jon_dahl

47 ms·

1. 421.▲
   by jon_dahl 17y ago

   FWIW, I've seen it happen more than once, and I haven't seen a lot of investment deals.
2. 422.▲
   by jon_dahl 17y ago

   I hate this "fail fast" advice, and just about the only place I've heard it is from VCs, who (a) don't like slow success, and (b) don't mind failure as long as it is balanced with successes in their portfolio. The problem with the advice is
3. 423.▲
   by jon_dahl 17y ago

   I don't think that's true. First, vocal and influential Ruby developers talk about this. I've heard Chad Fowler, DHH, and Matz all talk about it at major conferences (RailsConf and RubyConf). Second, I've worked with dozens of clients on Ru
4. 424.▲
   by jon_dahl 18y ago

   Thanks for the numbers. As a principal in a consulting company, that's about what I'd guess for my own time. Of course, I haven't tracked my time nearly as thoroughly. :) I'd be interested to see other numbers like this if anyone has them.
5. 425.▲
   Successfully Adopting Pair Programming(infoq.com)

   3 points by jon_dahl 18y ago|0 comments
6. 426.▲
   by jon_dahl 18y ago

   I'm at MySQLConf. The Oracle deal is all I've heard talk of so far, and I don't expect that will change over the next few days.
7. 427.▲
   by jon_dahl 18y ago

   A S-Corp is easier to convert to a C-Corp, so if you want to go the VC/IPO direction, but want to start simpler, you might want to start with an S-Corp. http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2006/02/s-corps-vs-llcs.html But an LLC is more flexi
8. 428.▲
   by jon_dahl 18y ago

   PUT is supposed to be idempotent? So an "increment" or "reverse" request should technically be a POST? Or does the idempoten-cy apply only to the response from the server, and not the state of the data on the server?
9. 429.▲
   by jon_dahl 18y ago

   Disclosure: My two most recent homoiconic posts could be described as "Ruby bashing." I disagree with you here. First, your criticism is interesting and well-reasoned. Second, you aren't making categorical claims (e.g. metaprogramming suc
10. 430.▲
    by jon_dahl 18y ago

    This is fair. For what it's worth, I think PHP kind of sucks, and interesting criticism of any language is worthwhile. I love Steve Yegge's Tour de Babel article ( http://steve.yegge.googlepages.com/tour-de-babel ), and I even generally enj
11. 431.▲
    by jon_dahl 18y ago

    Actually, I have more trouble with the non-humorous X vs. Y articles. At least this one tried to be funny (successfully or unsuccessfully). Worse are the myriad posts that say "Here is why my technology is good and yours is bad." Unfortunat
12. 432.▲
    by jon_dahl 18y ago

    I hope so. Tell HN: "Ruby vs. PHP" is not of interest to good hackers. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=554608
13. 433.▲
    by jon_dahl 18y ago

    There are a-holes that use every language. Ruby actually had a reputation of being a really nice community until about 2007, and most of those people are still around (despite the influx of some less savory types). Personally, I really wish
14. 434.▲
    by jon_dahl 18y ago

    We built a video transcoding platform in Rails - http://zencoder.tv and http://flixcloud.com . Of course, it would be stupid for us to try to actually do the encoding in Rails. That's what C is for. But Rails makes a nice lightweight que
15. 435.▲
    by jon_dahl 18y ago

    Not really. There have been several attempts since 2005 to create Super Auto-Scaffolding (streamlined, ActiveScaffold, and several other generic names that I don't remember, like "Ajax Scaffolding"). These aren't identical to Django's admin
16. 436.▲
    by jon_dahl 18y ago

    I think this depends on how you implement it. I've been a part of several startups that have issued shares to founders on Day 1, and every single time issues have arisen down the road. * The partners were equal at the beginning, but down
17. 437.▲
    by jon_dahl 18y ago

    OT, sort of, but thanks for linking to the printer-friendly version.
18. 438.▲
    by jon_dahl 18y ago

    My theory on pair programming: a good pair is _more_ productive than two individuals on hard tasks, and _less_ productive on easy tasks. Basically, when you pair, you get one better programmer instead of two lesser programmers. Think about
19. 439.▲
    by jon_dahl 18y ago

    I used to swear by programming.reddit.com, until the discussions went the way of reddit.com. Whatever can be said for link quality, I find the discussions here 100x better.
20. 440.▲
    by jon_dahl 18y ago

    Running Monte Carlo simulations with typical stock/bond returns and volatility, the max safe withdrawal rate is usually put at 2%-4%. This really depends on how you factor in inflation. (Of course, what is "typical"? In 2007, what we saw in
21. 441.▲
    by jon_dahl 18y ago

    Don't forget the Dunning-Kruger effect. Mediocre programmers may feel productive when they get some nominal feature working, while great programmers may feel unproductive even though they've accomplished a lot.
22. 442.▲
    by jon_dahl 18y ago

    I used to think that, until I found Four Steps to the Epiphany : http://www.amazon.com/Four-Steps-Epiphany-Steven-Blank/dp/09... Great book. Read it. Two-sentence description: product development is essential, of course, but "build it an
23. 443.▲
    by jon_dahl 18y ago

    Absolutely. This is a common misconception of Christianity. Unfortunately, Christians themselves can be just as prone to this misconception as others.
24. 444.▲
    by jon_dahl 18y ago

    I sympathize with this. Amazingly, though, this has been a relatively civil discussion.
25. 445.▲
    by jon_dahl 18y ago

    Thanks for the reminder, Raganwald and silentbicycle. Time to close Hacker News and open up my editor.
26. 446.▲
    by jon_dahl 18y ago

    This is only valid if the code is not going to be maintained. If it is, and especially if someone other than the original developers are going to maintain it, then unit tests are worth their wait in gold.
27. 447.▲
    by jon_dahl 18y ago

    Unit testing can be this way, but it doesn't have to be. At a really low level, unit testing can be "testing the implementation", which may be useful while you're writing code, but isn't useful during a refactoring. But slightly higher leve
28. 448.▲
    by jon_dahl 18y ago

    There's luck in every success. But that doesn't mean that success is attributable to luck.
29. 449.▲
    by jon_dahl 18y ago

    My misunderstanding. Enjoy the clarinet!
30. 450.▲
    by jon_dahl 18y ago

    I think he doesn't like all the upvotes for the snarky anti-PHP comment: You don't really learn PHP so much as catch it. Like a disease. At the risk of being modded down, the comment has some merit. PHP programmers usually gravitate to PH