Read his book, Hackers and Painters. I don't think he's under appreciated. He was way ahead of the curve. And deserves to be happy with his family, or change the world some more..
My SO brought me to a planning meeting for a non-profit, and I met their founder there. We hit it off, and founded a startup together several months later when the time was right. I think it was good to start off being friends first. And having a shared network of friends and business associates helped speed things up.
The RJ Metrics founders Bob and Jake gave a really great talk sharing their seven year journey Monday night. Lots of good lean startup lessons, and they just raised a $16.5 million series B. The full video is at the bottom of the article.
I couldn't agree more. In fact, this is why I started building a project for my girlfriend so she could create her own site. And now it's grown into something powerful that I really enjoy using too.
I have been using a single 30" monitor as my main display since 2005. I love it. Only problem is having to adjust whenever working on another system (also been using it with a standing desk since 2008).
I split the screen space up into conveniently sized tiles most of the time. Most often using only half the monitor width at most (like two 1280x1600 monitors side by side, but no bezel line in the middle). But occasionally using the full screen real estate for one program is really nice.
Yes, it's the clicky mechanical switches that make this keyboard so nice. I don't know of any other keyboard that has these in a nice modern package. The sleek black look and USB hub are just icing on top.
The only downside is the $129 USD price. You'll have to decide if it's "reasonably priced". I got nice discount on a pre-order, but at this point I would gladly pay more. This thing doesn't show any signs of ever dying on me though.
Update: I just checked and it's actually on sale right now for $109 USD.
Off the top of my head: It's the 6th largest city in the US, and it's the birthplace of the country (lots of culture and history). Most of the buildings are well over 100 years old (great architecture and craftsmanship is commonplace). Real estate prices are super reasonable, and property taxes are basically nothing (most houses are less than $1000/year). Public transportation is everywhere. Parking and traffic are much better than the NYC and Boston metro areas. Crime is almost entirely isolated to bad areas of town. There's a huge amount of independently owned local businesses. And there's hardly any chain restaurants. The locally owned restaurants and bars are awesome. There's about a half dozen world-class micro-breweries in the area. I can walk to two of them. There's grocery stores, dozens of shops and good restaurants within walking distance of most areas. But if you want to drive somewhere - NYC is two hours away, the Pocono Mountains are two hours (lots of state parks and skiing), Atlantic City is close by, and there's some good beaches (for the east coast) within two hours. The city provides free wifi in lots of places around town. There's all the nightlife and live music you could want here. And most everything is really reasonably priced. The people here do seem to litter a bit too much, and they can come across as rude at first. But I've found most people to be genuinely straightforward and refreshingly honest compared to other areas. I've lived all over the US, and I think Philly is one of the most well-rounded and underrated cities. It's very much like NYC in the late 80's/early 90's.
I'm a sane person that's happy to live in the middle of Philly. It's a great city, even though it's got some downsides. I never understand people that have such a totally negative view of the city. I much prefer living here overall, versus my experience in NYC and Boston.
Yes, some taxes and costs are higher, but I like living and working in a big city instead of the suburbs. There's a lot of incentives for businesses moving into the city now. Property taxes are insanely low here (a fraction of surrounding locations). I've seen huge improvements in the last five years. And I don't think it's fair to write it off so easily. You have to factor in quality of life, and Philly has a lot to offer. And it's just plain ridiculous to say Philly is boring with the amount of nightlife and culture here.
Philly has some issues, but it's much better than it used to be. It's a huge city. There's a lot of growth in some great areas. You get a lot for your money here. Many compare the current state of the city to NYC in the 80's. There's lots of potential.
Gmail is great, but why would you ever rely on a 3rd party for a main form of business communication? I like having my own servers, but I build in lots of redundancy, so that I'm covered. No matter what happens.
I've been using a 30" (2560x1600) monitor for over a year and I'll never go back to anything smaller. I only like laptops for traveling. You do have to take into consideration the other screen sizes and resolutions when designing. But you can always approximate any config on a larger monitor.