jwhitlark

47 ms·

421.
by jwhitlark 17y ago
see http://accounting.suite101.com/article.cfm/fixed_and_variabl... for an explanation for fixed/variable costs, and why companies will charge less than the average cost to produce something as long as they can get more than the marginal
422.
by jwhitlark 17y ago
Repeat after me: I WILL NOT ABUSE MY CUSTOMERS, EVEN IF THEY DO SOMETHING STUPID. You'd think some of these companies are paying you, instead of the other way around.
423.
by jwhitlark 17y ago
Indeed. Just take a look at Murphy's laws of combat: http://www.murphys-laws.com/murphy/murphy-war.html
424.
by jwhitlark 17y ago
Government fishing expeditions depress me. Great story, though. If we could track change in assessed value over time, we could build up evidence for abuse...
425.
by jwhitlark 17y ago
I suspect that much of America's advantages come from not just having choice, but the understanding that just because people will frequently make bad ones, doesn't mean it's a win to get rid of the ability to choose. Painful to lose people
426.
by jwhitlark 17y ago
I'm not saying that there isn't anything wrong with Prop. 13, but the argument that everything would be ok in California if only we had higher taxes isn't one I'd agree with.
427.
by jwhitlark 17y ago
Heh. Anecdote about govt. run organizations: My wife and I, upon being told that the US Post Office only offered a service between 10 and 4, commented that that was rather inconvenient for those of us with a 9 to 5 job. The response? "We
428.
by jwhitlark 17y ago
Collusion is defined as "secret agreement or cooperation especially for an illegal or deceitful purpose" at m-w.com. I would think this qualifies, and I used this word instead of the more inflammatory conspiracy, which would also be techni
429.
by jwhitlark 17y ago
Yes, I agree. I was using "pretty" as a catch all phrase for the je ne sais quoi that makes an OS a pleasure to use. Just piling on the eye candy is never going to get there.
430.
by jwhitlark 17y ago
Not true. AT&T does not own the spectrum they use, it is a publicly owned natural resource, licensed to them under specific rules, and can be revoked by the FCC for failing to comply with the regulations. The government is not getting
431.
by jwhitlark 17y ago
Particularly interesting are the last two questions: 5. What other applications have been rejected for use on the iPhone and for what reasons? Is there a list of prohibited applications or of categories of applications that is provided to
432.
by jwhitlark 17y ago
Has anyone ever been accepted and then turned it down?!
433.
by jwhitlark 17y ago
I think it's part of our culture adapting from the idea of one career and a retirement at the end of it, to several, with breaks in between. The semantics are interesting: it probably would have been called a sabbatical 20 years ago.
434.
by jwhitlark 17y ago
While I agree that this is a marketing pitch, and plays it a little fast and lose, all other things being equal local is better than remote. Of course, all other things are never equal, and finding the combination that works for you is t
435.
by jwhitlark 17y ago
That's one of the hardest parts of business; seeing things from other people's perspective. The concept of that banality of evil can be applied wider as a thought tool: the banality of I don't get why they did that, but they thought they h
436.
by jwhitlark 17y ago
I didn't mean this to sound snarky. The advice and help, and the fact that they are invested, (in all meanings of the term), in you are far more valuable than the ~15k you get.
437.
by jwhitlark 17y ago
If you think the money you get from YC is the most important part, you've missed the point of YC.
438.
by jwhitlark 17y ago
I think if you're going to seriously do something like this, you have to make it your sole commitment. pg has lots of essays on why, so I won't rehash them. If you're waiting for the perfect moment, even if there was such a thing, I'd be h
439.
by jwhitlark 17y ago
Strongly seconded. You wouldn't treat your clients with contempt, and you shouldn't treat their clients with contempt. People use services to solve problems. Some problems demand that level of focus to get it right fast. If you don't tak
440.
by jwhitlark 17y ago
Interesting. I hadn't picked up on that ratio from your essays, although I certainly didn't think all YC applicants were students/fresh out of school.
441.
by jwhitlark 17y ago
Use the right tool for the job. C is the right tool for some jobs; if you jam it into a place where it doesn't belong, you probably don't have a deep enough understanding of it to use it safely. There are two groups you find misusing somet
442.
by jwhitlark 17y ago
These days I tend to think of Java as the new assembler; I need to read/understand it, occasionally write it, but I do most of my work in clojure and python, (or scala, whatever your preference)
443.
by jwhitlark 17y ago
"That’s the business Wal-Mart wants to be in — selling a zillion cheap low-margin items and turning a profit on volume. That’s not the business Microsoft is in." It should be noted that one of Wal-Mart's greatest advantages is that it manag
444.
by jwhitlark 17y ago
I think the main problem for MS is that while Apple makes a premium product, and is oriented around consistently turning out products that deserve their reputation, MS is not. Lose the perception that running Windows is Inevitable, and the
445.
by jwhitlark 17y ago
What will never be commodities to people are their time and happiness. When my wife was looking for a new computer, she didn't even consider Windows; she looked at my Linux and her friend's Mac, eventually deciding on the latter for its ph
446.
by jwhitlark 17y ago
There are severe (potential) problems with living on a platform that you don't control. People tend to focus on whether they are being mistreated today, not whether they can be mistreated at all.
447.
by jwhitlark 17y ago
Several video screens, but none of them get cable/ota television signals. I don't watch much television online.
448.
by jwhitlark 17y ago
Why was this even posted? It took me a moment to realize it was fiction. I guess I'll start reading the comments first.
449.
by jwhitlark 18y ago
Rushkoff seems to subscribe to the daddy model of wealth. http://www.paulgraham.com/gap.html http://www.paulgraham.com/wealth.html Seriously, there is an optimum level of debt for countries as well as people, and it's NOT zero.