source developers, those who produce tons of actual software, blog very little. That's because they're busy coding, thus not much time left to "share their experiences while coding". How many active Linux kernel devs have popular blogs? Yet those are the kind of people that can actually say something interesting. I don't hear much from devs who're working on next gen. Apple stuff either. Only "iPhone app devs" and "google engine app devs" and other "app devs"... Damn "apps"...

tstegart 18y ago
What's with all the hating? I can see where constantly seeing "How we did XXX for $YYYY.YY" can get a little tiresome, but they also serve a purpose. One, they're insight into what sort of expenses a venture like this takes. Sure, you have some expenses that most people would discard, but then you just get a lower number. Two, it provides knowledge and inspiration to people out there who have yet to start their ventures. Not everyone wants to be a linux kernel coder, some kids out there might want to be iPhone software developers, and this article tells them that even a teenager can probably do it over the summer with a little sweat equity and some money saved up from a job. These kind of articles make entrepreneurship less of a mystery, and thats a good thing.
- silencio 18y ago
  On a sidenote, a teenager wanting to be an iPhone developer over the summer would probably want to subtract a couple thousand dollars from that figure, since Apple does have a student scholarship program for WWDC that provides college students with free wwdc tickets (whether you pay for travel/housing depends on where you live/which college you attend as individual programs may reimburse you for that up to a certain amount).
- markbao 18y ago
  I'm guilty of a "I did XX with $$ in time XX" but shared my experience during it. Not as much the expense, but more relating to decisions made. Hopefully it's interesting and helpful in some way. http://weblog.markbao.com/2008/how-i-built-a-webapp-in-18-hours-for-699/ http://weblog.markbao.com/2008/how-i-built-a-webapp-in-18-ho...
DarkShikari 18y ago
This is partially true--those who actually spend a lot of time coding often do blog, but rarely about "their experience coding"--rather, they blog about actual issues related directly to what they're doing. The various blogs hosted on the ffmpeg website (multimedia.cx) are great examples of this. Though I do find that in periods of time when I actually have a lot of work, I don't have time to post much in terms of updates--or at least I justify it that way.
jrockway 18y ago
I agree with you, but I have a hierarchy for "things I respect". On the top of my list, are people who write useful open source projects. emacs, Linux, Perl, SBCL, Ruby, Python, whatever... the list goes on... they're all good. I often disagree with some decisions their communities make, but they are writing excellent software, giving it away for free, and then letting me make whatever changes I want to it. How can anyone complain about that. Moving along down the totem pole, are people writing other types of Free Software. Do we really need another open source forum app? Not really, but at least you are trying to share your software with the world. Trying to be helpful is almost as honorable as actually being helpful. Continuing, we have useful proprietary software projects. I will probably not use these (instead opting to get whatever algorithm from a textbook and write it myself), but I'm not going to complain about their existence. Mathematica, Matlab, some commercial Lisps, etc. fall into this category. Code I can't see and modify kind of sucks, but this sort of software is useful. Nearing the bottom are the "apps developers" you talk about. They spend a lot of time blogging, and the rest of the time writing marginally-useful applications that are closed source. Sorry guys, I'm just not all that excited. I'm not going to use your app, and I'm probably not going to learn anything from your blog (since there's no code), so it's just ... meh. Finally, we reach the bottom of the totem pole. This spot is reserved for people that spend most of their time talking about "software development" but never actually doing any. I could name names (the only reason we know about these people is because they SEO their blogs), but I won't; I think everyone knows who I am talking about. Anyway, not sure what the point of this post was. Oh yeah; please write open source software. It helps everyone, and sharing is fun, and it will make people like you! If you have time to write about it, please do, there are thousands of people that want to hear about how you developed free software. The story is interesting, and for details, the code is available for perusal. That's always good.

by tx 18y ago

tstegart 18y ago

What's with all the hating? I can see where constantly seeing "How we did XXX for $YYYY.YY" can get a little tiresome, but they also serve a purpose. One, they're insight into what sort of expenses a venture like this takes. Sure, you have some expenses that most people would discard, but then you just get a lower number. Two, it provides knowledge and inspiration to people out there who have yet to start their ventures. Not everyone wants to be a linux kernel coder, some kids out there might want to be iPhone software developers, and this article tells them that even a teenager can probably do it over the summer with a little sweat equity and some money saved up from a job. These kind of articles make entrepreneurship less of a mystery, and thats a good thing.

silencio 18y ago
On a sidenote, a teenager wanting to be an iPhone developer over the summer would probably want to subtract a couple thousand dollars from that figure, since Apple does have a student scholarship program for WWDC that provides college students with free wwdc tickets (whether you pay for travel/housing depends on where you live/which college you attend as individual programs may reimburse you for that up to a certain amount).
markbao 18y ago
I'm guilty of a "I did XX with $$ in time XX" but shared my experience during it. Not as much the expense, but more relating to decisions made. Hopefully it's interesting and helpful in some way. http://weblog.markbao.com/2008/how-i-built-a-webapp-in-18-hours-for-699/ http://weblog.markbao.com/2008/how-i-built-a-webapp-in-18-ho...

DarkShikari 18y ago

This is partially true--those who actually spend a lot of time coding often do blog, but rarely about "their experience coding"--rather, they blog about actual issues related directly to what they're doing. The various blogs hosted on the ffmpeg website (multimedia.cx) are great examples of this. Though I do find that in periods of time when I actually have a lot of work, I don't have time to post much in terms of updates--or at least I justify it that way.

jrockway 18y ago

I agree with you, but I have a hierarchy for "things I respect". On the top of my list, are people who write useful open source projects. emacs, Linux, Perl, SBCL, Ruby, Python, whatever... the list goes on... they're all good. I often disagree with some decisions their communities make, but they are writing excellent software, giving it away for free, and then letting me make whatever changes I want to it. How can anyone complain about that. Moving along down the totem pole, are people writing other types of Free Software. Do we really need another open source forum app? Not really, but at least you are trying to share your software with the world. Trying to be helpful is almost as honorable as actually being helpful. Continuing, we have useful proprietary software projects. I will probably not use these (instead opting to get whatever algorithm from a textbook and write it myself), but I'm not going to complain about their existence. Mathematica, Matlab, some commercial Lisps, etc. fall into this category. Code I can't see and modify kind of sucks, but this sort of software is useful. Nearing the bottom are the "apps developers" you talk about. They spend a lot of time blogging, and the rest of the time writing marginally-useful applications that are closed source. Sorry guys, I'm just not all that excited. I'm not going to use your app, and I'm probably not going to learn anything from your blog (since there's no code), so it's just ... meh. Finally, we reach the bottom of the totem pole. This spot is reserved for people that spend most of their time talking about "software development" but never actually doing any. I could name names (the only reason we know about these people is because they SEO their blogs), but I won't; I think everyone knows who I am talking about. Anyway, not sure what the point of this post was. Oh yeah; please write open source software. It helps everyone, and sharing is fun, and it will make people like you! If you have time to write about it, please do, there are thousands of people that want to hear about how you developed free software. The story is interesting, and for details, the code is available for perusal. That's always good.