tygorius

I do disagree with the author's apparent contention that, say, a historical appreciation of the evolving nature of programming paradigms is somehow holding students back today. Aside from argument by assertion, I'm missing the evidence that his approach is the solution to a problem.

What I was also missing, and am still unenlightened about after your response, is the relevance of his classroom approach to say, the readers here. It seems nearly monthly we have a story related to the virtues of SICP and that I get -- it's a great book that's changed a lot of programmer's perception of what programming is about. In this case, I'm missing a similar connection outside the classroom.

since we're not a desirable market, there's no chance of getting any other companies to deploy to those areas

Again, is that really a problem the FCC should address? It seems you're extending the idea of net neutrality from regulating existing networks to guaranteeing network access for all.

edit: typo

Of course, you can always just look at the end of the plug and orient it so the white plastic key is on the bottom, but where's the fun in that?

Of course, if the slots are oriented vertically...

Well, the author says it was two years, which doesn't seem like a short time at a company these days. And part of it was in 2007. I'd say he was well situated to understand things like the company's usability blind spots and why it couldn't really understand the thinking that went into the iPhone.

I think that sociologically Lisp and Forth users are more alike than not, but the camps rarely seem talk to each other. It's clear from Forth's history that it has a secure niche in 8- & 16-bit microcontroller applications. I have no idea if there is such a thing as a Lisp application niche these days.

[1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2242594

Edit: link and typo

Amen. How else to explain the continual production of a bewildering array of handsets that differ in only slight ways or in bizarre configurations. (On the latter, I'm thinking in particular of those handsets where they arranged the dialing keypad in a circle reminiscent of the old land-line phones. How in the world did those ever get into production?)

Frank Miller directly addressed that point in "The Dark Knight" comic series. At one point Superman is remembering a past argument with Batman, and (semi-quote from memory):

"And then you laughed that scary laugh of yours. 'Of course we're criminals', you said. 'We have to be criminals to do what we do.'"

"A retired Indian Gorkha soldier recently revisited those glory days when he thwarted 40 robbers, killing three of them and injuring eight others, with his khukuri during a train journey. He is in line to receive three gallantry awards from the Indian government." [http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_deta...]

Hmm, not necessarily. Back in the days when this problem was originally offered incandescent bulbs were by far the most popular light source for facilities, and if you look at a graph[1] of such a bulb's output, you'll find the fast majority of it is below the threshold of visible light -- the real primary property of incandescent bulbs is IR (heat) production. As a physicist Feynman would be well aware of this, and hence I think he would approved of the low-tech intended solution over the suggested alternatives.

If you posit fluorescent lights, the traditional solution would still work. LED lights weren't stipulated as a special condition and even they are stated, they're not 100% efficient and hence might well work with the traditional solution.

[http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project_...]

Presumably your circle of friends consists of people who are already physically active. Even so, I doubt your assessment concerning strength training. Looking at the people around me, I'm guessing fewer than 5% (not 80%) of them are up to 100 pushups [http://www.hundredpushups.com/]

Not that it makes it that different from previous releases, but with the Unity UI shift and related changes it seems like there's still a lot of work to be done before release. Viz [http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/natty/alpha2] and the description of the Desktop Edition:

"Unity is now the default in the Ubuntu Desktop session.

This is partially implemented. ...."

I'm obviously not a member of the iPad's target audience -- they can have my keyboard when they can pry my cold dead fingers from it, etc. But I appreciate the appeal of computers that can be held in one hand. Over the years I've had several mini-laptops (anyone remember the Toshiba Librettos or the Sony Picturebooks?) In most respects the netbook has hit the sweet spot for me.

If you take the author's 10 reasons and strip out the stuff that's a retread of previous products ("Look, it's portable! And OMG you can watch movies!") it seems to me you're left with one key point: the user interface makes it fun & easy to use. I don't think it's an accident that the only two tablet platforms that look viable so far, Apple and Android, are based on years of usability testing in the smartphone arena. Tablets may be computers inside, but in terms of product design they're consumer entertainment devices.

The display size and orientation is a little disconcerting, though. You mean there was a time when computer screens weren't optimized for playing widescreen movies?

We know from the story that the agent had previously done his job -- selling the author's books for increasing amounts of money despite declining sales. And we know from the story that after he meets with Hollis and is told the proposal reads like a crib from Wikipedia, he goes home and writes another proposal for her. And what happens? She likes the ideas but not the writing. And when the WSJ steps in, again it's for the ideas -- they want a co-author for the writing part.

Perhaps the agent should have been more direct, "Jim, the word on the street is that you're a one-hit wonder; that your ideas are great, but your writing sucks. What do you say I check around and see if I can hook you up with a co-author for the next proposal?"

Put this in HN terms, if people like your ideas but aren't willing to fund your startup, do you think it's someone else's job to find out why?

Frankly, what I found most alienating about the story was the me-me-me focus. (I mean really, going unsolicited into stores and signing books with random messages?) Too bad there was so little focus on providing value for his readers. Once I hear an author refer to a book of his as "garbage", I'm inclined to agree with him and dump him from my recommended list.

* He'd gotten a big advance on his previous book but it didn't sell. (Money loser = big red flag #1)

* His reputation alone no longer sells a book idea (evidenced by the sudden need for him to write a proposal to sell a book.) (Warning flag.)

* His financial judgment is suspect. ("The Forever Portfolio" delivered to the publisher just as the market starts a giant slide.) (Warning flag.)

* His last book was, well... Here's a sentence from the first Amazon review: "That said, the book is horribly written -- the author has about 20 pages of interesting content interspersed with 200 pages of random digressions, about his love of computer games and the longest words in the English language." (At the very least, a warning flag.)

* His proposal read like it was cribbed from Wikipedia (Big red flag #2.)

* He's a real peach to work with, insisting he knows other people's jobs better than they do (after all, he claims he chose the $20 price point for the previous loser, and we know how he treats his agent). (Warning flag.)

Now look what happens when that book idea (not the proposal) finally sells -- the publisher insists on bringing in another, trusted writer as co-author.

Sorry, but I don't think there's a mystery here that the agent needs to solve.

Many writing queries fall into the taste or reference citation categories, which aren't amenable to the correctness criteria of SO. Not to mention that there are already plenty of writing resources on the Web, so I'm skeptical of the new launch being able to distinguish itself.

I don't think it's tasteless, but de gustibus non disputandum est, which Phillip K. Dick so eloquently translated as "Those people can have bad taste and I don't care."