Nigerian Teens Are Making Sci-Fi Shorts with Slick Visual Effects - <AUTHOR> https://kottke.org/19/08/these-nigerian-teens-are-making-sci-fi-shorts-with-slick-visual-effects <comment><USER3> They use Techno Phones [0]. It's really the leading telephone in my country back in Africa to the point my wife refused me to buy her a Samsung one. :D

You find those phone have really nice camera, and most importantly power consumption that can span at least 2 days...

Peoples complaining that China is just copycat-ing stuff do not know how China is influencing peoples in developing countries.

[0]: [https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/07/africas-top-mobile- phone-s...](https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/07/africas-top-mobile-phone-seller- transsion-to-list-in-chinese-ipo/)

<comment><USER4> >Peoples complaining that China is just copycat-ing stuff do not know how China is influencing peoples in developing countries.

The problem is that altruism does not exist in geopolitics. Why is China influencing these people? Because it wants their support when it comes time to ask for favors. China is using Western inventions to grow its sphere of influence and defeat Western influence (and thus Western values, culture, etc)

Not that the West is entirely innocent in its quest for power either, but considering the dystopian state of Chinese government (compared to Western governments, at least), it is perhaps better to keep the devil you know in charge than the one that wants to know you much better.

<comment><USER5> > Not that the West is entirely innocent in its quest for power either

You don't say - most of Africa got a taste of Western "values" and "culture". The last generation that suffered from colonial rule is still living.

<comment><USER6> do you believe africa was some peaceful wakanda-like utopia before europeans arrived? arabs got there first anyway.

<comment><USER7> Certainly not. Just like every place on earth, Africa had its share of problems. But that didn't warrant the damage slavery and colonialism did - <USER2> effects of which are still rippling through the very fabric of the continent today.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> This is fantastic. It's been a promise for a long time that computers would become ubiquitous, open source software would be able to allow people to do (semi-)professional looking things for free, having access to the internet would be a great enabler, etc.

This is just proof that it's happening! It's genuinely inspiring to see this.

<comment><USER9> Semi-professional? So, only being paid for some projects and not others? Being a "professional" is not a skill, but an employment status.

I argue that many amateur productions exceed the quality of professionally made productions.

<comment><USER10> Are you arguing against the term "(semi) professional looking"? Because that last word clarifies what they meant.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> "They saved for a month to buy the green fabric for the chroma-key background".

<comment><USER12> Amazing the things we can learn from kids.

<comment><USER12> If it's any interest, I meant this genuinely. In my experience kids with less tend to be more resourceful. I find that a valuable lesson in humility and gratitude. The comforts we seek are often not what we need. Kudos to these kids.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I love how these guys had better sound recordings from their low cost setup than the TV crew covering them, good work!

I think they have the right idea though, start with what you already have. Try to test out ideas and learn with as little pre-investment as possible. Some friends of mine have purchased $3k-$4k gaming machines with the intention of live streaming gaming - all of which never came to fruition.

The very best of luck to them, I hope to see their movies on the Western big screen one day.

</comment><comment><USER14> One of the biggest gifts that we can give our children is a limitation of resources. It is amazing how they learn and get really creative when given really basic tools to work with. They try things that they wouldn't normally try.

I remember once my son wanted his own "phone" when he was 5. He ended up drawing the whole UI on paper and stuck it on a little slab of wood. Played with it for weeks.

<comment><USER15> It's quite funny you post this on this article since it's literally about kids in the developing country becoming LESS limited.

<comment><USER14> Yeah but likewise, when I learned to code in the early 90s, I had no internet. I had to do a lot of exploratory coding and doc reading. It drastically shaped the way I not only learn but has helped me even today to be able to do my own research to solve problems and write good docs.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Africas tech talent is on the rise, it's quite interesting to see as even 10 years ago it was still hard for them to get access to cheap computers and internet.

<comment><USER17> ...and this is my hope for Africa. As new ideas, unique to different regions are allowed to fight their way to market share...this, hopefully, will improve their quality of life in the ways they desire. This is closer to freedom, in my opinion, than having a government, technology, and a way of life designed on another continent then dropped in.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Kids making movies by remixing copyrighted content and perhaps shooting some more is the topic of Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow. Pretty good book that explores the social implications of such efforts.

<comment><USER19> Whenever I come across a description of Cory Doctorow's novels, I almost always find them compelling.

It's probably time for me to check out his books :)

<comment><USER18> You should. They are all on different themes and more or less equally good so you can start with whatever issue you are interested in. In immortality, read Down and Out in the Magical Kingdom; crypto, read Little Brother + Homeland; maker culture, read Makers; in anarchism (the good kind), read Walkaway.

The last one is particularly good. He really drives home some important points about our current capitalistic world.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Awesome creativity! Naija no dey carry last. Proudly Naija!

</comment><comment><USER21> So glad that they understood that the gain for the dialogue does not need to be set to 11, something that seems to be lacking from Nigerian TV "professionals" in my experience!

Super impressive overall!

</comment><comment><USER22> Can anyone tell me what apps they're using? I'd love to play around with a green screen, but don't have much budget either

<comment><USER23> Blender...I did some green screen work in Blender back in 2009 and it was pretty straightforward even back then.

If you just want to play around to get the hang of it without spending anything, last I checked you can get free-to-use, pre-made videos featuring green screen or other chromakey elements and load them up in Blender's video editor. BTW you can use any color you want, so if all you have is a blue bed sheet, you can make it work.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Impressive! I wonder what they're using for video editing and vfx? Blender is great for 3d assets, but what open source software can make this?

<comment><USER25> Recent versions of Blender can also do video editing and vfx. They're probably also using Blender for that

<comment><USER26> Not just recent versions -- I just checked my old copy of Blender 2.49b (built on 2009-09-01), and it has the Video Sequence Editor.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> A contender to Wakaliwood?

<comment><USER28> More like Wakaliwood is a contender to Nollywood. The Nigerian film industry is the biggest in Africa, to the point that some people in other African countries complain about Nigeria's dominance. VJ Emmie even jokes about this in his commentary to Who Killed Captain Alex?.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> Posted on twitter 'Hope that George Lucas either Disney could finance these guys'

<comment><USER30> I hope not - can we let them explore what film-making means to them, instead of sending the worst offending film-colonizers after them?

<comment><USER31> "Can we let them continue to create videos with old smartphones and OSS for YouTube, instead of letting them unleash the full scale of their creativity and massively changing their lives with one of the most well-known movie producers of all time and the multi-million $ funding that comes with him?"

<comment><USER32> > unleash the full scale of their creativity

What if their creativity is about making amazing stuff with limited resources?

You suggest giving essentially unlimited resources, seems like a good way to use badly that creativity.

I remember when I wanted to do 3D on Flash before Sandy3D. I had a 500 mhz P3 processor at the time, with a a crazy 368 MB of RAM. I learned/did much more interesting things on that machine than when I upgraded to some much more powerful computers.

Constraints are pretty great ways to be forced to learns and move fast.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> good to see creativity beyond 'ohey check out my youtube product reviews and live vlogging' (not that I don't benefit from those as well)</comment>


China is crushing Europe's grand plans for electric cars - <AUTHOR> https://edition.cnn.com/2018/10/30/business/europe-lithium-electric-batteries/index.html <comment><USER2> Dupe:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18377872](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18377872)</comment>


Facebook's face recognition strategy may be just the ticket - <AUTHOR> http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/06/facebook-face-recognition.html <comment><USER2> I tend to agree that "It's not possession of secret information that is criminalized; it is misuse of that information to take advantage of the ignorance of others." However, as with insider trading, it will be very difficult to demonstrate harm.</comment>


Correction: Regarding an Erroneous Allegation in 'Richard Stallman's Disgrace' - <AUTHOR> https://daringfireball.net/2019/10/correction_regarding_an_erroneous_allegation <comment><USER2> I had no idea about this behavior until after he had stepped down from his various positions. I had only known RMS from youtube and his writing. I agree with his views on free software and respected him for presenting well thought out arguments. That was the extent of my interest in him.

I think making people feel objectified and uncomfortable is one of the worst thing you can do in a personal or professional setting. I have not witnessed this type of behavior in my life so far, or at least I have not recognized it.

I'm left with the following questions:

Why do people behave like this? How can we better identify and report this type of behavior? Is there any hope in rehabilitation?

<comment><USER3> Uh? This is a correction by someone who publicly reproduced an email accusing Stallman of being a sexual harasser, and generally a smelly and disgusting person, only to realize two weeks later that the accuser had in fact confused him with someone else. The fact of having already published something completely wrong and libelous doesn't prevent him from naming that other person, either. I guess it's normal nowadays.

<comment><USER2> True enough. I probably should have prefaced my comment with "off-topic". I just felt like commenting on the general situation Stallman is currently in.

It's not just Stallman, though, it seems to me that a lot more of these types of situations have been coming to light recently. I'm not really sure what the catalyst for that would be perhaps it's the #metoo tag on twitter or perhaps that's the result of a changing socio-political climate.</comment></comment></comment>


12M home and business routers vulnerable to critical hijacking hack - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/12/12-million-home-and-business-routers-vulnerable-to-critical-hijacking-hack/ <comment><USER2> It even has a snazzy name, ala Heartbleed, Shellshock: Misfortune Cookie: [http://mis.fortunecook.ie/](http://mis.fortunecook.ie/)</comment>


Focus stealing - <AUTHOR>

I've been a programmer for many, many years, and I see a problem all the time in modern systems that I don't understand: the stealing of keyboard focus.
My question for the other programmers among you, is: why is a theoretically simple concept like "focus", difficult for operating systems to manage properly?
In case you don't know what I'm referring to, here's an example.  You're typing something in one window, and then some other window comes along that pops open and steals your focus away.  So now, your typing continues in a new context, where each key now has new meaning.  Worst case, you happen to hit Enter, at the exact time something like a message pops open, causing you to "accept" something that you didn't even read.
I have seen this with every OS, with many different applications, and with different window managers on Linux.  It is pervasive, yet it is aggravating, which suggests to me that the problem must be "hard" or it would have been solved already.  Right? <comment><USER2> Never had this problem with RISC OS. For an added bonus, if you are using a menu and you select an item with the right mouse button, the menu remained open so you could then make further choices if you wanted to.

Fantastic operating system. Shame it's dying.

</comment><comment><USER3> You would need a lot of real-world analysis to make this work right. Consider the case of 10 annoying dialog boxes that pop up in sequence, which the user presses enter to close. The no-focus-stealing OS thinks the user can't possibly respond to a new window in less than 180 ms, and redirects input to some irrelevant parent window. Yet in this case, the user is already in a beat pattern with the annoying dialog boxes, and is responding in < 50 ms.

There are probably a bunch of other special cases that are hard to imagine unless you're a full-time window-manager developer (I'm not.)

</comment><comment><USER4> Great posting, this is one of my pet peeves of user interface design.

I really liked the old-style focus method of just having the mouse hover over the window that input goes to, instead of having to click it or having the window steal the focus of whoever is currently having the focus. I figure if I didn't do it explicitly then the os should certainly not allow some application to do it for me.

Notable exceptions: start of a new application, the current application.

Other than that just limit your 'stealing' to coming to the top of the windows stack but leave the focus where it is.

</comment><comment><USER5> Have you seen this on the Mac?

<comment><USER6> Here's a Mac example. Sometimes I keep an iCal alarm alert dialog box open for long periods of time -- I know, not a great habit, but when I'm focused on programming, I just kind of push it off to the side. At a regular interval (every 10 minutes perhaps? just a guess), it steals the focus and moves to the top of the window stack. If the purpose is to re-remind me of an overdue alarm, shaking the dialog box or playing a sound would be better because I can mentally make note of it and keep working vs. having to re-click in my editor, for example, and retype whichever keystrokes disappeared into the iCal alarm abyss.</comment></comment>


HMO: Help Me Out - <AUTHOR> I just read this [1] post, and I think we can do it at a big scale here at HN.
So, if you need any help with a project, a startup, or an idea, just post it here. Mention any details that might be required, and make sure to add contact details!
Let's see how we can get some good rolling here.
[1] http://tomcritchlow.com/post/82380207991/let-me-know-how-i-can-help <comment><USER2> I love the idea for this thread. Contact information in my profile.

Help me out:

I just finished a PhD in math. Before that, I did a bunch of tech startups. I'm not staying in academia, nor am I looking for a job right away. Here's some of the things I'm thinking or would like to talk about:

\- I haven't done much hacking in about 7 years. Loosely speaking, I'm looking to bring my new math/analytical skills to bear while renewing my technical skills.

\- designing hardware. I've designed an built a few boards, know some Verilog, etc., but looking to increase my EE knowledge and design capability.

\- building EDA tools, think learning "compilers for hardware".

\- formal proof systems, HoTT, Coq, etc.

\- learning some probability theory (something I never had to learn properly) with an eye, perhaps, towards finance.

How I can help:

\- Math. I know some. My research is in topology, I'm not sure that would be of practical use to anyone (unless you're trying to learn topology).

\- deep background in compilers, computer architecture, programming languages (co-founder of compiler/tools startup, bunch of patents, Fortune 500 acquisition)

\- lots of tech startup experience, but I'm not sure I have anything special to add beyond what the larger HN community can offer.

<comment><USER3> A random thought on this - would topology encompass, say, better ways to unwrap 3D models / project textures onto said models? If so, various 3D / gamedev people might be interested in talking to you...

<comment><USER2> I don't know! Systems where there are rigid notions of angle, distance and position are generally thought to be geometric, not topological. However, often a topological viewpoint can be useful even in solving geometric problems, e.g. circuit autorouting. What are the outstanding problems in unwrapping 3d models (I have no idea what that is) / texture projection?

<comment><USER4> cottonseed -- do you have a dummy email address at which I can contact you? I work for a startup that leverages topology for data analysis, and we are hiring.

<comment><USER2> My email is in my profile.

<comment><USER4> Sent you an email!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> HMO:

I'm a web developer from Mapbox / former White House tech advisor running for Congress. I released my campaign issues on GitHub: [http://www.wired.com/2014/03/cole- platform/](http://www.wired.com/2014/03/cole-platform/)

I need help raising money to compete. Small donations welcome. [http://coleforcongress.com/contribute](http://coleforcongress.com/contribute)

How I can help:

Happy to share my experience / advice with those interested in working in politics or government.

Once elected, I'll be a Representative in Congress who has worked in and understands tech. Here's where I stand on the issues: [http://coleforcongress.com/issues/technology/](http://coleforcongress.com/issues/technology/) and a reddit AMA: www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/20wvx5/im_dave_cole_candidate_for_congress_nj2_a_coder/

dave [at] coleforcongress [dot] com

<comment><USER6> OK i looked at your HN post, your splash page, and your home page, and I still don't know WHERE you're running for congress. Perhaps you could lay out the basic vitals and your qualifications or platform here?

<comment><USER5> New Jersey! The second district. It's most of South Jersey, from the Philly outer suburbs to Atlantic City, Long Beach Island, and Cape May -- and everything in between.

Here's my bio, albeit in campaign-speak: [http://coleforcongress.com/about/](http://coleforcongress.com/about/)

The basics:

\- Worked on '08 Obama campaign as a data analyst and field organizer

\- I moved WhiteHouse.gov to an open source CMS and released code back to the public

\- Worked with other govt agencies to do the same

\- Helped design and set up the first versions of the We the People petition platform

\- Worked on the "the good part" of healthcare.gov

\- Early member at Mapbox, helped develop platform and work with clients

\- Running as a Democrat supporting infrastructure investments for improving schools and wiring rural and non-competitive areas for high-speed (fiber) internet access

\- Strongly support network neutrality, protecting free and open internet, taking on patent trolls, ending NSA domestic surveillance and supporting outside expert oversight, to name a few

Even though this is NJ, it's the US Congress -- votes affect us all.

<comment><USER6> Thanks -- understood that the platform is national.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> email in profile.

HMO:

I'm launching a static site generator that comes with a fully-featured CMS so that your non-tech friends can edit the site. It allows frontend engineers to build a custom CMS through a form-builder and then scaffolds templates out of them.

I'd love to have some general feedback on the concept and what would keep you from using it. I'm worried that we're targeting too small a segment (frontend engineers that don't want to touch backend code).

[http://www.webhook.com](http://www.webhook.com) has a video demo, and there are more in the blog.

How I can help:

I've launched a few businesses before, including a few with decent sized exits. I can give you some honest feedback on your product as well as your design. I also do open source design work, recently redoing the theme for readthedocs. If there's something small you need design help on, feel free to contact me. Usually I only have a couple hours a week to hack on open-source, but always looking for engineery projects to spruce up.

<comment><USER8> Hey! I watched the full video and clicked around your site a bit. I think this is fantastic. It's just anecdotal, but I've met quite a few people who are far more comfortable in HTML/CSS than they are in any backend work, so although this doesn't count as market validation, I don't think you're targeting too small of a segment.

In fact, I had someone pick my brain just a few days ago because they want to build a professional-looking site for a friend, and they're comfortable with HTML and CSS, but they don't understand how Wordpress works.

I did find a few things that I think needs some work though.

You're presenting a commandline interface. _I_ love commandline. I much prefer a sensible CLI to even the best graphical interfaces. But your target market? I'm not sure they'll like that nearly as much. If they were comfortable with CLI, they'd be probably be comfortable enough to find their way around a server. Is there any way you can manage testing & deployment without the CLI?

On your site, you advertise the virtues of a static site as being fast. But, in the video, images are loading slowly on your demo page. It really stood out to me. You might consider having the page's images already in your browser cache when you load the demo page.

And the video -- the video is really a bit rough. You're clicking around _way_ too fast in the video. I had trouble keeping up with what you were doing. The page template you're using in the video isn't sexy at all, so that makes it less attractive to designers. Having some kind of default page template along the lines of what you'd find for Wordpress would probably be good.

The video was also too specific. You went into some detail on embedding podcasts or Soundcloud stuff, but didn't really explain any of the rest of the interface. In your intro video, I don't necessarily need to know step-by-step how to embed a podcast, I maybe only need to know that it's possible. At the end of the video, I still felt like I had no idea what Webhook could do, which sucks because although I'm not your target market, I probably know 6 people who are. Along the same lines, there were a number of typos and miscapitalized things in the video, and some of the dialog was a bit hokey (like when you remembered that you actually had to go into chat to invite a participant). This adds to the "rushed" feeling in the video.

And the thing is, it looks like you've got a really polished product! Then you have the video, which makes it feel a lot less professional.

Also, it seems like you could tap a secondary market, by hosting a template shop on your site and taking a cut from sales of the templates. Just because someone's comfortable with HTML & CSS doesn't necessarily mean that they want to start from scratch. With the explosion in popularity of things like Bootstrap, I think there's pretty good evidence that people are avoiding that as much as possible.

<comment><USER7> Thank you for the comment. The good news is I feel the same way about the CLI and the video. The video is temporary as we work towards a proper launch. For now there's a few dozen guinea pigs helping us polish the functionality. The CLI will take a little longer as our small three-man team is stretched a bit. Maybe in a few months.

Also agree about the theming. The nice part at least is that theming in theory is very easy. Themes are just git repos that are downloaded and installed through the browser and unpacked via a websocket. I think you're right though that we need a few solid, well-designed themes there in the beginning though. It'll likely be my primary concern over the next month now that the product is finishing up. Although opening a store might be a good way to go, I'm thinking we'll likely just try and partner with one of the many buy-a-theme sites out there and simply let them continue serving that niche.

Part of the fun of startups though. Trying to octopus your way through a launch, building every little bit.

Again, thanks for the comment.

<comment><USER9> You might find this helpful with creating a GUI: [http://appjs.com/](http://appjs.com/)

With Webhook being Node (I'm guessing based on the distribution via npm?), you'll feel right at home. As a Node guy myself, I found it immensely valuable when I was building a toy desktop app.

Great job with this by the way. I started on a similar project a few months ago (fell by the wayside), and it makes me really happy to see someone execute it, especially this well. Keep it up!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Alright then let's see how this goes :)

Email: dan [at] danhough.com

## Help me out

1\. I want to open up a co-working space in London, or possibly elsewhere in the UK. Idea is pretty fully-formed but I'm missing a few pieces to the puzzle. Anybody experienced in this?

2\. I'm releasing my first non-free iPhone app pretty soon, marketing advice would be super useful. It's meant for London Pub Crawls.

## Let me know if I can help

1\. JavaScript & iOS dev advice for newbies

2\. Help with honing ideas esp. when it comes to maps & collaboration

3\. I can play the guitar & sing pretty well [0]

Currently in Chamonix, back in London in May.

[0]: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmDXpLbi2w0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmDXpLbi2w0)

<comment><USER11> Slightly off-topic, but I've just written 10 mins of JS soundtracked by your busking. Cheers! :o)

More on-topic, have you contacted [http://theskiff.org/](http://theskiff.org/) to see if they can help you fill any gaps?

<comment><USER10> Haha awesome! 10 minutes, I'm glad you lasted that long :) I hope it's the best JS you've ever written :P

I haven't contacted them, no. I've been meaning to go to Brighton though as I hear the tech scene down there is actually very interesting indeed. Thanks for the link, I'll get in touch!

<comment><USER11> Actually, I listened well past 10mins, but then the Oasis cover triggered a previous-life flashback and I had to stop :o)

FWIW, I work out of a coworking space at [http://wyche.in](http://wyche.in), out here in The Shire. Ping me an email (in profile) if you'd like me to intro you to the boss here, in case that's helpful.

<comment><USER12> Well that's a discovery. I'm in Ledbury and had no idea that little oasis existed. I'll drop you an email, and hopefully we can meetup in the next week for a chat over a coffee/beer.

<comment> vertex-four Woah. I'm in Ledbury for a few months as well. Really funny seeing other people from around here on HN!

<comment><USER11> vertex-four hit me up on Twitter sometime: @stevejalim

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Help Me Out: I left academia to come to Silicon Valley into a non-technical role, but I want to get back into technical work.

The help I need is mainly in how I should market myself to prospective employers.

I have a technical background, mainly in support and quality assurance, but I'd like to get my hands more dirty with a full software engineering role.

I need some guidance with deciding what to focus on when preparing for interviews, what kinds of projects to work on in my free time, and what kinds of positions I should be looking for that will be willing to interview/hire someone who hasn't had a software engineering role despite being a bit older.

My older resume: [http://jclo.co/john-resume.pdf](http://jclo.co/john- resume.pdf) Github and LinkedIn, as well as contact email are in profile.

Help You Out: I am pretty good at finding bugs, testing software, and writing. I can proof read documentation, resumes, cover letters, or any other text written in English, or close to English. I'm not judgmental about the idiosyncrasies non-native writers/speakers have, and I am happy to point out that they speak/write English better than I speak/write any other language, but I'm also happy to identify and correct those idiosyncrasies if you want.

From working at Quora, I have some good insights about how startups scale their infrastructure (I also helped to write a long polling back-end in Go for an "off road" project), and I can offer some minor insights.

<comment><USER9> My experience with most hiring processes is that you should learn about classic CS stuff (data structures, algorithms, Big O, etc). Unfortunately, my experience is also that these things are not of much use during day-to-day web development.

If you want some help with brushing up on actual web dev skills, email me: hello at duncanmsmith.com. I'd be happy to do a Skype/Google Hangout/phone call sometime this week, and point you to some great resources that helped me a lot when I was first getting started. I can also help you compile a list of topics to research so you can build your knowledge base (the body of knowledge required to sound smart in a room full of web devs is INSANE).

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I made a basketball management simulation video game: [http://basketball- gm.com/](http://basketball-gm.com/)

My original motivation was for fun and learning, but now I have several hundred people playing every day (average 1 hr each) and it's making $600/month in ads.

Problem is, I don't know how to take it to the next level. I think my main issues are no marketing knowledge and a complete lack of connections in the video game and sports industries. I think this could be much bigger if I could somehow overcome those deficits.

Longer version of this post: [http://basketball- gm.com/pitch](http://basketball-gm.com/pitch)

Email me if you're interested in what I'm doing: firstname.lastname@example.com

<comment><USER15> " __ _Running a basketball team requires you to make touch decisions._ __

Do you mean __ _TOUGH_ __decisions?

<comment><USER9> I actually really like the phrase "touch decision", as an alternative to "snap decision".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Contact info in Profile.

Help Me Out

If you happen to live in Ottawa or Toronto, I'm trying to downsize some of my possessions, by trading them for anything really (Canadian dollars, Bitcoin, Dogegoin or a chat over coffee). I'm updating my list – [http://eswat.ca/dpac/](http://eswat.ca/dpac/) – of stuff I want to get rid of weekly.

Let Me Know How I Can Help

Have or know an open-source, web-related project that could use some UI help? I can take a look and see what I can contribute.

<comment><USER17> Hey, this is great. I'm doing the same thing. A lot of stuff: DVDs, books, musical instruments, gadgets and stuff. :)

Can I use your design on my site? I already copied it. :P

<comment><USER16> Yup, feel free! It's actually using the Do What The Fuck You Want To License ;)

[https://github.com/eswat/dpac](https://github.com/eswat/dpac)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> How I can help: I'm a Haskell developer and I'm willing to develop moderately- sized applications for you in my spare time.

What I need: I would like some personal branding advice (coaching) from someone who is good at it. I've been reading online resources about the topic but it's not enough.

<comment><USER9> I'd be happy to help out, feel free to get in touch!

Email: hello at duncanmsmith.com

Skype: notduncansmith

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> HMO:

I've got ADHD something fierce and, even when medicated, it takes me a long time to organize my thoughts in a way for others to understand. I need to process my notes for the video linked to below, identify the problems being discussed, as well as how a hackerspace can solve (or begin to solve) them. I've tried to get people to help me with this, but every attempt gets sidetracked by people wanting to debate whether or not the problems are real or discussing their own ideas for how they should be solved.

I need someone to step out of their head and into mine for a little while (couple of hours via Google Hangouts?). I'm totally down for discussing the existential aspects of the problems and any ideas people have as far as how to address them....but not until I've managed to get my vision organized into something that makes sense.

Video of that panel is here: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J45z8aMwl-U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J45z8aMwl-U) (apologies for the low quality...I'm a coder, not an editor, and this was a hack job just so that I could rebuild the results of my research, which I no longer have access to. Also, the video is only 75 mins long, but got doubled in the conversation process; it's black and silent for the second half)

Email me at firstname.lastname@example.com if able/willing.

Here's the photo album of my notes, which I'm typing up right now: [https://www.facebook.com/crawford.comeaux/media_set?set=a.10...](https://www.facebook.com/crawford.comeaux/media_set?set=a.10100892872134360.1073741827.47901850&type=3)

The beginnings of a mind map based on my notes: [http://www.mindmeister.com/397541621](http://www.mindmeister.com/397541621)

Background on the project:

I'm trying to start a hackerspace in Lafayette, LA with the goals of designing the space & defining the culture I want to cultivate in it so as to meet as many needs of the underserved creative community as possible. A few years ago, I researched innovation ecosystems, what they need to develop a startup culture, and what Lafayette does or doesn't have. A few weeks after wrapping up that research, an event took place with a panel discussion that identified needs/challenges facing the artistic community in town; they were exactly the same as the needs I'd identified for us to (hopefully) begin producing more than just a few startups a year.

<comment><USER13> I have pretty bad ADD, but I guess I'm lucky that my medication helps a lot.

I'll try to set aside some time to watch this video and take some notes. It may take a while but I'll ping you if I manage not to get distracted in the process :)

<comment><USER19> I tend to have much greater success in accomplishing tasks if there's a collaborative way to do them with someone else.

I'm currently tethering my laptop to my phone, so this may not work, but I'll try setting up a Google Hangout On Air with the YouTube plugin for simultaneous viewing in a few mins.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> In the spirit of this thread, here are some more public projects from HNers on DoerHub:

[http://www.doerhub.com/for/bluetooth- sensor](http://www.doerhub.com/for/bluetooth-sensor) (arduino research)

[http://www.doerhub.com/for/theodinproject](http://www.doerhub.com/for/theodinproject) (tech ed)

[http://www.doerhub.com/for/lumihealth](http://www.doerhub.com/for/lumihealth) (health insurance)

[http://www.doerhub.com/for/robopaint](http://www.doerhub.com/for/robopaint)

[http://www.doerhub.com/for/coincashcard](http://www.doerhub.com/for/coincashcard) (bitcoin)

[http://www.doerhub.com/for/crowdfunding](http://www.doerhub.com/for/crowdfunding)

[http://www.doerhub.com/for/synaptor](http://www.doerhub.com/for/synaptor)

[http://www.doerhub.com/for/you3dit](http://www.doerhub.com/for/you3dit) (3D printing)

[http://www.doerhub.com/for/www-roomva-com](http://www.doerhub.com/for/www- roomva-com) (latam hotel app)

[http://www.doerhub.com/for/stemfunder](http://www.doerhub.com/for/stemfunder)

[http://www.doerhub.com/for/surgery-boards- app](http://www.doerhub.com/for/surgery-boards-app) (surgery ed app - in beta)

[http://www.doerhub.com/for/securityfirst](http://www.doerhub.com/for/securityfirst) (human rights)

[http://www.doerhub.com/for/vizhack](http://www.doerhub.com/for/vizhack) (visualisations)

[http://www.doerhub.com/for/pilgrimr](http://www.doerhub.com/for/pilgrimr) (beta testing)

</comment><comment><USER21> It would be cool if this was a website (or maybe simply a subreddit?) instead of an HN thread which will disappear in a few hours...

<comment><USER20> As mentioned in the previous thread: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7572911](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7572911) (direct link: [http://www.doerhub.com](http://www.doerhub.com) )

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Email in profile.

HMO: I'm a Bay Area software engineer, but my resume doesn't get me interviews the way it should. Neither does my LinkedIn attract much attention. Since I am currently looking for a job, this is a bit of a problem. :-)

So, I'd like some help polishing my profile and resume, bettering my online presence, pointers to _good_ recruiters, and also any high payoff networking tips.

What I have to offer:

* I studied math in graduate school, so I can help you with a variety of topics from calculus/linear algebra up to graph theory, abstract algebra, and category theory.

* I'm a decent writer, editor, and proofreader.

* I can give you feedback on your startup idea, web site, or iPhone app.

</comment><comment><USER23> I'm building an invite-only jobs mailing list that is similar to the monthly "Who is hiring" on HN, except that it is available privately and accessible all the time (to members only).

I haven't advertised this anywhere except HN, because (as I have witnessed companies saying) they find top candidates on HN mostly. This is why I am specifically targeting HN users only.

So if you are a company hiring manager, looking for a job or just an individual that likes seeing job offers (you don't actively have to be searching), then you can Help Me Out by validating my idea here:

[https://www.surveymoz.com/s/109791NPJFT](https://www.surveymoz.com/s/109791NPJFT)

I will continue marketing my idea on HN only until there comes a point where growth through invites/referrals outstrips marketing here.

I know you guys love the "Who is hiring" as much as I do, so go on, signup :-)

 __Edit:

I forgot to mention...

Help You Out:

If you need somebody for general entrepreneurship advice, need a beta tester for a cool product, need an outside idea for growth marketing, need a Python programmer, need someone who understands finance or would just like to talk to someone about any ideas you have, then I am available and willing to assist.

"You can only gain as much as you are willing to give", so please do let me Help You Out.

</comment><comment><USER24> Myself and a friend are working on a code visualization tool in the spirit of the original Code Bubbles ([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1181742](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1181742))

It's called Code Connect ([http://codeconnect.io](http://codeconnect.io)) and you can see our prototype demo at: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuQ8NJOypqs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuQ8NJOypqs)

We're currently working on Visual Studio, but I'd like feedback on other IDEs and editors you guys think would be extensible in a similar manner. Would this behavior even be possible to accomplish in Eclipse, IntelliJ, SublimeText, Atom.io, etc?

We're also looking for beta testers and people interested in giving us feedback on the idea. You can subscribe for updates on our beta's release at [http://codeconnect.io](http://codeconnect.io) or reach out to me directly via firstname.lastname@example.com or on twitter at [http://twitter.com/GetCodeConnect](http://twitter.com/GetCodeConnect)

<comment><USER25> This is really, really cool. I'd love to see this in SublimeText but I doubt that it would be able to work as well as it does with Visual Studio.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Contact info in profile

Help me out: Need to find educators (who happen to know how to code) - My co- founder and I run a 1-to-1 mentorship program turning people into software developers (heavy emphasis on JS + frameworks) need help finding more instructors. We're looking for people passionate about education/love to teach who happen to know how to code.

How I can help: 1) Learn to Program Advice - Was a middle school teacher turned software engineer so I can help people get started on their programming track over a Google hangout consultation (won't sell you anything, just advice) 2) Business Idea Discussion - Love helping out any entrepreneurs talk about their business ideas/models, we bootstrapped ourselves, worked only part-time, and made revenue from day 1 3) High touch sales - All our sales are high touch sales $5-10k++ if you're trying to do high touch sales I can definitely share pointers/advice

<comment><USER23> Perhaps you should look for highschool educators that have taught basic programming in school.

Are you teaching remotely?

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> HMO: I'm designing and running a STEM curriculum for a local Boy Scout camp. We'll have more than 1000 11-17-year-olds come through to do merit badges and "Open STEM" which is basically relatively unstructured exploration of STEM related stuff (see: building catapults, model aircraft, what-if.xkcd.com style questions). We don't have a huge budget, but there's a small fund for needs.

I would appreciate:

\- Advice on what to cover/the kinds of activities to put on

\- Resources for cool cheap/free science-y things to give out/use

\- Cool demos/graphics that explain difficult concepts (think [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Diffie- Hellman_Key_Exchan...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Diffie- Hellman_Key_Exchange.svg))

\- What you wish you had seen as a kid in STEM education

\- General advice on teaching science/math/technology to people without much background in the middle of the woods

Thanks!

jp [dot] smith [at] wq23 [dot] org

<comment><USER28> Jeremy Kun's basic graph theory lecture [1].

[1] [http://jeremykun.com/2011/06/26/teaching-mathematics- graph-t...](http://jeremykun.com/2011/06/26/teaching-mathematics-graph- theory/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> This should become at category up there next to "jobs" "submit" etc

<comment><USER30> I think that the WhoIsHiring account should just automatically post this. It's basically for everything that doesn't fit in the monthly Who's Hiring of Freelancer threads. Btw, this thread is fascinating. It's a great way to check the pulse of the HN crowd and a more informal way for people to "Show HN:".

<comment><USER31> I agree that the thread is fascinating. Your suggestion is a good one, since whoishiring already does this and is the only account allowed to.

Not on the first of the month, though—too crowded. Perhaps the second Friday of each month, since that's what today is. :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> I'm a junior developer at a networking company (currently going to university, but I will be done in about 10 years).

I want to improve myself. I am working on the Linux kernel but I have no idea how to get better at it, nor at networking. If anyone can point me to some (advanced?) topic related to networking or Linux, that would really help me.

I have done my own small version of tcpdump but I still behind behind other developer.

If anyone have any good resources about these subjects, I would really appreciate:

\- How to write English (non-native language)

\- Program well in c in userspare (Currently reading 'The Linux Programming Interface')

\- (Advanced?) topic about networking (everything from Cisco routers to network security)

\- Linux kernel networking programming

\- Embedded development (I don't even know where to start that one...)

Also, as a second request, can anyone point how to simulate a network (simulate a small internet) using visualization (qemu and the like)?

<comment><USER33> > How to write English (non-native language)

I suggest writing a blog in English. Practice is probably the best way to learn. There is also [http://english.stackexchange.com](http://english.stackexchange.com) if you have specific questions.

> Program well in c in userspare (Currently reading 'The Linux Programming > Interface')

In my experience, reading other people's code is the best way to get better at a language. I don't have much experience with C but I guess there are a few projects that would be interesting to read here: [https://github.com/search?o=desc&q=language%3A%22c%22&ref=si...](https://github.com/search?o=desc&q=language%3A%22c%22&ref=simplesearch&s=stars&type=Repositories)

Relevant links: [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/925754/resources-for- lear...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/925754/resources-for-learning-c- program-design), [http://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Code-Leading-Programmers- Pra...](http://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Code-Leading-Programmers- Practice/dp/0596510047)

> Embedded development (I don't even know where to start that one...)

I am currently learning embedded development (maybe we could help each other?).

<comment><USER32> > I am currently learning embedded development (maybe we could help each > other?).

I would love to!

And thanks for the links, I will try/read them.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> I've been working on a website for almost 2 years (on&off). I'm right there at the final push to get it live, but I think I'm just a little burnt out from it. One of the things I'm struggling with is the pricing model I want to use. I'm trying to find that balance of a simple pricing scheme that scales well. My site was made to run leagues & tourneys, and I'm a single founder. If anyone would like to talk with me on my business model ideas, my email is in my profile or just leave a way to contact you here and I will!

:edit: I wanted to add that I believe I want a dynamic pricing scheme like Heroku's where they have a slider for how many dynos you want. The problem I run into is that I have a couple metrics that I can charge for, I just don't know how to meld them together.

<comment><USER35> I don't know your specific metrics, but one way to consider it is to forget about money for a minute. If you were to use one of those metrics to judge how successful your users were, which would it be?

Intercom.io is a brilliant example of this. They could have priced a million different ways, but they chose to charge by active users on their customer's apps. Now I don't even care about the price, I'll be happy to be doing so well each time I go up one of their price bands!

"We think getting your whole team on Intercom is a good thing. And we think talking to your customers is a good thing too. So we won't tax you for either. We charge you more as your user base grows. Our interests are aligned."

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> I am working on an electronic product (a kind of smart card) but have very little expertise with electronics.

So far, I've been trying to outsource the electronic design as much as possible in order to focus on the firmware. Even then, I am starting to reach a limit.

I'd like to get in touch with someone who would know how to program something useful on a random micro-controller given the micro-controller's data sheet and a circuit diagram. Or someone who understands weird terms like "ISO/IEC 14443" or "JTAG".

How I can help: I have years of experience as a full stack web developer and have a very good grasp of Javascript, Node.js and web standards. I can also remunerate if you feel I'm taking too much of your time.

Help me out!

<comment><USER2> If you're looking for patent advice, I would talk to a patent lawyer. If you can work with someone in New York, I can recommend someone.

<comment><USER33> Hey, I just modified my comment because the patent part is probably not that important (it would just help me sleep better at night knowing that no one will file a patent while I'm developing the product and sue me when I'm ready to ship). I cannot physically go to New York but if that lawyer can work with me by email/phone, I'd love to hear the recommendation.

<comment><USER36> You could do a defensive publication. Any publication which discloses the invention prior to the priority date invalidates a patent. This works in the USA too now they have got on the "first to file" band-wagon. The priority date is the date when the relevant disclosure was sent to the patent office; usually that's the application date, the date you sent it to the USPTO [or other office, WIPO, EPO, wherever] but it can sometimes be an earlier date.

So defensive publication is a provable publishing of material that discloses the invention in sufficient detail that the notional skilled worker in the relevant field could reproduce the invention. Once published a subsequent patent application for that invention would fail to be novel or inventive. That doesn't mean no one will apply, nor even that such an application wouldn't be granted, just that prior publication of the invention is an absolute defence.

Of course you'd want to be sure whether the invention is already patented before you try to exploit it commercially.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> I'd like a partner for my startup hedge fund that uses machine learning and nlp. If you have experience with those check out dynofuz.com or @dynofuz. You can also email me with ricky at that domain.

<comment><USER38> Nice project, I remember seeing this before.

Small UX issue, on the input field for email addresses, the text isn't a placeholder (doesn't disappear when you start typing).

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> HMO/HYO (e-mail in profile)

Short version:

Looking for mentor/peers interested in working on hobby projects in a wide range of programming languages/frameworks - main goal here is to reach a level of decent developer efficiency in many different technologies.

I don't mind if I'm contributing in some way to a startup without being paid, or an open source project, assuming of course the work is educational for me. It's a balance, if I am getting a lot of good mentoring, I wouldn't mind doing some tedious tasks every now and then (documentation etc), because overall I am likely learning more than I would on my own.

Details / longer version:

I'm a software engineer, based in Denmark (Aarhus), completed university roughly a year ago. I don't get to do much actual coding in my job (the coding itself is mostly outsourced), and the little coding I do for work is Java. In my free time I enjoy working on hobby projects or thinking up projects I would like to do - my backlog of project ideas is quite long :). Lately I've gotten to a point where I start actually finishing my projects, where previously I would move on to the next thing before getting far. Projects so far have been nothing with any monetary value, strictly for fun/learning.

The problem is I feel like I'm missing out on a lot of valuable experience, motivation and fun by doing these things alone. I'm not looking for somebody to help me with MY projects, I'm looking for some person or group who I can share my progress with and follow their projects, possibly joining up to work on the same project if interests collide on something.

Topics I'm interested in learning more about ( _italic_ = no practical experience with language/platform yet):

\- Functional programming languages (especially Clojure, Erlang and _Haskell_ at the moment)

\- Web frameworks (django, rails, grails and similar frameworks for other languages)

\- Mobile development (Android, maybe _Tizen_ \- not iOS)

\- Non-relational DBMS's ( _Cassandra_ , _Riak_ , Mongo, Couch etc)

\- Designing architecture for high-availability / scalability

</comment><comment><USER40> I worked with a dozen startups to put together the Startup Sticker Pack: [http://startupstickerpack.com/](http://startupstickerpack.com/)

A dozen stickers from cool companies for $5. I'd love to hear from people about why they would / wouldn't want to buy one. It's not quite selling as well as I'd hoped.

I'd also like to hear from startups / groups who might be interested in buying one for each member of their team.

You can email me at email@example.com (+hmo is to track if any spam comes from posting it here).

<comment><USER12> Great idea :-)

A couple of observations:

I'm a non-USian, and while it looks like you ship worldwide for 5 USD, it's not crystal clear. Be good to make it so.

Also, I'm a Brit -- we're very polite ;-) -- so 5 USD including postage feels like I'm taking food off your table. I think most non-USians would be happy to pay an extra couple of bucks. Just a thought. Or maybe go down the middle and say, 5 USD + 1 USD shipping worldwide.

(Here's my thinking: Hmm. 5 USD. Seems cheap. What if it doesn't really include shipping. Hmm. Don't really want to get into that discussion. Move on.)

Also, while you have some great start-ups in their -- \o/ Buffer -- personally, I'd be in the market for cool tech. I see you have Firebase, which is awesome, but my current faves would include redis, jruby (new logo recently), and a few others.

It would increase your workload, but of you could let a customer pick, say, twelve from 20 or 30, mixed start-ups and tech, that would be great.

Okay, I'm rambling. Good luck with it.

<comment><USER40> Thanks for the feedback. I've clarified the text to show that it's free shipping worldwide. I like the idea of letting the customer pick from a list. I'm not entirely sure how much I'll pursue this beyond the first batch, but I'll keep that idea in mind if I do another round.

Thanks again for the suggestions!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER41> HMO:

I just can't seem to solve this bug, no matter how hard I try... It's in my side project: [http://www.hashworld.co/](http://www.hashworld.co/) it's written in Java under App Engine. If you want to give a try, send me an email at email@example.com and I'll send you details.

How I can help:

I'd love to help out in interesting problems, especially relating to scaling and making sites always live.

</comment><comment><USER42> HMO - Kickstarter advice. I'm helping my mad scientist inventor friend launch his Kickstarter. He has created an amazing water flight machine (think Flyboard-ish) and is launching the Kickstarter in 2 months and asked me to help with running the technical side of the campaign. Do you have: 1\. Advice? Who to talk to, what to do, what to avoid? 2\. Connections? Writers, bloggers, outdoor enthusiasts.

<comment><USER43> I'd be happy to put some stuff in an email for you. For reference, I ran one of the largest early successes that unfortunately turned into an ongoing trainwreck. I'm actually still bullish on crowd-funding, but there are definitely some things worth sharing from the experience. Email is in my profile.

<comment><USER44> That sounds like it would make a great blog post (or 2). Would you consider posting about your experience somewhere?

<comment><USER43> Sorry for the delayed reply, I've been on the road. Unfortunately, as it is an ongoing situation, I'm waiting until every backer receives their items before talking publicly about the experience/lessons learned. Maybe I'll post it up on hn when the time comes, though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> Looking for feedback (ideally blog post reviews) of a product I own/maintain in my free time. It helps with product initiation, i.e. project start up questionnaires and proposals.

[https://www.getosmosis.com](https://www.getosmosis.com)

I'm willing to give out free accounts to people who write reviews, if it's the type of product you'd use.

Email email@example.com if interested.

</comment><comment><USER46> HMO - Need a business contact at Wacom

If you know anyone at Wacom (the awesome tablet manufacturer), please help me get in touch with the said person. I've created a software that I'd like Wacom to bundle with their osx drivers. I think the software would help a lot of Wacom users.

Here's a screen-grab of the app : [http://d.pr/i/4yG6](http://d.pr/i/4yG6)

Thanks!

</comment><comment><USER47> I'm a trained journalist and would be happy for anyone to bounce media-related ideas off me. Easy to find on the Web.

<comment><USER48> Would love to ask you a couple questions about the press if you have the time. Can't find your email online, but mine's firstname.lastname@example.com.

</comment></comment><comment><USER49> I am building a lightweight ebook reader (currently ~32kB compiled) that will be used to gather statistics on how people read books, magazines, etc.

The idea being, if we know how people read we can help people learn better. Obviously, there are other uses such as improving reading speeds, comprehension, and more. Further, we can potentially learn how structuring of sentences can effect peoples interest and learning as well.

Github: [https://github.com/lettergram/basicbookreader](https://github.com/lettergram/basicbookreader)

Email: austin at agw.io

Currently, I need help with cleaning up the project, and enabling Epubs, PDFs, and HTML files to be read.

Future goals: make it compatible with android and iOS, set up a central location of the data, improve statistics functions. The current version on github does not have any statistics, I'll update later with a fully working version of statistics.

<comment><USER50> No doubt the data geeks at Amazon love sifting though their Kindle analytics; nice to see an open initiative.

Perhaps some effort should be put into reverse-engineering Kindle data similar to how the Apple device databases were reverse engineered? [http://www.crypticbit.com/zen/products/iphoneanalyzer](http://www.crypticbit.com/zen/products/iphoneanalyzer)

</comment></comment><comment><USER51> HMO: I've got a FOSS[0] that presents a simple, easy to use GUI for developers to help them create Vagrant/Puppet manifests for local development, and for deploying to hosts like DigitalOcean, Rackspace, AWS.

It's mostly me doing the development, and it seems to be fairly popular. However, I need help with several things!

I need a proper release process. Right now I'm just developing locally, pushing to git then pulling on prod. I want to implement Puppet tests to make sure everything jives.

I need a process to create random VMs using different configuration combinations, to make sure all my options are ok.

I also want to add support for more languages, as I currently have for PHP. Python, Ruby, Node are on my to-do but not really sure how to properly set those languages up!

Contact me on

Skype - jtreminio twitter - @juantreminio email - email@example.com

[0] [https://puphpet.com](https://puphpet.com)

</comment><comment><USER52> Interested in localizing your website?

I'm working on a localization library / SaaS called Localize.js ([https://localizejs.com](https://localizejs.com)). It's a new way to localize websites that's _much_ easier to implement than traditional localization techniques.

It works by automatically detecting and translating text on on the client- side, and allows you to order translations (machine or human) via the web interface.

The library is stable and is working well so far. It's currently used in production serving millions of pageviews on [https://www.verbling.com/classes](https://www.verbling.com/classes) (to demo, select a language in the dropdown on the bottom left).

I'd love your feedback or thoughts on the approach. If you'd like a free account, shoot me an email! email@example.com

</comment><comment><USER53> I'm making a low-configuration webserver for Erlang. You can one-liner a server from the REPL.

I would love it if someone pitched in some help getting HTTPS working, or any other stuff they felt like.

[https://github.com/StoneCypher/htstub/](https://github.com/StoneCypher/htstub/)

</comment><comment><USER54> == Help Me Out: Try out [https://wsend.net](https://wsend.net)

wsend.net is an easy way to send files from the command line. Trying to figure out how to get more people using it. Tell your friends about it / Tweet it out

== I Can Help:

* Someone to talk to

* node.js, Python, PHP, MySQL advice.

* A ride / drink / hangout in the NJ area.

a-at-abemassry.com

<comment><USER55> What's the main reason I would need to send files from the command line?

If this is for person-to-person sharing, the person on the receiving end has to know the url that I sent it to - how is that normally accomplished? Usually the way that I send files to people is the same way that I would communicate to them that I have sent files, e.g. HipChat, email.

</comment></comment><comment><USER56> HMO with marketing

I know very little about marketing both online and offline, i've had some ideas but really have no knowledge on whether its good or not. I'm kinda in an analysis paralysis state of not knowing if i'm going to piss away all my money because i dont know what will work.

Email in my HN profile.

<comment><USER57> Email sent.

</comment></comment><comment><USER58> Contact in profile.

How I Can Help: I'm a semi-technical internal medicine physician in fellowship specializing in cardiology at a large academic institution. I have experience on the clinical side, taking care of patients, work flows, etc. I have a masters in epidemiology and biostatistics, and am currently involved with clinical trials, some animal translational studies, and large database analysis. Would be happy to talk to anyone with an interest in health care.

HMO: I'm not good with the administrative and infrastructure aspects of medicine, including billing, HR, ICD/CPT coding, insurance, labs/PACS systems, etc. Would love to connect with people who have worked in these areas, either in a startup or established company!

</comment><comment><USER59> HMO/HYO: I'm a PhD candidate in experimental physics looking to get some experience in real-world product development. I have lots of experience developing and fabricating one-off devices for our research, and I'd like to bring that background to bear on problems outside my field. I'd be happy to talk with anyone working on hardware problems. I'm probably not the guy to talk to about making a polished final product, but if you need a quick and dirty prototype or are hitting technical problems, I might be able to help.

Contact info is on my website: [http://guavaduck.com](http://guavaduck.com). I'm in Seattle.

</comment><comment><USER60> I created [http://www.Learneroo.com](http://www.Learneroo.com) to teach programming and more through interactive content and challenges. I'm looking for more developers to help with:

a) running code online b) creating interactive javascript "explainers" c) connecting students with tutors or jobs

I'm also interested in joining another startup doing one of these things, and just created a site for that purpose: [http://startupmerge.com/](http://startupmerge.com/).

Please contact me at ak[at]learneroo.com to find out more.

I'm also looking to help people learn programming, either Java or Ruby.

<comment><USER23> Do you use Codecademy? I think I may have spoken to you before. I do not recall, but there was someone who was teaching code online.

</comment></comment><comment><USER61> HMO:

I'm building a dating website for kinky folks. I'm hoping to have it ready for launch at the end of the year.

So pretty much, I need kinky folks! Specifically:

(1) I'd like to find a lawyer to be COO / President.

(2) I'd like to find kinky business owners: we have some freebies to give away during launch month, so if you want to provide your customers with some extra goodies let me know!

(3) The site will need some design. Right now we're scraping by with bootstrap and cider.

(4) If you're a kinky person yourself and you'd like to be kept in the loop when the site goes live please get in touch!

You can contact me via reddit. Check profile for details.

How I can help: I build and market websites.

<comment><USER62> I think you need to give your definition of the word "kinky" before posting that message ;)

<comment><USER61> I expect it'll mostly be appreciated by the BDSM community, but it's for people of all (legal) kinky interests.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER63> HMO: Feedback from hardware startups.

I run a meetup and organized a conference to help folks who are working on or want to found a hw startup. Would love to connect over email with folks interested in the field and find out what their biggest frustrations are so I can develop my blog content and offer some more educational and fun events. First one is here: [http://boot.lvhardware.com](http://boot.lvhardware.com)

Would also be interested in trading hardware work for coding/design skills or tutoring.

I can help: Hardware design verification, general advice on finding suppliers, kickstarter strategy, etc.

</comment><comment><USER64> I built a small web service/couple of chrome extensions:

\- [http://tab.bz](http://tab.bz)

It has around 15k chrome installs and about 650 registered users (you don't need to register to use the site, just to keep editing your links)

I need help with:

      - Design (it's terrible)

      - Logo (it hasn't got one)

      - Marketing (I've never done any)

      - Making more money (it makes just enough to cover hosting)

What should I do to take it to the next level? Should I even bother? It's designed to help people share similar content through one link, hassle free.

Email is in my profile

</comment><comment><USER65> HMO: I'm a Linux/UNIX Engineer with some solid experience in enterprise grade technologies like clusters (PowerHA), virtualization (PowerVM, KVM, bit of VMWare), etc. I did a lot of work with IBM tech in general - AIX, Power systems, Tivoli... Wrote a bit of code, did some scripting and have good networking know-hows. Enterprise is getting boring, so I'm looking to get involved into some start up projects. I'd even consider volunteering if the project is interesting. Feel free to contact me via mail - nikola [at] krzalic [dot] com

</comment><comment><USER66> I love this idea!

What would be helpful for me is the names of any smaller/independent live music or event venues in your area that you know of. Venues that would be best are those that are typically cash-at-the-door or that don't have a good ticketing system or website. I'm working on a simple ticketing system that lets venues like these list shows and sell fee-free tickets and I'm just looking for more beta testers. Send any you know of to email@example.com and use the subject line HMO

Thanks!

</comment><comment><USER48> Email is bh at <my username> dot com. HMO:

Just launched Rokumo ([http://rokumo.com](http://rokumo.com)), an automated gift shopping service.

1\. Would like to ask someone questions about it. (Would you use it? What kinds of gifts would you like to see offered? How do you keep track of gift- giving? Is it a pain point for you?)

2\. Would love beta testers and feedback.

Let me know how I can help. I'm happy to answer questions, beta test things, or give programming advice (esp. anything about web development).

<comment><USER67> This is a cool idea. This isn't really a pain point for me but I immediately thought of a couple of people in family (aunts) who are very active gift givers in a large family. I would imagine mother's with small children would be a target market for you (they tend to have to keep up with a lot birthdays). But that's just an assumption. With that said, I would suggest making the site for friendly for non-technical users. I think the "bot" terminology would lose them.

With that said, I'll bookmark your site and pass it along to people I think would be your users.

<comment><USER48> Maybe you're right about the "bot." I was imagining a cute, squeaky little robot, but hm...

Awesome, thanks very much!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER67> HMO: I just put up a MVP in a beta test. It's a workflow where you can build a data interactive with maps, charts and graphs to embed in your website/blog articles. I put up the workflow and then created a survey at the end to gather the tester's feedback. Would love some feedback.

[http://thedata.directory/](http://thedata.directory/)

HYO: would happily help anyone out with some beta testing/user feedback.

</comment><comment><USER68> HMO:

I built [http://findhn.firebaseapp.com](http://findhn.firebaseapp.com) in an attempt to help get more people collaborating on stuff on HN. Help me out by going to the website and adding interests to your HN profile. You'll have to add contact info to your HN profile in order for this to actually be useful though.

I would also appreciate general feedback on the site.

HYO:

I'd be happy to give feedback on projects. I can edit copy and be honest.

</comment><comment><USER69> HMO: Know anyone interested in analyzing consumer EEG data? The product I'm working on is developing a solid dataset: [http://www.threepound.com](http://www.threepound.com)

How I can help: I'm a former startup data analyst and strategy consultant. I can give a few hours to help with making sense of the data you're collecting or think about how to start capturing 3rd party data.

<comment><USER14> I can give you a good EEG story, told to me by an engineering professor who was studying EEG data back in the 70s:

Some researchers set up an EEG hooked up to a computer that could display some analysis to the user (basically magnitudes of various waves). The idea was to see if biofeedback (people trying to control their EEG output in realtime) could lead to any benefits. All they got was positive feedback (no pun intended): people would tell them how it helped them focus, relax, think clearly, etc. Then at some point, one of the researchers realized a cable was unplugged and the values shown to people were just random noise...

</comment></comment><comment><USER70> Hi, I am building a messaging client that is designed to be cross compatible with all types of messaging (email, sms, xmpp) but more importantly sort / group the messages in an easy to use way. I could really use some feedback on the product and website: [http://raven.enterthemist.com](http://raven.enterthemist.com) you can email me at my gmail address: ofer dot sadgat.

<comment><USER71> I signed up! Looking forward to trying it out.

</comment></comment><comment><USER72> == Help Me Out: With growth/marketing for ShelfLife.net, a social marketplace.

ShelfLife.net makes it easy for collectors of toys, action figures, video games, etc to buy, sell, and research collectibles, and track their collections. We've got a solid product built, and trying to figure out how to grow the userbase significantly.

nick-at-shelflife.net

== I Can Help:

* Startup/entrepreneur mentoring.

* Ruby, Rails, JavaScript, MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB advice.

* Certified parkour instructor.

nick-at-deadorange.com

<comment><USER23> Awesome site. I'll be honest and say I was expecting something a little 1999 with the .net domain (full disclosure :-P).

Would you like to discuss things privately about your current traction?

</comment></comment><comment><USER57> Hello !

How Can I Help

I have more than a decade of sales and distribution experience across diverse consumer industries. In between I worked as an intra-preneur also and launched business from scratch.

Since last 4 odd years, have been working on building my own company, but past 2 ventures have failed.

If you need any assistance in sales, distribution or marketing, please let me know. I would gladly help in whatever way I can.

Email - email@example.com

Cheers!

</comment><comment><USER73> HMO: Need help with Marketing for app that will be launching within two weeks.

Project: [http://NewsCast.io](http://NewsCast.io)

Project: News App that summarizes articles across the web. Status: The app is done. Website done. I really need help with putting it out there so people are aware of it and build a presence. I know we can grow this.

I can help with new ventures or partnership.

</comment><comment><USER74> HMO:

I'm a Rails web developer and Clojure hacker. I'm looking for remote freelancing gigs and don't know how to find any clients. Any help there would be great!

How I Can Help:

In the same vein, I'm looking to build up a github portfolio by contributing to open source on Github. If you have a project in Ruby or Clojure that you want to get me up to speed with and want another hand, let me know.

Email in profile.

</comment><comment><USER75> HMO:

I am nearing completion on an OSX productivity app aimed at helping busy project-oriented professionals (e.g. sales people, consultants, portfolio managers, attorneys) and college students deal with context switching by giving rapid access to diverse types of related information.

I'd greatly appreciate any of: beta testing, feedback, or advice on marketing.

HYO:

I'm a solid copy-writer and proof reader.

My email is in my profile.

</comment><comment><USER76> I'm working on codeschool.org.uk - currently a coding summer school for 16-19 year olds. We'd love to pivot into something more like flatironschool.com or makersacademy.com - longer courses for adults, getting them to junior dev level - but don't know how to start recruiting candidates. Anyone have experience in this area? rob at codeschool.org.uk

Thanks!

<comment><USER36> Can't really help but noticed a couple of typos "recommendations, [sponsorship,] bursaries and sponsorship" (our two main weapons!) and "available until 15th May 2014, after which the sum[mer] will increase" (delete parenthesised text).

How you're fitting in all you mention on your personal /about page is beyond me. I've been considering running a code club at my eldest's school : will be interested to see your review ([http://www.robpercival.co.uk/tag/code- club/](http://www.robpercival.co.uk/tag/code-club/)).

</comment></comment><comment><USER77> HMO: I run an NGO and am looking for a voice biometrics service to use for caller authentication that can be subscribed to monthly instead of having to pay a large upfront setup fee or annual fee. Would really appreciate any ideas. Thanks!

Email in profile.

How I can help: User testing, designing focus groups, help with payment integration, and general brainstorming.

</comment><comment><USER78> Help me out: I created a website, but I don't really know what to do with it, or if it's even worth doing anything with it.

[https://www.recruiterator.com/](https://www.recruiterator.com/)

In short the site is like rate my professor for recruiters.

What I can offer.

Web Development, .Net, Java, Android or Windows Phone programming.

</comment><comment><USER79> HMO - account recovery industry.

I'm building a service based on machine learning and operations to improve outbound recovery attempts. From customers experience it works very well.

I know there are people here who are or have been in the industry. Help me out by getting in touch so I can hone my messaging, product and expand my network.

email in profile.

<comment><USER33> Meta commenting about down votes is frowned upon on HN. You should probably remove your "NB" as it could be considered as complaining/baiting and turn into a self fulfilling prophecy. From the guidelines ([http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)):

        Resist complaining about being downmodded. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading.
        Please don't bait other users by inviting them to downmod you.

Regarding your comment, I don't think I can help but I'd be curious to know what are "outbound recovery attempts". Is it related to those "postmaster" emails you get when you try to send an email and it fails to deliver?

<comment><USER79> NB removed. I suspect I was being down-voted because of the industry.

Outbound recovery attempts refers to calling people up and asking them to pay their bills in the collections industry.

The first attempt will be a Dunning letter asking you to pay your bill. When you call in this is an inbound recovery. If they have to call out to you, it's outbound.

outbound recovery costs serious money. You need to pay for office space, equipment and an hourly wage to an employee. At the end of that you often see 8-40% recovery rates. My work pushes that number up significantly.

FWIW: There's a huge opportunity for people to bring A/B testing of dunning letters to the industry. It'll be a huge slog though.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER80> Nice idea here.

\- Help Me Out

I'm trying to bootstrap a software product (see profile) and would love to get a marketing advice on how to, well, market the thing.

\- I Can Help With

Anything .NET. Close to 10 years of experience with everything starting from backend high-performance services to front-end with ASP.NET MVC to APIs and everything in between.

</comment><comment><USER81> I began work on a project about two months ago. I'm convinced people would pay for this cryptocurrency-related service.

I'm learning full-stack JS as I go and sometimes I wish I had someone to code with. One problem I see is how to keep my idea mine while getting help from others?

<comment><USER82> _" One problem I see is how to keep my idea mine while getting help from others?"_

Generally, don't bother. Focus on executing fast and well. Otherwise, someone else who _does_ focus on execution will have your idea before you're done and blow you out of the water - blow everyone else out instead, with whatever resources you can bring to bear.

</comment></comment><comment><USER83> Hi,

I have a opensource project I would like to have off the ground. It's a Web based chat much like Hipchat and Slack... It is still in early stage and needs a lot of design work... But anyone that want to get involved is more than welcome :-)

Http://Github.com/fmarani/tunnelchat

</comment><comment><USER84> HMO: We are a startup in Asia. We are three partners (all groomed at different startups in MA, US). We provide software development and software testing (manual, automation) services. We want to generate business from US and Europe.

We really need help with marketing and sales.

<comment><USER85> Can you please elaborate a bit? Where in Asia are you located? Please write to me at firstname.lastname@example.com if you want someone in India.

</comment></comment><comment><USER86>
        </comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment>====
        How I can help your project:
        </comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment>====

My friends frequently ask me to revise their writing. I have a very good command of the English language.

I am also a very good programmer. As a freelance software consultant I work 100% from home on OLAP web applications. If you're stuck on a data design problem, need someone to riff on for debugging a problem, want help hacking together an HTML5 demo of some kind, need help reviewing software engineering job candidates, or want to do a net-based pair programming session or two, I'm available.

If you're in the Alexandria, VA area, I could even meet in person for any of this. Also, beers. Beers for project kibitz. That would help me, too. It's lonely out here.

        </comment><comment>=====
        My project:
        </comment><comment>=====

A few friends and I are developing a web-based tool for writers. We call it "Just Write, Dammit!" ([https://www.justwritedammit.com](https://www.justwritedammit.com))

It's free, it's open source, it's browser-based, it's responsive, it syncs your writing to Dropbox or Google Drive. It's still pretty raw, but I think there is something here that could really make a great project. Our vision is to build it into a tool that not only works well for writing, but encourages the user to write more, write better, and write to completion.

        </comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment>==
        What I think I need:
        </comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment>==

Mentorships. An hour or less a week to talk about where I am, where I should be going.

\- a marketing mentor: I started a Google AdWords campaign _yesterday_ , but I'm an engineer, not a marketer. I want to learn, but all I'm doing right now is random shots in the dark.

\- a startup/fundraising mentor: if this is a project that could take off and find traction, I'd like to run a kickstarter or find some other patronage to be able to work on it full-time. What you see here is basically three weeks of part time work. If it were my job, I could make it into something great.

\- a user experience-centric developer or mentor, for building an on-boarding experience for new users: while part of the experience is that it is a streamlined tool, there isn't much to help people who aren't my best friends who can call or email me at any time they want.

My email is in my profile and on the JWD website.

<comment><USER87> I've starred your JWD project. Always on the lookout for a good writing program. :)

<comment><USER86> Thanks! If you use it, please feel free to post issues on the Github issues list. Also, I'd be very interested to hear if you have experience with other writing packages--perhaps Sigil, yWriter, or Scrivener--and what you like about them.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER88> I am a data scientist with 10+ years of experience in Machine Learning. I am looking for consulting work. Please HMO by introducing me to start-ups looking to get started with data science. I will do discovery for free for right clients.

</comment><comment><USER89> I am trying to raise some small amount of money for a new website that enables people to donate money for a cause. its completely non profit. i need help with doing a crowd funding campaign , video etc. on kickstarter/indigogo

</comment><comment><USER90> HMO - answer questions about your college for my startup: [http://www.collegeinsideview.com/](http://www.collegeinsideview.com/).

I'd be happy to return the favor! email@example.com

</comment><comment><USER9> # How I Can Help

I have a lot of knowledge in the web space. I specialize in front-end development, as well as Node.js on the back-end. I work at a web dev shop and have a lot of experience teaching and mentoring new developers, as well as resolving interpersonal conflicts. I'm also constantly tweaking my dev environment (editors, build tools, technologies, etc) and, as a developer, have a mini-obsession with productivity hacks; so I can help there (not usually a burning pain but if you need help, hit a brotha up).

I am also a designer (landing pages, UI/UX, IA, branding, and print) and am happy to help with whatever design-related issues you might have.

Finally, I have experience with online advertising and guerrilla marketing; if you're having trouble figuring out how to reach your customers (or figuring out who your customers are) I can help.

# Help Me Out

My idea: I've been thinking lately about building something called Startup Fantasy League. The idea is to give people a gamified platform for making pretend investments in startups.

Why (for context): I'd like to get into angel investing later in life (when I have the financial means) but I don't want to wait until then to start practicing.

Where I need help: I'm having trouble figuring out exactly how to accelerate the lifecycle of real world investments into a game-friendly timescale. I don't want players to have to actually wait 10 years before they see returns.

I'd like to give players a starting fund (say 5m), and then let them "spend" that capital by selecting from real investments (e.g. "Jason Calacanis invested $X in Swell Radio").

However, once they've spent their initial capital (which I imagine might happen somewhat quickly as new players try out the platform and hopefully enjoy it), I'm not sure how to keep them engaged. I imagine status updates on companies they've invested in would be nice, but that doesn't give them much room to interact with the platform. Thus, maybe players should get more capital whenever their startups are doing well? This isn't a very realistic model of how investing actually works, of course, so I'm looking for other options.

I want to keep this as realistic as possible (since ideally I'd like to practice with it myself) but I do also want it to be fun.

Advice from anyone with game-building or investing experience would be especially helpful. Thanks guys!

My email is hello at duncanmsmith.com.

<comment><USER91> Cool idea! A few random ideas and thoughts that may or may not be useful:

1) seems like a perfect complement to something like mattermatrk: [http://mattermark.com/](http://mattermark.com/) perhaps try reaching out to those guys? They offer startup tracking so pairing it with this fantasy- investment style game could work well.

2) learning from fantasy football - perhaps you get people to sign up in groups and compete against each other with new money being released into the pool each month/quarter?

3) you could bring people back into the app when the startups they have invested in get in the news? This would involve building a lightweight RSS- scraper and some logic but might not be too hard and would add a nice feedback loop for the product.

4) maybe you let people use (small amounts of) real money to invest in the startups, and let people buy and sell their investments? Kind of like a second market platform? this would make it inherently more compelling for people to stick around but it's almost certainly a lot more work to build...

<comment><USER9> 1) I've actually spoken with Mattermark before (not about this), they're really cool guys and if I get super-serious about this idea then I'll definitely reach out to them. I'm actually planning on using their API for part of this (see below).

2) Yknow, believe it or not I didn't actually think too much about this. I guess I assumed the details would be too different for me to borrow much from them. I'll definitely give it a look though.

3) Not a bad idea. I would hope to monetize somehow, but a monthly subscription would have fairly little value if I'm only checking in with them once every few months.

4) I wish! Chances are any accredited investors would already be using AngelList for that, and obviously I can't let unaccredited investors make investments (plus then startups would have to be on board, basically a whole giant mess).

Thanks a lot for your thoughts!

One thing I'm thinking for the whole "returns" mechanism is to have startups return a fixed amount per hour/day/week based on their Mattermark score (basically, how much mindshare momentum they have), similar to how properties in social games give you a certain amount of currency back every [interval].

I could also consider income: most investors have some sort of regular income they use for investments, as opposed to purely bootstrapping off of the first few investments. That could be interesting (perhaps as you level up, by making sound investments, your income rises?).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER92> I need some help with public IPV6 networking on ubuntu. I have a pool of public IPV6 address's that I'm trying to route to private LXC containers and can not figure out the configuration.

</comment><comment><USER93> You can now push your HMO's here: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7579648](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7579648)

</comment><comment><USER94> HYO: link me your startup or project and I'll review it and if you're interested suggest some growth hacks.

</comment><comment><USER95> I'm moving to Boston. I am looking for someone to help me through the ropes. I have tenacity.

wittedhaddock [at] gmail [dot] com

</comment><comment><USER96> Meta: Shouldn't each of these be posted as an individual thread with a subject prefix of "HMO: "?

<comment><USER97> No, this is just the opposite of that. One click and scroll.

</comment></comment><comment><USER98> Help me out:

\+ Experience in doing web Analytics analysis

\+ Experience in doing customer service (I already do it in the corporate world)

Email in profile.

</comment><comment><USER99> HMO, we always need help, to grow

www.mountary.com/blog/2014/4/11/how-can-i-help

</comment><comment><USER100> HMO:

I am launching a message board/forum powered by Google Drive. getforum.us (Every 'workspace' is a Google Doc and all the documents attached are stored on your Google Drive.) I would love feedback on the user experience and your thoughts on the product.

How I can help: I can look at your product and use/review it for design and features. I also know some html5 and frontend javascript stuff if you have questions.

<comment><USER101> Have a contact address?

Minor thing upfront: The Signin-Workflow. First, signing in with Google, ok. Then, signing in again with Google into Forum? That didn't work, I tried it multiple times, until I just waited a bit after the login and the forum appeared by itself.

I'm behind a slow, flaky connection, but she seemed to be alright that moment.

<comment><USER100> hey I'm at firstname.lastname@example.com, thanks for the notice. I think there might be some problems with our login, will look into it.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Best blogging platform in 2014? - <AUTHOR>

After searching, it looks like other threads on this topic are pretty outdated, so I thought I would ask the HN community again...
What's the best blogging platform for a startup founder looking to share experiences related to starting a company and to drive inbound traffic to the startup? I'm new to blogging so not sure what's out there.
Some of the important criteria would be: 1) Somehow facilitates driving inbound traffic. 2) Good aesthetics. 3) What else?
One thing I don't care too much about is customization, because at this point I'm not going to be spending time tweaking the details.
It seems like two of the top contenders would be Wordpress and Medium. Pros/cons, other options?
Also, is it best to self-host it at blog.mycompany.com or keep it on company.bloggingplatform.com? ( or personalblog.bloggingplatform.com? ) <comment><USER2> I've always preferred static blog engines myself, so consider that bias when reading these suggestions.

octopress/jekyll are great. frog is okay if you want a more minimal octopress or are more familiar with racket or bootstrap.

aesthetics are pretty blog-engine agnostic, although some engines make certain styles easier to emulate simply due to their defaults (frog uses bootstrap, for example). If you're intending to use an off-the-shelf theme it'll probably be easiest to just use the engine that theme calls for.

If you are familiar with a certain mark-up language, pick an engine that supports it out of the box. Most every engine has a language it prefers, so if you're already familiar with the syntax and language you'll reduce the burden of learning the already foreign software by choosing a familiar route as far as markup languages go. Don't let it be a deciding factor though--many of the more advanced/expansive engines support changing languages on the fly.

Also, consider your method of deployment. Octopress/jekyll excel at github or remote deployments over rsync, whereas frog has no deployment options and is best either paired with other tools or on the remote machine itself. (I use these three examples, but the broad point is that they all take different philosophies on the matter, and that should be considered amongst the hundreds of options that exist.)

<comment><USER3> There seems to be a paucity of good drop-in themes, paid or not, for Octopress/Jekyll. There just is no theming community like for Wordpress :-(

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I would go WordPress and host at mycompany.com/blog for maximum SEO advantages.

Using Medium.com would work well for discoverability, although links to those articles would mean less SEO effect for your website, but more people would be able to find your articles.

If content marketing will be a key strategy, then you may be best served publishing articles on both platforms.

<comment><AUTHOR> Is mycompany.com/blog preferable to blog.mycompany.com for SEO purposes?

<comment><USER4> /blog is preferable according to Moz.com - [http://moz.com/community/q/moz-s- official-stance-on-subdomai...](http://moz.com/community/q/moz-s-official- stance-on-subdomain-vs-subfolder-does-it-need-updating)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Ghost seems very popular.

[https://ghost.org/](https://ghost.org/)

</comment><comment><USER6> Postaic ([http://postatic.com](http://postatic.com)) isn't a traditional "blogging" platform per se, but I've seen a few people using it as a content posting platform. It looks like you can certainly use it as a blog platform (I don't think it has text editor that is as good as wordpress).

It's used more to create online communities and audience though. Maybe you might want to take a look at it.

</comment><comment><USER7> If the blog is for your company, it's preferable to host it on your own subdomain, i.e., blog.example.com. However, a blogging platform is just fine for a personal blog.

It's trivial these days to set up and manage a static site, especially for a blog—check out Jekyll[1] or Harp[2] (or any other static site generator).

[1]: [http://jekyllrb.com/](http://jekyllrb.com/)

[2]: [http://harpjs.com/](http://harpjs.com/)

</comment><comment><USER8> The best free option I've found is to run Ghost, Buster, and Github-pages.

[http://talalanwar.com/host-a-ghost-blog-for- free/](http://talalanwar.com/host-a-ghost-blog-for-free/)

You said it's for your company so I would run your own Ghost instance on the companies subdomain and be done with it. Medium can be great for exposure but ultimately your posts will be more valuable on your own domain.

</comment><comment><USER9> [http://gohugo.io](http://gohugo.io) is great. It's secure and runs everywhere.

</comment><comment><USER10> posthaven?</comment>


Facebook is down.  - <AUTHOR>

http://cl.ly/GnJw
Facebook Will Be Back Soon Facebook is down for required maintenance right now, but you should be able to get back on within a few minutes. In the meantime, read more about why you're seeing this message. Thanks for your patience as we improve the site.
What does HN think? Anything to do with IPO? <comment><USER2> Works fine for me. Maybe thats just their error 500 page.</comment>