Viewing profile — brianmcconnell

It's pretty disappointing to see someone of Thiel's stature do this. Distasteful choice and motives aside, it's good to remember that the tech industry has a long history of forwar…

Actually, what _you_ should do is have first hand experience of dealing with a good friend in the midst of a severe drug addiction crisis (who can't phone mommy and daddy for help …

I moved to SF in the early 90s. I think you can pin the large homeless population on several things. One is the climate. If you had to pick a place to be homeless, this would be on…

Oh yes, sort of like the Internet was an obvious instant hit! IIRC the Internet/web/etc slow cooked in a Crockpot for several decades before it became commercially viable. Somebody…

While the VC backed services drop like flies, neighborhood businesses continue as if nothing happened. I've lived in the same neighborhood in San Francisco for 20 years. The local …

Looks like it could be similar to the Wow signal, a brief strong transient that was never re-observed. Hopefully this time, the Allen Telescope Array can keep an eye on it long ter…

I agree that artificial gravity, plus radiation protection, are must haves for long duration deep space flights. With inflatable structures, artificial G is possible to do with muc…

Cue Donald Trump In 3...2...1

If you are plagued by robo calls, especially from Julie your local google specialist, I highly recommend the Jolly Roger Telephone Company as a countermeasure.

Gawker didn't out Peter Thiel. Peter Thiel outed Peter Thiel. It was the worst kept secret in San Francisco, and he had a public Friendster profile that made it pretty clear he was…

Then why isn't he suing his "friend" who made the sex tape without his consent? That's the original sin then. I am answering my own question here (Gawker has more money than his fr…

Two important points here. #1 Gawker did not out Peter Thiel. Peter Thiel outed Peter Thiel. Back when Friendster was a thing he had a public profile which featured him shirtless o…

On a somewhat related note, a few years ago I was flying to a mobile phone conference in Barcelona. I thought it would be fun to bring my Port-O-Rotary cell phone along (available …

Safety sells. Let's say it's 2025. You can buy a Tesla Model Z, or GM's latest sedan for about 30 grand. In addition to the E-MPG rating, there's also a new sticker for deaths and …

Two doors from my house is a deluxe 3 unit condo building that has been uninhabited for years. Not once have I seen any evidence of anyone living there. The units went for little u…

It's a real dilemma, as the company is doing well enough that the 409a value is not trivial, but its not clear that they will have a liquidity event in the near term. So on one han…

I am currently dealing with this issue, though on a smaller scale. The moral of the story is to forward exercise options if you can. Basically what this means is you pay to exercis…

I think where a lot of technical people get fleeced in compensation discussions is they let themselves get into a 1:1 personal discussion where they feel compelled to agree on the …

You goddamned kids! Get off my lawn!!!

Pilot here. I agree with other posts about energy density being an important factor here. I don't expect to see all-solar aircraft anytime soon. The best way to get aviation to bec…

Twenty year SF resident here, and property owner. I am consistently amazed at how selfish a lot of people here are. They'll talk about how pro-housing they are, until someone bulld…

Long time App Engine user here. If you're sending email as part of your app, I'd recommend using Mailgun (or similar services). You can set up DKIM, inbound routes, etc, and genera…

Notice that the hot zone spans across jurisdictions that deliberately opted out of Medi-Cal, and generally opposed public health measures in general. Sad, because if Zika gets roll…

It's Techcrunch.

I've been using App Engine for many projects since 2008. Like any tool, it's not the right tool for every job, but for its intended use cases, it's great. Being able to click Deplo…