EDM/2 developer CD for OS/2 is shipping!
Carsten Whimster
EDM/2 is very pleased to present the EDM/2 CD to OS/2 developers all over
the world.
Carsten Whimster of EDM/2 and Dr. Dirk Terrel of The OS/2 Super Site
have teamed up with Thomas Bradford of BMT Micro to offer one of the best
deals for OS/2 developers in OS/2's history.
In development for months now, this CD will have all issues of EDM/2
live, with fully functional long filename hyperlinks. The long filenames
are implemented with Microsoft's Joliet file system, which OS/2 supports
with recent fixpacks. The EDM/2 CD contains:
1. All EDM/2 issues in html format from March 1993 until
September 1998. Nearly 6 years of OS/2 development information,
articles and source code.
2. Nearly all issues of EDM/2 in INF format.
3. The *complete* Hobbes /dev archive, including sub-directories.
4. Warp 4 Fixpak 8 (including a GUI installer)
5. Java 1.1.6
6. Netscape Navigator 2.02
7. Communicator Beta, oh well :)
8. The Xitami webserver
The price for the CD is $25 US and it can be purchased online at:
https://secure.falcon-net.net/BMT/order1259.html
or by calling 1-800-414-4268. There will also be a link to the CD
page from the EDM/2 front page coming up this weekend.
Thank you to the OS/2 community for the support to make this happen. I
can't wait to get my CD :)
--
C a r s t e n W h i m s t e r
bcrwhims AT uwaterloo DOT ca
_Cornel_Huth_
Carsten Whimster? (bcrw...@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca?) wrote (Sat, 3 Oct 1998 14:47:22 GMT):
>The price for the CD is $25 US and it can be purchased online at:
Profit to be divvied to authors as royalties, or donated to charity, or
maybe the Warpstock fund?
--
cornel huth
~~~~~~~~~~~ bullet - database toolkits
http://40th.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Will Rose
: The OS/2 Developer CD from EDM/2 is shipping!
: EDM/2 is very pleased to present the EDM/2 CD to OS/2 developers all over
: the world.
: Carsten Whimster of EDM/2 and Dr. Dirk Terrel of The OS/2 Super Site
: have teamed up with Thomas Bradford of BMT Micro to offer one of the best
: deals for OS/2 developers in OS/2's history.
And they've spammed everyone in sight to advertise it.
Carsten Whimster
actually, we posted to warpcast (twice, but that was my fault) and emailed
everyone who mailed me to express an interest. then i posted once to each
os/2 programmer newsgroup and to comp.os.os2.misc. that's it, and i don't
think that's unreasonable, do you? or are you just joking around?
Carsten Whimster
_Cornel_Huth_ <but_@see_my_web_site_.com> wrote:
>
>Carsten Whimster? (bcrw...@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca?) wrote (Sat, 3 Oct 1998 14:47:22 GMT):
>>The price for the CD is $25 US and it can be purchased online at:
>
>Profit to be divvied to authors as royalties, or donated to charity, or
>maybe the Warpstock fund?
>
>--
> cornel huth
===
i am not quite sure whether you are joking about this, or if you really
feel that i am some kind of greedy pig for not sending out the money that
will come in as a result of this CD...
i am guessing that you are serious. on the basis of that, let me try to
justify why i am not planning to divvy up the money and send it out
somewhere:
i started writing for EDM/2 in march of 1994. in that time, i have written
32 bookreviews, 13 articles, and 25 From the Editor columns, as well as
proofed 22 issues, as well as redesigned the web site 2 times, and
reorganized the material. add to this the constant updates to the
material, the constant roving for people to write, the nudging of people
who are supposed to be writing, the hanging around in the newsgroups, the
uploading and downloading and installing of issues, the creation of and
coordination of 4 courses, and the involvement in the CD. answering email
also takes up significant amounts of time, and i have to send out books
and/or products or coordinate their shipping from time to time. i have
been the editor since september 1996, which means that since then i have
put each issue together, updated author links, written up a new index,
updated various page throughout the site and sometimes created new
sections to hold new material.
let me try to put some conservative estimates on these tasks, in hours
spent total:
for each bookreview, i generally read something like 3/4 of the whole
book. i would guess that this takes anywhere from 20-50 hours, depending
on the book, but let's say 30, which is too low as an average. writing
articles generally takes maybe 10 hours each (remember that my articles
tend to be reviews or other time-consuming stuff, as oppposed to just
writing down something i know something about), and writing the column
takes maybe 1/2 hour each, on average. putting the issue together takes
maybe 2-4 hours, depending on how much is to be done. let's say 3 hours
on average, which is also low. proofing is time-consuming and might take
something like 4 hours per issue. redesigning the site includes making
graphics and trying all kinds of different things, but let's say that each
time took 20 hours. this is way too low, but i don't want to argue about
it. reorganizing i can't even put a figure on, so even though i have
spent countless hours on this, i won't count it. hanging out on
newsgroups and looking for people to write, hounding publishers for books
and so on also takes time, but i won't count it. setting up each issue on
the site might take 1/2 hour each time on average. i also have to place
files in the right places, update the search index and other things, but
count all that as one thing. getting the courses going and listening in on
each course might have taken maybe a total of 100 hours, but let's call it
50, just to low-ball it. don't forget that the people who taught these
courses actually got 2/3 the money, with the web site maintainer and i
splitting the rest. email... maybe 5-10 minutes a day on average, although
from time to time it has been horrendous. let's say 100 hours since i
started. this is hopelessly low, but i can't show proof, so leave it low.
there are numerous other little things which all take time, such as
scanning book covers and so on, but i won't count those. oh, and i
coordinated getting the url for EDM/2 and finding a site for us to live on.
let's add this up so far:
bookreview+articles+fromed+issues+proof+web+site+courses+email =
32*30+13*10+25*0.5+22*4+20*2+25*3+25*0.5+50+100 =
1468 hours
in the whole time EDM/2 has existed under either Larry Salomon Jr. or i,
we have tried to have it make money some way or another, but it has never
been the first priority. the first priority has been to put out a quality
magazine that was free. every author who has ever contributed has known
this up front, and very very few people have ever asked for money. still,
over time, a bit has trickled in. some advertising, some courses, the CD,
and some free books, software, and hardware. i actually used to buy the
books because of an initial spurt of enthusiasm, which amounted to 11
books, at an average cost of maybe $40, ie. $440. since i have not had
time to program for OS/2 since starting on the magazine, i consider this
money not really to have benefitted me, except through the benefit i have
received from being involved with EDM/2. anyway, advertising, courses,
the bookstore, and the CD probably netted me a total of something like
$2500 over the last three years. so,
(2500-440)/1468 = $1.4/hour
now i could have spent these hours working part-time, say, and earned
something like $10 an hour. this minor change in my life alone might have
made my life much much easier, given that the whole time i have been
involved with EDM/2 i have been working and studying concurrently to put
myself through school. with the extra money i could well have graduated
earlier.
1468 * (10-1.4) = $12,624.80
this money could have bought me three terms in school, instead of taking
one or two courses per term, i could have been done last year. just from
working part-time instead of on EDM/2 alone. and if i was to consider a
more realistic hourly wage for a computer professional, this number should
be much higher.
add to this the fact that only my most recent of three girlfriends that
i have been involved with while working with EDM/2 had any kind of
understanding or support for the fact that i was not just doing it to
spend time away from them, add in the many parties and weekends i have
called off because it was production weekend, add in the assignments i
have done less well on than i could have, because i was working on EDM/2,
and finally add in the mental involvement with the magazine that sometimes
precludes other projects, such as the shareware program for POVRay that i
was working on at the time i started.
the intangible benefits are that i am somewhat well known in the os/2
developer community, and that i have something to put on my resume, as
well as the obvious pride in putting out a useful and high-quality
publication on a monthly basis. in fact, twice my life has conspired
enough against me that i really wanted to give it all up and find someone
to take over but both times i was unable to find anyone who was willing,
able and enthusiastic about taking it over, so both times i swallowed the
bitter pill and kept on doing it. next time i may not.
i think it is fairly easy to see that even though i could divide up the
money and send something like $10-20 to each author, even though i could
send it to the warpstock fund, in the long run i have done myself far
worse than i have done by the os/2 community in the time i have spent
here. there are a few people who have gone out of their way, and since i
am so perpetually broke most of the time, i try to make it up to them by
offering them to run courses, which gets them decent money (although still
below what a part-time job offers), or i try to arrange for them to get
free products that they then review, or maybe a book or something, but
given the low money-making ability of EDM/2 so far, i have barely covered
the costs of upgrading the computer that i use for little else beside
EDM/2 most of the time. the CD looks like it may change that a little bit,
and maybe it is finally the ticket for me to find someone willing to take
over the helm and continue on with the magazine. i am coming towards
graduation, and i am looking for someone to take over at some point later
in time. the thing is, i don't want to choose someone who will do it for
the money, even though the money is abysmal. i want to choose someone who
will do it for the love (strong word, i know) of OS/2 and EDM/2, and who
has a proven trackrecord of making things happen. i haven't met this
person yet, i don't think.
in other words, the sum total of my contribution to the OS/2 developer
community including my greedily taking some money for myself comes to
$12600, a year of my life, and two partial girlfriends. i think my numbers
are conservative enough that i could probably double them, and still be
conservative (except for the girlfriends), but i won't because i am
already depressing myself.
now, cornel, i don't know what your reason is for posting this note that
you posted, but even though i am aware of the countless people who hang
around and get lots of things for free from all over the place, and even
though i know that most of these people never give anything much back, and
even though i know that some of these people even complain about others
trying to earn a little money from something or other, i will give you the
benefit of the doubt. i know you are involved in the community, so let me
put the challenge to you: what have you done for os/2 lately? add it up
and post.
i must say that after everything is said and done, it felt like a stab in
the back to hear this from someone.
followup set to comp.os.os2.programmer.misc
Will Rose
Then my apologies. I and another OS/2 guy got the email, and neither of
us could remember asking for information.
_Cornel_Huth_
>>>The price for the CD is $25 US and it can be purchased online at:
>>
>>Profit to be divvied to authors as royalties, or donated to charity, or
>>maybe the Warpstock fund?
>i must say that after everything is said and done, it felt like a stab in
>the back to hear this from someone.
The question I asked was where, if any, the profits are going, that's all. If
they all go to you, then just say "I'm taking it all!". If it were me I'd pay
the authors a percentage of the take -- yup -- royalties. They are, after all,
the only reason edm2 exists.
Unrelated: Here's an idea to think about. Skip a month and name the
next edition for the next month. This way you won't have to spend your
entire editor's rant page on why every edition is laaaate. Right now
I see September is still there. So, instead of putting out an October
on the 15th, name it November. Why not?
--
cornel huth mixers - all sb, wss, cs423x, opl3sax, at-3dxg, xg-dsp
~~~~~~~~~~~ *wave - direct-disk play/rec, cd/dae, mpeg audio
http://40th.com/ midi db - the ultimate midi player
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ bullet - database toolkits
ques...@hotmail.com
but_@see_my_web_site_.com wrote:
>
> The question I asked was where, if any, the profits are going, that's all. If
> they all go to you, then just say "I'm taking it all!". If it were me I'd pay
> the authors a percentage of the take -- yup -- royalties. They are, after
all,
> the only reason edm2 exists.
I disagree with this, or at least given the magazine's original intentions.
(I'm not trying to imply that the magazine's current intentions are any
different, just that they may not be the same anymore. Carsten?) The
magazine's audience was intended to be the author-wannabe's. After all, IBM
provided little (at best) documentation about the OS/2 API's and much of what
they did provide was inaccurate or confusing.
> Unrelated: Here's an idea to think about. Skip a month and name the
> next edition for the next month. This way you won't have to spend your
> entire editor's rant page on why every edition is laaaate. Right now
> I see September is still there. So, instead of putting out an October
> on the 15th, name it November. Why not?
I'm happy to see that some things never change...hehehe. This problem has
been around since issue 1-1!
Cheers.
Larry
-----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==----------
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Carsten Whimster
>The OS/2 Developer CD from EDM/2 is shipping!
>4. Warp 4 Fixpak 8 (including a GUI installer)
it seeems that there is a bug in the installation script for this. i will
post a fixed script with this month's issue, probably this weekend.
btw, my post answering cornel huth's seems to have gone missing. any idea
why this happened? i almost reposted it because i thought it didn't take,
and then someone quoted it... i didn't cancel it myself.
--
c a r s t e n w h i m s t e r
carsten at sprint dot ca
D.J. van Enckevort
>Unrelated: Here's an idea to think about. Skip a month and name the
>next edition for the next month. This way you won't have to spend your
>entire editor's rant page on why every edition is laaaate. Right now
>I see September is still there. So, instead of putting out an October
>on the 15th, name it November. Why not?
Working for an Archaeology Magazine in the Netherlands I must comment that
this simply doesn't work. A lot of work can only be done at the very last
minute, and if you move your date you might have a more time for one month,
but the next month the problem is back:
* Your deadline has moved too, eg. was 15th, will be 1st of the month, still
gives you only two weeks to finish your work (if you even have the luxury of
two weeks)
* Authors always tend to give you their contribution at the very last moment
(or later)
* And you still have only 28 - 31 days in a month, so you won't have more
time.
Further is shifting of the target publishing day a curse, because a lot of
authors don't seem to remember, and deliver their articles even later the
first few editions.
Also do you give a very bad signal if you suddenly shift your dates and skip
a month.