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36,458 | 36,281 |
ivankirigin
|
$100 + $12.95 a month for an easy to use, environmentally friendly Linux PC
|
rms
|
http://www.zonbu.com/plans/commitment.htm
Zonbu wants to provide a fair service to consumers. There are no hidden charges: you will not find those obscure setup fees on your Zonbu billing. In case that you are not satisfied with our service, you can keep the device and get a refund of your remaining subscription balance minus the prorated portion of your Zonbu hardware rebate. Let's take an example: if you choose the 50 GB every two year billing plan, you initially pay $99 + 24 $14.95 = $457.80. If you cancel the service after six months, you keep the device and we reimburse you: $119.10 = $14.95 18 - $150. Also, once your subscription terminates, you have read-only access to your data for three months, both from your Zonbu device and from any other remote access PC. During that time you are welcome to move your data from the Zonbu servers to another storage solution of your choice.
|
I like the business model and this review: http://news.digitaltrends.com/talkback202.html says that the overall experience with this box is great.Do you think they will be successful?
| 1 | 7 |
2007-07-24 21:45:34 UTC
|
36,466 | 36,333 |
wschroter
|
Why You Probably Won't Survive as an Independent Consultant
|
joshua8883
|
It sounds odd, but even when we were billing $150 per hour for Web work (through our agency with 100+ people on projects) the margins weren't that great. I'm not making a big sales pitch for working with a consulting firm (I sold mine and will never go back). But I wanted to point out that the golden vision of consulting is tarnished at best.
|
Don't take the title of this blog post wrong. I hope you survive as an Independent Consultant... I really do. Yet before you jump ship for the bountiful glory that is independent consulting, allow me to tell you the story of Zed - a person much like you that failed to realize the true evil that lurks behind the facade of independent consulting.Meet our Hero: ZedMeet our hero, Zed. Long ago, Zed was working as a star programmer for a consulting company getting paid $30 per hour while billing out $150 per hour to their client (probably more). Zed used his superior analytical skills to learn that his company is being paid $120 per hour more than Zed is being paid. Thats just ludicrous!So Zed did what any entrepreneurial minded superhero would do - he quit his job and went to work for the client as an Independent Consultant. This move now got him paid $60 per hour. The client paid out less, Zed's made twice as much, and that evil consulting company had been banished into oblivion. Everything is now right in the world. Zed is now living the life as an Independent Consultant - the dream job that's easy to start and nearly impossible to sustain.
But Zed's bliss would not last forever. Little did Zed know, that a new menace was about to rear it's ugly head - An evil force known as "Nu Bidnsss." Our Villain: Nu BidnsssWithin his first year of consulting, Zed was protected (financially) from ever having to deal with Nu Bidnsss. He was heavily sheltered in the warmth of a paying client to whom he could enjoy a prosperous life. Yet like every consulting engagement, the client too eventually fell out of love with Zed. Zed's incredible programming abilities eventually gave the client a product they were proud of, and soon Zed would not be needed any longer.One day, as Zed left a client "wrap up" meeting, he felt a cold chill across the back of his neck. He tensed, turned around quickly and saw the most fearsome creature he had ever laid eyes upon - Nu Bidnsss.Nu Bidnsss SucksWithout a lofty paying contract firmly in his hands, Zed did not know how to attack Nu Bidnsss. Beating this evil beast required abilities he had never learned, like salesmanship, networking, and the Shaolin art of the "Ass Kiss." Zed realized at that moment, that his training was all wrong. Until now he had made a great living by being a star programmer. His skills had made him heavily recruited out of college, highly sought-after in his consulting company, and well-paid from clients. Certainly with these skills he would never have to come face-to-face with Nu Bidnsss. Yet here he was, staring it down.The Fall of ZedTry as he might, Zed could not stop the force of Nu Bidnsss. It quickly swallowed up his savings, his second mortgage, and all of his credit cards. As Zed struggled wildly to defeat the beast, he realized that it was not his ability to work for clients that would save his life, it was his ability to get new clients, that would be his lifeblood. Alas, Zed has no frigging clue how to get new clients.
And so Zed was defeated by Nu Bidnsss. Drained of any of his financial resources, emotional excitement and his seemingly endless list of smart-ass remarks, he was taken by Nu Bidnsss and forced to work in the salt mine cubicles of hell - Big Corporate.- The End -EpilogueThis story is as sad as it is consistently true. Surviving as an independent consultant isn't about actually consulting (it's a given that you can do that.) It's about finding new business.As it happens, most people suck at finding new business. Once the Pixie Dust of the first client engagement wears off, the painful reality of having to beg for business becomes very obvious.If you truly want to build a business as a consultant, focus on the business of selling yourself, not specifically on delivery. If you're not good enough to get yourself in the door on your own merits, your life as an Independent Consultant is going to be short-lived at best. Like our boy Zed.
| 4 | 7 |
2007-07-24 22:33:47 UTC
|
36,467 | 36,281 |
nickb
|
$100 + $12.95 a month for an easy to use, environmentally friendly Linux PC
|
rms
|
Monthly fee? No thanks.
|
I like the business model and this review: http://news.digitaltrends.com/talkback202.html says that the overall experience with this box is great.Do you think they will be successful?
| 4 | 7 |
2007-07-24 22:34:38 UTC
|
36,468 | 36,383 |
tx
|
The Web's Top Takeover Targets
|
KB
|
Technorati? Who in their right mind would want to buy Technorati? They are AltaVista (anyone here remembers AltaVista?) of blog search: millions of irrelevant hits coupled with lousy response times. Moreover, Technorati is not even a blog search engine, they are an RSS search engine, there is a difference.
| null | 0 | 3 |
2007-07-24 22:35:00 UTC
|
36,469 | 36,333 |
Tichy
|
Why You Probably Won't Survive as an Independent Consultant
|
joshua8883
|
Um, what the heck is "Nu Bidnss"??? "New Biddings"? That story is hard to understand for non-native speakers...
|
Don't take the title of this blog post wrong. I hope you survive as an Independent Consultant... I really do. Yet before you jump ship for the bountiful glory that is independent consulting, allow me to tell you the story of Zed - a person much like you that failed to realize the true evil that lurks behind the facade of independent consulting.Meet our Hero: ZedMeet our hero, Zed. Long ago, Zed was working as a star programmer for a consulting company getting paid $30 per hour while billing out $150 per hour to their client (probably more). Zed used his superior analytical skills to learn that his company is being paid $120 per hour more than Zed is being paid. Thats just ludicrous!So Zed did what any entrepreneurial minded superhero would do - he quit his job and went to work for the client as an Independent Consultant. This move now got him paid $60 per hour. The client paid out less, Zed's made twice as much, and that evil consulting company had been banished into oblivion. Everything is now right in the world. Zed is now living the life as an Independent Consultant - the dream job that's easy to start and nearly impossible to sustain.
But Zed's bliss would not last forever. Little did Zed know, that a new menace was about to rear it's ugly head - An evil force known as "Nu Bidnsss." Our Villain: Nu BidnsssWithin his first year of consulting, Zed was protected (financially) from ever having to deal with Nu Bidnsss. He was heavily sheltered in the warmth of a paying client to whom he could enjoy a prosperous life. Yet like every consulting engagement, the client too eventually fell out of love with Zed. Zed's incredible programming abilities eventually gave the client a product they were proud of, and soon Zed would not be needed any longer.One day, as Zed left a client "wrap up" meeting, he felt a cold chill across the back of his neck. He tensed, turned around quickly and saw the most fearsome creature he had ever laid eyes upon - Nu Bidnsss.Nu Bidnsss SucksWithout a lofty paying contract firmly in his hands, Zed did not know how to attack Nu Bidnsss. Beating this evil beast required abilities he had never learned, like salesmanship, networking, and the Shaolin art of the "Ass Kiss." Zed realized at that moment, that his training was all wrong. Until now he had made a great living by being a star programmer. His skills had made him heavily recruited out of college, highly sought-after in his consulting company, and well-paid from clients. Certainly with these skills he would never have to come face-to-face with Nu Bidnsss. Yet here he was, staring it down.The Fall of ZedTry as he might, Zed could not stop the force of Nu Bidnsss. It quickly swallowed up his savings, his second mortgage, and all of his credit cards. As Zed struggled wildly to defeat the beast, he realized that it was not his ability to work for clients that would save his life, it was his ability to get new clients, that would be his lifeblood. Alas, Zed has no frigging clue how to get new clients.
And so Zed was defeated by Nu Bidnsss. Drained of any of his financial resources, emotional excitement and his seemingly endless list of smart-ass remarks, he was taken by Nu Bidnsss and forced to work in the salt mine cubicles of hell - Big Corporate.- The End -EpilogueThis story is as sad as it is consistently true. Surviving as an independent consultant isn't about actually consulting (it's a given that you can do that.) It's about finding new business.As it happens, most people suck at finding new business. Once the Pixie Dust of the first client engagement wears off, the painful reality of having to beg for business becomes very obvious.If you truly want to build a business as a consultant, focus on the business of selling yourself, not specifically on delivery. If you're not good enough to get yourself in the door on your own merits, your life as an Independent Consultant is going to be short-lived at best. Like our boy Zed.
| 6 | 7 |
2007-07-24 22:37:06 UTC
|
36,474 | 36,365 |
Jd
|
Think you work hard? Think again.
|
mmaunder
|
No, I don't think I work hard. Why else would I be here?
| null | 4 | 23 |
2007-07-24 22:48:44 UTC
|
36,479 | 36,378 |
Tichy
|
It's Time to Replace eBay
|
danw
|
They have disabled comments for a reason, I guess to avoid pointless flamewars. Just a thought - not everything might be as stupid as it seems at first sight. I agree that ebay is not as good as it could be, though.
| null | 6 | 19 |
2007-07-24 23:07:11 UTC
|
36,480 | 36,333 |
simpleenigma
|
Why You Probably Won't Survive as an Independent Consultant
|
joshua8883
|
Being an hourly consultant at the moment I will attest to the fact that it is much harder then it sounds at first. My only saving grace for being self-employed for the past 10 years is that my client like me and they tell their friends about me.Having lost one large client at a most inopportune time, I can attest to the perils, but when you get the formula down you can make a decent living and still have time to live.But the real fun is in creating something larger then yourself and it is almost impossible to do that completley on your own.
|
Don't take the title of this blog post wrong. I hope you survive as an Independent Consultant... I really do. Yet before you jump ship for the bountiful glory that is independent consulting, allow me to tell you the story of Zed - a person much like you that failed to realize the true evil that lurks behind the facade of independent consulting.Meet our Hero: ZedMeet our hero, Zed. Long ago, Zed was working as a star programmer for a consulting company getting paid $30 per hour while billing out $150 per hour to their client (probably more). Zed used his superior analytical skills to learn that his company is being paid $120 per hour more than Zed is being paid. Thats just ludicrous!So Zed did what any entrepreneurial minded superhero would do - he quit his job and went to work for the client as an Independent Consultant. This move now got him paid $60 per hour. The client paid out less, Zed's made twice as much, and that evil consulting company had been banished into oblivion. Everything is now right in the world. Zed is now living the life as an Independent Consultant - the dream job that's easy to start and nearly impossible to sustain.
But Zed's bliss would not last forever. Little did Zed know, that a new menace was about to rear it's ugly head - An evil force known as "Nu Bidnsss." Our Villain: Nu BidnsssWithin his first year of consulting, Zed was protected (financially) from ever having to deal with Nu Bidnsss. He was heavily sheltered in the warmth of a paying client to whom he could enjoy a prosperous life. Yet like every consulting engagement, the client too eventually fell out of love with Zed. Zed's incredible programming abilities eventually gave the client a product they were proud of, and soon Zed would not be needed any longer.One day, as Zed left a client "wrap up" meeting, he felt a cold chill across the back of his neck. He tensed, turned around quickly and saw the most fearsome creature he had ever laid eyes upon - Nu Bidnsss.Nu Bidnsss SucksWithout a lofty paying contract firmly in his hands, Zed did not know how to attack Nu Bidnsss. Beating this evil beast required abilities he had never learned, like salesmanship, networking, and the Shaolin art of the "Ass Kiss." Zed realized at that moment, that his training was all wrong. Until now he had made a great living by being a star programmer. His skills had made him heavily recruited out of college, highly sought-after in his consulting company, and well-paid from clients. Certainly with these skills he would never have to come face-to-face with Nu Bidnsss. Yet here he was, staring it down.The Fall of ZedTry as he might, Zed could not stop the force of Nu Bidnsss. It quickly swallowed up his savings, his second mortgage, and all of his credit cards. As Zed struggled wildly to defeat the beast, he realized that it was not his ability to work for clients that would save his life, it was his ability to get new clients, that would be his lifeblood. Alas, Zed has no frigging clue how to get new clients.
And so Zed was defeated by Nu Bidnsss. Drained of any of his financial resources, emotional excitement and his seemingly endless list of smart-ass remarks, he was taken by Nu Bidnsss and forced to work in the salt mine cubicles of hell - Big Corporate.- The End -EpilogueThis story is as sad as it is consistently true. Surviving as an independent consultant isn't about actually consulting (it's a given that you can do that.) It's about finding new business.As it happens, most people suck at finding new business. Once the Pixie Dust of the first client engagement wears off, the painful reality of having to beg for business becomes very obvious.If you truly want to build a business as a consultant, focus on the business of selling yourself, not specifically on delivery. If you're not good enough to get yourself in the door on your own merits, your life as an Independent Consultant is going to be short-lived at best. Like our boy Zed.
| 0 | 7 |
2007-07-24 23:15:17 UTC
|
36,498 | 36,497 |
marrone
|
Don't Break The Chain
|
marrone
|
It works. I used to do something similar for going to the gym
|
Some good advice that can apply to any aspiration
| 4 | 43 |
2007-07-25 00:21:24 UTC
|
36,502 | 36,501 |
palish
|
News.YC bug: You can submit sites multiple times by putting spaces after the URL.
|
palish
|
Dupe. Original discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36500
| null | 0 | 4 |
2007-07-25 00:35:13 UTC
|
36,503 | 36,500 |
palish
|
News.YC bug: You can submit sites multiple times by putting spaces after the URL.
|
palish
|
Dupe! Original post: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36501
| null | 2 | 6 |
2007-07-25 00:35:24 UTC
|
36,508 | 36,497 |
rms
|
Don't Break The Chain
|
marrone
|
Yeah, that's pretty good advice.
|
Some good advice that can apply to any aspiration
| 6 | 43 |
2007-07-25 01:34:54 UTC
|
36,518 | 36,500 |
jey
|
News.YC bug: You can submit sites multiple times by putting spaces after the URL.
|
palish
|
"?foo", "?bar", "&foo=bar", and "#fnord" tooJust don't submit dupes, problem solved. :)
| null | 1 | 6 |
2007-07-25 03:32:50 UTC
|
36,519 | 36,497 |
pg
|
Don't Break The Chain
|
marrone
|
I found it works for running. After you have a two month streak going, you really don't want to miss a day. You find you make the rest of your life fit around it.
|
Some good advice that can apply to any aspiration
| 0 | 43 |
2007-07-25 03:36:14 UTC
|
36,520 | 36,500 |
pg
|
News.YC bug: You can submit sites multiple times by putting spaces after the URL.
|
palish
|
You can do similar things to any such site by putting a question mark at the end of the url, which most servers ignore.The point of recognizing urls is to avoid ordinary dupe submissions, not to prevent abuse.
| null | 0 | 6 |
2007-07-25 03:38:21 UTC
|
36,521 | 36,497 |
mynameishere
|
Don't Break The Chain
|
marrone
|
Seinfeld kept telling the same jokes for years.
|
Some good advice that can apply to any aspiration
| 3 | 43 |
2007-07-25 03:51:10 UTC
|
36,522 | 36,152 |
omarish
|
Ads on paulgraham.com -- Check the bottom of any PG essay
|
prakash
|
So how do you get a sample set that's not biased? What kind of benefit is there to the user in saying that the ad worked the way it should?
|
Interesting YC startup plugging in "relevant ads". Check the bottom of any PG essay i.e.: http://paulgraham.com/writing44.html
| 12 | 31 |
2007-07-25 04:11:54 UTC
|
36,525 | 36,449 |
Jd
|
Instant Django: No-installation-required portable Django environment for windows, with tutorial
|
nickb
|
Anyone installed this? The documentation seems sparse and if what I see on this website is all that is available, this is not quite the equivalent of Instant Rails. No Apache, MySQL, PhpMyAdmin, Management Interface, etc.In other words, all of LAMP except for 'LAM'. Can anyone confirm? I will try it on my XP box when I get the chance.
| null | 0 | 9 |
2007-07-25 04:45:41 UTC
|
36,531 | 36,333 |
falsestprophet
|
Why You Probably Won't Survive as an Independent Consultant
|
joshua8883
|
So, how should one find clients?
|
Don't take the title of this blog post wrong. I hope you survive as an Independent Consultant... I really do. Yet before you jump ship for the bountiful glory that is independent consulting, allow me to tell you the story of Zed - a person much like you that failed to realize the true evil that lurks behind the facade of independent consulting.Meet our Hero: ZedMeet our hero, Zed. Long ago, Zed was working as a star programmer for a consulting company getting paid $30 per hour while billing out $150 per hour to their client (probably more). Zed used his superior analytical skills to learn that his company is being paid $120 per hour more than Zed is being paid. Thats just ludicrous!So Zed did what any entrepreneurial minded superhero would do - he quit his job and went to work for the client as an Independent Consultant. This move now got him paid $60 per hour. The client paid out less, Zed's made twice as much, and that evil consulting company had been banished into oblivion. Everything is now right in the world. Zed is now living the life as an Independent Consultant - the dream job that's easy to start and nearly impossible to sustain.
But Zed's bliss would not last forever. Little did Zed know, that a new menace was about to rear it's ugly head - An evil force known as "Nu Bidnsss." Our Villain: Nu BidnsssWithin his first year of consulting, Zed was protected (financially) from ever having to deal with Nu Bidnsss. He was heavily sheltered in the warmth of a paying client to whom he could enjoy a prosperous life. Yet like every consulting engagement, the client too eventually fell out of love with Zed. Zed's incredible programming abilities eventually gave the client a product they were proud of, and soon Zed would not be needed any longer.One day, as Zed left a client "wrap up" meeting, he felt a cold chill across the back of his neck. He tensed, turned around quickly and saw the most fearsome creature he had ever laid eyes upon - Nu Bidnsss.Nu Bidnsss SucksWithout a lofty paying contract firmly in his hands, Zed did not know how to attack Nu Bidnsss. Beating this evil beast required abilities he had never learned, like salesmanship, networking, and the Shaolin art of the "Ass Kiss." Zed realized at that moment, that his training was all wrong. Until now he had made a great living by being a star programmer. His skills had made him heavily recruited out of college, highly sought-after in his consulting company, and well-paid from clients. Certainly with these skills he would never have to come face-to-face with Nu Bidnsss. Yet here he was, staring it down.The Fall of ZedTry as he might, Zed could not stop the force of Nu Bidnsss. It quickly swallowed up his savings, his second mortgage, and all of his credit cards. As Zed struggled wildly to defeat the beast, he realized that it was not his ability to work for clients that would save his life, it was his ability to get new clients, that would be his lifeblood. Alas, Zed has no frigging clue how to get new clients.
And so Zed was defeated by Nu Bidnsss. Drained of any of his financial resources, emotional excitement and his seemingly endless list of smart-ass remarks, he was taken by Nu Bidnsss and forced to work in the salt mine cubicles of hell - Big Corporate.- The End -EpilogueThis story is as sad as it is consistently true. Surviving as an independent consultant isn't about actually consulting (it's a given that you can do that.) It's about finding new business.As it happens, most people suck at finding new business. Once the Pixie Dust of the first client engagement wears off, the painful reality of having to beg for business becomes very obvious.If you truly want to build a business as a consultant, focus on the business of selling yourself, not specifically on delivery. If you're not good enough to get yourself in the door on your own merits, your life as an Independent Consultant is going to be short-lived at best. Like our boy Zed.
| 7 | 7 |
2007-07-25 05:04:52 UTC
|
36,532 | 36,333 |
jamiequint
|
Why You Probably Won't Survive as an Independent Consultant
|
joshua8883
|
How to survive: Take the idea that to be successful you have to "Make something people want." and apply it to consulting. (e.g. provide a service people want) If you want to optimize your per-hour take (since you are bound by your time if you work solo that is the only thing you can significantly maximize) keep on top of your skills and move with the market.
|
Don't take the title of this blog post wrong. I hope you survive as an Independent Consultant... I really do. Yet before you jump ship for the bountiful glory that is independent consulting, allow me to tell you the story of Zed - a person much like you that failed to realize the true evil that lurks behind the facade of independent consulting.Meet our Hero: ZedMeet our hero, Zed. Long ago, Zed was working as a star programmer for a consulting company getting paid $30 per hour while billing out $150 per hour to their client (probably more). Zed used his superior analytical skills to learn that his company is being paid $120 per hour more than Zed is being paid. Thats just ludicrous!So Zed did what any entrepreneurial minded superhero would do - he quit his job and went to work for the client as an Independent Consultant. This move now got him paid $60 per hour. The client paid out less, Zed's made twice as much, and that evil consulting company had been banished into oblivion. Everything is now right in the world. Zed is now living the life as an Independent Consultant - the dream job that's easy to start and nearly impossible to sustain.
But Zed's bliss would not last forever. Little did Zed know, that a new menace was about to rear it's ugly head - An evil force known as "Nu Bidnsss." Our Villain: Nu BidnsssWithin his first year of consulting, Zed was protected (financially) from ever having to deal with Nu Bidnsss. He was heavily sheltered in the warmth of a paying client to whom he could enjoy a prosperous life. Yet like every consulting engagement, the client too eventually fell out of love with Zed. Zed's incredible programming abilities eventually gave the client a product they were proud of, and soon Zed would not be needed any longer.One day, as Zed left a client "wrap up" meeting, he felt a cold chill across the back of his neck. He tensed, turned around quickly and saw the most fearsome creature he had ever laid eyes upon - Nu Bidnsss.Nu Bidnsss SucksWithout a lofty paying contract firmly in his hands, Zed did not know how to attack Nu Bidnsss. Beating this evil beast required abilities he had never learned, like salesmanship, networking, and the Shaolin art of the "Ass Kiss." Zed realized at that moment, that his training was all wrong. Until now he had made a great living by being a star programmer. His skills had made him heavily recruited out of college, highly sought-after in his consulting company, and well-paid from clients. Certainly with these skills he would never have to come face-to-face with Nu Bidnsss. Yet here he was, staring it down.The Fall of ZedTry as he might, Zed could not stop the force of Nu Bidnsss. It quickly swallowed up his savings, his second mortgage, and all of his credit cards. As Zed struggled wildly to defeat the beast, he realized that it was not his ability to work for clients that would save his life, it was his ability to get new clients, that would be his lifeblood. Alas, Zed has no frigging clue how to get new clients.
And so Zed was defeated by Nu Bidnsss. Drained of any of his financial resources, emotional excitement and his seemingly endless list of smart-ass remarks, he was taken by Nu Bidnsss and forced to work in the salt mine cubicles of hell - Big Corporate.- The End -EpilogueThis story is as sad as it is consistently true. Surviving as an independent consultant isn't about actually consulting (it's a given that you can do that.) It's about finding new business.As it happens, most people suck at finding new business. Once the Pixie Dust of the first client engagement wears off, the painful reality of having to beg for business becomes very obvious.If you truly want to build a business as a consultant, focus on the business of selling yourself, not specifically on delivery. If you're not good enough to get yourself in the door on your own merits, your life as an Independent Consultant is going to be short-lived at best. Like our boy Zed.
| 3 | 7 |
2007-07-25 05:18:49 UTC
|
36,534 | 35,363 |
inklesspen
|
Can news.yc provide a 'comment' link in the RSS feeds?
|
rob
|
This is a bit old, but I made an alternate feed that did this: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20419
|
I like how the feed titles go directly to the article in question and not to their own homepage first (like Digg), but I often find that I want to comment on a story I read here on news.yc. This means I have to open up news.ycombinator.com, find the article, and click 'comments'. Can you provide a simple '[comments]' link in the feed body pointing to the news.yc comment page, similar to reddit?
| 3 | 4 |
2007-07-25 05:48:48 UTC
|
36,540 | 17,947 |
loveit
|
The Hacker's Guide to Investors
|
byrneseyeview
|
FOUR STARS, THE FIFTH STAR RAN ACROSS THE STREET.
loveit
| null | 18 | 59 |
2007-07-25 07:00:52 UTC
|
36,546 | 36,533 |
rnesh
|
Pics of Web Company HQs in California - Digg, Facebook, OpenDNS..
|
PStamatiou
|
Most of these places look like they have a great work environment. Getting a tour of these companies must have been an awesome experience.
| null | 4 | 21 |
2007-07-25 08:44:26 UTC
|
36,548 | 36,543 |
Tichy
|
Y! releases YSlow for Firebug - Analyzes pages and tells you why they're slow
|
nickb
|
Did anybody find the download link?
| null | 6 | 37 |
2007-07-25 09:33:28 UTC
|
36,555 | 36,542 |
sabhishek
|
Quick Q
|
stu_utterguy
|
C++, Pascal will be of little help I'm afraid. Web developement can be broadly categoriesed into points as below, that you might want to learn.Server side : PHP, JSP,ASP,Ruby.
Presentation/Client side scripting : HTML,CSS,Javascript
Backend: MySql, Oracle etc.I suggest you to start a project and learn while you code, learning curve may be
high for you depending on the level of exp you have.
|
Hey, I don't know much about computers but I'm interested in learning how to make great web pages, Web 2.0 Apps,and Facebook Apps. Right now, I have been brushing up on C++ and Pascal (languages I have previously learned). Basically what is the right progression for me to develop the skills for the aforementioned?
| 1 | 2 |
2007-07-25 10:22:37 UTC
|
36,559 | 36,543 |
benhoyt
|
Y! releases YSlow for Firebug - Analyzes pages and tells you why they're slow
|
nickb
|
That is sweet. Typical -- google.com gets an A for everything. :-) The Stats tab showed me immediately the importance of an Expires header.
| null | 3 | 37 |
2007-07-25 11:40:43 UTC
|
36,566 | 36,545 |
willarson
|
"Why I quit" by Linux kernel developer Con Kolivas
|
nickb
|
Pretty disheartening story to read. One of the greatest frustrations with open source is that it, like all other human enterprises, eventually becomes a matter of politics.
Reading the article it seems like the requirements of desktops and servers are sufficiently different to deserve separate kernels. It certainly wasn't worth his time to keep working with the kernel developers if they refused to fairly examine his contributions.
| null | 0 | 17 |
2007-07-25 12:57:23 UTC
|
36,567 | 36,554 |
omouse
|
Justin.TV To Film Itself Filming Itself
|
terpua
|
They're thinking of calling it "I am a Strange Loop"
| null | 1 | 6 |
2007-07-25 13:09:31 UTC
|
36,569 | 36,497 |
brlewis
|
Don't Break The Chain
|
marrone
|
This principle is why many Lisp hackers fail to make good web sites or applications. Lisp programming can lead to days and weeks of fun programming, so that you break the chain of doing less-fun but important programming. Sometimes the improvement users want most involves non-fun programming. You really have to push yourself to implement it instead of procrastinating by coding something more fun but less desired.
|
Some good advice that can apply to any aspiration
| 1 | 43 |
2007-07-25 13:15:48 UTC
|
36,570 | 36,542 |
willarson
|
Quick Q
|
stu_utterguy
|
Web development requires small slices of dozens of skills. You need to be able to design web-pages (CSS, HTML, a personal design aesthetic). You need to be able to interface between your pages and your server (web frameworks ease the pain of this: Django (Python), Ruby On Rails (Ruby), Seaside (Squeak), Lift (Scala), and others in Scheme, Common Lisp, Java, etc). You (will probably) need to be able to add interactivity to your projects: javascript/ajax or Flash (or, theoretically, Silverlight). You will need to interact with databases to create persistent data (PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite), or at least learn how to use an ORM (object-relational mapping, used to create a simpler interface to interact with databases without using Structured Query Language).
If you are seriously devoted to developing a web applications, I would consider trying Django. It is a full development stack (it will help you with templates for your html, views to populate the templates, an ORM to control your database, etc), and I found it more intuitive than Ruby-on-Rails.
However, given the wide number of skills involved in web programming, I would strongly consider focusing on one aspect and becoming proficient at that. Specializing means you can more quickly become an asset (to a team), but will also develop skills you would need to develop anyway to develop quality web applications.
Although many web applications seem stupidly simple, there is still a huge amount of time and effort being spent invisibly: testing for cross-browser compliance, designing and building a system that scales horizontally, designing your website to appeal to customers, setting up your production hosting, cleaning and escaping all incoming data to prevent various security exploits, creating a caching framework to avoid hitting your database if possible (slow), designing your overall system to perform quickly, and the list never ends: there is always something else.
This is the joy of web programming, and also the reason that it is hard to do well. Don't be discouraged, just realize that it isn't simple, and get to work. :)
|
Hey, I don't know much about computers but I'm interested in learning how to make great web pages, Web 2.0 Apps,and Facebook Apps. Right now, I have been brushing up on C++ and Pascal (languages I have previously learned). Basically what is the right progression for me to develop the skills for the aforementioned?
| 0 | 2 |
2007-07-25 13:31:25 UTC
|
36,573 | 36,533 |
mynameishere
|
Pics of Web Company HQs in California - Digg, Facebook, OpenDNS..
|
PStamatiou
|
From the corner office straight to the chiropractor (classy verizon T, by the way):http://paulstamatiou.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/opendns_...I guess that might be a holding pen for reporters, and not an office, though. Then check out this stupid car:http://paulstamatiou.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/sf_carre...How stupid is that? The King Tiger tank (69 Tons) produced 690 horsepower. That car (1.5 tons) produces 612 horsepower. What a waste. And your typical diesel locomotive might product 3000+ horsepower (about 5 times as much) while hauling millions of pounds. And it doesn't even compare to a real car for looks:http://firsttraderegistry.com/forsale/9_06/65mustang2/1965%2...We're so vain.
| null | 1 | 21 |
2007-07-25 13:38:41 UTC
|
36,578 | 36,577 |
djworth
|
Can I get some YC.News love for My Facebook App?
|
djworth
|
This app allows you and your friends to vote on Amazon stuff.
|
http://apps.facebook.com/iwantone/
| 0 | 4 |
2007-07-25 13:49:28 UTC
|
36,582 | 36,139 |
jkush
|
C.E.O. Libraries Reveal Keys to Success
|
yubrew
|
Great article - thanks for posting this. When I make my fortune, I will almost certainly build an extensive library where I can sit and read in comfort and quiet.
| null | 2 | 11 |
2007-07-25 14:22:09 UTC
|
36,584 | 36,558 |
byrneseyeview
|
Manager Mathematics
|
edu
|
"What I hope this demonstrates is that some of the most common programming/design tasks (such as compiling/rendering) which can take perhaps 1-2 minutes but are performed 50 times a day can mean a serious waste of time and therefore money. And by using simple Manager Mathematics you can calculate how much is being wasted and use it to justify buying hardware/software which will reduce that time."So 'manager math' means figuring out the total cost of wasted time by multiplying wasted time per task by number of tasks by cost of time? It takes 'manager math' to say "If you make $50/hour and screw around for eight hours, you'll cost us $400"?I look forward to tomorrow's installment of Manager Emailing, in which we find that if you write a message, and send it to a particular email address, the owner of that email address will get a message saying exactly the same thing! It's like magic!
|
A simple equation to see how much money is being wasted each day due to stoppers. And without havint into account the fact that these stoppers break the flow.
| 0 | 3 |
2007-07-25 14:39:30 UTC
|
36,585 | 36,497 |
ivankirigin
|
Don't Break The Chain
|
marrone
|
I can imagine using multiple colors for various tasks on a single board. I might try this. I use something close to GTD, with a flat text file. I really need a PDA though.
|
Some good advice that can apply to any aspiration
| 2 | 43 |
2007-07-25 14:42:10 UTC
|
36,588 | 36,507 |
lkozma
|
Your 404 Error Pages
|
dawie
|
I never understood the point in customized 404 pages. I think the whole purpose is to tell the user the page doesn't exist, as quickly as possible. Since users are used to the standard page, the quickest way to do it is to show them exactly that. When I see a customized 404 page, first I'm fooled into thinking it's a valid page, then I feel disappointed, after I realize what it is.
| null | 0 | 4 |
2007-07-25 14:51:01 UTC
|
36,590 | 36,589 |
jsjenkins168
|
yc input on rehomer - free, open, disinterested marriage of technology and real estate
|
gaconnet
|
You need to cut out 99.9% of that text on the main page. I'm sure you have very important information there that probably applies to me, but theres no way I'm going to be able to find it.If you have more to say, place it in pages off of the front page. Users will go there if they want to find out more.
|
The rising popularity of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software">free open source software</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page">free knowledge</a> excite my fiancee and me to no end. I imagine many industries can benefit from open and free philosophies. This manifesto explains our attempt to bring some of this culture into the real estate industry. The project is in its early stages--heavy prototyping and feature research.Thoughts? Concerns? Good idea poorly executed? Bad idea decently executed? We present it to this fine community first; I figure if a bunch of open-minded entrepreneurs hate it, then I am probably off target for any audience.Regarding the length, I understand it's wrong for the general public. At the moment we are targeting the copy to those people with a twinkle in their eyes--the ones who like to sweat the details and meditate on text. Hopefully those who merely skim it will catch at least one paragraph that turns on a light bulb.For those who are lazy, like me, here is an abbreviated edition:Consensus decision-making + free disinterested service + community moderation of listings and individuals + mobile features = the future of real estate established at rehomer.comIf you like the idea, point your real estate friends to the site; we will need legions of bright, courageous leaders to establish new standards of quality, possibly while under scrutiny from powerful competitors. If you dislike the idea, I respect your right to rip into me.
| 2 | 1 |
2007-07-25 14:53:56 UTC
|
36,591 | 36,589 |
gaconnet
|
yc input on rehomer - free, open, disinterested marriage of technology and real estate
|
gaconnet
|
I apologize if this text is duplicated elsewhere in my post. I've been lurking here since launch but have never posted.The rising popularity of free open source software and free knowledge, like Wikipedia, excite my fiancee and me to no end. I imagine many industries can benefit from open and free philosophies. This manifesto explains our attempt to bring some of this culture into the real estate industry. The project is in its early stages--heavy prototyping and feature research.Thoughts? Concerns? Good idea poorly executed? Bad idea decently executed? We present it to this fine community first; I figure if a bunch of open-minded entrepreneurs hate it, then I am probably off target for any audience.Regarding the length, I understand it's wrong for the general public. At the moment we are targeting the copy to those people with a twinkle in their eyes--the ones who like to sweat the details and meditate on text. Hopefully those who merely skim it will catch at least one paragraph that turns on a light bulb.For those who are lazy, like me, here is an abbreviated edition:Consensus decision-making + free disinterested service + community moderation of listings and individuals + mobile features = the future of real estate established at rehomer.comIf you like the idea, point your real estate friends to the site; we will need legions of bright, courageous leaders to establish new standards of quality, possibly while under scrutiny from powerful competitors. If you dislike the idea, I respect your right to rip into me.
|
The rising popularity of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software">free open source software</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page">free knowledge</a> excite my fiancee and me to no end. I imagine many industries can benefit from open and free philosophies. This manifesto explains our attempt to bring some of this culture into the real estate industry. The project is in its early stages--heavy prototyping and feature research.Thoughts? Concerns? Good idea poorly executed? Bad idea decently executed? We present it to this fine community first; I figure if a bunch of open-minded entrepreneurs hate it, then I am probably off target for any audience.Regarding the length, I understand it's wrong for the general public. At the moment we are targeting the copy to those people with a twinkle in their eyes--the ones who like to sweat the details and meditate on text. Hopefully those who merely skim it will catch at least one paragraph that turns on a light bulb.For those who are lazy, like me, here is an abbreviated edition:Consensus decision-making + free disinterested service + community moderation of listings and individuals + mobile features = the future of real estate established at rehomer.comIf you like the idea, point your real estate friends to the site; we will need legions of bright, courageous leaders to establish new standards of quality, possibly while under scrutiny from powerful competitors. If you dislike the idea, I respect your right to rip into me.
| 0 | 1 |
2007-07-25 14:55:38 UTC
|
36,592 | 36,533 |
lkozma
|
Pics of Web Company HQs in California - Digg, Facebook, OpenDNS..
|
PStamatiou
|
"A chain is still a chain, even if made of gold" :)
| null | 2 | 21 |
2007-07-25 14:59:00 UTC
|
36,598 | 36,543 |
acgourley
|
Y! releases YSlow for Firebug - Analyzes pages and tells you why they're slow
|
nickb
|
Neat. My companies website mostly fails despite feeling quite fast subjectively though.
| null | 5 | 37 |
2007-07-25 15:46:57 UTC
|
36,599 | 36,482 |
sanj
|
Celebrity Deathmatch: Facebook vs. EC2
|
sanj
|
My question appears to have sunk without a trace.I'm surprised because it seems like an issue many folks should be worrying about!
|
I'm wondering what the YC crowd thinks of Amazon's web services (S3 and EC2) as a means to handle Facebook traffic.The pmarca blog entry about facebook intoned "the Facebook Platform is primarily for use by either big companies, or venture-backed startups with the funding and capability to handle the slightly insane scale requirements. Individual developers are going to have a very hard time taking advantage of it in useful ways."Can EC2 and a considered strategy to distribute load across [Amazon's] servers mitigate this?Are there other tools and services that scale with usage in this way?Anyone have experience with them?
| 1 | 1 |
2007-07-25 15:51:48 UTC
|
36,600 | 36,594 |
jamongkad
|
Why do we require user registration?
|
migpwr
|
I was actually pondering about this one time. Do we really need user registrations and accounts? The answer I can give you it depends on what app you're building. I would say yes if you require your user to save some sort of content online. Giving them incentive to come back to your site. I always thought that user registration adds friction to any app. I guess it all comes down to how it's implemented and how easy it is to get user from point A to B on your app.(e.g. reddit's way of user registration comes mind) Although the implementation of OpenID should ease that restriction a bit. In short I personally like the idea of not having to register on your app. Why don't you try it? see if users like the system. Besides it's their opinion that matters anyways. Is seems like a novel way of approaching web apps these days. Hope this helps....
|
So I've recently been driven nuts by having to register for new services. I just cant justify spending the time registering anymore... I know I wont come back but maybe a handful of times.The app I am writing is a small video editor and I am starting to change my mind about requiring user registration. It seems like the default these days but I cant see any significant gain to the user from an account on my site. Keeping track of a few video clips does not seem like enough justification... not to me anyway. There is no profile to what I'm writing and there are no friends.Aside from being able to say I have xx number of users why do we require user registration? Would your usage not increase if it's completely open? Thoughts?Thanks and my apologies if this has been discussed before and I missed it.
| 3 | 8 |
2007-07-25 16:07:12 UTC
|
36,604 | 36,543 |
raghus
|
Y! releases YSlow for Firebug - Analyzes pages and tells you why they're slow
|
nickb
|
Interesting that http://developer.yahoo.com/yslow/ itself gets an F grade with YSlow
| null | 0 | 37 |
2007-07-25 16:24:04 UTC
|
36,605 | 36,603 |
jsjenkins168
|
Warning to Facebook app developers: mind reading skills required!
|
amichail
|
This type of stuff has to be expected when you're working in a walled garden, which is what facebook platform is...
|
When you submit your app to Facebook's Product Directory, it may be rejected with a very vague reason such as this:"Thanks for your submission of "<appname>" to the Facebook Platform's Product Directory. We have reviewed your application, and unfortunately cannot yet add it to the directory because it is unfinished or under construction. Please fix this problem and resubmit the application."Now you get to have lots of fun trying to guess what this is all about. In fact, looking through the Developers' group might give you some ideas. Maybe one day you might stumble upon the reason for the rejection. Or maybe not.
| 2 | 8 |
2007-07-25 16:30:13 UTC
|
36,606 | 36,603 |
amichail
|
Warning to Facebook app developers: mind reading skills required!
|
amichail
|
One of the rumors mentioned in the Developer's group is that you need to supply a post-remove url, presumably to delete all the user's data upon uninstallation of your app. But is that even a good idea? What if the user adds it again? Shouldn't the data be retained?
|
When you submit your app to Facebook's Product Directory, it may be rejected with a very vague reason such as this:"Thanks for your submission of "<appname>" to the Facebook Platform's Product Directory. We have reviewed your application, and unfortunately cannot yet add it to the directory because it is unfinished or under construction. Please fix this problem and resubmit the application."Now you get to have lots of fun trying to guess what this is all about. In fact, looking through the Developers' group might give you some ideas. Maybe one day you might stumble upon the reason for the rejection. Or maybe not.
| 4 | 8 |
2007-07-25 16:31:52 UTC
|
36,607 | 36,060 |
cwilbur
|
Build and here comes visitors do not work? why is that?
|
7media
|
No, it means that building the site is not sufficient, no matter how wonderful it is, and no matter how much people who use it love it -- you also need to find a way to tell people about it.One of the most brilliant examples I've seen is ravelry.com -- there's an existing online community of knitters, and the people behind ravelry.com invited a few people to test, and gave them invitations to share, much like gmail did. Shortly thereafter they built a registration queue so that they could scale up gradually. Word of mouth did the rest, and twenty thousand people signed up, either for accounts or on the waiting list.
|
Does it mean it will not work without VC funding? And do names matter anymore with names such as Reddit and Digg or is it a word with a .com?
| 1 | 3 |
2007-07-25 16:35:58 UTC
|
36,614 | 36,482 |
willarson
|
Celebrity Deathmatch: Facebook vs. EC2
|
sanj
|
EC2 could help avoid the cost of having dedicated servers to handle the potentially massive (and more likely extremely small) traffic from FaceBook. This wouldn't be too hard, just have one dedicated server and a box running a load balancer which would automatically spawn EC2 instances if the average load got too high (and kill them if they got too low).
Although its easy to outline this solution, I do think it would be difficult for a lone individual to develop their application along with maintaining the scaling aspects of it. Worse, I think that the Facebook platform is not a very rewarding venue to pursue for a small company, especially one that would be risking a meaningful portion of their funding on it.
|
I'm wondering what the YC crowd thinks of Amazon's web services (S3 and EC2) as a means to handle Facebook traffic.The pmarca blog entry about facebook intoned "the Facebook Platform is primarily for use by either big companies, or venture-backed startups with the funding and capability to handle the slightly insane scale requirements. Individual developers are going to have a very hard time taking advantage of it in useful ways."Can EC2 and a considered strategy to distribute load across [Amazon's] servers mitigate this?Are there other tools and services that scale with usage in this way?Anyone have experience with them?
| 0 | 1 |
2007-07-25 17:20:52 UTC
|
36,616 | 36,613 |
vlad
|
Justin in undies in NYC live for the next hour
|
vlad
|
If it's over, here's an archive link:http://www.justin.tv/justin/9086
| null | 2 | 6 |
2007-07-25 17:22:54 UTC
|
36,620 | 36,378 |
rsheridan6
|
It's Time to Replace eBay
|
danw
|
Would it be feasible for a competitor to use Ebay's network effects? If users gave an Ebay-killer their Ebay passwords, their feedback could be imported, helping to get the initial activation energy. A superior auction/marketplace meta-search application could also help kill Ebay. If people preferred to use it, buyers would see auctions at competitors' sites, not just Ebay. Creating a meta-search site might be a good first step for an Ebay-killer.
| null | 3 | 19 |
2007-07-25 17:30:31 UTC
|
36,621 | 36,589 |
danielha
|
yc input on rehomer - free, open, disinterested marriage of technology and real estate
|
gaconnet
|
It's good that you thought this entire thing through and can validate its existence with a lot of words. But no one is going to read it. Worse, people will leave the site. Try to sum it up, even if it only covers a fraction of the "big picture."
|
The rising popularity of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software">free open source software</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page">free knowledge</a> excite my fiancee and me to no end. I imagine many industries can benefit from open and free philosophies. This manifesto explains our attempt to bring some of this culture into the real estate industry. The project is in its early stages--heavy prototyping and feature research.Thoughts? Concerns? Good idea poorly executed? Bad idea decently executed? We present it to this fine community first; I figure if a bunch of open-minded entrepreneurs hate it, then I am probably off target for any audience.Regarding the length, I understand it's wrong for the general public. At the moment we are targeting the copy to those people with a twinkle in their eyes--the ones who like to sweat the details and meditate on text. Hopefully those who merely skim it will catch at least one paragraph that turns on a light bulb.For those who are lazy, like me, here is an abbreviated edition:Consensus decision-making + free disinterested service + community moderation of listings and individuals + mobile features = the future of real estate established at rehomer.comIf you like the idea, point your real estate friends to the site; we will need legions of bright, courageous leaders to establish new standards of quality, possibly while under scrutiny from powerful competitors. If you dislike the idea, I respect your right to rip into me.
| 3 | 1 |
2007-07-25 17:35:15 UTC
|
36,623 | 36,594 |
ed
|
Why do we require user registration?
|
migpwr
|
You can only offer a limited feature set if you lack true user accounts. Photoflock.com for example relies purely on client persistence to manage the user's upload history. It's a simpler solution than requiring accounts -- there's less friction for a user to begin interacting with your site (ie no registration process) -- but doing things like tracking accounts and providing reliable usage stats is pretty difficult.Additionally, your users will never be able to (easily) sych between computers and to be honest you'll eventually add user accounts anyway. That's not to say that you'll implement a full username/password scheme, but you will need some sort of server-side persistence.That's where I'm at in my development right now, and I'm looking at a happy middle ground where the user CAN have an account (optionally) to do things like sync between computers but will vary rarely be asked for account information. My advice would be to sketch out a road map and assume that you will eventually add some sort of user account -- and then architect your site so that when you make that transition your users won't lose all of their data (as will be the case for photoflock's history data).
|
So I've recently been driven nuts by having to register for new services. I just cant justify spending the time registering anymore... I know I wont come back but maybe a handful of times.The app I am writing is a small video editor and I am starting to change my mind about requiring user registration. It seems like the default these days but I cant see any significant gain to the user from an account on my site. Keeping track of a few video clips does not seem like enough justification... not to me anyway. There is no profile to what I'm writing and there are no friends.Aside from being able to say I have xx number of users why do we require user registration? Would your usage not increase if it's completely open? Thoughts?Thanks and my apologies if this has been discussed before and I missed it.
| 1 | 8 |
2007-07-25 17:37:33 UTC
|
36,626 | 36,533 |
startupper
|
Pics of Web Company HQs in California - Digg, Facebook, OpenDNS..
|
PStamatiou
|
This is OK but I'd be more interested in seeing where these companies started out -- in a dorm room, around a kitchen table... any place else?
| null | 3 | 21 |
2007-07-25 17:58:06 UTC
|
36,627 | 36,594 |
dood
|
Why do we require user registration?
|
migpwr
|
If I understand, you're saying people use your site to do a bit of video editing. In this case, I guess the purpose of registration is to save user state, beyond sessions/cookies. Therefore, you could simply have a 'save' button, only asking for name/pw once it has been clicked. This way its up to the user to decide when/if to register.
|
So I've recently been driven nuts by having to register for new services. I just cant justify spending the time registering anymore... I know I wont come back but maybe a handful of times.The app I am writing is a small video editor and I am starting to change my mind about requiring user registration. It seems like the default these days but I cant see any significant gain to the user from an account on my site. Keeping track of a few video clips does not seem like enough justification... not to me anyway. There is no profile to what I'm writing and there are no friends.Aside from being able to say I have xx number of users why do we require user registration? Would your usage not increase if it's completely open? Thoughts?Thanks and my apologies if this has been discussed before and I missed it.
| 2 | 8 |
2007-07-25 18:02:21 UTC
|
36,633 | 36,594 |
koobe
|
Why do we require user registration?
|
migpwr
|
How about automatically created anonymous user accounts and ability to later merge into a regular user account with username and password.An anonymous account would essentially identify a single browser and enable server side storage required for full application functionality. Should the user later feel like the registration is worth the trouble after all, he could merge one or multiple anonymous accounts into a single regular account.One thing to think about in advance could be to prepare for merging data from multiple accounts.I think Amazon shopping cart did something along these lines?
|
So I've recently been driven nuts by having to register for new services. I just cant justify spending the time registering anymore... I know I wont come back but maybe a handful of times.The app I am writing is a small video editor and I am starting to change my mind about requiring user registration. It seems like the default these days but I cant see any significant gain to the user from an account on my site. Keeping track of a few video clips does not seem like enough justification... not to me anyway. There is no profile to what I'm writing and there are no friends.Aside from being able to say I have xx number of users why do we require user registration? Would your usage not increase if it's completely open? Thoughts?Thanks and my apologies if this has been discussed before and I missed it.
| 0 | 8 |
2007-07-25 18:23:37 UTC
|
36,634 | 36,594 |
run4yourlives
|
Why do we require user registration?
|
migpwr
|
Here are a few valid reasons, from a user's point of view for registration:1. I want to use your site on different machines.2. I have no idea when where my cookies go or do, but I know it's good to delete them from time to time.3. I have information on your site that I consider semi-private.4. I really like you app, and I like being a part of your community (assuming you have one).5. I really like the people who use your app. (You've already said this isn't valid in your case)I wouldn't discount the first three points though.Instead of requiring it, just make it optional and ask why people are signing up during the process. They'll let you know. Good luck!
|
So I've recently been driven nuts by having to register for new services. I just cant justify spending the time registering anymore... I know I wont come back but maybe a handful of times.The app I am writing is a small video editor and I am starting to change my mind about requiring user registration. It seems like the default these days but I cant see any significant gain to the user from an account on my site. Keeping track of a few video clips does not seem like enough justification... not to me anyway. There is no profile to what I'm writing and there are no friends.Aside from being able to say I have xx number of users why do we require user registration? Would your usage not increase if it's completely open? Thoughts?Thanks and my apologies if this has been discussed before and I missed it.
| 5 | 8 |
2007-07-25 18:24:02 UTC
|
36,636 | 36,365 |
horatio05
|
Think you work hard? Think again.
|
mmaunder
|
I don't think continuous work means continuous productivity. I can sit and stare at my code editor for hours and write little or no code at all.
I am more like a Cheetah. I sprint, take down my prey, and feast on it for days.
| null | 8 | 23 |
2007-07-25 18:27:01 UTC
|
36,638 | 36,589 |
gaconnet
|
yc input on rehomer - free, open, disinterested marriage of technology and real estate
|
gaconnet
|
Thank you both for taking the time to comment. I wholeheartedly believe you are both right, as was my fiancee who told me the same thing. Three consenting opinions is enough to convince me.But what can I say--I have a bad influence (http://paulgraham.com/articles.html)? ;)
|
The rising popularity of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software">free open source software</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page">free knowledge</a> excite my fiancee and me to no end. I imagine many industries can benefit from open and free philosophies. This manifesto explains our attempt to bring some of this culture into the real estate industry. The project is in its early stages--heavy prototyping and feature research.Thoughts? Concerns? Good idea poorly executed? Bad idea decently executed? We present it to this fine community first; I figure if a bunch of open-minded entrepreneurs hate it, then I am probably off target for any audience.Regarding the length, I understand it's wrong for the general public. At the moment we are targeting the copy to those people with a twinkle in their eyes--the ones who like to sweat the details and meditate on text. Hopefully those who merely skim it will catch at least one paragraph that turns on a light bulb.For those who are lazy, like me, here is an abbreviated edition:Consensus decision-making + free disinterested service + community moderation of listings and individuals + mobile features = the future of real estate established at rehomer.comIf you like the idea, point your real estate friends to the site; we will need legions of bright, courageous leaders to establish new standards of quality, possibly while under scrutiny from powerful competitors. If you dislike the idea, I respect your right to rip into me.
| 1 | 1 |
2007-07-25 18:27:32 UTC
|
36,642 | 36,587 |
horatio05
|
The Value of Friend-Raising
|
joshua8883
|
Interesting, but I don't know if I like the idea of someone befriending me simply because they are "networking" for their business. Then again it makes sense to work with the people you like, so I suppose there is some truth to it.
|
During my last trip to the Bay Area, I visited with FoundRead's Carleen Hawn. When Carleen asked me what I was up to, I explained that I was buried in back-to-back meetings with folks around town discussing my current project, Go BIG Network. "Are you fund-raising?" she asked, to which I responded: "No, I'm friend-raising!" I wasn't kidding. I was on a mission to make as many new friends as possible.You see, our company's growth isn't only dependent on finding more cash; but it is dependent on us meeting more people. And frankly, I've always found "raising friends" is far more valuable than raising money.The Monetary Value of a Friend
For the sake of this argument, let's set aside the fact that true friendships aren't really about money. But in a business context we're probably not talking about true friendships at all. We're talking about building relationships with people who can help grow your business; put another way, people whom you would otherwise have to pay money to meet.For example, you could take some of your VC funding and hire a business development executive to go out and build new partnerships on behalf of your company, and to extend to your operations with his or her existing rolodex of "friends." But, you'd be "purchasing" those relationships and deals X to the tune of about $100,000 in annual salary for the biz dev executive.Now imagine that this same biz dev exec is a friend of yours. Instead of shelling out six figures in cash, he or she simply would make the same introductions for you as a favor. In this case, the value received is exactly the same, but the cost to you is zero.So while many entrepreneurs spend most of their time ingratiating themselves with VCs in order to collaterally gain access to useful people, I figure out who those useful people are first, and then spend all my time trying to meet them myself.This is what I mean when I say I swap fund-raising for friend-raising.Wait a Minute! Isn't that just "Networking?"
Okay, sure it is. It's networking. It's business development. Sometimes it means pretending that the people I meet at a cocktail party aren't as important to my business as they are, and so forth. It's all of those things, but more importantly, it's recognizing that money typically buys relationships in an indirect way. It's also recognizing that the more relationships I build, the less money I need.My Friendship-Development Plan
You've heard of a "Business Development Plan". It's a series of targets and milestones that execs use to grow their sales efforts. I've worked on BD Plans for ten different companies, and in every case, it was ultimately about creating relationships.When I realized this, I shifted my focus to the Friendship Development Plan. I laid out all of the relationships that I would need to have X everyone from investors and advisors to bloggers and customers. Then I created milestones or targets, focused on a few people whom I would try to build a relationship with along a specific timeline.I divided the list of friend prospects into strategic categories. For example, I knew Go BIG would need a voice in the blogging community, so I set out to build relationships with the folks at GigaOM (parent of Found|Read), VentureBeat, and TechCrunch. I've now written for all four of these sites!By simply picking up the phone and forging relationships with Om, Matt and Mike directly, I avoided needing to pay some PR agency a $10,000-a-month retainer for the same benefit.Getting Serious About Friend-Raising
Most founders know that they need to network more, but they still don't do it. Yet inexplicably, entrepreneurs happily devote countless hours to courting the gods of venture capital.If you could take all the time and energy you've spent courting capital and express it in terms of "useful resources purchased," I think you'd find that getting serious about "friend-raising" is the more economical proposition.Your plan to build friends won't ever be as quantitative as a tradtional sales planXin which it is possible to tie new customer relationships directly to receivables. Don't be so callous as to try to equate every new friend to a dollar figure (which is just weird). Quantify it this way: as the total value of time and energy you save in terms of the fund-raising you no longer need to do_.In Go BIG's case, by taking all the time and energy that might have gone into fund-raising and refocusing it on building relationships ourselves with the media, customers, partners, and talent, we avoided taking a first round of capital. I can't say how much any one of these friend-relationships is worth in simple dollars, but I do know that we skipped raising what otherwise would have been a $2 million A-Round. And Go BIG did just fine.Of course, now that I've said all this, I'm probably get a bill from Carleen. But it still will have been worth it.
| 0 | 5 |
2007-07-25 18:43:43 UTC
|
36,645 | 36,644 |
nostrademons
|
Someone should add a column to this Wikipedia page about Y-Combinator StartUps: Status
|
ivankirigin
|
I'd also like to see them ordered chronologically rather than alphabetically, so that we can see the progression through status as the startups get older.
| null | 0 | 19 |
2007-07-25 18:53:46 UTC
|
36,647 | 36,637 |
KB
|
Does anyone knows of a good mobile address book backup service?
|
rokhayakebe
|
I know a few of the major carriers offer this type of service for a monthly fee. I suppose you could look into that, however there's a build in flaw to this model.If you use a carrier's backup service for your address/contact list, you can only use that with phones from that particular service. For example, you could transfer information from one AT&T Wireless phone to another AT&T phone, but you wouldn't be able to move data from a AT&T phone to a Nextel phone. I've seen some third-party devices out there that will help you move contacts from one service to another, but I haven't seen backup service that will allows for this functionality without manual (hardware or PC software) intervention.
| null | 0 | 2 |
2007-07-25 18:56:04 UTC
|
36,648 | 36,594 |
sabat
|
Why do we require user registration?
|
migpwr
|
Why do we require user registration? Because the value of an application is usually tied to the community it serves. The larger the community, the more value. Without a login, it's more difficult to gauge the community.Also, personalization of site. You could do that solely with a cookie, but then when I'm on another computer ...
|
So I've recently been driven nuts by having to register for new services. I just cant justify spending the time registering anymore... I know I wont come back but maybe a handful of times.The app I am writing is a small video editor and I am starting to change my mind about requiring user registration. It seems like the default these days but I cant see any significant gain to the user from an account on my site. Keeping track of a few video clips does not seem like enough justification... not to me anyway. There is no profile to what I'm writing and there are no friends.Aside from being able to say I have xx number of users why do we require user registration? Would your usage not increase if it's completely open? Thoughts?Thanks and my apologies if this has been discussed before and I missed it.
| 7 | 8 |
2007-07-25 19:00:58 UTC
|
36,650 | 36,533 |
pq
|
Pics of Web Company HQs in California - Digg, Facebook, OpenDNS..
|
PStamatiou
|
We want all our companies to have offices like this.
| null | 5 | 21 |
2007-07-25 19:14:58 UTC
|
36,651 | 36,644 |
pq
|
Someone should add a column to this Wikipedia page about Y-Combinator StartUps: Status
|
ivankirigin
|
Things change too fast for status to be accurate.
| null | 4 | 19 |
2007-07-25 19:16:22 UTC
|
36,653 | 36,543 |
nickb
|
Y! releases YSlow for Firebug - Analyzes pages and tells you why they're slow
|
nickb
|
Quick question.. has anyone looked into how much it costs to put your JS/CSS/img files on a CDN? Do big CDNs like Akamai even consider small-volume startups?
| null | 2 | 37 |
2007-07-25 19:17:43 UTC
|
36,654 | 36,635 |
pq
|
Micro-Multinationals: Why Slide and RockYou are tapping global talent pools
|
ChrisO
|
If it weren't for visa issues, we'd tap into this pool, too.
| null | 0 | 4 |
2007-07-25 19:18:03 UTC
|
36,656 | 36,543 |
mojos
|
Y! releases YSlow for Firebug - Analyzes pages and tells you why they're slow
|
nickb
|
This is just a big ad for CDNs
| null | 4 | 37 |
2007-07-25 19:23:14 UTC
|
36,658 | 36,617 |
nostrademons
|
A chart of Facebook's revenues
|
nickb
|
This is what they said about Google before it went public, though.I'd really like to see that S-1, though. For a company with $100M in revenue to be asking for a $10B market valuation takes a lot of chutzpah. Typically, growth stocks will trade at something like 4x revenue. That would give FaceBook a market cap of around $400-600M.
| null | 0 | 1 |
2007-07-25 19:25:08 UTC
|
36,659 | 36,637 |
mikesabat
|
Does anyone knows of a good mobile address book backup service?
|
rokhayakebe
|
I'm not sure, but I would check out grandcentral.com
| null | 3 | 2 |
2007-07-25 19:27:30 UTC
|
36,660 | 36,613 |
create_account
|
Justin in undies in NYC live for the next hour
|
vlad
|
Can you say "freakshow"?It seems inevitable that Justin porn is next...
| null | 1 | 6 |
2007-07-25 19:29:05 UTC
|
36,662 | 36,637 |
flybird
|
Does anyone knows of a good mobile address book backup service?
|
rokhayakebe
|
I have looked into this opportunity two years ago. here are my research:
1) USA carriers like Verizon offers a service charging $5 a month to backup contact
2) Carriers in China offers for free. But you have to input them first. But you can query your contact book using SMS. I assume their online contact book sync with your Outlook
3) In 3G, there is a mobile contact book XML standard, using which you can sync with any online contact book supporting that standard on 3G network. There are plenty of startups doing that already since it's so simple to implement.
| null | 2 | 2 |
2007-07-25 19:29:40 UTC
|
36,667 | 36,603 |
amichail
|
Warning to Facebook app developers: mind reading skills required!
|
amichail
|
BTW, the app in question is here:http://apps.facebook.com/studystickiesAny hints on what might be wrong with it?
|
When you submit your app to Facebook's Product Directory, it may be rejected with a very vague reason such as this:"Thanks for your submission of "<appname>" to the Facebook Platform's Product Directory. We have reviewed your application, and unfortunately cannot yet add it to the directory because it is unfinished or under construction. Please fix this problem and resubmit the application."Now you get to have lots of fun trying to guess what this is all about. In fact, looking through the Developers' group might give you some ideas. Maybe one day you might stumble upon the reason for the rejection. Or maybe not.
| 5 | 8 |
2007-07-25 19:35:58 UTC
|
36,670 | 36,644 |
brlewis
|
Someone should add a column to this Wikipedia page about Y-Combinator StartUps: Status
|
ivankirigin
|
Someone has gone in and added a "status" column.Everything in that column should have a date, at least an approximate one. There's too much on Wikipedia that's written in present tense. It should really be called "exit", not "status".
| null | 1 | 19 |
2007-07-25 19:43:02 UTC
|
36,671 | 36,637 |
danw
|
Does anyone knows of a good mobile address book backup service?
|
rokhayakebe
|
iSync on a mac? Or give zyb a try, it's pretty good.
| null | 5 | 2 |
2007-07-25 19:44:54 UTC
|
36,672 | 36,655 |
brlewis
|
"The Customer Is Always Right" is Wrong
|
pq
|
Please cut out the PQ experiment. Of course pg gets more upvotes because many of us pay more attention to him than to random people. The voting isn't indiscriminate; you'll notice some of his comments and submissions do sit at 1.
| null | 0 | 5 |
2007-07-25 19:45:18 UTC
|
36,677 | 36,615 |
ivankirigin
|
Probably one of our favorites for chat programs on the iPhone, heysan!
|
marie
|
What is the heysan business model? Get bought? Tiny text ads eventually?
| null | 0 | 8 |
2007-07-25 19:48:43 UTC
|
36,678 | 36,655 |
edu
|
"The Customer Is Always Right" is Wrong
|
pq
|
At my current job they have a quite strange philosophy, which I don't share.One one side the customer is simply a retarded who can't learn to use anything (but the managers have weird concept of usability), but at the same time the customer is always right and can decide exactly how their project should work, and how the screens must look. So I end having a bunch of screens that must follow all the client requeriments and at same time be uber-easy to use.
| null | 1 | 5 |
2007-07-25 19:49:19 UTC
|
36,683 | 36,544 |
ivankirigin
|
Django Master Class (presentation and notes from OSCON 2007)
|
nickb
|
This is a great presentation. Who is else using Django besides me an Pownce? What about web.py?
| null | 0 | 13 |
2007-07-25 19:55:09 UTC
|
36,685 | 36,603 |
snorkel
|
Warning to Facebook app developers: mind reading skills required!
|
amichail
|
This is by far not the only gotcha in Facebook apping. The Applications Settings form is a magical mess of spagetti logic. The first thing your learn is your can't even access the most useful applications settings in the form unless you choose "other users can install this application" ... then magically the form explodes with all the options you really need to set ... wtf? ...and then the About text for your app is entered in two different forms. Choosing developed by a company vs. developed by individual causes different kind of linkage on the app About page.... The most drunken delusional designer at Microsoft could not design a worse form than this.Another thing you learn on your own is Facebook does not tell you the end user's ID unless the user installed your application. Their docs talk about the login process but are silent on explaining the difference between login vs. install which leads to this madness about "infinite sessions". All it means is if the user installs your application == infinite session. If user "logs into" your application == 24 hour session. Needless to say it is easier if user installed your application, again not mentioned in the docs.Oh and another thing, Facebook does not save application data for you. Saving user settings and data is totally your problem to solve. It'd be nice if Facebook had an API to stash just a little bit of data for each app user but no dice....oh and finally try submitting your application to the product directory... SORRY! Your application needs to have at least 5 users before it will be listed!! How does an application that hasn't lanuched yet and isn't even listed get 5 users??? Such are the mysteries of Facebook.
|
When you submit your app to Facebook's Product Directory, it may be rejected with a very vague reason such as this:"Thanks for your submission of "<appname>" to the Facebook Platform's Product Directory. We have reviewed your application, and unfortunately cannot yet add it to the directory because it is unfinished or under construction. Please fix this problem and resubmit the application."Now you get to have lots of fun trying to guess what this is all about. In fact, looking through the Developers' group might give you some ideas. Maybe one day you might stumble upon the reason for the rejection. Or maybe not.
| 0 | 8 |
2007-07-25 20:00:11 UTC
|
36,686 | 36,637 |
rokhayakebe
|
Does anyone knows of a good mobile address book backup service?
|
rokhayakebe
|
All good answers. The reason I am asking is because we made such a software for java phones ( and we can port it to more phones) and I was wondering if that feature is enough to launch a startup around it.
What do you think
| null | 6 | 2 |
2007-07-25 20:06:03 UTC
|
36,687 | 36,613 |
aantix
|
Justin in undies in NYC live for the next hour
|
vlad
|
And this headline was suppose to entice us to go to the site....?
| null | 0 | 6 |
2007-07-25 20:07:10 UTC
|
36,689 | 36,562 |
Jd
|
For anyone close to Providence, RI: Meetup @ AS220 Wed. July 25th
|
KB
|
Wild. I was living in Providence for over a year and never heard of this.
| null | 0 | 3 |
2007-07-25 20:12:26 UTC
|
36,690 | 36,543 |
herdrick
|
Y! releases YSlow for Firebug - Analyzes pages and tells you why they're slow
|
nickb
|
Looks good, but you shouldn't put equal weight on all the categories. Profiling something slow (a program, a site) means figuring out what's killing you and fixing that. So don't worry about getting an 'A' grade from this thing for checking all the boxes.
| null | 1 | 37 |
2007-07-25 20:17:55 UTC
|
36,697 | 36,533 |
papersmith
|
Pics of Web Company HQs in California - Digg, Facebook, OpenDNS..
|
PStamatiou
|
Wow, Aeron chairs at a conference table. I usually only see them in posh marketing firms where executives sit in conferences all day.
| null | 0 | 21 |
2007-07-25 20:39:58 UTC
|
36,705 | 36,613 |
crxnamja
|
Justin in undies in NYC live for the next hour
|
vlad
|
so hot right now. total boner;P
| null | 3 | 6 |
2007-07-25 21:09:00 UTC
|
36,710 | 36,706 |
nickb
|
No Response Needed
|
crxnamja
|
A single most powerful line I've been using when communicating to people is: "Thank you."The author of this article is clueless.PS: I linked this: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36709
|
Tired of Pointless email responses?
| 1 | 2 |
2007-07-25 21:16:29 UTC
|
36,711 | 36,554 |
Tichy
|
Justin.TV To Film Itself Filming Itself
|
terpua
|
Couldn't he get an invitation to a party by Paris Hilton? That would be more interesting...In fact, shouldn't there be enough "Stars" who might appreciate his company? Maybe they should bank on that.
| null | 0 | 6 |
2007-07-25 21:17:41 UTC
|
36,718 | 36,594 |
ks
|
Why do we require user registration?
|
migpwr
|
Many blogs require an email address if you want to comment. I've never understood why. I just enter a bogus address
|
So I've recently been driven nuts by having to register for new services. I just cant justify spending the time registering anymore... I know I wont come back but maybe a handful of times.The app I am writing is a small video editor and I am starting to change my mind about requiring user registration. It seems like the default these days but I cant see any significant gain to the user from an account on my site. Keeping track of a few video clips does not seem like enough justification... not to me anyway. There is no profile to what I'm writing and there are no friends.Aside from being able to say I have xx number of users why do we require user registration? Would your usage not increase if it's completely open? Thoughts?Thanks and my apologies if this has been discussed before and I missed it.
| 6 | 8 |
2007-07-25 21:34:27 UTC
|
36,719 | 36,713 |
twism
|
http is deprecated
|
nickb
|
People use "http://" in web content?
| null | 1 | 6 |
2007-07-25 21:45:11 UTC
|
36,726 | 36,721 |
epi0Bauqu
|
Decision to store geocodes
|
glangley
|
Definitely store them, or at least cache them.
|
I am working on a website and am planning on implementing a google map on each page and would need to make between 10-50 geocode requests on each page. Is it smart to have a whole new table just for storing these geocode address or is it easier to just hit google every page refresh? Thanks in advance.
| 2 | 1 |
2007-07-25 22:06:28 UTC
|
36,728 | 36,603 |
amichail
|
Warning to Facebook app developers: mind reading skills required!
|
amichail
|
As an update on this, what you need to do is send a request for elaboration to [email protected]. I got detailed feedback by doing so.
|
When you submit your app to Facebook's Product Directory, it may be rejected with a very vague reason such as this:"Thanks for your submission of "<appname>" to the Facebook Platform's Product Directory. We have reviewed your application, and unfortunately cannot yet add it to the directory because it is unfinished or under construction. Please fix this problem and resubmit the application."Now you get to have lots of fun trying to guess what this is all about. In fact, looking through the Developers' group might give you some ideas. Maybe one day you might stumble upon the reason for the rejection. Or maybe not.
| 1 | 8 |
2007-07-25 22:08:50 UTC
|
36,739 | 36,704 |
Keios
|
How to learn how to program well
|
wensing
|
Job A if your want to improve your creativity.Job B if you want to encourage your technique.To improve my programming I generally do things that I can't figure out how to do in my head.
|
I graduated from undergrad with (essentially) a C.S. minor in 2003. Since then I've managed to pick up some practical hacking skills and projects, but I really want to take my programming to a higher level. What's the best way to do that? FWIW, my language of choice right now is Python, which is what our startup is written in. What little I know and understand about functional programming and recursion, I enjoy, but I feel like I still don't have a very strong grasp on algorithms, performance, and what makes for truly beautiful code. I own PG's ANSI Common Lisp and have considered studying it as part of the answer to this question.To complicate this, a little background: I've been offered two jobs: Job A means I can code in any language I want on a really cool skunkworks project--but I would have to be entirely self-taught; Job B means I would have to code in C#.NET, but I would be surrounded by some serious nerds (OS and graphics types) that would in theory be willing to mentor me.What would you choose, assuming compensation was the same?
| 2 | 3 |
2007-07-25 23:02:39 UTC
|
36,740 | 36,721 |
willarson
|
Decision to store geocodes
|
glangley
|
Epi0Bauqu is definitely correct that you do not want to access google 10-50 times with each page refresh, that would be very slow.
However, with the number of pieces of data you are requesting you'll have to be intelligent with your storage and querying mechanism. Example: you will very likely want to fork your queries to google to make the entire batch of requests simultaneously instead of sequentially. When you start implementing a caching/storage mechanism you'll want to keep this in mind too: accessing memcached 50 times sequentially will be slower than querying PostgreSQL once (in general, although if the database is very large and has to be paged in and out of memory, etc, this may not hold). So you'll probably want to figure out a way to store these requests in your database, and have a single query that can recall all the relevant geocodes (I don't know the details of how the geocodes will relate to each other, so I can't really be specific), and then you will want to cache that entire request. This will mean that you will (when dealing with data you have already retrieved from google... and prefetching data that you expect to see wouldn't be a bad idea) have at worst one SQL query, and at best a quick access in memcached.
If you can't think of a way to group requests like this, I strongly suspect you will need to rethink your application. Performing 10-50 external requests per page refresh will put a serious damper on your site's performance, and making 50 database queries per page refresh or even 50 memcached queries per page refresh is probably untenable (although you could start caching the entire created pages, depending on what exactly your application does). To get sufficiently quick speed to do 50 queries, you'd probably have to use local memory (which is significantly quicker than memcached), but using local memory will open the door into a thread safety hell.
|
I am working on a website and am planning on implementing a google map on each page and would need to make between 10-50 geocode requests on each page. Is it smart to have a whole new table just for storing these geocode address or is it easier to just hit google every page refresh? Thanks in advance.
| 0 | 1 |
2007-07-25 23:05:16 UTC
|
36,741 | 36,721 |
glangley
|
Decision to store geocodes
|
glangley
|
sorry let me in explain. i will have a database of locations and it already stores the address. i havent looked to deeply into the google maps api, so i am not sure if I will make just 1 request to google for the entire map or if it requires 50 requests to get every marker on the map.so, would it make sense to cache the results? anyone have good links for tips on memcache?thanks already for the great feedback
|
I am working on a website and am planning on implementing a google map on each page and would need to make between 10-50 geocode requests on each page. Is it smart to have a whole new table just for storing these geocode address or is it easier to just hit google every page refresh? Thanks in advance.
| 1 | 1 |
2007-07-25 23:17:02 UTC
|
36,742 | 36,704 |
willarson
|
How to learn how to program well
|
wensing
|
I would take the first job. Many people without a complete formal education have this fear about the things they should know. They also assume that if they had only completed a CS major they would in fact understand these things. Unfortunately this doesn't play out.
I graduated with a CS major, and many of my classmates who graduated with the same did not have a very strong grasp on "algorithms, performance, or what makes beautiful code". Don't let the lack of a formal CS education distress you. The students who know the most are the ones who are off doing their own projects and working with each other to create things, those who charge through the curriculum learn a lot, but don't internalize the knowledge, and thus retain little of it.
|
I graduated from undergrad with (essentially) a C.S. minor in 2003. Since then I've managed to pick up some practical hacking skills and projects, but I really want to take my programming to a higher level. What's the best way to do that? FWIW, my language of choice right now is Python, which is what our startup is written in. What little I know and understand about functional programming and recursion, I enjoy, but I feel like I still don't have a very strong grasp on algorithms, performance, and what makes for truly beautiful code. I own PG's ANSI Common Lisp and have considered studying it as part of the answer to this question.To complicate this, a little background: I've been offered two jobs: Job A means I can code in any language I want on a really cool skunkworks project--but I would have to be entirely self-taught; Job B means I would have to code in C#.NET, but I would be surrounded by some serious nerds (OS and graphics types) that would in theory be willing to mentor me.What would you choose, assuming compensation was the same?
| 0 | 3 |
2007-07-25 23:19:07 UTC
|
36,744 | 36,507 |
simpleenigma
|
Your 404 Error Pages
|
dawie
|
The only thing I can think of is to create a way to try to get the user to the page they were requesting as quickly as possible. Or at least make sure you keep them on your site instead of them wandering off somewhere else.
| null | 1 | 4 |
2007-07-25 23:23:53 UTC
|
36,745 | 36,706 |
bls
|
No Response Needed
|
crxnamja
|
"Are you sick of emails that say 'thanks' or 'sounds great' and other pointless ones that you really didn't need to read?"I never want to work with anybody that has that attitude. You don't have to time even READ (let alone politely respond to) a "thank you?" But, I bet you have plenty of time to read and respond to everything on digg, reddit, slashdot, news.yc, and facebook.
|
Tired of Pointless email responses?
| 0 | 2 |
2007-07-25 23:24:16 UTC
|
36,746 | 36,603 |
bluishgreen
|
Warning to Facebook app developers: mind reading skills required!
|
amichail
|
Facebook is reminding me more and more of Microsoft, it would be good for them if they remind us of Google or something.
[ microsoft = bad. google = ok.]
|
When you submit your app to Facebook's Product Directory, it may be rejected with a very vague reason such as this:"Thanks for your submission of "<appname>" to the Facebook Platform's Product Directory. We have reviewed your application, and unfortunately cannot yet add it to the directory because it is unfinished or under construction. Please fix this problem and resubmit the application."Now you get to have lots of fun trying to guess what this is all about. In fact, looking through the Developers' group might give you some ideas. Maybe one day you might stumble upon the reason for the rejection. Or maybe not.
| 3 | 8 |
2007-07-25 23:26:13 UTC
|
36,755 | 36,704 |
luxiou
|
How to learn how to program well
|
wensing
|
I would take the first job. It will likely put you in more "if I don't figure this out, nobody else will, and we'll be completely screwed" type situations, and those can be great motivators for doing/learning things you never would have bothered with otherwise.
|
I graduated from undergrad with (essentially) a C.S. minor in 2003. Since then I've managed to pick up some practical hacking skills and projects, but I really want to take my programming to a higher level. What's the best way to do that? FWIW, my language of choice right now is Python, which is what our startup is written in. What little I know and understand about functional programming and recursion, I enjoy, but I feel like I still don't have a very strong grasp on algorithms, performance, and what makes for truly beautiful code. I own PG's ANSI Common Lisp and have considered studying it as part of the answer to this question.To complicate this, a little background: I've been offered two jobs: Job A means I can code in any language I want on a really cool skunkworks project--but I would have to be entirely self-taught; Job B means I would have to code in C#.NET, but I would be surrounded by some serious nerds (OS and graphics types) that would in theory be willing to mentor me.What would you choose, assuming compensation was the same?
| 4 | 3 |
2007-07-26 00:37:49 UTC
|
36,757 | 36,704 |
henning
|
How to learn how to program well
|
wensing
|
It kinda just takes time.I think the ideal situation would be having something like Job B for a while until you feel like you're a solidly professional duder, and then move on to something more risky and adventurous. I wasted vast amounts of time trying to teach myself to program as a teenager because I didn't know where to go to. Having some structure and guidance could help you.
|
I graduated from undergrad with (essentially) a C.S. minor in 2003. Since then I've managed to pick up some practical hacking skills and projects, but I really want to take my programming to a higher level. What's the best way to do that? FWIW, my language of choice right now is Python, which is what our startup is written in. What little I know and understand about functional programming and recursion, I enjoy, but I feel like I still don't have a very strong grasp on algorithms, performance, and what makes for truly beautiful code. I own PG's ANSI Common Lisp and have considered studying it as part of the answer to this question.To complicate this, a little background: I've been offered two jobs: Job A means I can code in any language I want on a really cool skunkworks project--but I would have to be entirely self-taught; Job B means I would have to code in C#.NET, but I would be surrounded by some serious nerds (OS and graphics types) that would in theory be willing to mentor me.What would you choose, assuming compensation was the same?
| 6 | 3 |
2007-07-26 00:48:37 UTC
|
36,761 | 36,615 |
whacked_new
|
Probably one of our favorites for chat programs on the iPhone, heysan!
|
marie
|
What about the photo scroller?
| null | 1 | 8 |
2007-07-26 01:06:30 UTC
|
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