oemera

I think this true cause everytime people are asking my why I use a overpriced machine they are arguing with something like this "Oh what a big deal my 300-dollar-netbook can do that too" and I say yes it can do it but not in the same way and with the same experience. I mean this is saying something like: I could watch a great movie in IMAX 3D which would cost 16 bucks or I could just watch a mambo-cambo movie which will cost just 5 bucks. Saying that boths are movies is true but not the point. We are not going to the cinema cause we want to go to the cinema, no we are going to the cinema cause we want to watch a great movie, right?

Wait. Never saw a developer with a Mac? I surely know more developers who own a Mac than any web-facebook-itunes-email guys.

Talk to some Rails developers, I will bet my nuts that none of the experts, ninjas, you name it are developing on a Mac.

This is so true! It happens to on nearly every tech article that the author just pushed the buttons and turned a three paragraphs info in a murder-tech-blog-murder-looking-article. The bad thing about it is that you can't more out of those articles as you could from those "original" three paragraphs.

It's not that article size or letter count matters to all of us. I just want to get informed the right things. No long history telling, cause mostly I know it cause I hang around in this area everyday and for more I have Wikipedia. No long opinions and suggestions, cause most time I don't care or I disagree. No long mambo-cambo which let's me ask "Wait. What did I just read".

More of those short, quality and informing articles please.

Yeah with GNUStep you can develop Objective-C on a Windows machine. However I wouldn't recommend that. Not because I want you to buy a Mac. No, it's because I did exactly the same thing and after a few "Hello Worlds" I tried to develop an calculator in Objective-C and it worked very well unless I wanted to compile it on a Mac. My whole code, which wasn't much for sure, was not working and errors came all over the place. I cant remember why but I was little nervous to have learned the wrong syntax.

If you don't have a Mac at home try to virtualize it and if you are serious about iPhone development then go and buy a Mac. Again not because I'm using a Mac no it is because it will make your live way easier and let's you focus on development rather than messing around with the environment.

I think you are making the wrong point. Windows is not dead and that's the truth but Microsoft is dead cause they are not doing any Web apps. They are not doing something innovative. They are just doing what they always did: writing Windows (a horrible OS) which comes with Internet Explorer a horrible browser which is not standard web conform.

They are still earning money but they are laying on their success AND I think that is what Paul Graham means as dead. They are dead because they are not playing the game anymore. They are just laying on their success with windows.

And thinking about more and more OSs are coming out this will not help them they need something for example to succeed on the tablet market and NO windows 7 and 8 or 9 is not the answer for a tablet.

Where to find friends who can review my code? All of my friends don't know anything about programming or they don't code in there spare times like I do.

It is really hard to find someone who can explain what is bad about code design and what should I do about it or what should be "best".

That's exactly what I wanted to say: Apple is getting so much free press others can't even think of getting. Re-reading my comment I can understand why people down voted me but I just want to talk about a example how Apple is getting free press like it was on the iPhone 4 which was found by Gizmodo before it was launched.

Engadget had leaked photos from Google Nexus 2 too but did it show up in my local boulevard newspaper? No. That's what I'm trying to say. People care about what Apple is coming up with. I don't say this cause I think it's a good or I'm a fanboy, no I'm saying this cause it is a fact.

Apple never paid for any hype or something else. Remember the days before iPhone 4 launched? Heck it was even on my local boulevard newspaper. And no Apple didn't pay anything for it.

I think people just care about what is coming next from Apple cause they are bringing amazing products. Each year when a new iPhone launches there is something no-one even thought about, how amazing this could be but Apple is just not thinking about it they are making it real and available.

To be honest I'm a happy Apple customer but I'm also a Android developer so I know both sides and both platforms well.

OH Come on! Life is not meaningless and maybe those people will NOT die anyway. Maybe it's just because you didn't found out by now, what is important for you in live. One example what changes life for ever is having kids. Seeing them grow, laugh and learn things is just amazing.

I dunno if this is cry for help, if yes I would like to help.

Edit: Why study to become a paramedic? Cause you want to. Cause it is your dream. Cause you ever wanted to work as paramedic. Cause it makes you feel better when you help people. Cause it makes you happy helping people. Cause it makes you happy to work with people.

Every developer who has ever used the Android VM should know that testing on it IS NOT a bulletproof test. Sometimes things work on the device which aren't working in the VM even if it is the same version, resolutions and so on. Sometimes things will work in the VM and not on the device.

You don't believe me? Go on and try to stream a video on a Android 1.6 VM.

BTW: I'm developing a iPhone App in my spare times and a Android at work.

+1 for mentioning the awesomeness of Groovy and that you can fall back to Java if you have to or if you like to.

Anyone out there who can tell if Google is a terrible place to work or is Facebook just a awesome place to work? I really don't get it.

I would love to know why people are leaving Google for Facebook. I really don't think it is because of the money.

Is just more interesting these days?

Hey dporan this is awesome! It would be more awesome if you:

- could go to "full page view" when clicking on a Hacker News submission for best web experience

- could add a function to scroll the left and bottom frames where it was before "full page view" mode (at the moment you have to scroll it manually after everytime you visted a page and wanted to see it on full page view

- could only show the comments from HN on the bottom frame without HN navigation and all

I hope I could help to make the user experience better!

Cheers

I bet no-one will read this cause here are definitely to much comments but even so I will give it a try.

Part 1

I'm one of those new guys around here (to be honest I really don't know how I find out about Hacker News, maybe twitter) and maybe one of those assholes who are killing this community (if it is even possible) with it's valuable content. I just read in this blog post what I'm doing wrong here and how I'm helping those contents which don't belong at Hacker News come to the front page BUT I never knew and never wanted to do that. I love this community and I have to say it really opened my mind about functional programming, startups, making decisions, learning from lessons and so on. But in fact there was no-one who told me what this is all about, what news belong at Hacker News, how to comment and react right, that I should up-vote content which are valuable and not which are cool and exactly what I think about it.

In a place where are no rules people will act like there are no rules. And by rules I don't mean restrictions I mean telling people what is Hacker News and what is it about: startups, hackers, fancy geeky things, sharing thoughts ect. By not telling this to the newer AND older (who maybe forget about it) you are supporting that Hacker News becoming more and more invaluable. You are also supporting it if you are just opting out of this community. Come on, is it this everything you can do? To just leave and not help Hacker News become better (again)? It's not my style and hopefully it will never become my style.

If you want to give the Hacker News community something back maybe it would be a article about Hacker News and what it is and what it is for.

Part 2

I really don't understand why people are complaining about a lack of a feature when they could write it on their own. We are all hackers and pretty good ones. So grab for example GreaseMonkey and write a freakin' down-vote button own your own. When you are finish submit it to Hacker News and I bet my balls it will become a top topic for several days and everyone will use it. There you have it: the way a real hacker would go, right? Just do it. (No I'm not working for Nike)

Part 3

Hacker News is time consuming. Yeah thats exactly what it is BUT while it is time consuming it has a pretty good value cause you read about what people did wrong and who you can do it better on the next time and which services can turn to bad even if it was in theory really excellent.

Before I knew Hacker News I hang out on StackOverflow, some Blogs about Gadgets and so on. Now I'm just hanging out on Hacker News and reading all those valuable content (I try to focus on the ones which are interesting and not about TSA and other US-political stuff ect).

I learned so much about programming, software architectures, startups and wrong technology decisions that I'm glad I 'wasted' my time here and not on Facebook, Gizmodo, DaringFireball, you name it.

Part 4

Everyone has to do what they love and what they feel to do. If it is hacking and to exchange your experience: you are welcome. If Hacker News is turning to a waste of time for you? Drop it.

Last but not least

I hope I could write something which is valuable for all of you.

Note: Sorry for my bad english. I'm from Germany and so my english is sadly not my primary language. Feel free to correct me.

First of all thank you for your answer.

At the moment I'm having a double life between working as a programmer (40 hours per week) and studying. It's pretty hard and I really don't have much time for friends and parties but it's fun too. I think it made me a other person and maybe a better person having this double life. What I'm trying to say is I think I can handle a lot of work but I a guy who has to know why I'm doing this all. If it is fun to work in a startup I will go that extra mile with a smile but if it is not fun at all I wouldn't do that for a long time.

While living in the Bay Area seems pretty expensive I think Software Engineers are earning enough to live well, aren't they? (Everytime I read salaries from Software Engineers on HN I'm really shocked cause you would never get that amount here in Germany)

Do you know if there is a chance to study for a master degree while working as a full time Software Engineer? That's what I'm doing right know and in Germany it is possible to study part time. It takes longer but it's ok and you can live a pretty decent life when it comes to money (not everything is money but that's a other topic).

Whats about getting a job in the valley as a Software Engineer. Is it hard to get a job because of all excellent engineers around?

Any chance of chatting with you about all that stuff? Maybe Facebook?

Thank you for your advice it really sounds good to me. Although I think I'm pretty flexible and you know if you are sick of something you will give everything to make your dream work.

I searched a little bit and found out that I have pretty good chance getting a visa for work (developers are needed, I will have a graduation, I'm young and so on).

Yeah winters here are kinda hard and pretty cold. How is summer in the bay area? Is it extremely hot? I checked some average weather data from san francisco and it looked pretty good to me.

Renting a room will be kinda pricy but you are absolutely right about trying first before I gave up everything.

Wow I'm really shocked that this story is getting so much credits.

First of all I'm 22 and not living US so I can only talk about growing up in Germany but there is one thing I learned growing up in Germany: Fist fighting is not a solution. I never used my fists in my entire live (!!) to beat someone cause I don't think it could change a situation into a better situation.

I think we can all talk. Saying that it is what works because of our "animal nature" it's plane wrong. We would never live in this democratic world if everyone would use their fists to make things right.

Also it is really URGENT to tell kids that this is not a solution cause this will never be a solution while getting older and sometime a job. At work it will not help you to beat someone if he/she is bullying around with you. You will lost your job if you do so.

So please stop telling your kids a solution which only COULD (I don't think it works though) work in school. Worst thing what can happen is that your kids will try to solve every problem with a solution father told him/her.

Last but not least I know very well how hard school can be for kids but developing a good personality needs downs and ups. We are all "nerds" and I think we know hard times really well.

Thank you for listening.

You have 8 years of Microsoft development experience that's pretty decent and I bet this will bring you a lot of good jobs because many companies are using Microsoft technologies even the crappy ones (VB.Net, Classic VB).

However you are absolutely right about Microsoft. Yeah they doing good lately but from which standpoint? Microsoft has a really bad reputation under hackers and I think the reason is not that we all love Apple and Mac's. No, I think those reasons become clear if you look at what Microsoft is doing all the time, what are they implementing, how are they implementing new technologies.

For example Internet Explorer 9. This time Microsoft has to be really good cause they are losing market share month after month. And luckily Microsoft did understand that and they are doing good with Internet Explorer 9 but again they are making things their own way and that's what is bad about them. If Microsoft thinks it needs something they are always developing it on their own without looking what other developers are doing and how they solved those problems. No, they have always this one Microsoft solution doesn't play really good with the rest of the world (and sometimes even with Microsoft software). That's Microsoft.

However I think you are on the wrong way. If your profession is Microsoft technologies and you want to stick with that cause you have a job and you like Microsoft platforms then you should stick with it and become better and better.

But look what other developers and hackers are doing, which new thinks are coming, which things are slowly going and compared to that what is Microsoft doing. Don't turn into a developer who has a Microsoft hammer in his hands that's the worst thing you can do for the world and for your career.

I hope I could help you.

BTW: I learned programming with C#

This is a really clever move from Google and I think many people will read this and stop giving there data to Facebook. I have a dump feeling about giving all of my data to Facebook cause they have sure enough. Otherwise: it's free and they are making money with your data right?

Thank you for your tip. You are right my comment has to many paragraphs in it and they are often misplaced. I will try to improve that.

Lately these questions and discussions are everywhere and most times I think people are missing the point: it's all about code you want to write.

We created all those high level languages to make code easy to read, to make them people understand. I mean you could probably write your website in Assembla but the language won't help you to write down what you really want.

As a developer you are trying to develop something you do not want to mess around with a language. The language you use should help you focus on what you want to develop not distracting you with "ugly" code.

If you understand what the code is doing (even if you coded it on your own you sometimes have to think about what is going on there) it lets you help to focus on your goals.

If you brain works better with PHP code you should probably use PHP as your coding language but if not you should try something else like Python, Ruby or maybe Haskel until you find a language which is boosting you while developing. Don't get me wrong I don't say a programming language should do everything for you while you are drinking coffee. No, it should help you to think better what to implement next and how to implement it. It should support you while reading and understanding.

Again, we only created all those high level languages to make it easier to understand.

And now my standpoint to PHP: I don't like PHP cause it is a noisy language IMO. PHP is not OOP. You can use OOP in PHP 5 but the PHP core is not OOP so this seems weird. Even in PHP 5 you can't get a string length like: $str->length No you have to use strlen($str) and this is ugly.

Also I don't like those "symbols" PHP is using (maybe symbols are not the correct word here but I can't find a better fitting word at the moment). In PHP you have variable names with a $ symbol. Why? I don't know but this doesn't work for human beings cause human brains are assuming the dollar symbol has something to do with money or numbers but in PHP it's not. So you have to getting used to it.

It's really the same with the "dot" symbol in PHP. You wouldn't expect that it's concatenating strings.

Ruby as language is for me like reading a book. For example you can write code like this: if user.has_comments? ... end

That's why I love Ruby and I would prefer working with RoR for my project cause it helps you on rapid development.

One last thing: Ruby lets your focus on what you want to build without noise that's why (IMO) there are so much gems and a really huge community!

(Sorry for my bad english, it's not my primary language. I'm working on it :)

EDIT: corrected some typos.

I don't think that it is right to say that it is a waste of time to use these Social Media services. If it is so it would be also a waste of time to hang around with friends or walk in the park. That's not true. People want to have fun and you can have fun on FaceBook. You can also have fun with friends and so on.

What I'm trying to say is if you want see such things as a "waste of time" then shouldn't go out with friends or to the cinema instead you should work or learn something.

Everyone should be free to choose what is a waste of time for himself.

(sorry for my bad (!!) english. I hope you got the idea) EDIT: fixed some grammar errors (I bet there are tons of left)