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Indeed 'Ruby' trends - what do you think?
pyre: Look at the wild fluctuations for c++:http://www.indeed.com/jobtrends?q=python+toronto,+perl+toron...Or Perl:http://www.indeed.com/jobtrends?q=python+toronto,+perl+toron...
Recommemd an HTML CSS editor for an 8 year-old Girl?
apsurd: Ok I'll bite. I think you should make one for her.Maybe not the answer you wanted but I've never been a fan of wysiwyg editing if you you want to learn how to program websites. What I mean to say is that it's good to be tied directly to the code and understand exactly what's going on through an actual development workflow. So having her sit in a text editor, then reload the browser page gives her that rawness. This also acts as a test to see whether shes is into the whole idea of being hackerish. I can tell you that writing "color:red" and reloading the page to see the color turn red was the catalyst that got me down the word to being a programmer. I never got the same feeling from using photoshop, which I think is a good analog to using a wysiwyg editor.No offense to designers but I think this approach eventually pays off a lot more than being handicapped by dreamweaver.Best of luck to you.
Feedback on Braintrust.io's new homepage
apowell: Here's my stream-of-consciousness:---I saw a huge "scroll down to learn more" arrow and thought "why don't you just put what I'm supposed to learn right here?". Why do I have to scroll for it? And what's this stuff underneath?Reluctantly, I scrolled. Write a response? No... Curtis? Who is Curtis? Some acme inc files? No, that's not it either... Braintrust Features? Oh, finally, I'm here. So I see a list of features, and I see some benefits....but what is Braintrust? So I scroll all the way back up and look to my right, I see....Social Collaboration for your company. So now that I finally have some context, let me re-read everything....---I think the whole "fake mockup of a real interface" concept is flawed. Nothing I see on first glance (a) works or (b) means anything to me. I totally missed the big yellow box the first time through, so I had zero context.This is unrelated, but your logo looks like Ubuntu+Joomla to me.Finally, I'd rethink the "pimping" analogy on your philosophy page.
What are your thoughts on Facebook's Open Graph concept?
sekou: Maybe I'm being paranoid, but I just don't trust Facebook with the internet.
Indeed 'Ruby' trends - what do you think?
donw: The 'relative' graph is rubbish. The 'absolute' graph says something that I think is fairly obvious: If you want a job, you'll have an easier time finding it if you can write Java (or C++, or C#).I did a bit of clicking around, and most of the Ruby jobs were for Ruby on Rails, which is a little disappointing, but not surprising.Most of the Python jobs seem to mention python as a secondary skill next to PHP, or are otherwise a massive mash of keywords. Which is even more disappointing; even though I'm more of a Ruby guy, Python is an excellent language for any serious number crunching. I can't think of anything in any other general-purpose language that comes close to SciPy/NumPy.
Indeed 'Ruby' trends - what do you think?
jacktang: And I add erlang: http://www.indeed.com/jobtrends?q=ruby,+java,+python,+perl,+...
Recommemd an HTML CSS editor for an 8 year-old Girl?
jheriko: Notepad + some browser.Best to start with the simplest and most transparent tools IMO, + its not really difficult to save, switch windows and refresh the browser.I say this because a lot of HTML design tools take away the necessity to actually learn what goes on with the HTML and CSS, sometimes in subtle ways. If you want easy use MS Word and save as ".html" or FrontPage or whatever, but that won't teach her much about HTML or CSS directly...(EDIT: Also they are free and available on every computer with a Windows on it since 2000/ME I believe.)
SOAP vs REST, which one do you prefer working with ?
ochekurishvili: SOAP annoys with XML request/responses.REST is much better with simplicity, much acceptable by developers and much more popular in tech-startups.But there is an XML-RPC too, great solution but not spread as is has to be, like REST.
Feedback on Braintrust.io's new homepage
apsurd: Taweed, your service looks fantastic, it must have taken a lot of development and refinement. It certainly looks polished from the youtube video.I don't know your numbers but based on the fact that you are continually overhauling your pitch I am going to assume that you are struggling to gain traction, so with that in mind I'll do my best to give my opinion on why that is. Again no offense intended, service looks great!I think you are struggling to develop a direct, refined super simple, super clear focused message to a specific niche customer.For some reason I have you on my google buzz thing (we exchanged some emails a while ago) so I feel like I'm pretty up to date with your iterations. Your message has never been ridiculously simple and focused. You should pick a specific niche and go after it like a starving dog. Is it for micro startups? for freelancers? for families? for college group projects? for enterprise? for red-haired left-handed moms born in Idaho? Get specific, answer EVERY SINGLE ONE of that niche's questions and concerns, and then hit it out of the park.I watched all 7 mins of your video, I've read all your copy (I agree that the grayed mockup is very non-user-friendly and thus a turn off) and I can't get excited about it because it's too vague of a proposition. I get that its private and its a communication platform, but customers less savvy than myself understand that there is an ocean's worth of online collaboration products. It's not a question of how great your product is (it does look pretty nice) its more a question of whether your target audience understands the benefits of your specific product and how you solve their specific problems. This is why it hurts to be vague, you end up trying to be all things to all people (whether you intend that or not) and you get brownie points with zero of them (because you don't specifically address any niche pain points other than privacy).Get tiny - get narrow - get focused.Seems like your competition is 37signals. They started by focusing on freelance web designers (because that's what they were). They focus on the tech-savy freelancer who needed to collaborate with his client - nothing more.Oh yeah lastly, the whole philosophy page is extremely self-serving. No one cares about your company, they care about what your company can do for them. It's fine to talk about yourself just so long as it's in the context of how your helping ME. I think you meant well with what you wrote, but for us HN'ers it's blatantly obvious that you are talking about internet startup related things - your customers dont care! No one cares about your business model, they don't care about the legitimacy of freemium, they've never heard of 37signals, they-don't-care!It's 4:30 am, I'm going crazy, best of luck to you my friend!HTH!
Recommend good PSD to HTML service
oscardelben: These guys seems to be the more used http://www.psd2html.com/
Recommend good PSD to HTML service
spicyj: I sometimes do this sort of thing. Send me an email if you're interested.
Recommend good PSD to HTML service
ryanb: ebizzsol.com based in Bangladesh does good work for super cheap. ($75/psd)
Recommend good PSD to HTML service
Tombar: I use and recommend http://www.psdahtml.com, not the cheapest one but very serious about delivery dates.
Recommend good PSD to HTML service
ryandavies: I do this kind of work too. Email ryandavies AT gmail.com
Recommend good PSD to HTML service
acg: http://www.psd2cssonline.com/ attempts to automate the process but you need to lay out the PSD in a certain way.
Will Y Combinator launch topic-related threads?
pg: People always suggest that when there is a temporary overflow of stories about some topic they're not interested in. Don't worry, things will get back to normal eventually.
Will Y Combinator launch topic-related threads?
byoung2: I think tags/categories would be a great idea. For example, my favorite topics are the "Ask HN" ones, so it would be nice to be able to see just these by clicking a tag. Same thing goes for hiding all topics tagged "Apple". Even if the tags were "hard-coded" it would be useful to have say:Ask HN, Rate My App, Tech News, Acquisitions, Job Postings, Hacker Tips,etc...
Will Y Combinator launch topic-related threads?
thafman: I would love sub-reddit functionality e.g.:news.ycombinator.com/hn/technewsnews.ycombinator.com/hn/pythonnews.ycombinator.com/hn/webappsetc.
How do you buy foreign domain names without an address?
filmstreet: http://www.eurodns.com has a solid selection of international domains and provides local addresses/affiliates to enable registration in certain countries. It's a bit expensive for some domains. But they've got a good selection and have been reliable.
We launched ThinkCode.TV. Thoughts?
acangiano: Clickable link: http://thinkcode.tv
Will Y Combinator launch topic-related threads?
daleharvey: I think pg is generally against segregation, obviously segregation needs to happen if you are looking to scale the community to as many users as possible.but I dont think the goal for ycombinator is to scale to lots of users, more to keep a relatively small self selecting group of people interesting in the same topic (technology startups).at least I hope so.
IS there a site about business models?
glen: This can be a beast, but Porter's work on 5 forces is really illuminating. If you do the hard work, you'll have a really good understanding of where your business fits in the larger context.
We launched ThinkCode.TV. Thoughts?
apsurd: the voice-overs are very boring. No disrespect to the presenter it's just that these lesson plans would ideally be best consumed in a positive, motivating environment. I personally find it very hard to keep at attention listening to the robotic voices.
We launched ThinkCode.TV. Thoughts?
seven: Some random thoughts:* nice!* great that it is DRM free, that would be a no go for me* do not force people to sign up to your newsletter to download the free example* I would love if the speaker would talk a bit faster.* Some sort of flat-rate offer would be nice.* Perhaps I am a bit of a cheapskate, but I think you are expensive.Good luck and have fun.
What makes a presentation great ?
jacquesm: I don't think Steve Jobs is that great a presenter, Ballmer is (much) worse though.A good presentation and a good presenter are two different things. A good presenter can give a presentation about essentially boring material and make it live, be memorable. A bad presenter can turn a great presentation in to an ordeal.I've linked here once to a youtube video of Joe Ades, have a look at it:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCUct4NlxE0&feature=relat...The subject is 'potato peelers', from a street vendor no less.That man has more feeling for presentation in his little finger than any amount of high flying consultants that lecture on the subject.Watch the crowd he draws and how well he interacts with the people.Of course he's had years to hone his 'patter', but still, I can't imagine watching someone trying to sell a car, much less a potato peeler, and presenting is essentially a sales job.He manages to turn the mundane in to something interesting and engaging.
What makes a presentation great ?
milkshakes: http://www.presentationzen.com/ might just be your new best friend.
Feedback on Braintrust.io's new homepage
cheesemuffler: Hi Tawheed - looks like you've got a slick product there! Problem is a visitor to your site has to be really motivated to trawl through all the stuff to work out what it is. A few points (most echo apsurd's comments):* The large/desaturated product-shots are too confusing - a significant proportion of your visitors will be confused by these - I was. I thought they were the sales site.* I was desperate to be told what it is. Front-and-centre, first thing I read. I get the yellow box is trying to do that, but, I read it as: 'Buzzword Buzzword for your company. The fastest & simplest way to buzzwords.' I got nothing from it.* Scrolling down (a long way) - the first information dense part of the page appears, listing features, in a seemingly random order.. Ok, my data will be private, but, WHAT IS THE PRODUCT?* Benefits before features - people want to know how it will help them, not what bells-and-whistles it's got.* The demo video is good, but long. People will need to be pre-sold enough on the product already to sit through it all.The page/site isn't customer focussed enough. It's 'conversation' needs to go like this:* Our product is THIS. * Do you have problem X? (and Y, and Z?) * Yes? * Well, our product solves everything. * Here's how it does it, and here's how your future will look and feel when you use it. * Sounds great huh? * Give it a try by doing this - no risk, you can do it for free!'THIS' in the list above should be phrased using the words that your customers use. Not clever, not fancy - the exact words they use. The only way you can find this out is by getting out of the building and going talk with them (Customer Development style).If you don't know how to explain the problems it solves, again, go and ask your prospective market what problems they have, and make note of the words they use to describe them (this is where I think apsurd's suggestion to narrow your niche makes sense).Currently your site's conversation is more like:* Buzzwords * Confusion * Our product's nice and got stuff in it * Give it a goPerhaps the following might be a bit too 'salesy' for your liking, but you should be able to pick up some good tips: SEOMoz landing page overhaul case study http://www.conversion-rate-experts.com/seomoz-case-study/ - I can also recommend signing up to get the annotated PDF, it's full of interesting points.Best of luck with it! Your product looks very good - niche it down/focus on a narrower market, then get out there and talk to your prospective customers to find out how they want to be sold to!
Live CD virus scan?
johng: In for any advice on this, interested as well.
Considerations for open sourcing a startup's code?
wastedbrains: Does anyone know if any of the YC companies have Open sourced code as they shut down?
What code have you read recently?
djb_hackernews: hudson ci and apache abdera. Can vouch for both.
Science for the very young?
zck: Show him videos on youtube of various science experiments or lectures. When he seems interested in an idea, work with him to create an experiment, find the items, and perform it.
Considerations for open sourcing a startup's code?
cperciva: I doubt investors would want to see the code they paid for released under a truly free license, since that would destroy any ability they might have to make money from it in the future. (Even if you're shutting down, they might fund another startup which they could sell the code to.)However, you might be able to convince them to release the code under the GPL, since that leaves the option of dual licensing open -- in fact, you might be able to spin GPLing the code to your investors as a marketing tactic.
Feedback on Braintrust.io's new homepage
Tawheed: @apsurd @cheesemuffler thanks so much for your honest feedback. i'm going to give it another iteration tonight (and then schedule some more customer development calls)!!!
Please help review my startup's messaging
arihant: 1.) Well, at first it doesn't. What makes things clear is your caption below your logo. Please make that more visible.2.) If it's really one click, yes.3.) A change of color scheme. The egg is cute, in a very ethnic geekery way. =)
Science for the very young?
blender: Diet Coke + Mentos
Please help review my startup's messaging
patio11: 1) Yes, but I'm a plugged-in savvy Internet user, not a plumber or baker.2) I think your customers -- less-than-net-savvy local businesses -- might not make the leap that you and I made automatically: "... and success at online marketing will bring you more customers and make you money."3) I think you will find you spend a lot more time evangelizing Internet marketing to your customers than you spend evangelizing EggZack, which might be problematic for you. I think the core challenge is convincing them that this weird newfangled thing that they do on the Google with the webmails is actually going to make a difference in their bottom lines.
Science for the very young?
blender: Also Baking Soda + Vinegar, add some red food coloring for lava effect
Science for the very young?
Aron: Throw some pepper on a bowl of water, and touch it with a soaped finger.
Please help review my startup's messaging
cheesemuffler: I think that your messaging is clear and the value of your product is tangible: You help get my information out, with the result (hopefully) that I get more people to come to my site / more generally interact with my brand.Stream of thoughts - no order:* EggZack? Ok. First thing that popped into my head was 'Ballsack' .. maybe that's just the way my mind works :)* The logo / graphic design feels a little bit lightweight / children's TV - might cause an issue if a prospective client has to run it by their boss first: 'Why am I looking at a cartoon about eggs?'* Am not entirely sure HOW the process works - I want the end result.. what are the steps that lead to it? Do I just press a button and whoosh?* I have a slightly irrational fear that this sails close to spamming - I assume it doesn't, but you might need to assuage that fear in others* I looked at the FAQs to narrow down some answers, but was bombarded with implementation 'stuff' that confused me further: sub-types, outlets, file-resources, building a website?* Is your product essentially a custom-hosted CMS for a website that has all these broadcasting/publishing/pinging/api-integration features built in (not to belittle it - that's great)? If so - it's not obvious from the main pages/video that this is the case. I want your end-result, but, I already have a website that I have invested a lot into - what can you do for me? (Hypothetically)* In your FAQ you have a link to your 'custom website development process page' that doesn't work.. so I couldn't find the answer to the above.That's about it I think - good messaging, good sounding end-result.. how do I get there?Best of luck!
Please help review my startup's messaging
fjabre: The video is cool but I really want to see some screenshots or a video of the app in action. Right now your landing page is kind of a black box and I can't see what's inside without signing up..I'm also not sure who your target market is. Are you going after Jill the restaurant owner or John the web startup junkie?
Science for the very young?
zoba: I think anything that "looks cool" will be good for getting a kid interested in science. Once you've got him/her hooked, then you can start on the actual scientific method. To that end, science things that look cool:Cymatics: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iXY2BE1S8QFerrofluid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpBxCnHU8Ao http://www.gaussboys.com/ndfeb-magnets/FerroFluid25Non Newtonian Liquids: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5SGiwS5L6I http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2XQ97XHjVwMicrocontrollers: http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=211799... (maybe not the best for a 5 year old, but in a couple years)Make a Speaker for cheap (haven't done this one myself): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m8fbnShPcwElectromagnets: http://education.jlab.org/qa/electromagnet.htmlFinally, one project I did with my little brother that I thought was cool. I got a frequency analyzer for my computer ( http://www.relisoft.com/Freeware/freq.html) and then filled glass cups with varying amounts of liquid. Then we ran our fingers around the lip of the glass to get it to "sing" and measured the frequency. We were able to come up with a function for X amount of liquid gives you X frequency. I thought this was great because: it was really appealing to my brother (he was 10 or so at the time) because all kids like making cups make noise, we got to do scientific method (hypothesis being more water in the glass) will make a lower frequency, I got to teach him about graphing, how to get a forumla for a line on a graph, and finally we could use that line to predict things to see if we were right.
Please help review my startup's messaging
imp: After spending time looking it over it seems like it's potentially a really cool and useful service. From the little marketing I've done, I know it can be tedious to manage a bunch of services. Here's my feedback on your home page:1) No, it wasn't clear until I went back for my second visit. I originally thought it was some link or photo sharing service. The egg is distracting and I didn't see the "Your Information" icon next to it. That helps describe exactly what you distribute. Also "your information" is vague. It would help if it was more specific as to what information you're distributing.2) Not really. If someone's website is already on Google, why is their logo listed? How do you publish someone's marketing materials to Google? Also, why should I or someone else care about having info on MySpace or Topix or fwix? I didn't know those were sites business cared about, and I haven't even heard of the last two.3) You already have the egg guy in the logo, I think it's a little much to also have him be the primary focus on the explanation graphic of how your service works. Also, I don't like to view videos about products because they always take too long. I might suggest also adding a page that describes the benefits of your product so that people can learn more before having to decide to sign up. I'm still not exactly sure how the service works.
We launched ThinkCode.TV. Thoughts?
Psyonic: I'd be happy to sample your MacRuby screencast and give you feedback on it, if the review copies are still available.
Please help review my startup's messaging
rksprst: I understand what you offer, but have no idea how you actually implement it. Screenshots of your app and maybe a chart of the steps you take to get my info to all those places would be useful.I just don't see how you can automatically get my info to reporters, etc... or at least in a way that doesn't spam them and get the right info to the right reporter (they each focus on an area).
Do I charge for beta?
nudge: Other freemium apps have given the beta away for free with the promise of a lifetime discount for users of the beta. That seems like a nice compromise to me.
Please help review my startup's messaging
chegra84: Love it. I would sign up if I had the money.1. Clear yes 2. Very - the metric thing is very important.
Do I charge for beta?
staunch: Yes. Charge for the "mium" part for sure. You're not really testing the idea without the paid part being paid. The best reason though is that making money is very motivating.
What makes a presentation great ?
PerryStallings: What defines a good presentation really depends on the type of presentation. Steve Jobs is excellent at emotional presentations. If you pay attention, you will realize that he doesn't communicate a lot of information. However, the product announcements are about hype rather than data. This presentation style is more appropriate for external rather than internal settings.Regardless of the setting, one of the most important elements that I've noticed is the Story. Successful presentations have a unifying thread throughout.
where to keep passwords
sunchild: 1Password. http://agilewebsolutions.com/products/1Password
where to keep passwords
Serene: Better to memorize 3-4 master passwords. I heard about KeePass password management utility but never used it.A new authentication device will be available later this year - based on Hitachi's Finger Vein imaging (VeinID) and fingerprint identification technology.
where to keep passwords
yradunchev: $ nano passwords<enter all your passwords here>ctrl+x y$ gpg -c passwordsand you have all your passwords in a password protected and encrypted file. To decrypt:$ gpg passwords.gpg
Science for the very young?
aheilbut: Get him one of those one-volume kids' science encyclopedias to carry around.
Science for the very young?
aheilbut: That photosensitive paper that lets you make 'photographs' of objects (like leaves and rocks) was pretty fun.
Science for the very young?
aheilbut: You'd have to build it, but how about model rockets?
Feedback on REST API for managing DNS
durana: A link that you can click on...http://wiki.burningbay.com/dns/rest-api
Who has summer internships?
trjordan: Thermopylae Sciences and Technologies is looking for summer interns and full hires. We're a DC-area company working with Google Earth to create a platform for developing geospatial apps that take customers pre-existing data storage and make it relevant to them and their users. We recently hit 100 employees, but it still feels like working at a startup (for better or for worse).One of our main projects is a data fusion project for the Haiti disaster: http://www.3dudop.org/haiti. It allows users to upload all of their relief data in one place, and it has the most heavily used relief data repository for relief efforts since 7 days after the earthquake.We use PostGreSQL, PHP, and Javascript for our web portals, and we have Android and iPhone apps as well. We're looking for anybody with interest -- we can teach you the programming languages.If you're interested, send me an email at [email protected].
Feedback on REST API for managing DNS
stanleydrew: The api looks cool. I'd like to test it out before the beta if you need more people.I have a question though. You've already described the exact format for all of the record types. So why not implement record creation with PUT and have the sender put the JSON for the record in the request body? You want idempotency for record creation so why not use the idempotent HTTP verb?
Any Successful Startups using Microsoft Dotnet Stack?
WebmasterLMB: hmmmm that's really great. Best of Luck dear.Thanks, http://www.lookmeupbaby.com
What SaaS apps have a great UI ?
henriklied: http://carbonmade.com is another webapp with a great and exciting UI.
Please help review my startup's messaging
herdrick: No, in the first five seconds it's not at all clear what this is. Visual design says ignore me.
Where in the cloud is best to host node.js?
ananthrk: ElusiveHippo.com (from http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1286919)
Do I charge for beta?
jacquesm: Figure you're going to be doing 1:150 free signups and 1:2000 paid signups. And that's if you do well. Beta testing is testing all your features with customers being aware that you are not yet 'officially open', so they'll be more forgiving when stuff does not work, but on average it should work most of the time and it is fine to charge for a beta period, you could:- charge the full rate, and give credits when you mess up- charge a reduced rate during the beta period, but advertise clearly the rates will go up once the beta is over- charge a reduced rate and keep on charging that reduced rate after the beta is over for those that signed up during the beta periodThe latter has one really nice advantage, retention will be insanely high for those customers because they really don't want to fall back in to the high bracket if they would let their payments lapse.
Non-CS/EE hackers?
jacquesm: How about those that don't have degrees in anything?Computer programmers (good ones and bad ones) come to programming from all walks of life.My personal collection of 'interesting' prior subjects are: - a dentist - a psychologist - a biologist - a banker (and pretty high up the ladder too) All of them caught the bug when frustrated with the programs they had at their disposal. Some started with excel (or even 1-2-3) and worked their way to the limitations of spreadsheet models, and decided to take the plunge, others started fixing some small problem in a program they had access to and took it from there.It's really interesting to see how many people were not in to computers in their schooldays that got sucked in to it.The start-up bug and 'hacking' are two different things though, not necessarily related.All of the examples above used their domain knowledge in the different field extensively and have made out very well because of that. (especially the dentist, that guy really impresses me, every year he has pretty much all the dentists in the country send him a check).
When is a company no longer a startup?
jacquesm: When the founders no longer know the names of all their employees.
Non-CS/EE hackers?
donw: I may not be the type of person you're looking for, as I started with programming when I was a kid. Then again, I decided that being a geek was 'uncool' after grade school, and didn't really start hacking on stuff again until the end of high school.In college, I got two degrees, one in Math, the other in Japanese, and while there are some areas where I feel a bit behind-the-curve, overall I think that not getting a CS/EE degree was the right decision, for two reasons.One, because a lot of CS programs focus on writing code to satisfy textbook exercises, rather than in solving real-world problems. While I'm sure the experience of implementing quicksort in Java is useful at some level, it's a hell of a lot less important in the startup world than having experience in solving practical problems in limited amounts of time.Especially when the solutions to those problems aren't 'known'.Two, because my college experiences were shaped by a mixture of math and language-learning, I didn't develop a case of correctness paralysis, which is a big problem with CS people, in my experience. They get very stuck on whether or not problems are provably correct, have totally known behavior, and so on, rather than just thinking about the problem a bit, implementing something that works well enough, and then improving it, which is much more an engineering mindset than a CS one.
Non-CS/EE hackers?
gphil: My degree was in Philosophy, and I'm able use that "domain knowledge" in any situation, but that knowledge is generally more useful to me in a much more abstract/indirect way than my software engineering knowledge.I think that the most important factors for being a successful programmer in the long run have more to do with personality traits, though: work ethic, curiosity, resourcefulness, inventiveness, etc. than with educational background.
Want to lower your bounce rate? Get more sign-ups?
mediarosh: http://www.mediarosh.com - clickable link to my portfolio
Want to lower your bounce rate? Get more sign-ups?
jarsj: I don't think marketing of services is encouraged here. I would not want to work with someone who doesn't even advertise his name/place on his portfolio site.
When is a company no longer a startup?
morphir: So, the entire point with starting a company is to make wealth. This wealth is traded with money. The day your company create so much wealth that you go break-even, that will be the day you have established a profitable company, and you can be considered entering the phase of intrepreneurship (meaning to work on a already established business-model). A startup is entrepreneurship. So the next question would be: is this model which I've "entrepreneured" sustainable? Will it continue to grow?To sum it up, I would say that 'entrepreneurship is act of creating a profitable business - where as intrepreneurship is the act of maintaining it'. I would also add that the distinct difference between those two people, is the willingness to take risk one often see in entrepreneurs. Whereas maybe inrepeneurship is handed to college-kids with an degree.
Live CD virus scan?
pinksoda: CD's are not typically rewritable, you can put files on them once and that's it. CD-ReWritables do exist, but they require additional drivers/software to be loaded to function- which means loading the OS.You'll also need the OS loaded for updates via the internet.
Please review my node.js fun project: Selfdestructing email aliases.
pilif: Also have a look at my blog where I link to a series of post about the creation of the service from the initial idea to the final push live:http://www.gnegg.ch/2010/04/announcing-tempalias-com/The project took 44 hours from start to finish and it's both a nice study in node.js and of actual use for the public (I hope)
Please review my node.js fun project: Selfdestructing email aliases.
mrduncan: Didn't have much time to actually check it out, but the "What is this good for?" link on the front page doesn't seem to be working for me (Chrome Dev Channel on Win7).
Which feed count is more accurate - Feedburner or Wordpress?
mschwar99: Many of the subscriptions reported directly by WP are bots / spiders. Feedburner attempts to filter many of those out.
Please review my node.js fun project: Selfdestructing email aliases.
madssj: It reminds me of a similar service many years old, which eventually got shut down by the authorities because some very bad people was using he's service.I can't remember the name of the guy or the service, but you should be careful such a service.Other than that, it's really cool and useful!
Please review my node.js fun project: Selfdestructing email aliases.
ique: Looks pretty neat! Tried it out and took a quick look at the code. If I ever need a temp alias I will definitely use this. But, one thing I didn't find any info about anywhere.Do you keep track of the deleted alias "keys". That is, if I create a mail and the key is m4m2 or whatever, I want to make sure that m4m2 will never ever lead to someone else (as well as not to me). If i register an account somewhere I obviously never want the mail going to the alias to end up at someone else either.
Please review my node.js fun project: Selfdestructing email aliases.
fragmede: Feels like a less anonymous version of mailinator.com. Forwarding to my own email is a very useful feature if I'm not so concerned with privacy.
Who has summer internships?
mapleoin: Fedora does!https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Summer_Coding_2010Remoting is mandatory. The payment rate is fixed at $5000 (or $2500 for half-projects). You decide when you work, who you work with, how much you work, what you work on, what tools you'll be using etc. You decide everything!I can help with more info if you ask.
Please review my node.js fun project: Selfdestructing email aliases.
judofyr: 502 Bad Gateway. Too much selfdestruct?
Please review my node.js fun project: Selfdestructing email aliases.
simplegeek: I'm getting "502 Bad Gateway"?
Non-CS/EE hackers?
csomar: "I'd like to hear stories about people who "switched" or caught the start-up bug after investing in an un-related degree."Start-Up are not related to Computer Science or Information Technology. There are health, medicines, nano-technology... startups that don't deal with computers or programming. It's simply a question of "What do you want to do?".If you want to get a 9-5 programming job, a CS degree will help. If you want to start a start-up, no one will ask you for your background. If you want to have a deeper CS knowledge, you can just read books or watch free courses online.
Please review my node.js fun project: Selfdestructing email aliases.
philh: So now it's gone.Why does it matter if someone reported you? Was your ISP threatening to shut you down?
Please review my node.js fun project: Selfdestructing email aliases.
frou_dh: This is great. I've used a few temporary email address websites in the past but they all seemed to have very flaky web interfaces for actually reading the email messages.
Please review my node.js fun project: Selfdestructing email aliases.
mrcharles: This is a very interesting system, and I can see myself using it frequently for things like throwaway email addresses for forums, required registrations, and other things.However, I would want to know that security issues as mentioned elsewhere in the thread were addressed before hand. Especially using it for throwaways for websites, which will often involve a short term password, you don't wnat someone else to be able to create that alias and then reset my password and compromise my account.
Please review my node.js fun project: Selfdestructing email aliases.
marketer: Just a couple nitpics:1. Redbot doesn't like some of the http headers: http://redbot.org/?uri=http://tempalias.com/ Content-type should be "text/html; charset=utf-8 ". Why the keep-alive connection?2. It feels like the home page is rendering slowly.
Science for the very young?
sga: You could have a lot of fun with an inexpensive microscope (look at a number of different materials, bugs, etc..) or even a set of magnifying glasses. Get your hands on some polarizers, play with the affect of one and your ability to look into bodies of water (pool, lake, etc) show him that if you cross the polarizers you can't see through. Couple the polarizers to the microscope and do some polarization microscopy. You could also play with prisms and look at the dispersion of light. Lots of good optics stuff out there. I would highly recommend staying away from lasers until he's older.You might also consider doing some crystallization experiments (google "crystal projects for kids").
Non-CS/EE hackers?
count: I've got a BS in Econ w/minor in finance. I didn't take CS or engineering in school because it didn't really seem interesting - I do it all day anyways, and wanted to learn something outside of my normal scope of activity, that would still be relatively useful.
Most interesting/important algorithms developed in the last decade?
hga: This is not my field, but the hash array mapped trie from 2000-1 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_array_mapped_trie) is the source of Clojure's "secret sauce" that is its answer to the functional programming trivial update problem. Updates are O(N) where N is a max of 32 and more likely 5-6, according to Rich Hickey.
Please review my project - TwitVance
vijaydev: TwitVance (http://www.twitvance.com) is an application to schedule tweets that I created using Rails in my spare time. Feedback and suggestions most welcome.Prominent features: Ability to add multiple twitter accounts, integrated bit.ly URL shortening.
When is a company no longer a startup?
hga: While I understand your focus, I don't think you should ignore the culture aspect.E.g. it's not original to me, but you're be sure it's true when your probably new CFO ends free soda for no other reason than to make himself look good (i.e. not in response to a change in the company's financial situation), and the rest of the board/CxOs doesn't care (much).
Friday Review - Ebay Sniper - PleaseSnipe.com
Judson: This started out as a fun proof-of-concept because all of the other ebay snipers either weren't free or placed your bid with ridiculous time windows (~1 min).I think the major hurdle is going to be getting people to feel comfortable handing over their Ebay username and password so the system can place the bid on their behalf, any suggestions on that part are welcome.
Please review my project - TwitVance
sjwalter: I read every word of the landing page and still didn't know what TwitVance did.
Help three founders mediate a dispute
Rust: If finding VC-One or VC-Two is something that OldCo truly could not have physically accomplished without Charlie's help/introduction, and OldCo was looking for investors, then yes, OldCo does owe Charlie something. By accepting investment, OldCo has accepted this responsibility.If finding VC-One or VC-Two is something that OldCo could have reasonably expected to accomplish on its own, then Charlie should be thanked for the intro (possibly including a night of beers and wings) but no other monetary compensation is required.Personally, though, I would be inclined more towards the sharing. It's a friends thing. I would not feel ethically bound to do so though, so if Charlie approached me all pissed off and righteous about it, he can kiss my silk-wrapped butt.
Help three founders mediate a dispute
pg: I'm guessing from the way this story is told that it was posted by A or B and not C, but if it's exactly as described here it would not be normal to give C anything. The startup world is full of intros and I've never heard of anyone being compensated for one.
Help three founders mediate a dispute
jacquesm: Alfred and Brian should make Charlie part of the original deal on the condition that Charlie will pull his weight as originally envisioned. Having one or two investors does not make a difference.The investment should have been in 'newco', but since that's a done deal and no longer possible you can work out the ratio of shares that Charlie had in 'newco' and how big a chunk of the post-investment old-co that is.If Charlie prefers to stay outside the whole thing his introduction to the VC should be worth about 1 to 2 % of the amount raised, payable as a consultancy fee from the money actually invested.
Help three founders mediate a dispute
starkfist: Charlie should get nothing. Such is life.
Help three founders mediate a dispute
byoung2: C doesn't deserve compensation for the introduction alone. Maybe he could get something if he had some part of OldCo's intellectual property (e.g. he wrote some code, etc.). The "startup world" is still just business. Consider the same situation in another industry:Imagine A, B, and C were members of a rock band and C goes solo. C later meets with Record Label 1 who is interested in a country trio. A, B, and C reunite as a country trio and pitch their demo to the record label who declines. A and B then return to the rock band, and C goes solo again. Record Label 1, now well-acquainted with A and B, introduces them to Record Label 2, who, along with Record Label 1, signs A and B's rock band. I doubt any band would ever be expected to give up a portion of future royalties to a former member (unless he had rights to songs, recordings, etc.).
Help three founders mediate a dispute
maxdemarzi: Cash compensation is out of the question. The start-up needs it/will need it and will create more value out of it than Charlie could.2% goes to Charlie if he is willing to continue to support his friends as an "advisor" and promises to bury the hatchet.1% goes to Charlie if he wants no part of it, but promises to bury the hatchet and buys beer.0% goes to Charlie if he's being a douche bag about the whole thing.
Please review my node.js fun project: Selfdestructing email aliases.
pkulak: Great project! I'll be using it for sure.I noticed that on the privacy page you use plural pronouns like "our" and "we", even though it seems from this post that it's just you. I used to do that too with my personal projects. I've tried to stop, but only been half successful. So now most of the stuff I write is about half and half; which just confusing really.
Most interesting/important algorithms developed in the last decade?
simon_: It's a tiny bit more than 10 years old now, but one of my favorite algorithms, period, is John Platt's Sequential Minimal Optimization. (http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=299094.299105)It was a huge advancement to the state of the art in training SVMs.
Friday Review - Ebay Sniper - PleaseSnipe.com
bgnm2000: I thought ebay had a system to bid up to your maximum amount anyway while placing minimum bid interims? Doesn't that make this obsolete?