brianmcconnell

11 ms·

61.
by brianmcconnell 11y ago
Among other things I am responsible for my employer's REST API. I don't really see where an API is inherently political. It could be, if you're trying to get lots of different organizations to buy into it as a quasi standard
62.
Design competition for the Black Rock City street plan(brcmup.org)
2 points by brianmcconnell 11y ago|0 comments
63.
A Useful Hack: Using Localization Tools for UI/UX(medium.com)
2 points by brianmcconnell 11y ago|0 comments
64.
by brianmcconnell 11y ago
TL;DR Music technology startups suck.
65.
by brianmcconnell 11y ago
A fair amount of work has already been done with algorithmic communication systems, as its a small step from a mathematical language to a general purpose programming language. Paul Fitzpatrick, then with the MIT AI lab, developed the most c
66.
by brianmcconnell 11y ago
One of the images that impressed me most in my life was flying down the east coast of China, equivalent distance from Cape Cod to Florida, and seeing nothing but a Venus-like hellscape of smog. Wasn't any better on the ground. It was a
67.
by brianmcconnell 11y ago
No I am implying that companies that avoid paying them are getting an unfair advantage versus the companies that treat their workers as employees.
68.
by brianmcconnell 11y ago
In the case of using the "independent contractor" loophole to avoid paying UI, social sec tax, minimum wage, etc, it's an issue of making sure everyone plays by the same rules. Operators who abide by these rules should not be
69.
by brianmcconnell 11y ago
A prediction about "sharing economy" companies. Almost all of them are tacking on a thin rind of web/mobile UI and smart dispatch technology to an existing service. The long-term winners will be companies like Flywheel that r
70.
by brianmcconnell 11y ago
Kingsley Amis wrote what was probably the best description of a hangover, as recounted by Dick Cavett here... http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/28/the-wrath-of...
71.
by brianmcconnell 11y ago
The Greeks were getting a shitty deal, and knew they were getting a shitty deal. Good for them for decisively telling the Germans to get stuffed (who conveniently forget about their WWII related debts being forgiven). Iceland demonstrated t
72.
by brianmcconnell 11y ago
25 years of experience as a small business owner here. Always start high, and only lower your rate in exchange for a guaranteed amount of work. Also consider charging different rates for different types of work as part of your agreement. Al
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by brianmcconnell 11y ago
Zimbabwe: proof that even when shit goes completely off the rails, people can be cowed into putting up with it. At least they didn't go on an international ethnic cleansing binge like the Nazis did.
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by brianmcconnell 11y ago
So the preferred investors still get 100% of their investment even if the valuation goes down 90%? If that's the case, these valuations are completely fictitious. No surprise there. I always assumed someone had come up with a new way t
75.
by brianmcconnell 11y ago
There's another way to skin this cat. Assume you are not "CEO material", hire someone who turns out to be a complete fuckup to do it for you because of your self doubt. I saw this happen to a company that basically invented t
76.
by brianmcconnell 11y ago
There's also solar electric propulsion, which when combined with water as propellant, leads to dramatic (10-100x) cost reductions due to increased propellant efficiency plus the synergies created by using water as reaction mass (it can
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A Stagecoach to the Stars : A Water Based Solar Electric Spacecraft(centauri-dreams.org)
29 points by brianmcconnell 11y ago|0 comments
78.
by brianmcconnell 12y ago
Charlie Victor Romeo, an off off broadway play that has since been turned into a film, also re-enacts United 232.
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by brianmcconnell 12y ago
An example of the law of unintended consequences. In the process of "terror proofing" airliners, we made them more vulnerable to a malicious/insane crewmember.
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by brianmcconnell 12y ago
When tech VCs get into the public transit business, that's a good indicator that we are in a bubble. I was in SF for the 1999-2000 bubble. This reminds me a lot of that. There isn't much upside in a business like this, but there i
81.
by brianmcconnell 12y ago
21 year SF resident and tech worker here. A lot of the people who are complaining about the boom are using the late 1980s and early 1990s as their baseline, the time in SF's history when it was actually cheap. That was shortly after Lo
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Spaceward Ho – A Stagecoach to the Stars, or at Least Mars(centauri-dreams.org)
1 points by brianmcconnell 12y ago|0 comments
83.
by brianmcconnell 12y ago
You can also not be a physically inactive blob planted in front of a computer 24/7. Not eating excessively and walking are also good places to start.
84.
by brianmcconnell 12y ago
The best insulation you can have is cash in the bank or be prepared to move. The next crash probably won't be cyclical in your city. The money will come back, but it will come back somewhere else. If your priority is to stay in the cit
85.
by brianmcconnell 12y ago
I think people are missing the point of the story. The ship in the film is The Endurance (see Ernest Shackleton). Set off for Antarctica, at the time might was well have been setting off for a black hole. Bad things happened, was presumed l
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by brianmcconnell 12y ago
Yeah, actually the people involved in Pop Up Gay Bar started Guerrilla Queer Bar in San Francisco back in 2000 (when dinosaurs roamed the earth). We decided to update it, make it easy for people to replicate in towns everywhere.
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Show HN: Pop Up Gay Bar (create LGBT space anywhere)
6 points by brianmcconnell 12y ago|2 comments
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by brianmcconnell 12y ago
Localization professional and developer here. I'd recommend taking a look at Transifex. This is a well thought out tool for managing localization projects and assets (prompt catalogs, resx files, etc), and for managing the translation
89.
by brianmcconnell 13y ago
Twenty year San Francisco resident here. $110,000/year is decent pay, but its not enough to afford to pay a mortgage for a small home in the city. It's a good idea to have your first responders living in the city they serve, you k
90.
by brianmcconnell 13y ago
You won't believe how we just fucked employee morale in 2014... Having hired and fired employees as an employer, and having been fired myself, I have two pieces of advice for readers here. #1: this person is an asshat, and at worst is

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