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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 6th, 2023

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  • My advice is to do things that bring you joy, and if there a hit then consider that an added bonus. I’m a computer programmer and some of my most popular projects were started by me being curious how something works without any intention of doing something with it. If I set out to do something amazing I would have failed outright.

    So write a short story, then write another one. If you end up writing one you feel is with showing off then find a writing club to share it with, or post it to a blog. If that is successful then find a website or magazine to submit it too. Go on up the ladder till your the next Douglas Addams. But do it in many small steps, rather than setting out to conquer the world in one go.


  • Intelligence is a collection of multiple things. Curiosity is a contributor, but far from an integral part.

    Someone can be a brilliant mathematician, capable of computing complex equations that would stump most computers (metaphorically at least), but they may utterly lack creativity and curiosity. In any definition of intelligence we would consider them highly intelligent.

    On the flip side someone may be completely filled with curiosity about the world, but lack the intelligence to read or write.

    Technically that is a learned skill, this is why intelligence is really a fairly useless measure. What is intelligence? Memorizing lots of facts? Having loads of education? A built in understanding of the world that others lack (common sense)?

    I think what really matters is that you find the thing in life where you fit, rather than worrying about how we measure up. I have known very intelligent people who were worthless human beings, and simple minded people who made the world more special every day. We focus too much on being smart, it is one of the least important attributes.



  • I was a young programmer during the dot com boom. Old school companies like sears and newspapers were scared of the internet. They would occasionally try something small and half hearted on the web but never really tried to figure it out.

    Sears is a great example. 20 years before the web they had a functioning mail order service with stores and warehouse all over the US. They were very close to what a modern Amazon is, without the web presence or rapid delivery. If they were brave they could have been Amazon, selling online and delivering to there extensive store network.

    Newspapers had a very busy classified section. That could have been moved online easily enough. But they wanted to charge for there classifieds, while eBay or Crageslist let you post for free, making money off of add revenue or a broker fee.

    They also were very popular with local advertisers, and could have transitioned there newspapers online for free with the same local advertisers. Instead they tried to charge or resisted being online at all, leaving room for other services like yahoo (later Facebook and Google news) to fill in the news business.

    Finally if they had been smart they could have made a news sharing service among the papers (nexus, etc) that could have forced Google news to pay a small fee every time they shared a story, providing a steady revenue service.

    I see a time in the future where traditional papers fully die, and something new rises from the ashes. My guess is it will be a return to local news, but with a very small staff running the whole show online.


  • I can envision a world where Nintendo has a certification program for smart phones. They could have minimum specs, a special security chip, and probably some tactile controls. This would allow them to more aggressively make cellphone games that feel like console games, without relying on third party controllers or using simplified controls.

    I don’t see them making a whole cell phone platform. OS development is not there strong suit, console makers have been fairly bad at this in the past (there focus is speed and minimal overhead).

    My guess is they will continue on with a switch style tablet for several more generations. Unless something new like AR or VR really takes off, I don’t see a lot of incentive to innovate anymore.


  • Yes and no. Newspapers could be read the next day, after the original purchaser was done with it. And it was easy for a restaurant or business to share newspapers among many clients. Plus of course radio still provided free news that was quality.

    The big problem now is that the best news sources are the most locked down. And the worst news sources are the most open. So it is difficult for a quality piece to make the rounds. Even if a link to an article could be shared for free, even if the website was locked down, things would be a lot better.

    Finally newspapers charged for the cost of printing but made money off of advertising and classifieds. There is very little cost (per view) to digital publishing. If newspapers had embraced the Web 20 years ago they could have been Facebook or eBay, rather than having all there core revenue fall away.


  • Loco-Roco for the PSP. As a game developer, I consider this to be the pinnacle of game development. It is completely original, uses only two buttons, super intuitive, yet your drawn into it and want to play for hours. It makes me sad that few have heard of it.

    Toy Story on the sega genesis (and snes) is a close second. It is actually a bit of a hot mess, each level is a completely different style of gameplay. But it is super rewarding to fight your way through to the end. And it showcases so many different styles of gameplay.