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> (1) Building a self-hosted compiler or interpreter. > (2) Prototype an experimental browser. > (3) Make your computer express emotions. $100-$500 is a drop

> (1) Building a self-hosted compiler or interpreter. > (2) Prototype an experimental browser. > (3) Make your computer express emotions. $100-$500 is a drop in the bucket for projects of this scale.

moffkalast 4y ago
> (3) Make your computer express emotions But I thought that already comes as standard on Windows... https://i.imgur.com/lk57d.png https://i.imgur.com/lk57d.png
- imachine1980_ 4y ago
  i think you miss the mark,Clippy was there in the 97.
  - a9h74j 4y ago
    Facebook changed name to Meta. Imagine if Microsoft had renamed itself Clippy.
wongarsu 4y ago
Not if your time is free (as in: a hobby project). The best effort I've seen at making a computer express emotions is Anki's Cozmo or Vector [1]. You can get one for less than $500 and hack it, or you can do your own hardware project for much less. Or make a conversational chatbot, APIs for GPT-J make that easier than ever. Similarly, an innovative browser-chrome that tries novel UI ideas while using webkit for rendering is very achievable on a tiny budget. 1: https://www.vectorrobot.shop/ https://www.vectorrobot.shop/
- jstummbillig 4y ago
  Either you are trying to encourage people with the money tag, or you are not doing anything and it is hard to imagine for this amount of money to be enough to move the needle for the type of person you need to make any progress on these types of big problems. Improving something that has been optimized for years is obviously not going to be easy (which it might still be, non-obviously, but that's very unlikely). Offering a very small amount of money evaluates the required work, and by doing so pretty poorly actually devalues it. That seems bad.
  - wongarsu 4y ago
    I imagine the idea is "there are plenty of students with more time than money, who are held back from doing really interesting projects by comparatively small amounts of money". This program isn't interesting to a software engineer working in Silicon Valley, but I know some brilliant 16-24 year olds who have time on their hands but would have problems investing $200 into software tooling or a little hardware. Sure, those people won't build the next sentient robot, or the next gcc. But innovation often happens by exploring lots of ideas a little, to even figure out which ideas are worth exploring further. An army of hobby projects can be very effective at that.
capableweb 4y ago
> $100-$500 is a drop in the bucket for projects of this scale. Agree, but also depends on the location. But seems even the cheapest places to live in the world comes close to $500 a month for living costs. $1000-$5000 would have been nicer, then people in those locations would have at least a chance at a 10 month runway for the highest grant amount. I don't think the author is expecting people to finish any of the funded projects, just to kickstart them or even give some inspiration.
- eterevsky 4y ago
  I'm not sure the cost of living is the right comparison here. I would rather use a professional salary as a basis. Somebody who can develop a self-hosting programming language that is useful for anything can probably earn at least $5000 regardless of where they live. I wouldn't expect them to live on 1/10th of that even if this is technically possible.
  - q-big 4y ago
    > Somebody who can develop a self-hosting programming language that is useful for anything can probably earn at least $5000 regardless of where they live. I know quite some highly brillant people who have difficulties getting a decent job perhaps because they are really bad at self-promotion. So being able to earn such an amount of money depends on having some further traits that don't have anything to do with intelligence or programming skills (rather perhaps a little bit with hustling skills).
    - eterevsky 4y ago
      I'm not sure what self-promotion has to do with getting a developer job. You send your resume, pass the interviews and you are in. If you live in a poorer country, it might take you going through a couple of jobs until you get to a decent salary, but you'll get there if you are either smart or hard-working.
- asicsp 4y ago
  >But seems even the cheapest places to live in the world comes close to $500 a month for living costs. I live in outskirts of a second-tier city in southern India. Spacious rented room and I employ a maid for washing needs. My average monthly cost is $150.
aeturnum 4y ago
Of course? That's why they are "micro"grants. Many projects that improve peoples' computers are done mostly for love - but that doesn't mean they don't get done a lot faster with a little money for expenses or to supplement income. A few hundred might let someone go to a conference to promote the project and get support, buy testing equipment, etc. It's not going to fund anything startup-style, but it very likely could help lots of small useful projects run more smoothly and reliably.
vitorsr 4y ago
> $100-$500 is a drop in the bucket My fully-funded doctorate's federal research grant (Brazil) pays around 450 USD per month (cf. Valores das bolsas no país [1]). [1] https://www.gov.br/capes/pt-br/acesso-a-informacao/acoes-e-programas/bolsas/prestacao-de-contas/valores-de-bolsas#pais https://www.gov.br/capes/pt-br/acesso-a-informacao/acoes-e-p...
- glouwbug 4y ago
  So you're saying it's a drop in the bucket?
  - Sebguer 4y ago
    No, he's saying that not everyone lives in America.
    - jrgd 4y ago
      technically he lives in _America_ too
explaingarlic 4y ago
Maybe some people require a translation for this project: It's free money to do cool shit.

> (1) Building a self-hosted compiler or interpreter. > (2) Prototype an experimental browser. > (3) Make your computer express emotions. $100-$500 is a drop in the bucket for projects of this scale.

moffkalast 4y ago

> (3) Make your computer express emotions But I thought that already comes as standard on Windows... https://i.imgur.com/lk57d.png https://i.imgur.com/lk57d.png

imachine1980_ 4y ago
i think you miss the mark,Clippy was there in the 97.
- a9h74j 4y ago
  Facebook changed name to Meta. Imagine if Microsoft had renamed itself Clippy.

wongarsu 4y ago

Not if your time is free (as in: a hobby project). The best effort I've seen at making a computer express emotions is Anki's Cozmo or Vector [1]. You can get one for less than $500 and hack it, or you can do your own hardware project for much less. Or make a conversational chatbot, APIs for GPT-J make that easier than ever. Similarly, an innovative browser-chrome that tries novel UI ideas while using webkit for rendering is very achievable on a tiny budget. 1: https://www.vectorrobot.shop/ https://www.vectorrobot.shop/

jstummbillig 4y ago
Either you are trying to encourage people with the money tag, or you are not doing anything and it is hard to imagine for this amount of money to be enough to move the needle for the type of person you need to make any progress on these types of big problems. Improving something that has been optimized for years is obviously not going to be easy (which it might still be, non-obviously, but that's very unlikely). Offering a very small amount of money evaluates the required work, and by doing so pretty poorly actually devalues it. That seems bad.
- wongarsu 4y ago
  I imagine the idea is "there are plenty of students with more time than money, who are held back from doing really interesting projects by comparatively small amounts of money". This program isn't interesting to a software engineer working in Silicon Valley, but I know some brilliant 16-24 year olds who have time on their hands but would have problems investing $200 into software tooling or a little hardware. Sure, those people won't build the next sentient robot, or the next gcc. But innovation often happens by exploring lots of ideas a little, to even figure out which ideas are worth exploring further. An army of hobby projects can be very effective at that.

capableweb 4y ago

> $100-$500 is a drop in the bucket for projects of this scale. Agree, but also depends on the location. But seems even the cheapest places to live in the world comes close to $500 a month for living costs. $1000-$5000 would have been nicer, then people in those locations would have at least a chance at a 10 month runway for the highest grant amount. I don't think the author is expecting people to finish any of the funded projects, just to kickstart them or even give some inspiration.

eterevsky 4y ago
I'm not sure the cost of living is the right comparison here. I would rather use a professional salary as a basis. Somebody who can develop a self-hosting programming language that is useful for anything can probably earn at least $5000 regardless of where they live. I wouldn't expect them to live on 1/10th of that even if this is technically possible.
- q-big 4y ago
  > Somebody who can develop a self-hosting programming language that is useful for anything can probably earn at least $5000 regardless of where they live. I know quite some highly brillant people who have difficulties getting a decent job perhaps because they are really bad at self-promotion. So being able to earn such an amount of money depends on having some further traits that don't have anything to do with intelligence or programming skills (rather perhaps a little bit with hustling skills).
  - eterevsky 4y ago
    I'm not sure what self-promotion has to do with getting a developer job. You send your resume, pass the interviews and you are in. If you live in a poorer country, it might take you going through a couple of jobs until you get to a decent salary, but you'll get there if you are either smart or hard-working.
asicsp 4y ago
>But seems even the cheapest places to live in the world comes close to $500 a month for living costs. I live in outskirts of a second-tier city in southern India. Spacious rented room and I employ a maid for washing needs. My average monthly cost is $150.

aeturnum 4y ago

Of course? That's why they are "micro"grants. Many projects that improve peoples' computers are done mostly for love - but that doesn't mean they don't get done a lot faster with a little money for expenses or to supplement income. A few hundred might let someone go to a conference to promote the project and get support, buy testing equipment, etc. It's not going to fund anything startup-style, but it very likely could help lots of small useful projects run more smoothly and reliably.

vitorsr 4y ago

> $100-$500 is a drop in the bucket My fully-funded doctorate's federal research grant (Brazil) pays around 450 USD per month (cf. Valores das bolsas no país [1]). [1] https://www.gov.br/capes/pt-br/acesso-a-informacao/acoes-e-programas/bolsas/prestacao-de-contas/valores-de-bolsas#pais https://www.gov.br/capes/pt-br/acesso-a-informacao/acoes-e-p...

glouwbug 4y ago
So you're saying it's a drop in the bucket?
- Sebguer 4y ago
  No, he's saying that not everyone lives in America.
  - jrgd 4y ago
    technically he lives in _America_ too

explaingarlic 4y ago

Maybe some people require a translation for this project: It's free money to do cool shit.