Hacker News Reader

Too noisy I agree... fotoblur.com tries to do this by giving images lots of space.

fotobluron Flickr gets new UI, new Android app, 1 TB free space

Funny when I read this, I thought of Jobs.

fotobluron Flickr gets new UI, new Android app, 1 TB free space

IMHO their UI further validates the Facebook commenting style unfortunately. I've always felt the tree based conversations design is a much easier way to follow various side conversations that spring up. But anyway, its blah, its bling, its boring. Can't help but to notice similarities to other sites in their design, but I guess thats the way the web works.

fotobluron The future of creative work online - Welcome to the new Scoutzie (YC S12)

PS: I'm glad the site works fine without Javascript enabled.

Who does this and why? Do you like browsing the web where 80% of website's functionality is broken because you think its a good idea to browse with JavaScript disabled. Makes no sense.

fotobluron Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM

One thing I've learned from this kind of news is this: Do wrong and get ahead. Most people will forget next week, you'll get a ton of free press, and oh yeah...more users.

I've been so dumb to not have tried this kind of bad publicity stunt yet.

fotobluron "Make something people want" poster

What do people want?

"It's really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them." - Steve Jobs

fotobluron You know, Google, the web already had this feature

My personal stream was my RSS feed, you want me to replace it with a Google+ profile. Interesting I wrote about this just about a year ago: Social Networks Killed the Content Providers (http://www.lanceramoth.com/blog/2012/05/social-networks-kill...)

I also introduced the idea of Personal Digital Asset (PDA). Would love to know what you think.

fotobluron Facebook Home

I was speaking of the usage of models...of course privacy is everyone's concern ;).

fotobluron Facebook Home

Doesn't look like its for anyone over 30.

fotobluron Does Anyone Here Speak Art and Tech?

I'd love to see what your site is about but don't want to create an account just to do so... I don't even get in the front door before I know I want to leave. Just my 2 cents.

fotobluron Mailbox Is Joining Dropbox

Mailbox, the app I've yet to use gets acquired.

How can an app like Mailbox make you mad? Here is how: I'm still waiting in the queue for over a month now to even try the app. Scarcity is the mental mind hack used to increase demand (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Cialdini)...but for me personally its backfired. If Dropbox's resources can help here, I'm all for it. Good luck.

Also, a note to mailbox web designer, try adding more contrast to your text so I can actually read it.

fotobluron Software Engineers: What was your biggest ever f*ck up?

My biggest f*ck up:

When I worked for a financial institution my manager gave me a production level username and password to help me get through the mounds of red tape which usually prevented any real work from getting done. We were idealists at the time. Well I ended up typing that password wrong, more than 3 times...shit, I locked the account. Apparently half of production's apps were using this same account to access various parts of the network. Essentially, I brought down half our infrastructure in one afternoon.

Lesson learned:

Don't use the same account for half your production apps. Not really my fault :).

fotobluron How I Fired Myself

I think that everyone does this at some point in their career. Don't let this single event define you. The most important thing to ask yourself is what was the lesson learned...not only from your standpoint but also from the business'.

In addition, to heal your pain its best to hear that you're not the only one who has ever done this. Trust me, all engineers I know have a story like this. (Please share yours HN - Here I even started a thread for it: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5295262)

Here is mine: When I worked for a financial institution my manager gave me a production level username and password to help me get through the mounds of red tape which usually prevented any real work from getting done. We were idealists at the time. Well I ended up typed that password wrong, more than 3 times...shit, I locked the account. Apparently half of production's apps were using this same account to access various parts of the network. Essentially, I brought down half our infrastructure in one afternoon.

Lesson learned: Don't use the same account for half your production apps. Not really my fault :).

fotobluron The best programmers are the quickest to Google

Its not only resourcefulness but the ability to know what pieces you need to build the project. That is harder to find by Googling.

fotobluron No more remote work at Yahoo

Not surprised by 37 Signal's opinion as they've gotten remote to work because of their passion for creating tools that foster communication.

For me, there are 2 ways to look at Yahoo's decision.

One is they are flat out wrong, but thats OK, because they are making decisions (Steve Jobs spoke of this)! Decisions are what moves companies in directions, good or bad, its better than being frozen and stagnant.

Two, I can attest to the cross pollination of ideas when you're together as a team, sharing lunch, sharing experiences, seeing each other in person, reading each other's body language, etc that just doesn't seem to happen at the same level when you're remote. If I were building a team from the ground up I'd want my team to be hanging out everyday ...the other meta of working together doesn't happen over Skype :). I can't tell you how many solutions were dreamed up on the walk to Starbucks. There is just something there that is hard to replicate with software.

fotobluron US Senator says games are a bigger problem than guns

In my research I came across what I think is the best explanation for the cause for violence in our society. I believe video games are just another symptom but not the cause and effect.

"Of all crimes, those involving violence are most closely related to high levels of inequality." - http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/mar/13/the-spirit-level

fotobluron Apple Pulls 500px’s Mobile Apps From The App Store

http://i.imgur.com/GESYvRs.jpg shows 4+ and a reviewer who said it wasn't safe.

fotobluron Apple Pulls 500px’s Mobile Apps From The App Store

Here are the facts:

The app had a +4 rating which apple defines as "Apps in this category contain no objectionable material." Did 500px honor this rating? No.

Also, they shouldn't have been surprised. The review right on their iTunes page lists a complaint about nudity. I think if the app was properly rated Apple should put the app back up.

http://i.imgur.com/GESYvRs.jpg

fotobluron So you think you can tell Arial from Helvetica?

Got 19 out of 20. I missed the Panasonic one.

What I like most about Helvetica is the top of the t is flat rather than sharp and there is less stylizing overall. Arial, for me, breaks the philosophy of stylizing for stylizing sake. Helvetica, IMHO, was already perfect.

This makes me remember the Essay by Adolf Loos' Ornament and Crime (1929) (http://technical-english.wikidot.com/text-1-2). Albeit bordering on racist propaganda contains very valid points on ornamentation being wasteful which I believe was a hallmark of Dieter Rams philosophy, "Good design is as little design as possible" which highly influences Apple's industrial designer Jonathan Ive.

fotobluron Aaron Swartz commits suicide

I don't know much about this system JSTOR, but you know with what you said about "scholarly articles dating back centuries" I'd expect them to have some costs associated with those efforts. Its not a popular way to raise money, yes, but who else are you going to charge other than the people interested in using that system...just saying.

fotobluron DUNS - the fraudulent secret startup cost of iOS development

Same thing here. I gave up and decided to go through D&B's website and filled out their forms last night. Got a call this morning. For $295 they can expedite the process and get you your number in 3 days or wait 30 - 45 days. This is completely ridiculous. If I get my number in 6 weeks and wait 2 weeks for Apple to update their database I'm looking at a 2 month delay in releasing my app. Nice job Apple.

fotobluron Facebook, I want my friends back

Its a funny thing. When I read your comment I remember it saying exactly that on the Facebook Sign up page. Something along the lines of "Its free (and always will be)".

fotobluron Jack Dorsey: Let's Reconsider Our "Users"

I think it's completely contextual. We call our users 'members' at Fotoblur, since we're a community. When I was in college working as a waiter one restaurant insisted we never call customers 'customers' but 'guests.'

fotobluron Lockitron Sells Over 9000 Units in First Week, Opens Up Orders for Batch 2

Call me old fashion, but I'll save $150 and leave a key under the mat.

fotobluron A Letter from Tim Cook on Maps

Curious, I've heard many times now that by simply using Apples new mapping app it will get better when more people use it. I have yet to understand how that process works. Can anyone elaborate? Thanks.

fotobluron Myspace previews complete redesign

I am glad to see designers pushing for the horizontal scroll. IMO, the everlasting vertical scroll always bothered me as unnatural. Kudos to MySpace for pushing the envelope on the redesign. My visits to Facebook won't be the same ;).

fotobluron Coding skill vs. employee skill

'Extreme example' vs 'real example' ...hmmm, did I interpret the article incorrectly in that it was a hypothetical where mine was my own experience. Thanks for calling me a 'worse employee' too. Guess I won't be getting a job at tinyco anytime soon.

fotobluron Coding skill vs. employee skill

Okay, now a real example:

Gabriella is only able to explain the technical stuff because Rodrigo explained it to her first. Her summary is the watered down version, so more people understand her. She doesn't quite get the details anyway.

Mostly, Gabriella gets her job done because Rodrigo helps her at every turn. Without him, she'd be lost. He has to spoon feed the solution to her often. He leaves out the last step occasionally to see if she can figure it out on her own. He enjoys this game so both win. Gabriella feels like she's actually contributing something. All this happens while Rodrigo is getting his own job done. The team is happy.

Rodrigo gets more work done since he tries to avoid distractions. He understands that the most important 'thing' is actually what he's currently working on and not what project managers have coming down the line. Gabriella is focused on what is coming down the line so that she can identify and get assigned the easy work first. Rodrigo gets assigned the hard stuff.

Gabriella keeps her job by appearing busy through socializing while Rodrigo keeps his by keeping the ship afloat.

At standups Gabriella can talk half an hour about a single line code change while Rodrigue provides a single brief statement on an entire system he's currently working on.

Gabriella's checkins:

+5 -2

+1 -0

Rodrigo's checkins:

+78 -45

+22 -10

+55 -0

+85 -20

Rodrigo makes 1.6 times Gabriella. Gabriella leaves early, Rodrigo puts in a full day.

fotobluron Surprise: People hate being forced to use Facebook

At my current job all the project managers think our users are so promiscuous with their online activities that they'll use services like Facebook for just about anything (Events, RSVP, etc).

However, from talking directly with some of our user's most of them are telling me they avoid these features because they don't understand what the long term effects might be. Apps who have abused Facebook and stories about potential privacy concerns in the media have left a bad impression on them regardless of what Facebook has done to 'fix' the problem.