a short, poorly-thought-out post

IF: there exists a free software product that does what you'd like

AND: you'd like to make money on your idea anyway

THEN: by all means pay your employees to reimplement the idea from scratch. It's not my money, after all.

Aside: Actually, this genuinely irks me. There are a lot of smart programmers in the world, and a certain portion of them are dedicated, on a daily basis, to solving things that have already been pretty comprehensively solved. There are interesting, potentially lucrative problems out there waiting for a solution, and instead these sharp tacks are wasting their intellect on the hope that their target market won't notice the cheaper version of the product that's available. I try not to think too hard about where the state of the art might be if this sort of stupidity wasn't a daily occurence.

Oh, and this applies to the 1,001 idiots who figure that they can write a better mousetrap and post it to sourceforge or freshmeat with a call for developers, instead of pitching into an existing version of whatever it is they're doing.

as I understand it

Events in Leeds Castle went something like this:

DUP: We want the arms issue resolved.

Sinn Féin/IRA: Ok, it's resolved. Unequivocal statements and what not.

DUP: We want the arms issue resolved... AND accountability!

Everyone: Noone expects the Spanish Inquisition!

Notes for the inattentive:

1. Sinn Féin may or may not be the political wing of the IRA. They are, but they deny it. Your hands may wave. However, for the purposes of this humourous post, they're one and the same.
2. DUP = Democratic Unionists Party. I've no idea where the apostrophe, if any, goes. Ian Paisley's party. No, he didn't invent the shirt.
3. This is pretty unprecedented stuff from the Republican side. I'm impressed.
4. They didn't actually talk to each other. The DUP hold a position similar to, say, Cory Doctorow vs. The MPAA: a prejudicial attitude which precludes actual conversation. So, the DUP and Sinn Féin sat in separate rooms while various people conveyed messages between them. "My mate thinks you're gorgeous", etc.

behold your waider

( current photo )