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Show HN: Turn GNU command line tools into SaaS – Stupid Hackathon Project

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160 pointsdiafygi58 comments

FYI, the fake announcement post was really fun to write:

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$150 million investment from Andreessen Horowitz!

We are extremely excited to announce our new funding from some long time friends in venture capital, Andreessen Horowitz. They lead a $150 million dollar private equity round at a $52 billion dollar valuation, which we will use to start generating revenue and take our software to the next level.

"We've scaled enough. It's time to monetize." -Richard Stallman, Founder, FSF

As part of this deal, we will begin to add per-use fees to many of the popular GNU software we maintain, such as "ls", "dd", "cat", "grep", and many more. You can check out our pricing update and documentation on Github. Supported tools now include a "--pricing" flag so you can keep track of how much you owe us. For example, you can type "gcc --pricing" to get the amount you owe from compiling all those continuous integration deployments.

"GNU is sitting on a hundred billion dollar opportunity, and I'm really excited they are capitalizing on it." -Sam Altman, YCombinator

Thanks very much to all of our current contributers that have made this step possible. If it weren't for the hard work of you, we wouldn't be able have such an incredible position in the market and rich go-to-market strategy. As part of this fundrasing, we will be setting aside 10% of the investment to give back to the community that have made us so very, very happy.

"They got embedded in all the huge enterprise companies on the backs of volunteers! Now they can flip on the revenue stream. I really respect Richard for his cutthroat business strategy." -Larry Ellison, Oracle

Unfortunately, some long time friends in the Linux community will not be joining us in our journey, namely the Linux kernel, so we will be using $50 million from this funding to complete the GNU Hurd kernel on an accelerated timeline so that our current users don't experience any interruption of service.

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https://diafygi.github.io/gnu-pricing/website/

Finally these GNU guys discovered that the Freemium model is broken. You should charge high prices, and if your customers are fleeing it is because you're not charging high enough.

Every 'transaction' should be automatically deducted from user's bitcoin wallet. Call it GNU Premium.

I really like that one, those tools are so foundational it seems easy to take it for granted.

How do I confirm that I've paid my due?

The wrapper counts each use of the supported commands. You can see the total you owe by adding --pricing to any command (e.g. "cat --pricing").

I think poster wants to be able to let your tool know that the amount has been paid, which would reset the outstanding balance or something.

Ah. Pull requests welcome!

You can verify donations to the FSF Bitcoin address via. user signed message from the sending address! Also are there nags? There have to be nags.

Indeed: it doesn't seem stupid to me at all.

Actually yeah this basically crossed my mind as well. I was thinking more that it should be part of Ubuntu by default. In the traditional market, the loops of funding things are more or less closed. If you want something you pay for it and therefore fund it. If it doesn't get enough funding, it's because it's priced incorrectly, or it's not desired. The Free Software gift economy, for all its benefits in the area of user freedom, is entirely missing these price signals. See: Werner Koch. There has to be something to remind us who exactly we should be paying if we are so inclined.

Does it work with scripts as well? E.g. if I run a makefile, will my gcc fees go through the roof? Maybe it should have safety warnings.

The real killer feature would be a periodic upload of your transaction database to the cloud. You could call it "OneGNU". The possibilities are endless.

Yes, it does! This basically overrides the path to the commands and MITMs the pricing counter.

yes, as long as they are invoked using the PATH variable, (and not, say, by using the absolute path to them) it will work.

What I really like about this is, finally we have a way to calculate the salary of sysops workers.

Run .. gcc --pricing .. once per month and multiply the total by 1000.

It's totally ungameable and measures the direct value each sysops worker brings to your company.

Genius!

Well, a good sysadmin will run gcc once and get a working build, while an inexperienced one will run it dozens of times because he forgot to install dependencies and apply patches.

This would be quite funny if it had not been attempted seriously in a major Gnu project already!

Check out the SHAMELESS Ole Tange and his bizarre attempts to simultaneously force people to obey academic citations while at the same offering you the chance to throw the academic process in the bin for a mere 10000 EUR payment to him.

I wish I was joking. GNU Nagware! It literally nags you with a warning message every time you use it until you tell it you agree to cite him or pay him 10000 EUR.

I have no idea how the Gnu foundation allows this!

Take a look at http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/parallel.git/tree/src/paral...

sub bibtex { # Returns: N/A print join("\n", "Academic tradition requires you to cite works you base your article on.", "When using programs that use GNU Parallel to process data for publication", "please cite:", "", "\@article{Tange2011a,", " title = {GNU Parallel - The Command-Line Power Tool},", " author = {O. Tange},", " address = {Frederiksberg, Denmark},", " journal = {;login: The USENIX Magazine},", " month = {Feb},", " number = {1},", " volume = {36},", " url = {http://www.gnu.org/s/parallel},", " year = {2011},", " pages = {42-47}", " doi = {10.5281/zenodo.16303}", "}", "", "(Feel free to use \\nocite{Tange2011a})", "", "This helps funding further development; and it won't cost you a cent.", "If you pay 10000 EUR you should feel free to use GNU Parallel without citing.", "", "If you send a copy of your published article to tange\@gnu.org, it will be", "mentioned in the release notes of next version of GNU Parallel.\n\n", ); while(not -e $ENV{'HOME'}."/.parallel/will-cite") { print "\nType: 'will cite' and press enter.\n> "; my $input = <STDIN>; if($input =~ /will cite/i) { mkdir $ENV{'HOME'}."/.parallel"; if(open (my $fh, ">", $ENV{'HOME'}."/.parallel/will-cite")) { close $fh; print "\nThank you for your support. It is much appreciated. The citation\n", "notice is now silenced. You may also use '--will-cite'.\n", "If you use '--will-cite' in scripts you are expected to pay\n", "the 10000 EUR, because you are making it harder to see the\n", "citation notice.\n\n";

Does any distro keep that in their packages?

Yes, at least Ubuntu and Gentoo do.

GNU Parallel is a wonderful tool! I use it all the time.

If and when I ever write an academic peer-reviewed paper that heavily relies on GNU Parallel as part of my data processing pipeline, I'd be happy to give it a two-line citation. Until that happens, the `--will-cite` flag silences the error message. So does the patch that disables the message (this is GNU after all :)

I agree it's a great tool, except for the nagware messages and their content.

Imagine if the author of 'cp' or 'bash' had the same attitude...

Also, do you follow the 'rules'?

==== "If you use '--will-cite' in scripts you are expected to pay\n", "the 10000 EUR, because you are making it harder to see the\n", "citation notice. ====

Free as in freedom, not free as in free from nag notices.

It was covered in depth at http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/parallel/2013-11/msg00006....

Well joking aside, its funny because things really used to be this way - sessions/jobs were an invoice line-item, but .. kidding aside - if one tried to practically apply such follies - I think this might be another place that Bitcoin - and micro-transactions - would be useful.

I'd be quite happy to lend my CPU to appservers, knowing it was going to have transactions in my favour somehow.

So maybe there will be a Linux distro that plugs into Ethereum, somehow? Or hell, containers, sorry pardon me ..

I never quite got why it's ok for the stupid hackathon projects to be negative, demeaning, and have NSFW content, even though these things are completely verboten in every other tech event. Is there some kind of certification[0] that the hackathon organizers got to be allowed to do this?

EDIT:

[0] What I meant was that it is as if organizations like this hackathon have some kind of certification that allows them to have this kind of content, without being attacked by the social justice movement. E.g. if Microsoft had sexual content at one of its conferences, or organized a "fun" conference with sexual content, they would be immediately attacked and forced to apologize. My claim is that having progressive politics and being implicitly endorsed by the progressive community, acts like a kind of certification.

There certainly are tech events that not shy away from such things, as much as there are hackathons that do not like such projects.

Also, most hackathons don't select the projects beforehand, whereas other events have to explain why they selected "bad" content.

What other tech events did you have in mind?

And if you check out the hackathons website [0] and the previous hackathon [1], they are showcasing exactly the offensive content that I was describing in my post.

[0] http://stupidhackathon.github.io/ [1] http://www.stupidhackathon.com/

If you name your Hackathon "Stupid Shit No One Needs & Terrible Ideas Hackathon", I think it's perfectly acceptable to allow slightly NSFW content. And I don't agree anything there was overly negative or demeaning, it was all healthy satire.

We don't have to hold every single developer event to the same standards as a Microsoft developer conference (which themselves don't always set high standards [1]). There are places for being serious, but there also have to be places where we can have fun and introspect with some lighthearted satire.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zww2ivWdLas

I don't believe that the difference is serious vs non-serious events. It's pretty clear that no company or group would dare to create a light hearted hackathon featuring sexual content, if it hadn't been proposed first by a progressive cause (in this case mocking startup culture for being a White cishet male bubble). And Microsoft apologized for that song[0]. Note that this event is sponsored by real tech companies.

Here is the content I thought would be considered offensive it it didn't come from a progressive source (repeated from [1]):

Here are some examples from the previous New York hackathon [2]:

Sexual content:

Golden Bitcoin Pasties, Focus Tools, Collaborative Fuck Bike, E.T. Strapon, Sado-Masochistic Macrame Planter, Tinder For Babies, "ok glass, vomit"

Making fun of mental health/development issues:

Stupid Font

Body shaming and objectification:

Intellectual Babes Calendar

And here are some prize categories in the current hackathon that are similarly offensive:

Peter Thiel, Scatological APIs, Targetting The "Hikikomori" Space

[0] http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-apologizes-for-cringe...

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9521510

[2] http://www.stupidhackathon.com/

You forgot Egg Timer on the New York hackaton's page, which features a drawing of not one but four female ovaries, complete with blatant objectification: http://pamelaliou.com/blog/?p=367

When white women in the tech industry themselves are reprogrammed to be non-welcoming to diversities, you know there's a problem.

Four ovaries isn't really that many; at least they weren't reprogrammed to draw like seven

You seem to be really digging for some kind of SJW secret hackathon cabal or something, when the explanation is a lot simpler: crass and offensive jokes are funny but usually lack the staying power required to see them all the way through a hackathon.

If your argument is "Well, nobody but SJWs would possibly throw one of these and they do it just so they can taunt the rest of us" then I think you need to spend more time off in the real world.

Saying the Stupid Font makes fun of mental health/development issues seems like a stretch. Being stupid is a broad term. Sometimes I do stupid things (as all humans do), and in that moment I am stupid. It's not exactly a medical term.

The Intellectual Babes Calendar is objectifying men, but I think by parodying and creating awareness for objectifying females it is still a net positive for society. That may change at some point, but that's why we view things in context.

You are obviously right that there is a lot of sexual content, and that that Hackathon was an industry event. But as long as everybody is aware of that when visiting the Hackathon, I fail to see any harm in that. This isn't even sex-deprived male cisgender nerds, most of the sexual content is created by females of various ethnicities.

Saying that sexual content is inappropriate during all work/industry related events seems overly broad to me. After all, our industry is diverse and even includes respected companies like pornhub. There are bound to be people in this industry who are very comfortable with sexual content, and it's not my place to judge them for expressing that in an appropriate context.

This isn't even sex-deprived male cisgender nerds, most of the sexual content is created by females of various ethnicities.

That's precisely my point. I don't think that it's ok that we have one set of standards for sex-deprived male cisgender nerds, and another for women of various ethnicities.

That just highlights more hypocrisy. If you are against objectification, how can you consider the porn industry respectable?

Looking at those links, I don't see anything "negative" or "demeaning" as you suggest farther up the thread. NSFW, sure, there are some projects that would easily qualify, but... who cares? Many things that are NSFW are what make life worth living.

Remember, we're talking about subjective measures here. One person's "demeaning" might be another's "hilarious". Are you now the arbiter of taste? Standard rules apply: if you don't like it, don't participate. If you feel the need to protest, that's your right, but understand that many people will consider you uptight and unreasonable.

Hackathon certification, what?

I think you might misunderstand what happens at a hackathon. Usually participants show up with ideas for things to work on in their heads, or they join a project that someone else is working on while there.

There isn't anyone dictating what people work on, and no one has to "approve" their projects. It's functionally not that different from the participants doing their work by themselves at home. The only difference is a hackathon is an arbitrary time and place just for working on projects.

Is there some kind of certification that the hackathon organizers got to be allowed to do this?

u wot m8?

More specifically, though it may be easy to forget in this age of all-corporate and sponsored and sold-out meetups, the only thing it takes to make a hackathon is to show up with computers and friends and hack code.

The only thing required to do a themed hackathon is to say "Yo, here's the theme for our hackathon."

That's the magic of being a hacker.

I don't know where you are from but my forefathers wrote up mailed all the 'certification' I need to king George in 1776.

How is this any of negative, demeaning, or NSFW?

see http://stupidhackathon.github.io/ and http://www.stupidhackathon.com/ and also https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9521510

Given the comment you've just linked there leads with "This hackathon is a good example of the hypocrisy of the progressive movement", and you think "hackathon" is some sort of brand name requiring certification ... I urge you to consider the possibility that the problem lies not in the rest of the world outside yourself.

See my footnote at the start of this thread. And please stop progressive-splaining to me.

"progressive-splaining* means what, exactly? I have a similar issue with the misused mansplaining, for what it's worth.

Please don't feed the sincerely querulous poster.

When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. E.g. "That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3."

On the website[0], there are some examples of completed projects that appear to be overly sexual in nature; I think that's why formulaT was talking about things being NSFW. [0] http://www.stupidhackathon.com/

... Do we have to censor everything now?

I don't care. I'm just pointing out the hypocrisy where any remotely sexual imagery[0], comment[1] or performance[2] in tech results in controversy, firings and apologies, and yet events like this are ok because they wear progressive politics on their sleeve.

[0] http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/nov/14/rosetta-comet...

[1] http://www.wired.com/2013/03/richards-affair-and-misogyny-in...

[2] http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-apologizes-for-cringe...

Have you considered that 'context' exists.

Hi, founders of the Stupid Shit No One Needs & Terrible Ideas Hackathon (AKA "Stupid Hackathon") here, and yes we do have a certificate, linked below for future reference.

http://i.imgur.com/8Qp91cE.gif

Whatever issues I have with your hackathon, I gotta hand it to your for trying to pull off George Bush jokes in 2015. Same for Mitt Romney.

Guess what: not everyone finds these sorts of things offensive. If a company that was trying to appeal to a very broad audience attempted something like this, sure, they'd be crucified (and I wouldn't be surprised or find anything wrong with that outcome). But events like these target the sorts of irreverent people who enjoy this type of humor. If you don't get it or find it offensive, I'm sure they don't really care, as you aren't their target audience.

I'm getting quite tired of the idea that there isn't room in the world for things like this. Lighten up, don't be so uptight, and recognize that people's tastes are different, and events like this don't have to inherently be of harm to anyone. Hell, if you look at the main page for the SF event at Noisebridge[1], they explicitly call out a link to Noisebridge's anti-harassment policy and community standards for the event. They seem well aware of the concept of keeping the event a safe place.

[1] https://stupidhackathon.github.io/

If by safe you mean you can ridicule anyone as long as they are a cis white male, then I'm sure they are keeping it very safe.

> Is there some kind of certification that the hackathon organizers got to be allowed to do this?

They are certified to produce software at Level 3 Free Speech as laid out in ISO 4328. Compliance was verified at great cost by Certified Enterprise Thought Inspectors from McKinsey, Bain and Boston.

The key to being a good hacker is to make sure everyone is OK with what you're doing before you do it, and the organizers are very responsible in that regard.

I've been trying to understand what you were talking about, and I didn't realize there was another hackathon with the same name in NYC. This one was in SF, and the organizers even had this on the submission page for signing up to present: 'In particular, [quoting the hackerspace code of conduct] "Nobody should be forced to experience sexual or sexualised language or imagery." For real.'

Its kind of cute that you believe in the whole "blue team" vs. "red team" thing, and that it is relevant to the topic.

And to answer your question... no, you don't need a certification to make an ass of yourself:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9521343

Reply on news.ycombinator.com