4 ms·

I think your point regarding impossible/useless ideas is very insightful, but I'd take slight exception to the word 'useless'. I think a better word would be po

I think your point regarding impossible/useless ideas is very insightful, but I'd take slight exception to the word 'useless'. I think a better word would be pointless - things like twitter, reddit etc aren't useless by virtue of the fact that millions of people do use them, if however you describe what they do (and, as you point out, this is the reason that big companies wouldn't approach those sorts of ideas) then a reasonable response would perhaps be to describe them as pointless.

RodgerTheGreat 16y ago
Perhaps "useless" from the perspective of advancing the state of the art?
- AndrejM 16y ago
  At least reddit has /r/coding, unlike yc where all I get to read lately is about fights between Apple and Adobe.
- anamax 16y ago
  > Perhaps "useless" from the perspective of advancing the state of the art? Facebook is advancing the state of the art wrt computer systems. http://www.stanford.edu/class/ee380/Abstracts/100505.html http://www.stanford.edu/class/ee380/Abstracts/100505.html (plug) is one of the things that they've released.
  - nostrademons 16y ago
    HipHop isn't exactly advancing the state of the art wrt computer systems. It serves FaceBook's needs very well, but source-to-source translation is already pretty well understood. There's Google's Closure Compiler (JS to tighter JS), GWT (Java to JavaScript), PyJamas (Python to JavaScript), Fog Creek's Wasabi (Visual Basic++ to PHP and Visual Basic), all the compilers that target C, and a bunch of toy or one-off production systems that serve their authors' needs but are never released. The "state of the art in computer systems", IMNSHO, is things like Jekyll (bidirectional source-to-source transformation, where the generated C code is readable & editable and can be transformed back into Jekyll), Subtext (programming by copying & editing), Epigram (dependent types let the computer write most of the program for you, interactively), and a few other research projects that most people have never heard of.
    - anamax 16y ago
      > HipHop isn't exactly advancing the state of the art wrt computer systems. HipHop advances the state of the art in the same way that a faster JVM does, or a new VM for that matter. The claim was that Google was advancing the state of the art and Facebook wasn't. If you exclude the application of known techniques to new problems or in new situations, Google hasn't advanced the state of the art, so the claim is false. If you allow the application of known techniques to new problems or in new situations, then Google has advanced the state of the art. However, so has Facebook. (Thrift counts too.) No, Facebook hasn't done as much, but it's younger.
      - jbooth 16y ago
        Cassandra and Hive have to count for something as well.
nostrademons 16y ago
"Useless" is said with a touch of irony, because obviously millions of people do use them. However, when they launched, the reaction from all but a handful of early adopters was "Who would ever use that? How can this possibly be a viable business?"

RodgerTheGreat 16y ago

Perhaps "useless" from the perspective of advancing the state of the art?

AndrejM 16y ago
At least reddit has /r/coding, unlike yc where all I get to read lately is about fights between Apple and Adobe.
anamax 16y ago
> Perhaps "useless" from the perspective of advancing the state of the art? Facebook is advancing the state of the art wrt computer systems. http://www.stanford.edu/class/ee380/Abstracts/100505.html http://www.stanford.edu/class/ee380/Abstracts/100505.html (plug) is one of the things that they've released.
- nostrademons 16y ago
  HipHop isn't exactly advancing the state of the art wrt computer systems. It serves FaceBook's needs very well, but source-to-source translation is already pretty well understood. There's Google's Closure Compiler (JS to tighter JS), GWT (Java to JavaScript), PyJamas (Python to JavaScript), Fog Creek's Wasabi (Visual Basic++ to PHP and Visual Basic), all the compilers that target C, and a bunch of toy or one-off production systems that serve their authors' needs but are never released. The "state of the art in computer systems", IMNSHO, is things like Jekyll (bidirectional source-to-source transformation, where the generated C code is readable & editable and can be transformed back into Jekyll), Subtext (programming by copying & editing), Epigram (dependent types let the computer write most of the program for you, interactively), and a few other research projects that most people have never heard of.
  - anamax 16y ago
    > HipHop isn't exactly advancing the state of the art wrt computer systems. HipHop advances the state of the art in the same way that a faster JVM does, or a new VM for that matter. The claim was that Google was advancing the state of the art and Facebook wasn't. If you exclude the application of known techniques to new problems or in new situations, Google hasn't advanced the state of the art, so the claim is false. If you allow the application of known techniques to new problems or in new situations, then Google has advanced the state of the art. However, so has Facebook. (Thrift counts too.) No, Facebook hasn't done as much, but it's younger.
    - jbooth 16y ago
      Cassandra and Hive have to count for something as well.

nostrademons 16y ago

"Useless" is said with a touch of irony, because obviously millions of people do use them. However, when they launched, the reaction from all but a handful of early adopters was "Who would ever use that? How can this possibly be a viable business?"