

Cottage Computer Programming - justlearning
http://www.atariarchives.org/deli/cottage_computer_programming.php

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bcl
I've had the pleasure of meeting Paul a couple of times -- he gave a
presentation to our local Linux User group and attended a few meetings. He's a
very interesting guy, here is his main page:
<http://www.arachnoid.com/index.html> check out his yearly boat trips to
Alaska, and his Java based HTML editor.

Also note that the article is very old :)

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thismat
I can't help but feel a tinge of enlightenment from reading his articles.
Maybe not enlightenment, maybe....reinforcement. Thank you so much for posting
this link.

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dwiel
You don't need to live out in the middle of nowhere by yourself to live a
cheap lifestyle which affords lots of free time (to code, garden, design,
etc). If you replace log cabin with Natural Building [1] and expensive air
conditioning and heating with smart design [2], you can build a cheap,
sustainable home for very cheap. A group of us is working on building a
development of this style only a short bike ride away from Bloomington, IN -
close enough to easily/cheaply get into town and alleviate boredom - all to
the tune of less than $100/mo over 15-30 yrs or $10-20k down. btown
cooperative living at gmail if you are interested.

</plug>

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_building>

[2] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_cooling>

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thismat
I wanted to open some dialog with you about this, but I believe your email
address might be incorrect or there was an issue with how I converted it that
I can't find. Care to send me a message?

~~~
dwiel
just sent you a message, and the correct email is: btown cooperative village
at gmail, with dots between those words. Sorry about the typo above - it looks
like I can't edit it any more.

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Scriptor
Just letting you know, I don't think the dots in gmail addresses are required.
You can place them anywhere in your address and it will still get to you.
Handy way to sort your inbox bases on who used which version of your email
address.

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araneae
_There's a lot of talk these days about how the individual cottage programmer
is on the way out. I don't think so, even though a team of cooperating
programmers is in principle a better arrangement. My doubt springs from the
fact that the best of existing programs are the product of one, at most two
individuals..._

Does this mean that there's hope for those of us that hate programming with
other people, despite pg's insistence that we need to have a cofounder?

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antipaganda
Cofound with a suit. Don't let her look at your code. Don't look at her
marketing.

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bisceglie
It'd be pretty interesting to do this today. Internet access would negate a
lot of the benefits of hermitage, in some respects. But it's a super romantic
ideal - and one I [and it seems others] can definitely relate to. A big part
of this story is that Lutus didn't go out to the wilderness _to_ work on
software, but rather, fell into it through curiosity and excitement over some
novel new form of technology.

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percept
More:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Lutus>

~~~
manish
Between 1988 and 1991 Lutus sailed solo around the world in a 31-foot
sailboat. WOW!!

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RyanMcGreal
Nearly a decade ago, Arachnophilia 4.0 eased me into web design, which was my
first stepping stone to web programming (good move on my part: I'm rubbish at
design).

His CareWare philosophy introduced me to free software in a way that really
resonated with me; and his well-argued antipathy toward Microsoft got me re-
thinking what it means to use - and depend on - closed, proprietary
technologies.

Finally, though I'm at best a mediocre, self-taught programmer, his sheer
creativity and productiveness over the years has inspired me to create and
produce in my own turn.

I have never met or even corresponded with him, but I owe him a large debt of
gratitude for helping to shape the programmer I have become.

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myth_drannon
With the proliferation of wireless internet solutions(at least in Canada),
working from some remote location never being easier than now. The land up
north is cheap , wind turbine is less than 1000$ so enough to power light and
computers.I keep coming to that idea over and over again :) The only thing
that stops me are mosquitoes ....

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theycallmemorty
Apparently you can build an immunity to mosquito bites over time. I have not
confirmed this with my personal experience...

~~~
myth_drannon
Well , based on research articles I've read , mosquitoes are attracted to more
stressed people or more precisely to the chemicals that the stressed person
produces. Living a calm life in the outdoors will definitely reduce the stress
levels, so I guess it just takes some time to become invisible to mosquitos.

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Vivtek
I'm struck by his mention of a middle ground, the idea of relative calm in a
small town. This is a lot of what I'm trying to say with
<http://richmondhackers.drupalcafe.com> (cf. my HNN post a week or two ago).

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jlees
This isn't the first time I've read the argument for a computer being superior
to a woman because of its exactitude and unforgiving nature, yet total
acceptance of the correct. It is, however, one of the more eloquent (and
concise!) versions of the argument.

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10ren
This is so much what I want to do, but I don't yet have the... gumption... to
actually do it.

I also code alone, and probably my income from investments from my lifestyle
software product business (about $US 460 pcm) is enough to support it.
According to Wolfram, $40 pcm in 1976 is $150 pcm today,
<http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=40+in+1976+USD>

I don't really know how to start (or how to be sure if I'd _really_ like the
solitude that much after a few weeks/months...)

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mkramlich
what is 'pcm'?

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eru
I guess "per calender month".

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10ren
Yes, sorry; I thought it was a standard abbreviation. Or maybe I've looked at
too many rental ads. Perhaps there's a better one?

I guess "per month", "/month" and "monthly" all work well, though I'd like a
shorter one. Maybe "pm" or "/m". Or perhaps convert it to years, and use "pa".
I'm fussing over this a bit, but I agree with pg that in some cases,
conciseness helps readability.

~~~
eru
Yes, though Paul Graham's notion of conciseness is not the number of
characters, but more like the number of `symbols' or words. So `monthly'
should be fine by this measure.

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davidw
Cool! Wonder where he is in Oregon? I sometimes have dreams about moving
somewhere remote, but to tell the truth I think I'd get bored pretty quickly.

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GrandMasterBirt
Reminds me of an old Russian saying: It will still take 9 woman 9 months to
give birth to one child.

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Mongoose
_What they should have said was, "Press down the key marked CTRL. While
holding it down, press the B key. Now release these keys and press the key
marked RETURN."_

I understand the "where's the 'any key'?" argument, but we shouldn't all be
designing for recluse luddites.

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bisceglie
i'm not so sure lutus could be called a luddite. oh, and this is 1976...

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Mongoose
Good point. Luddite is the wrong word. I meant to say that there should be
some minimum assumed level of expertise of your target market. "Intuitive" is
often synonymous with "familiar," and an interface should be able to make
_some_ assumptions about the experience and abilities of the user.

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10ren
The computer in question was pretty much the _first_ personal computer. The
correct assumption about the amount of experience of the user with a personal
computer was zero.

