jdueck

Many of the people I know are withdrawing their profiles from Facebook. Not deleting them, but removing 80% of the information.

Facebook is a LOUSY ad platform because users are interested in interacting with friends, not watching ads.

The subject is bang-on: Facebook's fall will be EPIC

I think the problem is that the auto industry is so entrenched in gas-based cars, and the system has been running for so many decades that it's hard to start producing an entirely new product. A car has thousands of pieces, many coming from different suppliers.

Interesting, thanks!

You can't blame Microsoft for awful Office file formats. Remember, they wrote this stuff before the web came along, and before they generally started sucking really bad. It's just the accumulation of decades of feature creep, add-ons, re-dos, compatibility hacks, bug fixes, and workarounds.

Eventually, all software needs a rewrite. Not just MS's.

IMO it's also about education, not just wealth. On the sites I manage, the quality of Google traffic is significantly higher than from others. I'd rather have one hit from Google than two hits from another source.

Oh, I get it now! :-)

The thing looks like a monster.. or, I know! An ANDROID! <G>

Is it even possible to vote something down? I don't see any down arrows. Maybe I don't have enough karma?

What is this?

No offense to the designers, but I'd be embarrassed to carry around something like that. Hopefully they're listening to early feedback!

My first startup made that mistake. We built the entire product before getting any customers. Since then, I've always started new projects as pseudo-consulting gigs. That way, the product is designed around a real need.

This will probably have a positive effect on PS3 sales. For me, HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray was my main reason for holding back thus far.

At best, they'll have 20/20 hindsight. These guys haven't been to the School of Hard Knocks yet!

A friend of mine recently discovered that his most lucrative customer base is age 50+. The next day he doubled all his font sizes!

For some people (not me) it depends on whether you're in Thailand or not.

"I didn't have time to write you a short letter, so I wrote you a long one."

- Mark Twain

I hope Tesla succeeds, but I wonder whether it's even possible for a new North American car company to succeed, regardless of their technology. With the falling dollar, maybe their odds have increased. And yeah, a Democrat president will likely make it easier for electric car companies. But we're only a couple of years away from Tata Motors cars, air cars, mass-produced DIY electric kits, etc. And in the midst of a recession, Tesla's cars are especially expensive! Brave souls, they are.

I'm skeptical. At best, they'll have 20/20 hindsight. At worst, these are two kids who haven't yet enrolled in the School of Hard Knocks.

Regarding News.YC, I fear that it may eventually suffer the same fate as Slashdot, Digg, Reddit, etc. Trolling is a minor problem compared to self-promoting. The challenge is that there's no scarcity on the internet, so you have to create artificial scarcity. It may be that the best way to fix the problem (i.e. to create scarcity) is through fees. For example, a $1.00 (rising with demand) fee per submission would keep a lot of junk out of any discussion site. And any serious content producer or blogger wouldn't blink at the notion of a small fee. The assumption that everything should be free is what kills many of these sites.

The most important thing is creating things that people want, with a way to make money.

The same thing happens with just about any degree in any field. People with formal education tend to be fairly skilled. But there are always stand-outs who, though having not gone through the traditional education process, are amazing performers. These are the people we hear about and admire, but it's not what we recommend to our kids. :-)

I'm enjoying using news.ycombinator.com, but I fear it will eventually suffer the same fate as Slashdot, Digg, Reddit, etc. The problem on the internet is a lack of scarcity. I'm beginning to think the only way to really solve the problem is through submitter fees. Without fees, I fear it will turn into a self-promoting free-for-all.

Think about the problem in terms of email spam. If email cost $0.25 to send, the spam problem would be gone. If a submission to Digg cost $10, their spam problem would mostly go away.

When everything is free, it's just one big race for the bottom. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think I am.

Thanks.

Interesting. Is there a general discussion area for News.YC? I have some ideas and suggestions but don't know where the proper forum is.

Just the other day I told someone I was a hacker. They were surprised that I was willing to admit to being a criminal. Even after explaining the difference between "hacker" and "cracker", they remained mildly suspicious. <G>

I've managed programmers for 10 years, and what I've found is that money is often not the most important motivator. Good hackers are artists, and they want (1) freedom, and (2) appreciation. When they ask for more money, it's often really their spouse who wants it. Granted, that's a good reason, and many spouses play an important role in not letting their hackers be exploited.

Another useful trick I've found is to automatically delay my email responses. Rather than replying right away, I purposely let email sit for 48 hours or so. If people get an instant response, they'll send more useless emails.

Of course, this doesn't apply in every case. If I get something that I know is important, and the person isn't wasting my time, I'll respond instantly.

The mass media promotes the "dumbing down" of America more than anyone else. As smart people increasingly get their information from smarter places, the "dumb" places get even dumber. They no longer have to cater to the more educated crowd, so they don't.