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M1573RMU74710N

229 karma · joined October 22, 2010

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M1573RMU74710N··on Why I'm (Finally) Switching to CoffeeScript
> it's drawing back from the OO/Func movement of the JS community back into procedural and statements-based something fierce

This statement is completely incorrect, the truth is actually the exact opposite.

First I would note there is no such thing as a statement in Coffeescript. Everything is an expression ... this may seem like a minor point to some, but it's actually quite a powerful difference. As with a lot of the things CS adds, It's hard to appreciate the boost in expressiveness until you start writing a lot of code with it.

If you want to talk about functional programming, expressions rather than statments count as 1 whole point out of 9 for PG's "list of things that are awesome about lisp".

Another important aspect of functional programming is lambdas, JavaScript does not have "real lambdas" because of the lack of implicit returns and the aforementioned quality.

By adding them, CS get's you much closer to real lambdas. This combined with the light syntax for functions encourages one to program in a much more functional style.

These qualities enable say, quick and easy decorators:

    logged = ( f , named_f ) ->
        if named_f? then [ f, name ]  = [ named_f, f ] else name = "function"
        # decorated function, to be returned
        ( args... ) ->
            console.log "#{name} (#{f.length}) with #{args.length} args."
            f.apply @, args
    
    # random function, note our decorator preserces "this"
    foo = logged ( x ) ->
        console.log( @[x] + "" )

    # random function that calls other function, our logging lets us trace the calls
    # this one provides a name
    bazz = logged "bazz", ( x ) ->
        foo.call @, x
    
    # test
    bar =  fizz: "buzz"
    bazz.call bar, "fizz"
Note also how splats simplifies this operation. Destructuring and the existential operator makes the logic in the decorator function a little cleaner. String interpolation makes the logging easier.

Additionally the use of implicitness really makes it shine and fit together well, rather than being mere eye-candy. There's no wrapping in parens to decorate, making it harder to mess up, easier to modify, and easier to parse visually and perhaps programatically.

I think a lot of people are deceived when it comes to CoffeeScript, they see a lot of little things which seem nice...but individually they seem pointless or minor. They are deceived on two parts: a lot of these "little things" are actually quite powerful on their own, and additionally they mesh in a way that is greater than the sum of the parts.

All these little nice things can add a powerful boost to expressiveness and once you spend some time with them it really changes how you think and write code. That's another thing I would note is that CoffeeScript is for people who want more expressiveness/find these things more expressive. If you are looking for something else, or think in a way that has an impedance mismatch with the CoffeeScript philosophy, obviously you should look elsewhere.

(If anyone's curious, this decorator makes it so every time a decorated function is called, it logs the function's name if provided, the number of defined arguments it takes, and how many it was actually passed.)

I would also note that scopes function the same in CS as they do in JS, the only difference is that in CS you cannot shadow variables from an enclosing scope, and there are no implicit globals.

In terms of OO, CS adds syntactic sugar for perhaps the most common inheritance pattern in JS.

I would argue both of those are good things, though I respect other people might think otherwise.

M1573RMU74710N··on Woothemes forks Jigoshop - is this ethical?
There's nothing in the law that says you can't walk up to a child with leukemia and say "HA HA! You're dying!".

The reason for this is because unrestricted free speech is very important, and some day it may become vital for you be able to speak in a way that hurts people's feelings. Therefore they do not restrict emotionally hurtful free-speech in the law. (except in cases where it overlaps with other considerations...but don't lets get too bogged down here.)

However I think we can all agree that it would be an incredibly shitty thing to do.

Software licenses in that respect are like the law. They are there to lay out practical matters. The reason for allowing forking is because the ability to do it in certain circumstances is important....if a product is abandoned or what-have-you, a fork can save it.

However, just like hurting someone's feelings forking is something to be avoided unless truly necessary. (obviously this is somewhat subjective). In that regard, the blog author is 100% right. Forks are stigmatized (in some communities) and this is how it should be for a variety of reasons both practical and social. Forking without a good reason is something of a Jerk move.

Some people seem to think if you release under a fork-permissive license it somehow welcomes all fork-related behaviour and I think it's a shame. I would say this is no more true than publishing your phone number is an invitation for mean-spirited prank-calls. Sure they will happen, and one should expect them (or at least not be surprised), but that's an entirely separate question from whether or not they are a morally or socially acceptable thing.

I would note however that I'm not familiar with this particular situation at all, and it could be the forkers DO have a good reason. In that case it's unfortunate, but that's the reality....sometimes you want or need to take a project in a certain direction and the project founders won't cooperate. In that case I would say a fork is justified.

I don't even think the bar for "justified fork" should be very high, but it's definitely higher than "the license allows forks"...and I think we should always fork reluctantly. It should be viewed as the slightly less desirable option.

M1573RMU74710N··on This is CoffeeScript
Sorry, my comment should read:

"""

    ( do (x) -> whatever x ) for x in foobar
or

    foo  = (x) -> whatever x
    foo x for x in foobar
or

    for x in foobar
        do (x) -> whatever x
I find all of these pretty readable and easy. The former in simple cases like "whatever x", and the latter two when you are doing more than just "whatever x".

I think it's important to distinguish cases like this and that the syntax is clean enough without adding some helper that makes what's going on implicit

"""

In the section where it says:

""" do ( -> whatever x ) for x in foobar """

M1573RMU74710N··on This is CoffeeScript
I'm not sure I understand your first complaint.

The fat arrow is a great helper and saves a lot of work in various situations....obviously it doesn't cover all situations...but in the situations it doen't cover I'm not sure what I'd expect the language to do.

Could you give an example of what you imagine the feature to be?

I'm just not sure if something as simple and easy as

    that = @
needs improvement. Anything beyond what that and => covers, to me seems like something a library should handle...and CS makes that very easy.

For you second one, what about

    do ( -> whatever x ) for x in foobar

One of the things I like about CS is that it is very conservative about not adding helpers for every little thing you can think of. It chooses a few very powerful and fundamental building blocks, and let's you use those to build up yourself.

I can respect some people wanting more though.

M1573RMU74710N··on Oh, Adobe... read the copy, then view the source.
My...only....regret...is that....I have......div-itis...
M1573RMU74710N··on Airbnb Victim Speaks Again: Homeless, Scared And Angry
You seem to be confusing what the term "relevent" means re: down-voting. (or perhaps just want down-voting is for)

down-voting is a community moderation tool, to be used on comments that are off-topic, trolling, spam, etc.

The article in question is about AirBnB's repsonse to the situation (or rather, about EJ's comments about their response to the situation). The comment you down voted is making a point about a possible reason they may be acting that way.

It's a direct and thoughtful response to the topic at hand, it's ipso facto "relevent" in the sense that matters re: down-voting.

The fact that you disagree with it, or think it is flawed is not a valid reason for down-voting; instead you would reply refuting their point. You seem to think that their comment is not "relevent" re: how one considers their actions...and that may be true...but that is not a valid reason to downvote and not the sort of relevance that matters re that.

I only bring this up because many people seem to be confused about down-voting, or abuse the system and I think it's helpful to have a dialog on it occasionally.

M1573RMU74710N··on Violated: A traveler’s lost faith, a difficult lesson learned
I'd say so.

Also, I somewhat agree with the grand-parent that the way the woman in the article compares telling a woman to not wear a skirt in order to avoid rape with talking/thinking about ways she might have avoided the ordeal is not an entirely accurate comparison...though considering what she's been through if I were talking to her personally I probably wouldn't press the point. She's already learned her lesson, the discussion is only worthwhile to have for observers.

M1573RMU74710N··on Violated: A traveler’s lost faith, a difficult lesson learned
It is a difficult situation...on the one. hand you can't blame victims for crimes. That responsibility lies 100% with the criminals.

On the other hand, in some cases someone is negligent in taking some easy precautions; and it's hard not to comment on it. I think that's important too. As others have noted this sort of thing is inevitable, and I think it's productive to talk about ways to possibly mitigate it.

AirBnB was certainly negligent, and I understand the rationale at the time and why she was trusting can appreciate it....but still some common sense precautions like asking the neighbors/friends to check in on your renters and inspect the property could have prevented some of this.

Hindsight is 20/20 and who knows how things would go...maybe no precautions could have prevented this. However I think for the sake of people who may be in a similar situation, it's important to talk about ways to protect yourself.

The problem with the meme about "short skirt = rape" is not that it's completely without truth...the problem is that cases where a victim was actually negligent (to an appreciable extent) are exceptionally rare (say, they decided to go visit an ex boyfriend they knew to be violently insane who told them he would hurt them if he ever saw them again)...and even in such an exceptionally rare case rape apologists reach the wrong conclusions based on that.

The topic is so sticky, I feel compelled to repeat myself. Victims are never to blame for the crimes, criminals are.... However as I believe in learning lessons from mistakes, I would feel compelled to think to myself that if you have an ex-boyfriend who is violently insane you should communicate though court orders, the police, or at least a telephone.

That brings up another important distinction: it's not likely that others will be dating one's crazy ex-boyfriend...so there's not much need to have a discussion about possible ways of dealing with said ex-boyfriend.

No person could really expect getting raped to be a reasonable outcome for wearing a short-skirt/walking alone. It's theoretically possible...so are so many other things that it's not practical to think of or try to avoid them all.

The casual link between wearing a dress/walking alone and getting raped/attacked is much more tenuous (well really it's completely non-existent) than the link between opening your home to a stranger for a week without meeting them face to face or taking various other precautions.

Most people could be reasonably expect problems from just handing over your keys to someone, even if it's just having your towels stolen...and everyone who is considering it should be beaten over the head with that fact and do as much as they can to mitigate that risk.

This woman has a point that AirBnB was remiss in reminding her, they have that responsibility. She also has a responsibility herself to take precautions, but that does not negate AirBnB's...I also think she is completely aware at this point in where she failed....but for the sake of others reading the story who might face similar risks, I think it's worth-while to discuss it.

M1573RMU74710N··on Boot to Gecko: building a complete, standalone operating system for the open web
> Why would anyone ever want an OS that does nothing but show a web browser?

I can say for a fact my Mother most definitely wants this. She's never been technically inclined and finds computers incredibly frustrating.

She has a desktop that she uses 100.00% exclusively for browsing the internet/checking email. As soon as the computer starts the browser opens, and she gets very nervous if she accidentally closes it somehow.

M1573RMU74710N··on O'Reilly to adopt anti-harrassment Code of Conduct for Oscon
> really sexually harass someone - with touching involved

I think your post is mostly fair..however, this particular sentence to me seems to imply that if there is no touching involved it's somehow not "real" sexual harassment, and that's something I would disagree with.

This is overall a very very tricky subject. I think one thing a lot of people lose track of (not saying you are one, just commenting in general) is that it's something that needs to be considered on multiple levels.

There are certain things that are "rude" to do, for example using curse words. If you want to promote an open community where everyone can feel welcome, you probably should have policies against using such words. That doesn't mean that if someone uses those words they are a bad person, or should be arrested, or condemned, or any such thing as that...

However if they are contributing to creating a negative environment for some people, and if you want those people to be a part of the community that needs to be squashed and the person who did it might need to be spoken to or even reprimanded (appropriately).

There's nothing wrong with having sexual feelings, but I think some people have an over-inflated sense of entitlement when it comes to expressing those sexual feelings. Women are constantly being reminded that they are Women, and being constantly reminded that they are viewed (at least to some extent) as sexual objects...when really they just want to feel like any other person and talk tech. It can be not only very exhausting, but insulting and even frightening. Many crimes against women begin with sexual overtures.

So, I don't think it's a lot to ask to leave the attempted pick-ups to places like online dating sites, singles bars, dance clubs, etc...and leave sexual expression in general at home or when you're hanging out with friends and what-not.

I think there certainly are some people who want to lock it down to an impractical level of political correctness, but I think it's more common for someone to make a reasonable suggestion that is met with comments about "men/sexuality being criminalized" (again, not referring to you...just commenting in general).

I agree that it's something that needs to be spelled out more explicitly than "don't be a creep", if only because one of the reasons we have the problem is because some people don't understand or know what that means (and perhaps they shouldn't be expected to).

M1573RMU74710N··on Does the infamous "Happy Birthday to You" copyright hold up to scrutiny?
>Not all CC licenses are free for commercial use, though. In fact, most of them aren't.

Sure, it wasn't my intention to imply that. I'm talking explicitly about music that is completely free to use, and music licensed under certain CC licenses is just an example to illustrate the point.

Thank's for clarifying for other readers though.

It was also not my intention to imply that getting free music is easy. Of course much music is commercial, many people are reluctant or unable to give away products of any type.

My point was only that there are in fact a lot of people creating music and releasing it explicitly to provide music which can be used for any purpose commercial or not, and a variety of websites which catalog this music.

These people/websites are a boon to many, like podcasters who require into/outro/background music.

I'm not saying this movement could not use more momentum, support, etc....the contrary in fact. I'm saying only that it already exists.

M1573RMU74710N··on Does the infamous "Happy Birthday to You" copyright hold up to scrutiny?
It's certainly possible. I'd note there are a variety of services who exist solely to provide "in store music" to stores, which handle all the copyright/broadcast rights etc....and they are generally pretty affordable.

Still I wouldn't be surprised if there was a discount for stations that are pure public-domain or if small franchises were just playing it themselves (though presumably the recording/performance itself is still protected and they might not be in the clear legally if they were say, just playing a CD)

>I'm starting to think that we need a free music movement,

It already exists, it's called the Open Source Movement (well, amongst others). There is a variety of music available under say, a Creative Commons license...and many websites devoted purely to free-music.

M1573RMU74710N··on Firebug lead developer now working on Web dev tools at Google
It's definitely a difficult transition time for Mozilla/Firefox, and I think they're struggling to find their footing. I'm not sure if all the decisions they are making are correct, but as time goes on I think their plans are coming together more. i Plugin incompatibility is a problem at the moment, but they have systems in place to help mitigate it. If they can manage to keep it temporary, I think they can survive.

I don't have much experience with the new extension SDK, so I can't comment on it authoritatively. The old system is not without problems, and I'm actually glad that they are moving over to something closer to Chrome in terms of certain things...

M1573RMU74710N··on Ask HN: Anyone else miss not having a downvote button?
Thank you very much for the thoughts. Personally I don't really care about down votes, but unfortunately they often discourage people or make them feel unwelcome; people who might have a lot to contribute.
M1573RMU74710N··on Ask HN: Anyone else miss not having a downvote button?
I would say this meme is incredibly harmful for various social news sites.

The problem is it seems reasonable enough...it's certainly more reasonable than downvoting someone because you don't like them...

However, it's is absolutely not an appropriate use of downvoting and is harmful to discussion quality.

To begin with, someone being "objectively wrong" is MUCH more rare than you probably think. Purely in terms of mathematical probability, I can pretty much guarantee there was a time you thought someone was wrong on the Internet when in fact you were the one who was wrong. There are many times when LOTS of people thought Joe Shmoe was wrong, but Joe Shmoe was in fact correct and everyone else is wrong.

Many times even though what the person is SAYING is wrong, but there is a mis-communication somewhere. You may be reading it the wrong way, or they may not be expressing themselves clearly.

This brings up the main problem with what you are talking about: it shuts down the conversation....and that is incredibly bad for a community that is supposed to be build on discussion.

Let's say someone's wrong. You downvote them. You've accomplished effectively nothing. Some people might not see this wrong information....but that's neither here nor there.

A MUCH better solution is to reply and explain to them how they are wrong. That way the discussion continues, and they are educated (whether or not they decided to take advantage of it).

More importantly, if one person thought this wrong thing....there are probably many others who also thought it but didn't post it.

If you reply with a correction, those people are also enlightened. This ties in with my earlier point...you may have prevented some people from seeing the wrong information, but there's no reason to believe that it balances with the people you could have educated by responding.

Keep in mind, none of this is even taking into account abuse of such a feature, which would occur.

All around it is by far better for the community to correct wrong information than to censor it....not to mention the latter is impossible to do effectively.

M1573RMU74710N··on Firebug lead developer now working on Web dev tools at Google
I don't know if that's entirely true.

I do a lot of Firefox extension development. Many companies or users have a need for highly specialized functionality built into a browser, and Firefox provides an very rich platform for that. You can easily build powerful applications that integrate tightly with Firefox.

Chrome's extension capability is much lighter and more restricted; Chrome extensions are just light little packets of functionality that add to the browser. There's many things that you can't do that you could do in Firefox.

I think that area is definitely where Firefox wins, and will probably continue winning in the future.

Does everyone need that, and is it enough to keep a large market share? I don't know...but it is something that Firefox does better.

M1573RMU74710N··on Hacker News gives "Unknown or expired link" Often when I click "More"
It's annoying, but overalI don't mind it.

What I will kill for though is a simple "return to homepage" link...or better yet a timed redirect...on the expired page.

I often browse with my laptop on the coffee-table and a wireless mouse in my hand and it's a pain to have to reach forward and hit the backspace button (or go all the way up to the back button) AND click the link at the top again.

Seriously, this is something that gets me EVERY DAY, and it's frustrating.

M1573RMU74710N··on If Bitcoin Community Doesn’t Take Action, Trademark Lawyer Could “Box Them In”
" Mr. Pascazi does not really understand trademark law, it appears. While he is correct that many civil law countries have a first-to-file process, that does not mean they have no ability to challenge the issuance of the mark.

A trademark must be a source identifier. In other words, Mr. Pascazi's 'client' must be recognized as the source of a product by consumers if the mark Bitcoin is used.

As for enforcing international marks in the U.S., this is not as easily done as Mr. Pascazi would hope. Especially if he is able to obtain a registration abroad on such shaky grounds. It could still be subject to the same cancellation process as a U.S. mark.

The question is whether Mr. Pascazi will truly try and enforce a foreign mark on foreign soil. Paying international lawyers is not cheap.

And will he continue to maintain the mark and defend it against attacks?

Mr. Pascazi's client is over-reaching. I recommend Mr. Pascazi or his lawyer consult real trademark attorneys about this. They might receive more thorough advice. "

From: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110708/00564015004/lawyer...

M1573RMU74710N··on Yet another clone...burnt all my bridges
Yea I figured, I just wanted to let you know for the future what the phrase actually means. Idioms can be tough.
M1573RMU74710N··on Yet another clone...burnt all my bridges
Just FYI "burning your bridges" is a very negative term, and it's generally considered something that you should never do. (i.e., it's not something you would put a smiley after).

The phrase implies a permanent and somewhat violent (not necessarily physical) end to a relationship.

Simply quitting your job would not be considered "buring a bridge" unless you quit in such a way that you could never ever get your job back (for example, punched your boss in the face or something like that).

Your tool looks interesting and I wish you good luck with it.

One thing I would suggest at the moment is to lose the cartoon-ish tiger logo you have, in my humble opinion it doesn't fit with the type of product.

Also, I would change the colors on the various boxes that say things like "Save time", and "Save Money"...

They also seem cartoon-ish and don't seem to fit with the product.

Also at the bottom I would change this line:

> Please, can you share this with your friends and colleagues?

The tone is just overly conversational and a bit to pleading (unintentionally I'm sure).

A simple "share this" like most websites have would probably be better.

Wish I could give feedback on the product itself, but it's not the sort of thing I use.

M1573RMU74710N··on Why I've built an alternative to Github
>, but if it saves you a few hours per month then it's a better choice than going for a service like CodePlane.

...and that's the hole in your reasoning. That is not a forgone conclusion at all...in fact it's a non-sequiter.

In the analogy these people aren't getting ANYTHING for paying the 1$ per cup (vs paying 50 cents for the actual soda used)...there is a theoretical benefit of free refills, or it being a reasonable price for the cup of soda...and for the people who use it, it's great.

...but the whole entire premise of this discussion is that for some people that's no benefit at all since they're not using it.

We've already eliminated all the people who are getting their money's worth out of Github, that's the premise of the conversation....we're talking about a service that is designed to cater to people for whom Github's pricing plan doesn't work for their needs.

Additionally, to argue that these people don't exist is a specious argument. I think it's an incredibly dubious proposition that there is ANY service which precisely fits the needs of it's entire target market.

>. But the way to make smart economic decisions is not by measuring hypothetical waste (i.e. how much of the account you are using) but by comparing the options side by side

Yes, precisely.

You make smart decision by weighing your own personal needs against your options. Everyone has different needs, and while Github works for many people, it does not work for everyone.

Again, I'm not prepared to say codeplane represents a solution for all these people...many will simply go to bit-bucket, handle it themselves, etc... but I think it works for at least some of them.

M1573RMU74710N··on Why I've built an alternative to Github
I don't think anybody is "complaining about GitHub's prices" per se...at least not the way you are implying. That is, I don't think anyone is saying GitHub is greedy, or not worth it ever or something like that....

However, the fact of the matter is they have a particular pricing plan, and that pricing plan is such that for certain people it becomes not worth it.

When you go to a fast food place, they generally offer you varying sizes of soda.

For most people that's fine....but for some people their needs may fall JUST in between two sizes...for example they want more soda than a medium, but they don't really need a large.

So they start buying a large...because that's a reasonable compromise.

Sure, the large may be a very good deal, but that's completely besides the point. It's more soda than they really need, and they are wasting money by buying it.

When someone offers a size of soda that happens to fit their needs exactly, there's no reason they shouldn't switch to that. If their needs change they can always go back to their old size, or even a newer one.

Or to pick another soda analogy, imagine that the fast food place only charges for the soda cup. It's a dollar a cup for everyone. This is a GREAT deal for most people...they come in pay a dollar and get a cup of soda, with free refills. The fast food place does alright because it all balances out in the end, the people who drink a little soda subsidize the ones who drink a lot. Even people who only drink one cup of soda get a reasonable deal.

Now imagine you come in with 100 kids who only need a thimble-full of soda each (for the sake of argument). You're paying 100$ for the amount of soda everyone else is paying 1$ for! Overall, the pricing plan is reasonable...but for certain people it falls apart.

Why should those people go with a deal that doesn't work for them? It's better all around for them to find a better fit.

The fact that github is awesome and a great deal is completely irrelevant re the issue at hand. The point is some people don't need all the github awesomeness, they just want somewhere to stick their code.

If that's all you need, there's no reason at all not to go with a cheaper option.

That's not to say that the cheaper option is this guy's service....it could be any number of things. For some people this codeplane is a good fit, for others...not.

M1573RMU74710N··on Ask HN: Advice for a young, self-taught programmer
How are you on computing in general? Are you VERY knowledgeable about the operating system you use? What about other operating systems? Know anything about their inner workings?

If you plan to be a professional programmer a working knowledge of Linux can be very valuable...in some cases a necessity. Ditto for Windows.

In terms of your "hitting the wall" in programming, I'd say seriously consider contributing to an open source project.

This will allow you a good opportunity to both study a (possibly large) code-base, and write code as well. It will force you to become more familiar with some of the processes of software development. You might have to work with other people, use a bug tracker, learn an unfamiliar build system, use an unfamiliar revision control system, etc.

Start small. Pick project that is open about needing help. Learn about the project. Hang out in the IRC a bit, or message board. Ask some questions. Answer some questions. Help track down bugs. Eventually find a feature/bug you can implement/fix and do it.

From your description, it sounds like you're in a good place. You've been doing well, and now it's just a question of finding new ways to challenge yourself. There will be setbacks here and there, but as long as you keep plugging away at it you'll be fine.

One last piece of advice I would offer is to make sure you also take time to enjoy other things besides programming. You're young and you don't get those years back.

M1573RMU74710N··on Collection of classic computer science algorithms written in JavaScript
> The only possibility of one knowing bubble sort is by hearing about it on algorithms classes,

That's simply not true. I know for a fact that for me personally the bubble sort was the most "intuitive" algorithm because when I was in elementary school we had a computer club, and we were given the task for figuring out how to sort a list. My implementation was a bubble-sort, and at the time I had absolutely no knowledge of sorting algorithms at all.

Obviously different people will find different things "intuitive".

M1573RMU74710N··on This Guy Has My MacBook
> Suppose the buyer of a bass boat dies while it is stored in a rented garage. No crime has been committed, but it will take a court order and a deputy with a bolt cutter for the repo man to get his hands on it

Sure, but again in that case isn't there a record of the person dying, the storage rental agreement, a will or lien or something saying "The boat is now property of X?".

What I'm getting at is in the case of theft, there's no evidence that the property wasn't just given to the other person. How do you make a complaint to the court without that? If I can do that, I'd like to try next time someone steals something, which unfortunately happens regularly in the town I live.

I'm not a lawyer, but as a musician I've had some experience with getting stolen property back, and my experiences always involved filing a police report for the stolen stuff, and then it's recovered as part of the investigation of that. I mean, for example when my friend's guitar turned up in a pawn shop, he went to the police...told him about how his guitar was stolen and they looked up the report, etc...then the police in charge of that went to the pawn shop and got his guitar back. When my friend's bike was stolen, he got it back when the police arrested the person who stole it (he was caught shortly after stealing another bike).

M1573RMU74710N··on Loren wants to work at Airbnb
I'm curious in what way you find it irritating?

I realize a lot of people have taken this as an attempt to tear down Loren or something, but that's just not the case.

I took time out of my day to go through this guy's site and offer some helpful advice. I didn't just run his page through ySlow or something, I actually went through to see what he was doing and how he could improve it.

I did it in a respectful way, and made a point of complimenting him because I think he did a nice job, and I wanted to make clear I wasn't tearing that down.

If you knew me, you'd know I spend a lot of time in the web development community in IRC and various message boards helping people improve what they are doing, and getting help myself occasionally when I'm stuck on a contract.

It didn't occur to me that so many people would just assume bad faith, personally I try to give people the befit of the doubt...and I never assume that I know exactly what they are saying because text is such a difficult medium to convey these things. In retrospect I could have really hammered in that point, but hindsight is 20/20, and I suspect there still would have been a bunch of people bristling.

This tendency to project things on to other people and then get all offended about what you think they are saying is my biggest issue with some geeks.

M1573RMU74710N··on Loren wants to work at Airbnb
The irony is palpable.

Relax, seriously. Try to give people the benefit of the doubt instead of just projecting whatever you want onto them. When you read what someone has written on the Internet, sometimes you will misunderstand them...and you need to understand and appreciate that.

BTW, the job thing was a joke about how we're all asking for jobs on HN now. I would think the lol-cat would be an obvious clue that it was intended in jest.

For the record, I am more or less always available for work beause I'm a freelancer.

M1573RMU74710N··on This Guy Has My MacBook
In those cases presumably there's some sort of rental/lease agreement though, right?

They can go to the Sherrif and say "This person signed a legal document stating I gave them X equipment with Y serial number. They have not returned/paid for it in the allotted time...come with me to their property; if we find it and they don't have another legal document signed by me stating otherwise, obviously they don't have the right to posses it".

Isn't it a little different here? Here it's disputable who the property belongs to, and in what context this person has the property. Wouldn't a criminal charges of some kind have to be made instead of the process say, a car dealership goes through to repossess a car?

Either charge the thief and recover it from them, or investigate the person for possessing stolen property and if it turns out to be stolen, then returning it to the rightful owner?

Aren't repossession agents bound by some constraints as well? Is rent-a-center allowed to surreptitiously record it's customers in case they don't return stuff (without notifying them and/or getting a signed waiver?).

I'm not a lawyer, and I'm just curious how all this stuff works legally.

M1573RMU74710N··on PBS will have four commercial breaks per hour soon
This is one of my biggest fears, aside from PBS going away all together. Commercials I an deal with for the most part.

I don't mind that sort of programming being on TV, but it seems to be slowly taking over all the formerly prestigious cable channels like History, TLC, etc.

I was raised on PBS, it's been there for me when I couldn't afford cable, and now with more and more schlock on the TV it's one of my last refuges.

I donate when I can, but I still worry about their funding being cut. Then who knows what sort of compromises they'll have to make.

M1573RMU74710N··on Loren wants to work at Airbnb
Let me be clear here since on the Internet people are not always able to discern what you are saying.

My comment is made in 100% good faith, and is in no way intended to put down or detract from Loren. I'm a web developer, and I'm passionate about it. I enjoy talking to other web developers and trading knowledge. My intention here is only to share some knowledge.

>Sure, it might not be 100% optimized...but does it matter, really ?

I believe it does.

This isn't a case where "You could have tweaked this for 2% more foo"...this is a case of multiple lapses in standard and basic best practices.

I'm not prepared to extrapolate this one failure into a generalization about Loren or anything, I think this in no way speaks about his ability except to say that he doesn't always follow best practices. That's something he maybe needs to work on, and there's nothing wrong with that. We all need to work on something.

The whole idea here is to really shine...this is supposed to be a bid for the attention of a possible employer...and that is not the time to skip some really really basic steps. t's like if you were applying for a job as an automotive painter, and you didn't sand the body first. Or if you applied for a job as an editor with a resume riddled with spelling errors. That's fine if you're working on a personal project, but it's not up to professional par.

Even disregarding that, I would feel inclined to point it out, just as I would hope someone would inform me of ways I can improve my work.

> He showed initiative, gumption, and creativity.

Sure, and I applaud it wholeheartedly. However, we're talking about an engineering position here...If I was hiring a front-end engineer and they didn't follow the simplest, first-day, default, standard practice stuff...that would be a couple points off.

>Also, adding that you are available for work, does NOT help your case.

That was said mostly tounge in cheek. The point was not "hey you should hire me instead of this guy, I'm way better"

That's the whole point; this stuff is so basic I don't expect anyone would be impressed by it.

The idea is I imagine some Airbnbers (or maybe others) will read this thread at some point, and since we're all asking for jobs on HN I thought I'd make a playful remark about it. If that playful remark gets me a lead on a job, so much the better.

Just as someone may see his initiative and graphical ability and want to hire him... so may they see my devotion to sharing knowledge, having open and frank discussions about web development, and following best practices and want to hire me.

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