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australison Ask HN: My idea is already taken. What should I do?

Ideas are worth $0

Find out why the other apps failed. Firstly just the two of you thinking, then perhaps try contacting the previous builders (though initially, maybe not from the angle of "we're going to make it work better this time"). You might think of things they didn't.

australison Why Some Schools Are Selling All Their iPads

Single page link:

http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/08/whats-t...

australison Is Every Speed Limit Too Low?

A similar effect can be noticed on sections of roads with dedicated overtaking lanes. Cars that are travelling below the speed limit for long stretches of road (and can't be overtaken due to the road), tend to speed up to the actual speed limit when an overtaking lane comes along - likely due to the more open road, they feel safer driving faster, etc.

This makes it more difficult for all the (often frustrated) drivers behind to pass the slow car when the time comes, often meaning they put on the afterburners and exceed the speed limit to overtake - which could lead to more accidents, especially if they are trying to squeeze past at the end of the overtaking section, if it is quite short, or there are many cars stuck behind as 'prisoners'.

australison Ask HN: What do you after bad day?

This is more applicable for a "normal" type of bad day that might occur a bit more frequently, rather than something on a much larger scale like what was experienced above.

If you have something planned after work (or later in the day), but because of your "bad day" you don't feel motivated to do it when the time arises, it's important to still do it. It could be anything from working on a side project, doing some exercise, cooking a nice elaborate meal, etc.

If you don't then will suffer two blows: (a) have a bad day, and (b) not enrich your day by doing what you had planned.

e.g. Your plan might have been to do some exercise, but you get home, feel like crap and decide to have a few beers to help yourself feel better. Or you planned on cooking something nice, but feel like getting takeaway instead.

Sure, sometimes you might need to concede (especially for a big let down). But it should not become the norm.

Furthermore, if by doing your planned after-work activity you manage to overcome the negative vibe from your bad day, you're more likely to go to bed feeling better about yourself, what you have achieved lately, and be more optimistic about what lies ahead tomorrow (and how to deal with it).

australison Count to ten when a plane goes down

There's also the chance of it happening when writing a script

Such as this classic:

https://github.com/MrMEEE/bumblebee-Old-and-abbandoned/commi...

australison Buying the new MacBook Air

My bank did this to me.

Called me to say if you close and re-open your internet based savings account you will get the higher "intro" interest rate for 4 months. I explained that I had always wondered about this loop hole... Before I even got around to visiting a branch close/re-open, I read on my statement that the bonus interest rate has been applied.

australison Space Invaders 404

I'm trying to figure out if the '1' for the last character of the Google 404 error page is deliberate or accidental... pretty funny!!!!11!!1 (not)

australison The Cost of an ACL Injury

Interesting to read of a 'normal' person sustaining an ACL injury and the subsequent fixing thereof (especially detailed costing breakdown - thanks for the detailed analysis). There has been somewhat of an 'epidemic' of ACL injuries in the AFL[0] this year. So far at least 15 players, some of them quite well-known, have succumbed to a season ending ACL injury already[1], much more than previous years. The difference? They have access to a complete rehabilitation package of priority surgery and follow up physio program. Such is the professional sports industry I suppose...

[0] Australian Football League; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Football_League

[1] http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-04-29/afl-acl-injuries-2013/...

australison I skateboarded 85km from Sydney to Wollongong. It took me 12 hours

Great piece of writing, well done.

I particularly liked this section:

I was tired of thinking about the possibility of skateboarding to Wollongong ... But this was it, this time was different. I didn't even think about it. ... I just got up and started pushing my skateboard.

I know what you mean, and have had similar feelings and experiences psyching up for (climbing) missions as well. In a way, sometimes the most difficult part is committing to the task beforehand. Good on you for doing that, following through - and for doing it for yourself.

You've given me a little inspiration, a spark, to do things that I thought would be possible.

australison Setting up Sublime Text 2

Interesting, to me it looks like an 's' key from a keyboard. I've always assumed that's what it's supposed to be.

I never thought it looked like a disk drive. I guess it looks like an external desktop hard drive a bit though.

australison What is your best programmer joke?

I know one about the GNOME text editor, but it's ok, you might not gedit.

This one is obviously better when telling someone in person...

australison Microsoft looking to release Office for Linux in 2014

I use PlayOnLinux, which works quite seamlessly.

http://www.playonlinux.com/en/supported_apps-3-0.html

However, an increasing amount of my documents are in Google Docs/Drive these days. It's only for really intensive spreadsheets I bust out Excel. I can't stand LibreOffice Calc. Even the name (in a dashboard 'calc' clashes with 'calculator' ... duh, I just type 'gcalc' now). Perhaps I'm just too used to Excel, having used it for so long now.

australison Delivery for Mr. Assange

Can be followed on twitter as well

https://twitter.com/bitnk/

also, e-mail sent to Assange informing him of the parcel:

http://pastebin.com/44m5UViP

australison Ask HN: What book should I read next?

Guns, Germs and Steel

http://www.amazon.com/Guns-Germs-Steel-Fates-Societies/dp/03...

Life of Pi

http://www.amazon.com/Life-Pi-Yann-Martel/dp/0156027321

Billions and Billions

http://www.amazon.com/Billions-Thoughts-Death-Brink-Millenni...

The Ancestor's Tale

http://www.amazon.com/Ancestors-Tale-Pilgrimage-Dawn-Evoluti...

Sorry for suggesting so many, I couldn't help myself

australison Customizing Sublime Text 2's Multi Pane Workflow

I have similar experiences with the multi-pane layout - powerful, but cumbersome to micromanage (mainly because the target area for a mouse re-size is so small). For some reason I find the Ctrl+Shift+{#} keyboard shortcut awkward to use as well, but it might just be the way I rest my hand on the keyboard.

Anyway, one thing I've though would help would be something like; a middle-click on the scrollbar invokes the resize function between the adjacent panes (as if left-clicking on the resize target area).

australison Early pictures from the days when PayPal was a startup

http://www.levchin.com/paypal-slideshow/index.html

here is the intended splash page, provides a bit of context.

interesting photos and commentary - makes it seem like it happened so long ago (i guess it did...)

australison Fluid windows

Middle-click works as well

australison Kevin Fox on recent Google UX changes: from strange-to-me to just-plain-crazy

The clickable area may seem smaller, but the hit box for the button is actually larger than the graphic for the button (presumably to avoid the fiddly issue you were highlighting)