Hacker News Reader

thomasgerbeon My U.S. Border Nightmare

Yeah, I'd like to have sympathy for the OP because the USCBP and DHS can be annoying to deal with but you have to know what to say before going in there.

He brought it upon himself. You can't just go unprepared expecting them to help you out.

thomasgerbeon Yahoo Lays Off Flickr Support Staff

Why?

Flickr is one of last Yahoo products people I know sometimes still use. Facebook does a poor job at retaining high res pictures, few non-photographer friends use 500px, G+ doesn't have as much control, and Instagram is only for specific mobile photos.

thomasgerbeon Ninja Blocks: Connect your world with the web

I'm actually confused. I remember Kickstarter specifically saying that they didn't fund startups back when I applied to them.

thomasgerbeon Airbnb's Global Growth

"I'm not going to side with design over engineering"

It shouldn't be one or the other, it should work in unison. Design includes aesthetics and user interaction. Airbnb wouldn't successful if the user flow wasn't well crafted and a far superior experience than using Craigslist.

thomasgerbeon Netflix Regains 600,000 U.S. Subscribers

sigh

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3512413

thomasgerbeon Visualization of U.S presidents' approval ratings

Funny how time can sometimes heals all wounds. Contrast Truman's approval ranking on the graph from the OP's post with his aggregate ranking in this table from Wikipedia, where he is ranked in the first quartile.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_rankings_of_Presiden...

thomasgerbeon HBO and Scott Rudin secure rights to TV Show about Indie Game Developers

"HBO series have a lot of credibility, in general, as well. So I'll hold my breath that it doesn't paint indie/startup developers as total screw-ups."

I'll give them benefit of the doubt. As a huge fan of 24/7 for Hockey, they've given incredible insight into the game that nearly all fans of hockey and documentaries can enjoy.

thomasgerbeon Trend line for new flash developers

Flash tutorials.

thomasgerbeon Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

As a minority, I'm fine with this. Hollywood constantly casts minorities as stereotypes and almost always casts a white lead with the occasional African American.

thomasgerbeon Facebook Timeline is too awful to be an accident

Perhaps I should've been more specific. His argument was that scrolling down timeline is one of the most emotional experiences.

Scrolling through a haphazard column system of photos of mishmash isn't that emotional to me. Going one by one through a persons Facebook album is more emotional to me because of the focus (one photo) and organization (I know which album I picked).

thomasgerbeon Facebook Timeline is too awful to be an accident

I have to disagree. Going through a photo gallery is far more emotional and personal than browsing a two column grid.

thomasgerbeon 4chan "blacking out" (or, "spoilering") all comments as SOPA protest

The headline mentions 4chan.

thomasgerbeon Why I'm a Pirate

Or you could just not watch it? It's not like your life would be worse off or there aren't alternative culture you could consume.

thomasgerbeon This site cost $18m to make

"Also, shrinking my browser window doesn't dynamically resize or shift the layout so -1 for unresponsiveness. I was on a sub page of the Boston location which may not have that flexibility but for 18M and 2012 ... it should."

Responsive design also limits design/ux decisions especially on their content pages which have a non-linear grid system and shouldn't be universal. I'm not for or against responsive web design but I think it should be contextual. I haven't seen many sites that have won me over.

thomasgerbeon This site cost $18m to make

I don't think that includes consultants that helped the design, user experience, and architecture. Since they went with a pretty well known interactive agency, it probably cost them more than three million.

thomasgerbeon This site cost $18m to make

Seriously. I'm all for being compliant for most users, but accommodating for users who actively gimp their browser is a little ridiculous when they probably represent less than 5% of their users. You have to expect that some sites just aren't going to work.

thomasgerbeon Why Aren't Other SOPA Supporters Being Punished Like GoDaddy?

Pretty much.

And if one is loyal to consumer products that have much more of a everyday influence but support that bill... well then it gets even harder. Looking at this list, I would have to stop playing any EA game (and I have played NHL games for over 15 years straight), listening/buying music from a bunch of bands (as they might be under some of these record labels), stop following the NFL or paying for any tickets to their games, stop buying any books from Penguin, never buy a Pfizer made drug, give up Time/Warner cable even though there isn't any other option in my area, and give up my Mastercard/Visa card. And that's probably just the tip of the iceberg.

thomasgerbeon Desperation: Go Daddy calling customers, begging them to stay

Agreed. It'd be nice if people continued sticking to their guns with other issues. i.e. Net Neutrality and AT&T, but if this is a first step, I will take it.

thomasgerbeon Go Daddy No Longer Supports SOPA

Next up: AT&T and Net Neutrality?!

thomasgerbeon StackOverflow also planning to switch from GoDaddy due to SOPA concerns.

"I think also cost is not the reason, especially for the low numbers we're talking about."

While I agree that their campaigns have been effective, I tend to disagree that cost isn't an issue. Heck, even I was informed of other registrars a few years back when I was first starting to host my own sites but GoDaddy was cheaper than my webhost for domain registration. Plus easy to find coupon codes also give additional value. Why bother paying an extra 5-10 dollars when, for most people, there isn't much difference after the initial registration? (I ask that rhetorically)

thomasgerbeon StackOverflow also planning to switch from GoDaddy due to SOPA concerns.

Because it's cheap, popular, and most people don't interact with their domain registrar aside from registration and renewal.

Why do people buy clothes made in sweat shops or from chains that are terrible to it's employees? A lot of it just comes down to cost.

And even if you know how terrible something is (morally or ethically), some people aren't willing to change.

thomasgerbeon Show HN: Visualizing Postmates' first 1000 deliveries in San Francisco

Very pretty.

thomasgerbeon In Memoriam: Christopher Hitchens, 1949–2011

Moments of his life in pictures.

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2011/12/christoph...

thomasgerbeon New York vs San Francisco in fight for tech start-ups

Well I think it has to do with how difficult it is to find affordable office real estate for businesses that outgrow their space. I can't imagine a company as big as Google or Facebook having their HQ in SF without having to build a giant skyscraper in the Financial District.

thomasgerbeon New York vs San Francisco in fight for tech start-ups

Yep, there's nothing cool about either of these cities. It stinks here. The nightlife is poor, the people are stupid, the pay is low, the food terrible, and there is no culture. The amount of successful startups is overly exaggerated. There's maybe one. I think most are in Iowa or Austin. Rent is expensive so please no one come to NY or SF.

thomasgerbeon More Paypal nonsense

Because it is what most sellers offer for transactions.

thomasgerbeon Swiss Government: Downloading Movies and Music Will Stay Legal

'Since Spotify came about everyone I know has cut back on music downloaded.'

Musicians still seem to lose out on this model as they do not make that much money from it.

thomasgerbeon Find His Porn: Evil Website of the Week

Not to mention is watching porn while in a relationship that big of a deal?

thomasgerbeon Music artist: "Why I prefer piracy to Spotify"

Relevant: https://twitter.com/#!/Jon_Hopkins_/status/13714775382964633...

thomasgerbeon Show HN: Version 1.1 of our $99 hackable Bluetooth smartwatch

Great idea but right now, I think far too much real estate on the face of the watch is not a screen. The digital part should be flush with the border instead of effectively having two strokes around the screen. That alone would make me wait for another version.

Here are examples I would try doing

http://www.timefy.com/en/design/420-watch-i-steel-by-flemmin...

http://www.timefy.com/en/design/599-slip-watch-white-by-non-...