simondlr

I always had a sense of urgency (sometimes it creeps through again). It's much less now and I'm more content. I always thought I'd have time to enjoy sunsets, smelling the proverbial flowers once I achieved what I wanted to do. Then one day, in a cliche moment of clarity, it dawned on me that I'll always have something I'd want to achieve: create a hugely successful site, write a bestseller, play music in stadiums. I'll never be satisfied.

So instead, each day, I try to find beauty and contentedness in the world around me. Creating smiles where I go, absorbing late afternoon sun on my skin, etc. That mindshift made me reappreciate the place I've lived in for 16 years. The mountains were suddenly beautiful, the people, etc.

That doesn't mean I still don't have goals. I've just made them realistic, asking myself why I want to achieve that goal. It shouldn't be to fill the "emptiness" that the author talks about. My new years resolution for the year for example is to run a 10km race (getting close!).

I can easily see Facebook implementing "party mode" for their events, especially with their new Camera app. If you take a photo, it checks if you are supposed to be at an event, and asks if you should post it there. No-brainer.

Happens to me too on Tumblr. Also sometimes some pictures just won't load. Rather annoying, as I've started to really enjoy Tumblr lately.

Same. It gives credence to Jack Dorsey's claim of Twitter "holding the public conversation".

My thought process: It seems Twitter is down? Let's see if someone else on Twitter is also saying it is down? Goes to Twitter.com. D'oh.

This gives credence to Jack Dorsey's claims of "holding the public conversation".

Read this thread and the blog post, it seems everyone has had this idea. I've had my own thoughts about it. It's a difficult problem. There are various paths to get to that result, with most of them having to build on a network effect of the previous success. You have to provide value to both retailers, product owners and customers along the way.

An interesting way to approach it, which I don't think people has mentioned is to provide incentive for people to share/store their own shopping. Scan a slip with your phone and it stores it. Now you can easily create a new shopping list, and or remember what you bought.

Now you start building up this database. Now you go to retailers and say: Look, customers are using this app, why don't you make items available so people can search them before making their to-buy list?

As with any idea, this one has holes as well. How many people actually make to-buy lists? And would be willing to scan their slips to process what they bought? Interesting thought experiment none the less.

Referencing Jeff Atwood's post: How is it possible that CS graduates can't do fizzbuzz?!

Agreed. I think "How to Win Friends and Influence People" is a must read for everyone. And yes, its not about using it to get what you want, it is more about making engagements with other people more pleasant. If you instinctively sympathise with other people, even if they in the end don't "sway" to what you want, you had a great experience with another person.

The link: https://developer.v.me/docs/get_credentials

When taking photos, Facebook wants it to be the first thing users think of. By stripping other separate features, users won't be that easily confused about the purpose of the app. I'd venture and say few users immediately go to the current Facebook to upload a photo, but if there is a separate app, then the other features won't distract them from what they want to achieve. Basically: "Want to share a moment? Think Facebook. NOT twitter. NOT instagram."

That's my guess.

There are filters + ability to crop and rotate it seems.

I'll give it a pass. It doesn't seem like it can do anything that Instagram can't do and I don't always want to share all my photos to Facebook. Anyone had a go? How's the UX?

I'm from South Africa. I'm not sure if they cache Google+ here (I know they cache YouTube) or use a CDN, but I've found Google+ to do exactly this. It's slow, and sometimes stuff just doesn't load (especially images).

It's strange, because Google+ is the first social network I've seen that actually promotes itself on my campus (large installs with lifesize Angry Birds).

Facebook is not just a photo uploader in PHP. I can assure you that's not why Mark built it. Instagram is not just a photo app with filters. These products add more value than the sum of the parts. A car is not simply a combustion engine with wheels. Who would buy that? They buy it, because it takes them somewhere. Who would want a photo uploader in PHP? It's used because users find value in seeing their friends in photos. You must take the tech and use that to make something of REAL value, something people would want to use and understand why they would want to use it.

But I do get what you mean. Preferably we would want to see people putting their minds into 'big' ideas, vast improvements in humanity (such as privatised spaceflight/mining). Facebook has value because it connects people, Instagram has value because it allows people to make their photos look good (and easily share it).

Do you know what Elon wanted to do before SpaceX? He wanted to put a greenhouse on Mars, just so people could get excited about space again. SpaceX isn't just about reusable rockets, it's about selling the idea of a space-faring civilization.

Sorry if I came across as a bit harsh, I'm just tired of people distilling products (that has value) into the parts, as if that is only what it 'actually' is.

Shaping up to be a momentous weekend for tech!

Absolutely agree. Their social graph is their most important asset. It's a goldmine for any service. For the most part, it is the best indication out there of who you are connected to. So many sites and services are using this 'trust' network to provide services that weren't capable before. An example is a travel site (forgot the name now) that allows you to see if friends of friends are staying over at a hostel on a certain date.

They somehow have to monetise this.

That makes sense. Callback methods. Thanks.

Honest question: If you are making an anonymous function longer than one line, shouldn't you just make a normal function? What are the use cases for large anonymous functions?

What happened at All Things D?

The average is 190.

http://arxiv.org/pdf/1111.4503v1.pdf

Why is try/catch so slow?

But then more documenting is happening, increasing overload for the recipients on the other end?

I find Project Glass and similar devices rather interesting. Google claims that it decreases the friction of having to "document" and "interact" with tech. If it makes it easier, then won't that just flood social networks? And having these benefits constantly available will be taxing for most users (ie paradox of choice).

What do you think?

Like he said. If you are going to be second, you have to bring something really great to the table, something that itself has value, and replaces the value of the thing you are leaving. To use an example: Sean Parker said Facebook should never have won, considering MySpace's network effect at its height. Facebook was great: it had its own value, but it still had to replace MySpace's massive network effect. Luckily, due to MySpace's lack of innovation at that time, its own value plummeted, making it easier for Facebook to rise up above it.

That's what I would say. Being first is good, because you can capture the market, hence making it difficult for users to switch.

Why don't they use something like bitbucket (free private repos) until it is ready to be launched?

Fantastic to think 2 engineers can scale it so far. It is exciting to think that a small team from anywhere in the world can think up the next big thing and scale it easily from wherever.

Not entirely true though. He's been coding for a long time. He studied management science and engineering. It's not as if he wasn't technical before he started with instagram.

I have no words. That is incredible.

Mark (along with D'Angelo) developed Synapse (a media player) in high-school that learned what you listened to and created a playlist. They were being offered $1million to $2million for it.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2004/6/10/mark-e-zuckerber...

Wow. This is great. You guys make it so easy! The business model itself is quite interesting. Considering that each person pays for hours, are there any features down the line to add features that enhance community features?

I play on a small server with friends (which is cheaper than minefold atm), so at the moment I'm primarily looking at what value you can add by adding onto the ability for you guys to easily connect people, create maps, etc.

A few examples: Make it easier to categorise worlds that I might to join. For example, some servers are just creative, others are PvP, some can be survival, or others flat. Another option could be to be able to 'block' worlds (no more destroying/creation) so that anyone can jump in and run around words that people have created without asking for permission (thinking about the massive lotr one). Or, for example, making it easy to find spleef arenas for the occasional fun.

Being able to tag worlds is a simple start.

Best of luck guys. You guys have got something good going!

Has anyone felt Mashable sort of deteriorated the past few months?