Fliko

That's exactly my point; programming languages aren't about x is better then y, but they are about personal style (and what they are built for). Other people really take off with x language but not y, and vice-versa.

I was also unnecessarily harsh towards double-sharps as well, when I was learning piano I would sight read a lot of easier pop/rock sheet music, and there were a few pieces I encountered with an unnecessary double-sharp that would catch me off guard because it was uncommon for the style.

Haha, yeah I shouldn't of been so harsh with my mentioning of double-sharps.

I do still think that in the end people are just conforming to the standard to make life much much more easier, and that it isn't so much that certain things are better for the expert then the novice, but that experts are more used to the standards than a novice is.

I feel it's more of a matter of personal style than a programming language x being more efficient when you become an expert when compared to language y. Some people really fly with Perl, whereas other people are more of a Python kind of person.

Most jazz charts I have used just have the chord structure and the melody all on one page, whereas most classical charts I have seen (and the very very few I have used) have a lot of very intense information, and I understand that they have that much information because that is the style of classical music, but I personally very much prefer concise jazz charts.

I like challenging people like you because then I end up learning a lot of semi-interesting things like how Costco picks their locations.

I can't deny that Facebook has contributed to the growth of the internet, but I very strongly think that if Facebook didn't exist that the internet would've grown just as large in just as much time. Something else would've filled the hole that no Facebook would've had.

In hindsight I thought you were saying that Facebook had a very direct effect on the size of the user base for (say) Reddit, and tried to argue against it with a post probably too big for most people's egos, but hearing this example clears things up for what you meant in your first post.

My example was very much shitting in the wind too, sometimes I get carried away writing and things turn into mini-stories.

The buggy multi-touch was the worse thing on the Nexus One, and was very falsely advertised on some sites. I really thought that it had a working multi-touch solution before I paid the mountain of importing fees to get it into Canada.

I do still like it too, it just could've been that much better without much more effort put into it.

Ahh, didn't even notice that, and I have to admit that Kottke's article didn't seem very hate mongering.

This is cool, I want it on Android though! Is it just friends that give you an opinion on your food, or can people just randomly (and anonymously) rate food, kind've like hot or not?

I was disappointed in Kottke with the fact that he didn't know why Van Halen had requested brown free bowl of M&Ms in his contract. (It was so he would know if the stage crew read the contract which contained safety info on their equipment, to help ensure that no one was harmed during the show, as they had some of the most complicated and dangerous stage equipment at the time)

There is a very large difference between laws that protect creativity and laws that regulate the internet, this law clearly regulates the internet and pushes most forms of creativity away. There is absolutely no excuse for a law like this.

Infact, I'd go as far to say that this law is the result of Hollywood refusing to change their business model (a la no innovation) to help convert a lot of pirates into buyers. There is no reason their can't be a distribution model similar to Valve's Steam that emphasizes good deals, convenience, and availability.

You are a hero among men.

I would go as far as to say that G&L has more of the passion of Leo then Fender does, they are very amazing guitars 'specially for the price you can get them.

Everyone lies, most people are self-centered since birth, and his belittling is pretty much non-existent when you compare it to a CEO like Steve Balmer.

I think Jobs was just a guy who had a vision for computers, and knew that he had to be relentless to reach that goal in a short amount of time. I also think Jobs is probably one of the most level-headed people in the tech industry. Check the beginning of this video, very observant and calm, and I don't think he is necessarily as self-centered as you wrote.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaF3CA_Nl9s&feature=relat...

I'm wishing I bought an iPhone instead of my Nexus One now

It's very possible you are just experiencing life, you should go check out that Learn Optimism book today.

Going to a professional isn't falling into a self-diagnosis trap, but wanting to be told you have might be.

Most of Reddit's user base is from Digg, you could say that as soon as Digg's user base started to build, Reddit's did.

You make it sound like social networking has always ruled the internet, but the line between the internet and social networking was blurred only recently, and wasn't blurred during the creation of thefacebook, and Digg, and arguably wasn't blurred during their rises to fame.

I also haven't heard of much links from Reddit being posted onto Facebook nor seen it at all. In my experience most link sharing for Reddit is done between friends in all sorts of context, which may include but isn't limited to Facebook.

I can understand having closed networks of friends on the internet, I enjoy the convenience of this every day, but to not have my real name plastered all over the internet is an even bigger blessing. Anonymity is powerful on the internet because instead of your identity & reputation coming from your name, they come from your idea that you put on the internet.

People are biased to be more agreeable and acceptable of ideas coming from people they respect (ex. Steve Jobs), and they don't tend to think about the entire spectrum of said idea if it comes from that respected person. In other words, they are more biased on average to think about the good of the idea rather then the bad. This means that they are judging the idea based on the person, rather then the idea based on the idea.

The problem with an open social network that envelopes the entirety of the web (Facebook is trying to do this), is that my choice of participating in society by being on Facebook and communicating on a daily basis will all my friends suddenly becomes a very dangerous choice. Now, not only am I selling out all the information that I pass on to my friends, I am now selling out (almost) everything I do on the internet, whether or not I'm logged into Facebook or not.

On a more extreme side are websites that force you to log into Facebook Connect to use their site, so they can gather more information about you. My choice to participate with my large network of friends becomes even more dangerous, as I now have to give out even more information to more companies to use most of the features that said Facebook Connect site has.

Not only that, but the ideas I post on said site are suddenly linked to my name forever, so some employer may deny me a job now because I think that Linux is overrated, or the iPad is a good product, or Steve Balmer is a shitty CEO.

---[This is a long specific example, you can just skip down to the dotted lines if you hate reading and hate bunnies.]---

Let's take this one step further though, so say I'm at some bar and I meet some chick named Betty that I think is really interesting and cool, and we exchange full names so we can find each other on Facebook. Everything is looking real good, I mean really good, we're going to see that new awesome comedy that is coming out about that guy who gets cancer.

But wait! As it turns out, Betty decided to go check out what I've posted on the internet by searching "(Full Name)", and she sees all these sites that I've posted on that have forced me to use Facebook Connect. Well, as it turns out I think extreme feminists are absolute lunatics who are more about female rights then equal rights, and it also turns out that I like to get wasted on Saturday nights when I'm surfing the internet, so what she finds is me shitting all over some bat shit crusader on (some Facebook Connect site), and I'm cursing all around being a dick. (Everyone is a dick some of the time, the internet just makes this eternal)

So she finds this post of me being a dick, misreads into it, and decides I'm some chauvinistic bastard, and then cancels the date raging about me publicly on Facebook. (Like I said before about being a dick). Well, I'm fucked out of a date, and if some guy searches up about Betty and sees that she raged about some dude publicly over the internet he might cancel that date.

---[Start reading again here if you hate reading and hate bunnies.]---

Now, this example is really shitting into the wind, but everything on the internet is recorded, cached, and we don't have access to delete everything on it. People will misread into that information, and other people will buyout and abuse this information despite what a policy may say (if there even is a policy). Even worse is that Facebook 'deactivates' your account at your request but keeps all the info on you to monetize. This isn't limited to Facebook either, just go look at Google Analytics and how useful Google Plus is to it. This doesn't even touch onto the possibility of Facebook 'interfacing' with the mafia, all someone has to do is pay the price that Facebook names for that information.

In the case of sheet music it's more about adapting yourself to the standard, so that when you write down music and some random guy in Russia writes down music you can both understand what you wrote without difficulty. (Unless you're that classical asshole who does C sharp sharp).

Most jazz musicians I have talked to and taken clinics from really don't like sheet music though, as it is an ineffective and inconcise way to represent a tune's structure and melody, hence why they prefer charts. Charts really are worlds ahead of sheet music in my opinion.

Steve is an outlier, there is absolutely no doubt about it. There also can't be doubt that Steve did have a few strokes of luck that landed him at the right place in the right time, but I think you are also right in that the evidence of his skills are found in the fact that he was consistently successful.

I think being consistently successful in your ventures is a sign of true skill more so then being wildly successful, and it's safe to say that consistent success comes from experience or talent (if you are lucky).

EDIT: Technical talent is always important in a company that is based in technology. Steve's ability to design complemented the technical talents of the people he surrounded himself with, he knew that design and engineering are a nearly perfect couple with the right balance.

Unfortunately your experience isn't the case for all colleges, which is why some people leave the system really bitter about the entire thing.

I'm curious about what education system doesn't allow you to eventually move on to harder studies.

I mean, I've been screwed by schools again and again by their promises of transfer credit and then not giving it to me after I've dropped out of my old school and have applied to their school (while going to a lower down college to fill out some course requirements), but despite that there is still the opportunity for me to fill out requirements and move onto a harder school.

I totally agree with being social at college, and being really friendly and helpful to everyone, but doing good in your studies is pretty much a guaranteed way to become good at grinding your way through things that are perhaps very boring. They are both equally important and unless you are working, you should be able to find time for both activities. Studying with classmates is also a good way to do both.

EDIT: I don't know what I replied to this comment and not your main comment about socializing at school, but w/e

Do you already know some of that free material, and do you spend everyday of your life learning at least a little bit more of that free material? Do you build things at a weekly rate? If not, then you should probably go to college, as you will learn a lot faster and network while inside there (given that you socialize with other dudes a lot). Maybe someone else has a different view, as I'm in Canada and don't spend as much on education so it's easier for me. -- Just saying this paragraph to people thinking about not going to college now.

Zuck and Gates were successful dropouts because they went to college and learned that it wasn't what they expected. Too much courses to take that they didn't like, classes not going fast enough, social life not as good as other people said, not much meaning in going to classes (basically fill in x reason).

I'm jelly, you should post some your story for inspiration for all of us young people without a 6 figure salary :)

Just because he is a human doesn't mean that it's not a stupid decision, it will always be a stupid decision nothing will change that.

Rationality says that this is a pretty good chance, infinitely better if you include the probability of dying from cancer.

I know plenty of people, and have seen plenty of comments on the internet lynching many rich people. I don't think this was the original intent of the movement, but it is definitely an unintended side effect

I totally agree that Vancouver is not a reflection of the occupy movement as a whole, and that's the part that angers me the most. We could be helping out the people in our neighbouring country by showing our support of what they are doing, but instead we are prancing around saying how terribly oppressed we are, and how we live in a facist nation.

Amen to that. After going to Occupy Vancouver and hearing the Marijuana Party Representative speak saying we should be having an annual income, and people saying that they shouldn't have to work to live a decent life, I can't say I support the protest in Canada anymore.

Lots of people here with uneducated opinions on how the world should work. Never mind the people trying to add a pro-marijuana stance at Occupy Vancouver, which is just so fucking wrong on every level. It's like saying "Hey, people are $50k-(insert large number here) dollars in debt in the states, so lets legalize marijuana! Yay!". Honestly, fuck those people, very disrespectful and confusing to what the movement should be achieving. Too much sheep putting up with that shit too because they get free weed out of it.

I don't think people will pay for tools to protect their privacy because people have the choice to register a facebook account, and this choice makes most people feel like their privacy isn't at any risk.

The comments are golden; generation Xers complaining about this guy