let’s keep it simple, stupid!

-m

bonus: check out their hip hop mixtape: hiphop.muxtape.com

i use a lot of open source software myself. firefox is my current browser of choice. at work, i like to write code in eclipse. i’ve been an avid fan of the linux operating system, as well as apache as a web server, and LAMP (and its variants) in general. and for instant messaging, i like to use gaim when using multiple screen names/messaging systems. heck, even to keep myself healthy at the computer, i use workrave to make sure i’m not staring at my screen during crazy coding sessions.

now, i’ve been taking guitar lessons for a while now, about half a year i would say… i’ve been learning a lot, and for some reason tonite while i was having myself a crazy practice session, i came up with this thought:

open source is a lot like music

it seems a bit strange at first, but to me it makes sense… despite what the RIAA says, music is very open and free when you look at the core makeup of a song… music and software are all built upon basic building blocks – music has its notes and chords, software its statements and functions (and i suppose objects if you wanted to include that as well). each musician takes those notes and puts them together to his liking… the same is with the developer. every song has elements that can be found in other songs. the same with software.

lately i’ve been learning to play guitar solos… my teacher, donovan, told me that in order to learn how to solo on your own, you listen to other great guitarist’s solo’s, take the style and parts that you like, and make them your own to create your style. i believe this is what is happening in open source now. take the above linked gaim for instance… the people behind that program took what they like about other software, the messaging protocols, and put it together to create their own program. they stripped what they didn’t like, and kept the stuff they thougth was good. the result is a messenger program, that, while not completely unique or new to the computer world, but has its own place in the world of computing much the same way a song has its own place in the world of music. the same can be said about lots of other software, like open office, eclipse, and firefox.

i found this small epiphany very enlightening and exciting for some reason… it’s strange how you start to see how things interconnect sometimes.

i also decided that there doesn’t seem to be too much open source musical software out there… i think what i’d like to do is create an open source music application… there are 2 programs that i’d like to create and maybe possibly merge or integrate together at some point… the first is a program that would aid in learning and memorizing different musical ideas, such as notes in a chord or scale, building and recognizing complex chords, and other such musical things… the next would be to create my own sort of guitar teaching program… i would basically take the lessons i got from mike granat (my first guitar teacher) and donovan, and try to put them in some logical order that would help someone learn the guitar… or, i would build it for donovan to give to any of his other students as compliments to one on one lessons.

i think this would be an awesome way to get my code into the open source community… the only thing that i’m unsure about is building the graphical parts, as it’s been a long time since i’ve done it, and i don’t know how to make it portable to the different platforms… i’m sure if i build it on the GTK framework, it should work on windows and linux, but i’m not sure about mac… we’ll see tho’, i’ll have to do some research and write some documents for each, and my time is stretched thin right now…

if there is anyone out there would like to join me on this, please feel free to hit me up on the comment section and i’ll write you a proper email… while i’m sure there are probably few developers reading this blog, who knows who might show up and find this interesting…

anyways, i think that would be pretty cool to do some programs like that… i could use the practice and would love to learn some new coding tricks.

so yeah, that’s that… go try some open source software, you’ll be surprised at what you’ll find!

-m