Re: The Denis Prize

"Howard J. Rogers" <hjr_at_dizwell.com> wrote in message news:<40209776$0$15138$afc38c87_at_news.optusnet.com.au>...
> "Joel Garry" <joel-garry_at_home.com> wrote in message
> news:91884734.0402021543.34c6bce0_at_posting.google.com...
>
> > >
> > > For the life of me I can't see why this wasn't done before, I know the
> > > distros have their "minor" differences but I would *think* that someone
> > > half-decent at scripting could write a routine that checked for oracle
> > > account etc (SuSE already does all that for you), created neccesary
> > > users & groups if they didnt exist, prompt for distro/release and then
> > > performed neccesary actions such as orainstRoot.sh etc. - you get the
> > > picture. If you get prompted for root password a few times so be it.
> >
> > I don't see it as very generous at all. That's only 100 hours at
> > $50/hr, which is certainly below my rate. And I don't see how you
> > could even run all that stuff in 100 hours, much less write and QC it.
>
> Well, gee Joel. You part with larger amounts of *your* own cash then. Sorry
> you think I'm being mean. This is free cash for something which all Linux
> experts tell me is a bit of script-kiddy shell scripting homework.

Didn't think you are being mean. Just pointing out it's not generous within the context of commercial payment. And since I've written such things in a commercial environment, I can say that the afternoon of shell scripting to get an initial bunch of code together is _not_ the major expense. I didn't get the impression you were looking for script-kiddy quality. If you are, then you are indeed generous.

>
> > But it really shouldn't be that hard, so maybe some grad student
> > slave-labor can be used.
>
> If it's not that hard, then $5000 of my own cash seems more than generous.

If someone happens to have all those environments on separate machines handy, it could be generous. But then you've been subsidized by whoever put all those machines together. That is entirely possible and reasonable in the open-source community. Indeed, I strongly support such efforts, at least with my mouth, and respect anyone who supports it with their dollars, including specifically what you are offering here. If someone wrote something like it already, hey, free as in free beer!

I'm just pointing out that it isn't all that generous given the work involved. You've been somewhat misled by the linux experts, who were talking in programmer-hours, analogous to dog-years, except with a higher multiplier. Whether something is adjudged generous should relate to clock-hours, which in this case must include the O/S install from scratch as well as running the script at least once for all given cases. Yes, it is possible to skim the various published docs for what needs to be done and write the script in an afternoon and have it work perfectly the first time. But not likely.

Some of the open-source movement is based upon the idea that reward doesn't necessarily come in monetary remuneration. Some people would rather simply be recognized, some like the idea of barter, some like the intellectual challenge, etc. There could be someone out there going "wow! I could give back to that dizwell guy for that wonderful paper, and be in rarefied company!" and the $5 grand is just gravy. Just giving that person the opportunity to do something constructive is generous, and the gravy is very generous. So another point is that whether or not it is generous depends on the context of "generous." I was referring to the context of commercial remuneration, but explicitly recognize that is not the only possible context, and indeed may not apply to your offer. It is even conceivable a high quality product could arise from two or more groups having a friendly competition about it, much like the security competitions.

Oh-oh, I said the "p" word.

>
> Jeez.
> HJR
Sorry, didn't mean to imply it was a bad idea. Quite the contrary, it is truly excellent of you to make such an offer. Great things have come from less.

jg

--
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Hmm, what was that site that matches programmers with projects?