invertedlambda

Build a blog. Keep it simple:

Have a homepage with 10 most recent posts

- Post can have many comments

- Only users can comment

- Users must be logged in to comment

- Only you (an admin) can log in and make posts. Or anyone else with credential.

- Use SSL to encrypt your login.

Extra credit:

- Posts can have tags. Harder than you think.

- Comments can have comments. This is harder than you think.

Extra extra credit:

- Implement it once using an SQL database. SQLite/MySQL/Postgres will be fine.

- Implement it using a NoSQL database. MongoDB will probably be the simplest.

Heroku does this - they have a nice console interface for pulling down the logs from your deployed app. Granted, it is not quite the same as Gmail, but it's always a start.

Maybe it's a business idea: email for geeks. I'd use it. :)

This is great news! Have been missing this feature for a while now.

Putting aside all discussion on the validity of software patents, Apple really has an obligation to step in and muscle Lodsys to the ground. And I expect that is exactly what they will do.

I doubt anyone at Apple thought it would be a good idea to push tools onto people that would then get those people sued. So most likely, Steve is in the process of releasing the Kraken, telling it to head straight for Lodsys HQ.

By Monday, Lodsys should be a smoldering heap, sunk to the bottom of the ocean by the all-powerful leviathan.

And there shall be much rejoicing.

As an aside, I started to write a thoughtful comment but this stuff is so inane that it really just requires Apple to apply some ass-kicking-fu and make this crap go away.

I think it goes back to the learnings from the original tech bubble: companies with a real business plan survive, those with a nebulous product don't make it.

For example: Amazon was a rising star during the late-90s tech bubble, and it's still around today. And it's very much a player in the tech space. How many of us use AWS?

Google has a solid business platform and has definitely made it by all measures.

Netflix is another example. Good product, has upset the industry, sky's the limit type stuff.

Could all of these golden companies fail? Absolutely. For example, look at Microsoft right now - they are still innovating in some spaces, but really struggling in others. Will they go the way of IBM? (Hey, I hope so, but let's not start dreaming now).

Then there's Facebook and Twitter - arguably the stars of the current tech bubble. Are they worth what people say they are? Really depends on what happens over the next few years. Both are definitely becoming platforms that people do all kinds of interesting things on. But at the same time, people could get tired of social networking. (That's my personal bias shining through).

So...it's a bubble for some and not for others.

Agree! Another example of this that my old music teacher used to give all the time was John Coltrane. Everybody agrees that he was a great player, but he wasn't a prodigy. He was notorious for practicing day and night to continue improving his craft.

Even Miles Davis thought he was a bit boring because all he (John) wanted to do was practice. :)

How about a rotating group of admin users? Every 30 days a new batch of X users with greater than N karma get to bury/downvote/ban poor quality submissions/comments. This group would be forcibly rotated so that you don't get the "entrenched elite" problem.

It would encourage admins to be wise and for others to respect their wisdom.

If I were to rephrase the question on this thread, it seems to me that it could also be stated as "how do you keep HN comments from turning into Slashdot comments"? I don't say that in jest - I used to read Slashdot, but after a while I got really sick of 1) the vitriol and 2) the inanity of the comments that were on the first page. Granted, some folks had really interesting things to say, but truly funny/insightful comments seem to be a rare commodity.

But look at it in a positive light - the comments on HN could never be classified in the same - or even near the same - bucket that comments on sites like YouTube and Yahoo! News.

An underrated game I've never been able to find again was Hyperspeed by Microprose. Super awesome. Anyone know where to find a copy?

Isn't it more in the ear?

Amen - I forget the interview, but there was a great interview with Steve Jobs where he said that to make great things happen, you need a broad range of life experience. That tends not to apply to engineers who stay in front of the computer all day.

My browser is giving me a phishing warning for this link?

At the risk of starting a religious war...

zsh is a little snappier than bash and offers some neat options which are not present in bash (at least not out of the box AFAIK - e.g. spellcheck).

From my experience, zsh targets power users (and people who really don't like to type). For most people sticking with bash is probably leaving well enough alone.

From my POV it's not a religious issue, though in just a short while of using zsh I find it more productive than bash.

Slashdot? I read HN.

Will become? Is.

I would have paid attention to this article but I'm too busy streaming "Robin Hood: Men in Tights".

A programming language that does exactly what you want, exactly how you want it, exactly when you need it.

Why not create a "Bay Area" HN? :P

<pedant> Heh...some of these things are "intro to IP networks and UNIX". </pedant>

YES!!!

Yes, yes and yes.

Agreed. If you don't want your presence to be known on the Internet, there's a very simple way to accomplish that.

Don't post, don't publish, don't comment. Simple as that.

Some time ago another person made a comment about pearls and some sort of livestock. Throwing...things...in places?

Just wanted to chime in...other people have said it already, but I'll say it too: there is absolutely nothing wrong with you - your feelings are very normal.

I got out of school a few years ago, and I'll tell you that my sophomore year was hellish, too. Nothing seemed to make sense and I felt very distraught.

It's good that you're exercising, keep it up. That will help you from sinking in too deep.

It does sound like you're at a real crossroads. You're seeing the limitations of what your parents handed down to you, but it's hard to know what to do instead.

I'm not Indian, but I know how you feel about family pressure...it's one of the most miserable things to be going through. I won't say "tell your family to get lost", because that's pretty hard for most of us to do. But, I can tell you from my own experience that it IS possible to love your family very much without living up to all their expectations. At times, it may look and feel like you're breaking hearts - and you may be - but it's well worth it in the end. That's been my experience.

It's easy for me to wax poetic about things you may not read, so feel free to drop me a line if you want to chat. It's this username at a well-known mail service provided by Google. :)

Be optimistic - always be positive! If you feel that good things are about to happen to you, they will.

MongoDB is web scale. No downvotes this time, please!

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/6995033/

Quinoa and vegetables. Good brain food.

Definitely depends on where you'll be working and commuting from/to. Commuting is a big deal in my book.

My guide would be: if you work in the City, anywhere between SF and San Carlos is a good bet. You can avoid the morning commute by taking BART.

If you work on the Peninsula, there's Caltrain for getting around. And you can take BART as far as Millbrae. Some companies (notably Genentech) have shuttles that take people from the big transit stations to work, but YMMV.

Beware "The Oracle Mile". It's 1 mile North and South of Ralston Ave. on US-101. It is a parking lot every weekday between 8am and 9:30am. Evening commute also. I know some people have different experiences, but that's been what I run into most often.

Generally, in the Bay Area (at least West Bay), either get to work before 8 or after 10. Otherwise you'll be spending a lot of time with all your other happy morning commuters. :P

Places to live? If you can take the rent, the Peninsula is nice. Half Moon Bay is on the coast and works well if your work is close to the 92 freeway.

I wasn't a fan of living in Pacifica, but some people are. Not much to do there as it's mainly a commuter town.

Just my 2c.

Well...Java maybe not so much.

But we all know the only reason to buy a Mac is that we look great when using it to write our Rails apps! :P

"I doubt programmers make up a huge % of Mac sales either to be honest"

You sure? It'd be interesting to see the results of an HN poll on this.

Nice site overall - looks like you put a lot of time and effort into it.

The only thing I would point out is that the site looks kind of "busy" to me. In some ways it looks like a clone of a lot of other aggregators out there, or a site for a parked domain.

Maybe more whitespace? More colors? Make it fun?

Prooost! :P

Agree on #2 - it's an interesting idea, but cuddly Hitler is in poor taste.

I'm originally from Europe, and with family members lost during the war, I don't consider it something that's already lost in the fog of history.

<soapbox> I think Americans generally have a different sense of what the war felt like afterwards. There are many American vets who suffered great trauma, and I don't mean to detract from that in any way. They made real sacrifices that we should be aware of and respect.

That said - when the war was over, Americans came home to a country that was largely intact. In much of Europe, everything had been completely destroyed (by bombs or otherwise). So it's taken longer for those memories to fade. </soapbox>

Anyway, that's not to say that the effort put into this wasn't worthwhile! Good job on the wikipedia searching - cool idea. : )