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scottoreilly

88 karma · joined November 14, 2012

Co-founder @ Spider Strategies
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scottoreilly··on Ice – open source menu bar manager for macOS
> For example, you can either hide all icons or none.

I thought so at first too, but it’s just a confusing UI. The documentation says:

> Simply Command + drag your menu bar items to rearrange them.

What isn’t said is that this dragging also allows you to keep some of the items permanently showing. Anything you drag to the right of that double arrow icon will stay there.

scottoreilly··on Delete, delete, delete: the ultimate productivity hack – Matt Sgarlata's blog
I mostly nod along to your points. The whole thing about the finite nature of time really hits home. We're all running around with a ticking clock, trying to cram as much as we can into our days. And the idea of just axing tasks to free up space? Genius in its simplicity. I remember Elon Musk's "delete, delete, delete" mantra, and it's pretty spot on.

Bill Gates' take on preferring a lazy person for a tough job because they'll find the easiest way to do it? I'm all for efficiency, but maybe "lazy" isn't the word I'd use. Resourceful, perhaps? It's a minor quibble, but it sticks out to me.

The recency effect is a trap I've fallen into more times than I care to admit. Setting tasks aside to gauge their importance later is a tactic I'll have to try more deliberately. And avoiding rework by getting things clear the first time? Absolutely. Nothing more frustrating than going over the same ground because of a misunderstanding.

scottoreilly··on Show HN: Tidytrace.com – Stack Trace Formatter
Looking good, great stuff! This is going to be like those free character counter websites for me. Definitely something I could do on my own, but super handy as a single-serving website.
scottoreilly··on Show HN: Csvbox.io – CSV import button for a web app, SaaS or API
Typo in headline: should be “validate data” instead of “valid data”. Otherwise, looking good!
scottoreilly··on Become a nurse or physician assistant instead of a doctor (2012)
It's from the Her soundtrack.
scottoreilly··on Become a nurse or physician assistant instead of a doctor (2012)
I followed my wife though the whole process from college to practicing physician and even made an interview video about residency: https://vimeo.com/97738071

I actually agree with the premise of the article, but it paints an inaccurate picture in a lot of places:

"Nurses, by contrast, can start making real salaries of around $50,000 when they’re 22. Doctors can’t start making real money until they’re at least 29, and often not until they’re much older."

Residents start making $50k salaries right out of medical school. It's only a 4 year delay from nurses.

It's not about money. It's about quality of life. Medical school is really hard. Residency is brutal. Constant unrelenting pressure. No sleep. No personal time. That alone is the reason why becoming a doctor isn't worth it for most people.

Watch the part in the video starting at 3:08 where they're half way through residency. They look like they're going to cry. I'm so glad I did those interviews because it really captures the personal sacrifices you have to make.

Here's the thing that the article failed to grasp, though. If you need to be the one doing the cutting in surgery or the one pushing medicine forward with research, you have to get that MD. Some people need to be in control and call the shots.

If that's you, do it. Make the sacrifices, because you won't be happy doing anything else.

If you can live a fulfilled life as a nurse or PA, though, it's a much better choice for most people.

scottoreilly··on Gmail app hack works 92 percent of the time
I'm pretty sure Wired completely botched this article. It says that the hack works "across Android, iOS and Windows devices" by monitoring "a newly exposed public side channel, which details the shared memory statistics of other processes."

That just isn't possible on iOS unless your phone is jailbroken. Sure enough, the source article is only about android. This kind of "journalism" is so frustrating.

scottoreilly··on Apple Employees reveal the truth
I don't think anything in that article is particularly surprising. Apple is incredibly concerned with secrecy, and they share a lot of dysfunctions with other huge tech companies. Yep.
scottoreilly··on Free Dash accounts now have Twitter dashboard widgets
The model is a lot like GitHub, actually. We let people create all of the public dashboards they want for free so that people can share live data with the community. They also get one free private dashboard.

Business accounts pay the bills, though. https://www.thedash.com/business/pricing

scottoreilly··on Ask HN: Is $100k for 50% just a terrible idea?
Yes, it's a terrible idea. Giving up control of your company is never something you should do right out of the gates. With someone else owning 50%, it's not your company anymore.
scottoreilly··on Mt.Gox CEO says bitcoin exchange at 'turning point'
It's too bad that they're going under and taking everyone's money with them, but the sooner they go away the better. Nobody will trust them again regardless of what they do. The more they're in the press the worse bitcoin looks.
scottoreilly··on Dash adds DIY widgets to free accounts
The free account gives you one private dashboard and unlimited public dashboards. Pro accounts are $10 per month for unlimited private and public dashboards.
scottoreilly··on Tim Cook Admits Apple Has Stopped Growing In North America
It's the law of large numbers - you can't keep growing forever, and that's clearly what's happening in the US. They're still a wildly profitable company, though, and there's plenty of room for growth in emerging markets like China.
scottoreilly··on [dead]
Wow, I would not have thought that Python would be #1 like that.
scottoreilly··on Too many electric cars, not enough workplace chargers
This is going to continue to be a problem as the US infrastructure for electrical vehicles is slowly upgraded. I think the only solution for now is to never depend on a charger outside of your home. People who have to drive more than a single charge in a day just may not be able to use EVs for now.
scottoreilly··on Crash Test: 1959 vs 2009
Wow, that's fantastic. That is true, measurable technical progress. Go engineers.
scottoreilly··on High-end CNC machines can't be moved without manufacturers' permission
This seems incredibly brittle - just like software DRM that needs to phone home. What happens 15 years from now when they shut down their servers?
scottoreilly··on Bitcoin Exchanges In India Shut Down After Regulator Warning
What's weird is that this didn't move the market at all and the news out of China a few weeks ago tanked prices. Is China just that much more of a player in the bitcoin economy?
scottoreilly··on 5 Rules for More Effective Presentations | Michael Hyatt
By far the best book I've read on this stuff is Presentation Zen:

http://www.amazon.com/Presentation-Zen-Simple-Delivery-Editi...

scottoreilly··on Let's have coffee.
I love it - what a cool idea!
scottoreilly··on Ask HN: PHP vs. Node.js vs. Go for a new startup?
I'd strongly recommend using what you know best. If you're good at PHP, use that.

If, however, it's been a long 6 years and you're going to be pretty rusty at whatever you use, I'd recommend giving Node.js a shot. We've had really good luck with it and it has a fantastic community behind it.

scottoreilly··on Oculus Rift Virtual Reality Headset Coming to iOS Devices
This could be a pretty awesome development.

One issue with the story, though. They say that, "the initial mobile version of the Oculus Rift will work solely with iOS devices as Android is not designed to work with virtual reality."

I love iOS and everything, but how is it inherently better for VR than Android?

scottoreilly··on Dash: A free dashboard for your websites, github, weather, news, whatever
Ah, good catch with the weather screenshot! The good news is that there's a widget setting where you can change between fahrenheit and celsius.
scottoreilly··on Dash: A free dashboard for your websites, github, weather, news, whatever
You can up-vote the IFRAME thing here: http://support.thedash.com/forums/226177-suggestions/suggest...
scottoreilly··on Dash: A free dashboard for your websites, github, weather, news, whatever
That's no good. We'll fix that.
scottoreilly··on Dash: A free dashboard for your websites, github, weather, news, whatever
Sorry about that. It's free for one private dashboard and unlimited public dashboards. Pro accounts are $99 per year for unlimited everything.

We'll be sure to get a publicly accessible pricing page up ASAP.

scottoreilly··on Filepicker.io + Zencoder
Looks awesome!
scottoreilly··on Apple: Please Design Better Serial Numbers
Keep in mind that this was the second time an Apple employee screwed up a serial number in a year. Obviously something is wrong with the system.