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vmialik | 12 years ago | on: IOS 7 will define Apple's future going forward

The first time I bought an Apple product it was iPhone 2, and I felt like a traitor, because before that I was using the latest and greatest with phones like Sony Ericsson's K790i, and I always thought Apple products were not for the trendsetters/uber-people/top-of-the-line but more mainstream and more of hip before hipster was around type of product. However, after they added copy and paste I really began to appreciate the simplicity, stability, and functionality.

I resonated with this article quite a bit. For SEO work and regular tasks I still prefer a Thinkpad with a Trackpoint and a great keyboard (X201 is my current weapon of choice) (My dad was a Sys Admin at a computer Recycling company and so I had quite a share of various laptops from major computer companies in Silicon Valley.) However for video/audio I have a maxed out Macbook Pro i7 (pre-Retina), iPad 3, and still use iPhone 4S, had iPhone 5 and sold it.

So here is the thing I have iPhone 4s, iPad 3, and Macbook Pro (pre-Retina) with no desire to upgrade at all.

iPhone 4S vs 5, the screen on iPhone 5 is too big. 4S feels perfect in my hand.

I agree with Steve why would I want a smaller iPad 4, if I have iPad 3 that is bigger size having retina?

Macbook Pro (pre-Retina) is the last laptop that can be have its memory and battery changed without having to take it to Apple Store having to do that is a hassle.

Now iOS 7, its throwing away all-things-apple-design and now following Android? The main reason I advocated Apple products was simplicity in its like real life skeuomorphic design (more here: http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2012/11/...) I love that. You have seen the latest TechCrunch article on other App companies following suit and redesigning, with Hipmunk being a good example of over-simplistic Android feel that is not very user friendly.

All that background to say, I was hoping Steve Jobs would instill a culture/legacy after him to continue with the same thinking and mindset about the design. Yet, now I see how much of what Apple is was tied to Steve Jobs. Its a little scary: to have Apple changed after Steve Jobs, and sad, thinking about what Apple will become in a few years. More comments appreciated!

vmialik | 12 years ago | on: Yelp Hipster Finder

Most cities have sketchy places, what is unique about Tenderloin, it has hole-in-the-wall restaurants that are actually quite good. So you go in to a place and might say in the review, this place looks sketchy, but the food is great. As apposed to purely sketchy place that you do not even want to go in to. So you do not go or leave a review. Another possibility are the massage parlors, which are truly sketchy. I learned that having the opportunity to sit in at the SF Coalition Against Human Trafficking which is a collaboration between the non profits and the government organizations in the city fighting the issue.

vmialik | 13 years ago | on: Aaron Swartz commits suicide

Agreed. But do want to say being a HN community its good to observe/"hack" his life and learn from this. As one big question arises: Was his death to make a statement, give up, or escape this life. Food for thought:

Reddit life:

"I was miserable. I couldn't stand San Francisco. I couldn't stand office life. I couldn't stand Wired. I took a long Christmas vacation. I got sick. I thought of suicide. I ran from the police. And when I got back on Monday morning, I was asked to resign."

"I followed these rules. And here I am today, with a dozen projects on my plate and my stress level through the roof once again." "Every morning I wake up and check my email to see which one of my projects has imploded today, which deadlines I'm behind on, which talks I need to write, and which articles I need to edit." -https://aaronsw.jottit.com/howtoget

Post Reddit Era:

"The post-Reddit era in Aaron's life was really his coming of age. His stunts were breathtaking. At one point, he singlehandedly liberated 20 percent of US law. PACER, the system that gives Americans access to their own (public domain) case-law, charged a fee for each such access. After activists built RECAP (which allowed its users to put any caselaw they paid for into a free/public repository), Aaron spent a small fortune fetching a titanic amount of data and putting it into the public domain. The feds hated this. They smeared him, the FBI investigated him, and for a while, it looked like he'd be on the pointy end of some bad legal stuff, but he escaped it all, and emerged triumphant." -http://boingboing.net/2013/01/12/rip-aaron-swartz.html

Aaron makes a parallel between the Batman movie and his own struggles, highlighting the corruption of the system and how the Joker was actually the only "sane" person in an insane world. Sadly, he decided to pursue the same path as Heath Ledger. -zatara -doktrin -http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/tdk discussion on http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5047421

"Depressed mood:.." -http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/verysick

"Later, I tried to take care of him while he was being destroyed, from inside and out. I struggled so hard, but not as hard as he did. I told him, time and again, that this was his 20s. It would be better in his 30s. Just wait. Please, just hold on." -His Girlfriend http://www.quinnnorton.com/said/?p=644

Lessons to learn for myself: Depression is a serious issue ... no doubt the Govt case played a big role in his last moments, but so did the little things: previous thoughts of ending life, excessive stress, depression. Love how jacques_chester said below: "Depression is insidious because it makes all the alternatives to suicide seem much more difficult than they actually are." It might be easier to blame one person, than these smaller hard to see things. Things we can find fault in ourselves, and improve, putting bigger focus on these clues and hints of depression that exist in many of our relationships, and other early warning signs.

Aaron Swartz did many amazing and courageous things in his life, and his life was a great service for our nation, but had he lived another day...

I want to end with this word of hope to HN community and others by Pitarou:

"TL;DR If Swartz's death is triggering suicidal thoughts, you must understand that this will pass, and life will be worth living.

After seeing the impact of Aaron Swartz's death on the Hacker News community, I am concerned about the Werther effect (the tendency of a prominent suicide to trigger other suicides). I hope I can help by sharing what I learnt through 10+ years of depression and recovery.

Depression robs you of the ability to: 1. remember happiness 2. feel happiness 3. anticipate happiness 4. make considered decisions

#1-#3 make you miserable, but #4 is the killer. Bits of your brain actually shut down, and you run on pure emotion. For example, when I was depressed, I was easy prey for offers like "4 for the price of 3 on this crappy overpriced chocolate" because I couldn't weigh it up. All I could think was "chocolate: good. 4 for 3: good. 4 for 3 chocolate: irresistible". But if you're running on pure emotion and your emotions tell you "everything sucks" well ... suicide looks like a good option.

So why didn't I kill myself? Somewhere in my guts, there was a stubborn belief that "this will pass". You might even call it a sense of entitlement: "come on world -- you can give me something better than this!" And you know what? It DID! Thanks to some wonderful people, and to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, I found a way to recover.

With the best 10+ years of my life lost to depression, starting from scratch in my 30s has been hard, but it's still a life, and I swear that life is worth more than you can possibly understand when you're depressed.

Stay strong,

Pitarou"

vmialik | 13 years ago | on: Aaron Swartz commits suicide

Thank you for taking the time to address the HN community even at such a time like this, this means a lot to us. I am so sorry for what you as a mother have to go through. My prayers are with you and for your family.

vmialik | 13 years ago | on: Motor Trend Car of the Year: Tesla Model S

That is why I still love my 06 Toyota Camry They have turn dials I can switch the temperature knob just by muscle memory knowing where the position of my hand is, without every looking at the screen. Or hitting an up or down button and checking back to see if I got to the right temperature. This is definitely safety over technology for me

vmialik | 13 years ago | on: Depression lies

I am excited to see this on HN, anyone working on this from non-drug or even drug standpoint?

vmialik | 13 years ago | on: New Megaupload Will Change the World

Being that Dot-com is an online entrepreneur starting a startup and ironically this community is "hacker" news. I wonder how many of the HN members actually support him here.

vmialik | 13 years ago | on: Show HN - We just built a site that saves lives

Glad to see you guys take part in GSVC. Really miss this competition, and the social enterprise community at UC Berkeley. Being a non-profit I bet it was pretty tough to survive with competitors who focus on for profit or non/for profit hybrids that scale.
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