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It's too bad: they really should give prisoners like this computers with some limited access so they can work on coding projects. What else are they going to d

It's too bad: they really should give prisoners like this computers with some limited access so they can work on coding projects. What else are they going to do with their time, after all? Perhaps they could spend it contributing to open-source projects and helping society.

sureIy 2y ago
Part of prison is that you can't communicate to the external world without being monitored. Any shared code would also have to be reviewed. Even in Norway internet use is banned, except for educational purposes, which presumably limits you to wikipedia and .gov
- nobodyandproud 2y ago
  > Any shared code would also have to be reviewed. Random thought, but this made me imagine him reviewing code as a punishment: A chain gang of reviewers if you will.
- shiroiushi 2y ago
  That's understandable, but perhaps they could just give him an isolated PC, and let him pick some github projects he wants to clone, download those (after approval of course) and put them on the PC, let him work away on it for a while, perhaps allow periodic pulls from those repos, and then when he has something to contribute, give those to someone to review for anything disallowed (like a manifesto in the comments or whatever), and once they confirm it's just working source code, allow it to be contributed somehow to the project so they can accept it or not, understanding where it's coming from.
  - sureIy 2y ago
    It would be a good project but you need people to review all code. I think effort/money could be spent on more pressing matters in this environment; open-source contribution is rather niche.
    - shiroiushi 2y ago
      I'm sure they can find outsiders happy to review code contributions. Any decently-run OSS project would already do this, after all, so it wouldn't be hard to just contact them and find a person already active in that organization willing to do the review and communicate back to the prison, assuming it's a project that really would like some extra full-time help for the next ~50-75 years (not all might, but some definitely would). What other "more pressing matters" could there be anyway? Making license plates? This guy is smart and experienced with software development. It would be a waste for him to do something as mundane as making license plates or digging ditches (I don't even think they use prisoners for that these days).
lazyasciiart 2y ago
They could try teaching other inmates, or becoming the jailhouse lawyer.
- shiroiushi 2y ago
  People who are good at coding frequently aren't very good at teaching or lawyering.
  - lazyasciiart 2y ago
    Jailhouse lawyering involves the aspects of law that most correspond to code - reading documentation to learn a system and converting a human language request into a very strictly formatted request. If they can't do that then they should spend their time in jail learning what they're missing.
  - jsheroes 2y ago
    [dead]
C6JEsQeQa5fCjE 2y ago
> What else are they going to do with their time, after all? ONE OF the main functions of the prison system today is access to prison slave labor, so I imagine they'll keep him busy.

sureIy 2y ago

Part of prison is that you can't communicate to the external world without being monitored. Any shared code would also have to be reviewed. Even in Norway internet use is banned, except for educational purposes, which presumably limits you to wikipedia and .gov

nobodyandproud 2y ago
> Any shared code would also have to be reviewed. Random thought, but this made me imagine him reviewing code as a punishment: A chain gang of reviewers if you will.
shiroiushi 2y ago
That's understandable, but perhaps they could just give him an isolated PC, and let him pick some github projects he wants to clone, download those (after approval of course) and put them on the PC, let him work away on it for a while, perhaps allow periodic pulls from those repos, and then when he has something to contribute, give those to someone to review for anything disallowed (like a manifesto in the comments or whatever), and once they confirm it's just working source code, allow it to be contributed somehow to the project so they can accept it or not, understanding where it's coming from.
- sureIy 2y ago
  It would be a good project but you need people to review all code. I think effort/money could be spent on more pressing matters in this environment; open-source contribution is rather niche.
  - shiroiushi 2y ago
    I'm sure they can find outsiders happy to review code contributions. Any decently-run OSS project would already do this, after all, so it wouldn't be hard to just contact them and find a person already active in that organization willing to do the review and communicate back to the prison, assuming it's a project that really would like some extra full-time help for the next ~50-75 years (not all might, but some definitely would). What other "more pressing matters" could there be anyway? Making license plates? This guy is smart and experienced with software development. It would be a waste for him to do something as mundane as making license plates or digging ditches (I don't even think they use prisoners for that these days).

lazyasciiart 2y ago

They could try teaching other inmates, or becoming the jailhouse lawyer.

shiroiushi 2y ago
People who are good at coding frequently aren't very good at teaching or lawyering.
- lazyasciiart 2y ago
  Jailhouse lawyering involves the aspects of law that most correspond to code - reading documentation to learn a system and converting a human language request into a very strictly formatted request. If they can't do that then they should spend their time in jail learning what they're missing.
- jsheroes 2y ago
  [dead]

C6JEsQeQa5fCjE 2y ago

> What else are they going to do with their time, after all? ONE OF the main functions of the prison system today is access to prison slave labor, so I imagine they'll keep him busy.