[shinratdr]

If you can't even acknowledge the contribution and impact Apple has made on computing in general right now, then you are significantly more far-gone than anyone you have ever accused of being a fanboy.

That's just a ridiculous statement. Steve Jobs made no contribution to computing? Complete bullshit.

[cperciva]

Oh, I acknowledge the impact Apple has had on computing. But they've done that primarily by being very good at marketing, not by being technically innovative.

[fredoliveira]

Show me a laptop thinner than the Air.

Show me a smartphone more popular than the iPhone.

Show me a tablet more popular than the iPad.

Show me a desktop computer selling more than the iMac.

Show me a laptop selling more than the Macbook Pro.

Show me the company that did multi-touch for the masses before the iPhone.

Show me some better knowledge of this industry, and a bit of decency.

[wheels]

Aside from the fact that I believe your statement to be false, do you really believe that someone being among the very best at what they do in the industry that you are a part of not worthy of honor?

And may I suggest that, as a startup founder, it is a point worthy of introspection since it betrays contempt for one of the most important functions of a company?

[shinratdr]

Once again, complete bullshit. iOS is extremely innovative, iPods changed the portable player landscape and challenging Microsoft for a real place in the desktop OS market isn't exactly easy.

They are also great marketers, but to deny that Apple has brought no technical innovations to the table is just ridiculous and you know it. Or at least I hope you know it.

[donw]

I'm amazed that you can make such an ignorant statement.

The first commercially viable GUI on commodity hardware sounds pretty innovative to me, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

For me, though the biggest 'technical' innovation that Apple has consistently delivered on is in making technology usable in everyday life.

Sure, it's not hard-core cryptography or massively parallel search-algorithms. But making devices and interfaces that are beautiful and enjoyable to use on a daily basis is incredibly difficult, and ranks just as high on my list as PageRank or Cassandra.

Thanks to Apple (and Jobs), I've got technology from Star Trek sitting in my pocket -- an iPhone. It wasn't the first smartphone by a mile, but it was the first that was genuinely useful to everybody, which is why every other phone on the market has followed Apple's lead in interface design.

Call that 'marketing' if you will, but all of that 'marketing' has made the world a better place for a very large number of people in a direct and measurable way.

[tptacek]

Colin, this is just not a good time for this.

[cperciva]

Sigh. I hate political correctness.

Ok, nil nisi bonum it is; I'll shut up now.

[tptacek]

Colin, you are now officially the most militantly nerdy person I know. Militant nerdery: bad for empathy, GREAT for cryptosystems. I'm getting our IT guy to sign up for Tarsnap tomorrow.

[cperciva]

Colin, you are now officially the most militantly nerdy person I know

I credit coming from a family of academics who care strongly about academic freedom. That said, I think I even shocked some highly liberal academics last year when I stood up in a university senate meeting and decried a proposed affirmative action policy as "unabashedly racist".

Militant nerdery: bad for empathy, GREAT for cryptosystems. I'm getting our IT guy to sign up for Tarsnap tomorrow.

blink I was not expecting that. I was hoping that people wouldn't hold my personal opinions against me professionally, but I didn't think for a moment that I'd gain any customers.

[tptacek]

I'm not kidding.

[_delirium]

It's a good thing he runs his own company too, because boards / PR depts don't think like that, and would be having a fit if they found this. ;-)

"Founder of Tar Snap (Nasdaq: TRSP) pisses on Steve Jobs's grave!"

[orblivion]

You don't need to be technically innovative to make an impact on computing. Steve was also smart about what technology not to use. Sacrificing multitasking for battery life, for example.

[gizmo]

Steve pursued excellence. Many people and businesses make something that's barely good enough and then focus on marketing and sales. Steve became insanely successful as a perfectionist, and in the business world that's almost unheard of. I find that very inspirational.

[sunchild]

You realize how poorly your comments reflect on your product, right? I'll certainly never support Tarsnap after reading this garbage.

[cperciva]

I'd rather be poor, friendless, and honest than be rich and have friends only because I refused to air controversial opinions.

I'm glad I don't have any investors or employees who could be hurt, though.

[shinratdr]

You seem to think you are being brutally honest. You aren't, you're being painfully arrogant. There is a massive difference.

[cperciva]

I expressed an honestly held opinion. It is possible that opinion was the result of painful arrogance. Those are not contradictory.

[sunchild]

Taking the opportunity of a man's death to call him overrated is not speaking truth to power: it's tacky and tasteless by any measure.

[crc]

Don't pride yourself too much on being "honest". It is far easier to go around always telling the truth than to apply discretion.

[shinratdr]

Typically people understand being brutally honest as providing a painful to hear but helpful or contributory opinion.

When your opinion comes from nothing but arrogance, ignorance, and a 4chan style need to draw attention to yourself by being deliberately insensitive, then your opinion isn't brutally honest. It's worthless, and you should keep it to yourself.

[diolpah]

I don't agree with cpercival's comments, and I am quite saddened by the loss of Steve - more so than I would have expected.

But it should be pointed out that the comments in no way reflect poorly on Tarsnap. It's a fantastic product.

(other than the fact that the account balance alerts only consider storage used, not traffic charges. Grr.)

edit: Downvoted already? For being a satisfied customer? Really?

[cperciva]

other than the fact that the account balance alerts only consider storage used, not traffic charges. Grr.

I wish I had a good solution to this -- but it's impossible to predict when someone is going to be using lots of bandwidth, and alerting based on the current total spending rate had a very high false positive rate since bandwidth usage usually spikes for a single day and then goes down to a small fraction of the storage cost.

The downvoting is probably for being off-topic.

[Robin_Message]

Any discussion of the technology of someone who is running a small business is certainly on-topic.

So, what about using exponential smoothing or 95% peak estimation to get a better "current" spending rate? There is also the possibility to do some data mining on the actual usage (assuming you have collect that data and are willing to use it in aggregate to improve service) — i.e. customers who spend like you do and have a balance like yours usually run out of money after x days.

Another option I just thought of: try and estimate usage several different ways, and then check the variance — if its low, then issue an alert. I wouldn't be surprised if there is some research on how to do this, so it should be cook-up-able relatively easily if its a feature you want to add.

[cperciva]

Exponential smoothing and peak estimation won't help with the fundamental problem, which is that warning based on storage costs alone produces the correct result -- in the sense that funds run out after exactly 7 days -- 90% of the time. Any non-trivial addition of bandwidth costs into the equation is going to hurt far more often than it helps.

[donw]

Agreed.

cperciva has demonstrated a complete lack of tact or class, but neither of these changes the fact that he does make an excellent product.