billybob

65 ms·

691.
by billybob 17y ago
Oh yeah, it's a marketing problem. Let's just start with the Mexican drug lords, who run their own little armies to protect their profits. "Hey Mr.Drug Lord, have you thought about nonviolence? Wouldn't it be nice to stop the fighting? You
692.
by billybob 17y ago
WebOS is certainly better than Windows Mobile. Microsoft has utterly failed to make a good mobile OS. Maybe they should just buy one. The problem is, they wouldn't have the vision to isolate the solid WebOS development team from the rest of
693.
by billybob 17y ago
It's not ridiculous. If the finished app meets Apple's standards, why should they care how it's made? Whether something is written in Objective-C or compiled to it is irrelevant if the finished product is indistinguishable. It's like saying
694.
by billybob 17y ago
Yeah, well I'm tired of Descarte's proof of existence, too, but a lot of people still think it's important.
695.
by billybob 17y ago
Yes, but how do you answer his thought experiment? "What if Ben writes a Flash app, shows it to Amy, who codes it up in Objective-C, compiles it and submits it to Apple? Should it be rejected since it was not 'originally written' in Objecti
696.
by billybob 17y ago
Hmmm. This seems like the sort of person who shouldn't be given an audience and encouragement.
697.
by billybob 17y ago
As a guy who does tech support for cell phones, I am hoping that Windows Mobile phones disappear from the earth.
698.
by billybob 17y ago
"I think it's important to point out that firms like Google which have supported net neutrality, have done so to support their own business models." Right - business models which depend on competition. As opposed to those that depend on blo
699.
by billybob 17y ago
What you're saying is totally valid, but notice this: you're talking about types of traffic, and the customer's priorities. If customers had control over this - saying 'prioritize my traffic on port X' or something like that - it wo
700.
by billybob 17y ago
Well sure, that's the point - there would be little benefit from building a good search engine if you couldn't choose a different one. Google has to be great because otherwise somebody will get all its traffic. A monopoly can give lousy ser
701.
by billybob 17y ago
Towers are also a limited resource. Not every spot is suitable, and there's a lot of "not in my backyard" bargaining.
702.
by billybob 17y ago
"Work from home! Earn peanuts! Hasten the apocolypse by destroying the privacy of everyone around you!"
703.
by billybob 17y ago
Actually, let me backpedal a bit. I don't think literature is crap. SOME literature is crap. But if all of it was, we wouldn't have a standard of quality to judge by, would we? Literature can be wonderful, and reading good stuff can help yo
704.
by billybob 17y ago
Agreed. I've got a journalism background (though I'm now a web developer) and it has helped me tremendously. The main thing is this: think and write carefully. I get emails from business people that are long, rambling, and at the end, I can
705.
by billybob 17y ago
"Why does the intelligent have an obligation to dedicate his or her life to the creation of maximal value for society?" What does intelligence have to do with it? Sweeping the streets is an honorable job and makes the world a little nicer.
706.
by billybob 17y ago
True. In addition: -Dogs are a poor man's velociraptors -Toothpaste is a poor man's hair gel -Rocks are a poor man's sandwich ingredients
707.
by billybob 17y ago
<blockquote>... just wanted to point out that the world has had "open" computers for nearly 30 years and so far, I would argue they have not been better for the consumer.</blockquote> Then again, the world has had open brows
708.
by billybob 17y ago
Good criticisms. But a publicly-funded post office has some advantages, too. They will operate at a loss in tiny areas, which means you can still get mail to Grandma, even though there is only one traffic light in her town. Also - 39 cents
709.
by billybob 17y ago
YES. This is exactly the right approach. It DOES take more work to support. If they want to pay for it, fine. But it also exposes the internal "upgrading is expensive" excuse as fallacious. NOT upgrading is also expensive. At some point the
710.
by billybob 17y ago
"messing around with jQuery is far easier for the beginner than playing with Javascript" Also, because getting awesome work done with jQuery is far easier for the seasoned professional than messing around with plain Javascript DOM traversal
711.
by billybob 17y ago
Yes - I thought this was a cryptographic breakthrough, but it's just people breaking promises.
712.
by billybob 17y ago
Re-read both of those criteria, substituting 'women.' Now recall the sorority system. I think everyone strives for status, and don't see any evidence that women are better than men at deciding who to impress. What may be different is WHAT i
713.
by billybob 17y ago
The shade of dark blue they use also appears in my .vim setup. Does anybody else find that difficult to read? Also, is there a way to tweak the colors - by giving hex codes, for example?
714.
by billybob 17y ago
I agree, but still - hooray! IE has been slooooooowww to change for a long time, while other browsers have innovated rapidly. If IE does something better than everyone else, no biggie - they'll catch up quickly. Meanwhile, IE is actually aw
715.
by billybob 17y ago
Another possibility: SO just sucks less. It takes fewer page hits to find the answer you need. This is my experience, anyway.
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by billybob 17y ago
Yeah, whenever jazz sounds random to me, I dislike it. I love stuff like Brubeck's "Blue Rondo a la Turk," because the tune is odd enough to be interesting, but my brain can catch it and I can sing along in my mind, whistle it later, etc. I
717.
by billybob 17y ago
From Viacom: By their own admission, the site contained "truckloads" of infringing content and founder Steve Chen explained that YouTube needed to "steal" videos because those videos make "our traffic soar." If true, that's pretty damning
718.
by billybob 17y ago
I used to work as a freelance journalist, and did find a couple of downsides to working from home. 1) It's easy to procrastinate, so it's bad if you're not disciplined. 2) Your 'office' is always a few feet away, so it's bad if you're a wor
719.
by billybob 17y ago
Wow. Were none of the same cops ever on the repeat visits? "Hey Joe, isn't this the same elderly couple who had nothing to do with the murder and the coke deal and the prostitution ring? Why the heck are we here again?"
720.
by billybob 17y ago
Neat. There's a group in Cambodia that teaches blind people massage so they can make a living. It's great to help people use the abilities they have.

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