tod222

and

> Short version: Hardware organizations don't get software.

I concur with these two commenters.

Going back to the 1970s, starting with DEC, it's been my observation that hardware companies don't get software. (I worked at two separate companies that OEMed PDP-11s and developed operating systems instead of using DEC's.)

Rather than being viewed as critical to a product's success, in far too many cases it seems like the software is merely a component on the bill of materials for a device without which the unit can't be shipped.

Companies that achieve excellence in both both hardware and the accompanying software are so rare that they might as well be thought of as unicorns.

> When I heard about this draft I assumed that NIST had engaged in (1) an honest retrospective review of known security flaws in NIST standards and (2) an honest analysis of ways in which those flaws could have been avoided by modifications in NIST's standardization process. The current draft is, unfortunately, very far from this, and as a result is very difficult to take seriously.

After being exposed to PARC's self-congratulatory self-promotion for decades, Nelson's history is a breath of fresh air.

This is not to devalue what PARC accomplished, but that its accomplishments must be taken in perspective.

It All Went Wrong at Xerox PARC is also on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6SUOeAqOjU

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

Trucks are more flexible, sure, but to get that flexibility they trade off operating efficiency. This is why many long haul trucking companies such as J.B. Hunt [1] and even UPS [2] now make use of intermodal shipping. [3]

It's not commonly known that packages sent via UPS Ground frequently travel on trains. As a general rule, UPS Ground packages traveling long distances across the U.S. are shipped by train. [4]

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._B._Hunt

[2] http://www.ups-scs.com/transportation/rail.html

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermodal_freight_transport

[4] http://compass.ups.com/processes-of-package-in-transit/

I'd love to see a citation for this statement—it's far more accurate to say that turbine/electric propulsion has been tried for decades. Since 1969 there have only been a few test units built. [1]

The largest fleet of gas turbine-electric locomotives was operated by the Union Pacific until 1969. "Fuel economy was poor" and the units were not considered a success. [2] These units are quite well-known in railroad circles.

If gas turbines were as good as you say they'd be in heavy use on railroads today. Instead the dominant motive power is electric for lines already under catenary and diesel/electric everywhere else.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_turbine-electric_locomotive

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Pacific_GTELs

  E3 2012: John Carmack’s VR headset [1]
  John Carmack is making a virtual reality headset, $500 kits available soon, video interview inside [2]
  E3 2012: John Carmack unveils virtual reality gaming headset [3]
  Hands-On With Oculus Rift, John Carmack's Virtual Reality Goggles [4]
  John Carmack's snazzy VR headset takes to kickstarter with the oculus rift [5]

This was not a case of Carmack trying to steal credit or the company, it was purely the result of his enthusiasm. It speaks well of Carmack that he took such a prominent role without concern for compensation or ownership.

[1] http://www.edge-online.com/news/e3-2012-john-carmacks-vr-hea...

[2] http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/06/06/john-carmack-is-making-a-v...

[3] http://www.t3.com/news/john-carmack-unveils-virtual-reality-...

[4] http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/725013/hands-on-with-o...

[5] http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-08-01-john-carmacks-s...

  Cryptanalysis of Skein
  D.J. Bernstein and T. Lange
  Journal of Craptology [1], Volume 8, Nov 2011

It's the investors who will get a lot of Facebook's money. Also, Facebook's stock dropped yesterday in reaction to the move and it's being reported that the deal is worth $200 million less as a result. [3]

The B round investors held it for such a short time it's almost like they flipped it to Facebook.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oculus_Rift

[2] http://venturebeat.com/2013/12/12/oculus-vr-raises-75m-from-...

[3] http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thetell/2014/03/26/facebook-sha...

Apparently you missed his second sentence:

> The first question on the quiz is a triviality, just to let the candidate get familiar with the submission and testing system.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pipeline_%28Unix%29#Pipelines_i...

This was the bit in the Times article that was significant to me.

Ahh yes, the false dichotomy. Structure your argument to exclude all but two options, one of which is chosen to be extremely unpalatable.

Thanks for a textbook example.

Competence knows no race, color, creed, gender, or nationality. It may be found in anyone. I'm greedy too, and want to receive the benefit of competent people of all kinds who are allowed to flourish and succeed. Here's Sam:

> We want to fund more women because we are greedy in the good way--we want to fund the most successful startups, and many of those are going to be founded by women.

and

> Again, we don't do this for the sake of diversity. We do it because we want to get the best people, whatever they're like.

Excellent. Can't wait to see what it is.

Why should it need to do this?

If it's so you can avoid "wasting" one of the bot's few favorites on someone already following you, either you think it's ethical to withhold the value of the bot's favorite from someone you potentially duped into following you or you don't understand how Twitter works. Favorites add value to their recipients. Getting favorited helps a user get their tweets into the "Top" results for a search, rather than just hidden in "All." Don't people who've followed you as a result of the bot's action deserve compensation from your bot?

It's not the bot that's harmful to the community as much as it's your seeming lack of concern for the other people in it. For example, you are trying to have the bot benefit only its users, but this creates two classes of people, one of bot users and the other of normal users who end up at a relative disadvantage because they don't use the bot. This is the fundamental problem that no bot which attempts to benefit its owner can escape.

The only bots that benefit the community are those that benefit everyone equally. Infobots are in this category, and there are several which Tweet stories as they appear here on HN (e.g. https://twitter.com/newsycombinator). Query/response bots which respond in useful or amusing ways also benefit the community equally.

Finally, I'm astonished that you say that your bot "can’t be shut down with ease" and then post the code to github, blog it, and post it to HN. This strikes me as akin to when someone used to smack someone else in the face with a glove to signal a challenge to a duel. Actually, given Twitter's size and market cap, it's more like waving a red flag at an angry bull. If you're lucky you'll only gain the attention of a crack developer looking to prove you wrong about being shut down, which would be preferable over being contacted by someone from the legal team.

The Hacker News readership includes many people capable of starting ISPs. Comcast's large profits, which have been used to fund a string of high cost acquisitions, are a juicy target for potential competitors. Yet you never see discussion of ISP startups on Hacker News because the barriers to entry protect the current carriers. This wasn't the case in the 90s, and had Hacker News existed back then ISP startups would have appeared frequently.

The issue of telecoms not having competition has been the case for years. Back in the BBS days Jack Rickard used to harp on this in Boardwatch [1] magazine. I recall him saying something like, "Two guys with a screwdriver should be able to start a phone company."

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boardwatch

It's tragic how so much opportunity was squandered and time spent on petty nonsense.

It debuted in 61st place in 6/2008. By 11/2010 it had fallen to 434 and has since dropped entirely off the list.

At 6 years old it's fairly long in the tooth now.

For example, on a system running 13.04 with MATE installed, the Graphics menu has entries for Image Viewer (Eye of Gnome, the default) and Eye of MATE Image Viewer (MATE's port of eog).

Looking in /usr/share/applications there are the two corresponding .desktop files:

/usr/share/applications/eog.desktop /usr/share/applications/eom.desktop

[Edit]: Neither file uses the OnlyShowIn field which is an extension to the desktop entry format designed specifically to handle this case. [2]

[1] https://developer.gnome.org/integration-guide/stable/desktop...

[2] http://standards.freedesktop.org/menu-spec/latest/ar01s03.ht...

apt-get install gnome-session-flashback

[1] http://www.freerangekids.com/unsafe-playground-happier-safer...

[2] http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/ntn/ntn-20140127-0909-free_play...

So did one of the commenters: [1]

Sorry it didn’t work out.

“I can’t go much longer without a paycheck. But, I can’t imagine working for somebody else. I wish my wife understood that.”

Change your perspective on this.

I’m a co-founder of a successful and growing business. I’ve got around $2M liquid and who knows what on paper. I’m decently rich headed for pretty damn rich. In the last week, I’ve changed light bulbs, picked up bugs with my hands (no tissue close, wanted to get it and call the bug guy before people saw it), swept the floors, took box trash out to the dumpster, cleaned some toilet stuff (will leave it there) and just generally served people on my team in any way I could. I find ways to do it because they are talented, could work anywhere and choose to work here. So I serve them. Also, I have deep relationships with them and I love them. I want to win with them.

From your words, I worry that you don’t understand the point of the game you are playing. If you want to run any successful team be it a business, a non-profit, a 5th grade little league ball club – you are servant in chief. Others exist in the world. You aren’t really ever by yourself or for yourself. Work on being and building a team. Make meaning and tie it to production. Start by being the best teammate you can be. Being an employee in an intense and well managed company is a good place to learn this skill.

To me the key point was this:

If you want to run any successful team…you are servant in chief.

Most managers completely miss the "servant in chief" bit.

[1] http://startupsanonymous.com/story/were-shutting-down-and-im...

How the CIA’s Fake Vaccination Campaign Endangers Us All

The U.S. was wrong to use health workers to target Osama bin Laden

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-cia-fak...

1. impale on or pierce with a sharp point.

(of a newspaper editor) reject (a story) by or as if by filing it on a spike. "the editors deemed the article in bad taste and spiked it"

stop the progress of (a plan or undertaking); put an end to. "he doubted they would spike the entire effort over this one negotiation"

historical: render (a gun) useless by plugging up the vent with a spike.

From https://www.google.com/#q=define+spike

But if no more coins are generated, what happens when Bitcoins are lost? Won't that be a problem?

…The Bitcoin protocol uses a base unit of one hundred-millionth of a Bitcoin ("a Satoshi"), but unused bits are available in the protocol fields that could be used to denote even smaller subdivisions. [1]

Won't loss of wallets and the finite amount of Bitcoins create excessive deflation, destroying Bitcoin?

…Bitcoin, however, offers a simple and stylish solution: infinite divisibility. Bitcoins can be divided up and trade into as small of pieces as one wants, so no matter how valuable Bitcoins become, one can trade them in practical quantities.

In fact, infinite divisibility should allow Bitcoins to function in cases of extreme wallet loss. Even if, in the far future, so many people have lost their wallets that only a single Bitcoin, or a fraction of one, remains, Bitcoin should continue to function just fine. No one can claim to be sure what is going to happen, but deflation may prove to present a smaller threat than many expect. [2]

[1] https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/FAQ#But_if_no_more_coins_are_gene...

[2] https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/FAQ#Won.27t_loss_of_wallets_and_t...

-Richard Feynman, Cargo Cult Science

http://neurotheory.columbia.edu/~ken/cargo_cult.html