genuine

Good for ND. At least they are providing jobs.

> Less about how to become a hacker.. I'm ok in that department.. :-)

To understand the definition of "hacker", you should read that page by Eric if you haven't. Did not mean to imply anything else.

Haxor has gotten adopted by wannabe black hats/level 2 script kiddies, but that doesn't matter any more than "hacker" tends to get redefined on HN as "web developer". It is less helpful to understand what haxor means, and more important to learn what being a hacker really means: to exploit technology in a way that takes it beyond its original understood capability, and hopefully to achieve mastery of it.

Someone needs to port Dolphin to Wii homebrew.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=haxor

  N 1. someone who kicks mass amounts of ass by using his
    mad computer skills to alter an online game, or by making
    a program to further manipulate the game, and kick more massive amounts of ass.
  N 2. The art of hacking
  N 3. A script kiddy who is a self-proclaimed hacker, 
    because he defines himself as a "hax0r" and speaks 
    in "l33t"
  Note: Most hackers rarely use leet, it is often a 
  trademark of programmers who are either inexperienced, 
  or want to be hackers. One who is haxor rarely goes 
  by "haxor" or any other derivitave. It is a title given
  by another.

  hack·er  
  /ˈhakər/
  Noun
  
  1.An enthusiastic and skillful computer programmer or user.
  2.A person who uses computers to gain unauthorized access to data.
  

Sometimes an HN definition of hacker seems to be "web developer" or "tech wannabe entrepreneur" (or perhaps a brogrammer pretending to be one), but that is inaccurate.

What a great post! I've been a different Myers-Briggs type in the few times that I've taken them, and outside of its usage in business, I've heard things like if you and your partner only differ by one type, that could mean that you will have relationship problems. In addition, if both of you are (some astrological type) then depending on the type you may also have problems. This is such B.S. and there is no scientific study that proves it.

But, lets examine this a bit further. These tests do ask questions that identify behavioral traits, and it is true that some behaviors could more likely be less compatible, and that there are studies to support this. So, to some extent these tests are onto something.

And what about psychological tests? If each test was perfect, you would not need to take several tests that each vary a lot in the results. Both a family member and I have taken a number of psychological tests, over time and result were really inconsistent.

It isn't just in business that they use these types of tests, whether they are Myers-Briggs or widely accepted and used psych tests. These tests are used for college students in dorms to assess whether they are compatible. They are used to access psychological problems. This is very important stuff, and it is guesswork! The human mind and accessment of our behavior is beyond our current ability to measure and diagnose properly.

No, but it is Hawaii. They may not be backwards, but within a few days visiting there I saw people on the job at two different locations taking a pot break.

Windows will not have lost until Microsoft goes bankrupt.

Mobile platforms are really just a fad. The future will be essentially a distributed OS, where devices throughout the home interact with a larger system to provide a much more immersive and practical experience. Few will give a fuck about iOS and Android in 10 years

Apple is going to be focusing on novel user input with their new T.V. They've already provided Airplay, etc. but other than music, streaming video, and other information provided by screens and tablets, what are they providing?

Microsoft has a head start with kinect, so if they invested in related research, touch screens, and other novel input devices like the LEAP, they might be able to compete in the future. By placing kinect-like devices around the home with some mics and speakers, you could talk to your computer like in the original Star Trek ("Computer, how hot will it be today?") or make a gesture in the air to turn on and off lights or lock doors. That would be something people would buy.

> Are people who write code with bugs just dirty liars, because the documentation says it will do this, but a bug means that in some cases it fails?

Yes. Dirty, dirty liars.

What good does this do? Should I go into bankruptcy insulating my house with aerogel to protect against severe climate change?

If the weather gets hot or there is a drought, environmentalist scientists tell the media that problem is global warming caused by humans. If the weather gets colder, environmentalist scientists tell the media that problem is climate change caused by humans.

If it gets really damn cold outside, or really damn hot, then we need to make good insulation cheaper. Whining about it doesn't do a damn bit of good.

> and if all else fails, to accelerate its self-destruction.

Unfortunately, that is how you know if someone has gone off the deep end.

I agree though that we should all be encrypting communication, but our government helped develop the methods of encryption, and some methods have been known to have backdoors: http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~eroberts/cs201/projects/...

Why it is highly recommended not to implement your own encryption method, we shouldn't be using something that could easily be decrypted by the wrong people either. We need to study methods that we use extremely well, and be aware that encryption susceptible to decryption via brute-force with significant resources are just as dangerous as backdoors.

I also advocate development of wireless mesh networking technology to handle larger adhoc networks. While those that wish to spy could still become a member of an adhoc network, it would significantly complicate things for them.

gone now?

As alluded to in the post, I think that the 80k/startup rule is probably not a good one either.

80k might not be enough and "doing more with less" can just as often lead to failure. Case in point is the recent post about the lean startup that only provided the minimum viable product (MVP), but failed to really provide what was needed. If pressure is put on startups to provide a product faster for less, then less of a product will be provided. Granted, YC will provide more support and try not to let such things happen.

I think the funding should be decided on a case-by-case basis instead. Possibly more funding could be given to those with a better idea that have greater need through some sort of point system, and either provide a range of funding from 40-120k without requiring more from the VC's, or provide 80-150k if the VC's are able.

> a more perfect use of modern communications technologies

Grammar problems! Definitely not someone I want to have working on me if you are truly a med school student.

> Anyone with a half rational brain should be alarmed by this statement.

> It is not that lifestyle changes are bad; they are good - they help a patient adapt to their new situation. But Traditional Chinese Medicine and Homeopathic Oncology are not treatments; they operate under fraudulent principles - they are, at best, Lifestyle interventions that claim to operate by exerting theraputic effects.

The placebo effect is huge, my friend, and AMA-approved medicine is not exempt from it. You do realize that the last four gruelling years of your life, and those years ahead, will make you believe that you can cure people right? And that belief is also held by most patients. So, even if you screw up or in fact have no idea what you are really doing, you get the benefit of the placebo effect in almost every patient that believes that you will cure them.

You are as much a witch doctor as the holistic practitioners. It is likely that in 100 years, doctors will say that the medicine that you are practicing now was incredibly misinformed- no, not because you didn't believe in "some kooks", but because of everything that is continuously just wrong because we don't have all of the answers.

BTW- are you really a med school student? You misspelled therapeutic.

Here is the link to the proof:

http://www.kurims.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~motizuki/Inter-universal%20...

And the preceding three for context:

http://www.kurims.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~motizuki/Inter-universal%20...

http://www.kurims.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~motizuki/Inter-universal%20...

http://www.kurims.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~motizuki/Inter-universal%20...

When insane people commit a crime they should be incarcerated. The victim should have justice. But, it seems that McAfee started going downhill years ago. Look how far he's gone. That could happen to anyone. He's just in the news because he was rich and has a recognizable name. If even the rich can have this happen to them, there is little hope that we can be truly effective at stopping others from having the same happen to them.

I feel bad for him. Even the rich have mental issues.

"The way to get startup ideas is not to try to think of startup ideas."

That is the best thing I've ever read from PG. But I would say, "Ideas lead to action, and only action builds a startup. Ideas upon ideas lead to ideas, not a startup."

Please don't encourage the government to try to update legislation for the world as we currently know it, because that will be woefully out of date in just a few years, and same for something enacted a few years from now, etc. By pointing out what needs to change, they won't remove the law- they will try to update it. The best thing to do is to know how to defend yourself against the existing law so that you can fight it if and when you it affects you. It seems currently that the most obvious defense is that it is unclear. I'm not sure how well that would work, but odds are good that you won't have to defend yourself anyway.

What today's gaming systems are missing are an evolved way to get users involved in game development, the user interface for the system itself.

We need paid hardware running a free OS that everyone can contribute to and that is community managed, where the company makes money on the hardware and perhaps a service contract like a RedHat for gaming.

Sony's problem is that they need the next big thing.

They had the Walkman, then the Playstation (and 2 and 3). Outside of that they are just like any other mid-level electronics brand to me.

Sony should invent something like a net-enabled helmet as a response to Google's goggles that uses a transparent screen with fluorescing e-ink for night use. Or maybe a personal home theater system where you wear the speakers and the music "moves with you". There really is no excuse not to be original.

Fear prohibits success. Lose fear and you will succeed. Risk must be taken. Be creative. These things must be embraced by any culture to succeed.

It's because it gets so cold there, so the two things to do are to drink or stay inside and code. ;)

Much props to Russian developers!

Friends! Talking through things with honest people is the best feedback. This doesn't work if you have a lot of supportive rather than honest and blunt people around, so if needed talk to strangers first. Try going to a meetup for something in your area- doesn't have to be the same language- there will be geeks there. Pitch to them. Pitch to everyone you can that you think wouldn't mind. And of course, put your site up on HN and ask for honest feedback, but do that only when you have something that you wouldn't tear apart yourselves.

BTW- only building apps where there is a market need is a surefire way to stifle creativity and lose interest. Start up a project on GitHub for fun that does something cool and do that to get your creative juices flowing. Then don't abandon it. There was a study a few years ago that found that the majority of "successful" free or open source projects have a developer associated with them that only started that one or two free or open source projects (ever).

The right thing to do is sometimes just to give it up. People will stop using the old browser, even if that isn't immediate in large companies that can't roll out new versions quickly due to the expense and time involved.

We gave up IE6 as soon as we could.

The scary thing is that I heard "some expert" recently on NPR that Iran does more harm to us (e.g. 1979-1980 hostage crisis) when the Democrats are in control, because usually the Democrats don't have the strong military stance of the Republicans.

This could be extrapolated to "if Israel doesn't do this sort of thing, then it will be a sign of weakness to the Palestinians, Iran, and others", however I don't think that is true. There is a line between an aggressive posture and just downright being awful, and they crossed it.

Also assassination is wrong no matter who it is done to. Geneva convention or not, life is sacred and even those that have committed the utmost atrocities deserve only to be separated from everyone else so they can do no more harm and perhaps learn from their mistakes and repent. I know that I would be just as angry as the Israelis or Palestinians if I had to experience what they have, though.

Your HN user was created 1234 days ago. Happy 1234-day! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABYnqp-bxvg

I never, ever had to learn trees the way I understand that they were taught in comp sci. Sure, that knowledge is a tool, but I was fine without it.

> So if it doesn't then why are you mentioning it. Maybe maturity and the ability to communicate should be #4 in the list?

The point is not to manage, the point is to be happy with the work you do. I personally think it was sad that someone spent that much of their life getting a PhD and I didn't have a degree, and I was telling him what to do. I really shouldn't make fun of that, and I apologize. And there is a job I would have LOVED to have had that required a PhD, so in the end, I'm just as sad.

Self-taught developer here with getting close to 15 years experience and these were not really the things I missed.

Here's what I know I missed: a bunch of useless shit. Sorting algorhythms that I don't have to implement. Understanding of trees that I don't have to implement. Knowing what "NP hard" means.

That stuff gives you maybe 5 minutes of conversation with another comp sci major a year in many jobs- as those were the 5 minutes I cut to 10 seconds with a "whatever". Sure, some jobs require you to think like you just got a PhD in computer science. That's fine, but I worked with a PhD in computer science, and one with a masters. It made very little difference. I ended up managing the one with the PhD, not that it matters.

But to all of those guys and gals thinking "so I don't need a degree in CS" think again. What did matter was that I didn't apply for least 50% of the jobs I could have applied for, not because of my ability, but because of my lack of a CS degree that was in the job requirements (although that requirement is often bullshit). And when you have no experience then it really can keep you from getting your foot in the door. I got lucky- I had worked at a place that had a developer opening, so I was a known quantity and they knew I could pick it up. These days I think it would be easier to start off as a contractor writing Rails apps.

"OO works best for large-scale, lots-of-people projects."

Nice! But, I think it is the other way around. Throw a lot of people at something with some software architects and you'll probably have a large-scale, lots-of-people, "OO" project.

I worked at a company that was between small and mid size and had ~150 developers. We bought another company that basically did the same with 10x fewer, and that group won out over ours. We had some excellent developers that went on to other excellent shops, and I was proud of the work that we did there and learned a lot about process. It was the best run development team I ever worked for and probably ever will.

I was an "OO" developer, now I'm just a developer. Not because of that learning experience, but because I found Ruby and I no longer see the benefit in intentionally writing overly large applications. Ruby is truely more OO than Java, imo, but I don't write like I used to which I think is what is being called "OO" (lots of packages and interfaces, pattern usage, lots of maven projects).

Thank you! "Whenever you're ready" is my favorite part.

I can't say I disagree with not having dedicated R&D. The notion of having an R&D department is stuck in the 1950's where the geeks and the worker bees didn't mix. Everyone should be able to and be encouraged to innovate.