LinuxMCE Forums

General => Users => Topic started by: tschak909 on July 09, 2009, 04:00:12 pm

Title: I need your help, to continue fdeveloping.
Post by: tschak909 on July 09, 2009, 04:00:12 pm
Hello everyone,

I'll just get right down to the point...

I've been able to spend so much time on this project, because I literally haven't had a job, in 6 and a half months.

I have been living off a combination of savings, and from donations from people like you to implement features in the stack.

I need $2000 to handle expenses for this month.

That's it, really. I have nothing more to say. I'm broke.

-Thom
Title: Re: I need your help, to continue fdeveloping.
Post by: skeptic on July 09, 2009, 04:38:01 pm
I hate to even ask, but is spending so much time doing dev work for lmce interfering with your job search?  When it comes to stuff like paying rent, you gotta put yourself and your job hunt first.
Title: Re: I need your help, to continue fdeveloping.
Post by: wierdbeard65 on July 09, 2009, 04:44:22 pm
I for one would hate to see you having to give up. I've suggested we set up some marketing products to raise some cash that could be used to help fund development (and that may include paying developers).

In the meantime, do you have a PayPal account for anyone who is feeling generous to use to donate?
Title: Re: I need your help, to continue fdeveloping.
Post by: compaqpresario on July 09, 2009, 04:50:19 pm
seeing as how you have completed the gyro remote development....why don't we organize funding for development of a mobile orbiter such as windows, android, or even a iphone orbiter.  A mobile orbiter for gsm and cdma networks that will be able to utilize presence detection would be preferable for alarm purposes. Just a thought that may be financially helpful to you and would benefit linuxmce at the same time.  ???  --or any other feature requests such as video conferencing, ui enhancements etc--
Title: Re: I need your help, to continue fdeveloping.
Post by: tschak909 on July 09, 2009, 04:55:28 pm
skeptic: you're not understanding, i'm doing this, because even after handing out resumes, and being attached to three different staffing agencies, I still have no job.

weirdbeard65: yes, I do. thomas@localeconcept.com

-Thom
Title: Re: I need your help, to continue fdeveloping.
Post by: Raul102801 on July 09, 2009, 05:02:33 pm
I do agree with both previous comments here. Thom the few months I have spent in the forums and using the system, I can see you are a very talented developer and that everyone here benefits from your work. I am not opposed to giving donations for a developer to work on a specific task. I donated for the work to be done for the gyration remote and I don't even use that remote but it was my way of giving back to the community and who knows I might use it some day.
There are other features such as Iphone orbiter, orblive like application  (just some ideas)... I would love to see and I would be more than willing to donate for development.
As they say, money doesn't grow on trees and I don't really have much but I don't mind throwing $20-$100 towards something I really use and enjoy such as LinuxMCE. So as Wierdbeird said, if there were some kind of paypal account for donations to be made to the project I am sure that could very well be used to help cover developers time and I am sure quite a few faithfull followers wouldn't mind giving some spare change to help out.
Title: Re: I need your help, to continue fdeveloping.
Post by: skeptic on July 09, 2009, 05:26:19 pm
skeptic: you're not understanding, i'm doing this, because even after handing out resumes, and being attached to three different staffing agencies, I still have no job.

-Thom

It was a question, not a statement.  I have an idea how dedicated you are to LinuxMCE, I was just asking if that dedication is affecting the job search. 

However, you are right in one way.  I don't understand the intent of your post.  Are you asking for money?  Suggesting another paid project similar to the gyro remote?
Title: Re: I need your help, to continue fdeveloping.
Post by: bongowongo on July 09, 2009, 10:25:00 pm
Not to trying to be an ass.
But how about next month, don't you need 2000 also???
Title: Re: I need your help, to continue fdeveloping.
Post by: tschak909 on July 09, 2009, 10:51:22 pm
Very correct, I am still looking for work.

-Thom
Title: Re: I need your help, to continue fdeveloping.
Post by: valent on July 09, 2009, 10:58:24 pm
Very correct, I am still looking for work.

-Thom

Where do you live? Can you send me your resumé? Maybe I can find work for you. And if I understand correctly there are more than a few companies using LinuxMCE and charging lots of money for installations, sure they do the work but they should also donate some (lets say 10-20%) of their profits atleast to the project their business relies upon.

Are they doing this or just reaping the benefits and not contributing back to the community and the project?

My email is valent.turkovic@gmail.com
Title: Re: I need your help, to continue fdeveloping.
Post by: ckerkhoff on July 10, 2009, 12:50:20 am
If you're looking for something to tide you over until you find something more to your liking consider some of the listings here: http://autohire.careershop.com/fedexground/JobSearch/JobSearchList.asp?View=Jobs (http://autohire.careershop.com/fedexground/JobSearch/JobSearchList.asp?View=Jobs)
Title: Re: I need your help, to continue fdeveloping.
Post by: compaqpresario on July 10, 2009, 10:01:06 pm
Thom, is it safe to assume that our pay for development of specific features suggestions are not the form of financial assistance your were seeking...just wondering because i see that you posted your paypal address but did not respond to our suggestions.   :)
Title: Re: I need your help, to continue fdeveloping.
Post by: tschak909 on July 10, 2009, 11:08:43 pm
If you send along a suggestion, I will work on that feature.

-Thom
Title: Re: I need your help, to continue fdeveloping.
Post by: drfthorse on July 10, 2009, 11:08:57 pm
I have been following this project and reading the forums for months now.  I have no dev experience and really no good technical skill set to contribute.  Thom's post now provides me with a way to contribute to this project!  Hopefully my financial contribution will make a small dent with Thom's time/money issue.  I hope others will continue to due their part to make sure this project keeps moving in the right direction!
Title: Re: I need your help, to continue fdeveloping.
Post by: ccoudsi on July 11, 2009, 05:47:42 am
Thom,
I can help you out with half of your expenses this month, if you can help me setup my Vista-20P panel to get it up and running??
Title: Re: I need your help, to continue fdeveloping.
Post by: tschak909 on July 11, 2009, 09:04:23 am
are you using a Vista ICM? The driver I wrote is for the ICM module.

-Thom
Title: Re: I need your help, to continue fdeveloping.
Post by: ccoudsi on July 11, 2009, 12:05:57 pm
Yes, Thom
Here's the thread I posted back in May with more details.
http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=7395.msg53185#msg53185 (http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=7395.msg53185#msg53185)
Thanks.
Title: Re: I need your help, to continue fdeveloping.
Post by: marrandy on July 12, 2009, 04:18:22 pm
I paypaled $100 yesterday.  Its not much but 20 x $100 = $2,000.

I would like to see a section in the forum dedicated to requests where people add their name/handle and amount of money they wish to gift.  Not a wish area, but a I'll donate x amount if this is successfully completed.  Actually, pre-pay via paypal in advance is better, with a refund after x months if it isn't started, and > x months if its not completed.  Othewise, people may not pay.

I would like the CADDX NX series of alarm panels supported and would donate another $100 for that, as an example.

The other area to obtain funding could be post-install configuration.  Many people have issues when some items don't auto install when they should.  Video's that don't have artwork or the artwork that plays the wrong video or pick any other post-install issue that needs fixing via ssh.

It might not make you rich, but pay your bills, make you happy and content.  Don't forget that $15/hr = $30,000 per year.  Obviously $30/hr = $60,000 per year.  You don't have to price yourself out of the market so no one will hire you.  Even the lower $15/hr is $2,500 per month.  Something to think about.

ADD:  Pfsense have both a bounty area with rules and commercial support options.  http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/board,34.0.html

Title: Re: I need your help, to continue fdeveloping.
Post by: Techstyle on July 12, 2009, 07:02:21 pm
Thom,

I have taken a 40% paycut and therefore cannot Paypal you some cash.

However, I did talk to you and others about setting up a system where 5-7% of what the community spend at Amazon is paid into a fund that will benefit the community.  I am not sure how much this community spends on Amazon in a month but if everybody connected by these links when spending I am sure it would accumalate something.

So, I have set up search facilities for both Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk in the link below:

http://www.techstyleuk.co.uk/lmce_ass.htm (http://www.techstyleuk.co.uk/lmce_ass.htm)

Simply Search in the box provided or click on the link and it will take you to amazon where you can buy as normal.  5-7% of your spend will go to the community.

These funds can be used to pay for hosting, advertising, hardware and to establish a hardship fund which can help people in a similar position to Thom.

We should add the HTML code from these links to the LMCE page but for now use the page on my site.  I was going to put the code on the Wiki but I don't want it to be editable so:

Amazon.com
Quote
<SCRIPT charset="utf-8" type="text/javascript" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&MarketPlace=US&ID=V20070822/US/li045-20/8002/ae838bed-0090-416e-aee0-4e34fccb66af"> </SCRIPT> <NOSCRIPT><A HREF="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&MarketPlace=US&ID=V20070822%2FUS%2Fli045-20%2F8002%2Fae838bed-0090-416e-aee0-4e34fccb66af&Operation=NoScript">Amazon.com Widgets</A></NOSCRIPT>

Amazon.co.uk
Quote
<SCRIPT charset="utf-8" type="text/javascript" src="http://ws.amazon.co.uk/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&MarketPlace=GB&ID=V20070822/GB/li08-21/8002/915fdcf6-e59e-48cb-8d27-a59d657af909"> </SCRIPT> <NOSCRIPT><A HREF="http://ws.amazon.co.uk/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&MarketPlace=GB&ID=V20070822%2FGB%2Fli08-21%2F8002%2F915fdcf6-e59e-48cb-8d27-a59d657af909&Operation=NoScript">Amazon.co.uk Widgets</A></NOSCRIPT>

Hope this helps
Techstyle
Title: Re: I need your help, to continue fdeveloping.
Post by: los93sol on July 13, 2009, 07:31:02 pm
Yes, Thom
Here's the thread I posted back in May with more details.
http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=7395.msg53185#msg53185 (http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=7395.msg53185#msg53185)
Thanks.

Thought I'd post back to let you know that Thom has made the commit to SVN yesterday with the VistaICM2 device.  That should also work for your panel.  A fresh build should get you going.  :)  Remember to help support this type of development and Thom's expenses this month
Title: Re: I need your help, to continue fdeveloping.
Post by: ccoudsi on July 13, 2009, 08:35:35 pm
Thanks for the update, & yes I promised Thom to help him out, and I will.
Title: Re: I need your help, to continue fdeveloping.
Post by: Viking on July 13, 2009, 09:41:28 pm
Hi Thom,

just thinking loud. What kind of things would a lot of people benefit from ? What features are missing in LinuxMCE.
Don't have so  much time to think a lot about it, but I am sure there are lots of people missing some basic features in LinuxMCE. And you should have (or take the) time at the moment thinking about that - looking at posts in the forum and post some ideas for what you could do.

Maybe we can open a "Developement Wishes" or whatever group here for that.

- could be something for MythTV or VDR.
- As far as I have read the MythTV implemantation of Recording groups is not finished yet - I would like to get it finished as I am thinking about using MythTV instead. What time will it take - who is willing to pay for it.
- Who is using VDR and would like it to record everything on the server (if Convergent is not finished with their changes)
- setting up all remote buttons on the just implemented gyro remote (for got the name) so that MythTV and VDR is working out of the box (if it isn't) at the moment. Including mapping for colour keys on VDR.
- Implement Templates for TV's and other devices - how much work is it - what would it cost to get my Sony TV plug and play - see signature.
- I noticed that it - on my system - helped nvidia cards to setup some vales in the /home/.nvidia-settings (IIRC) - posted it to the bug handeling system (forgot what the system is called)
- get the Acer revo working out of the box (if Convergent not yet are finished with that)
- Maybe Convergent or others are willingly to give you work - like writing the iPhone orbiter.
- EDIT: implement devices like : http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=8526.0 (without having lookinto what it can)
- aso.

I would not mind spending a resonable amount of money on gettting things working out of the box.


Greetings
Viking
Title: Re: I need your help, to continue fdeveloping.
Post by: Viking on July 14, 2009, 04:24:09 pm
Hi Thom,

I would really like to get my HTC Touch Diamond (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTC_Touch_Diamond) (Windows mobile pro 6.1) working as an orbiter. I have also got an older HTC Universal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTC_Universal) (Windows Mobile 5) that I also would like to get running. Both have a 640x480 resolution.

Can you get the Windows Mobile orbiter updated to Windows Mobile 6.1 and 5 ?

I am sure there are others wanting the same thing and I would spend $100 for this feature and maybe more if both of them works :)

Greetings
Viking
Title: Re: I need your help, to continue fdeveloping.
Post by: tschak909 on July 14, 2009, 08:38:00 pm
Porting to WM5/WM6 is a huge job, in terms of sheer debugging and trying to get all the various libraries etc to build and link correctly. This is at least 20 hours of work at my usual dev rate. If this can be raised, I will do the port. I've already spent over 40 hours working on this already.

-Thom
Title: Re: I need your help, to continue fdeveloping.
Post by: qball4 on July 14, 2009, 09:27:32 pm
Thom,

For the people that would like to contract your work, what is your hourly dev rate?

What might even be better is if you made a list of what it would cost the community to contract you for a different features/projects that people have expressed interest in. We could then figure out the per-person cost based on how many people end up wanting to contribute towards each feature, a la the gyration remote. In the case of orbiter ports, perhaps a licensing scheme could even be established so you had residual income.

:Matt
Title: Re: I need your help, to continue fdeveloping.
Post by: Viking on July 18, 2009, 10:01:45 am
Porting to WM5/WM6 is a huge job, in terms of sheer debugging and trying to get all the various libraries etc to build and link correctly. This is at least 20 hours of work at my usual dev rate. If this can be raised, I will do the port. I've already spent over 40 hours working on this already.

-Thom
I am very busy at the moment and will be the next months. Can you start a thread for getting spenders together ?
I will be in for $100.

Greetings
Viking
Title: Re: I need your help, to continue fdeveloping.
Post by: Murdock on July 20, 2009, 05:04:05 pm
Are there any updates on the hourly rates? If we can compile a list of requested features and establish estimatations (please note ESTIMATIONS)  we could get something rolling.

Personally I'd love to see the fiire gyration remote supported in 810 and am willing to put forth development $$ for it.
http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=8164.0
Title: Re: I need your help, to continue fdeveloping.
Post by: tschak909 on July 20, 2009, 05:26:26 pm
$100/hr, and I'll need at least 20 hours worth of work to port the old Fiire code to use the new kernel subsystems that were not present in 0710.

-Thom
Title: Re: I need your help, to continue fdeveloping.
Post by: tkmedia on July 20, 2009, 07:37:56 pm
For those who don't know a portion of every web pad sale goes to help Thom.

So you can get a great remote and help development at the same time.

for details
http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=7051.0

Thanks

Tim
Title: Re: I need your help, to continue fdeveloping.
Post by: Murdock on July 20, 2009, 09:04:09 pm
Thank you Thom. I'm having problems with paypal right now (says i've already registered an account) so i'm going to call them today to get it straightened out. I'll only be able to put up one hour right now. Paying your bills is the most important piece. I'll also check out the web pads.
Title: Re: I need your help, to continue fdeveloping.
Post by: Murdock on July 20, 2009, 10:42:40 pm
The web pads are very cool. I straightened out the business with paypal (what a mess that was!) and will send out (the modest 1 hour) as soon as they verify the account (the site says a day or so).


Thanks again for all of your hard work!
Title: Re: I need your help, to continue fdeveloping.
Post by: compressor5 on July 29, 2009, 11:17:26 pm
This will be my first post.

I have messed around with MythTV for quite some time, and I am ready to bring it to the next level with LinuxMCE. The only thing I see missing is an orbiter that not only integrates well with LinuxMCE, but with my life in general.

I think there is an incredibly strong argument for implementing an iphone orbiter. I have an iphone, and I can say without a doubt that it is the most impressive piece of integrated technology I have ever witnessed. Of course it is tightly controlled by Apple, which leads me to believe it is the reason behind its lack of implementation here in the LinuxMCE environment.

BUT! Look at the dominance of the iphone, and on a crappy network like AT$T!!! Man they suck...anyway, if you develop an iphone orbiter, my honest opinion is that you will see support come out of the woodworks in droves. I know I would be hooked. The android version would be compelling, but just not ready for world domination...yet. Windows Mobile is clunky, and would hurt your impression of a seamless interface, BIG TIME.

iphone will continue to dominate, and when it is let off the AT$T leash, it will be unstoppable. It is in every major market, and has a readily available way to distribute apps seemlessly. Its interface is perfect for this application. OK, you've brought me to this point..... PLEASE!!!! PRETTY PLEASE!!!!  ;D

I have $50 for development,although I think it is worth much more, but because I think there are plenty of people waiting for someone to commit to this, I'm confident you would get your financing for this project. If you put together some sort of Paypal holding, where the work required has to be confirmed before payment, I would contribute my part, certainly. Why not give it a try? You have a "starving" developer, lets throw em a bone for an awesome contribution like an iphone orbiter!!!

Title: Re: I need your help, to continue fdeveloping.
Post by: patmankn on August 03, 2009, 02:14:08 pm
Thom,

i love the Webpad and am willing to support you.
A task that seems to me (non-dev-pro!) not that time consuming but boost some our installations, is
to add more driver support for wifi-nics supporting WPA on the WebPad. For now the weakest link in my network is my orbiter and my girlfriend ;O)

Anyway... i just did send you some support-bucks.

Patrick