"The Android Scripting Environment (ASE) brings scripting languages to Android by allowing you to edit and execute scripts and interactive interpreters directly on the Android device. These scripts have access to many of the APIs available to full-fledged Android application"
Think about people who don't have an Android phone and are deciding between that and the iPhone. If you are a casual tech person who keeps their machine in good shape, edits a bit of HTML/CSS from templates but hasn't taken the full leap into programming this could be the turning point.
Just like during elections the key isn't the hard core linux user or the unwashed masses who can't use their remote, it's the independents/people in the middle.
The real threat to national security is the predominance of special-interest groups who are currently in control of the US Military machine, having it fight un-just, disgusting wars, in the name of the United States of America.
The true threat to national security is the Pentagon itself, which simply wouldn't be necessary if it weren't creating its own reasons for war around the world.
You want real national security? Stand down your soldiers, America. That is the only true way to be secure in your beds, Americans.
Australian here .. I've always had a bloody atrocious time in my travels, with my accent .. so I just standardized on "American-sounding" and I get along just fine with people understanding me, mostly, about 100% of the time .. except when I reveal I'm from Australia, and the whole thing unravels into a nationalism-filled diatribe about how I'm not a "true Aussie" since I don't speak A'Strine properly ..
I am a true Australian, since I don't actually live there, and consider anyone else living there, not an Aborigine, to be just a bunch of bloody tourist wankers, heh heh ..
Yes, same here - I need to pronounce certain things in an American fashion to be understood at all when at work in the US. And much like this example, it revolves around the 'r':
'Excuse me, do you have you wireless internet access here?' (pronouncing it British / Australian style as a two syllable word)
'Sorry sir?'
'Excuse me, do you have you wireless internet here?'
'I'm sorry I don't understand'
'Do you have you wiYERless internet here?'
'Yes Sir, we do have wiYERless. Here's an access card...'
Doing something theoretically difficult in code during an interview is one thing - but having a compiler in front of you to help you get through that difficulty is another thing entirely.
The point is to determine whether you are a programmer because you think like one, or if you are a programmer because your compiler thinks like one, for you. Surely, if you rely on your edit-compile-test-hack-edit.. loop to get you through the problem, thats okay: most programmers work like this.
But the really good programmers, ones that are valuable to all sorts of conditions of development, can work out a problem pretty rapidly without needing the workflow-loop to get to the conclusion. These sorts of tests, outside the 'normal environment' in which programmers usually operate, don't really point out the programming-efficiency of the person, but do point out how much they depend on tools to be the programmer they are ..
Myself, I also thought of 3 different ways to reverse the list before I sat down to write any code. And even now, with my compiler in front of me, I'm not entirely sure there isn't some brilliant one-liner to solve the problem. I am, however, sure that once I've compiled a solution, and run it, and seen that it does indeed work, I can walk away from the problem satisfied that I at least got something working, even if it wasn't the best solution. The degree of effectiveness of my approach and my process is what is being measured, here, I would imagine, by the interviewer ..
1. If you want to have kids, do it sooner rather than later. The sooner you have them, the better: they grow up so fast, you'll still have time in your 40's to enjoy life with them as teenagers, if you're lucky. If you leave it too late, you'll be pretty disconnected from their teen lives, and hell .. what 40-year old doesn't enjoy the odd jaunt with their teenage kids, eh? I know I wish I'd had my kids a decade sooner .. and don't let anyone tell you its hard, either. Its not hard, if you love them enough, to keep your lives together and do well as a family. Family units are the strongest groups you will ever find or belong to, if they are indeed a unit ..
2. The wisdom of the Mob. It doesn't exist in nearly as palatable a form as most people might desire, and there is also the ugly truth that the Mob can be downright stupid. Collective truth is often full of lies. You would be wise to exercise your ability to disassociate yourself from collective thought as often, and as early, as possible. This means, always question "what everyone else knows to be true" four, five, six times, before you use it as a basis for life decisions .. The Mob wishes to Eat you, Individual, and Never Forget That!
3. Save. Save, save, save. 10% of your money saved on a regular basis now is a huge relief in the future. I wish I'd enforced this on myself a bit better in the 20's .. you simply cannot avoid the fact that if you save during your most productive years, your least productive years will be better off for it ..
> 3. Save. Save, save, save. 10% of your money saved on a regular basis now is a huge relief in the future. I wish I'd enforced this on myself a bit better in the 20's .. you simply cannot avoid the fact that if you save during your most productive years, your least productive years will be better off for it ..
I just got my first a few months ago and opted to save more than 20% of my gross income (tax-free, you pay taxes when you get it out later). I wasn't used to the money anyway, yet, so it was easy.
Also, if you are not saving already: I guess whenever you get a raise, you can comfortably afford to save like 50% of it--because that money isn't planned into your budget, yet.
If you can do pull it off, do so. I might even try it myself.
But saving "only" 50% of your raises is something everybody can do without too much discipline, and still feel rewarded with a higher standard of living for whatever they did to get the raise. (Unless it's an automatic raise, and not something you got for some achievement.)
Unless there comes a new ice age and people start fighting all over the place for food and shelter, or whatever. Let's hope it won't come to that - but anyway, the future might not always just be new versions of iPhones. I think we are actually one of the first generations that never had to experience a war in their home country (speaking from my countries perspective).
That said, I am also curious about the future and hope to experiences as much of it as possible...
1. If you want to have kids, do it
sooner rather than later.
My issue is that kids cost a lot of money, which means you lose quite a lot of flexibility.
I want to start my own business within the foreseeable future (probably 1-2 years, currently saving money, gathering contacts and getting more on-the-job experience in the field I want to operate in).
Right now I know that if I save 20k Euros that could easily last me for well over a year, if you have kids - not so much.
EDIT: I'm 27 and have tried doing my own thing that didn't work so well in the past - that 'failure' taught me I should probably get more experience and contacts before trying again. Saving 20-30k Euros (or more) is not the issue and is a sum I can relatively easily gather in a 1-2 years time-frame.
I have a 3 year old, a 2 year old, an 8 week old, and a startup.
Having kids has no impact on having your own business. They're completely orthogonal. Using that as an excuse for not having kids makes as much sense as saying "I don't want to eat tacos for dinner because I want to have my own business."
Note: I'm not responding directly to your comment; I'm responding to the somewhat pervasive idea on HN that kids are a substitute for startups.
"Having kids has no impact on having your own business"
You're saying that raising children has no impact on your available time and money? That seems a bit far fetched. I'd agree that it's totally possible to have kids and do a startup, but frankly you'll be working with a bit less money and less time (and for a while way less sleep).
Of course raising children requires time and money, just like any other activity.
I have a friend who competes in Iron Man. It takes a huge commitment of time and energy, and every time I talk to him he has just spent $1000 for some new attachment to his super-bike. Iron Man negatively impacts his "available time and money". Oh, and he has a startup. And it's very successful.
I suspect that most of you have hobbies that consume 3-4 hours of your weekday and several hundred dollars of your monthly budget.
Now, in my case, my family is my hobby. Spending time with my kids is how I relax and unwind. I don't go out, or watch TV, or play a musical instrument, or compete in Iron Man, or participate in Renaissance Festivals. My life might seem empty and boring to you, if your idea of relaxing and unwinding is different than mine.
Having a family is one choice -- amongst many -- for how to spend your free time and disposable income. I'm not claiming that you can have it all -- for example, I don't think anyone could do startup + family + Iron Man -- but I do think that startup + family is eminently doable.
It very much depends on how you and the mother decided to split up the work load. If she is happy taking close to 100% of the work load and letting you do your thing then it shouldn't be impossible to have basically the same amount of time.
I'd argue that if you're spending ~0% of your time with you kids then you're doing it wrong. Something has to come first, and imho if you have kids then the kids need to come first. That means spending as much time as you can with them, both to help raise them, teach them, and also to experience parenthood.
Having a kid myself, and having turned down an awesome job opportunity since it would have kept away from my daughter for too long periods at a time, I totally agree with you. That being said, I know people who have made the opposite choice, and while I don't agree with it, their kids seem to be turning out OK.
Paul Graham, exactly one year ago: "What a startup (bootstrapped or not) takes is 100% of your performance, not 100% of your time."http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=679278
He was talking about exercise, but I think the same is true with having kids.
In my case, I spend 4 hours with my kids every workday: 6am - 10am. During that time, I get:
- Ridiculous, insane amounts of joy.
- A chance to see the way that little minds think, which usually triggers a good software idea at least once per week.
- The same kind of chemical response that I would get from volunteering. Before kids, I tried to volunteer about 20 hours per week because it released some kind of neuro-chemical that made me really happy. Helping - and in particular, TEACHING - my kids triggers a similar response.
- An opportunity to process the day's coming challenges (subconsciously)
- Lots of laughs, enough that I don't feel compelled to watch as many TV shows or movies as I did previously.
For me, it works out to a huge net positive on both personal fulfillment and professional performance.
I can't be a good dad to my 3 kids and have enough time to read a chapter in a book each day (along with employment, house chores, etc), let alone go forth with any business ventures.
Do you really find your statements to be true? If so, how do you balance them? Orthogonal seems to be an unarguably incorrect statement, though.
Agreed, if nothing else, kids motivate you. They represent something greater than yourself, which can cause you to work harder and be more determined. They also provide inate happiness and joy outside of your work life.
You will be less risky when you have kids. However, not all risk is worth it.
I often found that in college I performed better (higher GPA) with a higher work load than with a lighter work load. I think it is because I was forced to be more efficient, sharper, and wiser with my time. Having kids and starting a business is analagous. However, this is only my personal experience.
Why not? Simple reason… I get the feeling that many of the people at Metalab that I have met are aggressive anti-making-money at worst and disinterested in being told that Austria is actually a fantastic place to start a business. I think a lot of people complain because it gives them an excuse.
I don't think my talk would be welcome, or I would be given the cold shoulder, so I don't put myself through it.
Some people I've met (like Paul Böhm, which IIRC is the founder of MetaLab) seem very much pro-startup, but it could be that my experience is not representative of the norm, as I am hardly a regular member.
In fact Paul may be one of the reasons why "startups", as a subject, is such a tender one in the Metalab scene. You can talk about "startups" for years without actually starting one.
It seems that there is a particular brand of arrogance required of anyone trying to get something new done in the world of The Mob Mind, and that Mob Mind may well already be on its way to agitation in the Metalab scene, with regards to startups .. However, that arrogance persists in the Metalab scene, in the form of others, in the wings, preparing their new ideas for delivery.
Paul is no longer in Austria - he moved to the States, following that grand hacker dream of success in Silicon Valley .. but as far as I know, he was Mr. Startup, indeed..
Well, you're wrong. There are tons of people in the Metalab scene who are into making money, and who want to get their startups rolling .. otherwise why else would there be so many startup meetings there in the first place?
>I don't think my talk would be welcome, or I would be given the cold shoulder, so I don't put myself through it.
I'm wrong? I've got into this conversation - about how the business climate here is actually excellent - at MetaLab, with MetaLab members, after viennajs more than once, and they sure didn't want to hear it.
And as for preaching to the choir, no. If I were only interested in preaching to the choir, why would I bother to create a fairly controversial conference?
After all, the "accepted" startup model is building, growing huge, and hoping for an acquisition, rather than charging.
But preaching to people who really don't want to hear it - that's another story, and a total waste of time.
No, you're wrong about Metalab - there are plenty of people in the Metalab scene who would respond to your ideas if you were to make the effort to present them .. metalab is a hotbed of new-startup activity and some of the hackers there are really trying to make money, rather than just get it from their parents, as so many "smart kids in Vienna" do these days ..
What you might be interpreting as disinterest in the subject of startups is more like to be a disinterest in the means by which you are preaching to the converted .. sure you're not just getting a negative personal response and broadly generalizing it to avoid discomfort?
I didn't say they were disinterested in startups, I said they were disinterested in talking about charging money for products and how the business climate in Austria is actually superior to that in the US.
Not everyone - but enough that I wouldn't bother trying to force my unwelcome ideas on people by giving a talk.
And yes, I'm positive it's not "a negative personal response." The people I have connected with clearly enjoy my company.
>I think a bit part of Austrians having inhibitions about starting their own businesses is as you say, the mindset.
I think its the rampant Marxism, frankly. So many brainwashed people in this society think that success = criminal behaviour, and that to be a successful capitalist means you have to be an utter thief. To be fair, the Austrian society has its statistics in this department, which go back to before the Austro-Hungarian empire, and I doubt some dubious American-style hype festival is going to change much about that.
I think the "successsful=criminal" belief is actually a cover up for fear of the unknown, a rationalization. The correct fix is not ranting but exposure to wonderful, kind, thoughtful, passionate successful people.
Believe it or not, I have, which is why I'm putting on the conference. Get it?
The one thing I don't like about Vienna is the "meh" attitude, about everything, even what is (theoretically) an individual's own passion. And I believe that's as subject to role modeling as everything else. I am a cheerful, if occasionally overly exuberant, optimist. I fucking care, is what I'm saying.
I don't hold any hopes of changing a lot of people -- but you never know, that could happen. What I want is to attract and meet the people who also feel their passion in an unironic way.
Despite your jabs at my theoretical personality flaws, we clearly agree.
>Despite your jabs at my theoretical personality flaws, we clearly agree.
Just wondering if you've considered the delivery, not the message, is what may be getting in your way here .. I've seen it go both ways, also. If the person has genuine statistics on record of having had a startup success, then no problems: but if the claims are being made without any real basis to back them up, well then .. that can get mighty cold, mighty fast. The hacker elite respect none whose words are mightier than their deeds ..
