drndown2007

This made me chuckle after just reading a rant about someone leaving Linux and going back to Windows because of all the secret handshakes and tribal knowledge required.

Actually, I agree with it. I'm a Linux noob, and even I (the target idiot?) can't find anything in the latest version of Ubuntu without having to constantly search. The older version was quite discoverable for me though. I'm also looking around for something more useable.

Nothing against Optimizely (I'll go see what it is after I post), but man I'm getting tired of the cutsey -ly names. This is one fad I wish would fade away.

That works in theory. But have YOU read all the fine print when opening an account with your bank? I haven't either -- everything we do is based on some common sense and trust. If we had to verify everything we did with everyone we did it, our way of life would end.

LOL - lots of folks defending TV :)

I completely agree with Josh though. In my case, I haven't watched more than 30 minutes of TV (usually zero) in a week for probably 10 years now. Instead, during the evenings I worked on my business while my spouse watched TV. Now I have a great business to show for all those hours. Don't have anything to show for the TV-watching hours from the previous 10 years though. YMMV (though you'll never know 'til you try it!)

A friend and I were discussing this once. I don't like horror films because of the gore. He told me that when he first started watching them, the gore creeped him out and made him uncomfortable. After years of watching them though, it doesn't faze him at all. To me, that's the very definition of media changing someone. Of course that doesn't mean he's going to become an axe murderer, but it had a noticable impact on his thought patterns. Take someone that is unstable to start with, and maybe... ?

As I mentioned above, Authorize.Net's CIM (Customer Information Manager) works in a similar way -- you send the credit card info from your website to Authorize.net (and never store it in between) and you get a token back which you can store, and which you can use to make charges later.

They also have CIM, Customer Information Manager, where you send the credit card info (thus never storing it yourself) and you get back a token. Anytime you need to charge that card, you charge the token instead. PCI compliance is then on Authorize.net

So did mine, but that was 1994 so it didn't seem so bad :) (which is another way of saying that context is _very_ important, like year, what part of the country, web programming vs kernel drivers, DBA, etc)

Leave. Your hard work is being wasted there. I was in almost an identical situation. When I left the company folded, but funding was getting short anyway (the first time a check bounced I used that as my excuse). The boss won't be happy, but you can only go up from where you're at.

Happy side note: 10 years later I'm running my own startup (only founder) and it's great. However, working in big companies between the two was definitely helpful.

Am I the only one saddened by the fact that this would have been a piece of cake back in high school/college, but can't remember how to do them (integrals) anymore? :(

And what exactly is going to make that tide rise? Nothing is free -- everyone has to work. We have to sacrifice our time and energy to survive and have some comforts. There's no way around that one.

Is it just me, or are we seeing a lot of hip new Web 2.0 sites that are going under lately? Is lack of an actual business model the culprit?

>highest concentration of pure happiness and elation on this planet

Very well said. This is just fantastic. I hope the Egyptian people get everything they're hoping for. How exciting!