MuddyMo

Joel is a rarity: brilliant, successful programmer, entrepreneur and writer. But when writing about how to develop successful software, it tends to be things that would resonate with frustrated enterprise software programmers, like he used to be, or guys like Scoble perhaps. But his theme is similar to PG's, concentrating on making it possible to develop software using programmers with average talent will not result in exceptionally useful software programs.

Except for prosper.com, most of the micro loan links in the article appear to be for third-world entrepreneurs.

On behalf of the people who depend on Carlson's software, let's hope he writes code better than he writes informal essays.

Here's the somewhat clever first graf: (Everything after that is a mish-mash)

"Jesus reflected on his situation and felt irrepressible sadness. His tear-ducts filled to a point where they could hold no longer and had to be released."

versus

"Jesus wept."

I prefer the later.

It was inevitable, I suppose. Channeling Carl Sagan: "Just think of the billions and billions of enemies..."

Excellent examples of C annoyances.

There's no denying that timing, momentum and markets can sometimes conspire to propel less than optimum products to an undeserved position of dominance. The C language just might be an example of that.

However, I think the author's most most salient argument could be summed up as: "before claiming to be David slaying Goliath, make certain you're not really a dwarf standing on the giant's shoulders."

I concur

Last sentence of the article: "all D users agree that by downloading and using D, or reading the D specs, they will explicitly identify any claims to intellectual property rights with a copyright or patent notice in any posted or emailed feedback sent to Digital Mars."

What is that all about?

I like this observation: "In other words, JCPenney just lowered the price from $39,990, and Yahoo is just running a little behind?"

I wonder why this post isn't getting any love?

Thinking about the problem is a different skill than writing code and is usually best done someplace where the keyboard for your development computer is not within reach.

In the classic struggle between being relevant now vs.being original, the laws of motion and momentum tend to favor being relevant.

That is why we hold original thinkers in such high regard, but usually only after we know it is safe to do so. So, tip your hat to guys like Dave Winer, who repeatedly suffers the slings and arrows while waiting for the rest of us to climb out on the limb with him after we know it's not going to break.

This is interesting. One of the recent YC benefactors could be the one who proves that Marc Canter's vision is the real future of social networking.

Are we seeing a glimpse of what the NYT will be at decades end?

And what will we call this decade? The turn of the century, I guess.

"it would be like the operator breaking into the conversation, telling each talker in the voice of the other: "Sorry, I have to hang up. Good bye."

Comcast has the right to manage its network, but this obfuscation of the source of the blocked upload is totally unethical.

Comcast is not my provider, so I have no direct knowledge of what it is like to deal with them and I am reluctant to base my opinion solely on MSM reports. But, if this is any indication of how they operate, I count myself lucky I'm not one of their customers.

Entertaining post esp. for those stuck on the corporate track. The guy pissed off DHH and lived to tell about it!

Tracy Kidder's book is what got me into computers! Love the part where they can't figure out why the motherboard isn't working and the project leader, and old grizzled veteran, just grabbed the board without warning and shook the hell out of it, giving all the young whiz kids cardiac arrest. But it fixed the problem!

Home-built from mail-order box w/ Intel 386SX chip, 1024K ram, 40MG hard drive, VGA video 5.25 and 3.5 inch floppy drive. I really wanted the full 386 chip, but couldn't afford that and VGA. Figured I could always add the i387 math co-processor later.

zaidf, you are wise, my friend.

To have compassion for such a person is unique and uncommon. I join you in hoping life does get better for that person, because it must be so very sad to be in trapped in such a life.

byteCoder, I wholeheartedly second that motion!

Similar to my sentiments about another recent ill-advised Hacker News post: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=68257

I've done both. Are you or gibsonf1 familiar with the mechanics of political oppo tactics? This is a hit piece and not a very subtle one either. The title says it all. It is designed to be the jumping off point for right-wing attackers.

Am I a believer? Yes, In science! Link to a science based article questioning the conventional wisdom of climate change? Fine. Great. All for it. Bring it on. Let's debate. But lazily link to a piece of sensationalized right-wing propaganda when this feed should be primarily about news related to the world of computers and computer science and I feel the best response is parody.

If gibsonf1 hates Al Gore and buys into the perverted slander built up by his political opponents and the Washington Beltway establishment, thats fine too. But he shouldn't bring it on to the Hacker News feed, unless he WANTS Hacker News to head down a road that leads to a site burned a nice crispy shade of brown by battalions of political talking point agenda bots.

One of the World's Foremost Webmasters says "WTF" to the changes made to Hacker News

http://www.centernetworks.com/y-combinator-hacker-news

Allen Stern, webmaster for CernerNetworks states, "Considering that Y Combinator is all about the startup, this makes no sense. They have a couple other updates to the app as well. First, they will be looking for trolls on the comments for each post which is a good move."

Stern had nothing to say about how the system will handle ill advised postings of blatant political oppo hit pieces by Hacker News leaders.

One of the World's Foremost Researchers Has Called the Apollo Moon Landings a Hoax!

One of the World's Foremost Chiropractors says germs do not cause disease.

One of the World's foremost mechanical engineers says that automakers could build a carburetor that would let cars get 100 miles to a gallon, but the Oil companies won't let them!

One of the World's Foremost Dermatologist's has said that any skin problem can be solved with Gold Bond medicated powder.

One of the World's Foremost Metaphysicist's has said if you close your eyes and wish something wasn't true long enough, it won't be.

One of the Worlds' Foremost Nutritionist says there are Natural Cures They Don't Want You To Know About

Very lucid description of one of the major pitfalls (cough) inherent with a strict OOP design structure where the problem domain and/or programming language does not facilitate its imposition.