bittired

So, if I beat someone with a phone, I'm a hacker?

> when Apollo whatever number went wrong

13? Or was Zeus with the Apollo you speak and there were wacky antics with a man in a thick mustache? I think that was "whatever P.I.", but I'm not sure.

> I don't see a coder who starts with a blank page and libraries or APIs as a hacker as such.

This I totally agree with you on. Every developer that creates something new is not a hacker. Not long after PG started the site, it became a watering hole for the top minds in development and technology. Then people like me joined (years ago, under different name then), and now it is a more civil form of slashdot mixed with MBA's, lawyers (it seems), and wannabe's. I count myself in the wannabe's group not because I "want to be", but because despite many years in the business, I know I don't pass muster as a "hacker". It's not PG's fault that HN is filled with non-hackers. That is the normal way things devolve with any kind of popular open club. To paraphrase Groucho Marx (because there is apparently no official version of the quote): I don’t want to belong to any club that would accept me as one of its members.

It's like a Sociology grad student (in this case, somewhat surprisingly, a Law student) read the following from "How To Become A Hacker" and f'd it up in the process: http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html

"There is a community, a shared culture, of expert programmers and networking wizards that traces its history back through decades to the first time-sharing minicomputers and the earliest ARPAnet experiments. The members of this culture originated the term ‘hacker’. Hackers built the Internet. Hackers made the Unix operating system what it is today. Hackers run Usenet. Hackers make the World Wide Web work. If you are part of this culture, if you have contributed to it and other people in it know who you are and call you a hacker, you're a hacker."

Aha. It's in the credits:

> See Eric S. Raymond↩

That's not the whole story by any means. No matter where you are the problems are almost always money and time. In this case, how much will it cost to lure people to Canada, which is not know for big tech? Google didn't happen overnight, but now that it exists, any new tech company is competing with Google in a way for top talent, if that is what they are after. So, not only would Canada need to grow a Google, they'd have to compete with Google. That is difficult. Throw a less friendly business climate than the U.S. into the mix, and that is just more money and time that would be required.

All of that said, sure Canada is spoiled and lazy, but that's no different than the U.S. We expect too much.

And the quote about graphene was distracting to me because I know for certain that Apple would not have a layer of graphene that would be as thick as Saran Wrap. That's crazy talk- too expensive. I know he wasn't saying it would be that thick, but that was the first thing that came to mind: "no way they would do that".

What was broken in this case was described by his statement: "I had no medical insurance and the few benefits I had with the VA would take months of paperwork to get me in." You can blame that on Ted Kennedy, btw. He is the one that made health insurance an institution in the U.S. The best chance we have at good healthcare here has nothing to do with government or health insurance, it was to do with doctors that are willing to say F.U. to the system and provide healthcare directly to paitents without middlemen. So, that's the other side of the politics. Now back to what we really should be talking about...

I think it is wonderful that his cancer was treated and that people here helped. Cancer really fucking sucks. I hate Cancer with a deep passion that some of you out there understand. Others of you like to think of how great your resume looks and how you are going to land a fat house on the beach. I used to also.

The cause of problems for beginners is quite simply "change". Rails has been through a few major revisions now, and the jump from 2 to 3 dropped a lot of people (even though 3.1.x+ has been fine), and I doubt many will drop again from 3 to 4, even though there are some big changes. The problem is that with all of the changes comes a bunch of now inaccurate information that no one will update that is found easily, some with high point rankings in S.O.

The more important problem to fix though is leadership. DHH has done a great job, but either he or someone else needs to be more vocal as a single voice leading Rails. It is led by committee currently, and it shows in the lack of vision. However, despite its problems, I'm in it for the long haul. I like it a lot better than everything else.

btw- Unicorns are pretty popular in Ruby (http://unicorn.bogomips.org/). People must not be writing a lot of tests for private methods, because there aren't many dying. :)

Those are stories that pass muster. The reason why you shouldn't rely on score-based is that someone will game the system and it will become worthless. PG helps choose the main feed/main page.

Though Google might be the pinnacle of employment, at most jobs, if you leave, you can often get a salary or rate increase. On top of that, some employers will ask if you got fired and you have to explain that, even if you were only laid off.

Terrible advice!

That is supposed to be eight, not eight-hundred. Someone should edit these before they are posted. It was stated as eight hours at the top, so there is little excuse to get this wrong.

The Pauls are fiscally conservative which is only 1/2 of the Libertarian equation. The party stands for social liberalism and fiscal conservatism. Basically this just means less tax, more privatized government services, and to leave people alone if they aren't hurting each other.

Small-"l" libertarians are those that believe the liberty of the people is most important, even more important than any social or ethical constraints that have been placed upon them, but they believe that there can be a government that can enforce this, unlike anarchists.

This made me laugh. Considering how much Republicans and Tea Partiers are ostracized for making cuts, just imagine how much people would come down on a fiscally conservative basically Libertarian candidate in 2016 (even if he runs as a Republican).

While we can certainly wait and see whether people will balk and make changes, the only true way to stop it is to replace it.

If you can write a better set of protocols that meet the requirements, do it. If you can't then work with or support those that will.

I'd also like to take the Strong Interest Inventory but already think I'm an Artistic + Realistic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holland_codes