adammarkey

Although I'm not in Beijing, it's amazing that Hacker News hasn't been blocked by the "Great Firewall".

Any bets on how long it will take before the Chinese government shuts this out of China too?

Pronouncing "Java" like "Yava" is definitely a Dutch thing - I was building a Java based financial system for a bank in the Netherlands and it took a while to get used to the way they pronounce it too :)

Unfortunately the Hero looks like it has some "lag" issues when navigating around the screen in the production models out in Europe right now. I hope it's a software fix to make it better, but I imagine we're going to have to wait for a faster processor to take advantage of that slick UI it has.

Also, T-mobile said that they won't be carrying the Hero because they are releasing the "myTouch" that Arrington was talking about in that article.

Let's hope someone gets on the ball in the US and gives the iPhone a run for it's money with Android. I think it will eventually happen, but we're probably going to have to wait another year.

Being a large company doesn't mean you can "easily replicate" things. The major reason startups can wiggle their way into a market and become a player is because large companies can't react in time to what an agile startup is doing in their space.

I honestly think healthcare / health insurance is a major reason.

It's hard to be "ramen AND medical bills profitable" if you or one of your founders has an urgent medical issue when you're trying to bootstrap yourselves with no insurance.

The Obama administration should look at this issue and provide significantly reduced healthcare to bootstrapped startups.

Link bait title. I had my hopes up for something juicy only to find out something I already knew... government employees build crappy software.

HTML 5 is part of the death-recipe for these native RIA technologies, but there is one other major missing piece at the moment - a fast and dependable javascript engine that can be assumed to exist on client machines.

HTML 5 just provides the UI / Drawing capabilities, but it will have to rely on Javascript perform the processing logic that is necessary in most Rich Internet Applications.

So, when it can be assumed that HTML 5 is fully implemented AND there is a fast enough Javascript engine to rival native code (similar to .NET in silverlight, actionscript in Flash, and Java in JavaFX) - then then open web will truely take over.

And personally, I cannot wait for that day.

As we all know, XML is just another word for Productivity! One less thing to compile and throw those pesky errors before we put it straight into production.

I can't wait to show this to the IT guys... if they ever get back from their 4 hour lunch break.

Awesome mullet BTW!

Thanks!

"Photo-slide shows" on the web need to die, anytime I see one, I never click on it. These ad-spam on these things is nearing the annoyance levels of most porn sites..

My hard drive is already filled with MILFS and performs quite well for my requirements.

/me ducks and covers

I think optimism is an essential core value (or characteristic) of a successful company even though it might inhibit the "fail fast" methodology you speak of.

Optimism when kept in check can be the fuel for passion in you and your co-founders.

Totally agree with you.

I for one don't want my browser knowing "who I am" - I prefer to let the applications I use know that.

I disagree, it should be a "killer" because flash uses a closed source for-profit runtime from adobe. The javascript standard is free to use and implement and doesn't require me to have any browser plugins to view great looking websites.

The heavyweight category needs to be split up.

Technologies like flex / silverlight / javafx / open laszlo use compiled binaries to run their applications via a browser plugin (flash, java vm, silverlight vm).

The other products in the heavyweight category utilize HTML / Javascript and don't require plugins. That's a big difference that this person seemed to miss...