cwilbur

7 ms·

31.
by cwilbur 19y ago
No. Java is alive and well, and still a very good solution for certain classes of problem. The Java hype appears to be mostly dead. Only the most pointy-haired continue to think that Java is a silver bullet for all problems.
32.
by cwilbur 19y ago
If you mean hacker in the traditional sense, I'm not so sure you can learn to be a hacker. It's an attitude of mind that makes you want to take things apart to see how they work, and then try to see if you can put them back together again
33.
by cwilbur 19y ago
Oh, and how much you'll pay is highly variable. It depends on the job market where you are, and how saturated it is with competent web designers. A ballpark of $5K-$10K is not ridiculous, though, depending on the amount of work. And what
34.
by cwilbur 19y ago
Web coding is not rocket science, but good web design is like good engineering. Good tools will help, but knowing what to do will help a lot more, and that's what you pay the web designer for. Saying "with all the tools and stuff availabl
35.
by cwilbur 19y ago
Check driver support for the particular model you're considering first -- I don't know if it's still true, but in the past some ThinkPad models had hardware in them that wasn't supported in Linux.
36.
by cwilbur 19y ago
I run Fedora Core under Parallels, which is solid enough for a "does this work under Linux?" kind of test. That said, if I had to buy a Linux laptop, I'd go for a Lenovo ThinkPad, but I'd make sure the one I bought had good driver support.
37.
by cwilbur 19y ago
My personal computers are a 12" Powerbook and a Mac mini G4, and I have a 15" MacBook Pro for work. If I didn't have the MBP I'd probably have replaced the PB by now; it's a great computer, but even a great computer can take only so much ph
38.
by cwilbur 19y ago
The basic answer, unfortunately, is that when it's apparent that you need an attorney, you almost always needed to have one yesterday. Anything you expect to be legally binding, or that might wind up being dealt with in court someday -- s
39.
by cwilbur 19y ago
Well, yes. The key points are (a) when one interest starts to run in the red, you don't want it taking down your other interests; and (b) when your app takes off, you don't want to have to worry about app scaling and availability and conv
40.
by cwilbur 19y ago
As someone who doesn't use IE, I'm more impressed by a site saying "This site is only compatible with IE right now - we're working on it, though!" than with a site that is obviously broken and incompatible. And if you don't intend to ever
41.
by cwilbur 19y ago
Why waste the energy on revenge? Even if you succeed at destroying her startup, you'll be left with nothing. She won't have anything either, but that's pretty cold comfort. Implement the idea yourself and do it better than she does.
42.
by cwilbur 19y ago
Because of the false assumption inherent in the question.
43.
by cwilbur 19y ago
A company fails if its liabilities exceed its assets, and there's no reasonable way the situation can change. You can always pursue different web 2.0 apps; but it's probably a good idea to spin them off into separate companies. Imagine a
44.
by cwilbur 19y ago
Incorporating protects your personal liability somewhat, in the event that your startup tanks. It can be a paperwork- and lawyer-intensive process, and if you wait until you're seeing significant traffic, you'll be converting from a sole p
45.
by cwilbur 19y ago
There's a lot more to being a web design expert than learning to code in HTML and CSS. So sayeth Jeffrey Zeldman: Information architecture. Usability. Accessibility. Web standards. If you don't know about these things, stop designing we
46.
by cwilbur 19y ago
Pencil and paper to rough out ideas and proportions, and then HTML and CSS.
47.
by cwilbur 19y ago
I don't. I use a MacBook Pro.
48.
by cwilbur 19y ago
Ideas are easy. Execution matters. You can either do the idea better than she does, or you can start working on another idea. Given that she's outsourcing the development, either one should be feasible. Suing over ideas is just a waste of
49.
by cwilbur 19y ago
Oh yes - I don't think CMM &c are silver bullets. But in the end, to build software you have to communicate. Once the group working on the software is larger than 5 or 6, unless everyone on the team is phenomenally good, you need to formal
50.
by cwilbur 19y ago
I'm about to turn 33, but also sufficiently rootless that it's not like I'm taking on a lot of extra risk by trying something like this. No kids, no huge mortgage payments.
51.
by cwilbur 19y ago
Well, someone needs to fund the idea. Programmers gotta eat. Is it going to be the venture capitalists, or is it going to be the users, or is it going to be the advertisers once you've attracted users to the site? If you accept the firs
52.
by cwilbur 19y ago
Neither. Hope that I can build a career that doesn't suck. I'm not in this to cash in the company. I'm in this to build a company I want to work for. Maybe that counts as "joy of victory." I'm not afraid of failure; the last time I tried
53.
by cwilbur 19y ago
The goals they have are good ones. If you're stuck with more than 10 programmers of varying levels of ability, and you're taking marching orders from a client who has no idea what the tradeoffs are, they're arguably the best way to get thi
54.
by cwilbur 19y ago
Do not make the mistake of confusing school with classes . (Or the education with the degree, another common mistake.) You have more free time now than you probably ever will again. You have incredible resources all around you --
55.
by cwilbur 19y ago
It would have to be one heck of a sweet deal to justify quitting school for, especially if you're getting parental support. Startups base their decisions on your demonstrable talent; everyone else looks at credentials. If the startup fail
56.
by cwilbur 19y ago
Learning the basics? A weekend. Learning the idioms? A month. Mastery? Heck, I've been programming in C for 15 years and Perl for 10, and I don't think I'm a master in either. And at this point I can pick up a new language (Javascript,
57.
by cwilbur 19y ago
Rentacoder and eLance are neat ideas, but they have the same problem that the job market as a whole does: you want good code from good hackers, and if you're not technically inclined yourself, you will have a very hard time determining who
58.
by cwilbur 19y ago
As someone with a bit of technical skill: when the greatest motivation to work on a project is the money you'll pay me, I have a 9-5 mentality, because that's what you're paying for. When the greatest motivation to work on a project is the
59.
by cwilbur 19y ago
Oh, I have no objection to stimulants in general; I like my tea and my coffee. It's just that if I need the stimulation to stay awake and working, I'm already in false-economy territory.
60.
by cwilbur 19y ago
I buy black tea with chai spices in it already, and mix it with vanilla, honey, and milk myself. The preparation is as important to the experience as the beverage itself.

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