post the most worthless kickstarters and greatest investor rewards you got

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > YOSPOS > post the most worthless kickstarters and greatest investor rewards you got

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Dixie Cretin Seaman: Jan 22, 2008; all hat and one catte; Hot Rope Guy

Ian McLean posted:

Because I can do anything.

except get funding for statpedia

Ian McLean posted:

I actually sent Jeff Dean an email once, and here is what he said:

Dear Jeff,

I am honestly not expecting a response because I am sure you are a busy man. I admire the reputation you have acquired, and I want to obtain the skills you have and follow in your footsteps.

Here are my questions as follows:

1. What do you consider to be the most valuable skills and attributes to have as a programmer, and what do you personally strive to do yourself on a regular basis?

2. If there is some type of structure or schedule I can establish within my own lifestyle to dedicate my time, what would my daily, weekly and monthly routine look like to become as great as you? (specifically relating to programming)

3. Is there any self disciplined method you do to maintain and test performance benchmarks or achievments?

Like you, I have also done a substantial amount of traveling. At this point I am completely content being fully emersed in code. If you were to tell me: spend 1 hour a day learning/coding in Python or C++ through tutorial abc, 2 hours a day reading and doing such and such, and x amount of hours spent doing y for z days, I will do whatever you say.

If you had an apprentice program I would sign up in a heartbeat. I would give you total commitment like a navy seal for programming.

Hope you are doing well.

Sincerely,

Ian McLean

Hi Ian,

(1) I think being able to quickly visualize many alternative ways of solving a particular problem, and to quickly evaluate the tradeoffs involved in each of them, is pretty important for building good software systems. I gave a talk in a class at Stanford a few years ago that has some advice about being able to do this effectively:

http://research.google.com/people/jeff/stanford-295-talk.pdf

(2) Two important things for becoming a better programmer are to practice, and to also spend time reading other people's well-written code. There are a number of open source programs, packages, libraries, etc. that you can look at these days that exemplify good programming practices, and actually reading this code in detail is a great way to see how other people solve particular programming problems.

(3) We have an in-house set of libraries here at Google that I helped develop that make it easy to write various microbenchmarks and measure their performance. It's nothing too sophisticated: the framework just takes care of timing the actual benchmark, subtracting off loop overhead, running short loops for more iterations, etc.

I'm afraid I don't have an apprentice program . I'm not sure what your current status is (student, etc.), but various internship programs are available with a wide variety of companies, depending on your skills and qualifications.

Regards,
-Jeff

this is adorable, he probably thought you were very well-spoken for a 12 year old boy sending letters to his ~programming idol~

# ? Sep 26, 2012 13:30

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# ? May 9, 2024 11:37

Peanut and the Gang: Aug 24, 2009; by exmarx

ian, sometimes on the internet i like to post on the computer joke forum. but in real life, im the president of the united states. and i think it will be good if you do jawn's idea. voters will flock to your site to check out the polls and l@@k @ the polls and start clapping hugely at you and then you can put up your face as the statpedia logo and then the media will project the statpedia page on the whitehouse for all the world to see and everyone in the world is like gasp why is there a giante face on the whitehouse. and then you become famous & u get to be teh next president

# ? Sep 26, 2012 13:43

Wheany: Mar 17, 2006; Spinya^{ha^{ha^haha}ha}ha_{ha_{ha_haha}ha}ha!; Doctor Rope

Ian McLean posted:

I audited a bunch of compsci classes last quarter which helped. I have taken programming courses in the past. I have been working day in and day out on statpedia.

Would I like to learn some more of the formalities in coding standards? Yes.

Dude. I am like Jeff Dean when it comes to P/NP proplems. I am going to eat those things alive.

I have never failed a course in my entire life.

If any of you recommend some quality material, that is chill.

I am that type of person that can be thrown into any type of environment, and still come out alive.

I actually sent Jeff Dean an email once, and here is what he said:

Dear Jeff,

I am honestly not expecting a response because I am sure you are a busy man. I admire the reputation you have acquired, and I want to obtain the skills you have and follow in your footsteps.

Here are my questions as follows:

1. What do you consider to be the most valuable skills and attributes to have as a programmer, and what do you personally strive to do yourself on a regular basis?

2. If there is some type of structure or schedule I can establish within my own lifestyle to dedicate my time, what would my daily, weekly and monthly routine look like to become as great as you? (specifically relating to programming)

3. Is there any self disciplined method you do to maintain and test performance benchmarks or achievments?

Like you, I have also done a substantial amount of traveling. At this point I am completely content being fully emersed in code. If you were to tell me: spend 1 hour a day learning/coding in Python or C++ through tutorial abc, 2 hours a day reading and doing such and such, and x amount of hours spent doing y for z days, I will do whatever you say.

If you had an apprentice program I would sign up in a heartbeat. I would give you total commitment like a navy seal for programming.

Hope you are doing well.

Sincerely,

Ian McLean

Hi Ian,

(1) I think being able to quickly visualize many alternative ways of solving a particular problem, and to quickly evaluate the tradeoffs involved in each of them, is pretty important for building good software systems. I gave a talk in a class at Stanford a few years ago that has some advice about being able to do this effectively:

http://research.google.com/people/jeff/stanford-295-talk.pdf

(2) Two important things for becoming a better programmer are to practice, and to also spend time reading other people's well-written code. There are a number of open source programs, packages, libraries, etc. that you can look at these days that exemplify good programming practices, and actually reading this code in detail is a great way to see how other people solve particular programming problems.

(3) We have an in-house set of libraries here at Google that I helped develop that make it easy to write various microbenchmarks and measure their performance. It's nothing too sophisticated: the framework just takes care of timing the actual benchmark, subtracting off loop overhead, running short loops for more iterations, etc.

I'm afraid I don't have an apprentice program . I'm not sure what your current status is (student, etc.), but various internship programs are available with a wide variety of companies, depending on your skills and qualifications.

Regards,
-Jeff

I really like that this group is straight forward, and gets directly to the point. Just wish there wasn't so much negativity all the time. <3

too long; did not read

# ? Sep 26, 2012 13:44

Dr. Honked: Jan 9, 2011; eat it you slaaaaaaag

he's going to switch from rolling with punches to puppet master any second now

# ? Sep 26, 2012 14:37

gangnam reference: Dec 26, 2010; shut up idiot shut up idiot shut up idiot shut up idiot

quote:

I would give you total commitment like a navy seal for programming

lol

The reason Jawn told you to do that project is because it actually has a goal instead of "work on this till somehow someone somewhere will provide funding for a thing that people may or not use that won't really have monetary returns" and it can fit in well with Statpedia. But sure do your own thing and hope you'll get kickstarted for no reason.

Also im a sophomore and I think i may be more prepared for a masters than u...makes u think. CS isn't just programmin man. don't go for a masters if all you want is to "be a better coder"

# ? Sep 26, 2012 14:46

0xB16B00B5: Aug 24, 2006; by Y Kant Ozma Post

Name change to navy seal for programming.

ugh def you beat me

# ? Sep 26, 2012 14:55

JawnV6: Jul 4, 2004; So hot ...

i'd honestly expect most programmers to be able to come up with something that shits colored electoral maps in a matter of hours. the graphics is literally the hardest thing, but I guess I assumed someone literally focusing in data visualization wouldn't find that too big of a stumbling block

you know that great things don't immediately shoot for 100% complete, right? you build something basic but extensible and slowly iterate and add features (side note go read this it's full of platitudes you think you'll understand)

by the end of today, you could have a map that let people just assign a state R or D and show people the electoral totals for that R/D layout. again, for a data visualization specialist this is something they'd punt to an intern and expect it in a few hours but i'll be generous and give your team a day. that's 100% of your visualization, the actual poll data is just fancier data to color states instead of binary

in parallel you could have someone working on getting poll results onto statepedia. hooking the two halves up shouldn't be too hard, could probably have it by end of the week

here's a pertinent question about statepedia: will you be writing any code that manipulates statistics? or giving users a dynamic toolbox to do it themselves? i can't imagine too many users would actually get into the 'code' side of analysis and the poll idea i'm pushing relies on your team writing a lot of logic to handle the data. but if you've been planning on punting that element entirely to the users which would be more in line with your solution-searching-for-problem mentality, i can see why it'd be a little odious

right this second, can statepediea match the computational ability available to me in a single Excel cell?

# ? Sep 26, 2012 15:46

graph: Nov 22, 2006; aaag peanuts

Ian McLean posted:

Because I can do anything.

lol

try not to pick up any bad habits when you're in the gutter in a couple years

Proteus4994 posted:

holy poo poo i have friends who went to uci, you're going to be eaten alive lol

lol yep

# ? Sep 26, 2012 16:42

Blackula69: Apr 1, 2007; ＤＥＨＵＭＡＮＩＺＥＹＯＵＲＳＥＬＦ＆ＦＡＣＥＴＯＢＬＡＣＵＬＡ

JawnV6 posted:

i like how he's wasting time on kickstarter while the opportunity of a lifetime is just sailing right by

have an electoral map
have poll results

allow people to fit them together, e.g. show the electoral map based on THESE polls and THIS demographic shaping

there is no site currently offering this service

all that noise over #unskewedpolls? imagine that happening on statpedia

This already exists in dozens of different permutations

Has that Ian guy killed heself yet

# ? Sep 26, 2012 16:45

Blackula69: Apr 1, 2007; ＤＥＨＵＭＡＮＩＺＥＹＯＵＲＳＥＬＦ＆ＦＡＣＥＴＯＢＬＡＣＵＬＡ

Also who is jeff dean

# ? Sep 26, 2012 16:47

graph: Nov 22, 2006; aaag peanuts

-random word capitalization
-use of stupid colloquial phrases
-just-world fallacy

what else am i missing on the idiot detection list

# ? Sep 26, 2012 16:49

maniacdevnull: Apr 18, 2007; FOUR CUBIC FRAMES
DISPROVES SOFT G GOD
YOU ARE EDUCATED STUPID

Blackula69 posted:

Also who is jeff dean

that guy who made the sausage until he died in a car wreck

# ? Sep 26, 2012 16:50

dragon enthusiast: Jan 1, 2010

Dr. Honked posted:

he's going to switch from rolling with punches to puppet master any second now

has somebody made a phases of Dunning-Kruger like there is for grief

# ? Sep 26, 2012 16:53

graph: Nov 22, 2006; aaag peanuts

just a butt posted:

has somebody made a phases of Dunning-Kruger like there is for grief

which step is 'form a plan to buy and recondition a theatre with a conference room projector and soda fountain'

# ? Sep 26, 2012 16:55

duTrieux.: Oct 9, 2003

Ian, have you looked into getting interns from UCI? You might be able to get some CS students on a work-study thing to help you code this thing.

# ? Sep 26, 2012 17:01

EMILY BLUNTS: Jan 1, 2005

it was probably just some elaborate front to try and get people to help buy him a giant soda machine for his ~~house~~ apartment cause like he didn't really give a poo poo about anything else BUT the soda fountain

# ? Sep 26, 2012 17:01

EMILY BLUNTS: Jan 1, 2005

soda fountain
pop machine

# ? Sep 26, 2012 17:02

Jonny 290: May 5, 2005; [ASK] me about OS/2 Warp

Ian have you ever explored the teachings of AYn Rand and Objectivism

# ? Sep 26, 2012 17:03

Ian McLean: Sep 9, 2012; statpedia.org
Post Stats on Anything

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1649827049/kerfluffles-marshmallows-all-natural-handmade-yumm?ref=live

# ? Sep 26, 2012 17:06

GameCube: Nov 21, 2006

Ian McLean posted:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1649827049/kerfluffles-marshmallows-all-natural-handmade-yumm?ref=live

now you got it

# ? Sep 26, 2012 17:10

Anne Frank Funk: Nov 4, 2008

Ian McLean posted:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1649827049/kerfluffles-marshmallows-all-natural-handmade-yumm?ref=live

Ian, your kickstarter everything is a couple of magnitudes worse than what this house waifu shat out of her 2004 white macbook

# ? Sep 26, 2012 17:12

0xB16B00B5: Aug 24, 2006; by Y Kant Ozma Post

ian you should probably actually go do one thing before claiming you can do anything

# ? Sep 26, 2012 17:18

gangnam reference: Dec 26, 2010; shut up idiot shut up idiot shut up idiot shut up idiot

Ian McLean posted:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1649827049/kerfluffles-marshmallows-all-natural-handmade-yumm?ref=live

see but she has things your kickstarter has: a working product & process, a predictable result, and actual rewards

not a bad kickstarter

# ? Sep 26, 2012 17:24

Ian McLean: Sep 9, 2012; statpedia.org
Post Stats on Anything

Have you seen this JawnV6? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFy80kMcaRo

From that project I posted earlier: https://github.com/petewarden/openheatmap/wiki

# ? Sep 26, 2012 17:24

JawnV6: Jul 4, 2004; So hot ...

Blackula69 posted:

This already exists in dozens of different permutations

Has that Ian guy killed heself yet

i haven't seen one that would let you save a model? like say i want to predict ohio at D+5 and fl at R+20 or w/e and be able to come back and pick the poll i want to use for each state

plenty of 'make different map' but nothing that would let me plug a whole model together and save out a map without incremental effort

# ? Sep 26, 2012 17:24

JawnV6: Jul 4, 2004; So hot ...

goddamit get off frameworks

if you actually had a shred of passion you'd be charging off to do poo poo your OWN way instead of rubbing yourself raw over something that did a chunk of the work for you

and the entire strength i'm proposing is automagically taking in new poll results and making them available as GUI elements that can be easily manipluated and assigned relative weights

if you think i've been imagining your user screwing around with a spreadsheet you're daft

# ? Sep 26, 2012 17:28

JawnV6: Jul 4, 2004; So hot ...

ZYNGA STOCK CRASHER posted:

see but she has things your kickstarter has: a working product & process, a predictable result, and actual rewards

not a bad kickstarter

# ? Sep 26, 2012 17:29

Inverse Icarus: Dec 4, 2003; I run SyncRPG, and produce original, digital content for the Pathfinder RPG, designed from the ground up to be played online.

JawnV6 posted:

goddamit get off frameworks

if you actually had a shred of passion you'd be charging off to do poo poo your OWN way instead of rubbing yourself raw over something that did a chunk of the work for you

and the entire strength i'm proposing is automagically taking in new poll results and making them available as GUI elements that can be easily manipluated and assigned relative weights

if you think i've been imagining your user screwing around with a spreadsheet you're daft

jawn

buddy

come on

# ? Sep 26, 2012 17:32

Dolomite: Jul 26, 2000; Cars & Legs

Ian McLean posted:

My server is not even able to handle much traffic at the momen. We can't just shift our entire focus because you say we NEED POLLING OPTIONS BEFORE ELECTION ZOMG.

I have already assigned polling exploration to come after beta release. I can show you pages and pages of wireframes on polling. Would I like to capture the the entire polling market at this exact moment... yes; however something as what you describe isn't something I can just pull off overnight. Will take your ideas into consideration for the project, yes. Anything that would be released for polls would probably have bugs, and not only that, but it would attract attention to statpedia that is unwanted at the moment. I would rather show people a nice product, than rush things because ELECTIONS HAVE POLLZZZZZZ~!

There are lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of polls. Elections.... yes a large poll, but all the same it will be ready when it is ready.

Dude... you act like the whole statpedia team should just drop everything they are doing and cater to making your polls. Seriously man...

Have you seen this? https://github.com/petewarden/openheatmap/wiki pretty cool project with like 8 gigs of code.

IF ONLY I CAN JUST MAKE A NEW SOCIAL NETWORKING APPLICATION IT WILL ATTRACT EVERYONE ZOMG!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU ARE A NOOB IF YOU DON"T MAKE IT RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!! seriously man...

can you provide me with more visions:? OF COURSE! Please send me the entire workflow of wireframes for everything you are talking about with the plugin ready to go. If it is so cool how come you aren't coding it? Then you can just give me the link, and I will submit it into statpedia!

Anyways, feel free to send wireframes to ian@statpeida.com Otherwise I will continue thinking about polls that can be applied to anything, and include your thoughts in my visionary vision!

If only I had some bitcoins right now for those visions you speak of....

i tried to send a paypal to your address, but it failed

i believbe in statpeida

# ? Sep 26, 2012 17:45

gangnam reference: Dec 26, 2010; shut up idiot shut up idiot shut up idiot shut up idiot

Ian McLean posted:

Have you seen this JawnV6? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFy80kMcaRo

From that project I posted earlier: https://github.com/petewarden/openheatmap/wiki

thank you for a thing better than a thing that is different from the thing being recommended as a stepping stone for your thing

# ? Sep 26, 2012 17:56

A Wheezy Steampunk: Jul 16, 2006; High School Grads Eligible!

http://yourkickstartersucks.tumblr.com/post/32333909956/a-shirt-for-dudes-who-think-women-are-vending

# ? Sep 26, 2012 18:17

Yodzilla: Apr 29, 2005; Now who looks even dumber?

Beef Witch

clockwork sundial posted:

http://yourkickstartersucks.tumblr.com/post/32333909956/a-shirt-for-dudes-who-think-women-are-vending

i'm going to petition congress to pass a law making it legal to kill anyone seen wearing this shirt

it's for their own good

# ? Sep 26, 2012 18:20

duTrieux.: Oct 9, 2003

Yodzilla posted:

i'm going to petition congress to pass a law making it legal to kill anyone seen wearing this shirt

it's for their own good

but they're already dead inside

# ? Sep 26, 2012 18:25

Sagebrush: Feb 26, 2012

Yodzilla posted:

i'm going to petition congress to pass a law making it legal to kill anyone seen wearing this shirt

it's for their own good

# ? Sep 26, 2012 18:26

Yodzilla: Apr 29, 2005; Now who looks even dumber?

Beef Witch

look at that shameful buttoning and tie tying job

# ? Sep 26, 2012 18:41

Dolomite: Jul 26, 2000; Cars & Legs

# ? Sep 26, 2012 18:44

Dr. Honked: Jan 9, 2011; eat it you slaaaaaaag

install gentoooooooo

# ? Sep 26, 2012 18:45

JawnV6: Jul 4, 2004; So hot ...

hey ian, how's it going, long time

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3508372&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=58#post407939357

there's a couple customers (one even a programmer willing to make it a reality!!) for the site you can't build

cheers

# ? Sep 26, 2012 18:46

Sagebrush: Feb 26, 2012

Dolomite posted:

is that a real rms

and based on the phrasing, is it actually something where he like stopped some dude's presentation to spew all that sperg

cause wow

# ? Sep 26, 2012 19:04

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 9, 2024 11:37

jony ive aces: Jun 14, 2012; designer of the lomarf car; Buglord

drat now i want marshmallows

# ? Sep 26, 2012 19:27

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > YOSPOS > post the most worthless kickstarters and greatest investor rewards you got

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