djm

5 ms·

1.
by djm 15y ago
Once I saw an episode of the UK version of 'Dragons Den'. A couple of guys pitched some adventure sports equipment they had built and one of the investors, Peter Jones, told them off for not wearing suits to do the pitch and refused to inve
2.
by djm 15y ago
My apologies. I just checked and you were right.
3.
by djm 15y ago
I think the actual quote was "do or do not do; there is no try".
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by djm 15y ago
Oh, I see. I had guessed that stuff like that would be flagged to oblivion fast enough that it wouldn't be an issue. I guess that the speed at which flagging would have an affect relates to the number of people with flag permissions who are
5.
by djm 15y ago
Would you mind please clarifying what you meant? I see how spammers would create fake 'review my startup' posts to try and game the amount of front page time they got but if flagging is still applied to these posts then they would disappear
6.
by djm 15y ago
Perhaps my comment didn't make my thoughts clear enough. First of all, I think we are working on different definitions of 'inflation'. There seems to be two schools of thought on this: some people think inflation is driven by prices and som
7.
by djm 15y ago
I'd like to see increased focus from HN on reviewing new startups too. One way might be a special tab but I'd suggest an alternative - putting 'review my startup' posts on the main page and setting a time period for them to fall off. You co
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by djm 15y ago
The austerity cuts haven't started yet Actually welfare benefit rates have already been frozen. Couple that with an increase in prices in food/utilities etc and benefits claimants are already being hit hard. These rioters seem to be prima
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by djm 15y ago
That's interesting. I guess it depends on the scale of the inflation. Germany printed money to pay their war reparations with and when it got to the hyper-inflation stage everybody was screwed. Inflation in relatively small amounts is only
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by djm 15y ago
I'd guess that unrest is inevitable when a country gets a debt problem whichever way you deal with it. The current unrest in London and other UK cities may be the result of austerity and what happened in Greece recently certainly is. Howe
11.
by djm 15y ago
It's not really surprising. PG has said many times that they invest in people not ideas. I gather they also discuss ideas with founders and try and put them onto something other than what they applied with if it sucked. From YC's perspectiv
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by djm 15y ago
Here's a list of them: http://library.readscheme.org/page1.html
13.
by djm 15y ago
See also the 'design recipe' approach advocated in books like 'how to design programs'.
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by djm 15y ago
My assumption was that most of the people who load up DrRacket don't go poking around for the teaching languages. It's a pretty useful IDE, not just for students. I usually use it unless I'm working with a large number of files in which c
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by djm 15y ago
The teaching languages are only a menu option away. Most of them are designed to be used by students working through 'how to design programs' (htdp.org). I wouldn't really consider that a barrier to entry. Keep in mind most of the teachpack
16.
by djm 15y ago
Bamboo bike frames have been around for quite a few years but this is the first time I've seen anyone trying to commercialise them. I guess they might take off with the green crowd but otherwise I don't see people clamouring to buy one. I w
17.
by djm 15y ago
I'd like to add that responsibility for banks providing loans backed by the taxpayer ultimately falls on voters. This is what fannie mae/sallie mae etc are all about. Disconnecting access to credit from the ability to repay it inevitably re
18.
by djm 15y ago
I understand the reasoning that the fed & equivalents in other countries are supposed to manage the money supply as a smoothing function in booms and busts. I have never managed to accept though that the decision making of a committee c
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by djm 15y ago
Agreed. Inflation amounts to stealing from people with savings. I haven't read the book you linked to yet but I just wanted to chime in and reference another great little book "How and economy grows and why it crashes" by Peter & Andrew
20.
by djm 15y ago
I meant corporation tax revenue from businesses that gain income by selling stuff to people who are paying with drugs money. edit: I'm not sure I'm explaining myself very well so let me just spell it out: If it was legalised and taxed they
21.
by djm 15y ago
I agree with what you're saying. A person's direction in life can change at any time and it's unfortunate that people judge and discriminate so carelessly. They are acting rationally though. Take, for example, your anecdote about your frien
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by djm 15y ago
That might not work as well as we might wish. A substantial amount of spending in most first world economies results from spending money earned by illegal drug sales. (I don't have figures to quote. A pretty good book came out I think ~10 y
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by djm 15y ago
Yes, it was mostly that I would be more interested in watching a YC version than a techstars version. I think a single movie length documentary would be preferable to a series though that's more taste than anything else. I also found this o
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by djm 15y ago
I don't think I'd be too interested in watching this but I'd very much like to see a one off documentary on YC - maybe following a few of the companies through the 3 month cycle and including interviews with pg et al, some members of the al
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by djm 15y ago
Hi. I don't have anything to add but I just wanted to say thanks for sharing :)
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by djm 15y ago
Thanks for digging that up, I hadn't seen it the first time it came around. It seems obvious now but I really hadn't given any thought to how fairness in voting systems would ultimately come down to math. I'm not going to dig into it now bu
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by djm 15y ago
You do raise an interesting point. There are certaintly problems with splitting the country into different constituency areas. For example, an MP representing a constituency with a small number of residents has the same voting ability in th
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by djm 15y ago
Agreed! I was aware of the salisbury convention but hadn't really given any thought to how it might come in to play with coalition governments. Thinking through it, I guess the logical expectation is that the HoL will have bigger teeth unde
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by djm 15y ago
I know what you're feeling. I have never exercised my right to vote in a general election for the simple reason that, since I have been old enough to vote, the mainstream political parties have all been close to the center idealogically. I
30.
by djm 15y ago
if they do promise change it's forgotten as soon as the election is over I largely agree with your sentiment but I think it's important to consider that with our current government it is not reasonable that we should expect them to adhere

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