I think samd's offense was taken at the attitude more than the technical requirements. New York has a very interesting class dynamic about it: the social circles are just inundated with people who want to be successful (whatever that means to them) more than other places. In my opinion, this is the greatest reason we won't see "Homebrew Computer Club" style hacking, and Woz didn't hang around hacker news. I wonder if that's what drives PG's guilt of creating this place...