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Title: Hello,<p>I made this little web app - iwl.me, which is just a box with a button. You give it some text, it analyzes it and tells you what famous writer you write like (I won't go into algorithmic discussion for now), and gives you a badge for blog and a link for sharing on Twitter/Facebook/Buzz. It's up for 3 days now, here are stats:<p><pre><code> 2nd day - 12,000 uniques
3rd day - 100,000 uniques
</code></pre>
It's spreading just like a perfect meme should :-) E.g. http://search.twitter.com/search?q=iwl.me<p>My question is, what should I do with it:<p>a) for monetary gain (It already achieved the SEO effect I planned, not sure what to do now).<p>b) for a good cause. I'm already thrilled to notice that people discover and re-discover writers and say "Oh, I write like [writer], I must read more of his works." What can I do to get more of this effect?<p>What do you think? I'm open to ideas or deals. Thank you!<p>PS Technical details: it's running on a single Rackspace Cloud instance with 512 MB RAM, Apache+web.py.
Upvote: | 53 |
Title: My name is Kent.<p>I am a Rails programmer and work from home. I will be online on Skype from 11:00AM EST time until around 3:00PM EST.<p>If you have a Ruby, Rails problem, question or just want to bounce an idea around give me a call.<p>I know a lot about web design, web applications, HCI, startups, Ruby, Rails, jQuery, SEO, HTML, CSS and am a good sounding board for ideas in general.<p>Often times I need someone to talk to when I need to bounce an idea around and I don't have another programmer / techie in my area. I also don't work in an office and find IRC a little cold. So, let's go remote, I will be your proxy desk neighbour.<p>Skype (kent.fenwick) or call (714) 881-1119<p>Thanks,
Kent
Upvote: | 132 |
Title: I have been working as a software developer for about ten years, and it has always been my passion. I often took my work home and worked 13 hours each day for years. I earn relatively well and I am the highest paid developer in our firm.<p>In the past one two years however, my motivation has been on a steady decline. I have largely lost my interest in IT, partly because it no longer feels challenging, but also because I feel <i>inactive</i>.<p>I would love to do something else, optimally something that requires my being physically active. I am more athletic than 99% of my peers, doing at least 12 hours of sports every week, and I would love to expand on that.<p>However, throwing away all that I know feels wrong, it is the capital that I have built on, and I don't want to take a large cut on my salary. Perhaps more importantly, I need the prospect of advancing my career.<p>Any idea for jobs that are both well paid and require a lot of physical work? Of course, the right mix of physical work and science would be perfect, but I am guessing that such a thing does not exist?
Upvote: | 50 |
Title: I've been a software developer for 5 years. It has been a good career from an outside perspective - great names, high salaries, chance to live abroad, responsibility beyond my years etc.<p>All is not well on the inside though. I'm experiencing a bit of a career low and crisis of confidence, which is why I turn to the smart people at HN!<p>I'll give a brief history for context -<p>My first few years as a developer were great. I learnt a ton about software and all things tech. Combined with a bit of business awareness I shot up the ranks and ended up in 'senior' developer roles (in practice if not in title). I worked on some fairly low level high performance stuff and off of this built a bit of a name for myself in some niche technical communities. I was proud of what I achieved and felt I was learning every day and delivering good stuff.<p>The last few years though, this has really stopped. I first had a bad year in one of my roles where issues outside of my control left me fighting fires for a year rather than coding. I left and then spent six months in a contract role that just involved hacking HTML and Javascript together at short notice for demos. I've now moved back into a permie role, but seem to be really struggling to get to grips with the code-base. The bits of code I have contributed have in retrospect turned out to be buggy or poorly designed in the context of the code base. I'm not covering myself in glory there at all. I don't have a single achievement yet after 6 months on the job.<p>I'm fortunate in that my CV and interview technique is getting me into very well paid development roles, but every day I am feeling like more like someone who can talk a good game and live off past accomplishments, but not deliver. It's really eating me up as I want to excel in my job and earn the respect of my team.<p>I guess I feel like I've gone backwards over the last few years. A few reasons for this:-<p>- I never just sit there and crank out code anymore - I must have read 1000 lines of code for each one I've written over the last 2 or 3 years.<p>- I never get the opportunity to properly engineer something and learn from what works well and what doesn't work well as a result of my own design decisions. My last few jobs have been weighted towards maintenance.<p>- I struggle a lot more with low level algorithms and data structures nowadays. I used to be pretty good at this but have lost the edge as I've drifted up to middle tier business and CRUD coding.<p>- I have lost the art of elegant code - everything I write seems forced and fragile, too much repetition, too inflexible. I look at other peoples code and algorithms and it just looks unattainable to me even though I was doing that 2 years ago.<p>- I've developed a few concentration issues - I drift off and surf the interwebs more than I used to.<p>- The learning has stopped - I learn new tools and languages but rarely take away a new idea from them which makes me better in the day job.<p>After this essay, I guess the question is, how do I get my mojo back and get that level of technical excellence back?<p>And did this happen to any of you guys part way into your careers, or did you have a pretty linear improvement over the years?<p>Any help appreciated!
Upvote: | 77 |
Title: As an Android advocate/fan this _really_ rubs me the wrong way.
Upvote: | 117 |
Title: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=tFgepUuuBHSgfeuKPKccxTA&hl=en&authkey=CIqAl7wO#gid=0
Upvote: | 118 |
Title: Quick reminder that London HN meetup is tonight at The Water Poet in Shoreditch from 18:00. Please RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/HNLondon/calendar/14032390/ . If you are unable to make it this time, we've scheduled the next one for 26th August.
Upvote: | 43 |
Title: My stock broker offers a programming API. The trading fee is close to $10/order. With that price point, it seems pretty expensive to do high-frequency algo trading. Are there any much cheaper options for me to experiment with hi-freq trading? Or is it a dumb idea that I should give up?
Upvote: | 91 |
Title: Everyone seems to be all up in arms about Clojure latley. Isn't this just another language? I have to admit I have not done any deep digging into what makes it so newsworthy which is why I am asking here...What am I missing?
Upvote: | 100 |
Title: For the past couple of weeks, I have been having extremely suicidal thoughts.<p>I am getting paranoid, and even though I am sure that I am not capable of committing suicide
nor do I want to, it is extremely disheartening, and very counterproductive.<p>If any of you have dealt with a similar situation, please let me know how to deal with this.<p>Thanks in anticipation.<p>EDIT: email: xoxo(at)hush.ai
Upvote: | 75 |
Title: I can make an initial invetsment of 5000 and work/code 6 hrs weekdays and 8 hrs weekends still keeping my day job.
I am ready to do that for the next 1 year.<p>Can I build something whithin that 1 year which starts giving me $1000 profit every month ?<p>I can code decently in java , Python and capable of build/configure Linux servers for my environments.<p>Any small ideas to hit the $1000 per month profits are welcome.
Upvote: | 55 |
Title: There's been lots of discussion recently about finding other HNers to talk to / bounce ideas off / work with, some Google spreadsheets were set up to share details but they were soon vandalised. I had a spare afternoon yesterday (which turned into a long day) and here's the result:<p>http://www.hackernewsers.com/<p>It's only open to people with HN accounts, it lets you post your biography, location, skills etc. Anyway, I hope you like it and find it useful.
Upvote: | 221 |
Title: I keep getting déjà vu every time a new HN directory appears, so I tracked down all the ones I could remember. I'm sure I've probably missed some...<p>EDIT: I moved the actual directory to my comment below, because this post wouldn't allow clickable links.
Upvote: | 46 |
Title: I know most everyone that hangs out here sees themselves as hackers/coders/etc, but anyone ever leave the software world to do something unrelated? I've been programming professionally for 5 years now, and am at a point where I can't really take it anymore.<p>The problem?<p>* Golden handcuffs - I'm leaving a lot of unvested money on the table if I leave, and realistically speaking if I leave this job I won't get anything that pays nearly as well for years<p>* Lack of "support group" - sure I could up and move to <random country>, but I don't really have much of a social circle so I'm a bit daunted by the prospect of being even more alone<p>* Still want to code - I don't hate software, but my job has made me realize that I'm really just a mediocre programmer with really good domain knowledge<p>* Aspirations - if I leave the corporate coding world, all of the other things I really want to do aren't exactly less stressful - move to LA and become a filmmaker, move to SF and join a startup, etc.<p>On the plus side, I can afford to be unemployed for at least a year, so I'm seriously considering just quitting outright to figure things out (with the caveat mentioned above that once I leave, coming back to this job/pay level is not going to happen). Anyone have similar thoughts/experiences/stories?
Upvote: | 102 |
Title: I'm slowly hacking away at a niche B2B SaaS product after work and on weekends.<p>I'm looking forward to the prospect of some extra monthly cash. I get a kick out of thinking, "At $30/mo, I only need 200 users to bring in a cool $6000 a month!" (gross, of course)<p>...but wait. Will I get even 200 subscribers? Maybe I'll struggle to reach 10. What if I'm underestimating my market here - what if I get 2,000?<p>I bounce ideas around in my head: "Of course I'll get 200 subscribers. 1.3 million people live in New Hampshire alone, and we're just one small state in the USA!" Even though my product is for a niche market, my local Yellow Pages confirms there are a dozen likely candidates for my application. I sometimes think I could secure 200 subscribers from just New York City alone, never mind the rest of the country, world.<p>I'm genuinely interested in the product I'm working on and the experience developing and marketing it is invaluable. I'm excited to see how my projections line up with actual revenue, good or bad.<p>What revenue goals did you have when launching and did you hit them? Were your pre-launch market analysis/projections correct or way off?<p>(Patrick, writing about BingoCardCreator on his blog, said that his initial goal was $200/mo. His very next sentence? "The business has been successful beyond my wildest expectations and has made it possible to quit my day job at the end of this month." Makes me smile every time I read it!)
Upvote: | 74 |
Title: Feedback appreciated
Upvote: | 53 |
Title: I'm in the final stages of designing a REST based API for my SaaS billing site, but I'm stuck debating whether I should include a version number (/1/clients/list) or not (/clients/list).<p>Obviously the latter is far cleaner and simpler, but am I shooting myself in the foot by leaving out the version number?
Upvote: | 50 |
Title: I'm a recent high school grad going into college as a comp sci major. I have 2 years experience in Python and JS.<p>Would it be worth my time to learn C (C++ possibly?)? (Or maybe you have another language that would be more profitable now.) I'm aware I will have to learn at least C for college, but is it something I should learn now?<p>I'm looking for your opinion because a lot of you have either gone through a comp sci degree or have done some programming in C.<p>Thanks HN!
Upvote: | 55 |
Title: I'm talking about specific tricks, not generalities. I'll start things off :<p>Phone lines - Rather than setting up expensive business phone lines for all the desks in your office, use Skype. It’s free to connect with other callers within the Skype network or you can use SkypeOut to make unlimited domestic calls to those who don’t use Skype for $24 annually. Alternatively, MagicJack also lets you make free domestic calls on traditional phone lines. All you need to buy is the $39.95 jack, which plugs into your computer. After a year, renewal costs just $19.95.<p>Payroll - a tedious but necessary task. Rather than hiring someone to do this in-house, outsource payroll to services like paycycle.com and save both time and money.<p>Please add to this list.
Upvote: | 79 |
Title: I often find it challenging to get into <i>the zone</i> without background music (although don't notice if it fades out later)<p>I'm always looking to find new music and interested to know what fellow hackers are listening to?
Upvote: | 102 |
Title: I'm a webdev in the midst of a work dryspell although I anticipate having plenty of work in 2mos or so. Im wondering what resources are out there for finding shorter term project work in the 1-3 mos time frame. My interests are Python, Django, Server side JS.
Upvote: | 61 |
Title: Here is another motivational thread on HN:
Ask HN: Movies that motivate you?
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1349566<p>I just watched the first episode of Mad Men and I'm hooked.
Upvote: | 132 |
Title: How proficient should one be in a particular subject before starting to take on freelancing jobs?<p>I have this image in my mind about most freelancers being people who went to their 9-5 software development job for 10 years before they started to freelance.<p>My company which I have had for a few years have done some (when looking back at it now) very basic php/web-design freelancing for local companies. I was reading the thread about where to find freelance jobs (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1526199) and realized that there are a lot of projects that need coders out there. Having invested a good amount of my education recently into software development, project management and economics I think this would be a really good way to keep learning new things and at the same time get some pressure ( and money ) to motivate and make me prioritize the project at hand. Of course I wouldn't seek out projects that I knew were out of my current or near-future skill-set but this is probably the heart of the problem.<p>Do potential clients expect a certain level of expertise or are they happy as long as the product works within the boundaries of the spec and deadlines are met? Im thinking that honesty in the bidding and the continuos development process will get me a long way. By that I mean not promising deadlines that im not sure can be met and facing problems head on. But perhaps this is just naive? Also im starting to notice that the more you about something the more you realize that you still have to learn.<p>Also does the general rule of "work for free or full price, never for cheap" apply in this situation?
Upvote: | 74 |
Title: Previously they were released with the Microsoft Permissive License.<p>http://ironpython.codeplex.com/license<p>http://ironruby.codeplex.com/license<p>http://dlr.codeplex.com/license
Upvote: | 60 |
Title: Three times a week, I write about a new startup at Venture Pimp (http://venturepimp.com/). It's actually really hard to find cool things that haven't gotten much press.<p>So, as always, I'm on the hunt for interesting startups. If you've got a startup, or have heard of something nifty, let me know. I'd really appreciate it. :)<p>Happy Sunday, folks.
Upvote: | 52 |
Title: I read a lot of stories here about the entrepreneur that quits a job, and begins the startup of their dreams with the full support of their partner - thats great for them.<p>I am curious to know if anyone else out there is facing resistance or lack of support from their partner in going out on a limb with their startup. I am aware of those who might say "life's too short, leave them" or "if they don't support your dreams then they don't deserve you" etc but I would prefer to discuss the methods HN'ers have used to get their partner on board or otherwise convince them of the value of their endeavour rather than issuing ultimatums or walking out on a family etc. BTW I am in this position now so its a practical question - thanks.
Upvote: | 47 |
Title: In 2008 there was a great discussion ( <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=250704">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=250704</a> ) and a list of startup ideas that YCombinator would like to fund ( <a href="http://ycombinator.com/ideas.html">http://ycombinator.com/ideas.html</a> ).<p>Do you think that it can be updated today? There are a lot more YC funded companies today.. maybe some of the problems are gone?
Upvote: | 47 |
Title: Geckoboard launched into private beta last week. It's very much a minimum viable product in that it's a functioning product but there's still lots to do. It's bootstrapped by me with the design and development outsourced to companies in the UK and Belarus respectively.<p>Geckoboard is SaaS status board that uses other services' APIs to collect and summarise key business information and display it in a way that's easy to understand and interpret.<p>Data from web analytics, server monitoring, project management, email marketing, CRM/helpdesk etc shown together on one dashboard to give a near real-time status on the health of all aspects of your business.<p>At the moment we integrate with about a dozen different API but more are being worked on right now and even more on the backlog. I'd love to hear your thoughts and/or suggestions.<p>EDIT. Signup instructions:
We're in private beta but you can bypass the private bit by using the invite code "HN" on the signup page (don't include quotes).
Link: http://geckoboard.com
Upvote: | 78 |
Title: <p><pre><code> THE OFFER
</code></pre>
I'm willing to do a few small web development jobs for a few HNers at <i>no cost whatsoever</i>.
Bonus points if it's for your startup or you have continuous web development needs.<p><pre><code> WHAT I CAN DO
</code></pre>
I like making web apps. I'm primarily a <i>Ruby</i> guy, and I love <i>Sinatra</i>, but Rails is cool too.
And while I've done some PHP, it's not for me. I also do frontend work of course <i>(XHTML, CSS,
JS with jQuery, amateur/minor graphic design)</i>. Minor Linux system administration is
manageable for me too, like configuring web servers or databases and deploying apps.
But I'm no expert, having learnt what I know by being an Ubuntu user and managing a few servers.<p>If you need something that I can't do yet, note that I love learning new things — how do
you think I got myself into all this?<p><pre><code> WHY I'M DOING THIS
</code></pre>
I've been teaching myself this stuff over the last few years, but I don't have too much to
show for it. I want to freelance, so I'm trying to build up my portfolio, and doing some free
work occurred to me as a great way to do so while making new contacts at the same time. I tried
this approach with success a couple of weeks back and I'm trying it again at a larger scale now.<p><pre><code> CAVEATS
</code></pre>
I'm obviously not terribly experienced in anything at all, though I <i>am</i> free.
I just ask that requests be very limited in scope (say, something that would take a decent
developer a few days), and I should be able to show the work in my portfolio. Also, I'm only
free the first time. Finally, if I get many requests somehow, I may have to turn some down.
But I doubt that will happen.<p><pre><code> YOU SHOULD CONTACT ME
</code></pre>
Even if you're not sure, or don't need it until later. What do you have to lose? Not money.
What might you gain? A reasonably competent coder, or at least some work done by one.
Contact me <i>now!</i><p><pre><code> Email: [email protected]
Skype: ehsanul_g3</code></pre>
Upvote: | 112 |
Title: I'm coding for 15 years, I've met a bunch of of bright, skilled and motivated people trying to build "their own project": Nearly everyone of them had on some point the idea to build a startup, a small web project, a passive income business.<p>And mostly everyone, including myself, failed.<p>We've failed not because nobody wanted our product.
Or because of missing programming skills.
We've failed because we've lost faith in our product!<p>We may have started, wrote weeks of code, played with it.
And finally abandoned it without finishing it.<p>I'm not talking about "missing market"/lack of customer acceptance. We just were not able to finish it.<p>What I wonder: We're all intelligent enough to understand, that it probably takes some time to finish a product (SaaS app for example). We all now, that it takes some time to get a few beta customers and even more time and hard work to attract paying customers in the end.<p>And we are all aware of idiots bashing every new idea, tellung us things like "that will never be as big as facebook!" all the time.<p>We know that, before we start. But usually after two to four weeks, the project just fails. We've lost faith in it. A few weeks, months, years later we try another idea. Same thing.<p>To clarify: It's not a tool-problem! I know a guy doing really "low" PHP4 things, but he is able to deliver a MVP to the market, several times. For years. As a part time business besides his full time project management role!<p>So instead of talking about technology, finance, SEO and all the crap, we should imho focus to deliver. JFDI!<p>But how?
Upvote: | 64 |
Title: Whats a good series of short challenges for learning web applications?<p>For those of us taking on advice to build a portfolio, whats a good showcase of applications to have built?
Upvote: | 51 |
Title: A talk at Erlang Factory with Marc Worrell, Lead Architect of Zotonic – a new Content Management System written entirely in Erlang!
Upvote: | 62 |
Title: It seems to me that lots of small to medium webapps are built either in php or in ruby on rails. I'm wondering why there seem to be only a small minority of webapps (at least not enterprise ones) being built using JSP technology.
Most articles and posts I see on HN seem to be webapps built with other technologies but Java.<p>JSP web apps can be built quickly as well. Eg. you have the JSTL tag library, and orm frameworks such as MyBatis or Hibernate. And there are also other things for simplifying, decoupling and modularizing a webapp like the Tiles framework, Struts, Spring MVC frameworks etc.<p>Now, I know for a fact that there are some other advantages php or rails apps have, particularly the lower price of hosting and possibly smaller memory requirements, but I'm wondering if there are any other reasons that JSP/Servlets/Java based small webapps are such a small minority and why adoption seems to be rather low for small to medium web 2.0 apps.
Upvote: | 40 |
Title: Sometimes when I start reading HN comments I get the overwhelming feeling that I am not even a tiny drop in the giant ocean of talent, knowledge, drive, determination, skill, and genius that collectively contributes to this site. I have my own ideas that I love dearly and work on, the first of which will be released for you all to play around with and break at the end of the week, but I <i>never</i> leave HN without feeling that no matter what I do, it will never be as good as what I've just read about. I have my own skills, I got a BS degree from a decent school in Comp Sci a few years ago, and still I barely work with anything other than LAMP and frontend stuff and frequently find myself having no clue as to what some of the submissions and discussions on this site are about.<p>It affects me on a more personal level than I'd like to admit, but I'll do anyway as a way to get it out of my system and see what you all think. I'm a lone "founder" of several websites that I finished up to 80%, then left to collect dust, and am now tidying up to display on a resume since I'm essentially out of money. Whenever I come here and read the articles and discussions I feel like my ideas, and myself by extension are absolute shit for several reasons.<p>1) So many talented people here. I don't know the slightest thing about any other language besides Javascript, PHP, Java (from school), and MySQL. I'm 25. I work on a Windows XP box and use an IDE because I like the code completion. I consider myself damn good at the languages I listed, but I get the impression that people here are damn good at way more than this.<p>2) HN shows me all these people and ideas that are succeeding. It used to be inspirational, but now it's frightening. I've always been told I'm a smart kid, and that I'll be a millionaire some day, and all of that shit. I see these ideas gaining traction, some of which I could never be able to do myself, some of which I could have done overnight, and I see myself staying still. It's overwhelming.<p>3) There are people that post here that are so smart. There are people here that can express their ideas so clearly. There are people here that know so much about so many things. And there's me... I'm not really able to contribute much. How am I to believe I'm any good at anything? If you all are to be my competitors, I should just give up now.<p>At any rate, I'm just curious to see if anybody gets the same feelings of being overwhelmed by the amount of awesomeness that's on this site. Thanks.
Upvote: | 441 |
Title: In college I enjoyed participating in a few AI competitions. Students would develop some basic AI for a robot who could move and shoot, submit the code and then watch everyone's robots battle on a large projector in a digital arena. Very educational and fun.<p>I know there are many open source projects that let you build and compete in these sort of things, but they always seem to be language specific. You can't battle your Java AI against your C# or Python AI. So, what if we all settled on a common language such as JSON & REST? And what if we made the game persistent?<p>The idea is this. A cloud hosted game which is persistent but allows new players to join or leave at any time. To participate you only need to register an account and give it a base URL of where you are hosting your player's AI logic. There would be some documentation on the expected REST URLs that need to be available. This lets you use any language you want to participate. It also allows players to have a database to store past moves or data about the environment. The game server could manage invoking the player's AI based on a turn system or in real-time when needed. A player's AI while waiting for a 'turn' could invoke service calls on the game server to 'look around' and learn about the environment.<p>The visuals would obviously be basic at first and should be displayable on a webpage.<p>The game itself could be as simple as a 'player' moving and shooting when it detects another player. You could introduce items, weapons, etc.<p>Or it could be more complex and similar to this (posted on HN not too long ago):
http://phonons.wordpress.com/2010/06/01/cells-a-massively-multi-agent-python-programming-game/<p>Does something like this exist?
Upvote: | 60 |
Title: I've been a reader for about a year now and posted my first question to review my startup yesterday - http://news.ycombinator.org/item?id=1538163. I was encouraged that I got a few upvotes and then it was killed.<p>What did I do that triggered the kill? I assume it might be the low karma, new user, or because I posted my own 'clickable link' ? Maybe all three? In any case, I'd still like the advice on the startup and would like to know how to repost without it appearing as spam. Or should I hang out for awhile and post comments before submitting?
Upvote: | 63 |
Title: I'm curious what everyone here considers their best investment. Not necessarily from a financial standpoint (thought it certainly could be, and that'd be interesting to hear too) ... but maybe your best investment has been the time you spent to learn something new, or the time you've spent with your family. What's your best?
Upvote: | 74 |
Title: I sometimes read reports of people "wrapping this in an evening" or "writing that during lunch". I don't consider myself a fast coder by any means, but it makes me wonder, as a student, whether there are certain expects of how fast (and how sloppily) things should be written by competent developers.
Upvote: | 78 |
Title: For anyone curious about what Sikkim looks like...
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=sikkim
Upvote: | 99 |
Title: I keep getting cravings for foods (chocolate, nachos, soda, you name it) that I'm trying to avoid because I know they're unhealthy, and their more nutritional replacements aren't hitting the spot. I know that junk food is engineered to be craved, so I'm wondering if anyone has managed to make the good stuff crave-inducing.
Upvote: | 81 |
Title: I have a problem I've been experiencing for some time now. I hope someone experienced something similar and has some good advice.<p>I've come to a point where it's really hard to do even the easiest work. Each time I sit to code and I face the slightest "problem", I start looking for a distraction as soon as possible. I realized it today when I had to write one line of code to calculate the scale of an image.<p>It was really a trivial problem, I just need to figure out a couple of measures to put into a division, but since it requires 30 seconds of thinking, my brain guides my hand to the nearest distraction (i.e. the facebook/email/HN). I really have to struggle to do some work (as a side note this goes away a little when I manage to begin working, but the danger always lurks waiting for some more difficult task to distract me from).<p>It's not a lack of motivation. This is a project I want to work on and when I'm not at my computer I think about how to code it and I just wait to have some time to work on it. I feel motivated thinking how cool it will be and really want to do it. But as soon as I have time, like in weekends, I start wasting it in useless activities. When I force myself to sit and code, my mind surrenders at the smallest obstacle.<p>It looks like my brain is not used to think anymore. I can spend time reading a lot of things, but as soon as I try to actively do something, my mind refuses to do it. I think I have some sort of addiction/disorder and I can look for psychotherapy, but I wan to know if there are easier and cheaper remedies. Any advice?
Upvote: | 247 |
Title: A very neat animation of a crab canon by Bach.
Upvote: | 53 |
Title: I built a product which company x is willing to acquire/license. From my estimations, they will be adding at least $<i></i>*M to their bottom line. Company x also agreed that my estimations are reasonable and accurate. It is really glad that most arduous initial part of the initiation/demo are all done and both of us are completely upbeat about the deal. For a lot of reasons, I prefer selling out instead of releasing it to market myself - unless deal falls apart. I haven't raised any money so far.<p>Now, I need help in some best practices going forward. Things like,
1. how do I come up with price tag for my product(I don't want to have them low ball or I don't want to ask really high number either).
2. what is involved wrt legal paper work.<p>anything else i should watch out for in this time frame<p>thanks<p>PS: I am a regular user and contributor - I am using throwaway login just to be anonymous.
Upvote: | 75 |
Title: Interestingly these two languages are Google's official languages.
Upvote: | 50 |
Title: People seemed pretty interested in this book being published. I recently discovered that it's under a Creative Commons license, so enjoy!<p>Sanjoy also has previous course material floating around (eg. Order of Magnitude Physics) and if anybody has links to those or comments I'm sure people would appreciate that.
Upvote: | 89 |
Title: Our site is an easy way to keep track of various marijuana strains and the different effects that they have on you. I was a newly-minted medical marijuana patient in California when this idea struck me. Visiting different dispensaries the volume of choices can sometime be overwhelming and they are as nuanced as a fine wine. I started keeping track of how I felt while smoking the various strains in a spreadsheet. Got together with a couple of friends and built the site in a few weeks (slow on the HN scale, I know).<p>The basic idea is to aggregate all the ratings and allow you to search and filter by the effect or medical relief that you are looking for. A secondary goal with the site was to make it very work friendly. There is no pot porn or pictures of giant leaves. Definitely not geared towards the stereotypical pot heads, focusing on all the other pot heads in the world that you don't know about.<p>http://www.leaf.ly
Upvote: | 110 |
Title: I just graduated out of high school and I want to learn loads of stuff in math, but there's a problem. I don't get it. Where I live it is expected of me to mindlessly crunch questions and output solutions by rote#. Practice is an important part of learning anything, and I know that I have to put my hours in. However, I <i>need</i> to understand why I am doing what I am doing.<p>Proofs of key concepts are like magic to me. I can follow the logic, but I cannot derive them on my own without seeing them before hand. I know that I lack understanding somewhere down the line, but I don't know where. Moreover, I don't know how to cure it.<p>I don't want to just rote up stuff. I want to appreciate the beauty of what I am learning, but I simply don't know how.<p>Any suggestions?<p>Thank you in advance.<p># Most teachers tell me to practice in order to memorize "problem solving techniques". I don't want to do that. I want to see the logic on my own, follow it through and think about what I am solving. I want to <i>see</i> stuff for what it is, and engage it on that basis.
Upvote: | 64 |
Title: There are lots of references on Hacker news to the fact that the "good old days" are gone and that the character of the site has changed since it started. The visualization above was based on a sample of users that posted on the site in recent times. The data was gathered by iterating over the first 1000 pages and gleaning a list of user names. The users ages were then checked and are plotted above.
Upvote: | 63 |
Title: There have been a lot of struggling anonymous posters asking for help lately. As I join those ranks, I hope that I am not straining the community's patience too much.<p>Here goes:<p>I'm not burnt out. But, from my vantage point, my problem--whatever it may be--is no less dangerous or frustrating.<p>Please bear with me as I try to describe what is wrong with me; it seems that clarity slips away more quickly to the extent that I grasp at it.<p>The problem is one of dissonance and stagnation.<p>I live an amazing, beautiful, privileged life, but I am unhappy, and my increasingly desperate flailing has not changed a thing. After graduating college at 22, I was hired by a Fortune 500 company as a developer, with a $60,000/year paycheck. I had high hopes for the next few years: Getting in shape, paying off student loans, and programming on the side to finally implement some of the many ideas (both technical and business) that I have collected over the years.<p>Now, three years later at 25, none of those things have changed. I poured much of my energy into a relationship that I ended near the beginning of the year, but even without that on my mind, I simply cannot seem to overcome inertia. I am still overweight; the fantasy of being debt-free is still a distant mirage, and I am still making the exact dollar amount as when I started; my ideas have languished, tinkered with at best, and utterly ignored at worst. In three years, I have learned a lot about myself, and about how to survive in a corporate job, but the goals I set out as a fresh college graduate have been brutally neglected.<p>The symptoms are all things you have heard before: I am often melancholy, having struggled with depression for most of my life. Focus is rare; I was recently diagnosed as having ADHD by a psychiatrist, who I saw at the urging of my therapist, despite my staunch refusal to acknowledge it as a real disease. I don't Get Enough Done, and I have to work extremely hard to avoid browbeating myself about every little failure, whether it is a failure of productivity or nutrition.<p>It's not enough for me to just exist. I feel a deep desire to build, to create, to learn, to teach, and as the weeks and months drag by with no discernible progress made on many of these fronts, my agitation grows.<p>I've tried many things. Therapy helped a little, but it's been over a half a year and it doesn't seem to have changed much. Prescription psychotropics, of which I have tried only two, had no effect. I picked up martial arts to get some physical activity, and while I am in marginally better shape, it has not "solved" anything. I do my best to eat better, but it's as easy to lose focus on planning my meals and learning to cook as it is to lose focus on coding my latest idea.<p>I have a difficult time relating attempted solutions because I'm still not sure what the <i>problem</i> is. I am not <i>always</i> sad. I am not <i>always</i> unproductive. I still talk and laugh with coworkers at lunch. I still see movies with friends. Once every couple of weeks, I'll have a few hours or maybe even an entire night where I crank out some code. I've learned to just barely squeeze by at work, excelling enough to win the approval of my peers and superiors. But, I know that I'm not even approaching my full potential. Sometimes I spend entire 8-hour days browsing the internet instead of working, even as I consciously berate myself for slacking off, or procrastinating, or <i>whatever</i> it is that I'm doing.<p>Sometimes I feel deeply ashamed when I read stories on HN, because there are stories of people who achieved absolutely incredible things in the face of adversity: People who created businesses while destitute; people who built families and careers simultaneously; people who got things done <i>even when they didn't feel like it</i>. Even when life got in the way.<p>Meanwhile; I'm an intelligent, healthy, gainfully employed bachelor, completely in control of his life, and I can't even put together the simplest of my hundreds of ideas in 3 years. 3 years, and I couldn't lose a couple of pounds. Life has been so good to me--I should be leaping out of bed with a giant grin on my face every single morning. And yet, I mope. And yet, I procrastinate.<p>It's as if I understand all of this in my head, but don't really believe it in my heart, and have no idea how to convince myself otherwise--as if the wrong "me" is in control 90% of the time. It doesn't feel right that so many things are such an uphill battle, and I don't understand why I'm squandering the incredible opportunities afforded by each day. I'm ashamed at how little gratitude I seem to have for my situation. My early twenties are over, and I haven't really <i>done</i> anything. The idea of looking back when I'm 30 and having these same thoughts makes me literally shake with terror.<p>What am I doing wrong?
Upvote: | 147 |
Title: Here a brief intro for those that aren't familiar with DevOps:
http://www.jedi.be/blog/2010/02/12/what-is-this-devops-thing-anyway/<p>Before being introduced to the concept of DevOps, we at Twilio struggled with what to call the role. It requires a different kind of thinking. To us, DevOps is about automation to improve productivity, reduce risk, and achieve scale. DevOps engineers should always be striving to deprecate themselves. It has been more then 2 year since we founded Twilio and we've never had a sysadmin or an ops person. This has forced us to write better software automation from day one. However, having someone that can provide leadership on DevOps issues (and fundamentally understands distributed systems/CAP/etc) to the whole team is extremely valuable.<p>Configuration management tools like Chef and Puppet are the beginning but a more complete view of infrastructure and service automation (e.g., http://redeyemon.sourceforge.net/) seems inevitable in the long term.<p>We are looking to hire a Lead DevOps engineer. Here is the detailed job description if you know someone that might be interested:
http://twilio.jobscore.com/jobs/twilio/devops-engineer/bSHjYWq2Sr37U6eJe4aGWH
Upvote: | 40 |
Title: Browser extension visually & audibly warns you when a page contains tracking bugs like Google Analytics, AdSense, YouTube embeds, etc.
Upvote: | 49 |
Title: I need a software that...
Upvote: | 85 |
Title: Since I've been a user of HN, I've seen numerous posts and stories about (successful) start-ups.<p>However, most of those I have seen are based on some open-source, free or otherwise non-MS based languages, technologies and products. For example, there are a lot of web apps running on Ruby, Python or PHP, using cloud services offered by Amazon, Heroku or Google App Engine, using open source databases, and a lot of mobile applications aimed at iPhone/Android (although, it's true, MS has no real mobile edge anymore), etc.<p>The thing is I don't really hear (or think) of Microsoft when I hear about start-ups. No start-up comes up and says it's using MS SQL Server, or Microsoft Cloud Services...or C#.<p>What's the deal with this? Is it just me, or is it true? Are there any start-ups that do use Microsoft products or languages? Any example cases?<p>If this is true, how dangerous would this be in the long term for Microsoft? And what recommendations would there be for people proficient with MS, but who want to begin a start-up.<p>I'm curious about what you think. Cheers!<p>TL;DR: I don't hear of any MS based start-ups. Why?
Upvote: | 67 |
Title: Note: I work on Woopra projects :-)
Upvote: | 77 |
Title: One of my favorite discussion threads of all time, on any forum, was "Teach me and you. Give a gem" on the Civfanatics forum. It wound up being 15 pages of insights on how to play Civilization IV well, and was really a wonderful, enjoyable, community building experience.<p>Here was the first post:<p>"Share a "one-liner" simple strategy that can help beginners, seasoned players and maybe even be a gem that one of the pros can learn from.<p>Feel free to explain your tip, but avoid complex, in-depth strategy."<p>So, care to share a gem about technology, entrepreneurship, or general Hacker News type topics?
Upvote: | 194 |
Title: I'm finishing my masters degree in computer science and I don't want to work from 9-5 in a boring company or from 9-11 in a consulting company.<p>I want to have my own startup but I don't have any good ideas! All I have is ideas for small web applications but not enough to make a living out of that nor to reject the offers I have.<p>So, can you please share some ideas with me? If you don't want to say them in public, please contact me at t57435 gmail.<p>Thank you!
Upvote: | 51 |
Title: There hasn't been a jobs thread in a little while. What are you looking for and where are you?<p>Edit: Only one entry so far from outside the US. Any others?
Upvote: | 111 |
Title: First off, I'm sincerely grateful to this community. You blow me away with your generosity and honesty. I don't remember how I stumbled on HN but my life is better off because of it, and certainly my business.<p>I've been working on a web app for over a year now. It's more than a web app, it's a business I truly believe in, and have given all my heart and effort into. I've lived off our savings, and I've been procrastinating launching trying to get things perfect.<p>That's over now. I'm committing to launch in 30 days no matter what.<p>And I'm telling you this because I know that it will help keep me accountable.<p>Thanks for reading!<p>Edit: I guess we just launched. I was looking for a kick in the ass and I got it. Thanks!
Here it is: http://rm.bettermeans.com/
Upvote: | 234 |
Title: I really got into running this year and after using several different tools online to map out routes around my neighborhood I got frustrated and built my own.<p>This was built over a few weekends and I'm continually trying to refine it, yet keep it simple and focused on one small thing (creating and sharing routes).<p>The advice in the HN community is second to none so if you have any feedback at all, positive or negative, I'd love to hear it!<p>http://sketchroute.com<p>Thanks!
Upvote: | 43 |
Title: We're a TechStars Boston 2010 company that is launching our front-end Web testing service. Mogotest significantly reduces the pain Web developers and designers face when making sites work in all the various browsers.<p>We've been running in alpha & beta for about 6 months now, while we've bootstrapped the company (save for the small TechStars investment). We believe -- and more importantly, so do our users -- that we have something useful to the larger Web development community.<p>Any feedback is appreciated and my co-founder and I will answer any questions the best we can. And thanks to being such a great resource for startups!
Upvote: | 62 |
Title: I'm always interested in the who's hiring threads, but often find it is hard to determine if I fit the bill. In that spirit, I figured we should have a "Who's looking for a job" thread, and let the employers reach out to whoever they might like. A brief summary might be ok, or a google doc resume, or whatever. I figure if there is one place this might work, this is it. Have at!<p>Edited to add (kudos to mrduncan):<p>Make it easy for employers by indicating where you're located, whether you'd be willing to move, if you'd prefer to telecommute, etc.
Upvote: | 96 |
Title: A lot of recent threads have been talking about sharing ideas, I would rather share our problems. Hopefully some people can be lead towards solutions that already exist, and it might be useful for those looking to startup something new.<p>List the problem you have, and why you find it a problem, possibly saying why other things you have used havent solved it.<p>Make 1 comment per problem, and try to upvote / comment on problems to expand on them.
Upvote: | 81 |
Title: If so could you recommend any good Server/Channels.
Upvote: | 149 |
Title: Hi Everyone,<p>My co-founder and I are meeting with YouTube in the next few weeks. For various reasons our best guess is that they are interested in a talent acquisition.<p>We were just wondering if anyone has any personal stories or articles about what it is like to go through a talent acquisition or what possibly to expect.<p>Thanks,
ryanjmo
Upvote: | 64 |
Title: From what I know, eHarmony asks you a long list of questions, and then tries to match you up with people they think you would be a good romantic match with.<p>Not sure how well the above works, but I always thought a similar thing that applied to finding people whom you would click as friends would find many applications:<p>Moving to a new city, moving into a new apartment complex, starting a new job, starting college, going on a cruise with a ship full of people you don't know, etc.<p>I guess there are websites that help you expand your network of friends, but as far as I know, no website runs a test that is analogous to the one on eHarmony.<p>My questions are:<p>1) Do you think that a questionnaire + algorithm could ever be developed to find people that you would click with as friends, or are human nature and human interactions too complex and unpredictable?<p>2) Assuming such an algorithm is possible to develop, would it get traction, would people use it, would people pay for it?
Upvote: | 51 |
Title: In #startups (irc.freenode.net), Phil_H brought up the interesting question of alternatives to founder sock-puppeting to jump start a website and/or community.<p>What are your suggestions or past experiences with this kind of situation?
Upvote: | 44 |
Title: Which web hosting provider do you use ?
Upvote: | 135 |
Title: Hi HN.. I've been doing a bit more commuting than normal lately and have found I have more commute time than podcast time. What Podcasts do you listen to that you can recommend to others? (Basically I'm after the HN guidelines -- anything that satisfies my intellectual curiosity)
Upvote: | 127 |
Title: I know the recommendation is that your startup should locate in the Bay Area or another startup hub for the best access to resources and networking.<p>But for many people, the US is not an option. These days you can't necessarily easily get a visa, especially if you're a young startup.<p>So, the question is, what location is the most like SF in all the ways that are beneficial for starting a startup but outside the USA?<p>We're a two person team. Founders have been together for a decade. One is engineer with deep experience, other is marketing and design expert. We're already slightly successful with our first product that has pointed the way to the Big Product for us.<p>We can relocate just about anywhere in the world, except the USA. Our passports will allow us to visit most countries without a visa and we should have little trouble getting work/residency visas in countries that welcome entrepreneurs.<p>So, where's the silicon valley besides silicon valley?<p>We've thought about:
Toronto- seems to have a very strong startup scene, but this is just an impression.<p>Bratislava- Near vienna, but relatively low cost. Seems to be growing in leaps and bounds and has a well educated populace. Environment of low regulation and capitalism, so this could be the startup hub of the next decade. Might not be that now.<p>Big Cities in Asia- There are a number of candidates here, from Manila to Bangkok. Seems the creation of a middle class has unleashed a wave of creativity and desire to create internet startups amongst the youth in asia. Hong Kong is an obvious possibility.<p>But these are just impressions. We'd like to find a place where there is the possibility of having relatively low costs, since the access to venture capital will not be the same as it would be if we were in the Bay Area.<p>But access to talent, and more importantly, a startup culture seems like it would be really valuable.<p>But where can you find this best outside the US?
Upvote: | 158 |
Title: I've heard so many optimistic stories of "failed" startups where the founders continue on to new startups, or end up leading better lives afterwards regardless. But the whole time I'm thinking "there's got to be some downside to all this..."<p>There just seems to be this great optimism within the startup world that even if your idea or company fails, you're still fine, and I'm curious to if anyone has any stories of that not being the case.<p>Where are the startup stories of terrible regrets and failures? Is there anyone who's said "I wish I never tried that" or "those years were a waste of my life?" and why?<p>I've just found the startup industry to be extremely optimistic about things, and with so much attention on all the epic successes, I'm looking for some truly epic failures; mainly to keep my feet on the ground and in touch with reality.
Upvote: | 44 |
Title: What books helped you?
Upvote: | 62 |
Title: I'm about to take a few weeks off, and I'd love to hear recommendations from HNers on books they've read recently and enjoyed. I'm open to anything, fiction or non-fiction -- and I'd be particularly interested in subjects other than programming or entrepreneurship.
Upvote: | 61 |
Title: I use Linux and I have for nearly all of my teenage and adult life. I had a short foray into Solaris; ZFS was nice, and so were the raid tools. Otherwise I found it to be rather tedious.<p>Tell me, why would I ever want to use one of those BSDs over Linux of some sort? What's the allure?
Upvote: | 208 |
Title: Thought it would be helpful for HN'ers to see what others are up to and potentially find cool projects to collaborate on.<p>Bonus points for keeping it under a tweet + demo (or github,etc).
Upvote: | 69 |
Title: Today, Mike and Rob reviewed my start-up and gave me invaluable advice.<p>If you don't yet know who these two guys are, I highly suggest that you visit http://startupsfortherestofus.com, they record an indispensable podcast that I don't know where I would be without.<p>If your a micropreneur, entrepreneur or even a startup hobbyist, subscribe to the podcast today, you'll be hooked after the first one.<p>They have a multitude of other resources and sites that I will let you discover the way that I did through the podcasts. <p>I'm sure that you will agree with me, one the comment storm starts about these two guys.<p>Although this may seem like a promotional posting, I unfortunately do not know these guys in person, and the only means of communication I have had win them is through an email comment to their show. This is my thanks to them, and I hope I inspire someone to listen to them and perhaps even send them a question - they actually do listen!
Upvote: | 41 |
Title: I almost pushed my s3 credentials to a public github repo for the third time in one day.<p>So, I got curious. Are there people out there who forget cover their tracks?<p>A quick search shows quite a few 'open' buckets out there. What's the best way to warn these folks? What other credentials are lurking out there?<p>Here's the search:
http://github.com/search?langOverride=&language=&q=S3+Base.establish_connection&repo=&start_value=1&type=Code&x=0&y=0<p>And the first open bucket I found:
http://github.com/prakashraman/jammmin/blob/a668672c69fafdb8317fec4fb19b7abb0b318e1a/app/scripts/s3_connect.rb
Upvote: | 57 |
Title: I'm unable to find the time/energy to give to userscripts.org lately. My startup is currently focused on building Nebula & Nova, and I cannot see finding time to devote to the site I spent 5 years building/running.<p>The site has been in "maintenance mode" since starting Nebula, but it deserves more.<p>The site is still very active (Google Analytics for last month):
* 2,474,330 Visits
* 9,532,743 Pageviews<p>The site is quantified: http://www.quantcast.com/userscripts.org<p>But it needs someone who can do the right thing for the community.<p>There will be technical issues scaling (rails 2.3, postgres, git). Legal issues (dealing with DMCA takedown notices/people who don't like scripts that "fix" their site). Community issues (the site lacks a nice directory and community aspects).<p>Companies or individuals are welcome but I need to know your intentions with the site going forward :)<p>Private inquiries to anotherjesse (at) gmail.com
Upvote: | 71 |
Title: I'm curious as to what people's thoughts on the iPad now that the dust has settled.<p>I use mine almost exclusively for reading blogs in the evening. My girlfriend enjoys just browsing about on it. That's about it - no photos, no videos, no audio. Minimal gaming. I also use Goodreader for technical PDFs.<p>Aside: It's been four months and there's not really a sniff of a competing product yet.
Upvote: | 58 |
Title: I'm a product guy. Successful, good at what i do, and looking for a change. Came across an opportunity which (at first blush, so to speak) matches what I'm looking for -- the team, the company stage, growth potential, etc. The catch is that it's a well-known gay "dating" site. And more in the "looking for mr. right now" sense of dating than "looking for mr. right".<p>Career killer?<p>Would a background like that hurt my chances of a successful exit if I ever started something on my own?<p>I probably wouldn't think twice about hiring someone who worked there (speaking as both startup junkie and a gay guy), but I've been through acquisitions and know those HR girls in Fortune 500 companies might think twice if they're doing a background check.
Upvote: | 75 |
Title: How are you securing your laptops in public places, like coffee shops and LAN parties/events, when you're by yourself and need to be absent from the laptop? Like when "nature calls".<p>EDIT:<p>1. i think i mean "gyroscope" instead of osciloscope.
2. since this post is my content and, ergo, any comments here are derived from that content, i therefore allow permission for any commenter to make use of humor, sarcasm, wits and any language expression deemed "funny".
Upvote: | 41 |
Title: We are slowly opening up our new api, and before full public release, we are putting the api and documentation through peer review. Essentially we would love to know your thoughts as fellow hackers on what you like and hate about the api structure. We accept it isn't perfect, but we can't see our own mistakes as well as others.<p>If you have a moment please check it out, and any feedback would be greatly appreciated.<p>http://api.mixcloud.com<p>[Edit]
For those interested, Mixcloud is an online audio hosting platform, focusing on long form audio. This initial launch covers basic site interaction (favorite/follow) and all our meta data. The API authenticated is OAuth2 and JSON(P)/XML endpoints are provided.
Upvote: | 43 |
Title: I've been trying to learn some CSS to design a website i'm working on, but all my designs turn out to be horrible and on top of that, i really don't like web design nor do i like learning CSS. However, i do know that the design of a website is very important and i believe that it can make or break your app. So do you guys design your own website or do you hire/ask someone else to do it?
Upvote: | 58 |
Title: Debian Squeeze Frozen
Upvote: | 86 |
Title: I've been a solo programmer since I started programming, and I don't usually get much feedback on my ideas or projects because I just don't know enough people who do what I do. My question is, how can I find people who are interested in these things and are willing to listen?<p>For example, I'm working on an experimental Ruby framework at the moment (http://github.com/Twisol/dishes) , but the programmers I do know (who don't use Ruby, sadly) aren't very knowledgeable in that area, and it's always a pretty one-sided conversation. I'm not part of any Ruby or web-dev social circles and I wouldn't even know where to begin. It feels like I'm working in a bubble.<p>Any advice? I feel a little incompetent for having to ask this question at all, heh. ^_^;
Upvote: | 46 |
Title: I have seen some good ideas on this topic here and there, buried in several HN comment threads. But I thought it'll be better off being a separate topic, aggregating everything good/bad for our precious brains.
Upvote: | 69 |
Title: Hi HN,<p>I've never really understood Twitter as a business, and so I figure that since it's been bugging me for a good two years now, I'd might as well give it a shot and ask the good folks here for their thoughts on this. Any insight is appreciated.<p>1) What problem does Twitter solve? Some of the best startups are created around specific solutions to specific problems. Twitter is a non-specific solution to a whole host of problems. It is used differently by different kinds of people. So ... what problem does it <i>really</i> solve? Or is there no specific problem here, and we just have a communal itch that we want to scratch that the Twitter format helps?<p>2) YC tells its applicants: 'make something people want'. But while Twitter does make something people want, it's not clear what that is. Could Twitter be an example of stumbling, by pure accident, into something people want? Does this imply that there is no way to <i>intentionally</i> create a company like Twitter?<p>3) Why is Twitter so successful? Twitter seems to be the only company with no <i>clear</i> value proposition (I'm not saying there's no value - I'm just saying that it's hard to explain what that value is to a non-Twitter user); also it seems to be one of the few startups that can get away with producing a generalized platform as its main product. Wave didn't. Why did Twitter succeed where Wave did not?<p>Thoughts, ideas, and observations are all welcomed.
Upvote: | 103 |
Title: the project was canceled. A year of my work evaporated, my contract ended, and I was unemployed.<p>I was frustrated by all the wasted effort, so I decided to uncancel my small part of the project. I had been paid to do a job, and I wanted to finish it. My electronic badge still opened Apple's doors, so I just kept showing up.
Upvote: | 331 |
Title: Let's say you were thinking of putting digital data in a time capsule where it couldn't be touched for 50 years. How would you store it? How would you ensure it was readable at the end of the 50 years?
Upvote: | 78 |
Title: I am currently on an AT&T family plan in the US. I currently do not have a smartphone, and it is annoying because as a tech person, I feel like I am falling behind the curve. However, I have been hearing all kinds of disappointments with new phones lately, so I ask: if you were to buy a phone today, which would you buy? Or would it be worth waiting for a little while to see how other phones pan out?<p>Extra info:<p>-I run linux, not sure if this is a problem for iphone<p>-I want to become familiar with the technologies that will help me understand the capabilities and limitations of smart phone apps today. Not sure if iphone is significantly more important in this regard than android right now<p>-I would like to stay on AT&T but can leave if necessary
Upvote: | 70 |
Title: What is the best city to start a start-up in Europe?
Upvote: | 49 |
Title: I finished college in the Midwest this year, and I've decided San Francisco will be the best possible place for me to live as I build my business. I don't have any serious commitments, I paid off all my student loans and my company is bootstrapped and profitable, so moving to SF shouldn't be very difficult, and I'm not too scared of the cost of living increase. I plan to fly to SF in about two weeks and then look for a place to live once I get there.<p>That said, I still need your help if you live in SF or have gone through a move like this before.<p>My questions:<p>1. Where should I live? I would like to live somewhere close to the startup scene, with a vibrant neighborhood and safe enough that I don't have to worry about walking around alone at night.<p>I'm leaning heavily towards the Mission right now, maybe SOMA if I can find a nice place there. Is there a specific area of the Mission I should focus on?<p>2. Where should I stay as I look for a place to live? A hostel? Are those $150 a week hotel postings on Craigslist legit?<p>Or, if anyone is interested in letting me crash on their couch for a few days in exchange for marketing/SEO/PPC/getting traffic consulting that would be great :)<p>3.What events/meetups should I attend once I get there to meet like-minded people?<p>4. Any other advice about living in SF that would be helpful to a newcomer? What do you wish you had known when you moved to the bay area?<p>Thanks in advance for your comments. Hopefully this thread could become a good resource for others looking to move to the Bay Area. It would be great to get in touch with others doing something similar, please email me at ilya[at]unviral.com.
Upvote: | 47 |
Title: More specifically, what type of information do you look for to inform your guesstimate?<p>I've started by looking at the analytics of our (future) competitors, specifically unique visitors. This information has varied significantly and am wondering if there are other sources that could help put my guesstimates on a more solid footing..?<p>Our web app will cater to individual investors, focusing on stocks. So, I've tried finding out the number of individual investors in the US, the size of investment information market, etc, without much luck. Any suggestions about what direction to take would be hugely appreciated!<p>I, like many before me, am looking to the HN community for help. :)
Upvote: | 47 |
Title: What does this mean for computer science (and other areas)? I am familiar with the basic idea, but really don't know much more or how this would affect what I do?
Upvote: | 53 |
Title: The USDA recommendations are almost universally considered wrong, perhaps even exactly backwards.<p>You have people like Michael Pollan saying we should eat traditional foods, mostly plants, and not too much.<p>Gary Taubes says we should eat meat, lots of it. Red meat.<p>The prevailing wisdom from nutritional science is--well, I have no idea what it is. I guess it's to eat foods high in polyunsaturated fats, avoid red meat, and avoid refined starches and sugars, but I'm not sure.<p>I hate that I get anxious when trying to decide something so simple as a shopping list for groceries.<p>Based on my experience in fields where I have a measure of expertise, the difference between a persuasive bunch of garbage and the truth can be incredibly hard to discern until someone contextualizes it all for you.<p>Does anyone have any suggestions for books or articles that cut through these various arguments in an authoritative way, explain shortcomings and virtues, and makes a straightforward recommendation based on a full appreciation of the all the arguments involved?
Upvote: | 61 |
Title: "What if you could build realtime web apps with the same ease as you build static web pages in PHP today? Without long polling, event handling and state synchronization, the engineering complexity of realtime web applications would drop by an order of magnitude. There would be a fundamental shift in the way we build the realtime web. This is the future of Fun."
Upvote: | 122 |
Title: A lot of mixergy interviewers say that in the early days they've done things that would be considered unethical in order to get their sites off the ground.<p>A good example of this would be Facebook, which has done a ton of things early on.<p>So have you yourself(or the company you worked for) done anything that would be considered unethical to get the business off the ground?(if you are worried about your reputation just use a throwaway account)<p>This may involve:<p>- spamming comments to get links/users<p>- creating a ton of pages with keywords to get long tail google traffic<p>- scraping other's websites to fill your DB<p>- putting up an order page when your site wasn't ready<p>- putting up <i>235 users online</i> when you only had one<p>- pretending to be bigger than you were<p>- voting up your own submission on HN/Digg/Reddit<p>- creating a fake back story to make your startup interesting(we just want to save the world, we don't care about money)<p>- astroturfing your site with fake accounts<p>- sending fake numbers to get coverage(i.e. traffic, revenue, profit)<p>- buying an email list to spam people<p>- promising unrealistic delivery dates<p>- using the user's email address to spam their address book<p>- pretending the site has users when it doesn't(this hottie is 5 miles away from you, register to contact her)<p>- etc.
Upvote: | 158 |
Title: I have switched to vim a little more than a week ago and would love to see what plugins/extensions others are using.<p>What plugins do you use and what is your favorite plugin and why?
Upvote: | 127 |
Title: I know that it is un-HN-like to be "working for the man". But at some point, most of us will have been. I'm relatively new to the workforce, below median salary and feel like I'm doing an above average job.<p>Have you ever asked for a raise and, if so, how did you get it?
Upvote: | 93 |
Title: I am broke and in debt due to taking in 1/3 of my previous salary and having big delays to our v 1.0. I am married with 1 kid. My wife is footing some of the bill and I am on my fourth debt renewal. Wondering how people in the same situation are coping or getting by.
Upvote: | 112 |
Title: Anyone know what's up? By now they're apparently supposed to have awesome user interfaces. Hope they're set to launch by September.
Upvote: | 62 |
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