I'm very happy for you, Rob, and wish you the very best in your future endeavors. Try not to give in to the siren call of wanting to work on another "small project." Enjoy your family time! That's stuff that matters!

P.S. It's been great seeing all the old farts chiming in here. It's like an old-timey convention. I wish they could have put the original UI back for slashdot for this story. :-)

My thoughts exactly. Akamai will be pretty threatened by this, but I'm not sure what they can do about it other than offer superior service.

I wonder if Google will try to buy them out, though -- Akamai has lost about half of its stock value over the past three quarters for some reason.

Such a move would definitely cause alarm, though. I personally would not feel comfortable concentrating so much of the internet in one company. Single points of failure are bad.

Oh, but it will have one, provided the tyrannosaurs are ready by then. :-)

While I have no wish to demean their efforts, this approach still seems somewhat brutal to me. I'm no neurologist, but isn't this still a rather macro-level view of things, with the cutting process still causing damage to the fine structures they want to study?

It seems likely to me that future scientists will look back at this in not too long with stifled laugher and perhaps a little shock at the approach.

I read that and my inner monologue immediately thought, "Now I'm on a horse."

Or possibly, that they are smart enough to recognize that having "something" to show possible investors (and more importantly, current investors) is worth a great deal more than a framework that can't be demonstrated.

Don't get me wrong -- I really, *really* hope that the security model gets implemented well in Diaspora, and they don't get destracted by "ooh, shiny!" syndrome. But expecting them to go to folks who have given them money -- people who likely know even less about security than these college students -- and say, "This mystery code will work, it's really better, we just can't demonstrate it," is unreasonable.

Prototype first, then refine. Bugs happen, just fix them and move on. It looks like they're on their way to me. If you (or others) think you can fix these bugs or fundamental flaws in their security model, talk to them. You might just find yourself a job at a potentially big startup.

I'd have modded you up, had you not posted AC. That was a perfectly applicable reference! For those not familiar, here is a quick explanation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concepts_in_the_Ender's_Game_series#Fantasy_Game

Easy -- just put two peltiers together, hot sides facing each other. Problem solved! ;-)

Yes, you're absolutely right. But I thought it was important to note the effort to document the "bad" art, however small.

Negative examples are powerful, whether they be in art, history, programming, or any other branch of human endeavor or record keeping. If we "forget it and remember the stuff worth remembering", then we are doomed to repeat it.

Actually, we do.

And it does indeed "give context to the goodness." By seeing negative examples, we can better appreciate what it is about "good" art that we enjoy. Plus, it gives one the chance to wince, laugh and point at an art exhibit, without feeling like you're breaking social rules. It's quite refreshing, and the art truly is terrible.*

* Not as terrible as Boxbot though. (Inside joke for fans of Gunnerkrigg Court)

Same here, except my coffee pot just broke (seriously) -- so now I have a deranged voice saying COFFEE over and over in my head, and I have no way to appease it!! This is not cool.

My hat's off to you, sir. A first post that was relevant and funny -- very well done!

At the risk of sounding sentimental, what keeps me coming back to slashdot is the people. Granted, lots of new folks keep showing up here, but they tend to leave for more popular sites like Digg and Reddit. I'm fine with that; the Eternal September can just roll on by.

I'm not in as much of a hurry as I once was, and a day or two isn't going to kill me. Plus, time does wonders for weeding out the interesting from the merely sensational. This story might not be the best example of that, but even when it's not "stuff that matters," if it is somehow related to nerds and we've had a few days to hear and think about it, then the discussion here is likely to be more insightful.

Or not. :-)

Either way, it's nice to come by here and see some long-standing friends whom I've never met personally. Whether the discussion of the day is logical disourse, blatant fanboyism, heated rhetoric, well-earned snarkery, complaining about editors, or just lighthearted BS about whatever rabbit trail we've found ourselves on, I know I am in for an enjoyable time.

So sit back, read, laugh, be challenged, challenge someone else, troll if you must, meme if you can, respect your elders, respect your youngsters, relax and have a good time.