Hacker News Reader

bconwayon Why education startups do not succeed

Sorry, down-voted by accident. Agree 100%.

bconwayon Elon Musk quits Zuckerberg's immigration advocacy group

The group supported a number of senators' stances on immigration reform, some of whom also happened to support expanding pipelines for gas production. Elon Musk, CEO of an electric car company, decides to leave the group. Not much dot-connecting required here.

bconwayon Inequality and Mass Transit in the Bay Area

Exactly this.

Likewise, many of us would be unable to pick out many/most of the Millionaires Next Door in a pinch.

bconwayon I Am a Bad Developer

To the OP: What negative feedback have you received? What have people told you you need to improve?

If that answer is "none," people aren't being honest with you and you need to find people who are.

Secondarily, are none of those people who have hired you in the past currently hiring? If they are, why aren't that asking you? May be related to point #1.

bconwayon I don’t understand American healthcare – doesn’t mean I shouldn’t provide it

I know it sounds insane, but the average American's idea of nationalized healthcare is something akin to waiting in Soviet Union breadlines just to get an aspirin. There's a whole cadre of talking heads employed full-time to make the rounds on Fox News et al promoting this sort of willfully ignorant line of thought.

Not at all. We've seen it first-hand and up-close with our neighbors to the north. Taxes through the roof, and the only way to get good care is to "go private."

bconwayon Petition to drop charges against Kiera Wilmot

Which teachers and administrators at the school do you feel are a part of this "upper class?" There are certainly no millionaires handing down decrees at the schools near me.

bconwayon The OpenBSD 5.3 Release

I'd really love to give OpenBSD a try outside of VM testing. Does it have something like FreeBSD's NanoBSD (http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/nanobsd/...) yet? The seamless update-image-and-switch is a killer feature for my embedded use.

bconwayon Florida Teen Charged With Felony After Science Experiment Goes Bad

Mixing ammonia and bleach is actually quite dangerous, and regularly warned against in most chemistry classes. Calling this an "experiment" is generous at best.

bconwayon Avoiding Burnout

Excellent post. One of the top reasons I don't let employees work more than 40 hours a week, and start kicking people out of the office at 5:30 (if they're still there).

bconwayon If this were a pill, you’d do anything to get it

Average life expectancy was 45 years old at the turn of the century. You didn’t have 85-year-olds with chronic diseases.

Yes you did. That's like saying there weren't old people a hundred years ago. The reason the average was 45 years is because of the astounding rate of infant mortality (much improved now).

bconwayon The secret to a higher salary is to ask for nothing at all

Don't accept ridiculous paycaps. They're stupid. A couple very well known startups cap their employee pay at $120k. One I know of hasn't paid raises for years.

That is startling. Is this a popular thing in the Valley?

bconwayon Wish I was here by Zach Braff

you can't pay a reasonable amount of money and get the final product.

Isn't that the intent, that it's a funding platform and not a retail purchase system? I remember Kickstarter making a very big deal about this a while ago.

bconwayon Dumped by Google

Really? Most people in the US only have access to one, the same as cable providers. Government-granted monopoly, etc...

bconwayon Shots fired at MIT - report of an active shooter near Bldg. 32 (Stata)

My judgement was based on the dozen or so news agencies reporting "killed early Friday in a violent standoff with the police." But you're right, maybe they're all incorrect.

bconwayon I Knew a Programmer Who Went Completely Insane

Have you sought out a mental health professional? In my experience, most incidents like the one linked have little to do with the amount of work or the politics involved, and everything to do with an untreated emotional condition. A lot of your writing above rings true in the same fashion. Please be careful.

bconwayon Shots fired at MIT - report of an active shooter near Bldg. 32 (Stata)

Say what you want about the "enlightened liberal sensibilities" of the northeast, the Massachusetts death penalty sure is swift and efficient.

bconwayon The Boston Marathon Bombing: Keep Calm and Carry On

Exactly this. Holding your head high is not a response to terrorism.

bconwayon Explosions near Boston Marathon finish line

Note: It took place on Patriot's Day, a Massachusetts and Maine holiday.

bconwayon Google Fiber’s Next Stop: Austin, Texas

Maybe you're referring to Internet access only, but the over-compressed picture quality on Uverse is horrible, especially compared to easily-obtained OTA in the Austin area.

bconwayon India Supreme Court rejects Novartis' right to patent new version of cancer drug

Some drugs do have different impacts on different races.

Science is rarely politically correct (probably a good thing).

bconwayon The DOM isn't slow

HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable.

Maybe not, but...

bconwayon Google Reader shutting down

I heartily recommend http://theoldreader.com/ - lean and mean.

bconwayon Google Reader shutting down

Gmail for Apps still can't auto-add people to your chat list, even though the option is there.

bconwayon Civil Liberties Groups Speak Out Against CISPA in Lead Up to Hearings

Yet somehow the Loud Commercials Lobby lost to the Reasonable Volume Commercials masses. Too bad that couldn't have been something important.

bconwayon Bradley Manning’s Statement

Except we're not talking about policy, we're talking about this generation's Vietnam. The average American knows about Vietnam. The average American knows about 9/11. The average American does not know about Manning, nor is likely to in a year's time.

bconwayon Who took a chance on you?

Ten time employee who quit every company because someone got promoted over me even though I did 3X the work.
...
When friends & family saw how much money I made, they all wanted in on it until they saw the sacrifice I expected from them, then every one backed out.
...
Rejected by prospective cofounders who didn't want to make the same sacrifices I have made.
...
I thought it would be different in the tech world, but it's not. It's still a beauty contest based primarily of superficial subjective perceptions. People are still often too lazy or unable to dig below the surface to find the reality.
...

Please don't misunderstand. I'm not bitter.

-----

Have you stopped to consider why you're seeing these results? Do you feel that your perceptions are an accurate picture of the situation?

bconwayon Dad hacks Donkey Kong for his daughter; Pauline now saves Mario

Ever played an MMORPG?

bconwayon Bradley Manning’s Statement

The treatment of Manning and eventual treatment of Assange will be our generation's Vietnam - an active demonstration of our government's willingness to lie to and abuse us, a touchstone for all who are seeking a reason not to cooperate.

It would certainly be nice if that was the case. However, it's much more likely the average American doesn't know (or care) about Manning, other than the occasional footnote on the 10 o'clock news, and in a year or two he will be forgotten.

bconwayon Why Watching DVDs on Linux is Illegal in the USA

Logical fallacy: Slippery Slope.

bconwayon Why was my email leaked?

Same. I rarely check the recipient addresses in my spam folder, but today there was a LinkedIn-style phishing email to my Dropbox-specific address.