al3x

9 ms·

61.
by al3x 15y ago
I'm BankSimple's CTO. To your points: 1. We're more than a "customer service wrapper". We don't license our technology or outsource our support staff to other banks. Banks are our partners, not our customers, and we only partner with a smal
62.
by al3x 15y ago
I'm the CTO of BankSimple. I can confidently say that there's nothing fundamentally broken about the concept or company. BankSimple wasn't the right place for Dave, but he's a brilliant programmer – seriously, one of the best I've ever work
63.
by al3x 16y ago
It depends on who you work for. If you work with us at BankSimple, you'd make the same as if you worked in our Brooklyn or SF offices. Normalizing salaries across our three locations is the only fair thing to do, regardless of the fact that
64.
by al3x 16y ago
I'm disappointed that this has gotten so many upvotes and positive comments. There's a middle ground between web application "lifestyle businesses" (like duping credulous customers into overpaying for a time-tracking tool styled with this m
65.
by al3x 16y ago
Are you serious? The victim in this scenario is handing their credit card to the attacker. That's game over. It doesn't matter whether the attacker has a Square, a VeriFone device, or a piece of paper for writing down the card number. If yo
66.
by al3x 16y ago
Wow. I don't know how our team ever got anything done without this.
67.
by al3x 16y ago
This is from 2009. Scala has only improved since then, although it's still not a "mainstream" programming language by any stretch. You can talk to a crowded room of programmers who either haven't heard of Scala, or have heard of it only in
68.
by al3x 16y ago
A good relationship will help you through the stress of a startup. A bad one will make it much, much worse. Either way, it's out of your control. If you're in love, you're in love. Make the most of it.
69.
by al3x 16y ago
I try to do http://www.natural-stress-relief.com/ meditation at least once a day. When I make the time, it hugely improves my focus, productivity, and general mood. Yes, that site is sketchy as anything. But the technique works.
70.
by al3x 16y ago
I found it funny that the author quoted the bit in the Zadie Smith piece about the absurdity of the Facebook format right before you reach the end of his post, complete with tags and permalinks. I'm not a Facebook fan, but I don't know that
71.
by al3x 16y ago
It's not a new trend. I haven't allowed comments on my blog for years. I want people to post thoughtful responses on their own turf. If someones care enough, they can respond on their own blog.
72.
by al3x 16y ago
I genuinely enjoyed this comment. Really. It's probably the most passionate response I've received. I was going to argue with you point-by-point, particularly about your false claim that I didn't include any examples (which another commente
73.
by al3x 16y ago
We're using a bit of Ruby, but not C, and mostly Scala and Clojure. Either way, I think reliability is a process thing, not a technology thing.
74.
by al3x 16y ago
Nope.
75.
by al3x 16y ago
You can dismiss the "verbal minority", or you could treat them as leading indicators. Personally, I'll err on the side of building something that's up to my standards rather than seeing if I can get away with mediocrity. It's entirely possi
76.
by al3x 16y ago
Examples? I've seen okay looking GTK and QT apps running under a specific OS or distribution, but usually when you try to run them on a different OS they fall apart.
77.
by al3x 16y ago
This quote from the post says it all: "I actually haven’t finished the book yet – I’m at the end of the first chapter". It's great that the author is learning a new language, but maybe wait until you've actually done something with it or at
78.
by al3x 16y ago
That's probably the coolest coding project I've heard about in years. Please do share.
79.
by al3x 16y ago
I'm kind of surprised that this conversation is solely about founders (well, and which Porsche to buy). There's only a few founders out there, and a lot more regular ol' employees. Here's the thing about the scenario in this post: the found
80.
by al3x 16y ago
Ping me. al3x@al3x.net
81.
by al3x 16y ago
I met my wife on OkCupid. We weren't a highly-rated match (70-something percent, IIRC), and I was a bit outside the geographic area she was looking in. But we got to talking on the site, based in part on shared musical interests, and here w
82.
by al3x 16y ago
You might want to back up "competing just fine" with something. Numbers on Compete ( http://siteanalytics.compete.com/foursquare.com+gowalla.com/ ) suggest that Foursquare is pushing quite a bit more traffic than Gowalla, at least on the we
83.
by al3x 16y ago
Thank you. I've never understood why Scribd exists at all. The web has done fine at moving documents around before Scribd, and it'll keep doing it fine long after they disappear.
84.
by al3x 16y ago
There are people who like a "fun" office culture, and there are people who don't. What these companies are doing is creating workforces that are, in part, self-selecting. I have my opinions about the value of workplace wackiness, but it get
85.
by al3x 16y ago
Features like invokeDynamic don't impact Java developers much day-to-day, but they should make JVM languages like JRuby and Scala faster.
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by al3x 16y ago
Most coffee shops fail at their primary function: serving a quality cup of coffee. In years and years of being cafe-obsessed, I've never seen shop fail that went the extra mile with their drinks, whether by roasting their own beans, trainin
87.
by al3x 16y ago
It may be repetitive, but so were the many books and articles about that recent stock market crashes and housing crises. These things matter to a lot of regular people, and by extension they should matter to entrepreneurs. There's opportuni
88.
by al3x 16y ago
First off, I work from a coworking space that's a five minute walk from where I live, so I don't have a commute. Secondly, 90 minutes is probably on the high end for a workout for me. If I'm pressed for time, it's closer to an hour. Also, I
89.
by al3x 16y ago
Here's where I get 90 minutes: stretches, about 30 minutes on an elliptical, another 25 on an exercise bike, then weights, then crunches, then stretches. I mean 90 minutes for the entire gym-going process, not like 90 minutes of flat-out ca
90.
by al3x 16y ago
I probably should have put massage in there. I don't get massages regularly, but man do I ever feel better when I do. Good suggestion.

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