wetbrain

Anything like this in SF/Bay? I feel like there should be...

I've heard the same about Twitter. All they do is publish short messages, why do they have 1000 employees?

There's always many problems that aren't immediately apparent but difficult.

That's certainly true, but I'd say most seasoned users on reddit don't subscribe to much of what's on default front page. The default reddits (funny, pics, f7, atheism, politics, etc) are basically as you describe. Rehashed memes and populist statements.

Anyone who's been on reddit long enough has a front page of all the sub communities they follow, and probably only a couple of the defaults.

The pop-culture types get the pop stuff and the veterans get the small, focused culture, so everyone's mostly satisfied.

When one community starts becoming watered down, someone will usually start a new subreddit, rather than go to a new site altogether.

Altogether, I think these will give reddit better longevity than slashdot/digg.

The OP got a message from the homeless looking guy and a new cipher that was much simpler and unrelated to the original cipher card. Basically proves to me that it's a stunt.

Anyway, it's now:

YOU HAVE MANAGED TO FIND THE MESSAGE WITH THE HELP OF FRIENDS. YOU CHANGED THE RULES NOW SO WILL I. JULY TWELVE FOUR PM. FIND THE BLUE JAY AT SIX AND A HALF AND FIFTY SIXTH AND TELL HIM YOU ARE THE LAST

Check out http://sheddingbikes.com/posts/1289384533.html,

>Instead of one gigantic process that has to handle all of an application, you'd have a handful of little ones. Instead of scaling massive applications across a cluster, you just scaled each interface out as needed. Instead of upgrading the whole enchilada at once, you just upgraded each interface only if it needed it. Instead of worrying about migrating user's coroutines across upgrades you just did the "Erlang trick" and moved them over to the new deployments.

He goes on to describe Tir, the natural style, and Lua's coroutines. Great intro to a fun framework.

>The price of this is library fragmentation. There's more than one approach to objects, for example.

I've found that to be the case with Lua in general. The language is pretty easy to hack with, and so there's alot of wheel making. Lua has a mantra of "provide mechanisms, not policies", and since there's no formal class system, and multiple ways to define modules it's almost fragmented by design.

I think the designers are working on a better module system for the next release, or did that make it into 5.2?

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I think so. I'm not sure, but when I deleted mine a while back I got texts from friends wondering if I was okay, or dead, or mad at them. So there was at least some way they figured out I was gone. It may have just been that they couldn't find me anymore, but the texts came in almost immediately after clicking the delete button.

It was kinda entertaining how so many people assumed that something major had to have happened for me to get rid of Facebook. Really it just started as a bet and then I never got back on.

It doesn't look like your email is in your profile.

I completely agree. It's why creativity and general aptitude is more important than a focused expertise.

The only thing I'd add to this is how things move so much quicker.

It takes time to find a new job. Like the Joe Smith example, a skilled worker is now unskilled because his job has been made obselete. Anecdotally, I've seen friends parents try to find a job in the industry they used to do, unsuccessfully. There are some people who don't like change. There's a refusal to accept that all that time you spent was wasted and you need to change industries, or at least focus. There's also the stigma associated with having worked in that now dead market. Though many skills are transferable, it seems some companies have a bias that it's easier to train a new worker than retrain one with 'useless skills'. Again, that's all anecdotal.

So while Joe Smith will eventually find a new job, it does take a while. And that can stack such that a significant workforce is unemployed. Everything in the article holds until the hypothetical day that a new disruptive technology is released continuously, and your skills are worthless every other year. Which will probably never happen, but an interesting thought experiment nonetheless.

One thing from that article I completely agree with is that “[Mid-Size companies] need to figure out how to recruit and create jobs that are attractive for entrepreneurial people". It's exactly how I feel.

I'm about to graduate, and other than the risk factor I don't see the advantage of working at a large company over a smaller one or starting your own. I can understand how lack of business experience and egregious student loan debt can keep a recent grad from taking fewer risks, but this would be the time to do it. I feel that if you're confident enough in your skillset to work for Initech, why not go for it? Most recent grads don't have a family to support and a whole life to play it safe.

A company needs to convince me that working five years for them would be better than two at a failed startup. At least for me, a paycheck isn't enough of a reason.

(This is part bullshit since I'm not fully following my own advice. My parents co-signed my loans and have four more kids to put through college. Until that's taken care of I don't feel comfortable risking defaulting on my loans.)

Some of my best times were spent with a stick.

For you, that is play. It's something you enjoy, socially. You explored computation instead of a park or creek.

Unless coding is stressful for you I don't see how that's different than kids playing games outside. Though, it seems you implied that being on a computer was not relaxing. In that case I'm straight wrong.

I had pretty much the same experience as a kid (I'm 22). As far back as I can remember we were pretty much outside until 'late'. I think the unofficial rule was to check in at streetlights on, and after dark be in only one yard. Most of my best childhood memories are of night games and doing really dumb things around the neighborhood. We didn't have gunpowder, but we did have sparklers and gasoline. Turns out you can make pretty impressive explosives with that (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1E2cNPOnjM&feature=relat...).

It seemed most of the parents didn't pay attention to what we did, or at least condoned it. I know my one friends parent knew we got really into blowing stuff up, and just told us to "Be safe".

In the last 5-10 years I've seen a complete shift even within the families that were initially lax. My little brother and his friends got chewed out a while ago for dumpster diving a small LCD and other stuff. The "be safe" mom now watches the neighborhood for suspicious activity.

So, even though by all rights we should have had privileges restricted, that was never really an issue until highschool. All the younger kids I know are on a pretty tight leash, and they don't get into nearly the same level of mischief as we did.

My old neighborhood friends are probably some of the best people I know. We're all really close, and that's partly from all the stuff we did and still do. Taking risks with the support of a group softens failures, makes successes that more awesome, and pulls the group together.

I can say without a doubt that being able to explore and take those risks is why I understand my limits yet am always trying to push them. I almost completely agree with the article (except maybe the depression/anxiety) that free play is important, and in my opinion more valuable than early academic education.

/rant

Something simple, but really useful for the map would be to select different areas/location with a marker. Returning to the list view would show the jobs for that area.

The map would be for location search, the list for details. It'd be cool if you could filter the list view. Of course, it'd be great if you didn't have to switch modes from list to map.

Even how it is right now, this is pretty awesome. I'm looking for jobs and I plan to use this alot.

I don't think it's about them competing exactly. Amazon probably wants the Fire to be adopted over the Kindle, especially since the table market has been shown to be so hard to enter successfully (Apple was 95%? as of 2010?). I don't think pulling this page would really effect that anyway.

Of course, it's still better to sell a Kindle than nothing at all.

So, Amazon had a page that promoted E-Ink over LCD. Then they released an LCD tablet and removed the page.

I don't see the big deal, I think the pros/cons of E-Ink are pretty well understood by most techies anyway. Now that Amazon has a its own LCD table they dropped the page? Seems kinda pointless on their part anyway.

I think the community has as much to do with discussion as anonymity. r/programming, r/technology, r/hacking are pretty simmilar in topic, though with less emphasis on buisiness/econ. But the comment style is totally different.

As obvious as it is that community changes discussion quality, I think it's overlooked in the whole anonymity debate. HN's been doing just fine, for the most part.

I haven't been here for long, but isn't HN at least as anonymous as reddit?

I'd call that a win-win as well.

I do take the same approach and try to explain why it's more expensive, they tend to use the 'nephew' excuse to haggle down by a significant amount (A couple hundred for a medium sized site, think school/PTA/church, tree depth > 2, 10+ pages). But my problem is finding a resolution. (This is a short version, I'm usually more friendly about it)

Client: I know someone who will do it for free. You should therefore do it for cheap.

Dev: This is a large project. (Explain expense).

Client: Then I'll just use my free resource.

Dev: Do that.

Client: But I want you to do it.

Dev: Well, this is a large project. (Explain expense).

Rinse and repeat...

There's a gap with some of them that I have trouble explaining. I'm not in competition with whoever you know. Just because they can do it for free doesn't change what I'll charge, which is pretty reasonable and on the low side. I'll hear from other, actual freelancers (I' a student, so I'm part-time) about the same client calling around and getting the same response. Anecdotally, it takes 4-5 conversations for them to understand that the rate is between $1000 and $7000 depending how large/dynamic it needs to be. Whoever the last person is get the job, or makes a referral.

Yeah, I hate "my nephew can make websites". I don't doubt that a high school student could put together a full website, with a store front or whatever else. But I'd be willing to bet it's not the most secure.

I'm sure there's something like this, but there should be a kind of Angie's list for clients to blacklist the delinquent ones. If not I'm making one.

EDIT: There's always the better business bureau, but it's not as complete.

> Someone wants a Facebook clone for $500? Simply respond "it's a huge amount of work and I won't be able to do it for that." If they press, explain why.

>Just saying "no, I can't help you" and walking away isn't doing yourself any favors.

You're right. But it's a grey area. There are some real crazies/idiots out there, and picking up a delinquent client is parasitic. If you work a large project, and the client pulls some bullshit to avoid payment, you may need to take them to court. This takes time you could be productive on other projects. A client who signs off on a design, and then complains that it's not what they want, will extend project. Too much of "could you make the yellow more yellow?" "I want people to smell cinnamon and peppermint." results in a poor finished product due to both frustration and a lack of communication.

Just dropping a client has it's own difficulties, and may not be possible depending on the agreement.

"I'll pay you $500 for a large project" is one indicator that could be a difficult client. Of course, it's not a truth, but I feel a good defensive game goes a long way.

It's sampling bias, but http://clientsfromhell.net and http://clientcopia.com/ are entertaining yet frustrating sites to see some of the worst of it. Let's add to the cynicism!

And a decent top ten list. These guys are more common than you'd believe. http://freelancefolder.com/bad-clients-and-how-to-avoid-them...

I think part of it is the cynicism that develops from bad clients. Some people don't understand that the designer is a professional. Designers just draw all day, and love what they do, so why would I pay big bucks for a website?

After all, my nephew does computers and I can have him make a website for cheap.

There's also the "Of course we want you to have creative control. We just want to be able to tell you how it looks, what colors to use, and what the tone is."

So, I'm not surprised with the responses here. It's the same one I'd have if someone tells me they want to make the next Facebook, only better. Compensation? I'll give a share when it gets big. Details? No, it's a secret...

Reading the other bbc story on the front page, it looks like the scientists are cautious about the discovery and not claiming that they found something. They found something that may be significant or could be an error, and are looking for review.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3027056

(better article and discussion)

This. And if possible, add a subtle gradient on each curve. So, even without arrows on short lines the direction is clear. Plus it looks cool.

Yeah, go for it. I have a fairly busy semester, but I'm trying to find time to work on something like this anyway.

I forgot to add Objective-C/iOS above, but I've never deployed a full app.

I'm about to graduate college and have been considering doing something like this, but have zero business experience. There are plenty of non-profits that are doing great work, but relatively unknown and without much of a web presence, if any.

I'd love to be involved with this. I'm in Chicago/Iowa, and have some decent web app experience. Java, JavaScript, Ruby, Python, UI/UX and that newfangled HTML5 stuff.

rdgoetz@iastate.edu