johndlafayette

PS... buy microsoft stock (thought i haven't yet).

Anyways... xbox is their way into the tv market. tv will become the new computer... xbox is what all the young kids use.. if you've ever used the xbox interface.. do the math. they are blue oceaning the heck out of that market.

PC is dying? Who cares??? Microsoft is going to be into the TV/Comp market.

Playstation? Wii? they aren't building what microsoft is.

if you still don't believe me (I've been arguing with people about it for a couple years now)... look at the new windows design.

if they don't fuck it up they're all set to go. and in so much a better position than all the other companies. basically... if they make it work... they're the world's new favorite company.

I can't think of another company in nearly as good a position as they are, despite all of their efforts to break into that market.. and even if they fuck it all up then they'll be just like every other major company... they pay good dividends and you can sell the stock for probably what you bought it for.

(edit- removed but from a sentence - I don't know code, i just enjoy reading about tech (you know this by now:)... so that's about all the info I can give you.. and I know that's etiquette)

Is there a website that tells you where your money would best be spent if you were donating towards a specific goal/project?

Every time I try to donate towards a goal, I see dozens of sites, and spend a lot of time trying to figure out which one is the best.

Right now I'm trying to donate towards Syria. I'm trying to figure out which program will take the small amount of money I have to donate and buy the most blankets, or tents, or whatever with it... but they all seem to hide it. So I spend a lot of time searching and hoping.

A site that told you exactly what x amount donated would buy and compared the donations sites would be wonderful. I see x buys x on some sites, but not a comparison site with all of the other sites I could possibly donate too. On top of saving (me) time, it'd make sure that people's donated money was put towards the best use. It might even save some lives.

If it exists... please let me know... if not... I'd love to see it. (and maybe you could figure out how to make money doing it too...?)

I had posted a question to HN earlier to try to wrap my head around how the app store model worked/was legal. I definitely did not phrase it in the best way, and sincerely appreciate all of the feedback I received. Anyways, this is how I have finally come to wrap my head around the App Store model.

Smartphones are like a country. The platform, the ‘land’ you live in. The App Store is like the government of a country. If you want to build a business within any country, you must pay taxes to ensure that the infrastructure is maintained; you must pay a % fee to ensure that the country (smartphone) can continue to provide services to its people (users). A country can place limits on what you can and can’t do within its borders to ensure the greater good of all within the country, to protect its people and infrastructure. You can also move to a different country if you think the tax burden is too high; you may freely decide to build your apps for another smartphone.

I’m sure it’s been described this way already many times, but maybe this will help someone else understand it if they were having trouble.

When I see posts on HN that seem related to a project I’m working on, I always try to pass it along to someone on the team. I don’t know programming languages well, so it has to be related enough to the project that I would recognize it as such, but it might not always be specifically related to the programming we’re doing. I do this because I figure that even if it’s not specifically related to what we’re working on, perhaps there’s a nugget of information there that could be applied in some way; a connection that could be made that could improve the product. I have informed everyone I’m working with that I’m currently a programming idiot and when I pass along things that aren’t useful to tell me I’m dumb and ignore them (Why would being wrong about something I don’t know a lot about bother me? Just more encouragement for me to learn). I'm hoping it's not a time suck though.

Anyways, I would like to know: would someone you’re working with doing this annoy you, or be helpful in that they might spark some new ideas?

Can someone better explain how Apple's app store model is legal/what led to this situation? When Microsoft first invented the Windows OS, did they get to charge 30% to everyone that built a software program that worked on Windows? (for all I know they did/do.. I'm just wondering how this ended up the way things are).

Apple has a monopoly over any content provider that is marketing to someone that uses an Apple device. You would think that they'd have to allow other marketplaces (app stores) to exist on their devices, same as Windows had to allow other web browers, accounting programs, etc.

Thanks for any info Dan