apstuff's comments

apstuff | 17 years ago | on: The Case For Working With Your Hands

When I was in high school and college I worked for a local construction supply company unloading railroad cars of bulk and bagged stone 'by hand.' It was back breaking work to put it lightly.

But it contributed to my education in more ways than one.

Last summer I was asked by the same company to consult, advise and implement a complete conversion of their accounting and information management systems. I did and it went well. They paid me more for that work than I ever made working in the yard.

As much as I like working with my hands, I'd rather get paid for using my mind than for using my back.

apstuff | 17 years ago | on: Top 10 reasons to have a job

Not everyone wants to be an entrepreneur or take the risks necessary to create wealth beyond that of a full-time job.

There are as many reasons for this as there are people but to strike a condescending tone towards their decisions is arrogant.

Some, like the readers here, like to see things succeed by being able to contribute to the success.

I enjoy HN and I try to make it better by creating comments I hope others will read. But I don't spend my day trying to write my own version of HN. I'd rather work on my own stuff.

Employees are the same. Just because they have full-time jobs doesn't mean that's their end-all and be-all.

apstuff | 17 years ago | on: The United States of Entrepreneurs

"One of the country’s most popular television programmes, currently being recycled as a film, features the USS Enterprise boldly going where no man had gone before."

Actually, two of the country's most popular television programmes feature people singing and dancing their way to stardom. Like entrepreneurs, some fail miserably, some exit disappointed but graciously, and some make it big.

Still, point taken.

apstuff | 17 years ago | on: How to make PCBs at home in 1 hour without special materials

Tom Gootee's article is worth reading. He did a lot of the heavy lifting summarized in this article.

I've tried this and it works -- but...

You must be very, very careful with the solution -- whether it's Ferric Chloride from Radio Shack or a muriatic/peroxide homebrew. Gootee's article and others show how to create safe 'bubblers' for this step. Look at these first.

Please be careful. You are entering 'Breaking Bad' territory here.

apstuff | 17 years ago | on: "Francisco's Money Speech" by Ayn Rand

I read the full article, understand the point, and get its relevance to today's circumstances.

That said, I have to admit (and I'm sorry for being way off topic here) I found myself being drawn instead to the overall simplicity of the layout and ease of readability than to the actual message.

It's probably because I'm working on my own stuff and appreciate it when pages are done well (i.e. hacker news).

I looked at the style sheet and it's also very concise.

I know they're using .asp but I'm led to believe capmag.com is fairly easy to maintain.

Please continue using Hacker News to discuss Ayn Rand if you like, but as a developer I thought I'd throw a couple of pennies into the design fountain.

apstuff | 17 years ago | on: Obscure HTML tags that you should know and even use

Firefox froze when this page loaded.

Default behavior for fieldset is different under IE, FF and Opera. IE rounds the corners where FF and OP do not. Not critical but if you're after the same look and feel it should be tested. Didn't try CSS with it.

apstuff | 17 years ago | on: Javascript is good enough

Reading...okay, reading...okay, reading...what? Aw c'mon. What about...meh. Back to less alarming development.

apstuff | 17 years ago | on: On the Internet, a university without a campus

Why is it a good idea to charge the 2B+ people around the world earning $2 a day the equivalent of a week's wages to enroll in a class and the equivalent of a month's wages to take a test?

apstuff | 17 years ago | on: Ask HN: How do you produce product demo videos?

Blue SnowBall (usb mic) + Audacity + Camtasia.

Start with the written dialogue, record it meticulously then do the visual.

The Blue Snowball referral came from Scott Chacon at GitCasts. Great piece of equipment. Thanks Scott.

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