rickmb

63 ms·

571.
by rickmb 16y ago
Aesthetics is a core problem if you need people to pay a considerable amount of money before they can start using your product. This is what makes design at Google fundamentally different from design at Apple.
572.
by rickmb 16y ago
Besides agreeing with most of the comments here: for me, the demonstrable progress in your work would be more important than the past or current quality of your code.
573.
by rickmb 16y ago
Here's a tip for getting lightning fast boot times without investing in overpriced SSD's: Stop shutting things down in the first place.
574.
by rickmb 16y ago
PHP has now split into different factions. Those like the WordPress community, who still party like it's 1999, and those around the major frameworks, libraries and testing and QA tools, who've taken their cues from Django, Rails and such. T
575.
by rickmb 16y ago
In my experience, the number of people that actually have what it takes to telecommute effectively is extremely small, and most of those are self-employed already. Of those that want to telecommute and have a steady job, very few can actu
576.
by rickmb 16y ago
I've been programming in C for years. Unfortunately, those years were mostly in the 80's and I've barely touched it since, so I really have no idea if I can still call myself a C-programmer. I used to be good at it though. At least that's h
577.
by rickmb 16y ago
Okay, I agree with the basic principle. But why is it every time somebody writes a piece about focusing on the "stuff that really matters", whether it's the user experience, or actually shipping stuff, it always sounds to me like an excuse
578.
by rickmb 16y ago
My favorite job interview question. There is no right answer, but any answer says so much about the programmer being interviewed that you might as well not bother with the rest of the interview.
579.
by rickmb 16y ago
> I'm a serious Kindle user -- I have dozens of books. As you've pretty much concluded yourself: no you don't. Which isn't just semantics, it's pretty much the essence of DRM'ed content.
580.
by rickmb 16y ago
The ultimate superpower of IT-consultants is the power to make people forget to ask the question "why?".
581.
by rickmb 16y ago
I almost stopped reading after this, because I agree it sounds like FUD, but I urge you and everyone who upvoted this to actually read the whole article. He actually makes a pretty decent case for this.
582.
by rickmb 16y ago
> a) You're going to forget it at least once. Which is why you should never process raw input in multiple places in your app. One method I've used for over a decade of webdev in any language: there's only one place to get the input from
583.
by rickmb 16y ago
I quit Last.fm when they sold out to become yet another mouthpiece for the music industry instead of a social service for music lovers that put their users first. I use Spotify these days, which never pretended to be anything else but a mus
584.
by rickmb 16y ago
More than just cred. I've learned to simply not trust founders who weren't motivated enough by their own vision to not at least take a shot at it, if only to get some understanding of what building it actually entails.
585.
by rickmb 16y ago
yawn Speaking of frame of reference, people belittling PHP devs are mostly showing their own ignorance.
586.
by rickmb 16y ago
I worked this way totally by accident when I first became a self-employed contractor. I didn't plan it, nor did I consciously exploit it when it happened, but it did turn out that way. The upshot was I never had to spend a second on network
587.
by rickmb 16y ago
Usually separate lanes for EU-citizens. In some countries, if those are empty, officers from those lanes may call you over even if you are not an EU citizen. If it's a passport they are familiair with and no visa is required, you basically
588.
by rickmb 16y ago
Just take a look at the WordPress' code. "aren't that bad" is like saying shit doesn't smell bad if you get used to it. Hell, you don't even have to look at the code. Even running some static analysis will tell you how bad it is.
589.
by rickmb 16y ago
A "good society" is a society where corporations can run a legal extortion racket by creating artificial scarcity of the cultural products of said society and take draconian measures to protect said racket based on outdated legislation that
590.
by rickmb 16y ago
> Google never took the low road in order to gain market share Excuse me? You forgot the unwanted automatic opt-in for Google Buzz? Or doing a u-turn on net-neutrality in cahoots with Verizon? Or "accidentally" collecting wifi data? Thi
591.
by rickmb 16y ago
Thanks for the heads up, now I know I don't even have to bother checking it out...
592.
by rickmb 16y ago
Let's keep it in perspective: each of those sentences does have a background story worthy of exploring further. One may get the best of both worlds if one could, like, click on those pieces of text. That would be awesome. We could call it "
593.
by rickmb 16y ago
I suspect you haven't read TC in a while...
594.
by rickmb 16y ago
This is a perfect example of how to do a re-write: bit by bit, always keeping the existing system running. It's fundamentally different from a re-write from scratch, and in effect much closer to refactoring. There's no black and white choic
595.
by rickmb 16y ago
If an employer ever asked you to do that, get out. Even if he takes "no" for an answer, your boss doesn't understand programming and how to allow programmers to function at maximum productivity, and hasn't bothered to figure that out befor
596.
by rickmb 16y ago
Unit tests may be overrated, but writing them certainly isn't. I've seen so many programmers start writing so much better code after adding the criterium "it has to be testable". BTW, the killer bugs are usually not in the "complicated ro
597.
by rickmb 16y ago
The role of the CTO depends on the context. Sometimes you lead, sometimes you just facilitate. Sometimes you focus on technical quality, sometimes you focus on business objectives. It all depends on the balance within the company and the co
598.
by rickmb 16y ago
No surprises there. Flash on a Mac is a sick joke. People who think Apple is just looking for excuses against Flash have never used a Mac. The only time the fans kick in on any of Macs I've owned in the past decade is when Flash is running.
599.
by rickmb 16y ago
Not uncommon with objects of desire. The truly remarkable part is why in 2010 still nobody else is making computers that actually look desirable?
600.
by rickmb 16y ago
Frankly, I'm too stunned by the fact that this kind of paranoid and pseudo-fascist (yes I went there, fuck it, if you feel the state has the right to treat its innocent citizens that way, that's how I'm gonna call it) rambling gets 54 point

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