The hacking business model -- not just about the code!

http://askmonty.org/...cking_business_model

Purpose
- Create a sustainable business model that can be adopted and adapted by others.
- Create a fair and democratic company that is owned by the workers.
- Have long-term, trustworthy and meaningful relationships with our staff and customers.

Principles
- Egalitarian: The belief that all people should be treated equally. This includes equality, non-discrimination and inclusivity.
- Sustainable: We have a long-term view on our business. We watch our profits & spend wisely, we take care of each other, we support the things we depend on.
- Transparent: We communicate in an honest and genuine way. Any information or process that can be made open, will be made open.
- Fun: Create a workplace where people can have fun and want to work.
- Agile: Be flexible, receptive & adaptive, especially when dealing with staff and customers.

Methods
Concrete tools for helping us live according to our principles, including:
- Consensus-based decision making.
- Corporate transparency - any information or process that can be made open, should be made open.
- Licensing that helps benefit our company, our staff, our customers, our partners and society at large.
- Profit-sharing with staff, contributors and worthy causes.
- Don't try to change people. Focus on getting the best from their strengths. Develop ways to work around their weaknesses.
- Prefer to work with people who share our values.
- Work against patents and other legislation that harms individual rights.

Introduce me to one fantastic blog, off the beaten path, that you don't think many people know about.

Here is mine for you:

Shalampax Speaks is a humor blog, based on the daily happenings in the tiny mythical island country of Shalampax. (you might have to browse the main site to understand some of it)

I was recently gifted a new kindle dx and thought it might be useful to report my initial thoughts for others considering jumping into buying an ebook reader.

This will be really quick, just some fast thoughts while they are fresh in my mind.

First, I underestimated how enjoyable it would be to read a normally-paperback fiction book on it.  I normally read large format academic/reference books and papers, and rarely fiction, but decided to read a free version of Moby Dick (Herman Mellville) on the kindle, and it is extremely satisfying.

I think there are several reasons it's satisfying; the fiction format is very well suited to an ebook reader.  the screen is larger than a normal paperback, and the fact that one reads such books linearly, page after page, makes the page turning speed 100% satisfactory.  (this isn't the case when you want to quickly flip through a reference book).

The weight of the thing makes it fun to carry around the house and read in different rooms, and the e-ink is indeed much more comfortable to my eyes than an lcd screen ever is, and there is real advantage to there being no viewing-angle issues.

Compared to reading a book -- one thing i didn't realize is how much of an advantage it is that the ebook reader doesn't have the problems that books have of not saying folded open, and having to hold them open.  the flat 2 dimensional slate feel of an ebook reader is actually a really nice thing.  as much as i appreciate the physicality of a book -- there is some real advantage to the physical size and shape of an ebook reader from a functional standpoint.

I never have a physical bookmark when i need one; having the ebook reader remember where i left off is nice.

Areas where i find the ebook reader less satisfactory:

Reference books and papers: it's very hard to capture the feel and experience you get from being able to really quickly flip through, scan, and browse such documents and can feel claustrophic and very limiting trying to do here.

There is something very attractive about being able to carry one device with hundreds or even thousands of books on it.  however my initial experience has been that i'm not finding myself reading the same way i listen to music, wanting to have a hundred choices on hand at any given moment.  instead reading seems more likely to be a matter of having one or two items at a time that one is focusing on.  so this is not such a big deal.

If you love reading classic older literature, that is now in the public domain -- I think you need to get yourself an ebook reader; it's PERFECT for this, the books are free and readily available, and the reading experience is ideal.

In fact i'll go further: if you have a child you want to expose to fine literature, a wonderful gift might be to get one of these now cheap kindles, and fill it with public domain literature classics.  And it's one of the few technological devices that can't be used to waste time and rot their brains.

Reading the NY times or other newspapers on it -- very cool how it gets them automatically each day, but not very satisfying to read.  however reading the onion blog is quite fun.

1. Newsletter Editorial

Well, we've arrived at another DC newsletter, where I provide a peek into some of the best and most interesting posts on our forum in the last 30 days or so.  If this is the first DC newsletter you've received, congratulations you lucky ducky -- your mission is to quickly scan it and see if there are any forum threads you want to stop by and read about or -- even better -- add your comments to.

I've been working on a new website project that is long overdue and should be revealed on DC in the next 30 days, so I haven't been updating my apps as much as I should be.  I hope to be back to that soon and to start working on some new big apps to reveal by the end of the year as part of the NANY event (New Apps for the New Year).  I *really* want to see some bigger applications released for NANY this year, so if you are a coder, please do come by and pledge to work on something.  I'm also looking for a few collaborators for some ideas I have so don't be shy about saying you want to code something but need some ideas(!)

Our feel-good forum thread of the month has to be the one about using a 7" usb touchscreen with the DC program CircleDock.  After a forum member posted a video showing the cool use of the device with the program, other forum members agreed to chip in and donate enough to pay for the two current maintainers of the software to get their own.  It was a great example of how a small donation can make a difference and bring a smile to someone's face.  A big thank you to all who have donated and continue to donate to support the website and the authors who live on it.  Your donations make this site possible.

And Lastly, I would be remiss not to acknowledge a couple of DC members for accomplishments in the last month.  DC member Jody Holmes (aka Skwire) became the recipient of a very generous donation from Chris Hanscom of Veign.com, a valuable Microsoft VisualStudio/MSDN bundle, in recognition of his work over the last year or so writing Coding Snacks for people.  Now I happen to know that it would take a a nuclear explosion to keep skwire from the Coding Snacks section and so he doesn't need any encouragement to keep working on them, but it's nice to see all the people turn out to congratulate him.  And DC member mnemonic became the first person to complete all 10 assignments in the Self-teaching Programming School section for Python.  That's a pretty big accomplishment given that I really hit him with a couple of insane assignments at the end, which went well beyond what I normally assign.  It's great to see the Self-teaching Programming School continue to be a useful resource for coders to get motivation to learn, and I hope it's one area that we can improve going forward.

Introduction:

Atrise Golden section is a design grid for web, graphic, logo and user-interface design.

This program is designed as a tool to help artists, designers, programmers, photographers and others.
It allows the user to design something by applying those proportions defined as the golden section or golden ratio.
Various aspects of the golden section can be overlaid visually on whatever design software you are using in Windows.
See also the Wikipedia article on the golden ratio here.


For whom this app is designed:

Atrise Golden Section has potential for anyone designing a web site, or a user interface, constructing a newsletter, or indulging in digital photography, or a whole lot more.

In use, it positions an overlay grid that 'floats' above your work. Aligning elements to that grid is a quick and efficient way to ensure a layout that the human eye/brain combination will find appealing, often at a level below conscious thought. Without having to know a great deal about æsthetics, it is possible to make very worthwhile improvements to the layout of material at which we ourselves and others will be looking.

http://www.atrise.com/golden-section