rickmb

47 ms·

511.
by rickmb 15y ago
Even more so, it was pretty much common knowledge at the time. It was just that there was lots of money to be made, and people always want to believe they won't be the ones to lose out in the pyramid scheme. Sure, the speed and the impact o
512.
by rickmb 15y ago
This article just confirms my notion that in the debate about "what makes a great programmer" there is a fundamental disconnect between the concepts of being "a programmer" and being "a maker of software". Making software consists of way mo
513.
by rickmb 15y ago
I remember a talk by Terry Chay in which he showed that adding a smiley to the subject (don't remember the project) dramatically increased the response. Little details can make such a big difference.
514.
by rickmb 15y ago
If a serves offers stuff for free, or against ridiculously low prices, the rule "if you're not paying for it, you're not the customer, you are the product" usually applies. These aren't customers with an "odd mindset", these are people that
515.
by rickmb 15y ago
I have a problem with most these arguments. You're suggesting that they should not have allowed the purchase. I would be highly annoyed if Apple didn't allow me to purchase from a different device. I see no reason for Apple to outright refu
516.
by rickmb 15y ago
I wasn't familiar with the message, but it was my first reaction when I read the opening line of the article. Methinks most HN readers would have guessed that immediately, it's a typical programmer error message, not a defacement. This is a
517.
by rickmb 15y ago
An external keyboard, monitor and mouse. In which way does the ergonomics differ from a fixed workstation?
518.
by rickmb 15y ago
Aeron chairs are outdated. Big ergonomic advances have been made since it's inception. On major drawback is that an Aeron needs to be properly fitted (comes in different sizes) and adjusted. And even then it still won't work for some people
519.
by rickmb 15y ago
PHP's one great strength is that it can be effectively used in a very wide range of applications. But doing that well requires using the language in ways suited to that purpose. The problem with people "defending" PHP is that they often onl
520.
by rickmb 15y ago
Funny, as a company we sometimes invite contractors to interview for much the same reasons. It's good to know the freelancers that are around, and especially if they'll be able to fit into our existing teams, even though we rarely make use
521.
by rickmb 15y ago
May I respectfully inquire as to how old you are? At the risk of sounding like an arrogant old fart, you act like you've never seen riots before. These things have happened many times in the past, they usually burn themselves out after a fe
522.
by rickmb 15y ago
It's a good thing that in the real world, we have people in charge with some restraint. Which is why most riots in the West end without bloodshed, shots fired or the military being abused to fight it's own citizens. Order is rarely restored
523.
by rickmb 15y ago
I've noticed that the percentage of Macs in the same group is higher at events than it is online or inside companies. One could speculate about the reasons, but I do know that seeing hackers I respect with pretty shiny Apple laptops is what
524.
by rickmb 15y ago
This is why I stopped watching Top Gear. None of the "tests" in Top Gear are serious, and most of it is just great entertainment... until it becomes malicious. When it comes to subjects like electric cars, or environmentally friendly techno
525.
by rickmb 15y ago
Maybe it's just me, but when I look for great programmers, their ability to solve coding challenges is really the least of my problems. In my experience, the ability to leverage those skills into delivering mature, stable, maintainable and
526.
by rickmb 15y ago
The dirty secret is: it isn't effective. It's just that the funnel is the only channel incumbent sales and marketing people allow to exists (hence the bonfire), so for lack of alternatives it just seems effective. Basically the author is de
527.
by rickmb 15y ago
Lesson #1 if you have an international product: don't use euphemisms. Either be straight (no pun intended), or don't ask the question. The problem is of course that in some cultures, speaking in euphemisms is so deeply ingrained that the sp
528.
by rickmb 15y ago
How come so many people, especially in this business, seem to forget that most of us live in a democracy, and not a corporate free-for-all? We, the people, eventually decide which policies, including policies created by private companies, a
529.
by rickmb 15y ago
In countries where corporate political financing is not a decisive factor in the elections, it takes some time for corporations to buy their way into a new government. Plus those in power take some time to switch their focus from dealing wi
530.
by rickmb 15y ago
The key here is "always". When I'm doing high level (resource) planning, I'll refer to programmers (which includes myself) as resources, because in that context, that's what they are, part of the entire collection of people and things we ne
531.
by rickmb 15y ago
Egos and lack of skill . It's so much easier to write from scratch than it is to refactor. So many programmers have no idea how to tackle an existing codebase, even if it's one they've wrote themselves.
532.
by rickmb 15y ago
Buying and owning a physical book or kind-of-renting a DRM-laden, platform-bound ebook that can disappear from my possession of become unusable at any moment and I can't lend, give away or resell after I've read it. Paper ain't dead because
533.
by rickmb 15y ago
I'm afraid you are naive. This is not a lone idiot in an otherwise sane industry. People like this can thrive and remain blissfully ignorant because the entire ecosystem around them is incompetent, from senior executive to junior trainee. I
534.
by rickmb 15y ago
What I am missing from this analysis is the underhanded methods used by many recruiters. I've had recruiters publishing our job postings via various job boards in order to intercept potential candidates. I've had a candidate who was told th
535.
by rickmb 15y ago
In the Netherlands, the recruitment market has in the past few years been flooded with extremely aggressive recruiters from the UK. The majority the recruiters I encounter are British, even though they are recruiting Dutch developers for Du
536.
by rickmb 15y ago
It may not be the reason why newspapers are dying, but it is one of the reasons very few people pity them: in 20 years, there hasn't been one serious effort by a newspaper to create an attractive, pleasant and useful online experience peopl
537.
by rickmb 15y ago
There's a fine line from shielding people from crap, and shielding people from reality. In my experience, the latter happens way too much. So I prefer to shield people from having to deal with the crap directly, but I definitely inform th
538.
by rickmb 15y ago
To be honest, these problems are probably more endemic in the Zend Framework world than most other frameworks, since ZF was specifically designed to be a toolbox, not an opinionated framework, and therefor doesn't come with a standard way o
539.
by rickmb 15y ago
What you're suggesting is more like MVP (Model View Presenter). Making the view "dumb" in MVC simply results in a lot of overhead and duplicate logic inside the controller, that constantly has to "translate" stuff for the view. Having the v
540.
by rickmb 15y ago
Yes, assume they all fit a stereotype and treat them as such. What could possible go wrong with that?

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