1,079 karma · joined December 29, 2010
This would immediately tell me that I need to get more RAM.
For those wondering, I run the following comfortably in 16GB of RAM with SSD:
Postgres 9.x Ruby 2.x Rails 4.x Python 2.7 / Flask XCode 6.1.1 Chrome Safari Whatever else apps...
I don't think I would trust this in 8GB and feel like I'm productive. Remember, RAM is 10kX-100kX faster than hd, so you can never have enough.
This isn't software to be used for analysis. Sendy is f-in awesome! I've used it for a list of over 25k and it hasn't failed me once. Like others have said, it's not as brain dead as Mailchimp, but I wasn't expecting it to be. The developer is great and it just works(tm). The price is awesome too.
I looked through the source and thought, sure, it's not computer science that was built on the latest "Framework X", but it worked fine. To me it signaled, they we're just getting shit done. God, I'm so over the days of analysis paralysis "proper framework" development (that's for another rant I guess).
Please, pay no mind to the parent post. If you're looking for an alternative to AWeber (I'm not saying it's got as many features as Aweber) or Mailchimp, then Sendy is awesome.
I've been hosting mine on a Digital Ocean 1GB server for about 7 months and it's worked flawlessly. Their 2.0 upgrade went without a hitch. Couldn't recommend this app more.
But if you think of it in the reality of your life and you are your own master, then you owe it to yourself to be honest and say what's on your mind. This isn't illegal (yet) and yah, you might run into someone who knows someone in the lords network.. But, is that the way to live?
I'm not saying to be rude or insensitive or a jerk on the way out. But once you realize a place isn't for you, then why does it matter what they say or think. Does Mark Hurd care what anyone connected to HP thinks? (Granted, he's an extreme case and if only we didn't have to play by the rules too..)
If you're leaving a place where there were people that were jerks, then sure, it's up to you to tone it down or turn it up. I've seen a lot of both kinds of exits and the people I know that turned it up were never ostracized and denied good jobs later. In fact, most found great jobs that could stay with for a long time.
As someone who's had to run programming groups and do the programming work, I will say open floor plans are the worst idea ever.
If you need/want to get into the zone on a project and actually make progress, the open floor plan will keep you from doing that as much as possible. For breaks, the last thing I would be doing is going on facebook or checking email or doing other useless crap like that.
Your job sounds horrible if people can just walk up any time for any reason. And if you're spending time looking at cat gif's then I think you or your manager needs to revisit how you're spending your time. Doesn't sound like work to me. Sorry...
First off, the Aero Press didn't really impress. I got rid of it - it just wasn't worth it for me. I could never make it 'work', coffee was always thin.
As far as the Bulletproof coffee, it was too 'light' for me. I know Dave was talkin about making a darker roast, but at that time his roast didn't really appeal to me. I was doing French, Italian, or Espresso roasts via drip funnel for a while and I had it down pretty good. I felt like I had a pretty rich and big flavor, but I was willing to try the low toxin approach. Didn't hold me for very long.
Also, Dave says he can thrown down multiple cups of this stuff and after the first cup (I would even thrown 1/2 stick of butter in), my stomach was not happy.
I get where he is going with all this. I've been to Tibet, I've had yak tea, I've had Chai in India, etc and the Bulletproof method just didn't do it for me.
But back to fat. I've actually moved to a high fat diet (more or less). I don't do anything low fat. I do veggies and meats and for the meats, I want the fat. My morning always consists of some sort of fat - only grass fed butter with eggs, full fat yogurt, etc - and it works for me. Nothing processed, whole foods only.
For my coffee I love Weavers. They have fair trade organic and their French roast is really good. Prob one of the darkest roasts I've tried that just has this really killer smooth, nutty flavor. I use whole cream and a little sugar. I love it.
My weight has pretty much stabilized. I'm not super lean, but I'm not super lardo either. If I hopped back on my bike, I could prob drop 20lbs in a few months. My LDL checks in at normal and my doc said nothing is crazy out of balance.
Everyone has theories and Dave's are interesting. I guess it just boils down to trying different things and seeing what works.
I've heard people calling it the Brooklyn of the Bay Area.
The podcasts are really good. I don't think they describe anything shady or (if I recall correctly) have a bunch of ads - in fact, I don't think they have any ads at all. I don't feel like anything he says is shady. Just look at his income reports to see exactly where his money is coming in. He's pretty transparent and up front about anything. I bet you if you emailed him directly with your concerns, he'd answer you back.
In regards to writing or selling an ebook, yup, not for everyone. But one of the reasons an ebook is so big on his list is because that was his first big win and he pulled in a lot of money monthly by sharing his LEED experience and helped a lot of people pass their exams. Ebooks might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I'd love to have one out there that brings me in a couple of grand every month.
Now, if you feel like coding is what you want to do and marketing or passive income is shady or bs, that's fine. I used to think like that too and to each his own. But for me, I feel like I've done it all and it's time to try other things. I'm at a point now where I can charge a lot to do contract work, but I'd rather have my money work for me so I can do other things. Like I said before, time is your most precious resource and you can never make it up or get it back. And since there's only so many waking hours in the day, it just seems silly to spend them trading my time for money when I can make things that can keep the money rolling in at all times. And then I can code for fun or to scratch an itch whenever I want.
We (my friend and I) did everything in Basic. We had our first programming job at 14 & 13. And that was building mailing list apps for people (this was superseded by the database).
My main driving force has always been get 'enough' knowledge and dive in. I still do that today and now there are a gazillion more resources on the web to help. I grew up in the model-T days of computers.
Today if I was to advise someone on building a desktop or server app, I would probably say do it in Ruby or Python. And of those two, probably Ruby - it's just a little easier to get into.
iOS and Android are definitely huge, but I would probably suggest to someone to learn Swift and go for iOS if they wanna go the mobile route. iOS pays more and Swift is enough like Javascript to where you could transition a little easier than Java. Nothing wrong with Java, of course, but it's way bigger - like you getting dropped in a jungle and trying to find a way out.
However. I am a late comer to seo and _making money on the web_ via 'passive income'. My biggest recommendation to a kid might be to not program at all, but learn how to setup content sites and go for affiliate marketing, google adwords, etc. This is the complete opposite of coding for a living. Why would I recommend this?! Because you can make money this way while you sleep (see Tim Ferris & 4 hour work week). If you code for a living and trade time for money, you will never be able to do this. I've read many books from rich people and they say this is the worst form of earning you can do because you can never get time back, so time is the most valuable thing you have.
I feel like I've done a lot of models on the web - startup, my own products, code for cash, code for equity - and the one I feel strongest about is the passive income approach. It's not guaranteed, but if you can make it work, you'll be way ahead of the guy - in terms of making money - that trades his time for programming. Check out http://www.smartpassiveincome.com and prepare to depressed and happy.
That said, as soon as I saw Swift was announced, I took the plunge and started my own journal about learning Swift.
Figured I'd document my progress as I went along and it's been a lot of fun so far. This is something I plan on doing over the long haul and I'd like to get in some small 5-10 min videos that covers not only the language but also new things coming out in XCode as well.
I'm two posts behind, but I'm trying to release a new post every week. My biggest slow down has just been figuring out the blogging software and hosting.
I spent a lot of time fighting the proprietary thing. It's a noble effort, but I realized after years of sub-standard drivers, laptops that don't turn on when you open them, cpu fans buzzing out of control, etc, etc, I'd rather spend my time doing things instead of screwing with things.
Linux is great, I love it on the server and pretty much use it exclusively there. But I haven't seen any laptop manufacturer come close to building any laptop that's close to a Mac laptop. When you start off building based on cost vs. based on function & product, then you're always building something sub-standard. It may seem like indulgence, but no one makes unibody laptops but Apple. No one can.
I spend my days working on a beautiful machine that functions how I expect. I fiddle with very little, don't have to worry about upgrading or tearing anything apart and just focus on getting the things done. You can do this on Linux too for sure, but I feel like for me, the Linux desktop on crappy hardware is not fun or satisfying.
I have a Retina MBPro with 16GB of ram (soldered) and I couldn't be happier. In a few years when I want a laptop with 32gb ram, I'll give this one to a friend or family member and buy another one.
You're response sounds more like a marketing brochure to me. While I love tech and am in the tech world, the fact is, mine and everyone's private info is out there for anyone to buy and many companies to sell. Sure, we can make tools (some day) to put the equation in our favor, but this is not that day. Simply saying we can use Tor/private browsing/avoid social media is only part of it. Actually buying things not in cash leaves a trail and that info is sold to whomever pays.
Regardless if you could easily find out in the 1700's if someone was pregnant, the article was not a commentary on the past. It was about opting out in the present, which is pretty much impossible if you use any kind of connected technology in your daily life. Be it your atm/credit card, phone, internet connection - they all leave trails.
Sure, in the 1700's a butcher would see your face and maybe remember it. Maybe retain enough info to track you down if need be. But now, it's more than absolute. The more everything becomes digitized, the less anyone can be anonymous. You'd have to really be into the spy mindset to cover your tracks and do the things that would need to be done to get false ids, etc. And I don't know how much that would even help as machine learning and face recognition (coupled with ccd's everywhere) get better and could probably link up those fake ids.
Honestly, I don't care much because I'm not a very important or interesting person. So in a sense that way, I have some anonymity. And I love tech (still). Interesting experiment from the author, but we've already crossed the privacy line and there's no going back or opting out.
1. No distractions or interruptions. That includes a clean desk, no interruptions (closed door is preferable).
2. Comfortable chair and desk. You'll need something that you can sit in for extended periods of time.
3. Big container of water. I don't chug this, I sip. Your brain needs hydration, but I don't too much at one time as that forces bathroom breaks.
To preface all this, I usually always make sure I start as early as I can, have some coffee, and food. Before kids, I would usually do 6a-10a straight. Now, I can do an hour or so straight before I'm interrupted.
And, of course, stay away from HN and other news sites.
It's sad that none of that crew will ever answer for what they started and did. Granted, there were a lot of people in that chain that should have stood up and said no and not killed anyone. But they didn't. And if you or I did any of those things not wearing an army uniform, we'd be locked up and/or on death row.
I would never in a million years even acknowledge anyone from that team let alone bring them on the board of my company. We really are in an era where it's all about valuations, elevator pitches, and exits. I'm waiting for some young company to bring Dick Cheney on next.
Pick your battles I guess and I will be looking for an alternative that doesn't welcome war criminals.
As for public skd, sure. But we've already been able to use AirPlay on games for a while. For years. It's obvious (for now) Apple's notion of a controller is the iOS device itself, vs. Amazon using a typical console controller.
I've been waiting for years (like a lot of people I suppose) for Apple to spring the ATV sdk on the public. Every year, every WWDC, disappointment. This year I'm not holding my breath.
Well put. Just wait until your 40's. Or wait until you have kids! (If you plan on that). Sure, the list may get longer, but once you have that feeling of time is running out - that's when it gets freaky.
My wife and I had this discussion over the weekend. There's the rotten underbelly of tech that is overload and burn out. Personally, I'd love to walk away from tech. It has great money attached to it, but a lot of the time it's not worth it. If you're single with no responsibilities, it can be the best thing ever. You can meet like minded people who don't want to leave 'campus' and everyone can build their life around the job.
But if you have a family, it's probably not the best industry to be in. Sure, some places recognize this and allow for 'flexible hours'. But for most of the companies I've come across that are 'family friendly' this means working late into the night, which means you're tired the next morning. Rinse and repeat.
If I could give the 20 year old me some advice it would have been to apply at Netscape when I had the chance. :)
I've had to resort to a lower-tech approach:
* Rent a cheap server * Run transmission daemon on it * SSH into server, port forward 9091 * Connect to localhost:9091 and add torrents that way * When downloads are done, scp them off to my local network
Con: way too many steps involved Pro: encrypted to/from my local network
I know this is not nearly the same as Popcorn Time, but it would be nice to automate all this.
Looking at their other stories/posts, I find it - I dunno what I find it, actually. It does strike me as a fight and struggle with everything. A war on life.
Personally, I'm not into the military at all, never have been. I do find that Google's connection with the military (more than just Boston Dynamics) unfortunate. I'm sure they have a reason why they are doing what they do with them, as do all the companies that work with that part of the government. It would be nice (a pipe dream I suppose) if tech companies shunned the military. Singling out this this guy - I'm not sure what good it will do.
Which ultimately leads me to think about you have to be the change you want to see. Harassing people like this is probably not going to get them to change their mind. At all. Reminds me of some documentary I watched (The Corporation maybe?) where some protestors were at an ex-Shell Oil ceo's house, doing their thing. The guy came out, offered them team and biscuits and engaged in a sit down discussion with them on his lawn. Granted, no one changed anyone's minds, but the fact they could engage in a civil conversation - both sides! - was a good thing.
As someone who's lived in SF since the early 90's and seen it go thru good and bad and ho hum times, I think all this tech worker/bus hype is misplaced. I've also lived in NYC and dated someone who completed their masters at Columbia in urban planning. While I'm not claiming to be an expert, I know a thing or two about the real reasons for skyrocketing rents and 'gentrification'. For anyone looking for a great history of NYC, check out Ken Burns 'New York'. Awesome in it's scope and presentation. It get's really interesting and relevant to today when it hits the 20th century and Robert Moses appears. (SF's version of Moses is Justin Herman)
So would I prefer the manhattanization of SF over the detroitization of SF? Absolutely. Is it that simple? Probably not. But for anyone that's been around for more than few years, you remember what the corner of 10th & Market was like before it went thru it's Twitter and redevelopment phase? This is one example and I do feel like it was a dick move on Twitter's part to cry about the tax break. But, if it means the area is cleaning up, then I figure that's better than the way it was.
Anyway, I don't feel like any of these tech protests are worth much or will amount to anything. I feel like the protesters are targeting the wrong thing and need to refocus their efforts on their local government.
For me, in 2013, I made close to 800 commits to private repos. When I'm logged in, I can see the activity in the "Your Contributions" section of my private profile. Last year, I also switched employers and because I don't have any public projects I contributed to, my profile looks barren. However, that's far from the truth.
It would be nice if Github would allow me a setting to display just the commit activity, but not link to the private repos. I wouldn't be surprised if this is far off.
For those that would say "you should be contributing to more OS projects then", just remember that there are some of us who can't code 14 hours a day (anymore). We have families and/or lives out side of coding. This doesn't make our effort any less valuable than those that do it for the public. We just have a different set of constraints and responsibilities.
First off, I'm not an elite. Second, I don't think 'elites' (whomever they may be) are saying this so people become reality distortion-ified and just zombie off to devalue themselves making straw birdies because they love stick art the most. That's silly.
Instead, I look at some people like Elon Musk or Richard Branson or Jobs or Peter Diamandis as ones that have made their own way previously doing or currently doing what they love. For me it seems, once you clear away the FUD, that you are confident on your own self, realize you have little time on this planet, and therefore you see no value in wasting your time helping someone else pursue their dreams.
I must also add that this is not just captains of industry either. There are so many doctors, educators, and scientists around the world that I'm sure love what they do and actually do make an impact. I would encourage anyone to go on Youtube or Netflix, etc, and find a documentary about planning a mission to Mars or even launching a satellite. So many of these people think in terms of decades and it's unbelievable that they can create machines, put them into space, and collect data that expands the understanding of all humanity. Any time I watch one of these, I am just blown away by the people who do this. They are truly on another level and thinking in terms of mankind and not just 'me'. I don't see any elitism or devaluing of ones labor or mental faculties at all..
I look back on my life and see two passions that emerged: music and programming. Luckily for me, both of these things are still highly lucrative and highly expressive. I also love astronomy, philosophy, physics, construction, cooking, and more. I could probably pick any one of these and really love doing them (I actually did for construction for a while - building physical things with your hands and tools is awesome).
For me, it all comes down to being in love with life. I bet if you ask any person that's excelled in their industry (or like Branson and Musk) what they think about life, they will probably tell you it's beautiful and they love it. Perhaps it's because they're successful, but it doesn't matter. Your mind and your mindset are your greatest tools and channeling creativity and determination through a focused mind can lead to great things.
I wonder if the author loves writing? Critiques are fine, but does their story inspire anyone to do anything? Or is it just to help keep people in the same mindset of negativity and division? I've made some negative posts here on HN and I'll be the first one to say, yah, dumb. Whether it's a bad day or just getting wrapped up on others negativity, in the end it serves no purpose to actually bring about any change for good. It just joins the chorus of negativity and goes no where.
So, ultimately, I couldn't disagree more with the author. If anything I think people that do what they love (calling them elite's also just serves to simplify and brand as bad) and are successful doing it are some of the highest examples of what we could aspire to be or achieve.
The few projects I've finished, they've always been for-pay. Either contracting or as an employee. For my own, almost none.
However. A little over two years ago, I started coding an edu-based app that a friend and I designed (he's the biz side). I was gonna become a father and I thought, what better space to be in since I'm going to be dealing with it in the coming years.
Typical story, coded nights, mornings, weekends. After the baby came, coded less but still the same schedule. We launched the site last fall. And then.. we started having having users saying our site was too complicated, the change log and bug list kept growing. So, this thing I had worked on for so long and pushed into existence by sheer will, just burned me out.
I walked away for a few months and even though we were making almost $1k/mo, I felt it not worth my time anymore. But now, in the past week, I'm changing my tune.
At my day job, we're going thru the final phases of closing on m&a suitors. At first I thought this was awesome, but then looking at the suitors jobs list and reading them, I realized none of them are interesting. Do I want to code day an night? No. Do I want to spend all my day at an office? No. Do I want to help push someone else's dream closer to IPO? No.
I realized after this that I already have the dream (work-wise). We have edu partners lined up, some good potential biz deals, and it's all hinging on just spending a few weeks and fixing things. But having a family, working for something for a long time and not really seeing the reward (yet) - it's hard to keep going thru it all. But, I visualized and thought about "what would it be like to sit at my desk (anywhere I want) and keep making the thing I built better?".
This is the only thing I have ever 'finished' (will it ever be) and I think looking back, I did it all for the right reasons and kept pushing forward. Regardless what anyone else said about it (almost all the responses about the site were positive).
For me, in the end it is about doing what you love, channeling your passion to reach the goal(s). Goal 1 - launching it - reached, done. Goal 2 - helping people enjoy using it - restarted.
Lesson learned: don't give up. Every hour makes a difference.
Ah, an eccentric, you say. Perhaps. But all these new js frameworks just don't click with me. With Cappuccino, it's not so much the objective-c feel, it's that it's not munging a js framework with html. I design my views like I would real apps - in this case I use XCode (I know, it's not on Linux) and there's a util that translates the xib's into cib's. You can also build the ui in code, which I try to avoid.
I've worked with html a long time and Cappuccino was the first toolkit that made me enjoy making apps that run on the web. So, this is my commitment to myself this year. I'll also be releasing all the server tools on github/gitlab that help facilitate this sort of development (gems and whatnot).
Thanks to the op for the post. Even tho I'm not interested in Angular, still an interesting read.
I don't get it, what could you do to damage them economically? All these big network guys make money hand over fist for crappy service. No one I know loves Comcast or Verizon or AT&T. No one.
We've come as a country that invented the Internet to somewhere way down on the list of openness and speed. It's obvious why this is. We have some of the (if not the) most expensive connectivity for lowest speed in the world.
I have to laugh at 'improved service' and I guess I would if the whole thing were not just such a major let down.
With Obama, yah, he came in as the 'outsider' (typical of all candidates I suppose) with all these things he would 'Change' (Shepard Fairey anyone?). But alas, it's been one disappointment after another. Net neutrality, spying, real universal healthcare, not going after politicians of the Bush area that blatantly broke all kinds of laws, etc. All a sham.
It's playing out like a sci-fi story where anyone can be an enemy of the state, just choose your own adventure: leaker, no fly list, dissident, downloader, photographer/videographer; the list goes on and one.
I suppose I shouldn't be surprised as this isn't really a democracy anymore. Every law, decision pretty much has to have some 'but what about business/economy?' question. Excessive lobbying makes sure these decisions/rules will never change short of revolution. The fact that corporations are 'people' and that they have no donation limits anymore, pretty much ends what the founding fathers fought for - we the people.
The message of the 21st century america: get rich. Get above the law and above the fold of the 99%. Go where the rules don't apply to you. Go where you make the rules for everyone else.
I switched to Sprint because I felt like I wasn't going to be nickle and dimed (and despised as a 'data hog') like I was on AT&T. I'll never got back to AT&T. For the most part my plan on Sprint is great - unlimited data, phone, and text and 5GB hotspot for little bit less than what I was paying for AT&T.
But the network in SF just sucks. Ya know, it's 2014 and I'd just like decent LTE. I'm shelling out a lot of money for sub-par service. So, I'm gonna ask around about T-Mo and if it has good service, I'll switch over. Now they seem least douchy of the bunch.
But what we really need is more self-realization like this at the top. This is where the change for these sorts of policies can happen. On one hand, it's really sad that we're so work obsessed here - money is more important than people so much of the time. But, on the other hand, there is still room and freedom to make your own way and write your own rules.
I think about this topic a lot, especially because I am fighting burnout myself. I didn't do any work for most of xmas break and when I went back this week I kept thinking "I need another few months off". I even had to push for the two days after xmas off - there was a little push back from the ceo since we're a small 4 person company. But, I'm a little older than everyone and I was thinking "fuck it, I need to chill".
Ideally, my dream job is to just work for myself (I'm sure that's everyone else's too). Sure, there are tradeoffs with that, but there's something about working when you want, where you want. I think there can definitely be a balance between being on vacation a lot and outsourcing all the non-important work to other people who will do it. Time Ferris is a great read for this type of living and it exemplifies the work to live not live to work thing (or work as little as possible and really live).
I did a vacation a few years ago where my wife and mother in-law went to Spain. It was awesome, my first time there, but I was 'pressured' by work to keep crankin on our app. It was such bullshit and I was really pissed about that pressure - vacation was not vacation. I told myself: 1) I'd never work for someone else on vaca again - ever, and 2) I'd never make anyone else do that. Needless to say after a few days I was like, 'fuck this, this is the stupidest thing in the world. I'm in one of the best food and historical places in the world and the guys at home want me to keep coding. Bullshit.'
I think there's a point where you either keep going with everyone else's rules or you make your own. Get busy livin or get busy dyin. I'm at the point in my life where I'm getting to the last of dyin for someone else's deal and starting to live for my own. It's not impossible, just take discipline and focus. Otherwise, me, and everyone else is working under someone else's thumb, by their rules, working on vacation. Dumb.
Maybe he'll get over it in a few years? In the mean time, those of us who have things to do, because we actually appreciate life, will keep inventing, thinking, striving, working towards the next great thing we love.