This is awesome, I absolutely adore the idea and implementation. Couple of small points in terms of feedback:
* A new tab with no notes has a height greater than 100% of the browser window, and adds a scrollbar. Small point, but annoying for people like me :)
* There are some issues with links: clicking could be more intuitive, and highlighting is inconsistent with certain characters. (Try pasting a YouTube link.)
"They"? The people who responded to you aren't part of some larger conspiracy to oppose you, or even advocating on behalf of the same people or ideas. The fact that I'm commenting here doesn't even mean that I agree with the article.
Could it be possible that there are several problems at play here, at once? You can't look at situations as if they are black or white, or "us vs. them".
The changes I'm proposing are actually changes to our collective values. Namely, that we shouldn't worship economics and the power of the invisible hand to the point where we think about "market correction" before the well-being of the people around us.
By saying things like "Good, they will fail, people won't be able to afford to live here and they'll leave" you're completely overlooking the human costs and implications.
Things don't just change overnight. It's an slow, painful, eventual decline. Things shouldn't need to be pushed to a breaking point for us to make necessary changes to alleviate these problems.
Websites are art, the same way that any other creations are. You wouldn't giggle at the idea of a song, a magazine, or a photograph being "emotional experiences", so what makes websites any different?
I don't have any links to studies - I'm relying on the idea that renewable sources can contribute significantly to the overall energy requirements.
When you take into account the amount of energy required to grow food, refrigerate it, ship it halfway around the world, and distribute it to stores, surely the amount of energy required to grow food locally is inconsequential.
The first step is to invest, as communities, into producing as much food as possible locally in order to lessen our dependence on the global economic system. We have the technology to turn all those shuttered Targets and malls into indoor farms powered largely by renewable sources. An ironic side effect would be the creation of jobs and a reduction in the net cost of feeding a city.
You pretty much hit the nail on the head here. It really is alarming to think that we have not started to plan for this almost inevitable scenario in ~20 years time. We need to begin re-thinking our role as humans in an economy which increasingly does not require us.
I agree with your conclusion, but disagree with your suggestion that you have any insight into my relationship with my parents. I also advocate a shift back to "family-orienting" living, and live my life accordingly. I'm just looking at big picture trends and simple demographics.
I could argue that making the opposite claim is a pretty gross overgeneralization. It's good that your family is prepared for retirement, but most people aren't.
I shudder when I think about the strain that will be placed on millenials when we inevitably become our parents' safety net. It's a perfect storm: a housing bubble that will pop when everyone tries to sell their house at the same time, unreliable pensions, non-existant retirement savings, high levels of undischargable student debt, and dwindling job prospects for young people.
The big lie sold to us is that there is such a thing as a "self-sufficient" man. The people who make it the furthest are the people with the most extensive and powerful networks.
Yeah, this is going to be big. I wasn't convinced, but after actually tuning into a couple of broadcasts, Periscope's potential became immediately apparent.
This is awesome. I found your site through HN a couple of weeks ago and read through a bunch of your blog posts, which inspired me to take on a remote position. Keep up the great work. :)
Put everything interesting you do on your resume! Every opportunity I've been offered has been due to my side projects or non-programming experiences. Your formal education is still important, but, in my experience in the software world, people value the results of your work more than they value your education.
This app you've made is an amazing demonstration of your skills and understanding of web development. It's worth so much more than your GPA.
Just wanted to say that this is spot on, in my opinion. After watching a documentary about North Korea recently, I couldn't help but feel like our Western governments are guilty of the exact same things that we openly mock North Korea for. The only difference is that we, over hundreds (perhaps thousands) of years, have mastered the art of disguising the mechanisms by which we control the population.
I really dislike the idea that people need to be told what they should use their technology for. Tablets are just computers and they run software, like every other computer. What you do with it is up to your imagination.
My girlfriend and I keep an iPad plugged into our stereo receiver via an auxiliary cable and use it as a Spotify terminal. My dad's iPad is his primary computing device. It seems like a lot of other people in this thread have similar stories. So, clearly, saying "nobody" knows what an iPad is good for is a little bit of a stretch.
Forgive me for bringing some political thoughts with me into this thread, but your post really resonated with me and I think you are a perfect example of why we should work towards a basic income. Imagine how many people there are who are just like you, who can't afford to pursue their ideas due to financial or social constraints, yet have the potential to solve global problems (or at least contribute to their solutions). We are wasting so many brilliant minds by forcing them to grind from 9 to 5 in order to support themselves and their families.
This isn't unique to software; the lowered barriers to creation has meant that the value of almost everything has dropped to the point of worthlessness. While you may not be able to make a living from your open source software through donations, you can certainly make a living by providing support to businesses or assisting with integrations/migrations. We are seeing a shift towards a service-oriented industry, rather than a product-oriented industry, and I expect the rate at which this transformation is taking place to drastically increase in the near future.
This is the case in every industry right now, and has been since the beginning of time. Marketing is the ability to influence people. It seems obvious to say this, but people who can influence people are usually the people with the most successful products (see: politicians, Apple, pg, etc.).
You might be interested in Walter Lippman's 'Public Opinion' from 1922. It basically lays the groundwork for manipulating and influencing a population's collective mindset by exploiting our inherent cognitive limitations and biases [1]. It has strongly influenced Western governments over the past century.
You can read it for free, courtesy of the American Studies department at the University of Virginia [2].