Adopting lines of code

Miro, a cross-platform hoping-to-be popular media player cum streaming internet video player, is doing something that must be a world first.

For US$4 a month you can adopt a line of code. Apparently you get something they call a “blog widget” and presumably a warm fuzzy feeling. You watch it grow, and develop, and…

… wait, a line of code? ONE line?

Unless you’re a fan of code golf the average line of code in your application does nothing.

There’s a good reason this is a world first– it’s fucking stupid. For a start, it costs you US$4 a month. Now, that’s not a lot in the grand scheme of things. A beer a month, say. However, consider the shitstorm that people raised over last.fm no longer being free. That service only costs EU$3 a month, around a dollar less than adopting a line of code, and it actually does something.

Let’s also consider what you get for your $3 a month. Obviously you get a warm fuzzy ‘contributing’ feeling, but you get that by donating using paypal, or by, you know, contributing.

Worst of all, you have no choice in which actual line you get. It (as far as I could tell, I didn’t actually put by credit card details in) just gives you a line at random.

Which means there is someone out there who currently pays US$4 a month for this:

Any parent would be proud, I’m sure…