Hacker News Reader

jon_dahlon H.264 Licencing and Free Software

For businesses, this is a good question. H.264 licensing can be relatively inexpensive (free for moderate use, cheaper than MP3 or AAC for high-volume use). So most businesses are probably better off using H.264 than Theora.

Firefox is another story; they aren't charging, and according to the article, would be responsible for the licensing costs for every one of their (hundreds of millions of?) users.

jon_dahlon Google’s Founders File to Sell 5 Million Shares Each

Within limits, shareholders can elect the board of directors, right?

jon_dahlon 71 percent of top colleges still have policies that severely restrict speech

Public universities are government agencies

I'm pretty sure this is not true in the US. "State schools" (eg University of [state]) are private organizations that are chartered by the state, and partially funded by the government. So there is definitely a strong public link, but they're still private, and there is a big difference between a public university and (say) a public secondary school.

Not to disagree with your overall point; public funds should come along with some basic respect for the Bill of Rights.

jon_dahlon Man Buried in Haiti Rubble Uses iPhone to Treat Wounds, Survive

This guy is actually a friend of my co-founder. Amazing story.

For general amusement, read through the comments on the Wired article. The guy is accused of lying because "a DSLR flash can't light a pitch black room" and "his iPhone battery couldn't last 65 hours".

jon_dahlon Google Agrees to Censor Encyclopedia Dramatica Entry in Australia

Calm down, man. The previous poster expressed a reasonable opinion. Disagree if you want, but don't resort to ad hominem.

jon_dahlon Tumblr sends passwords in the clear.

The poster's point isn't really about Ruby. Ruby works just fine with HTTPS, thank you very much. It's not like Ruby handles the HTTPS encryption. I think his point is more "I hear the excuse 'it uses too much CPU time', but this is often from people who [should be looking elsewhere if they have performance problems]".

jon_dahlon Startup Advice in just three words

Not bad, but personally, I prefer four words: "Build something people want."

jon_dahlon “I Sleep Two Hours Per Day”

When I was younger (college), I really wanted to sleep less. I thought that if I could get by on 6 hours, 4 hours, or 3 hours of sleep, I'd live a better life, and would have more time to get things done.

No more. First, there is a lot of research that most people need 8+ hours of sleep, and that this is determined genetically. As in, not everyone can move to a 4 hour sleep night without side effects.[1]

Second, I'm happier and more productive when I'm well rested. Better 16 good hours a day than 20 bad hours.

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/14/health/research/14sleep.ht... (registration req'd)

jon_dahlon CrunchPad Federal Lawsuit Filed; Some Additional Thoughts

Technically, a joint venture (indeed, any partnership) can be based on a purely verbal arrangement

This makes sense, but it scares me a little. Entrepreneurial types frequently do what Fusion Garage and Arrington did, though usually on a lesser scale. A product person and a tech person might get together for a week to try something out, and they might even talk about formalizing a relationship. Often, this is done to just test a relationship or test an idea. I'd hate to think that one would have grounds to sue the other for "false promise" because of something like this.

What's the difference between two parties exploring an idea together and actually having an implicit, binding, unwritten contract?

jon_dahlon A successful academic faces lifelong debt

IMHO, giving a Management or Marketing class to a 20 year old is like learning a foreign language from a textbook, without ever speaking with a native. You're better off spending 1 year actually doing it than 4 years studying.

Studying history, philosophy, literature, art, etc. helps you learn how to think and communicate. Someone who knows how to think and communicate can pick up business or programming easily enough, and can consult formal training when they're ready for it (which is rarely at the age of 20).

These aren't absolutes, of course - there are plenty of philosophy majors who can't think their way out of a cardboard box, and plenty of business majors who think really well.

jon_dahlon A successful academic faces lifelong debt

This is true for many people. But if you have a choice - and large portions of the world do - you're better off being underpaid and enjoying your work, than being paid well and hating it.

jon_dahlon A successful academic faces lifelong debt

You're basically saying that a humanities education doesn't have professional value. I disagree completely. A lot of employers (myself included) would rather hire someone with a philosophy or history major than a business major. For many careers, a corresponding college major is 80% useless and 100% unnecessary.

jon_dahlon The Economics of AWS

You're coming on a little strong, man. I appreciate your basic point, but you're calling people sheep because they weigh the pros and cons of cloud hosting differently than you.

jon_dahlon Ruby Gets An Official Spec: Heading To Become An ISO International Standard

This is a formal language spec (e.g. Here is what happens when you call the "foo" method), not a developer certification. Previously, there was no spec, so official Ruby behavior was "whatever the interpreter did". This would have been really useful when projects like JRuby and Rubinius were earlier along.

jon_dahlon Why I gave away my company to charity

This is a strange argument. He isn't dodging taxes - the same tax code that pays for roads and tanks also specifically encourages people to give money to charities, by providing legal deductions. That's all he's doing.

The government has a mandate, and the power, to fund itself. The same isn't true of charities.

jon_dahlon Saying "NO"

Four techniques for saying "No" without your client knowing it:

1. Tell them how much something will cost. "Great idea! A live chat widget will cost another $20,000. What do you think?"

2. Make them prioritize. Pick things that you know are more important. "How should we prioritize that change compared to paid subscriptions and the Help system?"

3. Make them remember. Put it on the backlog and don't start it until they ask for it again.

4. Offer them alternatives. We once had a client who wanted native Excel exports of reports. We suggested either CSV exports or HTML table exports, which Excel can read.

(This is more "no" to features than to design decisions, but the principal is similar.)

jon_dahlon Saying "NO"

Obligatory Henry Ford quote: "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses."

jon_dahlon My 8 hour journey to a single character

Good point. This is why in Extreme Programming (and Cucumber), user stories are supposed to include a "Why?".

"As a user, I should be able to mark my favorite posts, so that I can find them again." It may turn out that users don't need to find old posts, or would prefer to search instead of looking through an old list.

jon_dahlon The best questions we got while raising venture capital

I was thinking the same thing. It's a really good article - above the TechCruch norm. I especially liked #2 - "Where's the real money?" It's tempting to try to go from 0 to 100,000,000 in one go, but if you haven't penetrated a familiar market yet, it's often worth waiting on the unfamiliar market.

Reminds me of the recent Pyramid Method post here[1]. Succeed in a small sector that gives you frequent feedback. Once you're mastered that sector, move on to bigger things.

[1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=712300

jon_dahlon Do we really need another programming language?

My wishlist: a Perl successor that takes the functional path, not the OO path (like Ruby). Also, one that plays well with either C/C++/Unix or the JVM, for deployment practicality. I think I want Lua + ML in one.

jon_dahlon Ask HN: MBA or Masters in Computer Science?

For the love of God, take your time.

Absolutely. If you really want to learn, you'll do far better by apprenticing than by studying in the classroom. Check out Corey Haines (http://www.coreyhaines.com/) for inspiration.

Then, if you want a little more formal understanding, go back to school. But don't go until you've worked for a while - like 10 years.

jon_dahlon Python language moratorium is accepted

Probably because 1.9 isn't completely backwards-compatible with 1.8.

People were also upset by two things. First, some 1.9 features were backported into 1.8.7, meaning an upgrade from 1.8.6 to 1.8.7 was sometimes painful. Second is numbering confusion. Ruby used to use even numbers for stable releases, and odd numbers for experimental releases. So 1.9 should be experimental, and 1.10 or 2.0 stable. But for various reasons, they didn't want to go to either 1.10 (ever) or 2.0 (yet), so 1.9 will be used for production releases. It has taken a long time for Ruby folks to realize that they should be using 1.9.

jon_dahlon Rejection massively reduces IQ

The best example of this is the Flynn Effect - IQs have dramatically risen over time. Either our ancestors were dullards, or the IQ test measures something other than innate intelligence.

"If American children of 1932 could take an IQ test normed in 1997 their average IQ would have been only about 80.[2] In other words, half of the children in 1932 would be classified as having borderline mental retardation or worse in 1997." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect)

jon_dahlon Thank you, Rails

This is the tone that every language/framework comparison should take. Thank you, jacobian!

jon_dahlon It's OK Not to Write Unit Tests

Have you done much unit testing? Done right, writing unit tests often doesn't take any extra time at all.

jon_dahlon It's OK Not to Write Unit Tests

Summary: another post saying that "unit tests aren't a panacea".

Which is true, of course. But that doesn't mean that unit testing isn't terribly useful.

jon_dahlon Ask HN: What artists do you like?

Great tip! I'll check it out.

jon_dahlon Ask HN: What artists do you like?

RE Bach: to each their own. I find counterpoint to be really emotionally powerful, and I think that's the root of what grabs me in Bach.

jon_dahlon Ask HN: What artists do you like?

I'm especially partial to three bits of classical music.

1. 20th century classical. I really love Shostakovich, Stravinksy, Bartok, and others who blended "classical" elements (18th and 19th centuries) with modern ideas. At its best, their music is as rich and enjoyable as Mozart and Beethoven, but unusual and fresh at the same time.

2. Contemporary minimalism. (Contemporary maybe meaning 1960s and on.) Especially Arvo Part, Gorecki, and John Adams. Beautiful, haunting, original, and accessible. If you're looking for recommendations, try Fratres and Tabula Rasa by Arvo Part, or Symphony #3 by Gorecki. Really unbelievable music.

3. Bach. 300 years old, and better than anything that's come since. He rides the tension between simplicity and complexity, beauty and the sublime. If humans are still around in 20,000 years, when they look back to the 1000's, they'll think of Bach and Shakespeare. Recommendations: cello suites, cantatas, St. Matthew's Passion, and everything else.

(edit) I'm less experienced with visual art, but Kiki Smith definitely deserves a mention. I also enjoy Gerhard Richter, Kandinsky, Chagall, and Klee.

jon_dahlon Every Developer Deserves More Memory

You don't need Apple RAM. Check out Other World Computing for an Apple-friendly RAM shop.