151–158 of 158 posts
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I've had more the opposite experience--- one CS professor used only a Unix command line without X installed, and his machine didn't have a mouse. Not sure which is worse.
i can relate to that .. not only did my professor use command line only, he required the finals (more like a paper) and the project reports typed up in LaTex + the presentations in .PS/PDF format .. No Word or Powerpoint
I think a problem that bugs me a lot is how I see lots of people wanting to do lots of cool things, but they lack the appropriate guidance. We do that on a day-to-day basis, but what about the other folks out there who don't know about this place? Usually forums, IRC, blogs help in getting immersed with anything, but I have a feeling that a startup with the primary purpose of "Enlightening" its users has yet to come.…
It depends on how big of a problem you want to tackle. The biggest problem I have every day is that I get tired and have to go to sleep. This time spent sleeping could be better used by doing more productive things. Finding a solution to the "sleep problem" would be a huge win in many ways.
Enterprise software sucks. We don't talk about it much here at hn, but think about it. Every man-made object you encounter every day was manufactured somewhere. And moved, more than once. Now add in all the sales, marketing, customer service, operations, accounting, finance, human resources, etc., etc., etc. needed to support that manufacturing and distribution. Next, add financial markets, healthcare, energy, entert…
So I've come to believe the solution to the enterprise problem will be bottom-up as much as top-down. One programmer (or a small team) who knows the client and the software can do things which would be science-fiction in a top-down approach, in terms of costs and delivery time.
The model has two problems though. First I have no idea how to find new clients - so far all have been through what can be best described as chance. Second, I'm not very sure what the right pricing is. My personal guess would be that a good software is worth for a company about as much as a small paycheck, and grow in about the same manner. But selling this, especially the growing part, has been difficult so far.
It's worth noting these are marketing problems - as far as the operational part goes, both me and the clients are happy with the arrangement.
I think there is a fundamental problem with the process of getting funding for a new business. I'm not sure there's a simple or even reasonable solution, but there's definitely a problem. I know many smart, capable, enthusiastic people who have a very good business ideas, would be totally capable of launching a new product/service/etc., and would make fine entrepreneurs -- but who have absolutely no way to get their…
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i can relate to that .. not only did my professor use command line only, he required the finals (more like a paper) and the project reports typed up in LaTex + the presentations in .PS/PDF format .. No Word or Powerpoint
Isn't that actually a good thing? :)
Word produces acceptably formatted acceptably cross platform documents with low effort and a PDF export option for the last three years too.
I think a problem that bugs me a lot is how I see lots of people wanting to do lots of cool things, but they lack the appropriate guidance. We do that on a day-to-day basis, but what about the other folks out there who don't know about this place? Usually forums, IRC, blogs help in getting immersed with anything, but I have a feeling that a startup with the primary purpose of "Enlightening" its users has yet to come.…
Would you mind commenting on my website, Curious Reef, which is aiming to help people learn new things? I would love to hear if you think it's a solution to that problem. http://curiousreef.com/
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You could probably make some money on a "proof validation service" where you charge all of the crackpots who think they've solved P!=NP to validate their proof. Or, if you just happen to find an error, send that back. But the service is free if you don't!
Why would a crackpot pay for this? Their incentive is for people not to find errors in their proofs, not for them to find errors.
These faculty complain about getting e-mail spam and sometimes even visits and phone calls out of the blue from people who claim to have solved it and want their proofs checked.