softbuilder

It's actually from the 90s [1]. So much so that I thought it was one of the AT&T "You Will" commercials [2].

[1] http://digest.dx3canada.com/2015/05/12/retrofuture-ibms-1999...

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2EgfkhC1eo

Fair. It was posted and voted up so perhaps I inferred that it would be useful or amazing.

So it tells you what to draw, then it tells you what you drew, and that is useful and/or amazing?

Before you get too pleased with how well this aligns with the president-elect, think about how well this lines up with the current president, or any administration in the past few decades.

My point isn't that all of those administrations were fascist, it's that each item in this list allows too much range for critical analysis.

Did VC tank the company? As I recall from her book and interviews, she built her business on revenue and only took on capital much later.

>Don't get me started on fertility rates for women over 40 and their historical trends....

Don't leave this hanging. At least point in the direction you're going.

>Every app would be free with some minute amount of functionality

Maybe. But that already happens w/ free and "pro", etc.. I expect that the marketplace would sort that out. When everything is a come-on genuine offerings start to have more appeal.

>Apple built a platform and wants to extract value from that platform.

Sure. No problems with that as long as there is some value they are providing. At least in the case of a paid app, once that sale is made Apple shouldn't be involved unless they are doing something useful.

It does sound like poor planning, given the known realities of the app store. But I've never understood why Apple feels entitled to a cut of in-app purchases. They aren't providing any added value and in some cases (like w/ Kindle) they seem to be begging for an anti-trust suit.

See also, FLEET[1]. I'm surprised this hasn't gained more traction(or at least hype). I saw Sutherland give a talk about it in 2011/2012 or so.

[1]https://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs152/fa06/lecnotes/async.pd...

It came in so fast though! With the fuel it still has on board it's one malfunction away from a cruise missile.

Maybe GMaps is just polarizing software that seems awesome to some people and awful to others? Unless you're a Googler and/or on the Maps team? :)

One thing that is absolutely brain-dead is that (in Chrome) I can't type in maps.google.com and tab-search for my address. I can do this with Amazon.com or Netflix, but not an actual Google property? Weird.

Another thing that is just bafflingly absent is that GMaps doesn't know where my home and work are. Not just as locations, but as concepts. (Snide part of my brain wonders if the Maps team just lives at work.)

Another thing is that to make GMaps work with my Mac, I have to have a Chrome Extension to stop the map from freaking out. And then simple things like double-clicking to zoom in seems to have a non-predictable behavior where sometimes it zooms in and sometimes it tries to put a marker on the map.

Not everything in Gmaps is horrible. There are many nice features. But they've allowed the critical path through the software to become obscured and eroded.

>I miss the Wired of ten years ago.

This is what I said ten years ago! In truth Wired has always been a lot of hand-wavy hype wrapped around bits of legit interest. I think you just outgrow it eventually.

Isn't this just teamwork?

Which volcanoes?

I can understand this. I feel a little hurt when a really good friend offers a handshake. Handshakes feel like there's a bit of social distance.

Worry less about the average you're paying and focus more on the spread. Employees can always rationalize the big picture. (Our employer pays less but is stable. Our employer pays very well because they hire the best. Etc., etc..) It's a totally different story when a employee discovers that they are making $20k less than their comparable co-worker.

I hit a speedbump pretty fast when they wanted me to give up my address book. Yik Yak never asked for that. Yik Yak is still on my phone. Both are kind of crappy ideas, but if there was a clear winner it was the people that just let me use the damn app.

I did a similar post ages ago[1], although less ambitious at only 7 books. I've since read the Turing Omnibus and The Little Schemer and I was glad to see them on the list. I wish I'd had them when I was much younger. In addition to Programming Pearls I would also add "Software Tools" by Kernighan and Plauger.

I never read The Elements of Programming Style but very early in my career I chanced into the single-page excerpt "Brian Kernighan's Programming Style Tips"[2] which has probably been the single most influential document on practical programming I've ever read.

Edit: Almost forgot, Programming Erlang by Joe Armstrong was also a landmark book for me, and if I were to redo my list I'd certainly add it.

[1] http://www.youell.com/matt/writing/?p=4 [2] http://ellard.org/dan/www/libsq/ref/style.html

Someone care to explain the downvotes? I refuted and/or clarified an unhelpful comment. And I'm correct.

I was wondering so I went to look. This is what I see:

"ACQUISITION ENABLES PERCONA TO EXPAND AND EXTEND OFFERINGS DRAMATICALLY IMPROVING DATABASE PERFORMANCE WHILE LOWERING TOTAL COST OF OWNERSHIP FOR CUSTOMERS"

I don't think the parent was exaggerating.

As a language nerd I always want to see some sample code, even if I can't understand what is happening yet. Just to get some of the flavor of the language. That's pretty hard to find on the site. I did find one of the tutorial decks [pdf] to serve this purpose though: http://alloy.mit.edu/alloy/tutorials/day-course/s2_language....

That reminds me of this in Mexico: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMPBlZMQhgo

>It's not my fault that a file system uses up more space storing the same amount of data in two files rather than a single file.

Even without a filesystem - just sending data over the wire - you have to be able to delimit files in some way, and there's going to be overhead associated with that.

Another way to think of this is that any particular volume could be viewed as a single big file. How much space in that big file is he taking up?

This is a good point. I should clarify, Siri technology could do this. I have tried Siri many times and most of the problems seem to revolve around it understanding what I'm saying. Plus it's almost always easier to just do things myself. The scenario Magic is trying to handle seems actually better tuned to the Siri technology than Siri the product.

How do you feel about a player piano?

>bottlenecked by humans

I saw a profile (probably on HN) about how the Siri technology was developed. This service sounds nearly ideal for Siri. In the short term I'd bet 50% of requests could be handled with total automation. Seeing how they add functionality to the system I'd bet they can get that up into the 70+% range over time. Many things still require a human touch, but you can throttle demand with pricing.

I'd expect it to come from Amazon first though. Seems more up their alley.

The customer comes first.

A thought: Big orgs have a hard time getting shit done. Lots of initiatives die before they even get out the door. Just because this bigwig was excited doesn't mean something will definitely come of it. Another thought is this might be a FUD play. Get you to give up so you're not threatening something else. Definitely interested to hear the story after your NDA period.

I can think of several reasons, but the most significant is that the launch takes place over the ocean.

Pointing out the freshness of the account is not ad hominem. It's highlighting the particular context of the comment.

> if they had a two year old hacker news account, how exactly would that change the content of their post?

The likelihood of astroturfing would be far reduced. (That would indeed be playing the long game!)