pbrown

I hope you don't think I was ridiculing you. Believe it or not, I actually upmodded your original post because provided an alternative point of view. I may disagree with it, but it takes two sides to have a decent conversation.

I take exception to most of this statement. My story: At 25 years old, I took every penny I had in savings (about $300k) and started a company. I "created" 7 well-paying jobs. I put every single penny I had into my company. I had "major medical" insurance, which I paid about $600 a month for.

Two years later, we were doing about 2 million a year. Still, I poured every penny I had into the company "creating" additional good-paying jobs. Then I had a stroke. Yes, at 27. Because the doctors could not find a "reason" for my stroke, the insurance company paid a grand total of $2700, mostly for the ambulance and the care I received in said ambulance.

I was left with a bill of $67,000. Yes 3 zeros. Because of how long I was in the hospital and recovering, and because my business was based on relationships with my clients, the business faltered, and I eventually shut it down. I am now paying off every cent of what I owed on the business, as well as that $67k in medical bills.

Moral of the story: don't think you're invincible because you're young, or because you don't have a pre-existing condition. Also, I can absolutely assure you that medical debt DOES affect your credit.

Here's the crazy part. I'd do it all again in a heartbeat, and I will.

Considering you signed up to post this gushing post, you wouldn't happen to work for them would you?

Tangent:

"Startup founders are mostly hackers, and hackers are much more constrained by gentlemen's agreements than regulations. If they shake your hand on a promise, they'll keep it. But show them a lock and their first thought is how to pick it."

I love this quote, and agree wholeheartedly. Hackers are typically some of the most honorable people I know, and when they say something, they mean it. Likewise, they're some of the most ingenious people I know. When it comes to taking something apart or putting it together, hackers can usually do it.

"i can understand her optimism, but how are they going to take market share away from google?"

That's what everyone said about Apple before Jobs came back too. It's amazing how an energized, focused leader with an "outside" perspective can make a world of difference. Look at Apple now.

I'd be curious to know if pg and gang do exit surveys to find out what founders thought was valuable and what they thought could be done different/better.

The keyword is "incoming":

"Twitter and Bell have agreed that Bell customers on the company's text messaging bundles will be able to receive unlimited incoming Twitter SMS messages at no extra charge."

Fair enough. I apologize. No more political comments from me.

Just wanted to throw something out there as food for thought/discussion starter.

In my opinion, the current argument that people demand free content and will not pay seems to me to be a lot like early Internet (even pre-internet BBS) users who said the Internet wasn't the place for business. That obviously has proven wrong. I think the "people will not pay when they can find it free" theory will prove to be wrong too.

This post was down-modded so far I shouldn't even respond, but I'm going to anyway. While you seem to blame Republicans for every thing that ails you, keep in mind that the "loosened regulations" on mortgage lending which is what caused this problem in the first place were initiated by a Democrat, Barney Frank, at the urging of a Democrat, Bill Clinton. Now go put your head back in the sand.

IMHO, the best thing they could do was keep this thing secret while they figured out a way to solve the problem. Not that I think the whole problem was fixed, but this specific problem was fixed. Had the general public been aware, the problem would have been much worse, and John Q. Public would start pulling money out, and shoving it in his mattress, because he didn't understand what was happening. That's why it's called a Panic.

Also IMHO, a lot of the current economic problems have to do with turning on the news every night and seeing "how bad" the economy is and "it's getting worse." Seems like a self-reinforcing problem to me. That's what happens when you make the public aware of the "problem," when they don't understand all the gory details.

As far as the Bush-bashing, and the information not being able to inform current decision making, that's crap. The people that need to know, do know.

There are and they are quite popular here in Alaska, where the "cooling off" of heated water is obviously quite a challenge. Problem is they are not widely adopted because of the very high initial cost of purchase. They do eventually pay for themselves, but it's a save now vs. save later problem.

Maybe instead of an asterisk we could use orange names.

That's awesome. Problem is I use Chrome, or I'd jump on it in a heartbeat. Thanks though.

I agree. I'm in Alaska, so I'm pretty much behind everybody. I'm usually posting while you all are asleep. I'm screwed.

As a recent "idiot" (sarcasm) who has read HN for over a year now, and just signed up to participate, I have a thought. I chose to reply to this particular post of yours with my thought, because you're orange, so maybe I'll get noticed (also sarcasm), because, alas, I'm only gray, oh and also because it fits (loosely) in the context of your post.

Anyway, I have a suggestion for PG, not that he'll notice it this deep in the thread, but:

What if we could add certain users to a "favorites" list and then any posts they make would show up to us as orange. I've got certain favorite posters on here who I like to read and other people who I do not like to read. Some of my favorites are orange, but then again some are not. I know this may be hugely complex from a technical standpoint, but that's my big thought for the day.

Edit: On re-reading my post, I'm not trying to come across as an ass SwellJoe, I was just trying to be witty. I guess if I have to clarify that, it didn't work :-)

On the contrary, I would (be calculating enough). I typically won't make a comment to a thread that is over two hours old, because shelf-life on here is so short, and because I don't think many people will see it, unless it's a super-active thread. Humans (at least this one) like to hear themselves speak, and like it even more when others hear them speak.

The new system actually encourages me NOT to comment on less active threads, because it's going to hurt my "average score."

Counterpoint: I read the thread to which you refer, and while I didn't agree necessarily with some of what you said, or some of what the others said, it was insightful to me to see both sides of the argument spelled out in more detail.

I think this makes the comments more compelling, and helps us to get to know the other users a little better.

I have to agree that the "orange names" are ripe for potential abuse. As someone who has read HN for over a year now, and just signed up to actively participate, the "orange names" somehow feels like encouragement for me to not participate.

Maybe it's a self esteem issue (I blame my mother) but I suspect that some people will skip the "gray name" comments and only read the "orange name" comments. I know because I did, and I didn't even know what the orange was for until I dug. If I make a comment in the forest, and no one is there to hear me....

I understand what the goal was but, ultimately, I find myself longing for the old days.

By the way, I upvoted the OP, and I tried to post above the fold, but the OP was too darn long. <== Sarcasm there. How'd I do?

Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works were responsible for some of the most innovative aircraft designs from WWII. These were the 14 rules put in place at the birth of the Skunk Works.

Looking past the military stuff, some of them are quite applicable to startups even to this day.

I started with post-it notes, but kept losing them too. Now I use Freemind, and have a really big whiteboard (of the manual variety) on the wall in my office.

You mentioned you're having a problem with big apps. I'm the same way. At the risk of sounding condescending (which I'm not) break the big app down into a bunch of small apps (features). I find this works for me in two ways. 1.) I can code the small apps easier (and then ideally put them together into the big app). and 2.) If I find I'm getting feature creep, it's easier to dump 1 or 2 "small" apps rather than rethinking the whole project.

As someone who lives in Interior Alaska, I feel your pain.

So, to take a cue from you and one from another comment on here: Wouldn't it be great to have a shovel that 1.) Had "wings" on it, similar to a snowplow, that you could fold out to widen the shovel, and fold in to make the shovel narrow, while also making it stronger for chipping ice. and 2.) That you could adjust the angle of the head on for digging vs. lifting vs. picking.

I'd buy it.

One thing I noticed that I think is really cool is that the first bid starts the auction clock. Not sure if the other "big boys" do that, because I don't use them, but great idea nonetheless.

Something else I noticed though is that in the satisfaction guarantee, you mention that you, Bidboxr, will refund the purchase price if it's not what they expected. I see that lasting about two weeks before you run out of money. If you really want to set yourselves apart with a satisfaction guarantee, you may want to look at some sort of escrow service instead.

Just my two cents.

That made my day.

The problem with that logic is, if you don't work and have to rely on someone else to feed you, that means I have to work twice as hard to feed my family and now feed you.

There's something wrong when 30% (soon to be 50%) of the population doesn't pay taxes, and expects the rest of us to provide for them, IMHO.

One of the reasons I always register under pbrown or paul_brown. It keeps me clean, honest, and accountable. -Paul

I second http://www.emachineshop.com The software is fairly easy to use. You can get your prototype built in pretty much any material you can imagine, and the price is pretty good too.

My only problem was the cost to ship custom cut boat glass to Alaska. Ouch.

I can say this as someone who has "failed spectacularly." Until you've tried and gotten a taste, you will never understand why people would even bother when the chance of success is only 1%. I can also say I fully intend to do it again.

As far as support from spouses etc., my wife doesn't like the fact that we owe close to 7 digits right now, but she also understands that to me, this is "living."

In the comments, Arrington mentions that the final product will ship with a stand, and also have a USB, earphones, and power port. I guess you could set it on the table, plug in a USB keyboard, and plug it into power. Then again, now it's a laptop.

Arrington mentions in the comments that the lego stand was just for their temp use. The final product will ship with a stand.