Re: funds to UW trust

[John W. Eaton]

On  6-Oct-2004, Keith Goodman <address@hidden> wrote:

| On a separate note, we could raise funds and awareness by creating
| T-shirts, mugs, and caps at http://www.cafepress.com. Who wouldn't
| want to attend a free Matlab seminar with an Octave cap on?

Doing things like this would be fine and all contributions are
appreciated.  But realistically, to make a substantial difference we
need to be raising hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.  Unless
the numbers are that large, we will have to continue to rely on
volunteer efforts and the generosity of my employer, who continues to
raise money for my salary and who is willing to allow me to spend much
of my time working on Octave.

BTW, it was nice of Paul Kienzle to point out that I had been
mentioned as an "unsung hero" of free software, but I feel I must
point out that without the help of Jim Rawlings, my long-time 
supervisor (18+ years now, including time as my graduate thesis
advisor), Octave would probably not exist.  As the preface of the
Octave manual says, he was responsible for suggesting that we write
some software to support a textbook that he was planning to write and
he has secured nearly all of the funding that has paid for my work on
the project.  I'm certain that very few people who are using Octave
realize how important his contribution has been.

jwe