smithbits

15 ms·

31.
by smithbits 16y ago
There's a quote that I can't source at the moment to the effect that "In any reasonable sized group of people there are 10% that are incorruptibly good and 10% that are irredeemably bad and the other 80% will do what the leaders do." If yo
32.
by smithbits 16y ago
I think the way to disrupt that is to come up with cheaper treatments and cures that are equally effective. Come up with a way to replace dialysis, or just make it a lot cheaper and you'll save a bunch of money. Obviously prevention is by
33.
by smithbits 16y ago
But what if those aren't the only two causes of poverty? I don't know if the idea has merit or not, but I think poverty is much more complicated than that.
34.
by smithbits 16y ago
Let's see, at the 1000 tweets per second figure from the article that's 365 * 24 * 3600 * 500 = 15,768,000,000 tweets for $360,000. Or 0.002 cents per tweet. So 500ish tweets are worth about a penny, and your $360K would be for 15 gigatwe
35.
by smithbits 16y ago
Has anyone got a convenient phrase for this style of blogging? I love having these kinds of BS sessions with my friends, propounding crack-pot theories and generally playing fast and loose with the facts, but it often bugs me when I see it
36.
by smithbits 16y ago
Yeah, I'm afraid I also did the "I'm a rational economic actor" answers,
37.
by smithbits 16y ago
I believe Xanadu and AMIX were canceled when Carol Bartz took over as CEO in 1992. That may well have been the right business decision to make, but it wasn't a programmer decision. And yes, it seems that Apple is a carefully crafted corpo
38.
by smithbits 16y ago
I think some of this is par for the course for a geek-run successful technology company. Back in the late 80's and early 90's when programmers still controlled Autodesk it was involved in projects like Xanadu, AMIX and even created the Cyb
39.
by smithbits 16y ago
When launching a new version of our website earlier this year we ran the numbers for the previous six months and found that 10% of our sales were not only IE, but IE 6. We're a small manufacturer that sells direct to customers and that 10%
40.
by smithbits 16y ago
A long time ago I was working on a data conversion project that involved taking what was essentially a 10 dimensional data set and reordering it. The easiest way to achieve this was to load everything into a ten dimensional array and read
41.
by smithbits 16y ago
I'd add Fry's Electronics and WeirdStuff Warehouse. If you came to the Valley from the sticks like I did they are wonderful wonderful places.
42.
by smithbits 16y ago
I like helping people and I almost always learn something interesting. I'm also personally embarrassed at how hard the we in the computer industry makes things. Grandparents want to look at pictures of their grand kids, everyone wants ema
43.
by smithbits 16y ago
Let's make a 2d matrix with 4 cells. The X axis is small company, large company, and the Y axis is successful product and failed product. Products hop about these boxes all the time. Large companies sell off divisions or spin off product
44.
by smithbits 16y ago
The way I heard the joke in Vermont always involved a tourist asking an old farmer for directions and getting the answer "Well, you can't get there from here."
45.
by smithbits 16y ago
Obligatory link to the absolutely brilliant Neal Stephenson article about a very long fiber optic cable. "Mother Earth Mother Board" http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass_pr.html
46.
by smithbits 16y ago
I appreciate the call to find the exact line of code that is causing the problem. I've done a fair number of code reviews where there was a bug, and it was "fixed", but no one knew why . The developer had simply kept changing things unti
47.
by smithbits 16y ago
I'm not sure how to paraphrase what he said about "hard-wiring" but it all rang completely true to me, as the parent of a 10 year old boy. The differences between boys and girls don't have to have value judgments attached to them, but the
48.
by smithbits 16y ago
Does this make it more or less likely that I'll see http://280atlas.com/ without paying for the beta program?
49.
Who's working on IT plumbing?
2 points by smithbits 16y ago|1 comments
50.
by smithbits 16y ago
Ah yes, the second system syndrome. This time we'll get it right.
51.
by smithbits 16y ago
I'd subtract two points for every startup you've already worked in, especially the failed ones. Every time you do a startup it does get easier. I've met a few people in Silicon Valley who were shoulder deep in their thirties, with kids, a
52.
by smithbits 16y ago
"And one final thing: Learn git!" Can't stress that one enough. Really any source code control system will do, but make sure you know one well. It was the biggest thing missing from my CS degree. And it's handy to have a solid understand
53.
by smithbits 16y ago
There seems to be a bit of a strawman argument going on here. When people share "their opinions on whether it was a good idea to create a Dilbert movie" there's a fair number of assumptions tied up in there. It sounds the same as the ques