Darkstar

Everybody was in the wrong here. The developer should've written better code. I'm a PHP developer and I've learned that if the input is that important, I need to cast it. I've used C++, C#, and Java and I like strict typing. If your application is that sensitive then maybe it should've casted the input to ensure the output is consistent.

As for Rasmus, I think he could've explained why it's a "won't fix" type bug in a slightly more diplomatic fashion, though I can't say I would've handled it any differently. He's completely right as to why the behavior shouldn't change. Finally, bjori's response was completely unnecessary, inflammatory, and downright rude.

This has shown me the worst of the PHP community. I'm not ashamed, just more wary.

While I would normally agree with you, Blizzard games have always had polish. They do continue to balance the game for years afterwards but you rarely find bugs that would make you say it wasn't ready for prime time.

They already did. That's why they started patting them down.

Ah, but there's one fatal flaw in your logic. The problem is that we're NOT the TSA's customers. The TSA answers only to the Department of Homeland Security, which answers to nobody. See, the TSA is meant to protect us but cannot be held accountable by the people it protects.

If they depended on us for their survival (like they claim we depend on them for ours) then you'd see them become much friendlier and much more effective. Really, that's why most (not necessarily all, but the majority) companies provide good customer service. They know how far a bad review or an outspoken customer can go. Speaking out against the TSA gets us nowhere on an individual basis because they lose nothing. We need to make sure our government officials set the TSA straight.

I see. Thank you for clarifying, I wasn't aware that was possible. I won't say that's unnecessary but I have yet to need such functionality.

I think I disagreed with just about every point on that post. Most of the issues the author describes can be fixed by using your brain and the tools at your disposal.

Your IDE adds metadata to your directory? SVN and git allow you to ignore files and directories.

It's not in the GUI menu so I can't do it! You're doing it wrong.

I can't pipe from my IDE to another program! What? My IDEs create files and these files and their output can be piped wherever. Maybe I'm in the minority but I've never felt the need to pipe directly from vi to anything else. I don't even know how or if that would work. I've piped the file I edited to something else before...which I can still do whether I use an IDE or not.

The whole blog post was just silly.

This is fatally flawed by virtue of the fact that it's a .com. The US government has already claimed it has jurisdiction over the com TLD. Should a judge agree that means the social network could be shut down just by appropriating the domain. Also, anonymous is supposed to be decentralized whereas this is anything but. I like some of what anonymous does, but I don't trust them at all.

The website is laughable. The claims made all end in nonsequiturs. Paybuyer is highly speculative and vastly overestimating its ability to disrupt Google Adwords, even with their proposed backing from Waterloo and RIM.

Furthermore I don't pity RIM in the least. They made their bed. They chose to keep their products "business oriented" and got left behind when it came to innovation and, in the end, productivity. Why should I chastise Google for opening their platform and offering services for free? Google's model was clearly a better one at drawing customers in, which in turn fuels their advertising through use of mobile advertising in free apps.

The website claims Adwords funds Android and that's why it's evil, because it creates a "moat" around Google that makes it nigh impossible to compete with Google. I disagree. I believe Adwords and Android are symbiotic. They fuel each other, and if your company can't compete with Google then DON'T TRY TO COMPETE WITH GOOGLE. Choosing to do so is a huge risk, though it may net huge rewards. By taking them on you accept your fate, be it failure or success. Don't ask us to intervene on your behalf. I gain nothing by backing Paybuyer.

Also, Paybuyer is a horrible name for a company.

I just read an article (I believe here on HN) about letslunch.com. Try that out for meeting people of interest and influence.

The best thing I can tell you is to be consistent. The impression you first give the user will be what they will expect throughout your site, web-savvy or not. If you change how you input or display data in different parts of your site it will only serve to confuse the user.

For the older crowd that uses just email I would suggest not overloading them with information. Too much information on one screen can be a pain to sift through and usually the younger crowd doesn't mind it as much - mostly because they don't read so much as skim, though - but the older crowd will find it to be a chore.

Users understand the back and forward buttons on a browser. Try not to create a situation where the browser buttons would not function as expected. Too much AJAX or wanton use of a lightbox could be considered such situations.

Lastly, visually offsetting the content of your site versus the layout (menus, headers, footers, etc.) can go a long way to guiding usage of your application.