New Year, New Blog
Just as I promised, with the new year starts a new semester, and so will my thesis project. From here on out, I'll be attempting to focus on it during my entries, and point out interesting things that I find.
Today's entry, however, is not so good. Remember that idea I had a few months ago about controlling Xen machines from a control panel? Yeah, it's been done. Over and over and over. I discovered this after I got approval for my idea, leaving me with a problem - do I keep going, knowing that I'll be duplicating the work? Do I abandon the idea of writing my own and attempt to patch (or even fork) that other little project known as Ganeti? (After all, I do have a few ideas to make it even better which they don't appear to have implemented.)
Nobody said this project was going to be easy, and I just hit frustration #1 - dealing with how I thought I had a great idea, while it's actually been done. I'm sure I'll learn quite a bit in the process if I continue, but should I give up and change topics? Do I accept the fact that the CS world is filled with really smart people (such as those at Google who came up with Ganeti) and continue on anyway? After all, not every single MSCS student in the country can come up with something new.
Is the process about learning new things for oneself, or generating new things for the industry in general by building on existing research?
Jason Abrahamson says:
Is that a joke? If Xerox didn't develop the GUI, Apple would not have created MacOS. Had MacOS not been created, Microsoft never would have conceived Windows. Had Windows never been conceived, Apple would have never completely rebuilt MacOS. Multiple people working on the same theory and philosophy create competition, ideas, and features. If everybody threw there arms up in the air and said "Well Henry Ford already figured out how to make the best cars we give up" we'd all be driving the Model T. Who cares if they make it? Remember there is only one person who didn't like competition and he had his company broken up: "Competition is a sin" - John D. Rockefeller