stephenaturner

Makes sense. As more of the population ages, needs technology, lives longer but is also still interested in using technology, catering to this market will be both necessary and useful to companies.

Finally I'm glad someone mentioned Scrivener here! Very surprised the article didn't even passingly mention it.

Interesting. Though as mentioned the ratings of shows are largely skewed by time -- ie: because no one was reviewing shows from the 50s-80s at the time of airing, it's all viewed through nostalgia and history, so it skews to certain shows and avoids even reviewing the dreck.

When you get into the 90s and beyond, shows were being viewed and reviewed contemporaneously and therefore everything was covered and a greater range was covered so overall ratings for the period actually went down...

Nice analysis of the available data anyway. Also interesting to see the appearance of certain non-English language shows as well.

Interesting. A shame he wouldn't identify himself or his company in the piece -- it seems like he's quite successful now, so I don't really get the need for anonymity.

The combination of some very intelligent people with often very poor social skills will give a greater chance of things like this happening...

That said, they could be a little more honest about recognising why people don't like this deal...

So much of this is doing exactly the things we do now, but with the added "bonus" of not moving physically at all? This will appeal to some people for sure, but I can only imagine the side effects of this little innovation...

I'd rather embrace VR for all the things you can't or wouldn't want to do -- insane stunts, daredevil stuff, things too violent or dangerous to really be contemplated (at least not on a day to day basis). And of course, this may have been the path Occulus was on before...

Every generation says the generation immediately after theirs is the worst generation ever!

Maybe her argument is that she's less technical than the engineers (and therefore looked down upon unnecessarily, leading to this article), even if she has to be far more technical than the average person, just to get the job.

Clearly spoken by someone who has no idea about communication at all.

How about it's just an indicator that people always think things are getting worse.

Every generation is always nostalgic for the time just before the current generation...

The only thing I don't like about the "Maker Movement" is the way so many talk about themselves as if they were the first people ever to do this sort of thing. Like handmade craft and technologies was something invented by Internet hipsters.

Seems like a game, or art project or something of that kind. It doesn't have to be overtly commercial to still be an elaborate ruse, and it's probably more fun if it's not particularly commercial.

This is mostly from people mistaking the search box for the address box and just putting in the URL there and not knowing there's an extra step in this that they could avoid.

Well they must be sturdy old things to last that long... the first thing that always goes for me is the keyboard, usually from overuse!

This could be said about nearly all tech news sites. At least HN is a cross-section of sources...

Sounds like it has some similarities to what Automattic does -- http://automattic.com/work-with-us/ -- Though of course being a remote work company Automattic can implement it quite differently, and probably more fairly (remote work is much easier to fit into a current job more seamlessly, and if needs be, more secretly).

Nice. I think the CEO already knew his app sucked, so she didn't have to convince him of that, but obviously she convinced him she was the best person to fix it, and that's great.

They're catching on a fair bit in education -- they're fairly cheap and they do what students need for a lot less than stock standard Windows PCs that got ordered for years. For any more intensive computer user they could never be your "main machine" but I can imagine them having a use.

But others have said, they're hardly for the Hacker News crowd.

I agree it's perfectly possible to get somewhere as an entrepreneur without a college degree. But it's hardly detrimental to have one either.

And I'm kind of sick of the US-centric view that all college degrees cost $100,000+ -- many high quality degrees in other western countries cost as little as 10-20% of this figure (and often are paid for in a deferred payment scheme). As with so many things (like healthcare) it's just another area the US seems to have gone insane with.

Interesting. Seems from the link they don't own AllthingsD even though it's very much their thing. I presume they'll be negotiating with another company to start up something new but similar. Not unlike Nate Silver leaving the Times, except he owned his brand and site so could take it all with him.

This still seems to ignore the fact that even if the Chinese used these techniques differently and didn't explicitly threaten violence, they were still the captors and the prisoners were still the captives and held in confinement and the power relationship there had to contribute to the success of these techniques.

And actually... this is pretty poor form from the customer support... poor technical understanding to not delete the trailing email forwards if nothing else!

I've done customer technical support both in person, over the phone, and via email -- and yes, you get rough customers, rude customers and ridiculous customers. But maybe I just take it better than most, because you can write of the cranks and the fools easily, and you can empathise with everyone else because they have real problems they want to solve.

And telling the customer to "f* off"? Even as a joke, you just don't put it out there... if you ever have to feel like that you make sure it's totally private!

On the one hand, the headline is quite true, but the story is filled with bigoted, idiotic stereotypes and ridiculous generalisations, written by someone who clearly has an axe to grind and little sense to offer anyone. Lame.

There's a lot of truth to this, but it's also a massive simplification -- and a strange effort to blame tech companies for something that started happening decades ago.

Wage stagnation, growing unemployment and a decline in work started in the 70s -- well before most of these tech companies came on the scene (or had that much impact on the world). It seems to me that some people want to blame tech companies and new technology for something that's been a much wider effect across more platforms for a lot longer.

Oh it's nothing but a low move, introduced by a vile bunch who would prefer Rupert Murdoch controlled all media.

Well they snuck this in at the last minute hoping no one would notice and their supporters would be too dumb to care... Based on current opinion polls sadly good assumptions. Add this to killing the NBN as another stake in the heart of our digital future...

They didn't get the demographic right -- MMO games have done that. There's WOW, there's even Minecraft as a more successful example. Niches to be sure, but that's how this sort of thing works -- you find your niche and push it to them.

Don't know if I entirely agree either that you're "born with it or not", but I think it is something largely unteachable, but most people do develop it over time (if they're going to develop it at all). Hence, teenagers often don't have much but they will get it eventually, or certain life experiences can open you to having more empathy.

There isn't much you can do to "teach" it.