This is very well made, and so nostalgic to me! My whole PhD between 2012-16 was based on RBMs and I learned so much about generative ML through these models. Research has come so far and one doesn't hear much about them these days but they were really at the heart of the "AI Spring" back then.
As much as the introduction and the first two sections motivate the post, I think the last "Don't Just Feel Pleasure, Show It" section is the one that contains the main take-home message in my opinion. If one has benefited by using FOSS, one must acknowledge that it cannot get better and magically sustain itself without support from those who use it or appreciate the principles underlying the movement. The level of transparency and freedom of choice that FOSS offers to users, the DIY ethic and a sense of community it encourages is indeed something to be grateful for, and deserves a generous (subjective) contribution!
If one does not contribute directly by submitting bugs or developing FOSS itself, supporting organisations such as...
... I believe can go a long way. I'm sure there are more - when one feels grateful for the service the software has rendered them, one just needs to make the effort to find out who has written the software and whether there's a "Donate" button somewhere through which this can be expressed, however small the actual amount.
- Is LE worth contributing for, given it's a joint Google initiative?
- FOSS really need to send out proper invoices, donations are a corporate risk and I have to spend time to my accountant to justify the necessity of donations, every year.
I didn't realise that LE was a Google initiative. I know that it's supported by the Chrome project (and thus Google), but also by Mozilla, EFF and a lot of other supporters. Could you please point me to any article that discusses its Google affiliation? Thanks!
A very practical piece of advice! Thanks. This is roughly the picture I had in my mind about how to progress. My mother (who is a full-time consultant now) did this. She'd work at the government office during the first half of the day, then offer consultations during the rest of the day at a private establishment. She carried this on for several years and finally, when she retired from government service, she went into full-time practice and that seems to be working very well for her. The time-line of this is much longer than what you managed but I think her focus was never to quit government service asap.
Congratulations on where you are! I'd love for something like this in my career.
To give you an idea of the kind of freedom you get, I am actually French, used to live in Lyon, and married a Japanese woman. When I reached 100% of remote work, I told my wife "say, wanna go live in Japan?". When I told my clients I was moving, so they should expect a 1-2 weeks of downtime on my side, I had an important client in Australia. His reaction was "Cool! Our timezones will be closer!"
My situation is very similar, actually. My wife and I are of different nationalities and would ideally like to have the flexibility to move to each others home countries when needed and still be able to work without much hassle. She's making an effort on her part, and this is a part of my effort :).
This is a very good point! I do collaborative work regularly on GitHub but on private repositories of the company with their assigned GitHub account. I should look into how this history can be joined with my public profile which has very little activity as I do other programming on Gitlab and Bitbucket.
I'd feel more excited about something that comes up with a way to completely get rid of agents. In my opinion, services for letting should look at establishing a more transparent and direct operating channel between the tenants and landlords. The paperwork is generally standard. There are deposit protection schemes to protect the tenant's deposit. Landlords can directly get in touch with agencies that do reference checks and property damage checks before and after tenancy. This information can be made available on the app/website for those interested. If an app makes it easy enough to do all this, even for the not so tech-savvy (these are the types of landlords I've come across through agents), this letting agency menace can be gotten rid of altogether. I always thought this was the point of using the internet for property letting. Of course, my opinion is biased from the point of view of someone who has not had such a good experience with letting agents.
I know openrent.co.uk is trying to head in that direction. Universities also have their own housing departments that put students in touch with prospective landlords who have registered with them at no cost at all to either party. Maybe employers/corporates could also start doing the same.
Agents are mostly there to promote the property and conduct viewings. Many landlords don't have the time or inclination to handle that side of things. Software can do a lot of the agent's work, but not all of it for all people.
The reference checks are just profit centres for the agents, so they actually want you to overpay for a new check each time.
The Swedes have a Christmas sausage , called Korv ( potatoe sausage ). .really good ! I had an Italian butcher make it for me on Christmas . . he asked me if he could copy the recipe . . I obliged , later in the summer I went in and he was selling ' Korv ' , I told him the Swedes usually only eat ' Korv ' at Christmas , he said they ( customer's ) love it !
