The Ad Analysis extension uses two data sources:
1. It locally (on your machine) collects the ads you see as you see them on Facebok and analyzes and aggregates the targeting information for each of these ads. Your data is not sent anywhere.
2. It contains a dataset (thanks in part to the New York Times and Propublica) that shows you who the top political advertisers are on Facebook, how they target their ads, and what those ads are. This means you can see ads that you would not normally be shown.
Reminding myself that perseverance is the only thing that works.
"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent." -- Calvin Coolidge
Let's Encrypt was founded by a group including Mozilla, EFF, and the University of Michigan. Mozilla is also a platinum sponsor. So yes, it is a Mozilla project.
Source: I am a Mozilla employee and a board member of ISRG (which operates Let's Encrypt).
We have several different mechanisms for running experiments. The e10s one specifically runs through what we rather poorly named a "system add-on".
e10s code is present in all builds. The system add-on contains logic that decides whether to turn it on or not. The system add-on can be updated daily (or more often), in all channels.
* I apologize for the naming, this is entirely my fault. I spent a lot of the last twelve months scheming/designing and developing experimental update mechanisms for Firefox.
I have written some tech books, one of them best-selling, tech edited others, and written a preface for one. I am also the author of published novels.
The amount of money and contract terms vary widely with the publisher. This is where a contract with one of the big publishers is in your favor. You can also consider self-publishing, but that is a different business model, which I will not cover here.
Don't be afraid to ask for different terms.
In particular:
- You can negotiate for an escalator clause on the royalties. This means that the more books you sell, the higher your rate.
- You can ask for a higher advance or a lower advance and higher royalty rate. You can ask for the advance to be split differently (on contract, 25%, 50%, full MS, final acceptance, etc).
- You should negotiate the option clause. This is the clause that says they get the first option on your next book. Specific terms to negotiate include limiting the scope - not "next book" but "next book on the topic of game development with Python". Also make sure they have a limited time to consider your proposal before deciding to buy it or not. 60 days seems to be a common number, but you can probably negotiate that down.
- Strike any non-compete clauses (that you will not write a book on this topic for anyone else or self publish one).
- Strike any cross-accounting clause. This is where you must earn out the advance on every book you have for a publisher before you can receive royalties on any book (and royalties for book 2 can be counted against the advance for book 1, and so on).
Some publishers pay monthly, some pay quarterly, some bi-annually. Take this into account.
Ask your publisher what their marketing and promotion plan will be for the book. How much support are they putting into it?
Earnings vary a great deal, but I have been very happy over the years, and book earnings have paid large chunks of my mortgage. How much you make depends a lot on the size of the audience, what other books are in the market, the timeliness of the book, and the publisher's approach to distribution and marketing. It tends to be on the small side and I realize my experiences are not typical.
It has opened doors for me and my co-author. We've been offered jobs, contracts, writing opportunities, and speaking opportunities.
I would say this was the best career decision I ever made. It's also draining and time-consuming, so be aware it's a large project.
If you are going into a book contract, familiarize yourself with cross-accounting or basket accounting clauses, and get them stricken from the contract. (This is the clause where you need to earn out all the books before getting royalties for any of them.)
In general familiarize yourself with book contracts, and understand the pitfalls. Or consult a literary lawyer.
Source: I'm the author of multiple tech books over more than a decade and several novels.
The basic shape of the contract is the same. The publishers I have worked for are both fans of plain language and relatively short contracts, which helps. (Tech publisher is Pearson, fwiw, and they have been wonderful to work with over the years.)
The differences in how I write are pretty epic. For a tech book I'll work out a very detailed outline (down to subheadings within each chapter) in advance, and need larger slabs of time to write to maintain my train of thought. For novels I tend to work from a much lighter-weight outline (major plot points, not chapter by chapter) but spend a bunch of time in advance thinking through the characters and world-building.
Definitely this. I fought depression (originally PPD, but didn't go away) without medication for three years. Tried exercise, sunshine, B vitamins, volunteering, etc, etc. When I finally went to the doctor the medication working was such a huge relief, because nothing else did.
The model is that we want to make Firefox itself more webby in the way it ships. Features should be independently updatable from the core browser, and we should be able to do phased rollouts to help us watch for issues, control for load, and so on.
We are looking at offering very experimental stuff in a purely opt-in process, and updates to regular features as if they were third party add-ons (with some twists in how they have to be implemented).
It's mentioned only briefly here since the email is mostly about XUL/XBL.
I'm working on the Go Faster project. We hope to deliver a 1-2 features this way by the end of 2015. We have just started on building out needed changes to the client, update service, and build pipeline.
The Ad Analysis extension uses two data sources: 1. It locally (on your machine) collects the ads you see as you see them on Facebok and analyzes and aggregates the targeting information for each of these ads. Your data is not sent anywhere. 2. It contains a dataset (thanks in part to the New York Times and Propublica) that shows you who the top political advertisers are on Facebook, how they target their ads, and what those ads are. This means you can see ads that you would not normally be shown.
I hope this is helpful!