beforebeta

I read this and I think - what would the creator of MS Paint think if he read this story. As a developer and a creator, if I would ever read a story like this, about a product that I had created, I would think my life to be complete. Stories like this inspire me to keep stretching the boundary of what is possible and to keep creating...

maybe it's just me but there seems to be a bug when viewing this on the ipad. I clicked on an image and could not figure out how to close the full screen preview. Just something you should look into.

just wanted to say that your book is what got me interested in data science and python. I would be in a very different place today if it wasn't for your book! So, thank you!

how exactly is WhatsApp "pushing around" Apple - that would indicate that there is a power & influence sort of relationship between the two companies. Rather, this is a case of WhatsApp outperforming Apple due to its multi-platform support, extended featureset and first mover advantage

just curious, is it legal to just send a balloon up in the air? considering there are so many different kinds of planes flying around, wouldn't you need clearance from the FAA or other regulatory authorities before doing this?

Awesome news, but I kind of felt Svpply had a very broad focus. I'm interested in seeing what some of the newer startups in this segment, with a more specific focus, will fair out (eg. http://lover.ly for weddings, http://www.threadmatcher.com for clothes and footwear, http://www.grandst.com for gadgets).

Anyone notice the name "Joeseph Schumpeter" on the sample card? Its a reference to Schumpeter's Creative Destruction - further implying them to be in the process of destroying the old ways of doing things (in this case banking) with a radically different approach. Love it!

this reminds me of geocaching

I have often been in situations like this one. I have always found it easiest to just give-up and leave - quit - pack your bags. Yet, after making such a mistake once, I have realized that it is not the right approach. The ideal approach is to give it _one_more_try_.

So my advice to you: If you want to leave the firm because you don't get along with the founder -> try to talk it out with him. Often the best solution is to have an honest discussion and see if you can resolve your differences. If after you have your discussion with the founder you still are unable to "gel" - leave, its not worth your while to waste your life in an environment that you're not happy in.

I agree with kloc - you are not the target audience for this market. The reality is that the digital divide is still so real in India. The idea is to not give [underprivileged] children a toy product for watching YouTube videos, but to give them access to a device, a technology and a revolution that they otherwise would never even have dreamed to have access to. I for one applaud the Indian Govt's efforts to "democratize" access to technology. Also remember this is just a v1 - I'm sure as things get cheaper, better, faster etc. so will this device.

I don't get it! How does this network work? What value does it provide? Why would it make me move away from FB? How is this different from diaspora?

Ive's words paint an inspiring and vivid picture of the process of creativity and innovation. Its fascinating how he has been able to articulate such an abstract concept!

I feel it's a disservice to Steve's legacy to take portions of the book out of context and derive inferences. For example, in this article, I can't understand how any comparisons can be derived between Mark, Larry and Bill Gates. All three of these entrepreneurs came in at a very different time in tech. Their success and [minor] failures if anything were in a large way a function of the then state of technology, competitive landscape and natural evolution of their companies.

The linked video (in german) explains this. Apparently Facebook has a registered HQ in Ireland (presumably - as someone mentioned in another thread - for tax purposes). Since it is a registered business in Ireland, it is subject to all Irish and many applicable European laws (one of which is data privacy). The 24-year-old Individual feels it's against his data privacy rights that Facebook retains deleted messages.

Personally I find his arguments a bit flawed - e.g. in one instance apparently he objects to the fact that Facebook knows when he was ill because he can do a quick CTRL-F on the text "ill" (german: krank) in the text he received from Facebook. My question is - isn't he the one who posted that content in the first place?

Secondly, he complains that deleted messages are still retained by Facebook. Could that just be a referential integrity constraint - since most messages require 2 or more parties. Therefore, although he deletes the messages, the other party still has the message in their inbox. Therefore, Facebook cannot simply delete the message. Furthermore, since the message has him linked, even if he deletes it from his side, Facebook needs to retain that information on their side.

You know the best solution to protect yourself from Facebook's data privacy policies - get off Facebook or at least be cautious when you post! I personally love the service and think one should be smart about what they post on publicly accessible social networks since that data remains for eternity!

you gotta love the guy for this!

This article completely misses the point. Hastings & Co. made a mistake. Yes. But they are learning and dealing with it way better than I would have imagined. At least they acknowledge a mistake and the CEO isn't egotistical enough to take the company down a wrong path (i.e. continue with split Netflix and Quikster) even if he believes it to be incorrect. Personally, I just gained new respect for Reed Hastings. Also, are we forgetting that this is also the man who was visionary enough to bring us legitimate Video on Demand when everyone thought online digital content either didn't matter or was restricted to pirated copies floating on the internet.

I personally see the Netflix case similar to the way Southwest Airlines hedged fuel prices to gain an advantage compared to other firms. When that advantage ended, it had to figure out a way to compete with the rest of the world, often times increasing prices or reducing service quality.

this just reaffirms my belief that jobs had a distinct sense of style and taste that far exceeds the normal. I think one of the things that played to his favor that he wasn't so much interested in the "what is possible" and "what isn't", rather he just believed it was possible and inspired technologists/programmers/hardware designers to make it so!

can you name some successful indian startups?

The title seems a bit ambiguous because for a second I thought Google Voice has silently decided to discontinue the Text sending feature. On another note, I've been using Google Voice for a long time and haven't experienced this.

My take is - if you don't have doubts you really aren't thinking hard enough.

It's good to have doubts because they help you understand if what you want to do is really worth doing.

Something tells me this is a very elaborate (10 years in the making) dig at the whole patent-ridiculousness

Google appears as the last result on the search page!

his website mentions him as a co-founder "...He also cofounded the online news site Reddit, where he released as free software the web framework he developed, web.py..."

Three thoughts: 1. Does this translate to creating more incentives for artists to do make great music and for fans to support great artists?

2. This opens the question of who will eventually "own" the artist's work and how the legal aspects around that would be managed.

3. I can imagine the RIAA (i.e. the middle men in this scenario) wouldn't take to this very kindly.

Have you tried Aptana (http://www.aptana.com/)?. It's a full-fledged Web Development IDE. The JS Editor is especially good and allows for referenced js code lookups from inside html files. It's also available as a regular eclipse add-on.