The Sourcerer

Licensing Swil

I finished my term paper [pdf] for Professional Responsibilities (ethics in software development, Cal Poly CSC 300). Here's the abstract:

Software developers have a gamut of options for software licensing. These options range from propriety to permissiveness, including many open source options. This article introduces the attributes and categories of common licenses and presents their strengths and weaknesses. There follows an analysis of how each license attribute and licensing model would serve the author, the public, and authors of derivative works. In particu- lar, this article addresses the licensing needs of a programming language called Swil. The article concludes that a dual licensing scheme including a commercial license and a viral free software license would provide the best compromise for all parties.

Leithian

I've posted my term project for Music Theory I (Cal Poly MU 104). This is a short, four-part choir piece in chorale style to demonstrate that I've learned something about counter-point this quarter (meaning, I can produce random, Bach-formula 1 chorales). The lyrics come from "The Lay of Leithian", an epic poem by J.R.R. Tolkien. Fingolfin, an elf lord, bangs on the gate of Hell and summons Morgoth (Satan) to engage in single combat.

So, here is a MIDI file, and a TIF image of the manuscript.

• leithian.mid
• leithian.tif

Will Google Return My Calls - Part 3

Well, summarily, they did.

I applied for a Full Time Cluster System Administrator position. I've had three phone interviews now.

The first phone interview was conversational. The second required coding Perl off the cuff, and reciting the code over the phone, which was fun but tricky. I messed up twice and had to proceed from a hint to get it right. The third phone call... well, I don't think I did too well. The interviewer asked a bunch of networking questions that I didn't know answers to, and I bungled around on a large scale sorting algorithm problem.

Well, summarily, I hope they call again.