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timsco

71 karma · joined May 14, 2010

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timsco··on Show HN: Marksmith – a GitHub-style Markdown editor for Ruby on Rails
Thank you so much for this.
timsco··on Rooster King: A multimedia zine website collage album memoir thing
This struck me as well. Flash's video format, .flv was transparent out of the box and we used to do a lot of fun things with video floating over flash things.

When flash met it's untimely death, the advertising creatives that I worked spent 10 years asking for solutions that involved transparent video in html; we had to tell them no.

I hadn't really considered that browser blend modes have turned that party back on.

timsco··on Gemini AI
Cross your finger that they let us use the API on the 13th.
timsco··on Global CO2 Levels
While I see what you're saying, the issue is that when you eyeball the graph, you think, "wow, it's 4x what it used to be".
timsco··on In Canada it's illegal to call yourself software engineer
Whoops, Iron! Of course. I can't believe that I made that mistake. Please don't tell my Dad.
timsco··on In Canada it's illegal to call yourself software engineer
While I mostly agree with you, my Canadian Mechanical Engineer father will gladly express his concern.

I've never been able to use the phrase "software engineer", despite having 20+ years of software experience because I was raised to believe that Engineers have silver rings, engineering degrees and professional standing.

timsco··on Tim Hortons app violated laws in collection of ‘vast amounts’ of location data
Agreed - especially when you consider the provincial and federal tax dollars needed to prop up the various privacy commissions and launch an investigation like this one.
timsco··on Woice.me – async voice communication for teams: work, at your own pace
Neat product. Apologies for the nitpick but I noticed a typo on https://www.woice.me/pricing.

"nibmle" should be "nimble".

timsco··on Google accused of secretly feeding personal data to advertisers
I had to fill out a Google survey about my wireless habits just to read the article.

Bite the hand that feeds you much, FT?

timsco··on Mail a Letter Online
This is similar. I've never used it but it looks fun: https://handwriting.io/
timsco··on Ask HN: Is there something wrong with internet right now?
Are you on Rogers or Bell? I'm on Bell and it's slow. Also slow at Starbucks which is Bell...
timsco··on When I Was Your Age
Boo hoo. Now get back to work! ;)
timsco··on Show HN: Find the best recipe for any two foods, based on over 600k recipes
This is a bit off topic, but have you ever seen this book? It's an amazing dictionary of food pairings: http://www.amazon.com/Flavor-Bible-Essential-Creativity-Imag...
timsco··on Bill Gates Expected to Create Billion-Dollar Fund for Clean Energy (2015)
Thank you.
timsco··on Bill Gates Expected to Create Billion-Dollar Fund for Clean Energy (2015)
This article is dated November 27, 2015. Shouldn't he have created it by now?
timsco··on AWS CodeCommit
Github is also very vulnerable on price if you have the need for a lot of small, private repos. If Amazon charges on storage (like they do with S3) instead of the number of repos, it will make this a compelling alternative for a lot of businesses.
timsco··on I Hate Puzzles: Am I Still a Programmer? (2011)
Never let an HR manager or recruiter's decision or feedback be a reflection of your self worth. They rarely know much about our jobs.
timsco··on Netflix refuses CRTC demand to hand over subscriber data
But the only reason that half of the Canadian music we all know and love exists at all is because of the CanCon laws that regulate Canadian radio. FM and AM is forced to play a high percentage of Canadian music.
timsco··on Netflix refuses CRTC demand to hand over subscriber data
The other argument here is that 90% of everything (including and perhaps especially American TV) is crap. Because Canada makes less of everything, there is less attractive content than the US. That said, there is also less crap content but no one cares about that stat.

There are some Canadian winners out there if you look for them.

timsco··on Ask HN: I'm lost. Please help
Here here. This is good advice. Get out.

When you're happy, you won't regret walking away even if you left a little bit of money left on the table.

timsco··on Easy Video Embeds
Don't be a jerk. Calling someone's work idiotic is mean.

What did you build today?

timsco··on Ask HN: How do you stay productive after work?
I hear you about the curse thing. I'm starting to feel that way about side projects. I'm pretty happy at my station in life professionally for the first time ever but I still feel the need to write code in my spare time that might make money. It's a curse.
timsco··on I’m too lazy to be a HTML developer
Hahaha. I love this attitude. I have heard it for the better part of a decade and I keep charging a premium for flash work because there are not enough quality people that know it.

I know HTML and a bunch of server languages as well so I'm covered if something would happen. I'm not going to say that flash is here forever but it will take a lot longer to disappear than you probably think, especially with the new 3d stuff.

timsco··on If You’re Busy, You’re Doing Something Wrong
Awesome. I was about to write the same thing!
timsco··on Ask HN: Who is Hiring? (November 2011)
Toronto, ON, Canada - Lollipop (http://wearelollipop.com)

We build websites for ad agencies and are looking for an senior interactive frontend developer (and maybe a bit of backend if you like it). I'll take smart over senior any day though. I'm basically looking for someone that isn't afraid to pick up a new language and dig when they need to. Our clients constantly challenge us, so it's an interesting job, for sure. Not a typical HN starup but you'll learn a lot.

http://www.wearelollipop.com/2011/10/senior-interactive-deve...

timsco··on Help, I’m on the IRS hit list
The Canadian government advises you to go to a British consulate if a Canadian one can't be reached while abroad. I think it's the only benefit of having the queen on our money left.
timsco··on Need Help. Going through late 20 career crisis.
Hey reymook, great story.

A similar thing happened to me. The startup that I was building was going all right business-wise, but constant, relentless pressure from the financier was ruining my life (I programmed, he paid and did sales).

I had a nervous breakdown and left the business. To pay the bills, I told everyone that I know that I was freelancing back in the world that I came from - building digital advertising sites. I was embarrassed, broken and burned out.

It was the best move that I ever made. I ended up only working for small startup web production companies. One of those companies loved my work and we got along famously. They ended up offering me an equity position in their company. I brought sales contacts into the business that were too big to work on my own. The result is a booming business. We're doing just awesome work that I never thought I would be doing.

While it sucked (and still sometimes sucks) to do project work, we're paying down some debt and planning to pivot our services company and potentially add a product to the mix.

I don't know if you can do exactly what I did but my point is that you need to chill, do awesome stuff for small companies and have faith that you're doing the right thing. Like another reader said, something good will happen.

Life doesn't work out as you plan but if you let it take you where it needs to, it can work out better.

timsco··on Why two engineers left Apple to build a Flash alternative: Hype's (YC W11) Story
Adobe is also taking on this problem: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/wallaby/

These tools could win out on price, stability or simplicity but if Adobe doesn't screw this up, they I'd put my money on Flash due to it's advanced featureset.

That said, there's probably room for a few players in this space. Heaven knows Adobe needs the competition.

timsco··on Why two engineers left Apple to build a Flash alternative: Hype's (YC W11) Story
Thanks for the link. It was a long weekend in Canada, and I went 48 hours without Internet access! ;)
timsco··on Why two engineers left Apple to build a Flash alternative: Hype's (YC W11) Story
Thank you. Great info. Hopefully, they'll add vector graphics soon. That's a big oversight in my opinion. That's usually where I start in Flash...
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