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Giving back to open-source
smugmug couldn’t exist without open-source software. Lots of blood, sweat, & tears mixed liberally with open-sourced software (and a bookshelf full of O’Reilly books) = smugmug.
Now that we’re successful, though, it’s been weighing on my mind: How do we give back? We have support contracts for some of the components we use, which is nice, and we’re sponsoring OSCON 2005, which is also nice, but it’s really not enough. Some of the key components don’t have a service & support arm. And while sponsoring a conference about open-source is a nice gesture, it doesn’t put money right into developers pockets, which is really where it belongs.
We’re not successful enough (yet!) to simply hire open-source developers and pay them to continue doing what they were doing. I can’t wait until we’re at that stage, but we’re just not there yet.
So what do we do in the meantime? Simply donate cash to the projects in question? Offer to host their websites and development efforts? Maybe give them some stock in smugmug?
I’d love to hear any suggestions. And if you’re at the con and want to discuss it, look for the guy in the red smugmug hat. 🙂
Lawmakers Hate Kids
In a CNN article about the new changes to Daylight Savings Time, Rep Fred Upton, R-Michigan had something stupid to say: “Kids across the nation will soon rejoice,” said Upton, because they’ll have another hour of daylight trick-or-treating.
Maybe I live in fantasy land, but I lived in lots of different cities and states as a kid, and I can’t recall a single kid going out trick-or-treating before dusk. We wanted to, sure, but we always had to wait. It’s Halloween, for heaven’s sake!
So, now, instead of trick-or-treating from 7pm to bedtime (9pm?), kids will only get to trick-or-treat from 8pm to bedtime (probably the same 9pm). How idiotic.
If you asked any kid across the nation, they wouldn’t be “rejoicing” about this. On behalf of all stupid adults everywhere, I sincerely apologize. It’s not my fault, I swear.
What Would You Do: Grocery Stores
Every time I hear about a product or company having a potential problem, or facing a coming challenge, I try to think about what I’d do about it.
This time, it’s grocery stores. Apparently, the handle on a shopping cart at your local grocery store contains 10X more harmful bacteria than anything else you come in contact with on a regular basis. Yuck! Is this a problem facing grocery stores in the future? I happen to think it’s an opportunity, and here’s what I’d do:
Anyway, What Would You Do is a fun game to play. Anyone else got any fun problems and solutions? HP already used my favorite solution: get rid of Carly! 🙂
SmugMug's Don MacAskill 