more lockup laptop problems with dapper

[Eric S. Johansson]

Brian McKee wrote:
> Well, I was snarky, I'll grant you that, but your follow up is quite different
> than you initial remark.  Your initial quote clearly says it takes paid 
> developers to create quality accountable work.  That isn't true, and there
> are many examples which you must be aware of.

trying for a snark free zone ;-)

> 
> I am not claiming that simply NOT paying developers is all that's required
> either...  So far I think the various open source models are producing many
> quality products, but that doesn't mean every one started is going to succeed,
> and it doesn't even mean that it's the easiest way to develop those products.
> Heck, waving money around will always produce code a heck of a lot faster and 
> more consistantly than asking somebody to donate time, but it hurts quality, not 
> helps it.

I lived in high-pressure software development environments for 18 years 
  before my hands went pop.  I spent a fair amount of time looking at 
what made different groups in good versus bad in order to decide whether 
or not I wanted to learn how to program using speech recognition and 
continue my career.  Hint: I opted out except for stuff I do personally 
and small-scale stuff for clients.

But there was almost no correlation between money availability above a 
certain threshold and quality of software.  What produced the most 
quality was a team that trusted each other enough to say "I'm being 
blonde, what am I missing in this problem."  Any management the trust of 
the team enough to understand the team calmly working was far more 
productive than one that was in panic and working lots of overtime.  And 
yes, I lived through one company in which a vice president walked 
through and said "it's too calm, make everybody come in on Saturday for 
the next couple of months."

But to come back to my original comment stripped of snark, I should have 
said that why isn't there a fund that ATI card owners can contribute to 
to pay for development and make sure it's done right.  Personally, there 
are lots of projects I would contribute to their furtherance and some to 
their hindrance.  But at the same time if we took up a fund to buy out 
Microsoft, I think we would be lucky to collect two quarters and a 
dribble of spit.

I personally believe we have been training our users too much to expect 
free (i.e. no cost) and not enough on how much it costs to remain free 
(i.e. liberty).  No matter what version of liberty you talk about, it's 
never cheap.

> Hoping your driver mess is fixable,

thank you Brian.  I appreciate your putting up with my moment of 
irritation.  Hopefully as I get older, they will become fewer until I am 
so senile that I no longer remember what I'm being pissy about before I 
open my mouth.

take care
--- eric