<div dir="ltr"><div><div>Hi Geoffrey,<br><br></div>hope you had a great Shabbath by the time you're reading it.<br><br></div>You're raising some interesting points which I'd like to address, and I apologise if I weren't clear and explicit before.<br>
<br><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Jul 4, 2014 at 10:35 AM, geoffrey mendelson <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:geoffreymendelson@gmail.com" target="_blank">geoffreymendelson@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
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<div>On 7/4/2014 8:56 AM, Shlomi Fish wrote:<br>
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<div>Hi all,<br>
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I wish to go on a Summer trip to Europe (flight
to Istanbul and then taking trains) where I:<br>
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ROTFL.<br>
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Not only do I not think this belongs on this list, but it's
ridiculous. <br></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>Why do you feel it does not belong on this list? Many people here offer jobs or ask for jobs, and my offer can provide a lot of promotion and publicity to a company/individual/organisation who wishes to sponsor me.<br>
<br></div><div>Regarding "ridiculous" there is <a href="http://www.shlomifish.org/humour/fortunes/show.cgi?id=same-ideas-as-everybody-else">http://www.shlomifish.org/humour/fortunes/show.cgi?id=same-ideas-as-everybody-else</a> :<br>
<br>«<br>
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<p>If you have the same ideas as everybody else, but have them one
week earlier than everyone else - then you will be hailed as a
visionary. But if you have them five years earlier, you will be
named a lunatic.</p></blockquote></blockquote>»<br><br></div><div>Some of the things I predicted and/or projected are:<br><br>* <a href="http://www.advogato.org/article/361.html">http://www.advogato.org/article/361.html</a> - world-editable screenplays for films back in 2001 - I was told it will likely not going to work, but now there are many screenplay projects which use wiki-style interfaces, and there quite a many successful world-editable-or-almost-world-editable wikis out there (e.g: the Wikimedia project, the Wikias, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV_Tropes">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV_Tropes</a> ).<br>
<br>* <a href="http://www.shlomifish.org/humour/human-hacking/">http://www.shlomifish.org/humour/human-hacking/</a> - in this story I describe FOSS (and to a lesser extent open content/culture) geeks, and especially female geeks, as chic, intelligent, attractive, socially capable, and sexually assertive, and not only are they mainstream, but they are the alphas - the constant object of attraction and often jealousy of their peers.<br>
<br></div><div>Back after I finished writing it in 2004 and publicised it for scrutiny on the linux-elitists mailing list - <a href="http://www.shlomifish.org/humour/human-hacking/conclusions/#review--modus-operandi">http://www.shlomifish.org/humour/human-hacking/conclusions/#review--modus-operandi</a> - I was criticised for making it look like being a FOSS/open-culture hacker was a gateway to popularity, but now it is quite common all around the world, as exemplified by the success of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Bang_Theory">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Bang_Theory</a> , and not only are almost all attractive female attracted to geeks, but most of them are geeky[Geeky] themselves, *and* yet they are not socially awkward or sexually inept.<br>
<br></div><div>[Geeky] - see <a href="http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=401">http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=401</a> for what is a geek , as well as what Paul Graham wrote about amateurs and hackers.<br>
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If I were in a position to sponsor anyone for more than a felafel at
a stand up kiosk, I would consider this so unreasonable that it's
just laughable. As I said, IF I were going to fund someone, I might
consider a plan that includes 2 $1,000 airplane tickets, and about
$1,000 a week for hotel, food, transportation within each country
and train fare to the next country, for a week in a country to give
4-5 FOSS lectures, and then move on. You probably could start in
the Irish Republic and bounce along to the Russian Republic which
would take around 15-20 weeks.<br></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>My lectures are not only about FOSS - they are also about free/open culture/content, and mix and match other topics such as love/romance/relationships, action, humour, history, science, amateur philosophy, etc. See:<br>
<br><a href="http://www.shlomifish.org/humour/fortunes/">http://www.shlomifish.org/humour/fortunes/</a><br><br></div><div>Anyway, you are right that I probably overestimated the cost and can survive on much less.<br><br></div>
<div>Regarding Ireland -> Russia - I'm not interested only in software development hubs, but in general - every centre of commerce is game for me: Rome, Athens, Istanbul, Berlin, London, Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm, Vienna, Riga, Vilnius, Budapest, Bucharest, etc. etc. <br>
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Or you could the same thing for about 1.5 times the money in the US,
which would take an entire year, one week per state.<br></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>I'm:<br><br></div><div>1. Not going to .us any time soon.<br><br></div><div>2. Not interested in being 100% comprehensive.<br>
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But not just for a vacation, or for sponsorship opportunity, you
would have to show off your operating system that lots of people
use, or your office suite, Nobel Prize, or Olympic Medal. <br></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>I have many stories/screenplays, many aphorisms, quotes, Chuck Norris/etc. factoids, bits, programs, etc. Many people told me that they recognise my homepage and especially its EvilPHish emblem (See <a href="http://www.shlomifish.org/meta/FAQ/#evilphish-emblem">http://www.shlomifish.org/meta/FAQ/#evilphish-emblem</a> ) and someone told me that I also look exactly like he though I would.<br>
<br></div><div>And part of the reason why I'm going on tour is to gain more recognition and to practice my stand-up-philosophy.<br></div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
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No use writing an editor, no one is interested in paying RMS to
speak, especially since he, as president of the FSF, ex <a href="https://www.google.co.il/search?es_sm=122&q=ex+officio&spell=1&sa=X&ei=yFi2U4mZIIK00wXM_IDQDg&ved=0CBkQvwUoAA" style="font-size:18px;color:rgb(102,0,153);text-decoration:none;font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:21px;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)" target="_blank">ex<span> </span><b><i>officio</i></b></a>,
announced he was supporting the Palestinian Boycott of Israel. <br>
<br></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>I didn't write an editor, but I wrote a lot of other useful software apps:<br><br>* <a href="http://www.shlomifish.org/open-source/">http://www.shlomifish.org/open-source/</a><br>
<br>* <a href="http://blogs.perl.org/users/shlomi_fish/2013/03/ann-my-transition-from-software-developer-to-writerentertaineramateur-philosopherinternet-celebrity.html">http://blogs.perl.org/users/shlomi_fish/2013/03/ann-my-transition-from-software-developer-to-writerentertaineramateur-philosopherinternet-celebrity.html</a><br>
</div><div> <br></div><div>Quoting from it:<br><br><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<br></div><div><h2>How to Achieve World Domination</h2>
<p>
A lot of people think that the proper way to achieve world domination is
to create an
<a href="http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000018.html">architecture
that will solve the whole world's problems and then some</a>. We've been seeing
quite a few of them since <i>Joel on Software</i> wrote this article: Ruby,
Google Go, Node.js, Mozilla's Rust, Clojure, Scala, Perl 6, etc. Some of them
have or will mature to something truly nice, or have inspired a lot of
features in other languages, but it's hard for
plain-old-single-you to compete with them, and here is something interesting:
not too many people want them.
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What do people want? Chuck Norris/etc. factoids, lolcats and other captioned
images, funny cat videos, parodies of
<i>My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic</i> (♥), photos of attractive (or even
not too attractive) men and women, screencasts of games or other programs
(including many open source programs), photos of scenery, new and improved
recipes for preparing food (and of course - tasty food itself), new, old or
renovated jokes, and some interesting tales and anecdotes from your life. And
naturally - programs that can will scratch an itch - however small.
</p>
<p>
Some people told me that my solver for Freecell and other solitaire games,
simply called
<a href="http://fc-solve.shlomifish.org/">Freecell Solver</a> is useless, but
it's not - it's just a niche program. And I received hundreds of E-mails
about it. Furthermore, given that Freecell is (or used to be) a big phenomenon
in Israel, where many boys and girls starting from 18 found themselves
playing it
on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Defense_Forces">Israeli
military</a> computers out of boredom, then the fact that I have written a
solver for it,
has impressed many people I talked with or met, including some attractive
(both physically and intellectually) young ladies (or what people may
refer to as "hot chicks"), and they ended up asking me about how it was
written, and which algorithms it employed.
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<p>
So Freecell Solver was one of my most successful programs, not despite being
a niche program, but because of it. Niche programs own. Not only that,
but niche everything is great. Many people whom I referred to
<a href="http://www.shlomifish.org/humour/stories/">my stories</a> helped
themselves to the screenplay
<a href="http://www.shlomifish.org/humour/Star-Trek/We-the-Living-Dead/">Star Trek:
"We, the Living Dead"</a> <b>because</b> it contained Star Trek in the name,
and because there are quite a few fans of the <i>Star Trek</i> franchise and
worlds.
</p>
<p>
The more of a niche artwork you write, the more a large subset of those
who like it, are likely to pay attention to it, try it out, and enjoy it.
For more information, see
Eric Sink's excellent and inspiring essay
<a href="http://www.ericsink.com/articles/Buzz.html">"How to get
people talking about your product"</a>.
For example,
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DuckDuckGo">DuckDuckGo</a> was originally
marketed as a search engine by Perl geeks, and for Perl geeks, and it was
a good marketing decision because the Perl community is small, cohesive and
is at a good strategical position to influence other communities. Now, many
people who are not Perl programmers, are using it, as well as, or even in
preference to Google, but choosing Perl was a good strategical decision.
We can expect that with the future growth of DuckDuckGo, that it will
use more performant technologies than Perl more and more, but it will still
owe some of its initial success to be a Perl product.
</p>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><br><br></div><div>Regarding RMS - I realise he became a persona non-grata in Israel and among some pro-Israeli Jews or non-Jews, but:<br><br></div>
<div>1. He is still a great man and a talented speaker (even if he is a very quirky fellow - or because of it).<br><br></div><div>2. His decision was acceptable given the circumstance.<br><br></div><div>3. I don't want to hold a grudge against him forever, because vindictiveness is immature. "To err is human, to forgive divine." - see <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saladin">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saladin</a> .<br>
<br></div><div>4. Other people who wrote competing text editors can still be respected if their editors are successful. As usual with most programs out there, most programs fail to gain a critical mass, but a minority of them are successful. Bram Moolenaar is very respected for writing Vim, which became the Emacs of vi clones, and I Respect the developers of Sublime Text even though I dislike the fact that it is non-FOSS. Some software niches don't have a visible dominant alternative, e.g: window managers/desktops.<br>
<br>================<br><br></div><div>Thanks again and I hope I clarified everything now.<br><br></div><div>Regards,<br><br></div><div>-- Shlomi Fish<br></div><br clear="all"></div><br>-- <br><div dir="ltr">------------------------------------------<br>
Shlomi Fish <a href="http://www.shlomifish.org/" target="_blank">http://www.shlomifish.org/</a><br><br>Chuck Norris helps the gods that help themselves.<br><br>Please reply to list if it's a mailing list post - <a href="http://shlom.in/reply" target="_blank">http://shlom.in/reply</a> .<br>
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