apatters

83 ms·

571.
by apatters 9y ago
That's right - wireless isn't a natural monopoly, but it is a natural oligopoly . Oligopolies tend to be better for consumers than monopolies, but still not great, because the firms involved only have to deal with a few competito
572.
by apatters 9y ago
It's also worth noting that these dictators don't appear out of thin air. They come from somewhere else when they see an opportunity. The Web was successful because it was decentralized and egalitarian. Anyone could run a server.
573.
by apatters 9y ago
Another big one is that it's harder to block ads in an app.
574.
by apatters 9y ago
Can you elaborate on what you believe to be the reasons you're able to work productively for 12 hours a day? I'd love to have that superpower.
575.
by apatters 9y ago
What are those levers? Are you aware of any examples where an effort to move them was successful?
576.
by apatters 9y ago
I would second the call to start looking for a new job ASAP. However I would focus my energies entirely on ensuring the healthiest departure possible, leaving any and all relationships you can on a positive note. And I would not speak a sin
577.
by apatters 9y ago
Take the money Google made by breaking the law and give it to non-profit foundations which are dedicated to developing free/libre alternatives to Google services. This will kill two birds with one stone--firstly it will correct the eco
578.
by apatters 9y ago
If you're single, childless, and have a few thousand dollars in savings, quitting your job to focus on a side project or startup is very easy. You can achieve your dream in the next 24 hours. Here's the roadmap. 1. Give your emplo
579.
by apatters 9y ago
If you think of skill as being the ability to operate the business, growth does in fact require you to hire people who are less "skilled" -- specifically technicians who are specialized in one area of the business' operations
580.
by apatters 9y ago
What qualifies you is paying taxes, so basically if you're on a business visa you get it--if there are other visas which allow you to legally work and pay taxes, they might qualify you as well. They assign you to a particular hospital
581.
by apatters 9y ago
CEOs dating subordinates is hardly uncommon. Melinda French met Bill Gates while she was a product manager at Microsoft. That seems to have gone well for both parties. I've worked with a few executives who were employing a significant
582.
by apatters 9y ago
To anyone considering starting a business I would recommend reading a book called "The E-Myth Revisited" by Michael Gerber. It's 20 years old, but it discusses one point in particular which I think is particularly relevant fo
583.
by apatters 9y ago
To add some perspective on Thailand from a fellow resident... > Thailand. They don't give permanent residency here anyway. While the process is difficult and there are caps on how many people can receive it each year, people can and
584.
by apatters 9y ago
The problem isn't with social media, it's with the business models of Facebook, Twitter, etc. Social media is a great way to keep in touch with people. What isn't great is the constant interruptive notifications, ads all over
585.
by apatters 9y ago
You're a good writer, that was a fun read.
586.
by apatters 9y ago
Whatever war Mozilla dives into next, I really hope it's a winnable one, because free software can't afford to have execs who keep on making dumb mistakes. I was telling anyone who would listen from day one that both Firefox OS an
587.
by apatters 9y ago
This is a deliberate oversimplification, but in order of most to least concerning, these are flags which get raised in my brain most often. If they get raised then I consider the company's ethics questionable and when time permits we e
588.
by apatters 9y ago
For personal mailboxes we're running exim on a managed VPS with a dedicated IP at a small hosting company. They have very diligent customer support and appear to keep their IP allocation clean, as we've never had problems with our
589.
by apatters 9y ago
I don't know, the alternatives are getting better. Maybe not consumer grade, but usable, especially for a developer. For the past few years I've made a reasonable effort to use ethical software as long as it doesn't make my j
590.
by apatters 9y ago
I support the principle of net neutrality in some philosophical abstract, but increasingly it seems like we're being asked to choose between: A) A cabal of Comcast-centric billionaires who control key infrastructure on the Internet B)
591.
by apatters 9y ago
Wowow! In this position my first step would be to determine if there's any legal basis for disputing the charge (an informal conversation with a lawyer or even just someone who's been through a similar experience is a fine start).
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by apatters 9y ago
> I'd like to see more fathers as primary caregivers I'd like to see moms and dads choosing who the primary caregiver will be in their own families. I don't see why it's the business of government programs, Hacker N
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by apatters 9y ago
It took me a long time to realize that most of the media's science reporting is scaremongering BS, and I know people who have gone their whole lives without realizing it. It's stuff like this which makes me wonder if we really nee
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by apatters 9y ago
This only underscores the point. "Do no evil" Google originated with academics who had figured out some neat tricks for improving search relevance. It was only later when they started investing huge amounts in ad tech that Orwelli
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by apatters 9y ago
Well, it's also possible that without the space program we never would have invented Tang at all. This scenario seems more realistic when you apply it to the Internet, the design parameters were pretty nuts -- they were trying to come
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by apatters 9y ago
My view on this is that regulations which promote competition are an appropriate delegation of authority from the people to their democratically elected government. I'm pro-free markets, and monopolists can do as much damage to them as
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by apatters 9y ago
> Is it a fear of appearing weak, relying on institutions? Is it a fear of being compared to those who are on welfare? Not even remotely, and it's a little presumptive to assign these motives to people who see things differently fro
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by apatters 9y ago
This is very true, however DARPA was not prosecuting wars -- it was doing, well, general science and technology research intended to assist us in prosecuting wars. Ultimately we reaped benefits far greater than those intended. So maybe if
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by apatters 9y ago
As someone who uses Ubuntu on both desktop and server here are my concerns about Ubuntu and Canonical at this stage. I think Ubuntu is awesome and has done huge things for Linux, particularly on the desktop. A) Canonical's R&D inve
600.
by apatters 9y ago
Even though I'm a small government, pro-markets kind of guy, one point this article touched on which I find quite interesting is that so much of the good stuff on the Internet (TCP/IP, the WWW, NCSA Mosaic, the Linux kernel, the I

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