ytadesse

Huh? An intelligence officer is exactly the type of person who wouldn't "appear to be in a position where his continued employment with the government would be an issue" while actually still being a government employee. Who's to say that he isn't still working with the NSA?

I'm far from a routine skeptic but c'mon ... This post sounds like a PR message.

... Uh, defense industry lobbyists ...

The simplicity of this is amazing.

That being said, I have a question: Here in Canada, I can send an email transfer of funds from my bank account to my contacts by simply logging into my bank online and specifying the email address of the recipient. Does this type of system exist in the US?

Great! You're a good man.

Jolo, this is great! What is the implication for your API now? I notice that it's still available on Mashape and you're still charging a fee for it.

Fair question. ETV was certainly more controlled during the Derg regime since it was an openly totalitarian government. That's not to say that this current regime doesn't have a tight grip on ETV although it sounds like you're already well aware of that.

That's a rather uninformed comment. Dr. Who was actually extremely popular in Ethiopia so this news doesn't surprise me one bit.

Great initiative. Terrible rap.

So, from my understanding, you're actually tasked with re-working their internet site as opposed to their intranet site. This is obviously a bigger undertaking than I had understood. I've worked with banks and insurance companies that have had teams and teams of people working on intranet sites hence my amazement that they'd leave such a task to an individual.

Having said that, especially considering it's a financial institution (i.e. you're standing between people and their $$$), I would highly recommend you select a tried and tested CMS that multiple internal people have extensive knowledge of. The fact that it's "open source" should probably not play a big part in your decision making.

A few questions:

1) Why are they adamant they they use an "open source cms"?

2) What is the primary use of the website? I don't imagine that "one of the larger financial services companies in the US" would leave the restructuring of the website design to one individual. Is this simply an internal site to serve one function of the business?

3) I'd lean away from the Github idea for now. Financial institutions are typically last in line to try and lead others in that regard.

What are you talking about?? You know what, I make a conscience effort not to engage in serious dialog with people who need to use swear words to make their point like a 14 year old on a schoolyard - especially those that ramble on about "the government". Relax, this is not about Uncle Sam.

I agree with you there :) To be fair though, after seeing 2 weeks of posts on HN focused on demonizing an individual, I felt I needed to say something.

So, clearly you're someone who doesn't use any hyperboles in his day-to-day life ... Anyway, here's just a sample of the comments about Ortiz here on HN:

"Great to see Ortiz's office crash and burn"

"Carmen Ortiz needs to go. She's a publicity hound"

"Do not google "site:nl 2 girls 1 cup". Should you so google, do not click. You have been warned. But I should add, even if you so click, the result is less obscene than Carmen Ortiz!"

"This woman has ZERO principle or sense of morality"

"Someone needs to be held accountable. Ortiz is someone."

"Ortiz is obviously disgusting"

"It's unfortunate that by demonizing Ortiz, we play right into the hands of those who appointed her"

"I support the demonization of Ortiz purely on the level of revenge."

"It's good for the same reasons that they came down so harshly on Aaron -- to make an example"

Making an example of someone in retribution for it happening to someone else is eye-for-an-eye.

Getting filtered down to the bottom is not actually just a result of getting down-voted. Having a lack of activity (from people essentially ignoring your message) is actually the other reason why comments slowly trickle down to the bottom - and the one I suspected would happen as often does when people write-off your opinion.

As for your point about the "don't complain about being downmodded" - fair enough, and I'm sure I'll earn a few more downvotes thanks to your due-diligence :)

At the same time, once in a while, you have to stand for something in your life. I made a serious point about a serious topic and some coward came along and decided to "down-vote" instead of having some dialog about it. I may lose digital karma but at least my conscience is clear for defending something I believe in.

Fair point but although it's tempting to go an eye-for-an-eye with Ortiz (and the federal government) after learning of Aaron's fate, I'm just not in a position to judge her actions. This is not my "holier than thou" moment, it's just that these situations are often far more complicated than a 500 word opinion piece on a blog.

The problem is, some people here on HN have been very aggressive in their attacks over the past few weeks - far worse than simply saying "she should resign".

In addition to that, I've seen people sulk and get visibly agitated for long periods of time after poor performance reviews at work. Now, compound that by thousands in the public doing that - and then some. Think about the effect that has on someone's mental well-being.

Someone just down-voted this?! Really? I mean, really!? I post a polite, well-constructed, and well-reasoned opinion that's different from 99% of the opinions out there and instead of responding in a similar fashion, the best you could do is flag my comment? Very cowardly.

Unfortunately, this comment will probably get filtered to the bottom but this has to be said:

Since the story of Aaron's passing, this site has been home to a lynch-mob asking for Ortiz's head on a plate. I wish I knew enough about federal prosecutions to say whether or not this one was far different from the norm - hell, I wish I knew enough about depression and suicide to say whether or not the prosecution was the primary reason for this sad turn of events - but, regardless, the users HN have been relentless ... almost as if they wished harm on Carmen Ortiz.

I'm pointing that out for a reason. Bullying and outright harassment come in many forms. The end result of these actions are at times not the result that anyone truly intended even if they imply it with their words/actions. You can't on one hand accuse the feds of being overly aggressive while simultaneously doing the same to Ortiz and her family.

Let the law and the current investigations run their course before there are more unwanted consequences of this tragedy.

From the little I've read about him, Raganwald seems like a rather smart guy so I'm fairly certain that he's well aware of the effect that various economic forces have on the decisions that people make in regards to employment/etc...

Having said that, Raganwald is essentially advocating for people to consider using their knowledge and effort on more noble causes than adding features to a website to get more clicks and make more money.

Ironic that the number 4 story on HN right now is: "All I learned in college was how to work for someone else"

Just tried it again and it still 'works' for me.

With all due respect PG, I'm not sure there's precedence for you "killing" articles like this but I don't think that's a good idea.

This article has a lot of people talking and trying to figure out what works and what doesn't.

You got my up vote just for being from Ottawa.

I'm actually in tears laughing right now. Lol.

Well done. Well done...

It's another way of "liking" the comment or voting it up. The user is essentially saying "I agree with this".

People sometimes flag such comments because:

1) The upvote mechanism was created for 'this' purpose.

2) These types of comments don't necessarily add much value to the threads and the community at large is very protective and self-governing in terms of maintaining the integrity of the site.

... Personally, I don't care. I'm sure I've 'this'd comments before in one form or another.

news.google.com for me

I'm with you on this Brad. This is also the first thing came to mind.

Semantics aside, this is the reason FB will own the search/discovery space in the future. That's not just a troll comment, that's fact.

FB is amassing a huge database of well organized & socially relevant online documents that other companies are going to have a hard time even coming close to. It's like PageRank on steroids.

As an update, I thought I'd share this with everyone here:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57372861-71/bbc-confronts-...