mwfunk

32 ms·

271.
by mwfunk 8y ago
Well they certainly couldn't call it "free software", that involves many more assumptions than "Open Source", and it might not even be free of charge. :) Blame Richard Stallman for using an incredibly common word wi
272.
by mwfunk 8y ago
People are talking about how they have a LinkedIn account and how creepy it is when LinkedIn suggests Facebook friends who don’t have LinkedIn accounts, but obscure that information in some way. You think you’re sending a friend (who you mi
273.
by mwfunk 8y ago
Thats not at all what the States’ Rights argument refers to, and you know that.
274.
by mwfunk 8y ago
And especially back in the '60s and '70s, when Unix and its predecessors were originally developed.
275.
by mwfunk 8y ago
This is true of course, but it's always a giant red flag for me whenever someone refers to the vague concept of "regulations" as being the problem, vs. complaining about specific regulations. Complaining about the very concep
276.
by mwfunk 8y ago
Agreed- a lot of people (on HN at least) are hypersensitive to any suggestion that any homeless people are voluntarily homeless, dangerous to themselves or others, or engage in any activities that everyone living around them would prefer th
277.
by mwfunk 8y ago
I can't tell if this is good or bad. I tend to think of freelancers as being people who are lucky and successful enough to afford to be freelancers, but in this context it could also mean people who can only find sources of income that
278.
by mwfunk 8y ago
This is all in the context of large tech companies, so YMMV. Things like, going to high level meetings so engineers don't have to, and making an effort to keep engineers from getting sucked in to too many meetings period (at least, one
279.
by mwfunk 8y ago
I've worked in organizations that promoted engineers into management, rather than bringing in outside managers or managers without engineering backgrounds. For highly engineering-driven orgs this can make a lot of sense, and depending
280.
by mwfunk 8y ago
It is funny (sad and maybe a red flag but also funny). His job description is based on where his money goes, not where it comes from.
281.
by mwfunk 8y ago
He most definitely got started down his path for emotional reasons, he had a sweet gig at MIT and he wanted to ride that train forever. When people at the lab he worked in left to join Symbolics, he was left behind and he has borne that gru
282.
by mwfunk 8y ago
I wonder if that's at the heart of it. I've noticed that this is something that doesn't bug me one bit in the open source world, but it seems to bug some other people a lot, and I never understood why. It just always seemed s
283.
by mwfunk 8y ago
I thought that many, maybe even most US military facilities (at least the more secretive ones) were blanked out altogether on Google Earth. I thought it had always been that way. Maybe I’m wrong. I’m more surprised that it was there in the
284.
by mwfunk 8y ago
I totally agree. But at the same time, immaturity doesn't let anyone off the hook for being shitty to other people. It's not just on the Internet- it doesn't let them off the hook in real life either. The post I responded to
285.
by mwfunk 8y ago
I agree with that list of priorities, but I don't know what you mean by "feelings"- I wouldn't use that word in my own division of goals. I would just call it "effective communication", not "feelings"
286.
by mwfunk 8y ago
All of this stuff is in service of getting the job done. If people can't usefully collaborate with other people because they literally never developed adult social skills (not uncommon in the tech world), then they're not going to
287.
by mwfunk 8y ago
>First of all, it's Silicon Valley. Check your ethics at the door. No thank you. Maybe you're OK with this worldview, but I am not.
288.
by mwfunk 8y ago
I always thought it was weird that it was possible for someone to be both an executive at a company and have a seat on the board. I know this is a common thing in the tech industry, it just seems weird to me. In theory the board exists to p
289.
by mwfunk 8y ago
Because printing more money isn't an option for one thing. It might be a short term fix for some things, but in the long run it just devalues the currency and lowers the US credit rating, with the worst case scenario being hyperinflati
290.
by mwfunk 8y ago
I'm assuming you mean nearly everybody would profit in a non-financial sense, or that more wealth would be created in the aggregate but not so much individually, and if that's what you mean, I generally agree. IMO, it would be bet
291.
by mwfunk 8y ago
I agree, although I would distinguish between trust and personal loyalty. Trust is collegial, but loyalty is a submissive relationship, at least in the sense that I mean it here. I trust decisions based purely on trust, but I distrust decis
292.
by mwfunk 8y ago
I agree, and have always thought that most online communities have baked-in expiration dates based on what I think of as asshole entropy. Over time, such platforms will always tend towards more assholes, as asshole behavior triggers more as
293.
by mwfunk 8y ago
Offers of career advancement in exchange for sexual favors are really really bad, regardless of whether or not someone took them up on it, and regardless of whether they benefited from it later. Not just from the victim's perspective-
294.
by mwfunk 8y ago
I think the rut being referred to is an inability (rooted in complacency and habit, not actual inability) to learn, change, or adapt. Nothing to do with specific technologies, or even new vs old technologies. Just a far too strong inclinati
295.
by mwfunk 8y ago
It’s like a humblebrag in a sense- saying something that seems relevant, but it’s really just an excuse to put other people down and exalt oneself in a roundabout way. I see it a lot on HN and it always comes across as very very young peopl
296.
by mwfunk 8y ago
I’m sympathetic but it’s tilting at windmills. These are the exact same things people were arguing about 20 years ago- if only everyone in the desktop Linux world would all agree to standardize on a bunch more high-level common things (pack
297.
by mwfunk 8y ago
I’m not arguing against IP laws in general, I just feel that in many ways they’ve become weighted far too much in favor of IP holders, as a result of IP holders having all the money and thus power in Washington. I’m not anti-patent or anti-
298.
by mwfunk 8y ago
Agreed 100%. The likes of the EFF are at a huge natural disadvantage because nobody stands to profit from rationally curtailing copyright. Groups like the EFF are literally just trying to do the ethically right thing for everyone (at least
299.
by mwfunk 8y ago
I wonder if copyright extensions are exhibit A for the negative impact of money on politics. Copyright holders have a motivation to lobby for extensions but no big players have a motivation to lobby against them. Hence, both US parties are
300.
by mwfunk 8y ago
The judging in this case is judging how much time a developer wants to spend investigating a project that they are are evaluating for their own use. I didn’t read it as being judgemental about other people’s work for its own sake.

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