My First Paypal Transaction

Yay! My first paypal transaction! Here’s the scribd iPaper:

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iNettuts Tryout

Sir told us to give it off for a spin and the interface is pretty much fun! Loved changing the banner in particular. Lol!

Feel free to check it out here.

Style Switcher on WordPress

Since I’d be shifting to the wp-coda theme, I just want to share with you guys how my style switcher worked for my products page before using a Tactical Armory, shop-like theme, suited for the products I sell:

and…

As you guys noticed, the switcher plugin is not aligned with the themes’ original template. This is the result of hacking my blog’s index.php just to get the style switcher working. I also used a style switcher plugin before this, whose screenshot is taken here:

The plugin is easily installed onto your wp-content\plugins folder and activated via your admin page. Pretty neat, but the big difference I guess with this plugin as opposed to the style switcher mentioned above is that the page has to reload on this one, as opposed to the earlier one which is based on JScript and pretty much does a decent job in switching styles without additional load times.

Afterword: Beyond Software?

“In the meantime, even if we hackers are not making an ideological noise about it, we will still be changing the world.” – the last line of the book and of the chapter. Yeah, as a matter of fact, what if open-source does come to other things such as music? Man, we’d be watching music videos and grabbing music labels for free! That is something. But it is heart-warming that the author knew when to say no and when to predict when would be the best time to promote it as such. Music does indeed lack the debugging and maintenance feats that software has. Thus, the deliberations and the debates that may ensue for which will just end either in waste or in the misappropriation of the terminology to a whole new different genre. It’s something more than the author saving face for himself, for it’s a calculated move – there’s a pretty well-justified rationale as to why he refused such applications of open-source to other genre, and that is of the fact that it will “take time.”

True, when you make a model and theorize on it, it doesn’t mean that after the reader reads your theory, you get new disciples. You have to answer their questions first and prove yourself, which bottomline will take time. That is why the estimates of the writer to make a move on other genres for open-source at around 2003-2005 is albeit good – because those were the years that yes, indeed, open-source in a way reached the likes of music. Hey, look at some artists in YouTube, they’re not on MTV, but you definitely can hear their good voice performing without you having to pay a single penny.

After a decade of changes, what the author theorized in the book has now come to the stage of application. The social media, github, and other facilities and resource centers are now viable open-source platforms that anyone and everyone appreciates, and there’s nothing proprietary softwares can do about it. Why? For open-source is simply the way to go.

Revenge of the Hackers

With the abstract stating how hackers went popping through the Fortune 500, I guess this is one hard chapter I don’t wanna miss. So, browsing through the chapter, I really got some intriguing facts from the author himself. The exemplifications of Linus Torvald’s way of beating a decade long of developers and amateur hackers that cannot deliver a massive-wide solutions proved quite interesting for the author, and the non-familiarities of the world of open-source made him participate even further, up to the point that he became an evangelist of open-source.

The instance of Netscape issuing its Navigator to go open-source to alluviate its ailing problems and the CEO quoting the author’s book and how it inspired such decisions gave the go signal for the book to go into the spotlights. The way of the hackers as depicted by the author is right, and its analysis was also right, which the author deemed as if a cause of why it was well accepted by the public. The humble beginnings of making a success out of Netscape stirred up the open-source revolution to what it is now.

Forgetting bottom-up and going straight top-down is a principle not only applied in making software, but also in coordinating with companies. You don’t simply start chatting with bottom-level employees, you should start chatting with the CEO immediately. The reason is pretty simple: it works (if the author may that is). I mean, why convince a bottom employee that can’t even talk to their managers when you can convince their managers’ manager (their CEO, CIO, CFO, etc.), and let them do the convincing later? Pretty good. Advocating Linux is well-deserved as well, given that it is the most successful open-source software operating system to-date and may always be.

I guess for all the times that proprietary and closed-source softwares remained on top for a lot of years, there always comes a time when it starts losing to open-source. Internet Explorer (IE) on one hand, lost significantly when Netscape’s Navigator was redeveloped to become Mozilla’s Firefox, which is the most stable web browser to date. Pretty soon proprietary software is open-source, the trends are there as supported by the author himself, and it won’t take pretty long for that to happen – Microsoft in itself is even starting plans to provide open-source solutions these days, for they know that it’s a losing battle for them out in the field to provide a closed-source and buggy operating system that everyone just had to deal with yet can actually live without it.

The Magic Cauldron: Serving Nutrition to the Needy

Hackers provide needs to companies who requires that in-house programs be delviered by the hackers themselves. While the author continues, the part when the value of software is considered as just as similar to any manufactured good is deemed false. True to the case, and as proven by our classes this term – software is not just priced by how it’s coded and shipped – it’s priced more than that. Maintenance for that matter, contributes 75% of the value of the product, which occurs at the after-sales part of the software cycle. I believe this is the reason as to why we had to study project costing and management in our stay in the college, because you can’t charge a customer without having to compute all the costs required not in selling the product, but actually after turning over the product.

What was quite good noticing though was the author’s statement of  “lowering the cost of a good tends to increase, rather than decrease, total investment in the people and infrastructure that sustains it.” The exemplification of the prices of cars going down having more demand for auto mechanics is quite a given, and comparing such to the case of the investors who invest in non-open source software are the losers of the software game because the thought that the software’s return on their investment is that feasible yet when the prices go down, they’ve got none coming back to their pockets. Other cases other than the price of their software going down which would incur lesser ROI values than before would be the software being unable to deliver the intended functionality it was meant to serve, the software’s outdated, or that no one just digs it. As compared to open-source, you don’t problematize yourself with investors losing or winning, you just know that regardless of the times, people use it and will appreciate it for how useful it is even on the basis that it’s open-source (Open Office for example).

I guess that’s what open-source does. It’s not really an alternative, it’s what should be proprietary in my personal belief – for closed-source softwares become unavailable during economic uncertainties, but open-source remains.

Homesteading the Noosphere

“We change at the precipice” – The Day The Earth Stood Still Movie. Pretty much a good line for this chapter. If I were to relate it in the movie, wherein humans would have to be eradicated to save the earth, the same goes with the way the hacker culture goes as the book is concerned. Hackers change on-demand, and in the movie, those directly affected or had contact with Klaatu (Keanu Reeves) knew the change needed for them to prevent the unevitable. This was what I thought was meant by the author in the abstract of the chapter – yet found at the end that such can be related to, but not directly referred to.

While I experienced epistaxis trying to depict these GNU, GPL, OSD, BSD, and other licenses having acronyms that are alien to my knowledge, I just had to agree with what the author said about it – it created means for anyone to just hack the code, duplicate its source, alter it one way or another, and yep, whoever did it can now call it his own product or two. What’s striking the most in this sense is that such divergence is what we actually do in some of our classes now – forking.

While forking has its advantages and disadvantages, it might be well to speak of its advantages first. As mentioned in the previous chapter, it does help people to disregard thinking about the foundations and just rewrite it and alter whatever’s available to cater to his own needs. But, while such is feasible on one person or another, it may not be so for whoever originally developed the code. One disadvantage of forking is the fact that the possibilities of forking your work and alter it to their needs and just leave it as is without contributing anything in return is at a 50/50. Half may contribute back, half may not even dare trying.

Yet what’s interesting though as I passed through the lines of the book is how formalities go with open-source. Given that plenty are just copy-holics, leechers (yeah just keep taking and never give in return), and what have you, it is amazing to note as to how software applications are turned over through series of successions and other means, with public involvements, to legitimize and recognize the owner of the computer application involved. It is quite amazing to learn how the silence of millions in the open-source community actually do all these formalities without us knowing really. The respect and honor given to the owner even in passing and in acknowledgement is cool! I mean for all I know back then hackers were informal people making cracks to make softwares legit, but now I know that they’re the cool ones, and the crackers are the bad guys lurking around who believe that their disruptive way of bypassing security and exploiting application vulnerabilities to generate and legitimize a non-legit copy of commercial software is actually “helping” per se.

The culture differences between the two and the correlation of the hacker culture to the ownership of land is quite significant in a way. Overall, I’d say the chapter’s title really summed up the chapter in itself well: homestead, the place where our home is, where the hacker’s home is – is in open-source. While a lot of cultures and communities in the open-source field may change over time, the home is always gonna be open-source, and no one can stop that from happening for open-source will always be the way to go regardless of what license bounds you to do it so.

The Cathedral and the Bazaar

It’s pretty intriguing as to why the book is called “The Cathedral and the Bazaar” where in fact it talks about open-source software, hackers, and that sort of stuff – finally the explanation was given here.

“Cathedral” and “Bazaar” here seems to be defined as the Cathedral being a model for softwares that are developed quietly and largely until a stable release is built and released. Bazaar, on the other hand, is a model used by Sir Linus Torvald’s when he developed Linux, which used a deployment method of deploying early and plenty. On a personal note, I suppose the Cathedral here can be the likes of Microsoft during its Windows 95 and 98 days, wherein the operating systems were launched only when there is already a stable release. It started failing them though in the release of Windows ME, when bugs came-a-popping as soon as it arrived in store shelves worldwide. So, they then started using release candidates (RC’s) that end-users may try out for their future versions (Windows XP and Vista, and the upcoming Windows 7 is having this as well) so as to check what still needs addressing before they can call off a stable release and launch the final version to the market (which will still be filled with bugs though and will just be patched through updates).

So, why did Microsoft start doing release candidates? For all that I know, it’s because it practically works – long even before they did it, thanks to Sir Linus. When the first Linux OS came to being, hackers all over the world supported the open-source rhythm, and not only that, it supported the radical model used by the author himself. Deploying your software early with plenty of revisions constantly update over time allows your intended users to test it and tell you what needs to be addressing and when is it good to call an alpha version of a software as beta and when beta can be called as a final and stable release. As we read during the Getting Real days, the number of requests the team made then on Ruby on Rails were vast, and they were able to carefully select from the request and bug changes which enabled them to provide a product that is useful, practical, economic, and hey, free!

When the author was sharing his thoughts about the days of SMTP and POP3 and how difficult it was to contantly add the network of the sender as a prefix on his e-mail address (@yahoo.com, @cnn.com, @etc, @etc, @etc), I was pretty much admired by the fact that he mentioned how obvious it would’ve been for the developer of that POP3 service to actually notice that and do something about it – but no, he’s too busy getting his paycheck and program software that he’s not even interested in doing – thus, the inconvenience and problems are there. This is the same reason as to why applications developed through Linux are entirely different as to what the application the author experienced with his POP3. The programmers behind the application of Linux on the basis of what they really want to create - and they’re able to build high-quality applications because they’re actually creating what they want and NOT what their boss or business tells them they should want. I mean, that’s how it should really be. If you’re not interested in the program you’re doing, at least do something to make it favroable to you, or have the nerve at least to pass it on to someone else. No one wants a failing program as a solution – it just simply has to work flawlessly regardless of the processes it has to undergo.

Another hard-hitting line here is the author’s mentioning of “Good programmers know what to write. Great ones know what to rewrite.” I guess this is the reason as to why Sir Dave and Sir Paul keeps on teaching us on how to hack and fork existing codes. The potential is quite better considering that the time you waste trying to create the foundation of your application is spent on creating what you actually need that application to do instead. Plenty of your development time is spared which you can allocate it for other projects that you may have in mind.

It’s pretty much a good chapter – especially when the author tested Sir Linus’ way of developing programs and noticed that it works. And I guess that’s why there’s plenty of reasons as to why open-source is the way to go. Rock on open-source!

A Brief History of Hackerdom: My Take

I believe in the saying that  “a person who lies low, keeps low, and stays humble, is a person worth looking up to for the rest of your life.” If we go to the Bible (my apologies for those who thought I’m not religious, lol), and we check out Matthew chapter 11, verse 29, the beatitude states: “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the land”, and in the same chapter, Jesus exclaims: “Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart.”

Example-wise, I guess nothing tops that. Jesus is followed by many during his time, and even up to now, he’s still being followed by me and the rest of the Roman Catholics in the world. Before his crucifixion, he mentioned to the pharisees and scribes, “I am who you think I am.”

Why I exemplified such part is because I was pretty much touched by the line in the book that states that “In the beginning, there were Real Programmers”, which was followed immediately by “That’s not what they called themselves.” Truly, humble people are great people. They need not brag just to prove they’re worth something, people just find out on their own who they truly are and how important they can be for the entire community.

Such can also be said to the great leaders, in our local setting, former President Magsaysay is the only President who allowed people to enter the Malacanang Palace, a feat that all the other Presidents failed to allow. When asked if he’s not afraid of having a terrorist act as a civilian and kill him, he said, “No, and why would they kill me? I am just a public servant.” People knew how important he was, yet he was humble to the importance branded upon him by the people surrounding him.

Seymour Cray, who’s quoted from the book, also lived a quiet and simple life. He considered his first solutions (scientific computers) as “failures”, even if such solutions were built from existing systems during his time. He developed his supercomputer from scratch, not relying on existing technologies, he built the software, he built the hardware, and what did he get? Quoting Joel Birnbaum, “It seems impossible to exaggerate the effect he had on the industry.” He became that important without him doing the sales talks, the marketing talks, or the publicity stunts other people do, he became important only through one simple thing – he delivered. Delivery is key really.

Overall, I’d say what the author tried to depict hackers here are people who started small, worked small, but contributed largely. The contribution made them what they’re called now, Real Programmers, hackers, heroes, saviors, and so on. Their greatness is brought about by what they gave to the people, something more than anyone can ever deliver – solutions that support not only mere business processes, but life support services as well.

Why You Should Care : The Introduction

The free software movement, launched in 1983, was formed by a group of people and was later renamed open-source software in 1998, for it to better accepted and clear for the corporate world. Huge movements in the open-source field came with JAVA, Netscape (when it released the source code of it’s Navigator browser which was later developed by Mozilla), and of course, Linus Torvalds’ open-source operating system, Linux.

It would be useless though to point out all these mighty open-source software without getting the jist of why I’m even stating it here. Who’s responsible for all these great open-source software? As the book states, it’s the hackers. With the current economic downturns occuring at a worldwide scale, it is only righteous to say that open-source software will remain successful during these trying times, as mentioned by Red Hat CEO and President Jim Whitehurst mentioned in the Inquirer article located here.

Hackers are economic drivers, delivering solutions that need not take years to develop, and too late to even bring an effect - they provide answers realtime, they’re saviors, heroes, and so on.

It is albeit saddening that the author who wrote the book failed to remain in the tribe and update the book itself as he promised to in this introduction (considering the dates the chapters were last revised). But the point is still there, that hackers are there to save the day – and how fun it will be to be one someday. Hopefully I’d get there though – life’s just getting tougher and tougher these days.

Well, that’s about it. Thanks for reading guys!