CPlatypus

7 ms·

1.
by CPlatypus 15y ago
"I encourage all of our portoflio companies to file for as many as they need" http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2006/04/patently_absurd.html If you're letting them spend your money on filing patents without any kind of binding commitment to use t
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by CPlatypus 15y ago
Literally? Did you literally fall asleep in English class?
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by CPlatypus 15y ago
Hey, crazy idea: why don't more employers give workers a choice ? As a quick read of this thread will show, some people like quiet so they can concentrate, while others like the interaction and "energy" of being with others. That's fine.
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by CPlatypus 15y ago
Another metaphor I've seen is to the military (specifically the army), and consists of three roles. Don't beat me up about military minutiae, please; I don't claim to be an expert in that area and it's not even my metaphor. (1) Paratrooper
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by CPlatypus 15y ago
I really wish they'd give more information about their methodology. For example, I've used the SoD SSD servers for some of my own testing, and they pull 30K IOPS for small random synchronous writes. How does that translate to "361.62"? W
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by CPlatypus 15y ago
When exactly did "startup" come to mean only "social web-oriented startup that has access to user data in the first place"? I mean, come on, I know that's the kind of startup the YC folks specialize in, but there are other kinds. There's
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by CPlatypus 15y ago
While bequeathing code to the community instead of having it buried with you is a very good thing it comes with a caveat. In most cases, it's not a good idea to pick up the result in its entirety - all of the code, the brand, the users,
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by CPlatypus 15y ago
Fair point about "pragmatism" but the contrary "elegance" often comes across as dogmatic or even elitist. Most languages strive for both pragmatism and elegance, but tend to favor one a little over the other. And yes, this is relevant sinc
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by CPlatypus 15y ago
Don't worry about the heat. Karma here has no value, or perhaps even negative value, to me. What I'm saying about VCs, startups, and patents is real and important, even if some self-interested HN'ers don't want it heard or even if Fred wa
10.
by CPlatypus 15y ago
I got tired of this and other VC games after my tenth startup a couple of years ago, so I guess it is possible that attitudes have changed. Even if Fred is one of the good guys, though, I'd still bet that he's in a small minority. That's
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by CPlatypus 15y ago
I just looked at all of Fred's comments on that thread, and saw no such thing. Please don't lie just because you find the truth about startups and patents inconvenient.
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by CPlatypus 15y ago
That's not Fred's official standpoint. The author is Brad Burnham.
13.
by CPlatypus 15y ago
No, he'd just have to allow that. Anyone can say they're spending all that money on lawyers for purely defensive purposes, but without a public written commitment it's just BS. If the talent leaves and the business dries up, the intelle
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by CPlatypus 15y ago
[citation needed]
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by CPlatypus 15y ago
No, sorry, I'm not in the room at other people's startups when they do that. What I can do, however, is look at the list of investments at Union Square Ventures where he's a principal. Then I can find patents and applications for founders
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by CPlatypus 15y ago
That's a fair point, but I don't think it gets very far. He also goes on to say, "I don't think there's a unique idea out there in the web space and hasn't been for well over a decade." That's a pretty common attitude. Have you ever seen
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by CPlatypus 15y ago
His blog title is "A VC" plus right at the top of the page it says "Fred Wilson is a VC and principal of Union Square Ventures" so yeah, I think I was on pretty firm ground there.
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by CPlatypus 15y ago
The OP wouldn't seem quite so hypocritical if VCs didn't put immense pressure on startups to generate patents. Don't tell me those patents are supposed to be purely defensive, either. They were supposed to stake out a bit of technical t
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by CPlatypus 15y ago
Anybody who enjoys Steve's thoughts about gaming addiction will probably enjoy this "hidden gem" too. http://www.nickyee.com/hub/addiction/addiction.pdf It's a decade old now, but IMO it does an even better job explaining the dynamics of
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by CPlatypus 15y ago
I don't think that really works, though. It certainly doesn't for me. Much of the time, I like the lighter, smaller tablet form factor (even compared to the several netbooks I've owned). I definitely like being able to flip between horiz
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by CPlatypus 15y ago
Exactly. For the comparison to be valid (I'm typing this on a Transformer BTW) you'd have to compare to the Air plus an iPad. You'd also have to compare prices, and there the Air loses badly even without including the iPad.
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by CPlatypus 15y ago
I'd really like to see a wireless version of this. Plug it in, let it take as long as it likes to crack a weak WEP key, then send you an email. On the down side, you might not be able to access as much via a wireless network. On the up s
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by CPlatypus 15y ago
It's the classic chicken and egg problem. Few sites use them because they correctly believe that the browser configuration is too painful for most people. The browser configuration remains painful because users aren't pressuring browser m
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by CPlatypus 15y ago
I wish I could say that I was, but in truth it seems like my browser just mangled it. Thanks for the correction.
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by CPlatypus 15y ago
Those two statements do not conflict. Seasons are the result of the Earth orbiting around the sun, just not the way most people think. Most people would say it's because we're getting closer or further from the sun, which is incorrect.
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by CPlatypus 15y ago
"anti-social means that a person does not conform with what authority says." Simply incorrect, both etymologically and logically. Authority is hierarchical; society is peer to peer. Authority is hard power; society is soft. When you're a
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by CPlatypus 15y ago
The true test of whether someone's really anti-authoritarian is how they behave when they're in authority. 99% of people who use "question authority" as an excuse for what is really anti- social behavior fail this test.
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by CPlatypus 15y ago
My workplace has become absolutely impossible without headphones, so I recently went on a search for something better than what I had on hand, and ended up with three pairs. Specifically I wanted closed 'phones so that I don't drive my cow
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by CPlatypus 15y ago
Median would definitely be true. In fact, it's quite likely that more than half are below the average/mean as well, since the distribution is probably a bit skewed. Just as all but one of the people in a room will be below average incom
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by CPlatypus 15y ago
"From what I understand, Alt-Tab task switching was delivered in the 3.2 update" Yes, it's there - except in Firefox, of course, which does something to break it. It's nice, but doesn't address the other problems of apps behaving inconsist

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