foljs's comments

And most importantly "Why get your startup on Hacker News"?

I don't know of any major (or medium) startup whose success had anything to do with appearing on Hacker News.

Well, if you were a self-entitled jackass like DL, you wouldn't.

(Let the politically correct downvoting begin...)

Point to the memoirs from survivors that suggest otherwise...

Who said that? Memoirs from survivors suggest that (as one would expect) the experience left them scarred for the rest of their lives.

Yes, if I had devout followers and full financial support and security myself, not to mention hollywood friends, I would not have much stress too...

Because they contain a nice argument? Duh!

Mind you, that could also be a line coming from one trying to screw you.

> The Mac interface uses modes for crying out loud.

You'll find out that a well designed F16 interface also uses modes. You don't want to "launch missiles" and "adjust height" in the same menu.

Oh, and the "expert interface" par excellence, Vim, also uses modes..

> The world doesn't end when overvalued companies go through corrections or failures.

Nobody said anything about the "world ending".

And a few overvalued companies "getting through corrections or failures" has different effects than a whole lot of overvalued companies getting through corrections or failures. The second case is called a "bubble burst".

> Only because of artificial limitations.

No, because of a design tradeoff: ease of use and mind vs openess.

Apple would still get to sell their iOS devices and iTunes content even if they allowed shell access and arbitrary installation of programs on them.

>I believe with 60% probability that by the end of 2015, Apple won't sell any consumer-targeted products that allow root access or installation of arbitrary software.

2015? Not a chance. Although the industry WILL move towards more auto-managable OSs...

> Just seeing LaTeX (well, Knuth's 'Computer Modern' font) has the same effect on a paper that a suit does on a businessman - the author rises in my estimation without any real effort.

Superficial much?

> But if we are to follow precedence set by other Apple products, the Mac will become more closed than ever, with the Web as our only option to access the outside world. Much like the iPhone and the iPad. As a Mac owner, the writing is on the wall, a closed computer is my future.

Em, the "other Apple products" mentioned were never open to begin with. And they are not general purpose computers.

The Mac, on the other hand, always had XCode built-in. I don't see a "closed computer" in the near future...

adware != spyware.

> I should have phrased my question as limited to valuations of tech/software companies only, since that seems to be what we are discussing here.

OK, then. When the web 1.0 bubble burst in 1999, a whole lot of people lost their money. Bullshit valuations make the stock exchange a snake-oil market.

Or they will crash and burn taking jobs, people and national economies with them. That's also another way they work.

> If you aren't an investor or otherwise involved in one of the company's with a "bullshit fantasy" valuation, how does the "bullshit fantasy" valuation hurt you at all?

Gee, I don't know. Maybe it has something to do with the government giving away 700 billion dollars to financial companies burned by rampant bullshit fantasy valuations...

a) "Are not related" to what?

b) Really? You have never heard of a programming culture, and how that could differ in Mac vs Windows vs UNIX programmers?

> Interfaces designed for experts tend not to hide important information and high performance features.

That you want "not to hide important information and high performance features" does not imply the interface has to be poorly designed. A well designed interface can accomplish both.

Most interfaces "designed for experts" are poorly designed crap --and make the work of the "experts" needlessly hard. That some swear by them is mostly "Stockholm Syndrome" (or it gives them a false sense of accomplishment to use something so badly designed, er, I mean "designed for experts".

> but that app seems pretty cool.

Well, a typical Mac developer wouldn't touch that with a 100-mile pole...

Obviously the "one man" in your opening sentence. Duh!