rjb

B.A. in Art and Photography. I was working in the mail room of a financial company here in Chicago when word got around that I was an art major and that I was into computers. The CIO came over one day and dropped a 4" stack of HTML print outs on my lap, asking me to build a company newsletter website. I haven't stopped web development since. (I can't believe that's pushing 10 years ago).

I dropped out of grad school (computer science) a few years back after completing 1 year only because it wasn't enjoyable. It felt like high school, no enthusiasm, like every HAD to be there. Classes were painfully slow and sequential, stripped of any creativity.

Very cool... I'll have to forward this on to my grandfather.

A few years back I lived with him for a year in Brighton, UK and we'd spend hours discussing technology and engineering over tea or a pint. What I enjoyed the most most about our talks was learning about his life, who he was and discovering that he helped lead the teams that laid the fiber optics between the US and the UK. (im going to have to ask him about the vulnerabilities)

Previous to that he had spent quite a bit of time in Canada, vancouver i believe, working with Canadian engineers developing methods to push the effectiveness of fiber optics past 3 miles. As a parting gift he gave me a fiber optic stub from the factory he was an engineer at - A tear shaped piece of glass from which the tiny fibers are pulled.

This map just sparked so many fantastic memories of my time with him! The great talks as well as being humiliated at the pub as an 83 year old man drank me under the table!

Thanks for posting this.

I have to agree with you... Apple, I feel, did not take the "this is the next step in mobile computing and we're leading the way" approach here. It's just a thin, albeit gorgeous, computer.

I'm not saying I don't want one, of course.

Same here! I still remember going to the mall pleading my case to Santa.

That would be interesting.

I could be wrong about the photographer, but I believe it was Eugene Atget who has a photograph of a completely empty Paris street (I cound't find it online), one that is usually bustling. His effect was achieved by a very long time exposure, a consequence of the technology at the time.

Parisians were turned off by its creepy nature, and think your idea would definitely bring an eerie feel to Times Square.

Many little sneezes could turn into buzz.

You could let people know about your product/service here. The community here is quite helpful and honest. http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=20342

I agree... I think this idea of ownership is growing as "everyday" web users feel a need to own their online identities and data. We already are seeing this with tools like Weebly. Web developers and techies have enjoyed this luxury for quite some time.

One thing I really like about subdomains is that it makes accessing a site very quick... from my address bar I type "new" and news.yc.com pops right up!

I have not seen this... Cool. Historically though eBay has never put any effort into creating a user friendly experience. "San Dimas" may be a sign that they are wising up and starting to realize that maybe they do have things to fear. It begs to ask, what took so long? Fear? A feeling that any change would detour users or add a new learning curve their users could not handle? Was making it a desktop version a compromise, fear that it would scare their online users? (I have no idea of course)

PayPal kicked ass, why not Auctomatic? May not be the best comparison, but one thing paypal taught us is that the idea of "ownership of users" is very blurred.

You make a very good point, Auctomatic may really have their work cut out for them. But that's what makes it fun, right?

Of course always a possibility (myspace/photobucket), but I was just supporting Auctomatic's decision seeing as at every turn eBay seems to make their tools harder and harder to use.

There are a million reasons why Auctomatic shouldn't bother, but if they are a great team you'll never be able to convince them of that.

eBay seems to do everything in their power to prevent usability. Auctomatic hopefully will capitalize on this.

It has nearly been a week for me. I used to visit multiple times a day, but I prefer the strong focus of news.yc. Just wondering if anyone else has found news.yc as addictive.

For many it's a willingness to move beyond their comfort zone. Once they know the stress/workload/etc. levels will have them on their tippy-toes and no higher, they may be ready.

Interesting... I lean more to the latter, I am usually happy to seed, as you put it, other startups I find useful, but not necessarily meeting my needs.

I think posting your startup on news.yc allows it to be given a closer look since the community here is much tighter than most sites. I'm much more willing to graze past the usual .5 second judgment of any site posted here.

This is really cool. Adding storage or fixing arrays after drives fail can be such a pain, but Drobo looks like it really solves both these issues.

The ThinkPad T Series are my favorite, next is the X Series. The only issues I have had running linux on then is getting fingerprint reader going... I honestly didn't even bother trying.

I have a friend who used to work on the ThinkPad line and she used to go on and on about how their line went above any other she had ever seen - In terms of cleanliness and concerns for static, loose items, hair etc.

When ever I am setting up a new client I invariably suggest ThinkPads, unless, of course, I know they are willing to give Macs a shot.

I agree, forums as a whole are inadequate. I think sites like Chowhound.com have done an incredible job at brining an interesting perspective on forum interaction.

PowerBook 15" 1.25 512. I too am anticipating a 12/13" MacBook Pro. I've had it since 2003 and it still runs like a champ, but I am on the road so often that I need something more portable. Maybe the iPhone will offer a decent, albeit basic, workspace.

I've launched two Rails apps on MT(GS) and my experience has been very good. I believe they did have some issues initially, but I can say that I have not experienced any of the problems others have had.

Darmesh puts some things into perspective that I was very unclear about.

I have to second this. "Ruby for Rails", I feel, is a great resource for learning not only the Ruby language, but how to program with it. It really did not need the Rails section. I've only flipped through "Beginning Ruby" (apress), but that looks like a good Ruby book too.

I love the search page... "Words to look for".

Why ASAP? I am thinking of relocating from Chicago to either Portland, San Francisco, or Seattle. I had been leaning towards Portland, for no particular reason. I'd love to hear your thoughts on why you want to leave Portland.