> (1) Building a self-hosted compiler or interpreter.
> (2) Prototype an experimental browser.
> (3) Make your computer express emotions.
$100-$500 is a drop in the bucket for projects of this scale.
> (2) Prototype an experimental browser.
> (3) Make your computer express emotions.
$100-$500 is a drop in the bucket for projects of this scale.
But I thought that already comes as standard on Windows...
The best effort I've seen at making a computer express emotions is Anki's Cozmo or Vector [1]. You can get one for less than $500 and hack it, or you can do your own hardware project for much less. Or make a conversational chatbot, APIs for GPT-J make that easier than ever.
Similarly, an innovative browser-chrome that tries novel UI ideas while using webkit for rendering is very achievable on a tiny budget.
Improving something that has been optimized for years is obviously not going to be easy (which it might still be, non-obviously, but that's very unlikely). Offering a very small amount of money evaluates the required work, and by doing so pretty poorly actually devalues it. That seems bad.
This program isn't interesting to a software engineer working in Silicon Valley, but I know some brilliant 16-24 year olds who have time on their hands but would have problems investing $200 into software tooling or a little hardware.
Sure, those people won't build the next sentient robot, or the next gcc. But innovation often happens by exploring lots of ideas a little, to even figure out which ideas are worth exploring further. An army of hobby projects can be very effective at that.
My fully-funded doctorate's federal research grant (Brazil) pays around 450 USD per month (cf. Valores das bolsas no país [1]).
[1] https://www.gov.br/capes/pt-br/acesso-a-informacao/acoes-e-p...
Many projects that improve peoples' computers are done mostly for love - but that doesn't mean they don't get done a lot faster with a little money for expenses or to supplement income. A few hundred might let someone go to a conference to promote the project and get support, buy testing equipment, etc.
It's not going to fund anything startup-style, but it very likely could help lots of small useful projects run more smoothly and reliably.
Agree, but also depends on the location. But seems even the cheapest places to live in the world comes close to $500 a month for living costs.
$1000-$5000 would have been nicer, then people in those locations would have at least a chance at a 10 month runway for the highest grant amount.
I don't think the author is expecting people to finish any of the funded projects, just to kickstart them or even give some inspiration.
I live in outskirts of a second-tier city in southern India. Spacious rented room and I employ a maid for washing needs. My average monthly cost is $150.
Somebody who can develop a self-hosting programming language that is useful for anything can probably earn at least $5000 regardless of where they live. I wouldn't expect them to live on 1/10th of that even if this is technically possible.
I know quite some highly brillant people who have difficulties getting a decent job perhaps because they are really bad at self-promotion.
So being able to earn such an amount of money depends on having some further traits that don't have anything to do with intelligence or programming skills (rather perhaps a little bit with hustling skills).
It's free money to do cool shit.