From what I recall, there was a golden era where the site was growing and it was useful and entertaining. One problem is that it had a learning curve. I think it got worse when every answer became editable by other people, and power users and rules lawyers became entrenched and they started closing basically every question as a duplicate. That often resulted to sending people to questions that weren't precisely the same, and often with out of date answers. It felt like they never seemed to figure out whether it was supposed to be a Q&A site, a wiki, or a forum (I suppose forum was generally nixed, other than discussion in comments).
I've used both Apple and Windows devices and don't particularly want a laptop with a touch screen. Mainly I find it awkward and tiring to hold my arm up across the keyboard to use it. Maybe I'd like one if I could fold the screen all the way back and make it a giant tablet.
I didn't like it for the same reasons people dislike touch controls in cars. The selection and placement of buttons is constantly changing, and I have to take my eyes off the screen to see what I can do on the TB at the time. I had an MBP with one for 5 years and barely ever used any of the features. The only thing I really found useful was the scroll bar for videos, which is useful on abysmal video players like Instagram which otherwise don't have that function.
I’m talking about people doing it specifically in response to this helicopter management style. There may not unlimited work to be done, but they expect employees to be doing something productive continually. This also penalizes people who work more quickly or efficiently than others.
I've seen some sites, mainly in the video game field, that have even higher numbers such as 750. Do I want to share my info with your 750 partners? Um, no. Typically I just leave the site.
That's a problem with how companies see employment, rather than a description of how it should work. This leads to employees basically pretending to work, like in school how a teacher would assign us useless task sheets and call it "busy work".
I really wish I'd gotten Borland C++ for my Amiga, but it was $350 in 1990-91. Still years before free software would be usable at home and PCs were quite relatively expensive compared to now (I was blown away when I calculated the modern price equivalent of my A3000 - over $10,000).
The effect may be similar, but the intent is different. You could say the same about a small resource website being put on the front page of HN. Is that a DoS attack? No.
Near where I live, there is a library facility that has a cafe. However, it's not a regular book-lending library... it's run by the country library system, but it's actually a free coworking space. They even have a music room with 4 stringed instruments, a computer, and an electronic drum kit as well as a podcasting studio.
I tried it with a browser that probably still has cookies from an account I deleted 4 months ago, with no problem. Then, tried it with a Private mode window - that one asked for a login.
Like some other things reddit tells visitors, they're basically lying, or at best, being inconsistent. I've tried old reddit here and there in the past month or so and sometimes it says I need an account for "safety", other times, it doesn't.
I’m surprised the site had that little activity, relatively, around 2010. That’s when I was using it the most. It seemed plenty large to me at the time… I can’t imagine the experience was that great a few years later. I wasn’t really paying attention by the time it reached the peaks later that decade.
I always found the format of the side obtuse and the culture not very welcoming. My most popular answer ever was something about JavaScript from 2008 or 2009, and to this day, people come in and say “this isn’t the way to do it, this is outdated“. No kidding, but every new question about that gets closed as a duplicate.
The OpenAI logo and “swirling hexagon” in general is reminiscent of the old logo of SNET (Southern New England Telephone), except it’s a pentagon. I used to draw this on my book covers at school to make life feel more engaging.
The article states some of the companies successfully made gloves, but customers such as hospitals considered the prices too high, which is why they're looking to the federal government to be the primary customer now.