188 karma · joined March 16, 2011
Also, don't use IDs? Really? The article referenced as a source for this claim ends with "Don’t stop using IDs, just be aware of where they can cause you headaches and know where to sensibly circumvent them. Anyone telling you not to use them at all is not wrong, but they’re definitely not right…"
That's good advice. Understanding how specificity works will make you realize, when designing your Twitter widget, relying on a selector ".tweet a" is unreliable, and use "a.tweet-link" instead.
On the other hand, having a human friendly URL might be nice in the long run for easily finding people. Definitely a tradeoff.
Alex: as a gay man who came out as an adult, I urge you to reach out to your closeted friend. Let him know that Facebook violated his privacy and you accidentally and unexpectedly came across his secret. Reassure him that you care about him as a friend and that his sexuality makes no difference to you.
Unless he is in physical or serious financial risk from coming out, his life will be unimaginably better if he comes out. If he's going to lose his job or be disowned by his parents, at least having one friend to share his secret with may make a world of difference.
If he has a girlfriend or wife, for her sake, you need to reach out to him. It's an incredibly awkward situation, but think about what an enormous positive difference you can make in one or two people's lives.
http://sass-lang.com/docs/yardoc/file.SASS_REFERENCE.html#ex...
Not an apples to apples comparison with the Yale article, but my reaction is still surprised that the number is that small at Yale.
Without Facebook I wouldn't have seen or spoken to lots of old friends until our 25th high school or college reunion.
Without Twitter I wouldn't have learned from and made connections with influential people in the tech world.
Without Google or Wikipedia or StackOverflow I would have to go to a library to learn anything new.
Without GitHub I would have to write my own software from scratch and spend a lot of time managing collaboration workflows.
Without AWS, Heroku, Ruby, Rails et al. I wouldn't have been able to launch my own startup without outside funding.
Without Zappos I wouldn't be able to buy size 15 shoes in whatever style or fit I want. I ordered shoes last week at 7pm and they arrived at 9:30am the next day. Seriously.
Without Kindle and my iPad I wouldn't be able to get any book in the world in 5 seconds for $10.
AirBNB, ZipCar, Apple, Dropbox, the list goes on, and this is in my (our) industry alone.
Neal Stephenson might not be able to fly to Mars in his lifetime, but I'm pretty excited about the innovations that will happen in the next 10 years; if they're half as good as the last 10, us geeks will be pretty satisfied.
Now that I'm working at a 2 person startup, I still work from coffee shops ~2 days a week. It's a great change of scenery from the office. I plug in headphones, get a caffeine buzz going, and can be very productive without being distracted.
The coffee shop matters a lot. I disagree with the author's opinion that national chains are best. Starbucks tends to have terrible WiFi, average coffee, and feels soulless. You have to explore your city to find the right balance of WiFi, ambiance, coffee, and power outlets. I was spoiled living in Seattle - I imagine that search takes a bit more effort somewhere like DC :)
GeekAtSea has an excellent post about Seattle coffee shops: http://www.geekatsea.com/best-coffee-shops-in-Seattle
Disclosure: I work at GoPollGo.
I see 2 problems currently.
1. Microsoft suing Android makers, and other similar examples, where large companies burn billions of dollars of our economy over something pointless.
2. Patent trolls like Intellectual Ventures and their shell companies suing startups.
How does this solve either of these problems? Who really needs this?