Ya gotta love open source!
posted 20 March 2006, Monday
This morning I was asked what AppleJack was per a recipe found on the internet (For the curious the definition is here). In my first Google hit I typed "Apple Jack" and Google queried with Did you mean: applejack to which I thought, "Yhea what the hey?" and mindlessly clicked.
There it was, The AppleJack Open Source project. Wow, another open source project taking a name for its abstraction! Open Source is permeating to every known computer area solving problems at many different levels. AppleJack is not your normal open source application. Nope, AppleJack is a trouble-shooting tool for Mac OS X.
The tool provides a recovery (without a startup cd) for Mac OS X upon the painful realization that the GUI will not load. This appears to be a tool I have always bee in the look for! I am curious if this will work on my MacIntel. Thusly, I will have to read a little further and insure I will not cause a MAC-wound by self-infliction. However, this entry is less about AppleJack's capabilities and more about how I found a useful tool, well by accident. The community of open source provided a village of AppleJack users to which I have stubbled across!
My point here is Open Source, the method, the concept and philosophy can go way beyond just crafting and forging software! Its about people sharing their knowledge, following their passion and providing products, tools, ideas with and for the betterment the world or at least, in the space where it is engaged.
Open Source is much bigger than any one of us. We, all of us, are Open Source, we are the community and no one person is not welcome. All are welcome, to participate, not-participate, use the products or not, and share or not share their individual or collective experiences. Its through the community's collaboration that work gets done. We are Open Source and Open Source are Us.
Nonetheless, the point here is the community is growing and its been with us all the time. It nice to see people helping people and that after all is how a community thrives.
P.S. Ill write about AppleJack this week and confirm its usefulness and MacIntel capabilities!
There it was, The AppleJack Open Source project. Wow, another open source project taking a name for its abstraction! Open Source is permeating to every known computer area solving problems at many different levels. AppleJack is not your normal open source application. Nope, AppleJack is a trouble-shooting tool for Mac OS X.
The tool provides a recovery (without a startup cd) for Mac OS X upon the painful realization that the GUI will not load. This appears to be a tool I have always bee in the look for! I am curious if this will work on my MacIntel. Thusly, I will have to read a little further and insure I will not cause a MAC-wound by self-infliction. However, this entry is less about AppleJack's capabilities and more about how I found a useful tool, well by accident. The community of open source provided a village of AppleJack users to which I have stubbled across!
My point here is Open Source, the method, the concept and philosophy can go way beyond just crafting and forging software! Its about people sharing their knowledge, following their passion and providing products, tools, ideas with and for the betterment the world or at least, in the space where it is engaged.
Open Source is much bigger than any one of us. We, all of us, are Open Source, we are the community and no one person is not welcome. All are welcome, to participate, not-participate, use the products or not, and share or not share their individual or collective experiences. Its through the community's collaboration that work gets done. We are Open Source and Open Source are Us.
 | Do you Remember the story of the soldiers who entered a village, battle weary and hungry? Well, this is really one of the first stories I remember as a child and (I know it is a stretch) I consider it one of the first Open Source stories. The story continues... The soldiers were hungry and the people of the village realizing the soldiers presence became scared and fled to the safety of their homes and locked the doors. The Soldiers (Programmers) found a kettle (or computer) and filled the kettle with water created a fire and proceeded to boil the water (or created an application). Whilst the water boiled and the soldiers found a stone to put it in the boiling water. Hence, they started to make stone soup (jumpstarting the curiosity of the community). The villagers curiosity piqued with wonder (a community genesis occurs). |
| The soldiers put a stone in the pot and in no time a villager ventured out to ask what the soldiers were doing. "Making Stone Soup, please feel free to come over have some when its done." and a gathering began. One villager came over to the soldiers and said "Perhaps these carrots would make it more flavorful." And, the carrots made it into the kettle. From this point villagers, one or two at time, joined the soldiers whilst adding vegetables until the soup was complete. The entire village was fed and fed well. |  |
So, what is seen here? Soldiers conniving and engaging in mis-direction in order to deceive!!?? No! Not true, wrong message. The soldiers engaged in good will, offered their work of starting the soup and provided a venue to make something out of a singular nothing. They sought collective resources from a community to feed themselves and gain the trust of the village. The soldiers as well as the villagers were starving and weary of war. Furthermore, the villagers were scared not knowing the strangers but succumbing to the supposition of military fears of old.
Thusly, the soldiers engagement of innovation and caring enough and understanding "Win-Win" removes a certain unrest allowing an arena of communication. The villagers realized the good intentions of the soldiers. The villagers realizing no harmful intent from the soldiers set upon a comfort level to become involved. The result of this is the villagers committed selflessly, resources into the soup for the benefit of the community. In the end the community thrived in this sense from the generosity of the villagers and the work of the soldiers. The entire soldiers, now part of the community turn a bad situation into good. The soldiers as the villagers being open and offering respect for one another.
Thusly, the soldiers engagement of innovation and caring enough and understanding "Win-Win" removes a certain unrest allowing an arena of communication. The villagers realized the good intentions of the soldiers. The villagers realizing no harmful intent from the soldiers set upon a comfort level to become involved. The result of this is the villagers committed selflessly, resources into the soup for the benefit of the community. In the end the community thrived in this sense from the generosity of the villagers and the work of the soldiers. The entire soldiers, now part of the community turn a bad situation into good. The soldiers as the villagers being open and offering respect for one another.
This is community, community benefits from its participants. Programming an open source project is the input of community and evolves about the soldier model, quite nicely. The soldiers and villagers needed each other to gain a feast for the benefit of all. This model is in fact one of the oldest and strongest we have ever seen and used as a people. Its people helping people.
It occurred to me, when seeing the AppleJack project that Open Source is showing up in every aspect of computing. Someone is traversing over the same problem you are! Somewhere in this world! I was not particularly looking for a single User Mode reapir disk utility solution, at the time, however, by happenstance I found it! I immediately signed into SourceForge and reading the docs to insure how and when I can use it.
It occurred to me, when seeing the AppleJack project that Open Source is showing up in every aspect of computing. Someone is traversing over the same problem you are! Somewhere in this world! I was not particularly looking for a single User Mode reapir disk utility solution, at the time, however, by happenstance I found it! I immediately signed into SourceForge and reading the docs to insure how and when I can use it.
Nonetheless, the point here is the community is growing and its been with us all the time. It nice to see people helping people and that after all is how a community thrives.
P.S. Ill write about AppleJack this week and confirm its usefulness and MacIntel capabilities!
comments (1)
1. Alan Williamson left...
20 March 2006, Monday 12:41 am :: http://alan.blog-city.com/
Good piece. I think what you are describing here, isn't necessarily 'open
source' but just being 'open'. We as humans have evolved, and are
continually evolving to solve problems. We have figured out that by
working together we can tackle bigger problems quicker.