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Do You Twitter? | ericwan: http://twitter.com/ericwandon't twitter often, but try to understand its appeal and user dynamics. |
What's your favorite HTML Web presentation tool? | apgwoz: I used Slidy this past week. I needed to show some code examples, and it worked out well. However, I spent a lot of time customizing the look of it. I didn't look for "themes," before hand and ending up wasting a ton of time hacking CSS to get it to look the way I wanted it to. |
Looking for a good name for a new url snapping service O_o | password_woops: nameboy.com showing me these are available:rocketsnap.comsnapgoblin.comsnapalistic.comfreesnapper.com |
Looking for a good name for a new url snapping service O_o | suggestions: What about snappr.com ?
then ..hmm... snapsta, snapaholic, websnapr, thumbaroo, snapzoo, thumbjungle, pans, webshoot, thumbrowse, thumby, snapmonster, snapfree, photoshoot, snap2snap, web2snap, |
Would you rather work for Microsoft or Amazon? | vaksel: Can you give a general idea of what kind of "team" at MSFT? is it internet related or software related? |
Would you rather work for Microsoft or Amazon? | icey: Do you feel that you want to be a career developer or do you think you'd prefer starting up somewhere?If you think you want to be a career guy, go with Microsoft; it's golden on any resume and it has the benefit of treating its employees very well.If you think you want to be a startup guy, I'd say that you hear about many more people doing startups with Amazon in their past than Microsoft. Plus, Amazon is an expert in the efficiency game - they know what technologies can get the job done, and being exposed to that culture is great for forming the startup mentality. |
Do You Twitter? | wheels: I was slow warming to twitter, but really I've found that there's a pretty huge overlap between my LinkedIn contacts and my Twitter followers. It's largely my online-geek-entrepreneur persona and it's a nice way of letting other folks in the world keep tabs on what stuff we've got coming down the pipe and doing the same for other startups / geeks.Available in full flavor and low fat:http://twitter.com/scotchihttp://twitter.com/directededge |
Next Step for Monetizing our Site | seunosewa: Seriously, if you have that much traffic, just use adsense.And kill your downloadable product - it serves no purpose business-wise except to tempt you to take steps that will reduce your traffic and by extension your ad revenues. |
How do you manage new feature requests for your application? | rdrimmie: I think it depends a bit on how relevant community is to your application. If there's a community of users that is built up naturally by using your app (like there is at say Stack Overflow, which uses UserVoice) then you'll want to provide a place for the community to talk about features.If your various users are generally unaware of each other, then I think that having a place for them to send you suggestions is fine.My general thought is that building a system to handle suggestions before you have any is mildly premature. Provide an obvious way for users to send suggestions - a form or a prominent email address is usually fine - but wait until the flood of suggestions becomes a problem before solving it. |
How to Catch Bad Bots? | CalmQuiet: I appreciate your raising the question here, as maybe we can hear from people on front lines. There are, meanwhile, some interesting starting points at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDoS#Prevention_and_response |
How do you do your user-facing documentation? | mattculbreth: Wow great timing, was about to ask the same thing. |
How do you do your user-facing documentation? | limmeau: For #2, I recommend Sphinx (http://sphinx.pocoo.org/ ) as an alternative to DocBook. You write your documentation in reStructuredText (yet another extensible Wiki markup language) and generate HTML, PDF (via LaTeX), Windows help files, Eclipse help plugins etc. |
Online Dating ROI? | yummyfajitas: It can work, but it's not for everyone.I know a short bald guy in his 50's who currently has three 30-ish girlfriends (russian golddiggers, I think) he found over the internet. However, I think his entire life (outside of work) consists of chasing women over the internet. He also claims great skill at writing seductive emails. The internet works for weird people seeking compatibly weird wives also.On the other hand, for me, internet == FAIL. It would have filtered out 2 of my 3 serious relationships.Last, you are probably too young for internet dating to work. I get the impression it's more for the 30+ crowd who didn't get tied down when they were younger. |
Do You Twitter? | lsemel: I'm at http://twitter.com/semel, I'm also cofounder of the 'Oscars for Twitter': http://shortyawards.com. My feeling is that Twitter is what you make of it. People use it for professional networking, sales, customer service, keeping in touch with friends, organizing events, letting people know what they're doing at the moment, or any other number of uses. |
Any upcoming web conferences worth attending? | bscofield: My general experience with the Future of X conferences (I've been to FOWA, and had coworkers go to FOWD) is: they're very well produced, but are more about the present than the future. In other words, I've been underwhelmed by the amount I've learned at them. |
Any upcoming web conferences worth attending? | noodle: SXSW. that way, even if you don't learn anything special or the event is somehow a bust for you, you'll still be in a convention where there's other stuff outside the tech realm to see and do. |
Online Dating ROI? | physcab: I've been interested in this as well. I've joined Plenty Of Fish because it was free and I have nothing to lose (except my dignity maybe?).I'm a big proponent for joining things outside your comfort zone. Take an internship, join Habitat for Humanity, get into a running club, or do some type of intramural sport...whatever you're interested in. Dating takes a lot of work, and if you expect something to come to you, it probably won't happen. You kinda have to throw yourself into the situation to see some success. |
Good, cheap hosted customer service ticket management? | pclark: tried zendesk? it's awesome. |
Online Dating ROI? | omnivore: It's difficult everywhere for different reasons. If you're in a city, the 'quality' folks aren't generally using it and you'll waste a lot of time, money and silly dates to get anywhere. Especially now. Six years ago, you could make great friends in Boston on craigslist, for instance. Now? Enjoy that healthy dose of spam.Out west, where it's not as populated or where it's long distances to find new folks, you can successfully find weird people or who have diverse (so there, considered strange) interests, but you're simply going to still waste a lot of time. |
Essential books for starting/running a web company | rms: Check out some books from Nolo Press. |
Essential books for starting/running a web company | omnivore: Lucky or Smart by Bo Peabody |
How many of you are coding today? | nostrademons: Maybe later. Was out with friends this afternoon. |
How many of you are coding today? | deepblue: oh definitely... no GF so a nobrainer ;) |
How many of you are coding today? | aristus: I wasn't going to code until I needed to give my SO a gift... so I made an export-to-CSV feature she had been asking for. |
How many of you are coding today? | bscofield: Worked a bit on some iPhone dev, but mostly I was busy cooking |
Essential books for starting/running a web company | pg: The essays I've been writing about startups are most of what will eventually be roughly what you're looking for. |
How many of you are coding today? | tdavis: I went to the gym, watched a TV episode, coded, had a few beers... so, yeah, the same thing I do every day.One way or another, if you were coding today, you made a conscious decision to do that instead of an alternative -- There's no point regretting it. |
How many of you are coding today? | mofey: how do you like my "poem"? :) |
How many of you are coding today? | lpgauth: Why not? I still don't get the purpose of Valentine's day. If you want to make a girl feel special take her out randomly, be unexpected. Theirs nothing more boring/generic then flowers/box of chocolate on Valentine's day. |
How many of you are coding today? | jcapote: I am, http://github.com/jcapote/theman/tree/master |
How many of you are coding today? | CaptainMorgan: We celebrated last night with a simple dinner out; we figured better to do so a day before, and beat the rush. Otherwise, I share the same sentiment(and so does my SO), that Valentine's Day has no purpose, other than a commercial purpose.Today's schedule: Woke, coffee- extra bold, studied advanced maths, probabilities and some math light reading(Drunkard's Walk), chilled with the wife and watched some fun stuff, and now for some late night coding. |
Essential books for starting/running a web company | anthonyrubin: Founders at Work by Jessica Livingstonhttp://www.foundersatwork.com/ |
How many of you are coding today? | shadytrees: We'll see who gets the last laugh when I finish implementing love. |
How many of you are coding today? | silencio: coding with the boyfriend, couldn't stand the movies we were watching. :) |
How many of you are coding today? | CalmQuiet: Coding is the Valentine I give to myself today - and how I make sure I have something great to give to my Valentine tomorrow! |
How many of you are coding today? | endtime: Yep, spent the entire day coding. Big demo on Wednesday, no time for feeble human emotions. |
How many of you are coding today? | cubicle67: I am, but it's Sunday.(Did yesterday too, but we've got our wedding anniversary soon, so that's our valentines day :) ) |
How many of you are coding today? | tlb: I'm checking HN while my code compiles. Since there's nobody to swordfight on desk chairs with. |
How many of you are coding today? | Todd: Yes, like nearly every other day. That doesn't mean that I didn't find time to spend with the people I care about. Both are a matter of priorities. |
Good, cheap hosted customer service ticket management? | ScottWhigham: I've tried Kayako and Cerberus and they are both fine. Kayako is hosted for $30-$40/mth for unlimited users, I think. Cerberus is about the same. Where these shine is in their knowledge base - you can have a both public and private KB.http://www.kayako.com/http://www.cerberusweb.com/My thoughts are that hosted solutions are an absolute ripoff compared to buying the software and installing it yourself on a POS box. You can buy Cerberus for like $350, I think, and that includes everything. |
How many of you are coding today? | marram: Long weekend, so coding on a moonlighting project is inevitable. |
Good, cheap hosted customer service ticket management? | elviejo: fog bugs is free for startups.
they also have a hosted version.
Definitively worth checking, IMO |
public code reviews? | akkartik: One option: http://refactormycode.com |
How to make a test suite? | davidw: Use whatever Python/Perl give you. |
How to make a test suite? | makecheck: Look for "doctest" and "unittest" in the Python standard library. You can run pydoc on either of those names for more, and find tutorials online. |
public code reviews? | arjunb: The http://stackoverflow.com community might also be helpful for this. |
Do You Twitter? | vicaya: No. It's my opinion that people who twitter are either egomaniacs or who have something to sell. I have much higher respect for people who actually maintain strictly technical blogs these days. |
Essential books for starting/running a web company | curiousgeorge: When you are not profitable you pay people as little as possible and deal in cash. Give work to friends and friends of friends at below market rates. Do not give out equity or anything that requires paying lawyers to do things. Don't make promises you cannot cash.Don't get trapped by socialized norms of what it means to be a founder or how one goes about starting a company. Simply launch the business and iterate towards profitability - identify issues and fix those one-by-one. If you need cash to fix some problems, that's a challenge in and of itself. Get a job. Unless you are getting a lot of cash taking investment can be a bad move - see the point above about lawyers.In my experience dealing with other people is time-expensive and making commitments to others significantly reduces flexibility in how products can be positioned and sold. You will know how valuable your company is after you understand the problems and time needed to execute. And then you will understand that the notion of fairness is defined by what different parties bring to the table. If you can quantify this and know its value then you know your limits for negotiating. Treat people with respect but ensure you get results for what you give up and that you're trading resources for something that will get you growth and profitability. |
Wireless text-mode thin client? | noonespecial: Just pack a usb (or bluetooth) keyboard along with your eeepc and change /etc/inittab to start in level 3 (text mode). |
Any upcoming web conferences worth attending? | RobGR: I have generally found tradeshows and conferences to be only marginally worth it, or a waste of time. The most recent events I felt I got my money's worth out of were the Austin Game Developer's Conference several years ago, and Defcon last year.The Game Developer's conference was only worth it because it was free for me, I would not have paid for the badge (somone I knew bought a badge but could only attend two of the three days, I went on the third). I went to Defcon at the last minute because a friend was going and could get me cheap tickets on his airline miles; Defcon exceeded my expectations, I will definitely attend again. |
Good, cheap hosted customer service ticket management? | RobGR: I recommend RT:http://bestpractical.com/rt/If you have a linux host, you can download the open source package and install it yourself. There are directions in the wiki on how to do stuff like have it handle the support email even when you are using Google Apps.Another option for installing it is to setup a linux on one of your home cable modems, and use dyndns to get to it. Since only you and your partner have to get to the web interface, shut off all ports but https and also throw an http auth password on the whole thing. This will cost you $0 out of pocket to run, probably half a day or longer to set up depending on your skills. If you don't already leave a computer on all the time, you will have to pay for the additional electricity.You can email the address in my profile if you run into anything weird setting it up. The IRC channel on irc.perl.org is polite and helpful. |
Wireless text-mode thin client? | RobGR: I don't know where you could get something like that these days.However, TI used to make a real portable terminal:http://www.digibarn.com/collections/systems/ti-tymshare-100/...That one is considerably larger than the smallest models. The smallest onse were about the size of an eeepc, but thicker, had a built in modem instead of an acoustic coupler, and a thermal printer so you could print out a transcript of your session on receipt style paper.I am not old of enough to have ever used one, but I once saw a couple of the smaller ones made for sale at the Austin Goodwill Computer Works.For your purposes, I would get an old, small laptop such as a Compaq Aero and install a simple, text-only linux on it. |
Best cheap hosting for a low traffic local business? | pg: Why not Weebly? |
Tool like Google Analytics to track keyword search ranking over time | tontoa4: I usually just check weekly. Progress is not always a straight line upwards. Add Google analytics to see how many people visited the keyword in question. This is probably most effective. |
Can Google AdWords help local pizza? | earl: well, yodle and reachlocal, amongst others, are trying to answer that questionIn general, though, it's hard to do well. Problems include the fact that many people don't turn to google first thing for pizza, that google still doesn't do a good job looking up businesses by name, that even with geo-targeting food delivery is hyper local and very competitive, that even yelp and seamlessweb have interesting penetration in only a tiny handful of cities, etc. Frankly, I don't really think the internet is the wave of the future for a lot of restaurants -- I'll find out about them from word of mouth or from walking around my neighborhood. Plus, adwords is expensive, and irrational competitors can drive keyword prices sky high. |
Best cheap hosting for a low traffic local business? | mikeyur: I tend to point any clients that want low cost hosting towards GeekStorage.com - they have a $35/yr plan. Another is A Small Orange, but I have had much more problems with ASO than I have with GeekStorage.If you're looking for something 'beefier' - I'm currently with WebFaction.com - awesome guys, great if you need some cheap hosting for your Django/Rails apps (and don't want to pay for a VPS) |
Best cheap hosting for a low traffic local business? | silvestrov: Whoever you choose, make sure you always have an up-to-date local backup of everything on the site. Cheap webhosting is prone to loosing customer files when something goes wrong. |
Best cheap hosting for a low traffic local business? | pclark: A Small Orange are great :) |
Best cheap hosting for a low traffic local business? | mseebach: Don't let clients anywhere near their own domains and hosting.Before you know it, you're drenched in trouble, trying to get some hack-cheap-registrar to unlock domains or whatever, while the client is desperate because his e-mail doesn't work, or figuring out why the website broke, only to find out the boss's nephew tried to install a BT tracker on the site, and by the way, no, he doesn't have a backup, didn't you take care of that?Get a small VPS at SliceHost and host the sites yourself. Forward their e-mail to GMail accounts, or setup apps for your domain. Charge $20 a month, paid a year in advance. One billing round a year, if it takes you more than half a morning, you're doing it wrong.The only point of contact the client has is you, the only bill he gets is from you, and you're pretty soon pocketing a few $100 a month simply by not screwing up the server. |
Running your web app on top of a python http server | seunosewa: I use CherryPy too, but it runs behind nginx. ( http://www.nairalist.com/ ) |
What agreements and legal structures should you have in place for a startup? | sharpn: If you have no presence in the US, you'll need to fill in W8BEN forms (available online) to avoid being taxed by both UK & US. There are other considerations too, as you mention, but I'm not familiar enough with them to advise. Hope that helps. |
What agreements and legal structures should you have in place for a startup? | alabut: From the Ycombinator FAQ:"Don't incorporate, though, if you can avoid it. Especially as an LLC. It's much more complicated for us to deal with existing paperwork than to start from scratch."And as a personal note, I've found the same logistically - tinker together with friends on a project, see how you gel together, then worry about forming a company later.There's also a contract that might help if one of you originally came up with the idea and recruited the other - you can create one that says basically that all the ideas and work belong to one person, the idea originator, but that they all transfer to whatever company you guys form if you actually get around to forming one.I have zero legal experience, so take it for what it's worth, this isn't advice either way. |
Tool like Google Analytics to track keyword search ranking over time | mkitb: Use IBP (Sorry, Windows-only) to track rankings of of search rankings for keywords: http://www.Axandra.com/go.to/kaiser/4 You can automate this, so it generates lists of rankings/keywords/searchengines regularly. No, it's not free, but it's worth the price as it saves _lots_ of time. |
What agreements and legal structures should you have in place for a startup? | imp: It's probably best to talk to a lawyer. There will be paperwork at some point, but at least consult with one now so that you know exactly what you'll need to do and when. It could also be complicated because of your different countries. Only a lawyer will know all of the important details. |
What are the top 3 entrepreneurial resources you read | pclark: http://news.ycombinator.com/newswhy not empower us lot to deliver you quality content? |
What are the top 3 entrepreneurial resources you read | davidw: The Economist... not for 'entrepreneur' kinds of things, but just in general. |
What are the top 3 entrepreneurial resources you read | rogercosseboom: http://ecorner.stanford.edu/Stanford has a wonderful Entrepreneurial Archive with hundreds of podcasts, lectures, etc. all related to entrepreneurship. And its sponsored by Draper Fisher Jurvetson.It's been my #1 resource. |
How do you manage your learning? | RiderOfGiraffes: I set aside an hour a day (on average) to "do stuff" that is of direct relevance to a project I want to complete. If I'm learning a new language, I have a small project to perform a small but non-trivial task. Then I make sure I spend about an hour a day on that.Same goes for my reading. I allow 30 minutes a day specifically for reading about new stuff. That's usually last thing at night, plus a 5 minute mental review as I have my shower in the morning.It's the consistency that counts. Small amounts of time consistently invested grow over time. |
Tips for coming up with a new web startup name | jgrahamc: I've modded this up because I'd like to hear what other hnusers have to say about this topic. I've just been through this process and it was very, very painful.In the end way came up with a company name via a lot of lateral thinking. I spent a long time writing down all the attributes of our service and then trying to find related concepts and words and finally narrow down a list of hundreds of possibilities to a few possibles.We then used purewhois.com to check domain names and uspto.gov to check trademarks.We also involved everyone in the company in the process taking suggestions from everyone. |
Tips for coming up with a new web startup name | tjic: There's a ton of info on the web. Google things like "picking a brand name", etc.From a trademark perspective, you don't want to be "books.com" - it's too generic.From a mindshare perspective, you also don't want to be "wrejiorgsdf.com".The sweet spot is just off-center of the topic. E.g. Amazon - the world's biggest bookstore. Your brand is distinct from (and hence more memorable than) the thing you sell, but it is EVOCATIVE of a trait that you are bragging about.Many folks go with Latin and Greek roots (because they are the basis of much of English) to play the "evocation" game.The names of my two startups are decent ,but not insanely great.SmartFlix - the "smart" brings out the educational component (and also reassures customers that it's a wise decision to rent a video from us), and Flix has been a synonym for movies for almsot a century.HeavyInk - the "ink" references the artwork and the history of comics, and "heavy" has a slight outsiderish / authentic connotation (heavy metal, "deep" , "profound", etc.) that also helps make the subtle point that we carry every comic that's available (far more than your typical bricks and mortar store).And, of course, the important thing is that both domains were available in the .com TLD.Travis J I Corcoran, President
SmartFlix--
http://SmartFlix.com/
web's biggest how-to DVD rental store |
Tips for coming up with a new web startup name | pclark: http://www.domainpigeon.com/ |
Tips for coming up with a new web startup name | JustAGeek: Voted up bc I'd like to know, too.I'm also in the process of finding a name and so far it's been both painful and fruitless.
I've tried to look for Greek and Latin names but most of those I tried were already taken.I even used a Hawaiian online dictionary: http://wehewehe.org/
but again haven't come up with something decent.
Hawaiian can sound pretty childish very easily... |
Tips for coming up with a new web startup name | neoneye: brand name != product name |
Tips for coming up with a new web startup name | Zarathu: Man, that's one of the painful parts. Lots of time, lots of thinking, and lots of reading through dictionaries for Greek/Latin origins of words.Then, the name just hits me. |
Tips for coming up with a new web startup name | jasonlbaptiste: TJIC's comment was everything I'd suggest and more. So here's a list of not what to do (somewhat sarcastic, but everyone knows a ton of people do this)Drop the E, Add an RIf the domain with a c isn't available use a KFind obscure country TLDs to represent the last two lettersDoublee the lastt letterr in the domainn.If all else fails, start with the name of your favorite Star Wars Character and work from there. |
Tips for coming up with a new web startup name | huhtenberg: This one is a running joke in designer circles. It's called a "Name My Design Company machine" -http://www.breadlinedesign.com/naming_machine/index.htmJust something to keep in mind when trying to avoid naming pattern cliches. |
Tips for coming up with a new web startup name | jackchristopher: I would broaden the question to, how do you name anything properly? Or even more abstractly, how do you categorize anything intelligently?Names are delimiters; In your case you're delimiting your product in someone else's mind. And while names may be arbitrary, humans understand things in terms of things we already know.Think of baby naming. I have a two standard names stuck together. It's an Anglican/Christian English name. Though I think Christopher may be derived from Greek. Maybe it's too generic. Compare that to Shanacqua-Tibea. Nobody would know how to pronounce it, and it's too unfamiliar to remember immediately. For social reasons, you might have to remember it (to prevent embarrassment), but that pressure isn't there when someone searches in Google.I like a mix between the familiar and different. You need to hook them in with something they know, while adding a twist to it. |
Best cheap hosting for a low traffic local business? | theklub: I use Apisnetworks.com. You can add as many domains as you want to one account. Servers are fast and I haven't had any problems with them. |
Tips for coming up with a new web startup name | jhancock: I was once told there are two ways to get a beautiful woman: "charm the pants off her, or buy her.". When it comes to domain names your only option is to buy.I am not a "domainer" but by necessity of having tried to find some goods ones over the years I've accumulated around 50 that I hold on to "just in case". I am sure there are others here in a similar position as myself. I'm not saying HN is the best place for asking for domain name sales (it may greatly annoy some here), but maybe we are a friendlier community for having a few interesting ones in our pockets as opposed to the cold open markets? |
Tips for coming up with a new web startup name | auston: I usually take 1 of 3 approaches:1. Look for a metaphor - like for instance, "digg" because you're uncovering stuff, or "YCombinator" because it's a company that spawns other companies2. Be descriptive - like "RemindsYou" or "SalesForce" or "FriendFeed"3. Kind of like JasonLBaptiste said - drop some or all of the vowels can work sometimes as well... so like "RCRDLBL" or "MSTRKRFT" or "PIPL" or "TWTPoll" |
Tips for coming up with a new web startup name | paulsingh: This may not be the smartest way to do it but here's what I did: I gave myself 30 minutes to brainstorm a bunch of names that I liked. (I did this with a pen & paper to avoid getting bogged down in needless WHOIS lookups, etc.)Then I opened up Google Translate and converted the words to Italian, Spanish, etc to see if any interesting variations popped up. And, finally, with this new list in hand, I started determining which ones were available.Overall, I spent no more than an hour on the whole process and came away with a new domain name in hand.IMHO, spend your time worrying about whether your startup actually solves a real problem for your potential users. If you can actually do that, the name won't matter... that much. |
Tips for coming up with a new web startup name | Maro: The process is pretty simple and a lot of fun: think of and write down some words that describe or are related to your project. These are the seeds, or starting point. You should be able to write down 10-50 such words. Try to write down words that are related to the way your product differentiates itself from its competitors. Also look at latin or greek translations of the words (use online dictionaries).The goal is to come up with variations or combinations of words or related words. Use sites like morewords.com which can show you words starting with a word, ending with a word, containing a word, etc. You can try Google Sets, but it's not very useful for coming up with new stuff. Also do general Google searches for your words and see what other words pop up on the result pages. During this period, carry pen & paper around so you can write down anything you think of.For most good names you'll come up with the .com won't be available, but that's okay, just keep trying. Be prepared to check 20 domains to find one that is available. Be sure to use non-evil domain checkers that don't automatically register the name.A good name should be easy to pronounce, and based on the pronounciation, easy to write down, even for foreigners (names with vowels removed, used at the height of the web2 bubble, are no good). It should be related to your project (eg. Amazon is not really a good name for a hypothetical startup bookstore).You should have 5-10 good names (which may be close to each other) at the end of the process, consult with your partners and pick the best one.Good luck! |
Tips for coming up with a new web startup name | tlb: Also, taken != unavailable. If there's no actual website there, or if the website looks neglected, or if it's one of several names for the same thing, you might be able to buy it. Several YC startups have bought .coms for between $1000 and $5000. If your company is serious, that's a worthwhile investment. |
Rate my startup: EditConf - wiki style tech events, aggregation, and search | amirnathoo: I really like this but I want to be able to setup alerts for new events that are added matching particular locations and keywords. Otherwise although I like the site and I found a few useful events, I'm unlikely to come back just because I won't remember to.Would also love to get you a custom version of WebMynd which will stick your event search results on the right hand side of Google, if you're interested... |
Tips for coming up with a new web startup name | GeneralMaximus: Another tip: Use a markov chain to generate random words and pick some out of those.Here are some words I just came up with using a random word generator script I once wrote (in Python): zenthanooo, uroratou, arerent, malimanged, wastsal, matiri, rasanto ... you get the point.They might not be the best names for your startup, but they might provide a starting point for brainstorming. |
Tips for coming up with a new web startup name | jacquesm: Here is more or less how I do it:- write down a list of words closely related to the subject- get thesaurus and add the words I find as synonyms to the list- make a list of permutations that make sense- ask my registrar to do searches on all of them for .com, .org and .net- rinse and repeat until I find a good set, if the .com is free but the rest is not then that is ok too, but not preferred.The process can take up the better part of a day before I find a domain that I'm happy with. |
Rate my startup: EditConf - wiki style tech events, aggregation, and search | 100k: I used it to add the next Ruby Users of Minnesota meeting:http://editconf.com/events/348:ruby-users-of-minnesota-febru...Nice job on making it really easy to add events. Hopefully you have a plan for spam.EDIT: I noticed you have at least a few duplicates, like these:http://editconf.com/events/220:railsconf-2009http://editconf.com/events/281:railsconf-2009 |
Tips for coming up with a new web startup name | dreur: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=370258 (Ask HN: How do I choose my startup's name?);) |
Best, Simple, Free Web-based Bookkeeping/Accounting | ngerber: Please check out our SAAS small business accounting -http://www.numia.biz.Simple and free. Always working on making it the best with your feedback. Thanks. |
Best cheap hosting for a low traffic local business? | redrobot5050: Make sure the client knows what they're doing with regards to a web presence: E.g. they can manage e-mail / hosting set ups. If they don't, they're likely to get burned, even with your advice.I would advise getting a small VPS from Slicehost. Set it up so that it automatically backs up (they charge like $5/month to do machine replication, but having an always-ready-to-go daily backup of your client's machine should be a closer).If you're going to go for old-school hobbyist shared-hosting, I'd suggest Myhosting.com or http://www.nobullshithosting.com/I'd also advise you to stay away from Dreamhost.com. Their servers have terrible bandwidth, lose emails, and their TOS is ridiculously restrictive to the point where they can justify closing your account for any reason -- the primary one being that you're actually costing them more they're paying (e.g. using more than half the "promised" 500GBs of space their $9.99/month account gives you). |
Rate my startup: EditConf - wiki style tech events, aggregation, and search | sant0sk1: I LOVE the fading red around the "Add Event" button. Makes me want to add an event even though I don't know of any!I haven't reviewed the rest of the app yet. That button is like the Hypnotoad. |
What agreements and legal structures should you have in place for a startup? | pg: The main things you have to do are incorporate the company, appoint a board (presumably you two), issue stock, and each sign agreements with the company saying that your work becomes the company's IP.You should probably vest some or all of the founders' stock (the usual time is 4 years) as a way of deciding in advance what happens if you split. It is a huge distraction to negotiate that later.Don't incorporate as an LLC unless you don't plan to either take investment or sell the company.You should postpone incorporating only if (a) you're still not 100% sure you want to start the company, (b) you're not sure yet what the stock allocation should be, or (c) you want to get funding soon from YC or some other investor who would prefer to start with a clean slate.Use a lawyer. And if this is a startup, get one who works with startups, because the issues with startups are different from ordinary businesses. |
Rate my startup: EditConf - wiki style tech events, aggregation, and search | dpeq: Very clean and intuitive Jonathan!From the design perspective I would:1) change to text color of the header (black on dark gray is not easy to read)
2) You have two search inputs - kick one and move the events section up.
3) To see event details you just have to click the row/div and not a link which is good - show it by highlighting on mouseover.
4) You have some gems for your target audience hidden in your footer - display them more prominently. |
How do you manage your learning? | grouchyOldGuy: I completed my BS degree several years ago. I carried a full-time school load and worked full-time. I got 90% of my school work done on the weekends. During the week I was too tired from work to do much more than the absolute minimum required of me for school. Not having a wife and kids helped too--no distractions at home.Different people have different ways of coping. I am a morning person, so it's not difficult for me to get an extra hour in the day by getting up an hour early, but some people can't function like that. If you live in an "active" house, you may find it easier to set your alarm for an hour or two after everyone else is asleep, and get up and get some studying in (if your biological clock will let you). I find that four hours sleep is all I require for the short-term, so I could get up and get a little more work done and then get back to sleep. I sometimes do that when I have insomnia anyway--why toss and turn for an hour or two if I can get up and read for a while?First thing to do is a little self-analysis? Are you the kind of person who can get a little bit of work done in various bits and pieces of available time, or do you need a sizeable chunk of time to set aside? Are you better in morning, afternoon, evening, or late night? Do you need as distraction-free a place as possible, or can you put up with household noise while studying? I bought a nature sounds CD set a while back, and putting one of those on while wearing headphones helps me to concentrate. Another thought would be a white noise generator (or pink, brown, etc. type of noise) to help block out distracting noises.I've found that especially when learning something technical (programming language, data networking, etc.) the more different ways that I can approach the subject, the better. Reading is a passive activity and only activates certain parts of the brain. Writing is an active activity and activates different parts of the brain. I'll read a little bit of material, then re-write it in my own words to "burn" it into as many different neural pathways as possible. I also create mind-maps, limericks, stories, etc. to create as much mental diversity as possible for remembering the material. It helps. |
How do you manage your learning? | DanielBMarkham: Segment your time into tactical learning (in your case Java), strategic learning (for you, Haskell), and brain-recovery time (cheap fiction, meditation, whatever)Trying to learn different languages at the same time, unless you are a Jedi, is going to be tough. But you could probably find some good functional programming with Java type books that would dovetail nicely into your Java work.I actually split into three pieces, tactical, strategic, and Out-there learning. I find good ideas come from weird places, so my Out-there time includes philosophy, religion, history, and social sciences.My Out-there stuff is done during morning workouts. Tactical stuff is done during work or in the evenings. Strategic and fun stuff during weekly airline flights.You are what you read (and watch), so the most critical thing you can do in your life is actively manage what you consume, even if it means learning how to enjoy and digest what others would consider boring stuff. |
Tips for coming up with a new web startup name | lassej: If you want a completely silly web 2.0-ish name you could try my name generator thing i did a while ago: http://lajo.org/names/ |
Rate my startup: EditConf - wiki style tech events, aggregation, and search | callmeed: Very cool ... I'm going to do something similar for the photography industry this week.One thing I would really like to see: a link/menu on the home page that lets me choose my state. Then show all the events in said state ... seeing all events around the world is cool, but the ones I could drive to are especially important. Also, I'd like to have a nice URL for that (like editconf.com/states/OR)Also, it would be nice to have an RSS feed of all events.This is very minor, but I would change the style of the ADD EVENT button. Red is so scary! :) |
Tips for coming up with a new web startup name | Andi: A way I tried is with Google's translation API: I wrote a script which translates a word (which has some meaning for your project) to different languages and then shows all translations in a list. Then I remove all translation which do not sound good or are incorrect. In the end I have a bunch of exotic words and I give them a try by suffixing them with ".com" and looking if the URLs are not existing. |
Tips for coming up with a new web startup name | macco: A lot good things already posted. What helped me a lot was this ebook: http://www.igorinternational.com/process/naming-guide-produc...And one thing: Be brave with your name. |
Rate my startup: EditConf - wiki style tech events, aggregation, and search | fauigerzigerk: I'd like to be able to filter by region, maybe by pointing at the map. (By the way, I don't like the moving map at all, but that's probably just my personal dislike of things moving on my screen)The second thing I noticed is that not all events are found when I search for them. There's this Black Hat DC event in Washington but when I search for "Washington" it doesn't show up even though "Washington" is literally mentioned on the event's details page. |
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