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Comments are so cringe there.
I find the armchair generalists here on HN pretty cringe, too.

Different era, same nonsense. The comments there are pretty typical of the time, as I remember it.

but the commenting serves it purpose, one does hope

even more so does what some assume to be 'voting' [like/dislike]

not sure how to measure tho how many shooting massacres it prevents.

former mentor of our at Lond Inst of Psychiatry certainly would have designed a field study of it, if he'd been introduced to the nets, social nets in particular

I'm intrigued who James is - as he wrote half of them

"Apple sucks !! ZEN Is where it’s at !"

I feel sad for James in 2021

Judging by their comments, it almost looks like that’s the default name on the site.
I think you're right.

"um. I’ve never been to this website or posted as a “james” before so why does it say “Welcome back james (Change)” seeing as I never have logged in, in the first place?????/"

"i wasn’t going to comment, but someone elses details we’re already in the fields, as my name is not james…

this does seem to be quite defiante evidence of the rumors i have seen floating about…

this is will get a digg"

It’s useful to have the comments recorded. Looking back now, apparently we find the mindset of the average person hard to imagine. If they didn’t write their thoughts down, our narratives about the past public consciousness would be completely replaced by whatever seems obvious in hindsight.
Jesse Donat: "Seems like a kind of stupid system to me… lots of arm strain keeping your hand pointing at the thing… Thats why touch screen in the home never caught on"

Eating your words?

The article is peppered with comments from a certain 'James' who seems to have very colorful, albeit conflicting opinions. I wonder what was he high on.
Seems like "James" was a bunch of people due to a bug of some kind perhaps https://i.imgur.com/oBzdaNx.png
Thank goodness I didn't use this site back in the day... I sure as hell would have been freaked out by it suddenly knowing my first name
Wowww. I remember checking out this article when I saw it on Toms Hardware back in 2006. I was 14 years old lol.

Imagine if you had money to invest back then, throw it into Apple and let it ride.

I remember I was doing an internship when the iPhone came out. Several of the people there had bought apple stock in anticipation of the iPhone’s announcement and then sold afterwards to turn a quick profit. As you suggest, in retrospect letting it ride for 15 more years would have been far superior.
With respect, this is selection basis.

Several years ago, JC Penny hired a new CEO (from Apple, I believe) to revamp their line. I bought their stock to "let it ride". There was some hot shot pharmaceutical company that I bought in 2010 (APPY, look them up). I also "bought the dip" in Boeing last year.

All bad decisions.

Yeah but JC Penny is an investment in retail. Everybody knew deep down that online was the future. Pharmaceutical no clue. Boeing will rise up again, although not a lot.
I had $500 worth of Apple stock in 2002. It was up 30% in a year, so I figured it’s time to take profits, sold the stock, and bought a 10GB iPod with the money. (I was a student, the idea of carrying all my CDs with me was extremely appealing.)

Looks like the stock would be worth about $200k today. No regrets, I got to listen to New Order on the bus.

Tbh you may have gotten solid utility out of that. And realistically after 3x you would’ve sold anyway (me too)
> Imagine if you had money to invest back then, throw it into Apple and let it ride.

In 2005, AAPL was (split-adjusted?) in the $1-2 range. In 2006 it peaked at $2.60 and went down to $1.60 (split-adjust) before recovering:

* https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/AAPL/apple/stock-p...

Plenty of people had money to invest, but to think that Apple would become as huge as it is now would be quite the act of faith in its vision IMHO. Especially since this was just a few years after the Dot-com bubble (AMZN being down 90% off its high at one point).

It's very hard to predict the future:

> When asked whether Domino’s Pizza or Google had a higher return for investors since their 2004 IPOs, most people would likely say the tech giant with the world’s most visited website.

> But Domino’s, including its dividends, would have netted you a higher return.

> If you had invested $1,000 in Domino’s when it went public on July 13, 2004, that investment would be worth more than $56,000 as of last Thursday, according to CNBC calculations. Its share price on Tuesday was hovering around $374.

> As for Google, a $1,000 investment made at IPO, on Aug. 19, 2004, would be worth more than $35,000 as of last Thursday. Its current share price was hovering around $1,426.

[…]

> Following this brand revamp [in 2009], Domino’s saw its stock gain more than 2,000% from 2010 to 2017. It also outperformed big-name companies during that period, including Amazon, Apple and Netflix.

* https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/25/dominos-stock-yields-higher-...

Not sure how things where things have gone, post-pandemic, since the article was published.

(comment deleted)
In 2007 I was 18, and had some scholarship money to invest, because I didn't think I'd need it for a year.

The bank manager wouldn't let me buy Apple, because there was a lot more paperwork to buy stock in the US (from Switzerland). Instead, he told me to buy shares in the bank for no commission! They have my money anyway, it should be a safe investment. I hedged against it by also buying a small bar of gold (over the counter, got to love Switzerland).

That year, the banking crisis hit. The shares went from 1000 CHF to 300 CHF. The gold went up: from 1000 CHF to 1070 CHF. But worst of all, I needed the money that year due to visa issues, and it was locked up in stocks and gold that I couldn't turn into cash until I could get back to Switzerland. The cash flow issues drove me to surviving from free pizza at careers talks, where I met Sma who introduced me to dumpster diving, hitchhiking, and CouchSurfing.

I learned then that money doesn't buy happiness. Food, transport, and shelter can be obtained for free within a community. And I'm forever indebted and trying to pay that support forward to others. Still not rich, but joyful.

Agreed. You can be content and enjoy the fruits of a good life without much in the way of riches. But it’s good to carry your own weight and be able to do your own thing.
Is it just me, or is the patent art intentionally misleading? I mean spin a virtual wheel to select a photo that you could just tap on, really?
The wheel also solves scrolling, which tapping doesn’t. Many great ideas are only obvious in hindsight.
> toll on Feb 12th, 2006 at 7:42 pm As long as it fits in my pocket with ease, and is easy to control, I’ll definitely buy, as will millions of others