This link popped up on my twitter, thought some of you guys might find it amusing [smile] I'd be curious to know if the seller of this actually plans to try and make money out of it, or if it is just a joke.

This is freely available on hundreds of different websites, and common knowledge to many programmers.

But, if there is nothing else about the internet's knowledge marketplace that we need to know, it is that people will try to sell freely-available info anywhere and anyway they can.

I'm thinking the person who put it up on eBay is doing it as a joke, or possibly even a bet with a friend. But there again, if they realise there are idiots out there who'll pay (it has a bid on it) - then good for them.

Quote: Original post by Richy2k
I'm thinking the person who put it up on eBay is doing it as a joke, or possibly even a bet with a friend. But there again, if they realise there are idiots out there who'll pay (it has a bid on it) - then good for them.

I would doubt something like this is a joke. If it is, the person has a very stale sense of humor lol. Something like The Ghost in a Jar is obviously an Ebay joke. This just doesn't resonate with the outlandishness that Ebay jokes typically have. It is probably some guy testing the water to see if anyone will pay $0.99 for common programming structures. If they do, he will probably start making tons more.

If they're selling theirs for 99c, I'll sell you std::list for 89c. Bargain! I'll even include the documentation for free!

Quote: Original post by Codeka
If they're selling theirs for 99c, I'll sell you std::list for 89c. Bargain! I'll even include the documentation for free!

I could almost guarantee you that someone, somewhere would buy it. That is what these people selling really common, free software and info online are counting on. I can't even count how many times I have seen open-source, free game engines being sold by scammers (who didn't code it) online. I figure they would not be doing it if they didn't make at least a bit of money.

Surely posting an innocent question such as "And what's wrong std::list?" would deter most programmers ...

Quote: Original post by jackolantern1
I would doubt something like this is a joke. If it is, the person has a very stale sense of humor lol. Something like The Ghost in a Jar is obviously an Ebay joke.

Wait, was that "joke" actually sold for $50,922.00, or is that part of the joke?

Quote: Original post by jackolantern1
I could almost guarantee you that someone, somewhere would buy it. That is what these people selling really common, free software and info online are counting on. I can't even count how many times I have seen open-source, free game engines being sold by scammers (who didn't code it) online. I figure they would not be doing it if they didn't make at least a bit of money.

Yeah, I've noticed the installer for Paint.NET has a message that says (paraphrasing) "Paint.NET is free software, if you paid any money for it, please demand an immediate refund and download it from www.getpaint.net instead." Presumably people were just packaging up the installer as-is and trying to sell it.

What an age we live in!

Quote: Original post by Kirl

Quote: Original post by jackolantern1
I would doubt something like this is a joke. If it is, the person has a very stale sense of humor lol. Something like The Ghost in a Jar is obviously an Ebay joke.

Wait, was that "joke" actually sold for $50,922.00, or is that part of the joke?

The story goes that that was one of his friends who drove the price up. If you look at the auction info, it only had about 5 or 6 bids. I think back when it was on Ebay, you could see the history, and it was between 2 people. The small number of bids never would have been enough to get it up to $50k+ lol