ilkandi

In summary "This is a problem. Somebody out there should figure out some way to fix it." No insights here.

I met a 50ish solo programmer a few months ago. His application handles an issue for a specific subset of nonprofit org (I'm probably not giving away too much if I say, churches). The app is not web enabled, it's not social, it doesn't run on ios android or mac. From our conversation I inferred he spends hardly any time on marketing it because he doesn't need more users. Yet he makes a comfortable living solely from the licenses, doesn't touch the app for weeks at a time, and adds new features on his own schedule.

I'm not afraid of a temper tantrum, it shows the client cares. Showing a basic UI that was generated by the use cases will confirm that you understand the client needs, reduces miscommunication and clearly highlights the feature creep you should be charging for. It helps the client sell the project to whoever she reports to. It's easier to change a UI and it's a stronger emotional lock-in for the client (so she doesn't cancel). Win all around!

quote from http://people.csail.mit.edu/celiu/motionmag/motionmag.html

"Naively, this sounds like one might (a) compute the translation from one pixel to the next in each frame, and (b) re-render the video with small motions amplified. Unfortunately, such an approach would lead to artificial transitions between amplified and unamplified pixels within a single structure. Most of the steps of motion magnification relate to reliably estimating motions, and to clustering pixels whose motions should be magnified as a group."

The math behind the grouping (recognizing the relevant area as an object, magnifying the motion of the area properly, and filling in the empty space intelligently) is the cool "computer vision" part.

I must be old; if Microsoft had even suggested taking a 30% cut of every PC application or purchase via the internet they'd have been lynched. Have most developers gone conformist/apologist?

It seems to be an easy fix to reduce an unnecessary environmental impact, save animal lives, save money on carcass cleanup crews and wire damage, and increase public goodwill. Is there a FAA reason for having steady lights, is it bureacratic inertia, or are the rules accommodating the owners of older towers, or the manufacturers of steady lights? I think if I were a pilot a flashing light would catch my attention faster than a steady one (cf, blinking vehicle turn signals).

Please take some time to research your inner techniques of logic, and how you assume outcomes and motives (in general). You appear (to me) prone to jumping to definite conclusions based on faulty logic and/or incomplete data. Not an attack, just a comment.

You may be accepting the Kaiser rep's FUD. The quote doesn't say, "these needles break, and BD's don't", or even "these break more than regular needles".

When the Dyson was invented, the bag-vacuum incumbents wanted to licence his technnology and shelve it. He had to go solo to "bring his superior technology to market". What's wrong with trying to get rich on a product? And using the profits as seed money to bring more useful things to market?

Then they need a lot of smarter military who can integrate this info, while keeping a clear head in the middle of a firefight, and yet be able to follow orders to the death. Soldiers aren't supposed to win every battle. I expect that between the mental load, the cost of deployment, possible data changes by enemy hackers, and simply being able to pick up dead soldier's equipment and use it, that this will never be something for general rank and file infantry, likely just the officers. 99% of usage will be for entertainment.

It takes a long time to accumulate enough knowledge to get the pattern recognition and competent creativity to be an expert in any field. Brains have speed limits. It'd be nice if the valuation of the field lasted long enough to make it worth acquiring and increasing that knowledge. Fun thought; what's it like to compete directly against 7 billion people? Do all specialized skills become close to worthless if you're not part of a restrictive "guild" (bar exams, medical board exams, etc) or part of a corporation?

Er, this is the age of technology. Why write a NYT article when you've already got a copy of the virtual rolodex at home?

Given what it takes to be admitted to the firm, let alone stay in it for 12 years, I wouldn't consider him "pissant". That time guarantees he's survived and gone above probably 100K other bright hires over the years. Can't say that for most companies. My take, it's just the press milking the point/counterpoint style of argument to attract more eyeballs and ad dollars.

Did DHS specifically say they were banned for their tweets or is it just a newsworthy assumption? Did the two have any kind of criminal history, or was the denial due to their responses?

This could be like the guy who reportedly entered the US because he showed an iPad photo of his passport. Made news for a few days until US customs said "uh, no, we have our own methods and discretion, the ipad pic didn't matter". Big story became a non-story.

Did DHS specifically say they were banned for their tweets or is it just a newsworthy assumption? Did the two have any kind of criminal history? Were they denied This could be like the guy who reportedly entered the US because he showed an iPad photo of his passport. Made news for a few days until US customs said "uh, no, we have our own methods and discretion, the ipad pic didn't matter". Big story became a non-story.

I don't consider the Yellow Pages to be content, just hard-to-gather data. For this site, the top level is data which points to content. The comments are the content, for me.

Can I offer some thoughts that seem to go against the majority opinion so far?

1) Should authorities take reasonable steps to prevent the commission of a crime, or wait until after it's occurred? What if a well-known soccer hooligan has posted that he's looking forward to running amuck? 2) Are threats against an individual allowed as part of free speech? What about against a family? Small business? A neighbourhood? A country? Where do you draw the line? 3) Do you differentiate between personal criminal behaviour and organized criminal behaviour? Or, between explosive threats vs non-explosive threats, like a small bomb vs significant vandalism to public property done for Youtube? 4) How would a third party know the tweeter is joking? (Most people who get called out for saying rude or racist remarks say "oh I was just kidding" afterwards). Do you prefer that all remarks should be ignored completely, or (somehow) checked for credibility? (And I have no idea how one would approach that, btw)

Looking for direct answers to all 4 questions, please. Would like to sample where people stand.

Not a good visualization. And it lacks some context too.

Three points (1) tons of bulk-registered names are NOT hosted on GD's nameservers (2) People complained that transfers were slow and cancelled some of them. (in the background, GD refused to do transfers or delayed it for days, gambling that people would get frustrated and blame the new registar). (3) bulk-registered names (think of hundreds of marketers with 1000+ domains each) are usually split over numerous fake names to minimize their footprint and prevent wholesale site copying. GD allows fake name purchases. After the transfers started, GD began a policy of requiring a scanned drivers' licence for transfers. They also seize domains for themselves and resell them. So... many CAN'T transfer their domains out yet.

Cheers!

The company rep has stated that data leaves the phone. Evidence enough?

If it's always the same small group of people, create a gmail/hotmail account and give them all the username and password. Leave messages for each other in the Drafts (no need to send emails). Yes, I do know the downsides. Or, find a FB messaging or forum app and get your friends to install it.

I started as a Powerbuilder programmer at 30K/yr and since then I have gotten Java and Sybase and Six Sigma certification, Toastmasters for public speaking, and almost finished my CFA exams. It's been 15 years and I'm still not at his Year 3 salary. FML.(in Canada BTW)

hi frankiewarren; I was a Java/Sql/PHP/HTML programmer for several years and now I'm a senior BA. This is how I'd interact with you.. When anyone approaches me with an idea, I immediately tell them I'm not going to program it, but I'd be happy to guide them in the docs they need to successfully contract it out. We have a short sitdown chat and I walk them through vision -> target audience -> user goals -> stories -> use cases -> flowchart -> actions -> screen mockups. It's their job to write all the docs. I read them, make suggestions of what areas to look into, a minimal feature set to launch first, errors and recovery, etc. This idea development work encourages the serious people and stops the dilettantes. I get to hear new ideas (I love ideas) and I can choose which ones I'd want to be involved with. There have been a few awesome ones, and one is being built. My advice is: * Think why your idea better than what's already there (or why it's easier to find, easier to use, etc) * Practice your enthusiastic sales pitch of why it's so awesome. If you don't love it noone else will. * Don't give up if the first 10 people don't like it. (but, consider a new idea after 30 people run away)

I totally disagree. The immediate "specialness" of the hot coffeeshop barista is not her "spiritual manifestation". Part of the uniqueness is presentation. Size, shape, weight, age, smell...I'm talking about books... the roughness of the pages etc. Bookreaders reduce this to a lowest common denominator that limits sensory bandwidth and cheapens the experience.

Can a person have the same religious fervor with an ephemeral Bible/Koran etc on a Kindle, as they would for a leather bound, gold-edged King James Version with the red tassel bookmark? And the cutout pages that let you thumb to the right chapter? These things should only be tools because in the end we're all animals. And, trying to virtualize everything limits us to half of our birthright.

Oh sorry, I'm wasn't intentionally arguing against being pseudonymous. I was thinking of ways to manage the mutability, multi-mapped and non-uniqueness of common names behind the scenes. If circles can be kept separate, you could have a single login containing different circles for your pseudonyms. As an aside, I hate how current FB and G+ policy turns us non-celebrities into second class citizens. Disgusting.

Thanks to nradov above for info on HL7. Surely these major international orgs should already have been aware of it?

Anonymity is not related to lack of forum moderation or escape from consequences. It just means a username is not recorded or displayed. BTW, posting underage obscenity, inflammatory statements, neo nazism etc gets the poster ip banned. [1] /b/ is an isolated case which is often quoted. It is only one of 40-something forums on 4chan. Please, go back and browse /adv/ instead. Same anonymous people, supporting and helping each other with advice. Anonymity is not the issue, it is the community which people create through their actions and expectations of finding other like-minded individuals in the same virtual space.

As other posters have noted, many Chinese have the Chinese-lettered name eg "strong army", the pinyin version and if they move to a Western country they pick their own English name like "John" or something. In writing, Choi/Choy (and I think Chua and Chow) are the same. I will skip the philosophical discussion of what reality is to the viewer.

I don't understand the linking to a real name. Give everyone a private number, and then the user links whatever names they're known by to that number. When a searcher finds the name Skud and adds Skud, they will forever see Skud and whatever other names Skud has chosen to have visible to that circle. The link is the number, and the name is just a display. I wonder how they would deal with a woman who changed her last name when she was married, and reverted to her old name after the divorce. And she's also an author writing under a pen name (like Stephen King/Richard Bachman/John Swithen). It seems obvious to me but nobody's done it so there must be some unique flaw. Can any commenters enlighten me on why the unique private number idea is a bad one?

On which passport? I have two.

On the plus side, Groupon has high name recognition, an international rolodex of contacts with small businesses clients (whether or not deals were made), an international rolodex of customer names with contact info and preferences, huge number of international offices and sales staff, a large profit margin from the business clients, interest-free loans from customers in exchange for a pdf coupon, the clients handles delivery/fulfillment to the customer months to a year later (assuming the customer remembers the coupon exists). And more. They've got a TON of room to grow if they can plug any revenue leaks. Sure, a lot of places can handle local deals. What if Groupon starts synchronizing deals? Every hair salon 10km apart in every city and country gives a touchup for $20? All dance schools, first salsa lesson free? It could drive trends. A mobile app that tracks all customer clicks? Tied to a recommendation service that tells the customer to wait for an upcoming deal within a week, or tells the Groupon office the kind of deals they should pursue that month? A service to tell retail entrepreneurs the sales demographics per area and business? Sell retailer data to financial and IT services to help them manage and modernize their businesses? I see a lot of possibilities for a big network.

I've been refunded a couple of times from other deal sites when the business went bankrupt. It's just good customer service to do so.

It probably works out as high as regular gift cards. They're easier to find (just search your email) but they're easier to buy so one can get much more of them. I have friends who bought "pay $X for 10 workouts" but only end up going once before it expired.