thesethings

Still rooting for Tumblr like crazy, but bummed out :(

But given that many of these issues have been going on for at least 2 years (since i've been an active user), before their recent spike, i don't think so.

Also, i feel they 'code bombed' the queue issue they had earlier. It was really broken, and they were basically silent until they thought they had a fix. The vibe I get is that they basically only like to give good news. I sympathize with that. (But explain above why i think that's bad.)

(PS: for people who don't read my big post above, please know i love + recommend tumblr even with their issues. please try it when it's back up if you haven't already.)

tumblr is awesome, worth it to use even with horrible downtime, but it's getting really weird how they never talk about anything relating to ops/roadmap/product (good or bad)

Long version:

I'm hesitant to dis tumblr to an audience i'm not sure has tried tumblr. i'm always scared i'll send the wrong message. Tumblr is mostly amazing, extremely valuable, and actually trying to do something interesting + valuable for its users. (From the outside it's hard to see. But as with Twitter, the inside view of using it reveals all sorts of interactions and relationships that make it awesome + addictive.)

Main point? You should use tumblr. It's not just a blog platform. It's a place to discover awesome content, connect with interesting folks, and get your stuff heard really easily.

But... those of us who have used tumblr for a while have different conversations amongst ourselves.

Aside from performance, Tumblr has been buggy for an extremely long time. Since before its recent spike in popularity and sharp growth. In fact, I almost get bummed when the topic of performance issues come up because i fear that attention to broken things like Dashboard search, saved tags, group blogs, etc... will get overlooked.

Their API is also a bit stagnant, which even if you're not a dev, means less cool stuff you can do w/all the amazing content + people in Tumblr.

As kylebragger wrote above, it's surreal how Tumblr does not mention a thing. They don't have a status blog. They don't have a user forum where we can talk about Tumblr best practices. (There is an abandoned Get Satisfaction presence). They don't have a place to suggest features for users, or developers. No Uservoice. No mailing list. They have a blog which is about 80% recommending fun Tumblrs to follow. They also announce apps. They have a couple of times addressed bugginess around a feature, queues, but only after they felt they fixed it.

This makes me think they are probably working on some giant code bomb that will fix everything, and don't want talk about stuff until they have good news. I understand that, but don't agree with it. It's literally been years. It's just more acute now than it's been before.

Anyway, I don't hate Tumblr, I LOVE tumblr. I recommend it to tons of people. Even if it's down 2 hours every day, i'll still recommend it.

But it is not cool how they never talk about stuff. I get that transparency is not the only style of community and product management. (Something something Steve Jobs Apple.)

But I think it's a bad fit here. Also, even Apple writes (in their own control freaky way) about big issues that everybody is talking about (AppStore scandals, antennagate, etc.)

It is true that when the stakes are high it's a little nerve-wracking. But really there couldn't be a better moment in time for outsiders w/out finance cred to take a crack at this. so many people are like, "ok, we let the "experts" manage finance. this doesn't work out so well all of the time..."

SO many people are chomping at the bit for anything better. i read comments on twitter every day from folks who are totally frustrated with their banks not just from incompetence, but because the services don't fit their lifestyles/ ways of managing money. maybe banksimple's initial customers will just be nomadic alpha geeks, start-up folks, and high frequency money movers. that's OK. alpha geeks were amazon's first customers, too.

They just engaged Unisys to support and infiltrate the enterprise (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-25/apple-enlists-unisy...)

I'm not saying your interpretation of the Xserve discontinuation is wrong, just that i hadn't seen anybody with that interpretation before, and i'd love to hear more.

Also, this is surreal, but if the documentation is to be believed, this new Google plugin supports more versions of MS Office than MS's own cloud apps do.

(no affiliation w/post or HN, just a self-appointed ambassador)

I think we all frequently write for "free" on websites that earn money from user-generated content/ presence. I don't feel cheated by this.

It's a good investment to write for free (I think of it more like interacting or participating) because I learn stuff from smart people, get relationships with nice people, attention for stuff I work on, and am able to pass on attention to stuff I am a fan of.

I'm not opposed to writers getting compensated with money, but in this case i'm not sure it's the currency that would help either party out the most.

Man, this is a cool precedent. Notice to peeps w/an API: a free class on how to use it would be so cool + appreciated.

(check date of newest files http://sourceforge.net/projects/pash/files/)

It's really too bad, as there are some interesting tools written in Powershell-only/first mode. I was on the hunt for something like this a little while back when I had some cool VMware tools that were only in Powershell, but wanted to run them from Linux.

Would love to hear I'm wrong about this, or that there's another ps implementation for those on Linux/ Mac.

Here is a more recent thread pining for cross-platform Powershell.

http://go-mono.com/forums/#nabble-td1573385

I think one thing that deserves more scrutiny is how hard it is to have a 'regular' W2 job and have a baby.

I've seen a few parents become entrepreneurs after having kids not because they want to work less (ha!), but because they want/need to work at odd hours, in odd places, with babies on their laps, without any heat/ politics/ favors/ specially negotiated deals at the day job.

In the US at least, any kind of unconventional work set-up can be kind of a pain in the butt (working from home, working 4 extremely long days, etc).

Having a kid could be a second great reason to have a start-up, in some cases.

But even if this site sends really low quality traffic, it's still likely sales that wouldn't otherwise happen, even if the ratio of visits to sales is quite low.

What does this cost ebay other than a lil more server juice? (to have a fruitless visit).

I mean, I know they're paying a cut to MCM, but they would pay that cut with good quality traffic, too.

It seems their gamble on false positives would not be as risky with other set-ups (paying out for downloads, trials, etc).

(If anybody wants to school me on incorrect ebay assumptions, that would be OK. I'm assuming it's basically like Amazon.)

[update: Reread. The author says he gets commission based on a variety of things including "clicks, new accounts, bids, and wins." It seems that this whole dynamic could be clear for both sides if ebay only paid out on things that ended up getting bought.]

You're right it's not the best article. But the point of the article was to profile what kinds of jobs tourism brings. Which in Los Angeles, is a very hot issue.

"First in a series profiling people working in Southern California's No. 1 industry."

Because I'm fascinated w/Groupon, Appsumo and alt/dynamic/time-sensitive pricing in general, I'm looking forward to the Groupon founder.

Previous Startup Schools have had their videos archived + titled according to speaker at this URL. This one probably will too.