Linus Torvalds Offers to Build Guitar Effects Pedal For Kernel Developer (theregister.com) 32
Linux creator Linus Torvalds announced a playful giveaway for kernel contributors: he'll hand-build a guitar effects pedal for one lucky developer selected at random, using his holiday hobby skills with pedal kits. To qualify, developers must have a 2024 commit in Torvalds' kernel git tree and email him with the subject "I WANT A GUITAR PEDAL". He'll pick a winner at random, use his own money to buy a pedal kit from a company called Aion FX, and then 'build it with my own shaky little fingers, and send it to the victim by US postal services.'" The Register reports: The odd offer appeared in his weekly state-of-the-kernel post, which on Sunday US time informed the Linux world that release candidate (rc) seven for version 6.13 of the Linux kernel "is slightly bigger than normal, but considering the timing, it's pretty much where I would have expected, and nothing really stands out." Torvalds therefore expects version 6.13 to debut next week, meaning it will arrive after his preferred seven release candidates and without delays caused by the usual holiday-period slowdown. Torvalds then added a postscript in which he revealed that he often uses the holiday season to build LEGO, which he frequently receives for Christmas and his late December birthday.
He kept up that tradition last year, but "also ended up doing a number of guitar pedal kit builds" which he described as "LEGO for grown-ups with a soldering iron." [...] Torvalds doesn't play guitar, but did the builds "because I enjoy the tinkering, and the guitar pedals actually do something and are the right kind of "not very complex, but not some 5-minute 555 LED blinking thing.'" He enjoyed the experience and wants to build more pedals, so has decided to give one away to a random kernel developer -- both as an act of generosity and to "check to see if anybody actually ever reads these weekly rc announcements of mine." Torvalds rated his past pedal-building efforts a "good success so far" but warned entrants "I'm a software person with a soldering iron."
"I will test the result to the best of my abilities, and the end result may actually work ... but you should set your expectations along the lines of "quality kit built by a SW person who doesn't know one end of a guitar from the other.'"
He kept up that tradition last year, but "also ended up doing a number of guitar pedal kit builds" which he described as "LEGO for grown-ups with a soldering iron." [...] Torvalds doesn't play guitar, but did the builds "because I enjoy the tinkering, and the guitar pedals actually do something and are the right kind of "not very complex, but not some 5-minute 555 LED blinking thing.'" He enjoyed the experience and wants to build more pedals, so has decided to give one away to a random kernel developer -- both as an act of generosity and to "check to see if anybody actually ever reads these weekly rc announcements of mine." Torvalds rated his past pedal-building efforts a "good success so far" but warned entrants "I'm a software person with a soldering iron."
"I will test the result to the best of my abilities, and the end result may actually work ... but you should set your expectations along the lines of "quality kit built by a SW person who doesn't know one end of a guitar from the other.'"
A dream I once had (Score:5, Funny)
"Ladies and gentlemen, it's Linus and the Kernels singing their number one hit, Blue Screen of Life!...
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> I think the "Blue Screen" is very much a token of Windows
That's the play of the title, like "Scotty's Recursors: I Gotta Beam Me".
> and this classic has no use for guitar effects
Needs more cowbell.
Why would tar need a GUI... (Score:4, Interesting)
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Add a -z to help with listening in noisy environments. Or a -j for modern pop music.
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Well there are some odd people who insist that git needs a GUI - so perhaps wanting one for tar is just the next logical step for them.
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Well since you took the effort to detail your desire, AND signed your name to it, of course you're right.
Yes, you want software that works. Everybody does. So welcome to 9 billion people on this planet who want software that works.
- does what you expect
- repeatably
- without error
- cheaply (CPU usage, memory usage, storage usage, price)
- is easily maintainable (auto updates, no errors, no bugs, no changes in behavior apparent to the user that weren't requested)
- is well documented so e.g. photoshop/gimp yo
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Ask and you shall receive, here:
#include
int main() {
std::cout "Hello World!";
return 0;
}
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The irony in this case being that it doesn't actually work:
- it's not actually a program that can be executed
- it cannot be compiled, because of an additional layer of non-working software (the comments platform of this site)
- it requires a C++ compiler, which is not as a available as a C or Pascal compiler (or a BASIC interpreter)
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In America, we insource bigotry, folks. Sorry you have to hear "The Cat" and Invady Don. We're not sending our best.
(I'm not fond of the H1B program myself, but you are bashing it wrong.)
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You realize Linux was build in Finland originally, with major developer help from UK and parts of Europe. There are major Indian developers in the kernel.
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One of those things (Score:4, Insightful)
This is one of those things that a tiny number of us on this planet would see as the coolest thing ever, while the vast majority of folks would raise their eyebrows and say "o-key then...".
Re:One of those things (Score:4, Informative)
Yep. I too can't play guitar for shit...but have had a lot of fun building pedals. It's a good way to get started in PCB layout, and a good way to get more comfortable with analog circuitry. Plus, a lot of the vintage pedals are hundreds of dollars (or more), but all the schematics are available...and not very complicated. I wasn't going to pay $600 for a Vox SuperFuzz...but successfully made my own.
Plus, when you get down to it, the availability of interesting and challenging electronics kits is a bit slim....so, you gotta make your own.
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we got (Score:2)
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And Half-Life 2: Episode Three.
Re: we got (Score:2)
ROADMAP Needed. Also heli controls. (Score:1)
Flight sims have become amazing. But if you're a helicopter pilot (I am) getting controls is a huge PITA. They come in different varieties from bare metal (supply own chair) to semi-immersive but nothing like the fixed-wing controls. They are also expensive as heck.
If only someone would offer to put together a helicopter flight-sim control set... just tell me which part of the kernel to work on!
So that was serious, but more seriously, part of the problem with the kernel development is a lack of a roadmap
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Do normal pedals and stick work well enough, that it's just the collective you're missing? Or, are you looking for a more hardcore setup?
does this include... (Score:1)
I lost respect for Linus for canceling developers based on where they were born.
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Well, seeing as he's shipping USPS and the US government isn't keen on exports to Russia right meow...
This is dangerous (Score:2)
Never trust programmers who carry screwdrivers (or soldering irons).
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Remember the rest of it: never trust
A software engineer with a soldering iron
A hardware engineer with a keyboard
A manager with an idea
Linux - Socialism at its best? (Score:1)
50% of the Internet's servers run Linux, an OS coded by volunteers, free to use and learn from. Assuming all that is true. That's amazeballs. Well done Humans.
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50% is low. Perhaps really low.
The coders are some volunteers, and some companies that volunteer their employees. Still a community.
Some of the edge cases can get a bit scary. I tested a piece of iSCSI/ROCE code for a developer because he did not have the hardware to test it himself. It was a simple case, and the code worked, but the idea of a developer without a test-bed is at least "interesting".
So, still amazing, but like most things, more complicated.
Does it include a "page turner" function? ... (Score:1)
Linus needs to make a rock record... (Score:1)