Hacker News Reader

marilynon Why Do I Need Facebook When I Have Twitter

I have found on twitter that spammers come after me after I tweet something @ a high profile tweeter. Perhaps this is a factor in the differences in your experiences.

marilynon The Facts About Diamonds (and why I don’t like De Beers)

I am a lady who had long disliked diamonds for these very reasons. They are not nearly as valuable as what you pay due to hoarding and such. My partner is aware that should the time come, I'd far prefer a natural pearl, than a diamond. Unless of course he can find a piece of genuine moissanite, one that actually came from space on a meteorite, that would be the coolest!

marilynon Google's Parisian Love Superbowl Ad

I totally agree. It is amazing how much emotion music can add to something as everyday as google searches!

marilynon Is it possible to opt out of social networking?

The email contact importer thing on facebook is something that many people in my social circle thought was really neat because it made finding their friends so easy. I'll admit, that I used it when I first joined facebook a few years back.

In retrospect I wish I hadn't used it, as this article mentions, I not only gave away pieces of my personal information, I gave away personal information that didn't even belong to me, it belonged to my contacts. Now, it seems quite dubious that facebook has the gall to ask for my email password. It is true that hindsight it 20/20.

marilynon Quality is Fractal, from restaurants to software.

Many of the people who commented on the post called out the author for the Apple example as coming out of left field and not being relevant to an otherwise well thought out post.

marilynon Ask HN: Review our startup: Unbig.me

You have a neat idea here. I am particularly fond of how unoffensive the advertisement delivery actually is. Best of luck to you!

marilynon Mark Suster: Entrepreneurs Don’t “Noodle” They Do

This post gave me a bit of a kick in the ass, reminding me that making decisions, and moving forward a little bit everyday is at the core of where my focus needs to be.

marilynon How Not To Implement A Web Application That Handles External Authentication

This is the sort of time saver that will cost you time later, when you want to spend your time on authentication even less. Twitter is wanting to cut off basic auth because of "security issues" (http://apiwiki.twitter.com/OAuth-FAQ#Whenareyougoingtoturnof...), and while OAuth isn't required now, it likely will be soon.

marilynon Stop Being an Idiot

I'll throw out an example: The Drupal admin interface is an example of stupid/boring, while the Wordpress admin interface is an example of simple and elegant.

Anyone agree?

marilynon Piracy is a Market Correction.

Producers of software like Photoshop and Office stand to benefit from user level piracy.

For example, not many students and graphic artists starting out can afford to buy a copy of Photoshop, let alone the entire Creative Suite. If all the talented creative types opt to spend their time learning GIMP instead of pirating Photoshop and learning how to use it, the companies that hire them have no reason to buy the expensive software. In effect Adobe needs users to pirate their software to ensure there are as many people as possible who know how to use it, thus securing the sales to businesses.

marilynon Quiting the day job and going for it

While I agree with you to some extent, the other side of the coin reminds me that it's far easier to document your code as you go, then to go back and and do it all at the end.

Documenting the startup process is a valuable endeavour, for both the author and his reader, which may not be done well, or at all, if left to the end.

marilynon Ask HN: Review my site - devcheatsheet.com

Definitely, you know what your users are looking for. Amazon Associates could work for monetization.

marilynon Ask YC: [How] do you maintain a daily routine?

I have been grappling with the same issue. My sleep schedule is all over the place, which I am finding to be very disruptive, particularly with reguard to my daily relationships with other people. Few people think well of the recently laid off/entrepreneur who is still asleep at 11am, even if she was working till 4am the previous night.

A couple of things have helped me reel myself back to a more regular schedule. Melatonin is one, a natural sleep aid. The other was some personal self discovery that led me to the realization that I was using poor sleep habits as an excuse for failure. Not that I want to fail, but if I do, I have my dysfunctional sleep patterns to blame it on. Coming to terms with this has certainly helped me get closer to a more consistent sleep routine, though I'm not there yet. I am still working on creating pre-bed habits that will hopefully give me that Pavlovian response that it is time to sleep. Melatonin is helping with this strategy.

Another piece to my strategy is to write everything down. Every to do list item, every idea or thought I might want to save for later. If it's written down, then there is no use for it to be swimming around in my head at bed time, keeping me awake. Pre-bed journaling can help with this.

Everyone is unique when it comes to his/her relationship with sleep. I hope you find what you need to have a consistently restful sleep, so that you can make the most of the hours you are awake. That is my aim.

marilynon Check out the background CSS trick on this blog's posts

What is the motivation of NoScript in this day and age? You miss so much neat stuff now without out it.

marilynon Ok Go on Why Labels Won't Let You Embed YouTube Videos

MTV has changed dramatically from 10-20 years ago. They have moved away from playing music videos around the clock. Now the majority of their content is teen reality shows and the like. Televised music videos is limited to very few, already very popular artists.

marilynon Java, Postgres developer job. Location? The South Pole

I was thinking the same thing. Are experienced Java developers really that plentiful?

marilynon I'm thinking of going back to college, can I get some advice?

I returned to university to get a 2nd degree in Computer Science after realizing how poor my job options were with my philosophy degree. The benefit of a 2nd degree, at least in the Canadian system (I'm not sure how it works in Ireland), is that you don't need to fulfil all of the elective credits, so you can complete a second degree in 2 years.

Having been through the degree, I am glad I did it, but I'm not sure it's the best and quickest path to a career as a developer. There was a lot of time spent on learning theory and history of the discipline, that may have been better spent on doing. Programming is definitely best learned by doing.

It is a tough decision to make. Many employers still hold the degree up high as a hiring requirement. You already have one of these.

My advice would be to explore your options. Try out some self-learning. There are many great books and online tutorials out there to learn from. Play around with the field a bit before committing to another degree.

marilynon Will single founders please stand up?

Markus Frind of Plenty of Fish is another

marilynon Will single founders please stand up?

A quick google (find co-founders) shows there is at least one: http://www.partnerup.com/

marilynon The Generalist's Dilemma

Many significant advancements came when someone who knew about one thing learned about a second and realized that the first applied to the second.

This is the premise to the book "The Medici Effect" by Frans Johansson, which states that innovation is found in the intersections between disciplines. It's a good read.

marilynon The Generalist's Dilemma

Scour the earth for things you love, then plumb their depths entirely.

Beautifully articulated!

marilynon Getting 60 thousand pageviews with 2 carefully constructed posts

Excellent point. Twitter accounts with moderate followers represent real people that are more likely to be engaged with your tweets. The "big boys" are more likely to be using Twitter as a broadcasting marketing tool. The former group are more likely to become your users/readers/customers.