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Conservancy Blog
December 5, 2013 by Bradley M. Kuhn
Considerations on a non-profit home for your project
I came across this email thread this week, and it seems to me that Node.js is facing a standard decision that comes up in the life of most Open Source and Free Software projects. It inspired me to write some general advice to Open Source and Free Software projects who might be at a similar crossroads0. Specifically, at some point in the history of a project, the community is faced with the decision of whether the project should be housed at a specific for-profit company, or have a non-profit entity behind it instead. Further, project leaders must consider, if they persue the latter, whether the community should form its own non-profit or affiliate with one that already exists.
Choosing a governance structure is a tough and complex decision for a project — and there is always some status quo that (at least) seems easier. Thus, there will always be a certain amount of acrimony in this debate. I have my own biases on this, since I am the Executive Director of Conservancy, a non-profit home for Open Source and Free Software projects, and because I have studied the issue of non-profit governance for Open Source and Free Software for the last decade. I have a few comments based on that experience that might be helpful to projects who face this decision.
The obvious benefit of a project housed in a for-profit company is that
they'll usually always have more resources to put toward the project —
particularly if the project is of strategic importance to their business.
The downside is that the company almost always controls the trademark,
perhaps controls the copyright to some extent (e.g., by being the sole
beneficiary of a very broad CLA or ©AA), and likely has a stronger say
in the technical direction of the project. There will also always be
"brand conflation" when something happens in the project (Did
the project do it, or did the company?
), and such is easily observable in
the many for-profit-controlled Open Source and Free Software projects.
By contrast, while a for-profit entity only needs to consider the interests of its own shareholders, a non-profit entity is legally required to balance the needs of many contributors and users. Thus, non-profits are a neutral home for activities of the project, and a neutral place for the trademark to live, perhaps a neutral place to receive CLAs (if the community even wants a CLA, that is), and to do other activities for the project. (Conservancy, for its part, has a list of what services it provides.)
There's also difference among non-profit options. The primary two USA options for Open Source and Free Software are 501(c)(3)'s (public charities) and 501(c)(6)'s (trade associations). 501(c)(3) public charities must always act in the public good, while 501(c)(6) trade associations act in interest of its paying for-profit members. I'm a fan of the 501(c)(3)-style of non-profit, again, because I help run one. IMO, the choice between the two really depends on whether you want the project run and controlled by a consortium of for-profit businesses, or if you want the project to operate as a public charity focused on advancing the public good by producing better Open Source and Free Software. BTW, the big benefit, IMO, to a 501(c)(3) is that the non-profit only represents the interests of the project with respect to the public good, so IRS prohibits the charity from conflating its motives with any corporate interest (be they single or aggregate).
If you decide you want a non-profit, there's then the decision of forming your own non-profit or affiliating with an existing non-profit. Folks who say it's easy to start a new non-profit are (mostly) correct; the challenge is in keeping it running. It's a tremendous amount of work and effort to handle the day-to-day requirements of non-profit management, which is why so many Open Source and Free Software projects choose to affiliate or join with an existing non-profit rather than form their own. I'd suggest strongly that the any community look into joining an existing home, in part because many non-profit umbrellas permit the project to later "spin off" to form your own non-profit. Thus, joining an existing entity is not always a permanent decision.
Anyway, as you've guessed, thinking about these questions is a part of what I do for a living. Thus, I'd love to talk (by email, phone or IRC) with anyone in any Open Source and Free Software community about joining Conservancy specifically, or even just to talk through all the non-profit options available. There are many options and existing non-profits, all with their own tweaks, so if a given community decides it'd like a non-profit home, there's lots to chose from and a lot to consider.
I'd note finally that the different tweaks between non-profit options deserve careful attention. I often see people commenting that structures imposed by non-profits won't help with what they need. However, not all non-profits have the same type of structures, and they focus on different things. For example, Conservancy doesn't dictate anything regarding specific CLA rules, licensing, development models, and the like. Conservancy generally advises about all the known options, and help the community come to the conclusions it wants and implement them well. The only place Conservancy has strict rules is with regard to the requirements and guidelines the IRS puts forward on 501(c)(3) status. Meanwhile, other non-profits do have strict rules for development models, or CLAs, and the like, which some projects prefer for various reasons.
0BTW, I don't think how a community comes to that crossroads matters that much, actually. At some point in a project's history, this issue is raised, and, at that moment, a decision is before the project.
Posted by Bradley M. Kuhn on December 5, 2013
February 28, 2013 by Tony Sebro
Conservancy launches a new brand identity
Conservancy is pleased to announce our new logo and wordmark as part of the evolution of our organization's brand.
The Binary Tree logo and updated wordmark reflect a cleaner and more modern representation of Conservancy's commitment to promoting, supporting, and defending Free, Libre, and Open Source Software (FLOSS) projects.
The Binary Tree logo, designed by April Ricafort-Custodio using Inkscape, incorporates a binary tree diagram - representing both a fundamental principle of computer science and our various member projects - into a streamlined version of Conservancy's shade tree silhouette. The wordmark was created using Open Sans Condensed, a sans-serif typeface designed by Steve Matteson and licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.
A ZIP archive of the logo sheet in PDF, SVG, ODG, and PNG formats can be downloaded here. The copyrights associated with Conservancy's logo and wordmark are licensed under CC-By-SA-3.0 USA. The marks "Software Freedom Conservancy," "Conservancy," and the Binary Tree logo and wordmark are trademarks of Software Freedom Conservancy.
Posted by Tony Sebro on February 28, 2013
May 29, 2012 by Bradley M. Kuhn
Conservancy's Coordinated Compliance Efforts
Conservancy announced today its new coordinated Free Software license compliance effort. As you might guess, in between getting things together for Conservancy conferences, making sure developers get reimbursed on time, and all the other primary work of Conservancy that I'm up to each day, I've been spending what hours that I can coordinating this new effort.
This new program is an outgrowth of the debate that happened over the last few months regarding Conservancy's GPL compliance efforts. Specifically, I noticed that, buried in the FUD over the last four months regarding GPL compliance, there was one key criticism that was valid and couldn't be ignored: Linux copyright holders should be involved in compliance actions on embedded systems. Linux is a central component of such work, and the BusyBox developers agreed wholeheartedly that having some Linux developers involved with compliance would be very helpful. Conservancy has addressed this issue by building a broad coalition of copyright holders in many different projects who seek to work on compliance with Conservancy, including not just Linux and BusyBox, but other projects as well.
I'm looking forward to working collaboratively with copyright holders of many different projects to uphold the rights guaranteed by GPL. I'm also elated at the broad showing of support by other Conservancy projects. In addition to the primary group in the announcement (i.e., copyright holders in BusyBox, Samba and Linux), a total of seven other GPL'd and/or LGPL'd projects have chosen Conservancy to handle compliance efforts. It's clear that Conservancy's compliance efforts are widely supported by many projects.
The funniest part about all this, though, is that while there has been
no end of discussion of Conservancy's and other's compliance efforts
this year, most Free Software users never actually have to deal with
the details of compliance. Requirements of most copyleft licenses like
GPL generally trigger on distribution of the software —
particularly distribution of binaries. Since most users simply receive
distribution of binaries, and run them locally on their own computer,
rarely do they face complex issues of compliance. As the GPLv2
says, The act of running the Program is not restricted
Posted by Bradley M. Kuhn on May 29, 2012
February 1, 2012 by Bradley M. Kuhn
Some Thoughts on Conservancy's GPL Enforcement
As most of those who know me are aware, I've been involved in GPL enforcement for more than 12 years, across three different organizations, the most recent one being here at the Software Freedom Conservancy. Since 2001, I've written dozens of articles, blog posts, and given at least fifty talks and CLE classes about how to do GPL compliance, and how enforcement actions tend to occur.
This weekend at SCALE, I gave a version of a talk I've given many times (also available as an oggcast), which I've usually entitled something like 12 Years of Copyleft Compliance: A Historical Perspective. I decided to retire this talk last weekend at SCALE (in part because it's now coming up on 13 years), but before I put that material aside, I thought I'd write a blog post summarizing the more salient points that I make in that talk.
Indeed, After all these years of speaking about, writing about, and doing GPL enforcement, I'm occasionally surprised at how much confusion still exists about how and why it's done. I've focused solely on doing GPL enforcement via 501(c)(3) not-for-profit entities, which means I do it only in the public good. I hope this blog post will give a sense of how it works and why I do it.
Copyleft Through Copyright
The primary goal of every GPL enforcement action is to gain compliance, which means getting to users complete and corresponding source code so they can copy, share, modify and install improved versions. The GPL itself is a copyright license that does a weird hack on copyright: it uses the copyright rules to turn them around, and require people to share software freely (as in freedom) in exchange for permission to copy, modify and distribute the software. A GPL violation occurs when someone fails to meet the license requirements and thereby infringes copyright. The copyright rules themselves then are the only remedy to enforce the license — requiring that the violator come into compliance with the license if they want permission to continue distribution.
Up until now, almost all the enforcement I've done has been purely under GPL version 2 (GPLv2). GPLv2§4 says that upon violation, the violator loses permission to engage in those activities governed by copyright: including copying, modifying and distributing the software. The only way to get those permissions back is for the copyright holder to grant them back.
Speaking For the Users
Copyleft's unique way of using copyright means the parties who may
enforce are copyright holders (and their designated agents). However,
the victims of the violation are typically thousands of users who have
bought a product that included the GPL'd program. The goal, therefore,
is to get source code that these users can actually use to compile and
install the software. In GPLv2-speak, the goal is to get the all
the complete source code
, which includes the scripts
used to control compilation and installation of the
Releases of complete and corresponding source have been instrumental in inspiring new user-driven software development communities like OpenWRT and SamyGo, both of which built upon source releases that came from prior BusyBox GPL enforcement efforts.
The Standard Requests
The goal of every enforcement action is to yield a license-compliant source release that works for the users. Every enforcement action opens as a conversation, asking the violator to meet a few simple requests so that their permission to engage in copyright-governed activity can be restored, and they can go about their new business as a fine, upstanding, compliant Free Software redistributor. The typical requests are:
- Compliance with all Open Source and Free Software licenses in
the product.
I started using this request regularly around 2002 because violators express a concern that, if they come into compliance due to my efforts, what stops others from coming to complain, in sequence, and wasting their time? I suggested that if they came into compliance all at once, on all FLOSS licenses involved, it would be easy for me to be on their side, should someone else complain. Namely, I'd come to their defense and say:
Yes, they were out of compliance, but we've checked everything and they're now in compliance throughout this product. Those who are now complaining are being unfair, since — while this violator had trouble initially — their compliance with all FLOSS licenses is now adequate
.Of course, the detailed license requirements are different for different licenses, so I've had to become an expert on the specific requirements of all FLOSS licenses over the years. For example, for permissive, BSD-like licenses, the only compliance required is typically that copyright notices be displayed appropriately on proprietarized versions. Meanwhile, the LGPL permits some types of proprietary combinations, but not others. GPLv2 and GPLv3, of course, have different requirements when it gets down to some details. The goal is to make sure that whatever each license requires is what's being done for the program under that license.
Meanwhile, particularly with embedded systems, requiring compliance on everything is basically a de-facto necessity anyway. Most embedded firmwares are built with a single build system (or, a set of steps that expect all relevant sources to be present), and as such, asking for the GPLv2-required
scripts used to control compilation and installation of the executable
for one program means asking for them for other programs too, since it's the same scripts. - Appoint a Compliance Officer.
This is a requirement that actually predates my involvement in enforcement. I believe it was instituted at other organizations back in the 1990s. The goal is simple: have a single point of contact who can be reached regarding any future violations.
The goal, as always, is to help a violator become a productive member of the Free Software business community. Ideally, future violation matters should never be escalated very much: the company should have a person that has some expertise about GPL compliance who can work with anyone who might have concerns about any later product.
- Pay Our Cost of Bringing You Into Compliance.
This was the toughest requirement for me to institute, and I struggled for years about whether it was the right thing to do. I avoided it until someone pointed out to me:
If you're doing GPL enforcement for a non-profit, who should pay the cost of doing enforcement: the folks who send you charitable donations to support your other non-compliance work, or the violators who actually violated the license? Indeed, those who donate probably always comply with GPL themselves, so if violators aren't charged the cost of enforcement, compliant people end up subsidizing violations with their donations.
Ultimately, that was a compelling enough argument for me, but there's one other argument: there must be a deterrent. If the cost of violating the GPL is: "you must merely come into compliance when you're caught violating", then very few companies would comply voluntarily. How many people would always violate the automobile speed limits if, when the driver is pulled over for speeding, all that ever happened was a stern warning?
A few sometimes ask:
well, where does the money go?
. This question is why I think it's essential for GPL enforcement to be done by a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit entity like Conservancy. As I wrote in my previous Conservancy blog post, Conservancy's financial documents are publicly disclosed. So, you want to know the details of the enforcement money from FY 2010? Download Conservancy's FY 2010 Form 990, and take a look at Line 4(c) on page 2, Line 2(b) on page 9, and Line 11(b) on page 10. It's as simple as that.
Conservancy's Enforcement Plans
Of course, I encourage everyone to read the rest of the Form 990 too, and note in particular that GPL enforcement is only third on the list of major activities at Conservancy. I've no interest in making license enforcement the primary activity of Conservancy — indeed, it's but one item on Conservancy's extensive list of services, and Conservancy has 27 (and growing) projects to care for. Many of those projects are GPL'd and LGPL'd, and many of them want Conservancy to handle their enforcement, but that work is always balanced with all the other work going on at this thinly staffed organization.
I strongly expect that Free Software license compliance and enforcement
will always be a part of my work. I once heard Larry Wall, founder of
Perl, say (when I was still merely a
Computer Science graduate student): You can never entirely stop being
what you once were. That's why it's important to be the right person
today, and not put it off till tomorrow.
Ever since I heard him say
that, I've held it as a fundamental tenet of what I do in the Free
Software community. I believe GPL enforcement is right and necessary
for the advancement of software freedom. So, I'm glad for the
enforcement I've done, and I'm glad to continue doing GPL enforcement
for as long as projects come to me and ask me to take care of it for
them. Like everything else at Conservancy: I'm glad to do the boring
work so Free Software developers can focus on writing code. GPL
enforcement surely qualifies there.
I admit, though, that I do find litigation particularly annoying, time-consuming, and litigation also makes GPL compliance take longer than it should. That's why litigation has always been a last resort, and that 99.999% of GPL enforcement matters get resolved without a lawsuit. Lawsuits are only an option, in my view, when a violation is egregious, and multiple attempts to begin a friendly conversation with the violator are consistently ignored. Every lawsuit I've been involved with met these criteria. I hope no violation matters ever meet them again, but that depends on how well the violators respond when someone asks them for the complete and corresponding source code for the GPL'd and LGPL'd components in the product.
I hope that someday, everyone just complies voluntarily with the GPL, so I can go do other things — I used to be a software developer, once upon a time, and I'd love to do that again. But, in the meantime, I'm here to enforce the GPL, to defend software freedom.
Posted by Bradley M. Kuhn on February 1, 2012
January 16, 2012 by Bradley M. Kuhn
It May Be Boring, But Worth Reading Anyway
For the last few months, I've had the same primary action item on my agenda every single day: finish Conservancy's FY 2010 audit and Form 990. Those who exchange email with me regularly have probably noticed a slowly increasing lag because of this. Fortunately, as for this past Saturday, this work is finally done. Conservancy has publicly posted our FY 2010 Form 990, FY 2010 Independent Auditor's report and our FY 2010 NYS CHAR-500. I know these documents might seem as boring as reading your own tax filings, but I hope in this blog post to convince you that Form 990s are worth reading, by drawing attention to the interesting parts of Conservancy's filings.
What's a Fiscal Year (FY)?
When I first started working in non-profit management years ago, it took me a while to get used to the idea of a fiscal year (often abbreviated FY). The concept, however, is relatively simple. Conservancy was founded in March 2006. As such, Conservancy's first year of operation ended on 28 February 2007, and every year thereafter, Conservancy completes another year of operation on the last day of February.
Therefore, when you take a look at Conservancy's 2010 Form 990, you'll find that the period described is 1 March 2010 until 28 February 2011. So, when you analyze the documents, you have to put your mindset into that period.
What's a Form 990, and Why Is It Public?
I often point out that 501(c)(3) non-profit charities are a form of a government grant. Think of it this way: 501(c)(3)'s not only pay no taxes on any of their income, but also, donors who give to a 501(c)(3) don't (usually) have to pay taxes on the money they give. The USA government (and by extension, the public), in essence, is subsidizing these organizations in two different ways: the government collects no tax money from these organizations, and the donors don't pay any taxes on their donations.
The government permits this because organizations like Conservancy must meet a high burden: they must advance the public good through pursuit of their mission. Conservancy does this by facilitating, fostering, promoting, developing, and defending Free, Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) for the general public.
To make sure organizations carry out their mission for the public good, and to allow the public itself to verify this occurs, the USA Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requires that, each year, every 501(c)(3) organization file the Form 990, which outlines all the funds received and spent by the organization, and how the organization used those funds to promote its mission. My hope is that if you read the rest of this blog post alongside Conservancy's Form 990 and Auditor's Report, you might be able to better use it as a tool to figure out what Conservancy was up to between the dates of 1 March 2010 and 28 February 2011.
Quick View of Mission, Revenue and Expenses
The first page of the Form 990 has a brief statement of the mission of the organization, and presents the fiscal overview. The most interesting lines related to income are lines 8 and 9, which contain the total contributions, and total service revenue. For a 501(c)(3), "contributions" are gifts and donations given to the organization by donors. That's the type of income with which those who give to non-profits are most familiar.
Program service revenue, which is also sometimes called "related business income", refers to income that an organization receives while pursuing its mission. Conservancy's most common program service revenue is registration fees for conferences. Those who attend the conference get something in return (e.g., getting to see the talks live), but these conferences are still within Conservancy's mission (e.g., educating the public about Open Source and Free Software). Thus, the IRS considers the income related to Conservancy's mission.
The interesting lines on expenses are probably lines 15 and 17. Line 15 is salaries, which I'll talk about later, and line 17 is all the other expenses. The best places to get more information on what goes into this line is to jump to Part IX of the Form 990 (page 10), or to look at Page 5 (PDF page 6) of the Independent Auditor's Report.
Expenses By Mission Work
On Page 2 of the Form 990, you'll find Part III. This is perhaps the most interesting part. Specifically, it matches up specific expense totals with parts of Conservancy's mission. Included are texts describing the work that was done with those funds. I think this page is particular interesting, because it provides an easy overview of specific mission work and how much the organization spent on that specific work. In other words, it's a cross-section of the expenses totaled against specific mission work, rather than types of expenses (the latter of which is the default elsewhere on the Form 99).
The Public Support Test
In Schedule A, Part II of the Form 990 (PDF page 14), you'll find the public support test. Since this is Conservancy's fifth year of operation, for the first time, Conservancy must take a public support test. There are various ways of calculating the public support test. Conservancy used the 33⅓% test, which requires that at least 33⅓% of the organization's support come from the public. Conservancy's public support percentage is 45.3%.
Earmarked Funds Summary
I've focused here mostly on the Form 990. However, it's worth noting that FY 2010 was the first year in which Conservancy was required to have an independent audit. This is a New York State Requirement (you can see the detail of this requirements on page 4 of the CHAR-500), but even when it's not mandated, it's good for non-profits to have an independent audit anyway. Despite the amazing amount of work our first audit took (it'll get easier in future years, fortunately, now that Conservancy is used to it), I'm very glad that NYS required us to do it, as there's always the temptation to avoid something that's difficult and not mandatory.
Anyway, the most interesting page of the audit's report, in my view, is page 6 (PDF page 7), which shows the exact totals of all earmarked project funds in Conservancy. Individual Conservancy member projects will probably like to be able to see a third-party confirmation on the amount that was given, spent, and remains for their projects.
Yes, You Can See How Much I'm Paid
Part of public filings include the salaries paid to officers, directors, and key employees of the organization. Part VII of the Form 990 (Page 7) has these details. As you can see, I was the only person that Conservancy paid in FY 2010. When you look at the numbers in this section, note that my role changed over the course of the fiscal year: From 2010-03-01 through 2010-09-30, I was a nights/weekends part-time volunteer. From 2010-10-01 to 2010-12-31, I was a full-time volunteer. For the last two months of the fiscal year, from 2011-01-01 until 2011-02-28, I was a full-time employee.
Feel Free to Ask Me Questions
I've started a thread on identi.ca to discuss Conservancy's Form 990. Feel free to ask me any questions that you have there.
Posted by Bradley M. Kuhn on January 16, 2012
November 28, 2011 by Bradley M. Kuhn
What's a Free Software Non-Profit For?
Much was written last week that speculated about the role of foundations and the always-changing ways that developers write Free Software. I must respectfully point out that I believe this discussion doesn't address the key purpose of doing Free Software work as part of a non-profit organization.
Conservancy always avoids making any technical recommendations. Indeed, Conservancy counts among its members Darcs, Git and Mercurial, all of whom likely disagree on the preferred distributed version control system. Conservancy, for its part, doesn't have a recommended version control system, nor a recommended hosting site, nor anything else like that. I even grit my teeth and just live with it when Conservancy's member projects choose Github over Gitorious (since the latter is Free Software itself and the former is not — an issue that concerns me deeply).
In short, Conservancy's job isn't to tell projects how to do what they do best: write and develop Free Software. Of course, our members must license their software under a license that's both FSF- and OSI-approved, and all official project activities (including development) must fit Conservancy's not-for-profit mission. But beyond oversight on that issue, Conservancy doesn't interfere with the development of our projects' software.
Instead, Conservancy handles all the aspects of running a non-profit software project that don't involve actually developing software. Conservancy's service plan includes many things, from handling donations, reimbursing developers for conference travel, to holding domain names, copyrights, and trademarks, to enforcing those copyrights and trademarks, to basic legal services. These items are the role for the non-profit organization in the life of a Free Software project. Conservancy's goal is to ensure that the software project continues to improve and benefit the public good, and to handle all the mundane aspects of non-profit activity.
Nevertheless, Conservancy's way of operating doesn't fit every project's culture. In the past, I've even recommended to Conservancy applicants that Apache Software Foundation, Free Software Foundation or Software in the Public Interest was a better home for their project, merely because the project seemed to have a culture that fit better with those organizations.
Upon finding the right cultural fit, a non-profit home can promote the
advancement of a Free Software project in ways the project can't do
merely as a band of part-time volunteer developers. By contrast to
those who are asking whether these non-profits still make sense
I argue that more than ever, developers need as much time as they
can spare to keep up with the rapid changes in technology and community
development methodologies. A non-profit home can take care of the
other, non-software-development tasks, leaving the projects' volunteers
to focus on what they do best.
As for adherence to the rules, while Conservancy is liberal on rules related to development methodologies, we remain somewhat conservative on the areas of the organization's expertise. Namely, Conservancy carefully oversees the financial spending and asset management of Conservancy's projects to ensure they continue to operate in a not-for-profit way to advance the public good. This is the most important standing agenda item on my daily schedule, and I believe that's the center of my job in providing services to our member projects. While I once was a software developer (and I sometimes can't resist giving my technical opinion to one of Conservancy's member projects), I constantly focus my role on the stuff that developers hate doing, so that they keep doing the work the love that helps the whole community.
Posted by Bradley M. Kuhn on November 28, 2011
January 2, 2011 by Bradley M. Kuhn
Conservancy Activity Summary, October-December 2010
I had hoped to blog more regularly about my work at Conservancy, and hopefully I'll do better in the coming year. But now seems a good time to summarize what has happened with Conservancy since I started my full-time volunteer stint as Executive Director from 2010-10-01 until 2010-12-31.
New Members
We excitedly announced in the last few months two new Conservancy member projects, PyPy and Git. Thinking of PyPy connects me back to my roots in Computer Science: in graduate school, I focused on research about programming language infrastructure and, in particular, virtual machines and language runtimes. PyPy is a project that connects Conservancy to lots of exciting programming language research work of that nature, and I'm glad they've joined.
For its part, Git rounds out a group of three DVCS projects that are now Conservancy members; Conservancy is now the home of Darcs, Git, and Mercurial. Amusingly, when I reminded the Git developers when they applied that their "competition" were members, the Git developers told me that they were inspired to apply because these other DVCS' had been happy in Conservancy. That's a reminder that the software freedom community remains a place where projects — even that might seem on the surface as competitors — seek to get along and work together whenever possible. I'm glad Conservancy now hosts all these projects together.
Meanwhile, I remain in active discussions with five projects that have been offered membership in Conservancy. As I always tell new projects, joining Conservancy is a big step for a project, so it often takes time for communities to discuss the details of Conservancy's Fiscal Sponsorship Agreement. It may be some time before these five projects join, and perhaps they'll ultimately decide not to join. However, I'll continue to help them make the right decision for their project, even if joining a different fiscal sponsor (or not joining one at all) is the ultimately right choice.
Also, about once every two weeks, another inquiry about joining Conservancy comes in. We won't be able to accept all the projects that are interested, but hopefully many can become members of Conservancy.
Annual Filings
In the late fall, I finished up Conservancy's 2010 filings. Annual filings for a non-profit can be an administrative rat-hole at times, but the level of transparency they create for an organization makes them worth it. Conservancy's FY 2009 Federal Form 990 and FY 2009 New York CHAR-500 are up on Conservancy's filing page. I always make the filings available on our own website; I wish other non-profits would do this. It's so annoying to have to go to a third-party source to grab these documents. (Although New York State, to its credit, makes all the NY NPO filings available on its website.)
Conservancy filed a Form 990-EZ in FY 2009. If you take a look, I'd encourage you to direct the most attention to Part III (which is on the top of page 2) to see most of Conservancy's program activities between 2008-03-01 to 2009-02-28.
In FY 2010, Conservancy will move from the New York State requirement of "limited financial review" to "full audit" (see page 4 of the CHAR-500 for the level requirements). Conservancy had so little funds in FY 2007 that it wasn't required to file a Form 990 at all. Now, just three years later, there is enough revenue to warrant a full audit. However, I've already begun preparing myself for all the administrative work that will entail.
Project Growth and Funding
Those increases in revenue are related to growth in many of Conservancy's projects. 2010 marked the beginning of the first full-time funding of a developer by Conservancy. Specifically, since June, Matt Mackall has been funded through directed donations to Conservancy to work full-time on Mercurial. Matt blogs once a month (under topic of Mercurial Fellowship Update) about his work, but, more directly, the hundreds of changesets that Matt's committed really show the advantages of funding projects through Conservancy.
Conservancy is also collecting donations and managing funding for various part-time development initiatives by many developers. Developers of jQuery, Sugar Labs, and Twisted have all recently received regular development funding through Conservancy. An important part of my job is making sure these developers receive funding and report the work clearly and fully to the community of donors (and the general public) that fund this work.
But, as usual with Conservancy, it's handling of the "many little things" for projects that make a big difference and sometimes takes the most time. In late 2010, Conservancy handled funding for Code Sprints and conferences for the Mercurial, Darcs, and jQuery. In addition, jQuery held a conference in Boston in October, for which Conservancy handled all the financial details. I was fortunate to be able to attend the conference and meet many of the jQuery developers in person for the first time. Wine also held their annual conference in November 2010, and Conservancy handled the venue details and reimbursements to many of travelers to the conference.
Also, as always, Conservancy project contributors regularly attend other conferences related to their projects. At least a few times a month, Conservancy reimburses developers for travel to speak and attend important conferences related to their projects.
Google Summer of Code
Since its inception, Google's Summer of Code (SoC) program has been one of the most important philanthropy programs for Open Source and Free Software projects. In 2010, eight Conservancy projects (and 5% of the entire SoC program) participated in SoC. The SoC program funds college students for the summer to contribute to the projects, and an experienced contributor to project mentors each student. A $500 stipend is paid to the non-profit organization of the project for each project contributor who mentors a student.
Furthermore, there's an annual conference, in October, of all the mentors, with travel funded by Google. This is a really valuable conference, since it's one of the few places where very disparate Free Software projects that usually wouldn't interact can meet up in one place. I attended this year's Soc Mentor Summit and hope to attend again next year.
I'm really going to be urging all Conservancy's projects to take advantage of the SoC program in 2011. The level of funding given out by Google for this program is higher than any other open-application funding program for FLOSS. While Google's selfish motives are clear (the program presumably helps them recruit young programmers to hire), the benefit to Free Software community of the program can nevertheless not be ignored.
GPL Enforcement
GPL Enforcement, primarily for our BusyBox member project, remains an active focus of Conservancy. Work regarding the lawsuit continues. It's been more than a year since Conservancy filed a lawsuit against fourteen defendants who manufacture embedded devices that included BusyBox without source nor an offer for source. Some of those have come into compliance with the GPL and settled, but a number remain and are out of compliance; our litigation efforts continue. Usually, our lawyers encourage us not to comment on ongoing litigation, but we did put up a news item in August when the Court granted Conservancy a default judgment against one of the defendants, Westinghouse.
Meanwhile, in the coming year, Conservancy hopes to expand efforts to enforce the GPL. New violation reports on BusyBox arrive almost daily that need attention.
More Frequent Blogging
As noted at the start of this post, my hope is to update Conservancy's blog more regularly with information about our activities.
Posted by Bradley M. Kuhn on January 2, 2011
October 4, 2010 by Bradley M. Kuhn
Conservancy's First Blog Post
As can be seen in today's announcement, today is my first day as full-time Executive Director at the Software Freedom Conservancy. For four years, I have worked part-time on nights, weekends, and lunch times to keep Conservancy running and to implement and administer the services that Conservancy provides to its member projects. It's actual quite a relief to now have full-time attention available to carry out this important work.
From the start, one of my goals with Conservancy has been to run the non-profit organization as transparently as possible. At times, I've found that when time is limited, keeping the public informed about all your work is often the first item to fall too far down on the action item list. Now that Conservancy is my primary, daily focus, I hope to increase its transparency as much as possible.
Specifically, I plan to keep a regular blog about activities of the Conservancy. I've found that a public blog is a particular convenient way to report to the public in a non-onerous way about the activities of an organization. Indeed, we usually ask those developers whose work is funded through Conservancy to keep a blog about their activities, so that the project's community and the public at large can get regular updates about the work. I should hold myself to no less a standard!
I encourage everyone to subscribe to the full Conservancy site RSS feed, where you'll receive both news items and blog posts from the Conservancy. There are also separate feeds available for just news and just blog posts. Also, if you're a subscriber to my personal blog, I will cross-post these blog posts there, although my posts on Conservancy's blog will certainly be a proper subset of my entire personal blog.
Posted by Bradley M. Kuhn on October 4, 2010


text:
Geekologie Reader's Death Star Ear Tattoo
Jake is a Geekologie Reader with a Death Star/TIE Fighter tattoo in his left ear. As you can see, it compliments his ear plug nicely. Now I know what you're wondering, "But what if he got it in his right ear -- would that make him gay?" And the answer, moron, is no. Being attracted to the same sex makes you gay. Well, that and Twilight. Except for me. Two shots at the bar is enough to start me swinging both ways. Furiously. Usually until I'm too dizzy to connect and strike out. "GW, calm down -- this isn't a bat-spin!" PLUT ME IN CROACH!
Let's Hear It For This Cool Star Wars Ear Tattoo [starwarsblog] (with interview)
Jake's Tumblr
Proving that I've been treasure hunting in the wrong place my entire life, Vietnamese fans of 'ear-picking' claim there's a g-spot in the ear capable of producing orgasm-like reactions. Wait -- what?! Also, WTF is ear-picking? I'm not gonna lie, that shit sounds nasty. *wip... / Continue →
Looks like the Empire Struck HIS Back. ZA-ZA-ZA-ZING! Not to be outdone by somebody's me-maw with a penchant for twinkly, twinky vampires, this guy went and got a back-covering Star Wars tattoo. As you can see, it's more Empire-inspired and includes characters like Megatron,... / Continue →
Fail? She's all win in my book. Between Boba Fett and the heart-shaped Death Star, I would do all sorts of things to this woman. Namely: try to introduce myself, get choked up, point my finger at her yelling "pew pew pew!", and then sob into my Star Wars beach towel. Failb... / Continue →

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Stephen Cassidy.nl - Looking around you will find a lot of my interests. My Blog over dance locations in Holland, of which i visit regularly. A weekly Latin dance agenda from Pedro. Links to dance schools, workshops and fun places to go in the Dutch Latin dance scene. I have a link on the top menu, to my very own Stephen Cassidy,s Wiki pages. With terminology, explanations as well as facts in and around many Latin dance styles.A section on web-design with SEO - Search Engine Optimisation rules. HowTo's on Meta Tags, Google guidelines for webmasters, Tips and tutorials on making banners, flyers, and things like Bling Bling text using Adobe Photo-shop. You can also visit my webdesign website at: http://webright.nl.You can make your own account to Login for the photo section, downloads and more goodies. I have a section on the latest news, Popular places and a poll. All of which will give me enough feedback to make improvements as needed.
Thanks for visiting stephencassidy.nl
Grab my Blog with animated rotation feeds
#salsa #bachata #stephencassidy
This site is under construction, not all areas are complete...
Follow Me On...
If you find yourself always looking around the internet for a new dance school, or Latin party. Then this is a good place to be. With more than seven years dance experience, and traveling the country to different dance locations, I found Pedro's agenda. Pedro (Peter) is a long time friend of mine, who since retiring has put quite a lot of his time and energy into keeping, and updating his weekly dance agenda. Every Wednesday evening Pedro sends me his 118 pages of updates, which i post on stephencassidy.nl - dancebachata.nl and suzyqweb.nl. The Dance Agenda is in the Dutch language, we now have a translator on the bottom of each page.
Stephen Cassidy
Dance photos:
I have been taking photos at parties for years. Usually I'm not in the photos, unless someone offers to take a shot of me. So when i do find a photo and especially if it's a good one then i cannot wait to get it into a banner or on my site.
On my photo pages i shall probably have my own photos as well as parties i have visited. On the left side after logging in you will find more media files. Dance routines, dance classes, and other goodies for you to watch.
Dance Photos page here...
Site by Stephen Cassidy - Sitemap.


text:
Formulated exclusively for SmartPak by Peak Performance Nutrients. Advanced HA + MSM Ultra provides high levels of Glucosamine, HA, MSM and Vitamin C, along with bioflavonoids, L-Glutamine, Boswellia and more.
View our Joint Supplement Comparison Chart
SmartPak customers are some of the most conscientious animal owners around. We encourage you to share your experience with the products we sell to help fellow customers to make informed choices for their animals. We do not edit these reviews in any way - they are direct customer-to-customer communication. We do monitor reviews for positive and negative feedback, and use this feedback to improve our selection as well as sharing feedback with product manufacturers to help them improve their products. Please note that we recommend consulting your vet with serious health issues.


text:
The ICEbOX Collection designed by The Sherrieblossom Company is the most couture and luxurious handmade collection of acrylic beauty organizers in the world! The only brand to be signed by Neiman Marcus and will be launching at select Neiman Marcus locations soon! With dozens of A-List celebrity clients, it's the HOT must-have beauty product across the globe!
See what every woman is just dying to get their hands on!
Visit www.sherrieblossom.com and check out our thousands of HAPPY CUSTOMERS across the globe!
649 Rank
63 Points


text:
The median home value in North Hills, CA is $294,500. This is lower than the county median home value of $347,100. The national median home value is $152,300. The average price of homes sold in North Hills, CA is $294,500. Approximately 51.43% of North Hills homes are owned, compared to 43.95% rented, while 4.62% are vacant. North Hills real estate listings include condos, townhomes, and single family homes for sale. Commercial properties are also available. If you see a property you're interested in, contact a North Hills real estate agent to arrange a tour today! Learn more about North Hills Real Estate.
Bulk Sale of 32 Condominium Units with 2 Non-Conforming Rental Units Included32 Separate Assessor Parcel Numbers & Tax BillsOperates as an Apartment BuildingCurrent Owner has Held the Property for Approximately 20 YearsOpportunity to Add Value through Renovation of the Exterior & InteriorRental Upside Potential through Turnover & RepositioningBuilt in 1974 with Condo Plan Filed in 1981Non-Conforming Units are Master Metered for Gas & Electric (Units 33 & 34)2 Story Building with a Courtyard and Open Parking Lot with 55 Spaces31 Condos Sold in North Hills from 11/4/13 to 2/4/14 - Average Sold Price: $232,4033 Two-Level Townhome Style UnitsThe subject property is located mid-block along Columbus Avenue and is just south of Parthenia Street and one block to the east of Sepulveda Boulevard. Buyer to independently verify the status of the recorded condo map and possible non-conforming units.
This building consists of eleven large 2 bedroom/1 bathroom units along with three 1 bedroom/1 bathroom units and two studio units. all units are well maintained and occupied with upside in current rents. the owner upgraded many units and plumbing throughout the building. The owner recently painted the building and installed lighting and security cameras around the property. 16 off-street parking spaces are avavailable for tenants. Property highlights: primarily large 2 bedroom/1 bathroom units; many units and plumbing upgraded; rental upside on great unit mix; 10.21% return before taxes; 16 off-street parking spaces for tenants; secure entry, camera-monitored and lighted premises; current loan of $1,035,000.00 at 3.54% may be assumed for a $40,000.00 reduction in price
Attention all Developers and investors! Large flat flag lot is on over 1.5 acres, 267 foot 20 foot wide driveway leads off Parthenia to the main portion of the flag lot with access to Rubio Avenue in the back. This lot is next to a private unit development. With the proper zoning change this would be an ideal lot to build Condominiums or a Private Unit Development. There is a house on the property but this property is being offered for land value only. The current zoning is LARA. The existing structure is not connected to the sewer.
Single family residence on over one acre of land offered for land Value! Per owner, can build 10 detached units. Buyer to investigate. Currently house is tenant occupied. Property will be delivered vacant. Please do not disturb tenants.
STANDAR SALE!!! This lovely home has 6 bedrooms, 5 baths, make this home perfect for a family. Motivated Seller bring your best offers it won~~~t last long. IT~~~S A MUST SEE!!!
STANDAR SALE!!! This lovely home has 6 bedrooms, 5 baths, make this home perfect for a family. Motivated Seller bring your best offers it won?t last long. IT?S A MUST SEE!!!
Dilbeck Real EstateReal Living 1030 Foothill Blvd La Canada Flintridge, CA 91011 Email Us | Visit our Real Estate Website


text:
Sean Collier, then a civilian at the Somerville Police Department, where he worked in information technology for five years, had dreamed of becoming a police officer. So he left last year to become a patrol officer at MIT, but his name still floated to the top of the list for consideration as a cop in Somerville. When his former colleagues there heard that he had been killed in a shootout Thursday night with the alleged Boston Marathon bombers, they were 'devastated.'
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text:
There are no products in your shopping cart.
----"I have bought a flute from Flutastic, and I felt that I should write something here. Susan was very kind and straightforward with everything, making me feel very safe from the start. She described the condition of the instrument and how if felt when she played it. When the deal was made, she assured me I could send it back if I wasn't happy. She then gave me the date that the flute would arrive. Everything happened as she told me, but I must say that I had a surprise with my purchase: THE FLUTE WAS MUCH BETTER THAN EXPECTED! I will always keep my eye on what she has in stock, and would recommend it to my colleagues to do so as well." Marcelo Barboza Principal Flute, Sao Paulo Symphony Brazil Click here to see other customer reviews ALL USED FLUTES ARE NOT THE SAME! (and ALL REPAIR TECHNICIANS ARE NOT THE SAME!) I have been a flutist/teacher for over thirty years and have a master's degree in flute performance. In my experience, roughly nineteen out of twenty used flutes on the market need repairs in order to play well, or to even play at all (did you know that if you happen to buy a flute that has worn-out pads, it can cost between $150-$450 to have a complete re-pad job done correctly on a student flute, and much more than that on an open-hole model?). Some repair technicians charge less, but I find that many don't do the job correctly, and the flutes don't end up playing well. That's why my prices are a little higher than some. I pay my repair technician well to do the job right (it can be tedious work). *PHONE ORDERS WELCOME-CREDIT CARDS ACCEPTED *MONEY BACK GUARANTEE *SEVEN DAY TRIAL AVAILABLE *FREE LAYAWAY AVAILABLE Please feel free to email email@example.com, or call (970) 689-5671 with any questions, seven days a week. _________________________________________________ **Returns must be made within seven days of receiving the flute for full money back guarantee, and the flute must be in the same condition as when it left my hands. Any damage to the instrument is the buyer's responsibility. Buyer pays shipping. |


text:
Fatal Crash Investigation
Updated: Friday, December 14 2012, 08:59 AM EST
The Asheville city employee who was hurt in Wednesday's fatal car crash is in good condition Thursday night.
The incident happened when the Ford Fusion sped off the road and went airborn landing hundreds of feet away and into the City Public Works lot. City workers were finishing their day back at the public works yard when David Jones crashed into two of their vehicles and two workers.
Witnesses say Jones had been driving fast and erratically before he crashed, killing his 3-year-old daughter. His brother, Kevin Sargent, says the accident was caused by a medical condition. Police aren't commenting yet as they continue their investigation.
Court records show Jones faces previous DWI and driving while license revoked charges.
There's no official word on Jones' condition, but his brother tells News 13 he suffered a head trauma and doesn't fully understand his child has been killed.
By Russ Bowen
Follow Russ on Twitter @RussBowenNews13
Related Links:
New Details In Deadly Crash Investigation
Raw News: Family Reacts To Death of Child In Wreck
UPDATE: Child From Asheville Wreck Dies
Car Plunges Off Wall, 4 Injured


text:
Snowshoe Festival 50K
- Race type
- Ultramarathon
- Distance
- 50 kilometers
- Tags
- Snow
Official website
Closest races
- Tahoe 72
- Rainier to Ruston 50K Ultra
- Rocking K Trail 50 Mile Run
- DoWackaDo Trail 50K Run
- Do-Wacka-Do 50k Trail Run
- DoWackaDo 50 Mile Trail Run
- Rock On! Lake Perry 50K
- Lake Perry Rocks! 50K
- Free State Trail Runs 40-Mile Trail Ultra
- Free State Trail Runs 100 km Trail Ultra
No news for the moment.
The information about this race is based on information provided by the organizers or found on the official website. ahotu Marathons is not associated with this race. Always check with the official website for up-to-date information. If you have noticed any mistake, let us know at email@example.com.


text:
Average Customer Rating
(based on 6 reviews)
of respondents would recommend this to a friend.
Purchase Reason
Reviewed by 6 customers
sort by
Displaying reviews 1-5
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Previous | Next »
Better than I thought it would be!
By Vedasam
from Savannah, Ga
We are having a Tim Burton themed wedding and this is going in the Alice in Wonderland room! It's lovely!
It was a Big Hit !
By Sean Bear
from Kingston NY
#1. it was delivered on time !#2. At the custome party everyone wanted to take a picture with it, and did !Apparently, the 'Mad Hatter' standup is going out with my niece and friends on News Year's Eve, too.
By Jay
from phila. Pa
Perfect all the way around
By keggers
from UK
A great piece that will add another dimension to our reception!
Johnny came to my party
By AllyBrown
from Sydney Australia
The Mad hatter stand up was used as decortion for a themed 50th Birthday Party. It proved very popular with my guests. I really can't fault the product in anyway. It was exactly as i expected.
Ship time indicates the typical number of business days it takes for your item(s) to leave our facilities but does not include transit time from our facilities to final destination.
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Personalize and enhance your art with our finishing options.
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For more information, including a full list of shipping destinations, visit Shipping & Returns /gallery.asp?startat=/help/shipping.asp&CID=8176F0D819984FEDBC9F5ACE1A8F351A&subject=shipping#rates.
Orders with multiple items may be eligible for discounted shipping rates. Combined shipping discounts will be applied during checkout.
Learn more /gallery.asp?startat=/help/shipping.asp&CID=8176F0D819984FEDBC9F5ACE1A8F351A&subject=shipping#rates
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text:
Adult Basic Skills
Welcome to SPCC's Adult Basic Skills Department! Our mission is to assist adults to learn and to obtain the knowledge and skills necessary for employment and self-sufficiency, assist adults who are parents to obtain the educational skills necessary to become full partners in the educational development of their children, and assist adults in the completion of a high school education.
The Adult Basic Skills program provides educational opportunities for adults to improve their reading, writing, mathematics, and communication skills through five major program components - Adult Basic Education, General Educational Development, Adult High School, English for Speakers of Other Languages, and Compass Education (formerly Compensatory Education).
Admission Requirements
Class Locations
Adult Basic Skills schedule - Union County (PDF)
Adult Basic Skills schedule - Anson County (PDF)
Denise Wilson Director Adult Basic Skills firstname.lastname@example.com 704-290-5247 |
Jerry Caudle Instructor/Coordinator GED Union County firstname.lastname@example.com 704-290-5814 |
Robin Pittman Instructor/Coordinator Adult High School Union County email@example.com 704-290-5813 |


text:
101 Neptune East Northern Illinois University DeKalb, IL 60115 Phone: (815) firstname.lastname@example.com
If you want your voice to be heard in the residence halls, and want to make changes this is your opportunity! There are weekly meetings held to enable your voice to be heard in the Residence Halls.
Hall Council Meetings: Tuesday at 9 p.m. in each complex
RHA General Assembly: Monday at 9 p.m. in the New Hall Swing Space


text:
La Mala Educación | 2004
Clip Name: Trailer
La Mala Educación | 2004
Starring: Gael García Bernal, Fele Martínez and Daniel Giménez Cacho
Directed by: Pedro Almodóvar
About this movie
An examination on the effect of Franco-era religious schooling and sexual abuse on the lives of two longtime friends.
Related movies by Genre 1 OF 3
The Talented Mr. Ripley
Starring: Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow
Director: Anthony Minghella
Watch Clips -
Youth Without Youth
Starring: Tim Roth, Alexandra Maria Lara
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Watch Clips
Related movies by Actors 1 OF 2
Amores perros
Starring: Emilio Echevarría, Gael García Bernal
Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Watch Clips
Related movies by Directors 1 OF 1
What Have I Done to Deserve This?
Starring: Carmen Maura, Luis Hostalot
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Watch Clips


text:
During the development of the "Photo Voyages of Trey Ratcliff" app, I ran into a problem with file IO read operations. Bascially, the read of a large photo (300KB-900KB) would take from 300 ms to 2000 ms based on file system load. Because of this, I needed to do the read in the background so that it wouldn't affect the UI's responsiveness.
That was trivial to do, but I then ran into problems when the user was swiping through lots of photos in a short periode of time. The root cause was that the read operations were not able to finish before the next on came, and soon I could have 15-20 ongoing file reads. This would also cause memory problems.
In order to get around this, I've implemented a generic last-in/first-out queue for asynchronous tasks that require background processing and updates on UI when completed. All my file reads are queued through this and it has had a big effect on performance. Especially, since it is using WeakReferences to make sure the object can be garbage collected and checks if it is valid before the photo is read.
My code consist of three classes:
- AsyncQueuableObject: The interface to implement for each task
- AsyncReadQueue : The last-in/first-out queue that takes AsyncQueuableObjects
- QueueablePhotoObject: Implementation of the interface for my use
package com.elsewhat.slideshow.api;
public interface AsyncQueueableObject {
* Perform the operation in a background thread
* @return
public void performOperation();
* Handle the result in the UI thread
* @param result
public void handleOperationResult();
package com.elsewhat.slideshow.api;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.EmptyStackException;
import java.util.Iterator;
import java.util.Stack;
import android.content.Context;
import android.os.AsyncTask;
import android.util.Log;
* Class which implements a Last-In/First-Out queue for operations that require background processing and an update to the UI thread
* My usage is to read large photos from the file system
* @author dagfinn.parnas
public class AsyncReadQueue {
protected static final String LOG_PREFIX="Slideshow PhotoIOQueue";
//if the tasks can be processed in parallel (for example http), increase this to 2 or more
protected int numberOfThreads=1;
//that workers
protected ArrayList readerTasks;
Context context;
//stack is synchronized
Stack queuedObjects;
AsyncQueueListener listener;
* Constructor
* @param context
* @param listener The listener which will be notified when a task has completed
public AsyncReadQueue(Context context,AsyncQueueListener listener) {
this.context = context;
//lets make sure the List is synchronized
queuedObjects= new Stack();
* Listener which is notified when the read is finished is complete or retrieved error
public interface AsyncQueueListener {
/*These methods should be synchronized when implemented*/
void onAsyncReadComplete (AsyncQueueableObject queueableObject);
* Add an object to the queue.
* Will trigger the worker tasks to start if they are not running
* @param queueObject
public void add(AsyncQueueableObject queueObject){
Log.d(LOG_PREFIX, "Added new queued object, queue size="+queuedObjects.size()+". New tasks triggered"+ queueObject );
}else {
Log.d(LOG_PREFIX, "Added new queued object, queue size="+queuedObjects.size()+". Processed by already running tasks "+ queueObject );
protected void processQueue(){
//if this is called, we assume there hasRunningTasks()==false has been called first
//Log.i(LOG_PREFIX, "Starting new reader tasks to process queue" );
readerTasks= new ArrayList(numberOfThreads);
for (int i = 0; i < numberOfThreads; i++) {
ReaderTask readerTask = new ReaderTask(i);
protected boolean hasRunningTasks(){
if(readerTasks==null || readerTasks.size()==0){
return false;
boolean hasActiveTask= false;
for (Iterator iterator = readerTasks.iterator(); iterator.hasNext();) {
ReaderTask readerTask = iterator.next();
return true;
}else {
return false;
* Stops the ongoing tasks. Any queued objects are removed.
* To start it again, a new call to add method must be made
public void stop(){
for (Iterator iterator = readerTasks.iterator(); iterator.hasNext();) {
ReaderTask readerTask = iterator.next();
Log.i(LOG_PREFIX, "Stopping ongoing async reader task");
* AsyncTask which represent the worker threads
public class ReaderTask extends AsyncTask {
boolean hasError=false;
Throwable throwable;
String userErrorMsg;
int threadId;
boolean isFinished=false;
T result;
public ReaderTask(int threadId){
protected Void doInBackground(Void... arg0) {
//loop which continues until the queue/stack is empty
Log.d(LOG_PREFIX,"Async task was cancelled");
return null;
AsyncQueueableObject asyncObject=null;
try {
asyncObject= queuedObjects.pop();
}catch (EmptyStackException e) {
//can happen if we have more than one running ReaderTask
return null;
//process the async operation
//this is the time consuming task
//publish progress will cause the handleOperationResult to be run on the UI thread
return null;
* Called when one of the queue objects have performmed the operation
* @see android.os.AsyncTask#onProgressUpdate(Progress[])
protected void onProgressUpdate(AsyncQueueableObject... asyncObjects) {
AsyncQueueableObject asyncObject = asyncObjects[0];
}else {
Log.w(LOG_PREFIX, "Unexpected number of DownloadableObject in onProgressUpdate:"+asyncObjects.length );
protected boolean isFinished(){
return isFinished;
protected void onPostExecute(Void result) {
//Log.i(LOG_PREFIX, "Async reader task " + threadId + " completed" );
//handle a case where a new queued object has been added at the same time we are finished this task
if(queuedObjects!=null && queuedObjects.size()>0 && hasRunningTasks()==false){
//Log.w(LOG_PREFIX, "Queue not empty at end of run. Restarting async reader tasks" );
/* (non-Javadoc)
* @see android.os.AsyncTask#onCancelled()
protected void onCancelled() {
Log.i(LOG_PREFIX, "Download task stopped");
package com.elsewhat.slideshow.api;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.lang.ref.WeakReference;
import com.stuckincustoms.slideshow.premium.R;
import android.graphics.drawable.Drawable;
import android.util.Log;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.ImageView;
* Queueable object that cause a heavy file IO read load (300-2000 ms)
* Will use WeakReferences in order to make sure objects are still needed when it is ready for processing
* @author dagfinn.parnas
public class QueueablePhotoObject implements AsyncQueueableObject {
protected SlideshowPhoto slideshowPhoto;
protected File rootFolder;
protected WeakReference weakRefslideshowView;
protected ImageView myImageView;
protected boolean wasGarbageCollected = false;
protected boolean wasOutOfMemory = false;
protected Drawable result;
protected String tagOnCompletion=null;
protected int maxWidth;
protected int maxHeight;
* Constructor The View is stored as a WeakReference
* @param slideshowPhoto
* @param imageView
public QueueablePhotoObject(SlideshowPhoto slideshowPhoto,
View slideshowView, File rootFolder, String tagOnCompletion, int maxWidth, int maxHeight) {
this.slideshowPhoto = slideshowPhoto;
this.rootFolder = rootFolder;
this.weakRefslideshowView = new WeakReference(slideshowView);
* Perform the operation of reading the photo from file in the background
public void performOperation() {
View slideshowView = weakRefslideshowView.get();
if (slideshowView == null) {
wasGarbageCollected = true;
} else {
try {
result= slideshowPhoto.getLargePhotoDrawable(rootFolder,maxWidth,maxHeight);
} catch (OutOfMemoryError e) {
"Out of memory while getting drawable");
wasOutOfMemory = true;
} catch (IOException e2) {
"IOException file reading photo "+ slideshowPhoto,e2);
wasOutOfMemory = true;
* Handle operation results will be run on the UI thread
* and will be responsible for setting the read drawable to the ImageView drawable
public void handleOperationResult() {
View slideshowView = weakRefslideshowView.get();
}else if(wasGarbageCollected){
}else if (slideshowView == null) {
"Drawable loaded, but imageview has been garbage collected since read started");
} else {
ImageView imageView = (ImageView)slideshowView.findViewById(R.id.slideshow_photo);
public String toString(){
return "QueueablePhotoObject:"+slideshowPhoto.getTitle();
}else {
return super.toString();
Filed under: Android | 4 Comments
Tags: android, gallery, outofmemoryexception, queue
RedditTV for android
I've just released the RedditTV for android app. It makes YouTube videos popular on reddit.com easily available on your android device.
Got a Media Center with a big screen?
Now you can even send the video from your phone and directly to your Media Center! Just long-click any video you want to send.
Currently supports:
-Google TV
(requires Google TV Remote or Logitech Harmony app)
(requires configuration of connection parameters in settings)
Please upvote the related reddit post and provide feedback on existing or new functionality.
Most likely, the code will be open-sourced in the future.
Filed under: Android | Leave a Comment
I've just released what would be best characterized as a mashup between youtube and reddit.
It is available at http://reddittv.elsewhat.com/ or through the chrome web store .
In essence it provides you with a youtube player which uses the social site reddit.com as the source for the playlist.
It uses the Youtube API and the Reddit API and is all done through client-side javascript coding.
Thanks to Salman Arshad which provided an example of a video player using the Youtube API. This became the base for my implementation.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
One of the most interesting parts of Innovation Weekend is that you are working on actual business cases and challenges that matter for non-profit organization. In some cases the business case becomes just as, or more, important than the actual technical implementation. We believe that the scenario we worked with during #Innowe10 in Las Vegas is one of these.
The key challenge all non-profit organizations face is how they can reach potential donors and volunteers. Once they reach them they are generally very good at presenting their story and have a reasonably high rate of conversion. Today, traditional channels such as e-mail, postal letters, sms are used for reaching the potential donors and volunteers. However, we believed that proper use of social media could drastically change this and that was the business case we set out to solve in our team at Innovation weekend.
Social media strategy for any company is not a trivial task and it is very difficult to get right. For a non-profit organization the challenge is to get the attention of all the users of facebook, twitter, linkedin, MySpace etc. Collecting followers is generally considered the key metric for how well you are doing. However, non-profit organizations are not managing to gain the same follower numbers as celebrities and corporations. This is illustrated in the table below showing number of followers (people who like) from facebook today 20.10.2010.
Facebook followers | ||
Non-profit | Celebrity | Corporation |
Doctors without Borders: 343 515 | Michael Jackson: 22 190 941 | Starbucks: 15 862 452 |
American Red Cross: 211 776 | Lady GaGa: 21 031 946 | Coca-Cola: 14 766 636 |
Arts Umbrella Vancouver: 537 | Britney Spears: 5 290 852 | SAP: 41 309 |
Our key insight was that in order for a non-profit to use social media in an effective way, they need to piggyback ride on the networks of celebrities and corporations. That's how we make sure our message of charity reach as many people as possible. (people spreading it in their own personal network can of course be done as well, but we believe it has less potential )To motivate corporations and celebrities to spread our message of charity we quickly realized that we had to stimulate friendly competition and apply free market principles. We do this through "The Challenge" and the "Challenge Update" mechanisms
"The Challenge"
The Challenge" is posted to one or more social media channels by our Social Charity Hub solution. "The Challenge" is posted to the page of corporations and celebrities that we want to challenge to raise money for our charity campaign. (new corporations and celebrities can of course be added as the campaign proceeds). In the example above Lady GaGa has received a challenge which contains the following:
- A description of the charity
- A challenge to raise as much money as possible
- A competitor/archrival which will be their primary opponent (here Britney Spears
- Link to our donation page with parameters identifying that the donation is from Lady GaGa's network
Once the challenge is posted on the wall of the celebrity or corporation, it is visible to their followers. But what we really want is for the challenged celebrity or corporation to define their own strategy for how to raise donations. They might do a pledge saying that for every dollar donated, they will also donate the same. Or they might send an e-mail with the link to all their employees and encourage them to participate. This is where the free market principles kicks in and since this is combined with the competition, people are sure to become very creative in how to raise money. The corporations and celebrities also get positive publicity because of this campaign.
"Challenge Update"
Once all the challenges have been made by our Social Charity Hub, the solution as a whole will constantly monitor the transactions made and use analytics to see how the competition is proceeding. Below we've illustrated the high-level overview picture of the general flow.
The analytics solution consists of a dashboard solution allowing the competitors and the campaign management to viewing the current status of the charity. However, the Social Charity Hub will also retrieve aggregated data from here, which it will use as a basis for deciding if new updates should be published through social media channels. These new message should update everyone on how the competition is proceeding and raise the competitive instincts in all the people involved. An example of such an update is shown below, where it shows that Lady GaGa is actually trailing Britney Spears by 12%
Challenge completed
When the campaign has reached its target set by the campaign manager, the Social Charity Hub will also publish a detailed thank you note to each celebrity and corporation involved through social media. This will include a link to a dashboard built with SAP Crystal Dashboard(Xcelsius) that allows anyone to analyze all the donations and the different competitions defined.
SAP Technology used
A lot of exciting SAP technologies were used for this scenario, but the details and experiences really warrant a separate blog. We weren't able to connect all the different systems within the limited time of Innovation weekend, but perhaps you'll see parts of this solution on SAPCodeExchange in the future. The technologies were as follows:
- StreamWork with Gravity collaborative process modeling plugin
Used for working with the business case and defining the process for rolling out a new campaign and updating social media - NW Business Process Management 7.3
Used for modeling the overall process governing the Social Charity Hub - Visual Composer 7.3
Used as user interface for BPM screens - WebDynpro for ABAP
Used for the donations page - ABAP
Used for storing the donation transaction data - SAP Crystal Dashboard (Xcelsius)
Used for analyzing the transaction
The team
The team dynamics were amazing to see in action. It is very interesting to see how engaged people are, even though they've just met. The team consisted of:
- Dagfinn Parnas Bouvet ASA (Norway) – SAP Mentor
- Paul Aschmann Faist Chemtec INC. (South Africa)
- Carlos Pereira Cisco Systems (Brazil)
- Sergio Oliveira FH Consulting (Brazil)
- Srini Marada Commercial Metals Company (USA)
- Ivan Mirisola SAP (Brazil)
- Marlo Simon Complex (Brazil)
Finally, we would like to thank Craig Cmehil, Marilyn Prat, Kai van der Loo and all the other SAP and non-SAP who helped organize and participated at Innovation weekend at SAPTeched in Las Vegas 2010.
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Tags: sap sapteched teched innovationweekend innowe
Following up on the success of the 2009 TechEd interview on "How Lean, Agile and Scrum will shape your company of the future" …
Vijay Vijayasankar (manager at IBM running very large international SAP implementations), Mark Finnern (SAP Chief Community Evangelist) and myself did a follow up on Lean, Agile and Future of the Enterprise II.
It is available from http://bit.ly/ca7QQE
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Tags: sap sapteched agile scrum lean
Having become a dad for the first time recently, I've realized that there are a whole new set of parent related challenges.
In addition to all the standard ones, I caught myself in an unforseen situation.
My son Morris usually goes to bed at 22:15, but doesn't like to sleep before 23:15. Therefore, I usually lie next to him and get connected with the outside world through my smartphone.
However, as the bedroom gradually gets darker, I found that the smartphone ruined my nightvision. It was therefore almost impossible to see what Morris was up to.
Being inspired by the Mythbuster pirate special in which the myth "Pirates wore eyepatches to preserve night vision in one eye" was deemed plausible. I immedately came to the following conclusion:
This calls for an experiment!
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Tags: eyepatch, mythbuster, nightvison, pirate
An Ode To Lexus Smart Tech
Today I am trading in my Lexus IS 220d which I've had for three years. I've enjoyed this car to a high extent and part of this is to do with its smart use of technology.
So what are the Smart Tech on Lexus? Here is my top ten list:
- Smart Entry and Start system (aka Keyless Go)
No more need to find the keys in order open the door and start the car. Amazingly practical and I'm looking into the options of having the same kind of tech in my house - Tilting side-mirrors when reversing
When reversing, the side-mirrors tilt slightly in order for you to see any obstacles more easily - Touch screen navigation
The touchscreen navigation of the Lexus is superb. For example when you want to enter an addresse, it filters out the possibilities in your current country as you type and when there are only a few locations left it displays a user friendly list. Only complaint I have that it locks down when the car is moving for safety reasons eventhough you might have a passenger who use it safely - Rear-view camera
I was laughing about this feature when I bought the car used, but actually it is very practical. Allows you to see if any kids toys or other obstacles are in the way
(and you could probably make a cool rap video from the camera) - Welcome home lights
As part of the Smart Entry system it displays a small light under the side mirrors when you approach the car. Just a way of saying welcome home - Electronic sun-shade
There is an electronic sun-shade in the rear window that can be opened and closed by the click of a button - Seating preferences store
For each front seat there are three preferences that can be stored for the electronic seats. An improvement to the system would be to automatically connect the right preferences with a smart key - Surround sound system
The Mark Levinson 14 speaker and 300 watt sound system is amazing and is very tailor made to the car experience. They even made it so the internal mirror moves in beat with the bass-line if you play high enough :) I actually prefer to listen to some types of music in my car, eventhough I have decent enough stereo systems at home - VDIM stability system
Sometimes I've been driving the car on ice, and even though it is a rear-wheel drive car it is amazingly stable in tough conditions. The Vechile Dynamics Integrated Management system brings together all the related stability technologies. You need to experience first hand how it corrects a small slide through individual wheel braking - Adaptive front-light system
The adaptive front-light system has a swivelling projector which moves as you turn into a corner. An improvement would be to include the welcome home lights in the mirrors when going at slow speed (as some of VW models does) - Bluetooth phone integration
Nothing unique about Bluetooth phone integration, but it is very practical. I'm using this in conjunction with my Bluetooth on Motion Android app, which automatically turns on Bluetooth on my smartphone when it detects movement of a certain speed over time
That's the end of my top 10 11 list. Going to miss the car.
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Tags: car, lexus, smart, tech
During the #sapphirenow key note, CO-CEO of SAP Jim Hagemann Snabe said that he saw no drawbacks of introducing scrum to part of SAP product development and the challenge now was to scale it to the entire company.
I tweeted this, but received immediately a response from an analyst that "Developers hate scrum"
I thought this was a somewhat strange statement, as in my experience 98% of developers love scrum and the rest fear it because of the transparency.
I then got two more interesting replies from twitter, one from @webtonull stating the rest fear it because it is experienced as surveilance (meaning your not really doing it as intended). The other was from @cvitan who came up with the catch-line "lazy developers hate scrum".
Myself and Twan van den Broek, who has experience from running scrum in SAP projects (see his presentation on the topic), figured out we'd do a short video to share with the world and the SAP Community. This video is shown below
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Tags: agile, SAP, sapphirenow, scrum
Having been intrigued with the effectiveness of http://stackoverflow.com , I've been interested in the possibility of using such a solution internally within the enterprise for other purposes than IT.
Since Stackoverflow.com currently is not open-sourced, I looked at the alternatives and the most promising to me was Shapado . It is an open-source solution, but also provides a hosted option.
Therefore, I've created an virtual image which can be used in order to test out the solution locally. You can test it by:
- Downloading the image from http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4379928/Shapado/turnkey-rails-shapado.zip and unzip it
(if you want to start using dropbox, you can use this link in order to give me some sorely needed extra space) - Download the VMWare player from http://downloads.vmware.com/d/info/desktop_downloads/vmware_player/3_0
- Start the VMWare image through the .vmx file and log in with user:root password:<blank>
(afterall it is a test image, not a production one) - Get the ip-adresse from the VMWare image and on the client (not in the image) modify your host file (C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc) so that it contains
<vmware image ip> localhost.lan group1.localhost.lan group2.localhost.lan - From the VMWare image start the MongoDB through the script /opt/shapado/startdb.sh
- From the VMWare image Shapado application by going to directory /opt/shapado and running ./script/server
- Access shapado through http://localhost.lan:3000
The image was created with basis in the excellent Turnkey linux VMWare images by roughly completing the following steps:
- Get the Rails turnkey linux image from http://www.turnkeylinux.org/rails and unzip it
- Start image from 1. in the VMWare player
- Upgrade to ruby 1.8.7 by following the excellent instructions at http://www.vanutsteen.nl/2008/06/29/installing-ruby-187-and-guessnet-on-hardy/ (if not you get an error for the count method when posting a question)
- Install MongoDB according to the instructions at http://shapado.com/questions/how-to-install-shapado-on-amazon-ec2
- Run apt-get install devise -v 1.0.5 and retrieve the specification file ref. http://shapado.com/questions/unpacked-gem-devise-1-0-5-in-vendor-gems-has-no-specification-file
- Follow the instructions form installing Shapado at http://gitorious.org/shapado/shapado/blobs/master/README (note you will have to use a workaround for the rake gems:install step , see 6. above)
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Tags: image, installation, shapado, stackoverflow, vmware
Fellow SAP Mentor Vijay (@vijayasankarv) recently posted a blog entry where he states the reason why Agile didn't work for him: http://andvijaysays.wordpress.com/2010/04/16/south-beach-diet-didnt-work-for-me-and-neither-did-agile-development/
It is a good read, though I don't agree with the conclusions.
I've posted a long comment on the blog which is reproduced below. It will be interesting to see the announced response of the http://enterprisegeeks.com
Would you pay an Agile contractor to build your deck?
I need a deck built, and I don't know how to build one. So I hire some one else to do that. And this dude tells me he can do it one of two ways. 1. I can discuss with him on how a basic deck has to be built, and he can give me an estimate. Or 2. I can give him a rough idea, and he will start building the deck, and every day or two – he and I can get together to see how it is going and what changes I want, and I can pay him for work that he has done every day. Of course in the second option, he cannot tell me how much the deck will cost me or how long it will take him to build me one – but I can see progress every day. I don't know about you – but I know what option I will go for. Same thing with my clients – if the work and schedule are not predictable – it is hard for them to just pay as I go.
Global and Agile are like Oil and Water – They don't mix.
I forgot the last time I had all the IT and Business guys and gals working in the same location. Most often – we have people working on a project from all over the globe. It is seldom possible to get teams from Japan, India, Germany and US to be on a conference call. And even if you do – without a written document explaining the problem and/or solution – it is hard to get anything done.
There are only so many super stars in this world
In any given team, the norm is to have a few super stars, several average performers and a few below average ones. This has a direct effect on pulling off delivery in an agile fashion. Not every one can go away with minimal instructions and come back with the right solution, and right questions to ask for next day.
It can be argued that Agile needs less programmers, and hence you can keep just the super stars and let go of every one else. This argument works only if the scope is small. The day still has only 24 hours – and even super stars cannot work 24X7 all the time to get everything done.
Most projects do not have dedicated business users.
The whole idea of Agile is to get something back to business users faster than in a waterfall model, and keep them informed of progress frequently. This is very good – except it won't happen in most projects. Most companies find it hard to dedicate full-time business people to a project. More often, business users have to do project work on the side. So – even if the tech team wants constant face time , the chance of that working out is low.
A few product companies have tried out Agile successfully. However, in the couple of cases where I got a chance to talk to people from the team – it seems, the customer was almost never present in the scrum meetings. Instead, the product manager assumed the role of being the customer voice. If that is the case, I would have to wonder aloud "so what is new?". Product manager is not the one who has to live with the product after it is out – it is the customer.
What works for you – people over process? or process over people?
This is what it boils down to – Agile manifest claims the superiority of people over process. And traditional waterfall puts process over people. For me – as a manager of big teams, with a deadline and budget that seldom cuts me any slack – I would trust a good process to compensate for the human errors most of the time. I think it is a high risk for me to trust that every one in the team will perform to the same high standards. Having a disciplined process helps me get the best out my team, despite not every one being a super star.
Would you build a mission critical solution using Agile?
I don't know – but I keep wondering if NASA would use Agile for designing systems for their next space mission? I somehow can't see any application that is very important and deals with life and death, or dealing with large amounts of money – like air traffic control or stock market transactions – to use Agile.
I hope every one knows about 3C. This was the big Chrysler project that was the poster child for XP (Extreme programming). Well, guess what – that didn't quite work out. Check this out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler_Comprehensive_Compensation_System or just google and you will find several interesting takes on it.
Building a car and building a software solution have similarities in design. However, there are significant differences too. Just as it is impossible to build a car without knowing what exactly needs to be built – we cannot build a good software solution without knowing what the heck we are building. Otherwise, even if you follow Toyota manufacturing Process to build a Camry – you could end up with a Chevy Malibu.
Is Agile really good for long-term stability of a solution?
Most software is built by first putting a framework in place, and then building on top of it. It is the rough equivalent of putting a good foundation for your house. If you know that you will have a house with 2 floors – you will probably put a certain amount of concrete in your foundation. Now that you have finished the house – and for some reason, you now want one more floor – would you put one more floor without also doing some additional foundation work? And if you build by constantly messing with your foundation – I am definitely not going to buy that house or rent it for living. Same thing with software – the way sprints happen from what I have seen, I doubt if it is possible to put a solid foundation in place.
It is fun, but is that good enough for customer to pay?
One thing I really like about Agile is that every one involved in it usually has more fun than in a waterfall project. This improves team morale and all the good stuff – temporarily. When you cannot get user involvement, or if a blame game starts – where there is no documentation to go back and clarify what every one agreed to, this fun does not always last. And fun for the development team, while important in a project, is not the sole reason why some one pays for a solution.
Waterfall is not such a terrible thing to do, as its opponents make it to be. And it is a big exaggeration to say the team does a very long design up front, and that user gets to see things only at the end. That is not how most projects run. Waterfall can also have users involved more frequently. Also, you can build in plenty of feedback options and test driven development in a waterfall project. Also there are very strong visualization tools that can give the users a taste of the solution very early in the process. For example – iRise is a great tool to use for that. Do try it out, and your whole perspective will change. Also, once you have a good change control process established, changing requirements can be handled very effectively.
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Tags: agile, SAP, scrum


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Hot tags Animals Botany Climate Change Earth Sciences
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Art of science
Monday, 24 February 2014
Photo gallery Scientists create some amazing images while exploring the world around them. These images, from The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute's annual Art of Science awards, celebrate the incredible beauty of medical research.
Your summer heat photos
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Engineers in the United States have built a camera that can capture an image with 1000 times more detail than today's devices.
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Garrett Oliver is one of the most interesting and charasmatic brewers I've met. Having been told that the EIPA was previously a seasonal, I asked if any of the seasonals hadn't caught on. He told me that the Brooklyn Dry Stout, available in the spring, has had difficulty breaking into the crowded market, but they'll try again as it is one of his favorite styles. He also mentioned, to the entire room, that this winter's Brooklyn Monster Ale (barleywine), due anyday, will be extra strong: 12.3% abv.


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Last Updated: November 01, 2012
The Maryland DREAM Act was enacted by the Maryland General Assembly and signed by Governor Martin O'Malley on May 10, 2011. The law makes certain illegal aliens eligible to pay reduced tuition rates at Maryland community colleges and public higher education institutions, including the University of Maryland. The MDPetitions.com petition drive collected 132,071 signatures, nearly twice the amount required by law to put the new benefit to voters in a referendum.
Illegal aliens and the activist group Casa de Maryland challenged the petition drive in court to give taxpayer dollar subsidies for college tuition for certain illegal aliens. On October 7, 2011, MDPetitions.com was granted permission to intervene in the lawsuit which seeks to deny voters an up-or-down vote on the Maryland DREAM Act. The MDPetitions.com group is represented by Judicial Watch. The chairman of MDPetitions.com is Maryland Assembly Delegate Neil Parrott of Washington County; Delegate Patrick McDonough of Baltimore and Harford Counties is its honorary chairman.
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