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mkinsella

437 karma · joined March 27, 2009

Real-life programmer in San Francisco via San Diego.
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mkinsella··on Calif. awarded $2.25B for high-speed rail
According to the CA High Speed Rail Authority [1], a trip from San Jose to Los Angeles is 384 miles and will take 2hr9m. That is an average of 180 MPH.

[1] http://www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov/map.htm

mkinsella··on Tablet Musings
Without the risk of an insecure cellular network, greed would be the only motivating factor in keeping this a closed device.

What about the rumors that the Tablet will include nationwide 3G access, similar to the Kindle? I believe this is a necessary addition -- think about how useful the iPhone would be without Edge/3G access: not at all.

mkinsella··on Continuity - a clever flash puzzle game
Great game, fondly reminds me of Portal.
mkinsella··on The death of the blog post (and rise of the blogazine)
This article fails to mention one of the best magazines on the market: The Economist. It is always the same: simple title, one picture, and lots of columized text.

In addition, they also forget the newspapers. They are always identical from day-to-day. Just because it might be easier to style a "Top X" list doesn't mean it still isn't a useless "Top X" list.

mkinsella··on [dead]
Nothing will come of this. There are no legal ramifications for not changing the name and would only confuse people.
mkinsella··on Brewing a Better Rating System
This is THE best implementation of a ratings system I've seen. Very good job.
mkinsella··on What does HTML5 mean for us?
Very good introductory overview of HTML 5, including workarounds for IE.
mkinsella··on Windows 7 is the best operating system on the market
I thought this was a parody after I read the complaint about the activation code.
mkinsella··on In-App Purchases now available for free iPhone apps
I'm curious, too. Will free apps that allow you to upgrade to the "Pro" version only be listed as a "Free" app? I see that as a definite disadvantage.
mkinsella··on With advice from Steve Jobs, Disney plans overhaul of mall stores
Assuming Jobs influenced the current "Apple Store environment," this is probably a good move by Disney. Apple's stores are always the most crowded at the mall.
mkinsella··on What time is it?
Very slick. Time-telling devices are always interesting.
mkinsella··on Checked exceptions I love you, but you have to go
Opening a file (or attempting to) is resource intensive and throwing/catching exceptions is sloooow.
mkinsella··on [dead]
But with a $1 Billion company at your hands, would YOU want to sell early?

Furthermore, Twitter has repeatedly said they do not want to sell and, instead, want to focus on making money that isn't coming from VC's checkbooks.

mkinsella··on How a Construction Crane is Erected (Video)
Interesting video. $10,000/mo actually seems a little low. I wonder how long it takes for the initial crane construction.
mkinsella··on Google, Gmail experiencing downtime worldwide
Interestingly, GMail has failed twice in the last few weeks since they removed it from beta. Before that, I can only remember one large-scale outage over the previous few years.
mkinsella··on Developers, Be Warned: Apple Has Apparently TMed Those Glossy Chat Bubbles
Except in this case, there is only one video game console (the iPhone) with many games (apps) while the original crash's "main cause was supersaturation of the market with dozens of consoles". Furthermore, recent reports still indicate the App Store is gaining momentum, not losing it.

It is my opinion that all these anti-Apple reports we've been seeing over the last few months are only angering developers, not end-users. Most users could care less that Apple is taking 6+ weeks to release an update, being inconsistent in their review process, or restricting "shiny" message bubbles.

mkinsella··on Basecamp: A Clear and Present Brand
While it was interesting to read about the Basecamp transition (hadn't heard of it before), this is simply an advertising piece for their product.
mkinsella··on [dead]
Then let's figure out a way to solve this inherent problem of social news sites. We're hackers, we can brainstorm and come up with some ideas.
mkinsella··on Bump Technologies (YC S09) featured in Apple iPhone Ad
Just saw it on ESPN, very cool!
mkinsella··on Oakland Charter School: Spitting in the Eye of Mainstream Education
Just a note: Although this is in the LA Times, the schools mentioned are located in Oakland, not Los Angeles, as the title incorrectly states.
mkinsella··on Use RunPee.com to know when to go to the bathroom during a movie
Interesting and unique concept but horrific all-Flash website
mkinsella··on Ask HN: UCLA or UCSD for Computer Science?
I had to make this exact same decision (among others) five years ago.

Background: I was born and raised in Los Angeles, living less than 20 minutes from UCLA. My mother attended UCLA and my father works at UCLA as an accountant. As you can see, we were very tied to UCLA and LA.

I chose UCSD and am very happy I did.

A major factor for my choice was location. I wanted to get out of LA and didn't like the UCLA area at all. Visiting UCLA always makes me feel frantic and a little unsafe in areas. I absolutely love San Diego, though. There is a lot to do and I unfortunately don't have time to write a detailed post about the social life. As a quick note, though, I have decided to stay down in San Diego and hope to live the rest of my life here -- it's really that great.

As for academics, UCSD and UCLA are very comparable for Engineering and Computer Science. I would personally rank UCSD higher because many of my engineering high school friends that went to UCSD have started successful careers while a few UCLA friends have had trouble, but this is only a small set of people.

Finally, everyone will tell you UCSD is not a social school, you'll have problems meeting people, etc, etc. I was a pretty anti-social guy in high school and was a little worried about this. As for my actual experience, it couldn't be farther than what everyone said. UCSD seems to offer a much more casual, relaxed social experience while UCLA (from my visits) offered a much more party-like atmosphere. Personally, I prefer the former and never had a problem meeting new people.

Overall, I am very happy I chose UCSD. It gave me a great education, I met a lot of wonderful people, and I have a great career ahead of me.

If you do choose UCSD, go to Marshall (for the best on-campus housing and dining at OVT and pretty easy GEs) or Muir (for the easiest GEs but crappy on-campus housing)

mkinsella··on Paul Buchheit: Make your site faster and cheaper to operate in one easy step
Can Apache/nginx be configured to not gzip images or files smaller than a certain size?
mkinsella··on Perfect German Board Game Redefines Genre
Anyone interested in board games should check out http://www.boardgamegeek.com. It's an amazing resource.
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