Yeah, this is going to be big. I wasn't convinced, but after actually tuning into a couple of broadcasts, Periscope's potential became immediately apparent.
This is awesome. I found your site through HN a couple of weeks ago and read through a bunch of your blog posts, which inspired me to take on a remote position. Keep up the great work. :)
Put everything interesting you do on your resume! Every opportunity I've been offered has been due to my side projects or non-programming experiences. Your formal education is still important, but, in my experience in the software world, people value the results of your work more than they value your education.
This app you've made is an amazing demonstration of your skills and understanding of web development. It's worth so much more than your GPA.
Just wanted to say that this is spot on, in my opinion. After watching a documentary about North Korea recently, I couldn't help but feel like our Western governments are guilty of the exact same things that we openly mock North Korea for. The only difference is that we, over hundreds (perhaps thousands) of years, have mastered the art of disguising the mechanisms by which we control the population.
I think the comparison continues down the line -- the big difference is how crude or refined an oligarchy is at wielding power. North Korea is particularly crude and "lower class," simply offing people left and right and sending people to camps. American oligarchs are considerably classier.
But they, or we, are singularly peculiar. Outside of NYC and DC, all of us with non-felony or domestic violence records can buy serious handguns and rifles, the very same stuff (or better :-) than our police and military are issued. (Machine guns are under a weird regime, but given their very limited utility until you get to the weights of light machine guns or GPMGs, 15-30 pounds, that's not much of an issue, and in most states we can still buy them.)
Historically unique, not counting regimes where it was decided that the reliable subjects should be strongly encouraged to be proficient in the weapons of the day (I'm thinking particularly of the English and long bows, and after Henry the VIII, "reliable" generally meant non-Roman Catholic; I've also heard much less reliably that in old times one or more of the kingdoms in Korea could in extremis muster just about everyone including the women and have a good chance of saving the situation).
I really dislike the idea that people need to be told what they should use their technology for. Tablets are just computers and they run software, like every other computer. What you do with it is up to your imagination.
My girlfriend and I keep an iPad plugged into our stereo receiver via an auxiliary cable and use it as a Spotify terminal. My dad's iPad is his primary computing device. It seems like a lot of other people in this thread have similar stories. So, clearly, saying "nobody" knows what an iPad is good for is a little bit of a stretch.
Another example: Toddlers love iPads. I've talked to new parents who are astonished how easily their 15-month-olds navigate the Youtube iPad app (most of them set up playlists for their toddlers). There's also a huge collection of toddler-friendly games and apps.
Forgive me for bringing some political thoughts with me into this thread, but your post really resonated with me and I think you are a perfect example of why we should work towards a basic income. Imagine how many people there are who are just like you, who can't afford to pursue their ideas due to financial or social constraints, yet have the potential to solve global problems (or at least contribute to their solutions). We are wasting so many brilliant minds by forcing them to grind from 9 to 5 in order to support themselves and their families.
This isn't unique to software; the lowered barriers to creation has meant that the value of almost everything has dropped to the point of worthlessness. While you may not be able to make a living from your open source software through donations, you can certainly make a living by providing support to businesses or assisting with integrations/migrations. We are seeing a shift towards a service-oriented industry, rather than a product-oriented industry, and I expect the rate at which this transformation is taking place to drastically increase in the near future.
This is the case in every industry right now, and has been since the beginning of time. Marketing is the ability to influence people. It seems obvious to say this, but people who can influence people are usually the people with the most successful products (see: politicians, Apple, pg, etc.).
You might be interested in Walter Lippman's 'Public Opinion' from 1922. It basically lays the groundwork for manipulating and influencing a population's collective mindset by exploiting our inherent cognitive limitations and biases [1]. It has strongly influenced Western governments over the past century.
You can read it for free, courtesy of the American Studies department at the University of Virginia [2].
