Ben65

I have to wonder if the Linux desktop would benefit from giving up the ghost that is X Windows. I don't think you'll ever have that elegance that you see on OS X and Windows 7 sitting on top of X Windows. I tried Ubuntu last year, well I'm still using it, and I had some of the same feelings described in this article. I was impressed with how far along the Linux desktop had come, but still sad that it just isn't quite as good as OS X or windows. I think some of that quirkiness comes from X Windows.

Run add for Carbonite, Time Machine, any backup service here. Something that's that important, you don't take a backup of some kind every now and then?

I know this probably isn't for most people, but I've gone to emacs' org mode for creating documents and spreadsheets. The cost is nothing, it's highly functional, and can be exported to TEX or html if you want to make it pretty.

I think since Clojure is a lisp there will always be a lot of people using Emacs to develop it. Emacs itself is an outstanding lisp environment, too bad the editor is so quirky. :)

Yes it takes some time learning, but it is worth it, if you like lisp programming.

PLT Scheme is a great environment, yet there are people who would rather use Emacs. I guess once you conquer the beast you it's hard to get away from it.

If you'd like to get a close look at one, there's one in the SAC museum, just outside of Omaha, NE.

http://www.sasmuseum.com/2008/11/21/sr-71a-blackbird/

It's hard to live without:

(fset 'yes-or-no-p 'y-or-n-p)

I don't want to sound like a Mac fan boy here, but if (when) things like this happen the Genius Bar will help you right out. I know there have been cases where they don't help, but they're good for 90% of the problems that come in.

This is a great way to keep working even when your body forces you to sleep.

It would be interesting to know how well the black students did in fields of study that are typically (on average) normally higher for blacks. Such as music, dancing, and sports. There is a difference in races, why do we assume the difference is bad, and that's only on average, there are always exceptions. So maybe it is the attitudes of the students and the parents, but what would change those attitudes? That's the next question to pursue, I think anyway.

That was incredible, great, amazing .... :) I don't know though I think Steve just loves his products and has a lot of enthusiasm for them. I've seen him before on like CNBC where they want to talk about boring stock stuff, and he was more interested in showing off his products. That's their strength! We can complain about their business practices and their brainwashing, but they do make incredible, amazing, great products, oh sorry I don't know what came over me.

Groan, but I gave you a bump up anyway.

The thing is, what if you want to run something Hostgator doesn't offer. I didn't see Arc, or PLT Scheme, or even Java. From your own home server you can run whatever you want.

True, but the contest idea builds a community and hopefully increases the number of subscribers. It certainly builds loyalty with existing subscribers. I think it's a good idea.

I can't believe all the down marks on this. It was kind of funny.

Oddly enough this doesn't seem to be hurting the stock price. Usually news like this will tank a stock. I suppose it's because the current price isn't over extended.

It's true there's nothing funnier that the sound of a geek's finger breaking, but the down side is that 25 years later they won't be at the class reunion, and that hurts.

Cool, nothing better than a discussion about which editor to use. Of course you could learn vi in five years.

It looks a lot better than the original Kindle. I tried one and disliked it so much I returned it. The sad thing is I really wanted to like it. I prefer reading on the computer anymore. I didn't like how there wasn't a good way to hold it with out accidentally flipping the pages. This new version seems to have fixed that. I was willing to accept the non-color display, but I didn't like the liquid paper. I wish it was backlit. The navigation was terrible. It looks like they've tried to address the navigation with a joystick, I'm sure it's better than the original.

I guess I wish I had an something like an iPhone or iPod touch that was around the same size the Kindle, that had a color screen, the touch features of the iPhone and iPod touch would be great, but button and stylus navigation would be alright. Nice looking anti-aliased fonts are essential. A good way to get content. Kindle has a nice tie in to Amazon, but the on the original it was such a bother to get other content on it. The big problem was no pdf support.

I'm excited that the Kindle 2 is much improved, I hope they have a lot of success with it.

Yawn! I hate it when people link anything from infoworld.

I was about to add nearly the same comment.

More of the same thing http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/16-10/ff_walker...

Being a hardcore geek, I love running on top of a "unix" like environment. I should flock to Linux, but Mac OS X is just prettier, and more stable. I don't know better fonts maybe? For that reason, and I know it seems small, I prefer Mac. BTW. I only use emacs and Firefox most of the time anyway.

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People love emacs because you can customize it to your liking. That's why it's touted as such a divine tool, and that's why it's worth it to keep trying to learn it.

I found this to be really touching. Dean's work is just amazing. I wish I could give this 100 or even 1000 karma points. It's not just the technology and the ingenuity, but the fact that he's helping people who are beyond help. I'm truly inspired.

HN talks a lot about startups and I'm sure most of HN's readers dream of their own startup. Something to think about before taking the plunge is "What benefit is this startup offering?" It can't be just to "make a lot of money". That's why I like what Dean has done. Sure he has made a lot of money, but look at how much he's helped people.

They solve some really tough problems, but the rewards are unbelievable. The video show's a guy named Chuck who has no arms and hasn't fed himself in 13 years, feeding himself. I mean can you even put a price on that kind of reward.

That's the kind of thing that drives you. That keeps you going even when things seem hopeless.

Space Needle, of course, and over by the Space Needle is Paul Allen's "Experience Music Project" that is really cool.