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mpc

566 karma · joined August 10, 2007

Startup engineer from Cambridge, Ma.

Twitter: @mattcarbone

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mpc··on React is the new jQuery
We're talking about two totally different programming paradigms here. The end product might be the same but it's more of a question about how you arrive there.

With JQuery you're signing up for manual DOM manipulation. It's a challenge to scale that for what's now considered table-stakes for web apps.

mpc··on How to avoid rewriting your JavaScript application
yes, that will break.
mpc··on Show HN: StatusGrid – a simple status tracking app for teams
It's been super cool to see some people sign up. Happy to answer questions for anyone kicking the tires :)
mpc··on Why We Killed Off Code Reviews
It's totally separate from the topic of efficiency gains or code reviews, but the idea of 100% pairing would take most of the enjoyment out of programming for me. Working in isolation (for the most part) to solve a hard problem and drive it to completion is incredibly satisfying. A lot of that goes away when you're working side by side.

You're never in "the zone" if you're pair programming.

mpc··on How We Got Through The "Trough Of Sorrow"
I was an early team member at Viximo...

As a team we all still believed that we could accomplish big things together. On top of that, we didn't want to let each other down.

Like Brian pointed out, the culture was established at the beginning. Folks were recruited on how well they would gel and adopt a core set of values in addition to pure talent.

mpc··on Early Photos of Y Combinator
Glad to see that someone else thinks this too. I really loved these machines.
mpc··on A web startup, circa 2004
2011 - 1 macbook pro * n-employees. Maybe some nice flat-panels if you're into that.
mpc··on Instagram Now Adding 130,000 Users Per Week
I do.
mpc··on Talismans of Productivity: Or give up coffee.
Perhaps. Although even the experts don't fully understand ADHD.

Most people don't know where they fall on the ADHD spectrum. Maybe that's one of the reasons why there's such a mixed opinion on whether caffeine is good or bad when it comes to focusing.

mpc··on Talismans of Productivity: Or give up coffee.
ADHD is often resolved paradoxically with stimulants. For me, caffeine is a natural alternative to ADHD medication. A small amount of coffee, twice a day, allows me to focus intensely.

Folks with ADHD aside...optimizing caffeine intake seems to be the key to avoiding the nasty side-effects.

mpc··on John "Captain Crunch" Draper, the Hacker's Hacker
"Draper wrote EasyWriter, the first word processor for the Apple II, in 1979. According to The Wall Street Journal, he hand-wrote the code while serving nights in the Alameda County Jail, then entered the code later into a computer."

Amazing...

mpc··on Ask HN: Holy Crap I need an Idea
re #2...where do you see the music being sourced from? Allowing listens on shared music via user uploads would be a legal nightmare and the major APIs only provide 30 second clips.
mpc··on If you can't find 10 people who say they'll buy it...
What if your product is Foursquare or Twitter? There are obvious business models down the road but only until you achieve massive adoption.

I think the question to potential users is "Would you use this everyday?". This is more important than going to Starbucks and asking if they would pay to promote within the service (it's a no-brainer).

mpc··on Will the real programmers please stand up?
You're not hurting with that salary and look to the right... 2% of a company for a hacker at the seed stage is amazing.
mpc··on The Awesome Foundation: $1K grants every month in the name of awesomeness
really? what's wrong with it?
mpc··on "Pizza profitable" Airbnb now in 1,000 cities worldwide
Does this new rating system imply that you can sell the company once you hit Ruth's Chris profitable? :-)
mpc··on YouPorn is hiring. Apparently it's powered by Perl/Catalyst
Desperation? I can understand not applying because you're morally apposed to pron or something, but if you look past the video content it's actually a pretty interesting gig for web hackers.

millions of page views, tons of data and metrics to track... damn, it has more interesting problems than most startups.

mpc··on Ask HN: Review Startup, jobmigo.com - Real Time Job Finder, Powered By Twitter
http://jobmigo.com

I think this is a good idea (had something similar floating around in my head) and it looks like you guys have executed really well.

- There is a number (most always 1) next to each post title, it's not totally obvious what this is for...(especially if you're not a twitter pro)

- It would be nice to view all tags without leaving the main page

Looking forward to watching your app as Twitter continues its crazy growth.

mpc··on Announcing Start@Spark: Why are we doing this?
I'd love to learn more about how convertible debt (like this) works for early stage tech startups.
mpc··on New Product From 280North: Atlas
A summary of that would be great....

I know that Apple pushed WebObjects to the back burner when they acquired NeXT in the mid 90s but I'm not sure why it would be bad for them to buy 280 North today.

mpc··on Will Obama Break Up Google?
How is it that they have a monopoly on Search and Cloud Computing exactly?
mpc··on Facebook Announces FBJS2
I've never written a FB app but aside from getting some of facebook's canned ui components, why would one use FBML and FBJS?

It seems better to just run your whole app in an iframe and just use html/css/jquery and have complete control while hitting the REST api yourself.

mpc··on Ask HN: What web framework(s) do you guys use?
jQuery. Rails.
mpc··on Starting this summer, YC will be in California year-round
I need to speak up for my local restaurants in the areas you just mentioned....Great spots in Arlington where I live, not as many options as the squares in Cambridge but there's some great eats.
mpc··on Ask HN: How do I make myself competitive for a master's in CS after college?
Any idea why it's "so much cheaper"
mpc··on Ask HN: How to monetize a play for fun poker site?
How about digital goods/gifts? Similar to what facebook and other gaming sites have done...virtual trophies, awards, etc. that users can display in a 'giftbox' within their profiles.

If your site has enough traffic and is socially 'interactive' you could monetize the interactions with virtual gift micropayments instead of trying to monetize the users themselves.

mpc··on Does Google corporate use Exchange servers?
I can also confirm that
mpc··on Sequoia Rings the Alarm Bell: Silicon Valley Is in Trouble
Same here. I've had one...yes it's a good chair, but I don't understand the price difference between my chair and the aeron.

Our chairs were 30 dollars each and we got them used, Saved 10s of thousands.

mpc··on No Exits. Liquidity Dries Up Even More For VC-Backed Startups In Third Quarter
A site like Facebook would be impossible with just 10-15 people. Designing, implementing, and managing something on that scale is an insane amount of work. It probably takes a dozen ops/monitoring people just to keep the thing running.
mpc··on Is JavaScript becoming a Ruby killer?
I don't understand. I was actually writing server-side javascript before taking a break to read this site
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