Today is the fifth anniversary of Aaron Swartz's death
thank you for everything
> Aaron is dead. Wanderers in this crazy world, we have lost a mentor, a wise elder. Hackers for right, we are one down, we have lost one of our own. Nurturers, carers, listeners, feeders, parents all, we have lost a child. Let us all weep.
:(
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/48491/keep-rsync-from-re...
1. Use find to compile a list of files that have not changed: find /path/to -type f -mmin +3 > mylist.txt
2. Tell rsync only to sync files on the list: rsync -a --files-from=mylist.txt /path/to remote:/backup
3. Homework: make sure it does not barf on strange filename.
> Last seen Jan 4 '13 at 19:23
He committed suicide during the investigation, and it's supposedly not unlikely to be related to the pressure the investigation and trumped-up charges brought him. And then there's those that surmise he was murdered, of course.
See also this documentary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Internet%27s_Own_Boy
https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/361809/questions-fr...
""" Surrounding them were groups of kids chatting. Clearly social rituals depend on communication, which is presumably used to get a sense of the kind of person the other is. In my culture (of vaguely technical people), people converse by sharing information through mutually-beneficial discussion and debate, but the teenager's system is altogether different and wholly alien to me.
I have little firsthand experience, but I have developed an initial theory of how things work. The protocol begins by sharing basic personal information to establish identity, then moves to the humorous recitation of cultural information. (Humorous may be too strong a word; the key point is that there's a lot of laughing.) This is the beginning of a loop. The two parties exchange information, allowing them to get a better sense of each other. If the clearer picture is disliked, the party breaks the loop and disassociates. Otherwise, more personal knowledge is shared as the parties get to know each other better. Discussion moves from cultural issues, to societal ones, to gossip, to personal matters, to deep intimate issues, presumably shared with close lovers or friends. """ ― http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/001421
For dark fabric: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6fL4G1FVF-AdHhCdVU4UHhCNk0...
For medium shade fabric: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6fL4G1FVF-AblFNYlBrWTJmems...
(Even though these look dark against a white background, it works best if the gray shadow part is darker than the fabric color: dark example: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1RY9wtKNtDzKdZKF-eAa_vYNCXU...)
Source Inkscape SVG: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6fL4G1FVF-AbHB3ZW9CZWNDVmc...
Based on a photo by Sage Ross (CC BY-SA) ragesoss.com/blog/2013/07/12/the-use-aaron-swartz-photographs/
I printed one on zazzle.com on a dark t-shirt but it seems I can't share the design without becoming some kind of t-shirt vendor and take a royalty which I don't care to do. If you want one, you will have to upload the image yourself.
Edit: Spelling
In particular, he demanded that all features have measurable success criteria and if they didn't happen he pulled the feature from the code base.
Simple and elegant way of keeping your code base small and focused. The real miracle there was he got the customer to agree and held them to it. I still don't know how he did that.
Or have someone suddenly cut the contract off and never finish.
Good software without tests: not easy but can, rarely, happen anyway.
It wasn't if the software functioned the way that we wanted (is the business logic correct), so much as did it have the effect on the business that we wanted.
The criteria would have been something a long the lines of:
"By adding this ad banner to this page template we will increase revenue by 5% per page view", or
"By adding this widget to the on boarding page we will reduce drop out by 50%".
If your feature didn't have the business impact it was supposed to, it was pulled. Maybe the widget actually increases drop out? Maybe increasing ads reduced page views?
But it prioritized being to answer those kinds of questions. Very neat.
I feel this conflict also here on HN. When a point is made why a technology or development is bad because of it's political impact on our society, always there is the response that you gotta have profit. When for so many people profit is more important than what is right, then negativity towards that is not only understandable, but an ethical imperative.
We have powers we never had before. We transform this world, we shift power and open new possibilites. We must not let profit and money steer it, for this is much too important.
The masses meander around, wiping over shining tablets, consuming what gatekeepers let them see, using the magic they have in their hands only in golden jails their platforms force them in. We must never accept that, and fight it every day.
[0] around 24:00 of The Internet's Own Boy - The Story of Aaron Swartz
The "oh, fuck, we're already too late" sensation I had when I saw his death announced stays with me to this day.
I would like to recommend the documentary "The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron" for everyone to watch.
Here's a 10 year old thread about various Aaron's claims regarding reddit and Wired.
https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/1octb/reddit_co...
Aaron's not wrong to call himself one of the founders. The company behind Reddit was a merger of two startups, one that made Reddit and one that made Infogami, and in that situation the founders of both startups are considered founders of the combined company.
Note how PG subtly shifted from „Aaron co-founded Reddit the product“ (what everyone meant) to „Aaron co-founded the company that today owns Reddit“, which is defensible, but mostly uninteresting.
I consider that dishonest.
https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/2577-a-hacktivist-reading-l...
Very illuminating to see how wide his interests were.
They're all on his blog[0], which is still alive.
That's pretty crushing
He was one of us, on this very site, and then he wasn't.
The trick in my situation was that there was no trick, no matter what the movies tell you. No rules, no secret Mantra, no road map. It wasn't about how smart or how good you were. It was chaos and luck, and anyone who thought different was a fool. All you could do was hang on madly, as long and hard as you could.
He did not fit our world and it was primarily a failing of the world that he did not.
Whatever that means. But he seems to have met a lot of inspiring people, people he could work with, found important stuff to do etc. More than most people do in a life time, much more.
He shouldn't be subjected to a witch hunt or mob justice, but he should be placed in context (and in search results) for history (and the public) to judge: Stephen P. Heymann.
MIT was not without fault either.
Shameful and weak is the phrase you are looking for. The follow on report [0] by Hal Abelson showed a lack of personal and institutional critical integrity.
Stepped down January of 2017 https://boingboing.net/2017/01/15/carmen-ortiz-the-prosecuto...
Joined Boston law firm, Anderson & Kreiger https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2017/09/05/former-attor...
The puff piece in the Boston Globe mentions controversy in the humblebragging-est way, "overzealous prosecution, particularly in public corruption cases." Please Ms. Ortiz, what is your biggest weakness? I just work too damn hard to defend the American people from criminals like Aaron Swartz.
No mention of her attempting (and losing) her illegal seizer of the hotel in Tewksbury [0]. No mention of Aaron Swartz.
[0] http://legacy.wbur.org/2012/11/14/tewksbury-motel-owner-figh...