j_baker

66 ms·

631.
by j_baker 14y ago
No, I don't, but that's a good observation. I think the simplest answer is that the iPhone must be providing enough features for power users, even if not all the features they want.
632.
by j_baker 14y ago
I think the mistake is less about making software less programmable and more about trying to appeal to some mythical idealized "common man" so hard that you appeal to nobody. It's the same strategy a politician uses when they go to the Mid
633.
by j_baker 14y ago
I can see a case being made that a consumer product shouldn't add features that will hurt its main consumers for the benefit of a minority of users. That said, it's reckless and short-sighted to proactively exclude power users. When someon
634.
by j_baker 14y ago
I'm not 100% certain I agree with this. Clearly, you can go too far with abstractions. I mean, I'm really annoyed by Java's "Let's just fix this with another layer of abstraction" strategy. But at the same time, it's fairly frequent that
635.
by j_baker 14y ago
Descriptors are among the blackest of Python's black magic, but they serve a very useful purpose. Thanks for helping to make them easier to understand.
636.
by j_baker 14y ago
The effective exploitation of his powers of abstraction must be regarded as one of the most vital activities of a competent programmer. -Edsger Dijkstra
637.
by j_baker 14y ago
One thing worth pointing out: not all startups are created equally. You will run into the stereotypical startup that will drain you dry so the founders can make millions off of a talent acquisition. But there are plenty of decent sta
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The Case of the Missing Skills(economix.blogs.nytimes.com)
2 points by j_baker 14y ago|0 comments
639.
by j_baker 14y ago
You make it sound like Google prices Gmail for free out of the kindness of their heart. They're a business. I use gmail for free because I feel it's in my best interests to do so, and they provide it to me for free because they feel it's
640.
by j_baker 14y ago
I certainly will grant that such a thing is possible. But I will believe what you're saying when I see it.
641.
by j_baker 14y ago
Of course it's a flawed approach. I was responding to a comment on HN, not writing a paper in an academic journal. Yes, if I really wanted get proper data, I would do the things you mention. But please give me some credit. The commen
642.
by j_baker 14y ago
Two things: 1. I wasn't trying to estimate Facebook's growth. I was merely trying to refute the notion that Facebook is running out of people to use their service. My method is arguably quick and dirty, but it makes for a good heuristic,
643.
by j_baker 14y ago
Facebook works in "over 70" languages: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/internationalization/ One estimate says there are 6,910 languages in the world: http://www.science20.com/science_20/blog/rarity_koro_brand_n... In other words
644.
by j_baker 14y ago
So are you saying that a product that's ahead of its time is "right"? I think that (with some very notable caveats), we can say that in general if the market doesn't want a product, there's something wrong (perhaps the problem isn't with t
645.
by j_baker 14y ago
I think the problem is that most people (at least in the US) don't have enough science knowledge to know why they should even care about Spitzer's bad science. However, most people have an opinion about the morality of eugenics, so people
646.
by j_baker 14y ago
These kinds of details are important though. I've been in a few work environments that were pleasant if you looked at the big picture, but unpleasant once you started adding up all the little details.
647.
by j_baker 14y ago
Indeed. But that doesn't mean that you have to like taking 6 days to write one line of code. That said, 6 days isn't so bad as long as we're talking about the time it takes to write the code and put it into production. It's another thin
648.
The Myths that Prevent Change(blogs.hbr.org)
4 points by j_baker 14y ago|0 comments
649.
by j_baker 14y ago
Except that I named two areas where they can make mistakes. And Google's success is indeed because of the hard work they've put into building such a smart team of search engineers.
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by j_baker 14y ago
-- No longer has a DEFAULT constraint; this means we have to insert the date -- ourselves, but it reduces the work on SQL server kill_time datetime My gut reaction is that this is unnecessary micro-optimization. Does maki
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by j_baker 14y ago
This is Google's search team we're talking about here. They might make the mistake of overestimating how much people will like something like this. They might make the mistake of underestimating how many resources something like this will
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by j_baker 14y ago
Personally, I would be more concerned with explaining the term "Knowledge Graph" than I would be concerned with explaining the term "string".
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by j_baker 14y ago
You see, I'm proud to say I am the proto-enabler of the meme that everyone can learn to code (not Codecademy, or however you spell it). I don't mean to disparage the good things Zed has done in helping new people learn to code, but am I t
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by j_baker 14y ago
I'd honestly rather you not be a dick than use the "brutal honesty" cop-out[1]. I mean, yeah, sometimes the truth hurts. But I'm not convinced this is such a case. And the fact that you see nothing wrong would seem to reinforce that lack
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by j_baker 14y ago
Perhaps. But if that firm just so happens to be named "Thiel Capital", I think it's fair to assume that Thiel has some responsibility, wouldn't you agree?
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by j_baker 14y ago
I'd posit that the only way to get > 4 teammates to work together is if they think in mostly the same way. Sometimes that may be desirable, but more often than not you want a team that is made of people who think differently from each
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by j_baker 14y ago
I will say this: Google has really good developer tools in general. I have had to spend far less time setting up software on my workstation than I ever have at any other job. Between using Ubuntu and some internal tools, I spend far less
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by j_baker 14y ago
It's called sarcasm. It's like how I say "Nice catch!" even though someone dropped the ball. Or like how someone who says "I could give a damn" probably doesn't. Pardon my pet peeve.
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by j_baker 14y ago
I think you're missing my point. :-) I personally could care less whether you posted screenshots or not. But if you were considering employing someone and found that they had posted something like this (with little to no evidence), what w
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by j_baker 14y ago
I respect what you're saying, but it's a bit naive. First of all, how do you know that the facts that were mentioned were facts? Were you CC'ed on any of the emails? For all we know, the author made the conversation up. Secondly, nobody

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