Viewing profile — CPlatypus

It's just a publicity stunt. Some of their questions do not have answers that are both clear and concise because the language specifications themselves are not both clear and conci…

What about Fedora? It's hardly a "random free distro" but it is free, and it has that same yum-my RHEL flavor. ;) Or is there something even more specific to RHEL that not even Fed…

Do you seriously believe that's why developers went that route? I always thought web-apps arose because people thought the web was the best way to connect with their users, and Saa…

"I encourage all of our portoflio companies to file for as many as they need" http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2006/04/patently_absurd.html If you're letting them spend your money on filing…

Literally? Did you literally fall asleep in English class?

Hey, crazy idea: why don't more employers give workers a choice ? As a quick read of this thread will show, some people like quiet so they can concentrate, while others like the in…

Another metaphor I've seen is to the military (specifically the army), and consists of three roles. Don't beat me up about military minutiae, please; I don't claim to be an expert …

I really wish they'd give more information about their methodology. For example, I've used the SoD SSD servers for some of my own testing, and they pull 30K IOPS for small random s…

When exactly did "startup" come to mean only "social web-oriented startup that has access to user data in the first place"? I mean, come on, I know that's the kind of startup the Y…

While bequeathing code to the community instead of having it buried with you is a very good thing it comes with a caveat. In most cases, it's not a good idea to pick up the result …

Fair point about "pragmatism" but the contrary "elegance" often comes across as dogmatic or even elitist. Most languages strive for both pragmatism and elegance, but tend to favor …

Don't worry about the heat. Karma here has no value, or perhaps even negative value, to me. What I'm saying about VCs, startups, and patents is real and important, even if some sel…

I got tired of this and other VC games after my tenth startup a couple of years ago, so I guess it is possible that attitudes have changed. Even if Fred is one of the good guys, th…

I just looked at all of Fred's comments on that thread, and saw no such thing. Please don't lie just because you find the truth about startups and patents inconvenient.

That's not Fred's official standpoint. The author is Brad Burnham.

No, he'd just have to allow that. Anyone can say they're spending all that money on lawyers for purely defensive purposes, but without a public written commitment it's just BS. If …

[citation needed]

No, sorry, I'm not in the room at other people's startups when they do that. What I can do, however, is look at the list of investments at Union Square Ventures where he's a princi…

That's a fair point, but I don't think it gets very far. He also goes on to say, "I don't think there's a unique idea out there in the web space and hasn't been for well over a dec…

His blog title is "A VC" plus right at the top of the page it says "Fred Wilson is a VC and principal of Union Square Ventures" so yeah, I think I was on pretty firm ground there.

The OP wouldn't seem quite so hypocritical if VCs didn't put immense pressure on startups to generate patents. Don't tell me those patents are supposed to be purely defensive, eith…

Anybody who enjoys Steve's thoughts about gaming addiction will probably enjoy this "hidden gem" too. http://www.nickyee.com/hub/addiction/addiction.pdf It's a decade old now, but …

I don't think that really works, though. It certainly doesn't for me. Much of the time, I like the lighter, smaller tablet form factor (even compared to the several netbooks I've o…