SupremumLimit

I think you make a good point, but there seems to be more to the OP's events and operations than you suggest. The 'events' are implied to be broadcast versus 'messages' which are sent to a particular object (i.e. point-to-point) in languages that I know.

The OP is also suggesting a hierarchy of 'operations', with sub-operations communicating with the parent operations. I don't think this maps directly onto language features (again, in languages I'm aware of).

I'd be interested to hear which languages you had in mind, and some more detail on how you envisage the mapping to language features.

What client do you use?

For me, it's simply about making the choice again and again. It still hasn't become natural, but the realisation itself that I have a choice to be happy is helpful, even if I sometimes struggle with actually making the choice.

What's wrong with taking the risk out? If there are people willing to pay in advance, then it's a better solution for everybody. It could mean, for example, they can make a better product as they are not constrained by living on their savings. I find it bizarre that you find it "insulting".

A couple of counterexamples. Moscow used to have plenty of homeless people (not sure how it is these days) despite harsh winters. New Zealand has very few, despite similar weather conditions to SF.

While it's probably true that SF has more homeless due to migration, I don't think it's the root cause. You really have to look at the societal structure, government support and so on for the causes.

I guess the interesting question is, why aren't similar things popular today? I'm guessing the apps you mentioned didn't really become popular in their day either.

I don't think there's any correlation between the use of 2D and 3D printers - they don't have much in common other than the name. I expect the use of 2D printers to be declining as more and more things are done online, but custom fabrication of objects is another matter altogether.

I've self-published 2 editions of C++11 Rocks (for Visual Studio 2010 and Visual Studio 2012): http://cpprocks.com

I wrote a post about some of the things I learned from it: http://korban.net/2013/04/10000-in-sales-of-my-c-book-easier...

Two things I can say (also discussed in the post above): I wouldn't go with a traditional publisher now (with the exception of Pragmatic Programmers), and marketing isn't as hard as I thought, but it's definitely a long term effort.

Long copy often converts better, actually. Personally, I liked the page. I prefer it when I can find out what the service does and how before I have to sign up.

Also, consider that if, like many other pages, this one just had a few soundbites and a big "Sign Up" button, the conversion rate to signups may be higher, however the conversion rate to paying customers is another matter altogether.

I would say these approaches were still just bandages, so it makes sense they didn't catch on. GWT, for example, was a fairly nasty leaky abstraction. I don't think it removed the need to understand the rest of the stack, and it added a whole lot of its own Java inspired complexity. XHTML wasn't solving any fundamental problems either.

In an ideal world, now that the web has shifted from being a bunch of linked documents to complex applications, we'd have a development stack aimed at developing applications, with sane means of specifying UI layout and behaviour, low overhead client-server comm protocols etc.

It sounds interesting, but how do they get around the app store approval process?

Yeah, it seems I was overly optimistic when I wrote that post on CppRocks. I was thinking that they would release another update of the CTP features pretty soon, but it doesn't look like it's happening...

97% of climate scientists agree that the current climate change is anthropogenic: http://theconversation.com/its-true-97-of-research-papers-sa...

It's not even the first review. How much more proof do you need?

I think it's arrogant to ignore scientific consensus.

I use Workflowy as well, and Fargo didn't feel quite as convenient to me. One thing in particular I noticed was that moving an item to the same level as its parent is easier in Workflowy.

So I'm sticking with Workflowy for now. I just wish it allowed me to add multiline leaf items!

I think you're missing an important factor. Consider how many classes of jobs can be automated away over the next 50 years. Boat captains can easily be one of those. Pervasive automation changes the argument, and the fact is, it's already happening across many industries.

I think it's about time to start thinking about a society where employment is only available to a small fraction of people. It would be much better to have a controlled, thought out transition than to deny the possibility until we end up with mass unemployment.

So you're equating "not a fun place for a software engineer" with "managed by idiots"? That's a rather strange attitude, wouldn't you think?

I often see this attitude from engineers, and although I am one as well, I always find it puzzling. There's a lot that can be said about bureaucracies, bad management, and lack of innovation. But the world doesn't revolve around writing cool software, and non-engineers aren't all idiots. It's a bit more complicated than that.

Not really. The FAQ only provides a high level overview of the new features, and it isn't complete.

A lot of (most?) people don't have the time, money or inclination to sue. It's not like you can just press a button to deploy your lawyer. Have you actually done this? How did it work out?

No it's not. For example, the vast majority of 1-2 storey buildings in New Zealand have wooden framing, because it allows seismic resistance at a relatively low cost.

Most people that died in the Christchurch earthquake a couple of years ago were killed by falling bricks and stone, and a couple of collapsed concrete block buildings.

And yet that's exactly what Porsche did with the Boxster. It's exactly what BMW did with expanding their product line with the 1 series. I guess if you want continued growth, eventually you might have to expand into lower margin products.

It's not so black and white between expensive products and commodities, by the way. Both Boxster and 1 Series are still relatively expensive.

Not just support - they are generally a drain on resources. The people who keep asking for discounts/lower price also often end up not buying in the end, in my experience. So I waste time talking to them and see nothing for it.

Your maths are correct. I started selling the book in January 2012. However, I think I could have achieved this number of sales much faster if I dedicated more time to marketing (e.g. if I published the same number of posts in half the time).

Pricing is something I learned about from 30x500 as well. I looked at the anchors my potential buyers might have (C++ books are often around $50).

I looked at what else they buy and at what price (courses, software etc.).

I also considered the value of the book to them. E.g. for a C++ contractor, the book would pay off very quickly because of the time savings it provides.

The conversion rate for the mailing list is 5.7%, assuming people use the same email address to buy the book. I don't have the stats for Twitter, sorry.

I think this comment shows that we are really conditioned in a rather strange way due to being bombarded with advertising and marketing messages.

The problem is that people don't want to participate in market research, so the only way to do it a lot of the time means not being entirely straightforward, and looking for roundabout ways to attract attention and get feedback.

However, if you're willing to look beyond the fact that you thought you were signing up for a complete product, and consider the big picture instead, you'll see that having early customers leads to better products and less time wasted on making things nobody wants. So ultimately, you benefit from it.

I used to get worked up about these things too, but I got over it.

I just look at the top 50% on hckrnews.com. That seems to work for me, even though I'm not usually after the buzzword-of-the-day stories.

What exactly do you mean by "can't be minified to the extent that js can"? Why is that? CoffeeScript files are usually about 1/3 smaller than corresponding JS to begin with.

I'd say each of the annoyances has a historical reason for being there, but not a real reason as in "this is just the best way to do it". You make it sound like it's a cohesive platform that was designed to fulfill particular goals from the start, but it definitely wasn't.

I agree with you about the value of the web platform. It has a lot of advantages, especially from a business perspective, but it doesn't mean that it's a good platform.

So how come the first paid plan on your site is $4.99 when you said $3?

One useful piece of advice I read about HAML on HN was that it's for structure rather than for content. It gets annoying when you're trying to style words within a paragraph with italic or bold, or when you try to insert a link followed by a period. In those cases, I just use HTML, and the annoyance is gone. Otherwise, I find HAML very useful for reducing visual clutter.

It's a much smaller risk to the side with money. If you didn't have that much money to begin with, you may not even be able to afford defense, or you have to rack up huge lawyer bills for an uncertain outcome. And in the case of companies you can't even represent yourself, you have to have a lawyer. Also, awarding costs may or may not happen and is separate from the outcome of the case. So it might discourage _some_ abuse, but not much.