tommusic

vor 15 Jahrendiscuss

As far as I can tell, TextPlus is an app made by someone else that is distributed via Apple's iOS App Store.

Claiming it is an Apple product in such a case is probably a bad idea.

tommusic

vor 16 Jahrendiscuss

It's interesting: when I look back on my life so far, I don't feel like my path has been messed up significantly because of any particular piece of advice.

There were times in my life where acting on a particular bit of advice kept me from getting what I wanted. Those were frustrating times. But those times caused me to learn to deal with being frustrated; to stop and reflect on why I was reacting with such emotion.

There were times when the advice that I received was unclear, which made it easy for my motivation-to-follow to falter. I would waste time and not get homework done. Familiarity with a topic would grow more faint and my class performance would show it. And then I started to learn how to best use my time to learn the material. (In small groups, using multiple forms of engagement; reading/writing/speaking/listening)

The advice that, on-balance, seemed least helpful at the time:

* "such-and-such will happen when you least expect it"

* "don't ever give up"

* "don't run with scissors"

But in later reflection these lead me to different conclusions about these same items:

* The advisor understands that you're in pain, but really likes who you are when you're not moping. They're trying to help you get there, but they're not sure how.

* Admitting defeat is OK, and you can change focus (pivot) without stopping (giving up) entirely. This is a loophole. Use it.

* This has always been a good idea. Still is.

The advice I would offer would be to use advice wisely. Don't follow it blindly; reflect often, and be adaptable.

tommusic

vor 16 Jahrendiscuss

Great job learning a language (and an infrastructure) with such speed!

I've been building something with a similar aim on and off for a long time now, and it's neat to see in the comments that there are at least three others already out there.

I wonder if there is something that will lead to more widespread awareness/adoption of sites like these. Or are we better off trying to pick a target market smaller than [all book readers]?

Some good food for thought as I try and finally finish my own entrant into the space.

tommusic

vor 16 Jahrendiscuss

I wonder if this virus has been able to effectively spread to Madagascar.

To put it another way: I wonder if "Free Public Wifi" was the surviving ad-hoc phantom in countries where the primary language isn't English.

tommusic

vor 16 Jahrendiscuss

For what it's worth: Woot.com's deal for the day is a flip-around tablet-style netbook. http://woot.com/

tommusic

vor 16 Jahrendiscuss

Also worth pointing out: your site crashes iOS4 Safari while loading your index page. Running on the latest.

tommusic

vor 16 Jahrendiscuss

Your instructions say to select a topic and then hit "Start", but the topic list is inactive until the user clicks the Start button.

It took me a little while to decide to stop following the instructions. I don't know what that says about me as a person.

tommusic

vor 16 Jahrendiscuss

I'd expect they use the data in aggregate to figure out what sizes of clothing to stock where to keep latency and transportation lower.

It doesn't seem that much of their variable cost would get shaved off by already having one's measurements, which makes me think this wouldn't help them with a lowest-price strategy. Maybe a higher-end market focus.

But as other have already said: body size data can be expected to expire often. I'm an edge case, but my weight has oscillated between 195 and 165 a few times in the last year.

tommusic

vor 17 Jahrendiscuss

Most table cells don't have selectable/copyable text, as they're not able to get for-free the built-in text editing menu.

Clicking on a table cell could advance the user to a "detail" view that does allow cut/copy/paste, though.

tommusic

vor 17 Jahrendiscuss

One of the most difficult things to do is to create an effective mechanical way of measuring that student has learned the subject matter.

Naturally for some subjects it is more straightforward than others, but the problem is still challenging on balance.

Early childhood development requires a lot of psychological growth, in addition to knowledge growth. Abstract thought is not always acquired at different rates, and recognizing its emergence isn't very deterministic.

A solely software-based system also requires that the user provide honest input. It's hard to diagnose a lying patient.

Some parts intuition, some parts adaptability.

As the ability of software to handle these tasks improves, it will surely become a larger part of the equation. I don't think it will replace live humans in my lifetime though.

tommusic

vor 17 Jahrendiscuss

  come be a poet
  with people around the world
  one line at a time

http://haikoo.org

tommusic

vor 17 Jahrendiscuss

I enjoyed reading the article, and the resulting recognition that to "really disappear" is diametrically opposed to what we'd normally seek around here:

  - Brand Ownership vs Brand Abandonment
  - Search Optimization vs Search Pessimization
  - Collect User Metrics vs Stay Out of Site Logs
  - Networking/Meetups vs Self-Imposed Exile

It was intriguing to look down that alley, but I wouldn't want to live there.

tommusic

vor 17 Jahrendiscuss

Third shelf, all the way to the right, "The More Than Complete Hitchhiker's Guide" -- which does not include Mostly Harmless, but IS leatherbound and DOES include slick gold-leafing.

tommusic

vor 17 Jahrendiscuss

According to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Registered_Traveler the TSA allows these companies to collect and submit user information. The TSA then does the screening, and returns approval or condemnation.

It sounds like there were around 165,000 members. At $200 per person per year, that's $33M in revenue.

Apparently they raised somewhere near $100M in funding.

I wonder what their costs looked like.

tommusic

vor 17 Jahrendiscuss

As did my wife and I. Victory!

tommusic

vor 17 Jahrendiscuss

Nope. It was some slick illustration for the assertion discussed in the beginning of the book; that we are closer to being destroyed by Huxley's vision than Orwell's.

tommusic

vor 17 Jahrendiscuss

Do you feel that the advancement of technology (print > TV > online grassroots) is linked more than temporally to the reduction in social closed-mindedness (Kennedy as non-Protestant, Obama as non-white)?

I wonder how much of the change in the electorate can be attributed to the shifting forms of communication. There appear signs of a relationship, but I'm not persuaded yet.

If during Taft's time the electorate was entirely unconcerned by race or religion, I wonder how Kennedy and Obama would have fared.

This book is a lot of fun.

tommusic

vor 17 Jahrendiscuss

I'm reading this book at the moment, and liking it very much.

Postman goes deeper than this, though. He isn't saying that TV's weakening of the discourse is directly because of trash programming, but that the medium itself is modifying what messages people take in.

Taft was over 300 lbs when he was elected president. There is no way he would be elected in the age of television. He wouldn't have the look for TV.

Political speech in the time of Lincoln assumed of the audience a long attention span, ability to parse arguments and complex sentences, and up-to-date knowledge of current events.

I'm not halfway through, but I'm finding it compelling so far.

tommusic

vor 17 Jahrendiscuss

When I wanted to make sure that I knew a class subject area front and back, I'd get into a room with a whiteboard. Preferably with other students.

We'd make an agenda, or use a study guide, and take turns presenting the material at the white board.

You feel yourself writing it. You read it. You say it. You hear it.

It worked like gangbusters. A wild-draw-4 of learning styles.

tommusic

vor 17 Jahrendiscuss

Thanks for the tip! I'll spend some time reading on what those both provide; I think that once I'm writing code and watching it perform I'll have to motivation to pull myself over the other hurdles.

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Ask HN: Learning From Failure and Iterating on Defunct Companies

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