tom_rath

7 ms·

1.
by tom_rath 16y ago
I didn't dismiss/refute/claim anything or intend to start yet another global warming flame war. I'm probably as familiar with that research as you are and I'm not refuting it. If other planets are warming/cooling then something is responsi
2.
by tom_rath 16y ago
Please don't bring that politicized stuff into the discussion. That's a different flame war entirely. If Jupiter is warming/cooling or Mars is warming/cooling, then something has to be responsible for it, and it sure isn't human activity.
3.
by tom_rath 16y ago
Yes. For one, there's that big ol' fusion furnace in the middle of the place that's tossing out a variable amount of energy as time goes on. Examining the weather of other planets would help explain if solar activity or other factors are a
4.
by tom_rath 16y ago
Do we have sufficient data to conclude that other planets are not warming? How far back does our accurate, consistent measurement go? Years? A decade or two? I'm not sure we have sufficient data to conclude anything right now. We know a
5.
by tom_rath 16y ago
Actually, we probably do want to care about that. We know Earth's environment is changing but be don't really know why. Our planet is a single data point in the solar system, which makes analysis a little difficult. Is Mars getting warmer
6.
by tom_rath 16y ago
It's the unfriendliness of the editor_s_ which has been the problem in my experience. When someone goes through the trouble of creating a well-cited article only to have it deleted for being 'not notable', they're unlikely to bother again.
7.
by tom_rath 16y ago
You misunderstand how evolution works. It is not a progression towards perfection. You're conflating biological evolution with creationism / 'intelligent design'.
8.
by tom_rath 16y ago
We're the species currently dominating a niche. Calling anything the 'pinnacle' of evolution implies some sort of progress towards perfection. Evolution does not work that way.
9.
by tom_rath 16y ago
Estimated selling prices for lunar He3 are around $6-10 million per kg (with the commercial viability of even that figure being pretty optimistic), so I'm going to go with 'no'.
10.
by tom_rath 17y ago
When you've become your planned '10-year self' and are running a company, you'll find that there is no up-side to giving a no-hire an honest reason for your decision and plenty of down-side for doing so. As an example here, the binary deci
11.
by tom_rath 17y ago
Of course, one of the first things they did was add a prominent "Send your feedback to Google!" link so customers could tell them exactly what they liked and disliked about the service. Right?
12.
by tom_rath 17y ago
It always bugged me how Rumsfeld was slagged for that statement. I found it a very clear explanation of the difficulty in assessing a chaotic environment.
13.
by tom_rath 17y ago
Time travel would be spiffy, but how easy is it to contact the Buzz engineers now? If you've ever dealt with Google "technical support" (even if you're a customer who shovels them buckets of cash each week) you'll find that it's nearly impo
14.
by tom_rath 17y ago
Whatever they're up to, their logo certainly seems excited about it.
15.
by tom_rath 17y ago
It actually does less than nothing. Since an e-petition site like the one linked gives people opposed to an issue the impression that they've accomplished something, those people are that much less likely to do something substantive to reso
16.
by tom_rath 17y ago
An e-peititon is going to do nothing. This nonsense distracts people from actual effort and helps bills like this get passed. If you want to make an impact, the minimum you should do is write a letter to your MP, on paper, sign it and send
17.
by tom_rath 17y ago
A business which "...generates single-digit or low double-digit millions in revenue..." is "a lifestyle business"?!?! I thought lifestyle businesses were small craft or bespoke software development shops which allowed an individual to earn
18.
by tom_rath 17y ago
You do lay off at that level if there's a mis-match between what a company is wanting and what the person was hired to deliver. If Microsoft's "evangelist" roles are changing, it makes sense to dismiss those folks who previously worked towa
19.
by tom_rath 17y ago
Laid off, not fired. That might sound pedantic, but there's a big difference between the two.
20.
by tom_rath 17y ago
Nope. You can make tons of cool stuff and have an impact with loads of 'vision' as an employee, but you're not an entrepreneur if you're taking a paycheque and instructions from someone else.
21.
by tom_rath 17y ago
Nice story, but it sounds more like a pet project which landed him a job rather than a company which was acquired. He states "With Automattic, I am still an entrepreneur" , but he's really not: He's an employee and his objective (to have
22.
by tom_rath 17y ago
If you only wanted to evaluate their product, why didn't you use the free trial available for download? I just checked that site now for the first time myself and it was pretty obvious how to get one. Refunds cost time and money to process
23.
by tom_rath 17y ago
I didn't see the instructions either. Everyone's brain knows a block of text in the right-side column of a web page is an ad and provides nothing useful to the task at hand.
24.
by tom_rath 17y ago
If your business has no presence in the United States you should not need to pay any taxes to that government. This topic comes up frequently on the BoS board: http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz and a quick search there s
25.
by tom_rath 17y ago
Software start-ups should in particular note: If you're selling B2C and your target market is technically savvy, the folks who will pirate and distribute your work are considered heroes by many you've hoped to sell to.
26.
by tom_rath 17y ago
Except they're not giving their product away for free, they're only offering complimentary 'Kool Aid'.
27.
by tom_rath 17y ago
Yeah, because the most likely thing for pirates to do when they come into a bundle of loot is sail to the middle of nowhere and spend a few years engineering crafty traps beneath which they will permanently store their cash. Outside of nove
28.
by tom_rath 17y ago
If you don't get word-of-mouth advertising, your product isn't worthy.
29.
by tom_rath 17y ago
4chan. Even more spartan and insanely popular.
30.
by tom_rath 17y ago
You're thinking of advertising rather than marketing as a whole. Think of marketing as the social component of design. You wouldn't start coding an application before you had at least a rough design of what its functionality would be, righ

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