Hacker News Reader

ericdschmidton Metro

It won't be long before most people have only one computing device: a very powerful smartphone. When used as a mobile device, the interface looks like iPhone/Metro. When you are at your desk, you dock it and the interface that pops up on your 30 inch monitor is like Windows 7 (WIMP). And you can also dock it in a range of shells (for lack of a better word) from a 7-inch tablet (touchscreen UI) to a 17-inch laptop (WIMP UI). All these devices you are docking to are just relatively cheap shells. All your data and processing power is on the smartphone. In fact, even the smartphone will be just a shell, and the computer will be like a large SD card.

ericdschmidton The New Apple Advantage

I'm sure virtually everyone would like to know about everything if they could. But they know they can't; they have to make choices about how they spend their limited time. So they would be delighted to learn about TVs and computers and VCRs if they could upload the knowledge instantly into their brain like in The Matrix; but they can't. So they focus on what particularly interests them. Some people prefer to learn about Japanese post-war cinema. Again, I'm sure most people would love to learn all about that if they could do so at no opportunity cost. Just based on the specificity of the subject I can guess that you are not particularly interested in Japanese post-war cinema and will not choose to learn about it in your lifetime. But that's not sad. No one can learn about everything.

ericdschmidton The $700 Million Yogurt Startup

At my local supermarket they sell 32oz cups of Chobani (in vanilla and plain). Because of the bulk, price per oz is only slightly more expensive than the cheapest stuff they have. And it's really nutritious: 16grams of protein and only 13 grams of sugar per 6 oz serving! Significantly more protein than sugar. The lack of fat doesn't bother me. There was an article in the Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/19/health/19brody.html?_r=1) about strong new research that found that yogurt was the food "most strongly linked to weight loss". It also found that the fat content of yogurt (or other dairy) consumed didn't affect weight change.

Based on this article and the research suggesting a weight-loss effect of yogurt I'm thinking about getting into the yogurt business.

ericdschmidton Call Someone Who Cares

Bravo!

ericdschmidton I moved to Singapore

could have been a field trip. could have been free ice cream day. maybe there was a deal for students. and yeah, people everywhere like crap.

ericdschmidton Vanity Fair reporter freak-out

It's almost definitely a joke. It's ridiculous. Would never happen.

ericdschmidton Why is America the 'no-vacation nation'?

The United States has one of the very highest GDP (PPP) per hour worked in the world. Been that way for a long time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PPP... . It makes sense, given our massive capital stock. So working longer hours here would mean a lot more productivity.

I myself value leisure highly, though. I have a job as a software engineer at a large bank in New York. Right out of college, the bank allows me (and all other first-year developers) four weeks of vacation per year, and I'm taking full advantage of it. I like to travel.

Demand for software engineering talent is so strong right now in the United States that I'm surprised so many Americans on Hacker News feel they can't take a decent vacation. I'm sure if they spoke to their bosses they could work something out. You shouldn't be afraid to ask for a reasonable vacation.

ericdschmidton Facebook Loses Much Face In Secret Smear On Google

I don't think what Facebook did was unethical. It's certainly legal. They catch a lot of flack over privacy issues and they want to remind the media about their competitors' privacy issues and influence them to cover those more, so that they don't look as bad in comparison. That sort of work is done by PR firms, so they hired one to do it. In fact, they may not have even asked the PR firm to do it; the PR firm may have acted independently as part of their service.

As for the PR firm's offering to help write an article... Well, I would call it bad/unethical journalism if such an article were published as reporting. If it were published on some opinion page or like a tech blog, that would be fine.

ericdschmidton SuperHappyDevHouse

A tech journalist wrote about it like this: "That’s what we want to do for others- we want to enable them to come together for a common purpose to help humanity. We see different parts of technology as different elements that come together to create a key that will unlock a door that will change the world."

The tech journalist was surely not writing a humor piece.

ericdschmidton SuperHappyDevHouse

He was definitely talking about other people at his job, or at least in his profession. He was explaining why he didn't leave the profession. I would quote the article but it's down.

ericdschmidton SuperHappyDevHouse

This is a response to a bunch of the TL;DRs I've seen.

He doesn't resent the people he mentions in the article because they're happy or having fun. He points at specific behaviors and elements of the culture that he doesn't like and gives examples. The fact that so many have a knee-jerk reaction to this article, rather than a thoughtful one, serves his argument. At some points in the article he does come off petulant and young. He probably is young. But in other places he has good observations about some distasteful peculiarities of the culture. For example, he brings up the delusions-of-grandeur-like advertising for an event called, "SuperHappyDevHouse." The state of the culture is not a frivolous issue. A lot of smart people can be pushed away from CS if the culture isn't right.

ericdschmidton SuperHappyDevHouse

So many people have posted comments that suggest they didn't read the whole article. Towards the end of the article the author explains that many of his peers do not participate in the particular form of the culture that he finds so distasteful.

ericdschmidton SuperHappyDevHouse

Ah, well first off I thought this event was just something these guys from his job organized, like, at one of their houses.

But still. Even for a large event like that, the language he quoted in the article was kinda creepy. I of course agree that at any time ideas can spark and work can begin that will eventually have a large impact. I'm sure there are CS conferences that use more sober language.

ericdschmidton SuperHappyDevHouse

I don't think the author would mind carpenters getting together to work on their craft, or working on their craft privately. He says in the article that the basic idea of programmers getting together sounded good to him. Rather, he would be put off by carpenters getting together at an event called "SuperHappyCarpentryHouse", with the stated goal of "creating a key to unlock a door to a better world for humanity." What he doesn't like are the peculiarities and the strength of the culture. (The culture of these particular folks he works with.)

ericdschmidton SuperHappyDevHouse

Nothing is wrong with wanting to change the world. But you don't find the language being used rather creepy? It really does sound like delusions of grandeur. For a one-day event? There is nothing wrong with wanting to change the world, but there is something wrong with hubris, ego, megalomania...

ericdschmidton SuperHappyDevHouse

The author was fine with the idea of a social event for software engineers. Until he read more about it.

But then I kept reading the article, and it became more disturbing. A tech journalist wrote about it like this: "That’s what we want to do for others- we want to enable them to come together for a common purpose to help humanity. We see different parts of technology as different elements that come together to create a key that will unlock a door that will change the world." Wait, what? It’s a one-day event. How are you going to change the world in one day? If they could really do that, then imagine what they could do in a year. This sounds like someone with delusions of grandeur. Or a cult.

The name of the event, "SuperHappyDevHouse", is annoying, too.

ericdschmidton SuperHappyDevHouse

I agree, there's certainly nothing wrong with practicing your craft during your free time, especially if you enjoy it. But I appreciate the author's total candor. I find the mainstream "geek" culture unpalatable, myself. Of course that's not the same thing as hacker culture, or CS culture.

ericdschmidton SuperHappyDevHouse

This isn't a fair summary.

ericdschmidton Firefox 4 is here

ctrl+w is fastest way to close tabs anyway

ctrl+tab to cycle through tabs

ericdschmidton This must be Google's Facebook clone. It sure looks like it.

"Does anyone know of any products launched by big companies (Google, Microsoft etc.) that did go big?"

IE, GMail, iPhone...

Or, restricting to websites: GMail, G cal, G reader

ericdschmidton Paul Buchheit: The two paths to success

Your story is very similar to mine. Except instead of music I was interested in film and comedy.