Hacker News Reader

I'm also a Musketeer.

I think the company as a whole executes brilliantly, but I decided to allocate a good chunk of my (measly) portfolio to TSLA as a result of Elon's track record and vision.

I wonder if we'll soon see a prospectus for the "Musk Fund" containing only companies that he's been involved in...

BrainScrapson VA Medical Appointment Scheduling Contest – $9M in prizes

Not hard. Email me. (Do I get a bonus for veteran status? :D )

BrainScrapson A congressman who justifies every vote on Facebook

What you've identified here is an interesting extension of the "open government" culture that I think this phenomenon represents.

If Rep. Amash continues his political career in the same vein, can we count on him to continue to disclose what goes on in subcommittees?

Will he be politically neutered because he cannot be counted on to keep the details of backroom deals secret? Will he make enemies by bringing the DC unmentionables to light?

Interested to see how it plays out...

BrainScrapson A congressman who justifies every vote on Facebook

I highly doubt that the intent is to have each post seen in people's timelines.

It appears to be a place for constituents to "check up" on their representative in a way that is convenient and open. And I think that it's a bold cultural statement for a Congressman to make.

I used to think that open and honest people didn't stand a chance in Washington, but that may be changing.

BrainScrapson Hustle 101: How to Make Any Startup Want to Hire You

Maybe they can prevent some wasted time by appending " for non-hackers"

BrainScrapson Rebuilding Facebook for Android

Whoa, there are some nice improvements here. The general look is more of the same, but photos, comments, Likes are all a much better experience. Cool!

BrainScrapson Non-hiring Practices

... It's really not that big of a deal overall.

This is where the problem starts. People (who are most likely comfortably employed) rationalize to themselves about the mindset that the applicant should have and then they act according to how they believe the applicant should be reacting to the communication breakdown.

When planning and developing a strategy for applying for work, the nagging unknowns can be a significant hindrance. A thoughtful organization would take this into account.

And as has been alluded to in other comments, automation of the process of properly dismissing unwanted candidates is an investment. One that surely has a large effect on goodwill and company culture.

BrainScrapson Steve Huffman - Teaching thousands of students to program on Udacity

The plot thickens...

BrainScrapson Carphone Warehouse leaks LG's Google Nexus 4 phone

It lists a 360-degree camera - huh?

BrainScrapson Ancestry.com Acquired for $1.6 Billion

There are thousands of volunteers doing this "mechanical Turk"-like work at a pretty impressive pace. http://www.lds.org/church/news/volunteers-make-record-progre...

Also, the tools created to index these records are created mainly by Mormon developers who donate their time.

Interesting story about Mobile apps for indexing: http://tech.lds.org/blog/455-new-familysearch-indexing-app-n...

Disclaimer: I'm a big fan and member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon)

BrainScrapson 21% of Android devices are now running ICS

I'm also an Android-lover, but this sample is all kinds of skewed -

"based on the number of Android devices that have accessed Google Play within a 14-day period ending on the data collection date " (September 4, 2012)

14-day period? That's a pretty decent way of making sure that the people who have had their phones for a long time (like this guy here with the Droid X) are underrepresented.

BrainScrapson Entrepreneurship is hard but you can’t die

This is a nice compliment for Brad Feld's recent post about the need for Boulder, CO to welcome Veteran entrepreneurs.

http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2012/08/a-class-of-entrepren...

BrainScrapson What Americans Actually Do All Day Long

If you liked that, you'll love this:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/07/31/business/20080...

Divided by age range, gender, ethnicity...

BrainScrapson TechCrunch is a bully

This comment branch is proof that all is not lost on HN. Thanks for being 'Good Guy Gregs' in the comments.

http://www.quickmeme.com/Good-Guy-Greg-/

BrainScrapson “Growth Hacking” is BS

I think I've read the term "growth hacking" too many times between the post and the comments and now it sounds like something a bad oncologist does.

I should go to bed.

BrainScrapson Today I made - You’re a maker? This is your diary

Someone else more eloquent than I advocated that we stop using curved drop shadows... I concur: http://delvarworld.github.com/blog/2012/05/14/stop-using-cur...

BrainScrapson The Real War 1939-1945, by Paul Fussell (1989)

I hope not - but probably so. Ugh.

P.T.S.D.

BrainScrapson Stop Using Curved Drop Shadows

This trend has been getting my goat for a while! Such a lame use of pixels to confuse the mind and yield absolutely no cognitive benefit!

BrainScrapson Show HN: Sink or Ship - ship your project in time, or else...

I just thought that people might like the idea more if 70% of their penalty went to a hacker-friendly cause (EFF or maybe charity:water).

Then it's less of a "we are going to love it so much every time you fail" feeling. More jovial and positive, less opportunist.

BrainScrapson Ubuntu Releases 12.04 LTS Precise Pangolin

Thanks for clarifying that. I disabled that feature a while back, so I forgot it was a hold.

BrainScrapson Ubuntu Releases 12.04 LTS Precise Pangolin

And maybe sell them with Gumroad.com?

BrainScrapson Ubuntu Releases 12.04 LTS Precise Pangolin

Been using this for the past month or so - performs well, stable, and I'm still getting used to the HUD. Once I become a master of the HUD, I'll be all set.

I did have to do some tweaking to the default workspace management keybindings to be truly happy with the install, however. But if someone is coming in without any preexisting biases, the defaults may suit them just fine. (Hit the Super or "Windows" key for a guide)

BrainScrapson Edit scheme on your iPad via the parse tree: Lisping launched

I always feel like a fuddy-duddy telling people that not having access to the filesystem gives me the willies. But this sort of thing reinforces the validity of my reticence.

BrainScrapson Edit scheme on your iPad via the parse tree: Lisping launched

I assume there is some way to export or sync the (virtual?) filesystem to another location.

Very cool project, though!

BrainScrapson Amazon acquiring Kiva Systems for $775 million

I was wondering if anyone was going to draw the connection between today's news and this story from a few weeks ago: "I Was a Warehouse Wage Slave" http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3641184

BrainScrapson How Storytelling is the New Marketing for Startups

I really appreciated your thoughts in the interview. I'm studying marketing right now, and it's interesting to see how the marketing world wants to start teaching design thinking.

I agree with the sentiment that we can do without the term "marketing" as it carries far too much baggage. The new consumer doesn't want to be seen as a part of a market (they want to be seen as a person, imagine that), so why should we "market" to them.

It's tough changing the culture of these business schools to make the whole process of conducting business more human. I'm trying to do my part, and I hope that the honest, transparent, and personal culture of silicon valley company changes the way that undergraduate students are shaped for the workplace.

But I'll be graduating in May, and hopefully I can avoid becoming a cog in sterilized, personality-free workplace.

BrainScrapson Google Play

Not between Wallet AND Checkout, but in integrating the Wallet "system" with a system of POS-purchased gift cards. I expect that since Google is trying to get its arms around what is left of Checkout, and what is being built with Wallet, that adding in another big implementation of payments (prepaid cards that people will probably work hard to defraud) is not what they're super-excited to tackle.

BrainScrapson Google Play

I totally agree. I have an Android phone, but I've had an iPod for years. I really don't like iTunes, but at least it does a good job of making it stupid easy to stumble into purchasing content and apps. I have gotten a lot of gift cards over the years and they got me in the habit of "impulse-buying" tracks.

If Google wants to get people in the habit of buying content from this service without asking for those magic digits, they really need this gift card solution.

BrainScrapson Google Play

I know that there is probably conflict between Google Wallet/Checkout - but they need to get on this issue like last YEAR -

GIFT CARDS!

It just implies that they don'y know anything about who is using Android phones in the U.S. I only have my gut to back this up (after observing who carries Android for the past 2 1/2 years or so) but Android devs will be able to make so much more money once Google starts selling gift cards in retail stores.

Why? Metro PCS, Boost Mobile, and teenagers. My guess is that they're a large part of the Android user base that is very unlikely to link up a credit card to their account. They would however be great candidates to use gift cards bought for them on birthdays/holidays.

I swear if they don't do this soon, it'll only keep more and more developers from releasing apps on Android. /rant