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Rate my startup: EditConf - wiki style tech events, aggregation, and search | spoiledtechie: Change the colors? |
Tips for coming up with a new web startup name | snprbob86: Although your comment seems like you got this covered, I'd like to say it for the benefit of others...Pick a code name and start coding. You can always pick out a domain name 15 minutes before launch. |
Tips for coming up with a new web startup name | dpifke: I highly recommend the Igor Naming Guide, to anyone who hasn't read it:http://www.igorinternational.com/process/naming-guide-produc...(A bit surprised it hasn't been linked to in this thread already.) |
Help I have to mentor some programmers | brianto2010: I am not sure if this will work or not, but here is an idea:Instead of thinking of teaching as a 'presentation' of sorts, try changing teaching into a conversation. Don't talk at the developers, put them (and yourself) into a low-stress casual environment.Try a 'translation' approach: Ask the developers to talk about what they know about PHP. For instance, they might talk about accessing a MySQL database via PHP. First, have them write a script in PHP that modifies a database. Then, slowly write a script in Ruby that does the same thing. Explain what you are writing as you go. Show and explain all intermediary steps. Invite them to ask questions. That is essential. The main point of this method is to draw parallels between PHP and Ruby. Question them periodically on 'hard' topics to make sure they understand.Be sure they have a Ruby interpreter in front of them so they can interactively learn themselves. Encourage them to explore while you are conversing with them. Encourage them to take notes. However, don't go too overboard with introducing new material.Afterward, give them rote drills on the things you guys talked about. Give a ton of those drills. Make them up on the spot! Don't expect them to do all of them, though.Repeat that process.As I said before, I have no clue if this would work or not; it's only an idea. |
One Weebly To Rule Them All? | pclark: how different do you think a doctors surgery and a building contractors website needs are?Why not just allow the user to select his business type, and offer a default template of content and items -- and they can customize it some more. |
What do developers want from an equity-only job? | tptacek: The other word for "equity-only job" is "founder". |
What do developers want from an equity-only job? | pclark: do you mean equity online = no pay? |
What do developers want from an equity-only job? | pclark: err,# Have at least 1 year of experience with Ruby / Rails.
# Have experience with MySQL and JavaScriptIf you're really seeking a lead developer - I'd change that to at least 5 years of developing web apps, with around 3 in ruby. |
What do developers want from an equity-only job? | fallen: i am a lead developer on both projects on which i get paid a salary (my 9-5) and on a number of projects that i work for equity (the rest of the time).for me, between the two positions, as a lead developer, my roles and responsibilities are pretty similar. i have influence over the hiring, the design, technologies used, engineering, timelines and deliverables.therefore, the things that would attract me to an equity position is an inspiring team, an inspiring team leader, and a strong sense that we will succeed after having met and talked to the team. and not just success ten years later, but success within the stated timeline of startup. i hate release delays like i hate long meetings. |
What do developers want from an equity-only job? | ryanwaggoner: When I was doing freelance development, I had about one pitch per week for an opportunity like this. I never accepted, even though a lot of the ideas and even teams sounded solid. There were usually several reasons, but they boiled down them not offering enough equity. These "startups" were almost always pretty-non-technical founders offering 1-2% premoney for a "lead developer" position. In my view, the very fact that they felt that the technical development of a web startup was only worth a couple percent spoke volumes.My advice: if you're looking for a skilled lead developer for a software startup, consider them an equal founder and split the pie accordingly. |
What do developers want from an equity-only job? | lbrandy: Here's my initial concerns, reading your post and reading your posting on craigslist. You need avoid looking like a business guy with an idea (and without a clue) looking for a coder. I'd work very, very hard to avoid that because technical people will avoid you like the plague.1. How many other team members are there? This is a website we are building, right? What are all these other people doing to earn their equity? Am I the only technical person? Be honest, how much would I -really- need your non-technical staff to build and run this site on my own?2. Why am I not a founder? Why is this a "job"? Do I have a boss? Who is it? Why do I need one? Can I be fired?3. If I am the only technical person, do I have full control of the technology? If I tell you that going with Ruby was an awful idea, are you going to listen? If you are, I really should be the CTO. If you aren't, then it sounds like I have a boss.4. How much equity are we talking about? Do you think you can get a "coder" to build your website and add your features for a few % equity? Do you guys really understand how much you need a technical person? Or am I going to be viewed like an employee by a bunch of business guys with an "idea"? Are coders a commodity to you?5. If I was taking an equity-only job, it would be for founder-level only. Anything else, in my mind, would be silly. If this is -not- the case, you need to make it extremely compelling and work very hard at avoiding all the pitfalls, because you are already fighting the most difficult uphill battle there is.ETA: it took me awhile to write this, but even now, you'll see alot of posts by devs already "raging" against this concept as a bunch of "business guys" who appear to be severely underestimating and undervaluing technical contributes whilst simultaneously overvaluing their own contributions. If this is -not- the case, you have to work extremely hard because that's going to be the default position all technical people take. |
What do developers want from an equity-only job? | raffi: I worked with one startup on an equity only basis, and it didn't even finish getting started.Here are some of my thoughts on what you're asking:1. You are a startup that isn't even started yet. No matter how many pieces are in place, there are many opportunities for it to go wrong. Remember this when you expect someone else to invest into your vision. The risk/reward should be there.2. Consider starting someone out working in a low commitment/low risk way. i.e. take someone with potential and pay them to do some stuff. This will make it easier to recruit this someone and give them a chance to find out how they like working with you and if they buy into your vision.The startup I did some consulting for consisted of people I already knew and I felt they had a pretty solid model. Overall though it hasn't "started up" yet because they got in their own way.3. Consider giving away equity for a very well scoped deliverable. With the startup I worked with, I took a small slice of equity in exchange for working with them to create a product functional specification and to deliver on that spec as-is. I liked this arrangement because it limited my commitment to them and they liked it because it tied my slice to a deliverable.Overall it comes down to this: let them date you before deciding they want to marry you. Don't go on a first date expecting it to turn into marriage.P.S. for your job ad, this analogy carries over there as well. Emphasize what you bring to the relationship and less about the expectations you have from them.Good luck! |
One Weebly To Rule Them All? | trickjarrett: I like the concept, and the price is on point so far as I can estimate, it's pricey enough to make good profit for you all, but low enough that some individual bootstrapping his campaign can afford it.The site does a great job of telling me what you do, but not a great way of how you do it. Give me a breakdown of costs between some firm I might hire and using you guys. Etc.I'm not sure I agree with your concept of a targeted web development app, since it's what I do for a living, but I wish you guys all the best. |
What do you use for web-based product demos? | asnyder: GoToMeeting trumps WebEx, I haven't tried Adobe Connect. The best thing about GoToMeeting is that it's only $49.99 a month for unlimited meetings per month. It can also record all users in the sessions, both VOIP and Phone. It can display multiple monitors (I have 5). It also has screen drawing, user manipulation, and much more. I personally find it to be a lifesaver and allows me to communicate and collaborate with our clients, and users in a whole new way. They also offer a free trial.Note: I'm not affiliated with GoToMeeting in any way, just a very satisfied customer. |
Rate my startup: EditConf - wiki style tech events, aggregation, and search | jaaron: How is this different from Upcoming? |
Which mobile platform is your favorite? | briansmith: Based on what's happening today, I'd say that (1) Symbian will take control of the phone-first-computer-second market and, (2) Windows Mobile will slowly take over the computer-first-phone-second market, (3) Apple's marketshare will mirror its computer marketshare, (4) Android will get squeezed out of the market unless there is an ad-subsidized phone revolution (unlikely), (5) Either Nokia or Microsoft will buy RIM, and (6) price is going to be a much bigger factor in the long-run at the top of the market, and Nokia, Samsung, and Sony-Ericcson have a big advantage there because of its experience building mass-market feature phones.Look at what is happening today at MWC: Samsung, Sony-Ericcson, and Nokia all announced amazing Symbian-powered devices. HTC and LG both made huge commitments to Windows Mobile, and Windows Mobile got a huge upgrade. Meanwhile, Android was almost absent from the show, and Apple literally didn't even show up.There's only one commercially-available Android phone, being subsidized by only one major operator (AFAICT). I can't find any evidence that it is gaining any momentum; in fact, the evidence seems to show that Symbian has gained a lot of momentum at its expense. Besides that, Symbian just seems technologically superior. Nokia just announced a Symbian-powered phone with a one-MONTH standby time. The G1 cannot even last through a single day. If you've programmed for both, you can see why: everything about Symbian's design revolves around a relentless desire to conserve resources. Android's main contribution might end up being the open-sourcing of Symbian.The iPhone gained a lot of mindshare but soon it will be one out of many similar devices. Feature-for-feature, every single other manufacturer has them beat, hands down. The iPhone's only advantage is in ease-of-use. That's a big advantage now, and the iPhone will continue to thrive as long as its competitors provide sub-par user experiences. But, once the other vendors get their acts together, the iPhone won't have any advantage whatsoever. The same applies to Mac OS X on the desktop as well.Samsung, Nokia, and Sony-Ericsson are close to having application binary compatibility across their smartphones. And, Nokia has started moving Symbian down market into midrange phones. If they can all agree to build compatible phones and if S60 replaces Series 40, Symbian will have an absolutely massive market share.I think Windows Mobile will succeed in the corporate world if they can build enough tools into the platform to make building mobile enterprise applications as easy as they've made enterprise development on the desktop. At some point I think Microsoft's leverage in the corporate IT world will cause a lot of problems for Blackberry. |
Which mobile platform is your favorite? | briansmith: Symbian is a pain in the neck to program for, but you can do anything you want on it, and it has (and will have) a huge marketshare. iPhone and Android are a walk in the park but they both have severe limitations (especially the iPhone). The iPhone is the easiest one to deploy to (thanks to the App Store). I don't have any experience with WinMo. So far, Symbian is my favorite. |
Best cheap hosting for a low traffic local business? | RobGR: All the cheap hosting places suck. Dealing with the customer and the non-responsive $5 / mo hosting place takes more time and effort than just hosting it yourself.If they are truly low traffic, just host them yourself on a business class connection. You can pack a lot of low traffic websites on one machine. Graphics will load slowly unless you pay for more bandwidth, and you have to do your own backups, of course. Have your customers buy the domain themselves, but then have them log into godaddy or whoever they used and do the setup yourself.Should the business relationship end, they control the domain and can just point it somewhere else, and you can mail their backup to them on a CD, and thus not be accused of holding anything hostage. |
What do developers want from an equity-only job? | theBobMcCormick: IMHO, the thing to consider is that anyone worth bringing in as the technical lead for a startup that's in as early a phase as your seems to be would ALSO be someone who's quite capable of starting their own startup. You need to be able to explain to your candidate why they should bust their butt without pay on your startup, instead of working on their own startup. As many others on this thread have pointed out, offering a full founder/CTO position should do it. |
What do you use for web-based product demos? | dedalus: Adobe Connect is what we use |
What do developers want from an equity-only job? | benn: A salary. Lulz. |
What do developers want from an equity-only job? | wehriam: There are two types of people who would attempt to work full time for six months without a salary:1) A well established developer (read: savings and connections) who would likely request a "founder" level of equity, perhaps even a plurality of shares.2) A junior developer (read: recent graduate) who may not have the technical acumen to "understand the big-picture, make strategic recommendations for technology decisions, and guide other developers." Further, he may not have the resources to live for six months without a salary.I don't think these are necessarily bad situations, just that your goals seem unrealistically high.To answer your question, I would work for equity if I had an expectation of a market rate salary within a year and a large payout (5-10x yearly salary) within three years. The idea would have to be stellar with a dream team of co-workers. In particular I'd look for access to capital and marketing prowess. |
Rate my startup: EditConf - wiki style tech events, aggregation, and search | epi0Bauqu: Some people end up directly on event pages. For those people, it would be really useful if you could add links to other local confs and an address box to get driving directions so you can quickly see how long it would take to get there. |
FairSoftware--Good way to find a cofounder? | aristus: Match.com -- good way to fund a husband? Well... some people say yes.I personally would never be so desperate as to give this company a chunk of revenue in exchange for matching me with a business guy. If you truly do not know anyone with whom you want to start a company, move. Really. Moving costs less than giving these jokers 9.9% of every sale. |
how do you read code? | wheels: I don't just read code for the hell of it, I'm usually trying to get something specific out of it, so usually I try to figure out where the core of what I'm reading is at (starting with grep), occasionally cutting away the surrounding code and perhaps irrelevant comments with my editor.That said, I'm not downplaying reading code; it's an important skill. But you don't have to just read the code of the masters; you can jump in and add to and fix bugs in stuff from a wealth of OSS projects and there you'll get feedback from those folks too as you get involved.I personally get a much better understanding of a block of code if I treat it as a living thing and hack around with it seeing what breaks it and what makes it go. |
how do you read code? | safetytrick: I need to read more code... but when I do get the time to read code I never start with "main" I start by searching for a feature I am interested in and then branching out to see how this feature fits in with the whole.
I normally use N++ and open a huge number of files at once, its important to me to be able to switch between files quickly and I don't want the bloat of an IDE. |
how do you read code? | psyklic: In my experience, writing a lot of your own code teaches you MUCH more about good design than looking at others'. Most of the design process is actually in the reasoning behind WHY a certain process was employed, which is not easily evident from code alone!But since you asked:(1) Run the code and understand what the software DOES. If a library, write a driver program which tries out most of the functions.(2) Look at the high-level classes (or the major organizational structures, e.g. source files) and figure out the purpose of each (e.g. CLogger -> logs errors to a file or the display)(3a) (the fun way) Come up with a cool, simple feature you'd like to add, or something simple you'd like to change. Do it. Repeat.-OR-(3b) (the boring way) Find the main() function and step through the code with a debugger, stepping over function calls which are self-explanatory. Step into ones you're unsure about.In reality, this all depends on how well the code is written. Understanding some code just isn't worth the price of admission. |
how do you read code? | tptacek: Usually with a cross-referencer, like Doxygen. |
What do you use for web-based product demos? | donniefitz2: This is a good question and one that I have been wondering about lately too. I'm really not familiar with the products in this market. I was looking at this: http://www.riapedia.com/2007/06/06/flash_and_php_based_acrob...This is worth looking at too. 60.00 a month is a good price: http://www.webex.com/smb/web-meeting.html |
how do you read code? | carlosrr: Github is very good for reading code since it can be done through the browser. If I am going to be using a particular library, I take a look at the commit history and read the code on the more interesting commits.Also, hanging out on IRC rooms is very helpful. Many people ask for code reviews before committing to the libraries and you get to see how the library evolves and what are the design decisions behind the changes. |
how do you read code? | bluishgreen: Profile the code. Once you understand where the time is spent, its probably the main loop of the program or atleast will give you a clue to the main function. Ofcourse you can ask someone or read the docs, but profiling it has the added advantage of giving you the map of implementation to the intended algorithm.Further when you profile you can get a call graph nicely drawn out using many utils available online. This instantly gives you a big picture.I also second stepping in, adding feature, fixing a bug etc. |
how do you read code? | russell: Reading code for large systems is rarely fun. I usually start with a specific objective, a bug or feature, to teach myself the system. I root around until I arrive at a solution. The first bug is expensive, but they become cheaper as I learn. I have tried systematic top to bottom examination, but I find my mind quickly turns to glue.Good tools are essential. If you are programming Java, use eclipse. I hated it for the first year, but now I tolerate it. Whatever your language, use its IDE. I am also partial to UltraEdit. Write some good tools. I wrote a version of unix find for Windows among other things.If you want code that's fun to read try the Python Cookbook. http://code.activestate.com/recipes/langs/python/ is a good resource. |
Google search for 'sex' 'xxx' | vaksel: They are the 29th most visited site overall in USA. And #1 for porn. |
how do you read code? | gills: I don't find 'main' and friends to be very meaningful), but sometimes it's ok to start there, if you don't have anything in particular to find. And structure is usually an artifact of behavior, so I almost always start with trying to understand the behavior.I like to first familiarize myself with the overall program flow. With an IDE I can usually do this with 'called from' or similar views; if I can run the code, throwing stack traces paints a nice picture of potentially-interesting control paths, taking note of interesting details along the way.Other than that, there's usually something I'm looking for when I dive into a piece of code. So I find that function or something that looks like the right area and start poking around the places it goes and the places it comes from, see what parameters are moving around, what side effects are taking place, etc.I usually try to build a mental model of what I would build if I were trying to solve the same problem. It's usually not spot-on, but just doing a little thinking ahead of time helps me navigate the program more easily, predict what is going to happen, and be aware of recognizable handholds.I try to keep an eye out open for abstractions and patterns so I can keep a sightly more terse mental model and hopefully fit more of the program in my head. If it's a really big chunk of code I'll keep pencil and paper handy and map out the program's design as a I go.Oh yeah -- keep docs handy. Every now and then they actually help. |
how do you read code? | arebop: My last job involved a lot of code review. I usually started with static analysis. Cyclomatic complexity is crude, but it seems like a reasonable heuristic for identifying important or interesting portions of the code. |
What do developers want from an equity-only job? | mpk: "Equity only" sounds like "work for nothing".Everybody has to live off of something.Offer a salary that'll cover rent + noodle money and you'll see a lot of positive responses if you throw in some equity. Or maybe even if you don't.A lot of developers are willing to live on the absolute minimum for a while if you pay them enough to cover rent and food.Equity is a strong motivator, but it's not even half as strong as the need for food or the fear of losing the roof over your head.If you want a talented developer to hop on board you have to make sure you can cover his/her basics. |
how do you read code? | sh1mmer: I start by cleaning code a lot.I've found that often it's better to make the code more legible (indenting, IDE, etc) than just trying to parsing it without.I would say unless the code is already in great shape normally tidying it up a bit means comprehension happens much more quickly. |
how do you read code? | lallysingh: Main's usually pretty useless for nontrivial apps. Usually some sort of internal/library framework structures the system.These usually work well together:1. Some way to cross-reference source files. e.g. ctags.2. Source-code level documentation. Doxygen, javadoc, whatever you have.3. Stack traces of the running app. Set breakpoints and get stack traces. If your tools will let you do this, get periodic stack traces (e.g. once every 10th of a second) for a while. Look at what the code's doing.I just went through two systems totaling 1.5 million lines of code.First hint: don't even think of going through all the code. Instead, figure out what's important to you, and start putting together a demand-paged map of what you need to know.Second hint: get a paper notebook and start writing things down soon. You'll save yourself a lot of re-researching facts that way. |
Best day in near future to launch? | aristus: Govt agencies and others who want to bury data do so on a Friday before a long holiday... like this recent one.So do the opposite: launch next Tuesday, 24 Feb.But, and I say this with love, it doesn't fucking matter when you launch. We launched a beta... 12 days ago? I don't remember precisely because it doesn't matter. The people using are happy and we don't need to see our names in print.I've worked at places that had rock star launches and promptly failed because they didn't make something people wanted. I've worked for nice, profitable businesses you've never heard of, and never will.Anyway -- if you want publicity, it's more than just numerology. You have to build relationships with people beforehand. It's not like you're going to email news@wired.com at exactly 8:13 am on the day before deadline, and boom! you're an internet legend. Give journalists a little credit. |
What do developers want from an equity-only job? | motoko: Jay,What people are trying to communicate is that they don't judge that you are offering value. It's a possible and valid answer to your question that you have to consider: that you ad is good, but your opportunity is bad.That doesn't help you launch your business, so how about this:What you seem to need to do is pay a contractor to build you a web application you have designed.Think of this as building out an empty strip mall unit into a cafe for fulfill your dream of owning a coffee house. You have a general idea, and with your good credit, you can lease the space, but you need somebody with skills and experience to do the build out: build a bar, install coffee machines, plumbing, electric, internet, interior design, funishing... etc.Assume you have plenty of cash and some rudimentary experience outfitting commercial real estate. Then this is straightforward: you request bids, hire a contractor, they do everything you want, you pay them, and cafe business is entirely owned by you. When the contractors are done, they are gone, though you are always welcome to repeat the process of you paying them for new work to maintain or expand your business. You will probably learn something about negotiating contracts based on over-optimistic sales projections, but oh well, that's life.So, this will be your general experience if you hire a web application contracting firm.But what if you don't have the money to hire somebody to do the work, and you can't do the work yourself? Now you are in troubled territory for which there is no MBA formula...This seems to be you. Here are some example scenarios, still following the cafe analogy, that could work and have respectable expectations of success:* You work with your family or very best friend who can help you do the work because they love you. They get some equity, but it's "your" business, and they respect that. Maybe the cafe goes on to be part of the family business.* You save your money until you can pay somebody to do the work.* You get a small business loan from the bank to do the work. (PS: off-topic, but please do not allow your friends and family to co-sign your small business loan if you really care about them...)Now you can't do any of the above... and now we're getting into shady territory of almost certain failure:* Reminded of stories of people who seemingly helped each other for free (see above), you convince "some guy / some kid" who "worked in construction / seems really handy" that the two of you will finally Achieve the American Dream and that together you have a shot at making TONS of money by him doing your work. You can't pay him, but you give him some "equity," and "that's ok, you'll be rich when this gets huge if we all work really hard." |
how do you read code? | llimllib: You need this book, it's excellent: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0201799405 . |
Does it matter that 4K+ follower Twitterer uses HN for links (without attribution)? | sam_in_nyc: I'm not into Twitter at all too much, yet, but it seems like nowadays any link you post is fair game. URLs in and of themselves have nearly as much value as the content within them, which is what makes social media sites so valuable. It's now the nature of the web for URLs to get passed around. It doesn't seem to matter much from where the URL first got popular.. Digg/Reddit/HN/4chan/etc.. if it's good content, the link has value, and is arbitraged across all of the networks.Anybody can repost links found on any of these networks, and claim they found them themselves. I've long theorized about how since there's values in URLs, one could profit from being able to detect when a URL is "underrated," that is, poised to become extremely popular, and share the link. Basically, a "what's about to be really hot across all social media sites" URL generator. If I link to it from Twitter before it becomes popular, I'm doing my followers a service.My question for you: what does "highest-point" submission mean? How are points measured? Where can you view them? |
How would you identify potential relationships for businesses? | wallflower: "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care"I know you are trying to address a classic problem that excellent networkers solve all the time (e.g. "You should talk to my friend Joe"). However, they are connecting people they already know. Even if you were able to figure out what businesses should connect, you will probably need who at those particular businesses should be connected. I don't think you can remove the human element from networking. LinkedIn succeeds because they are a powerful tool for managing a professional network and a lesser tool for reputation scoring (other startups are addressing that - check out http://anthillz.com). They do have a 'people you might want to add as a connection' but they pretty much remain in the background. LinkedIn is going to be hard to beat - they have the data and have gone beyond critical mass. |
how do you read code? | muon: For a new code base, that I will be working on
- First read documentation
- On A3 paper, I draw what I understood, to me picture gives more clarity
- Understand the files/directory/toolchain structure etc.
- Use ctags and cscope
- Navigate by functionalityFor others, I skim through books/blogs/opensource code |
Best day in near future to launch? | adityakothadiya: I had asked same question on HN before, and PG advised me that - the best launch day is when you are ready to launch.Also, I will suggest don't focus on a single launch day. Think every day is a launch day. First launch on forums like HN, then get some feedback, then launch on few mid-size blogs, see if they cover it, see if you can handle traffic, then again launch on bigger blogs, and then keep launching to every single person you meet on each and every day. Once you are ready, every single day is a launch day. |
Does it matter that 4K+ follower Twitterer uses HN for links (without attribution)? | wmf: It doesn't matter that much (the Web has much bigger problems IMO) and there's little you could do about it anyway. |
Best day in near future to launch? | skmurphy: Post it on HN first and ask for feedback before trying to formally launch. That may get you some early users who can also talk about it. |
how do you read code? | karim: I use emacs and its find-tag feature to jump to the definitions of functions I don't understand. |
Best day in near future to launch? | kirpekar: Tuesday - Thursday |
Best day in near future to launch? | patio11: I just want to maximize every last bit of publicity I can get out of launching.a) Approximately 99.998% of the people who will eventually hear of you will not do so on launch day.b) In six months from now if I arrive on your site for the first time following a Google search, to all intents and purposes you just sprang into being. Am I getting your best launch experience? If not, revise plans. |
What do developers want from an equity-only job? | jaxn: I find it ironic that you are building a business to help people know they are getting paid what they are worth and most of the people commenting here are questioning your understanding of what the "lead developer" is worth. That does give me a little pause as to your domain knowledge. |
how do you read code? | geedee77: This is a really good question and one that I'm having trouble answering. I find that I don't read through code in a definable way, it's more organic. I think it really comes down to (as previously mentioned by someone) why I'm reading through it.Example, at work sometimes I need to read through other peoples code for reviews / bug fixes / enhancements. In that case I'll read the bits that matter or that I'm not sure what they're doing. Other times I might read, for example, the source to jQuery or a site or something to find out how something being done. In that case I'll try and follow where it does things by jumping between function as the compiler / interpreter would.Where I read code is, again, something that isn't hard and fast. I'll more often than not just open it in a text editor (notepad as I'm a Windows man) but sometimes I'll load it into an IDE if it's particularly long or I'm having trouble following it in notepad.Good question though! |
how do you read code? | swombat: I wrote a brief article on the topic:http://www.swombat.com/recognising-and-learning-goodI think that the best way is not just to read, but to try to recreate the code or part of the code using the original code as a guide. It's fascinating how many decisions you'll come to that were taken in the original code too.The good thing about doing it this way is that you'll really understand why those decisions were made. Imho you learn the most this way. |
Help with my CAPTCHA woes | pclark: how about just ask a simple question? What is the capital of France? London Paris Donkey. |
Help with my CAPTCHA woes | karim: Maybe you could send an sms to a new user with a confirmation code ? |
Help with my CAPTCHA woes | Tichy: Haven't tried but suggestions I have heard are- submit forms with Javascript (though bots will emulate in the future)- create honey pot text fields that are invisible but bots will fill in anyway (I guess hide them with CSS)- I suppose the names of the honey pot and real form fields should change constantly |
how do you read code? | kstenson: If the code has any unit tests starting from there can be a great diving point. |
how do you read code? | rubentopo: Depends on the language, if I'm reading Java code, then I'll use eclipse (ctrl+h is much better than ctrl+right click, when searching for a methods definition, it's the only way i can follow code that uses interfaces a lot).If you're reading C code, vim + cscope + grep work great. |
how do you read code? | known: I use GDB to read code. |
Tips for coming up with a new web startup name | GBKS: I agree with many of the approaches here and just have some personal experience to add.I would start with writing down descriptive works and just keep playing with them, creating different combinations, looking them up in the thesaurus, etc. I haven't had any luck with latin, greek, etc names, the approach always sounds good, but I find the results unrelatable (if that's a word). You want something people easily understand, starting with foreign languages is starting from the complete opposite side.Also, don't expect to pick it in 20 minutes. Give yourself a week or more where you toss all kinds of ideas around in your head, let different variations sink in, bounce ideas back and forth between friends, etc. Keep coming back to it over and over, even if it's just for 5 minutes. |
Do You Twitter? | abyssknight: http://twitter.com/abyssknightMight I suggest #hn for hashtag categorization? |
Help with my CAPTCHA woes | DavidPP: A quick question, you said that the CAPTCHA is implemented across various login screens. Do that mean that you have to fill a CAPTCHA everytime you login ?I don't know what your application do, but what is wrong with automatic login? I understand why automatic account creation IS a problem, but use automatic login is something I use everyday (via 1password).But if you really need to do it, Tichy solutions seem goods |
Do you use FreshBooks? If so please review my new application | mattculbreth: Howdy friends,I've just launched a beta of a new application that adds extensions to FreshBooks. Please take a look if you're a FreshBooks user! New modules coming out shortly for budgets, improved reporting, and some other goodies.Thanks! |
Do you use FreshBooks? If so please review my new application | okeumeni: I have to be honest here, I hate signing up to test a product more so for invite on beta. Over the years of building online application I found out that is the case for a lot of people. You may want to consider providing a demo kinda open interface for your app. |
Your Feedback on www.PlopQuiz.com | babyshake: As Obama signs the stimulus package in Denver today, I'm launching a preview release of a site I've been working on called PlopQuiz. The site makes it easier to show what you know about subjects of public interest, such as energy efficiency or the economic recovery effort.You'll notice that we now have a handful of community sponsors, as well. While sponsorships don't amount to much more than a badge on your profile at the moment, I'm interested in how a site like PlopQuiz could eventually help students finance their educational careers and avoid crushing levels of debt.Ultimately, this site needs to evolve to best serve the needs of people, HN users included.So lay it on me - if you don't see any utility in PlopQuiz at this stage, how do you think it could be improved to help you? |
Your Feedback on www.PlopQuiz.com | JeremyChase: babysnake,The graphics are great but I dislike how much you have used animation; it cheapens the site.The quiz itself was pretty fun, but I was confused about how to actually start it. It took me some time clicking, and even then it was cumbersome to get going. Also it would be great to know how many questions are left in the quiz.Then at the end it says "Please sign in to save your quiz." but doesn't show me how to see my results without signing up. So, I didn't.I can tell you have put a lot of work into this, but you have usability issues. It is clunky, and not entirely intuitive to use. I would suggest getting people to use the site and watch them while they do so.Hope this is more helpful than not,
Jeremy |
Where to find expired domains? (startup domain search) | jacquesm: Why limit yourself to expired ones ?I've bought some excellent domains off ebay, another option is monikers domain auction.Another thing you could do is to simply approach the owners of a bunch of domains that are parked and that you'd like and ask them if they'll sell it with a reasonably low bid (say 60% of what you are willing to pay), then see if you get traction.Last option, and probably the best, is to come up with a good name that is still free, it is definitely possible.You just have to be a bit tenacious and creative :) |
Your Feedback on www.PlopQuiz.com | joshsharp: At the moment I'm getting some strange behaviour, I think due to your Uservoice plugin - the site loads and then abruptly disappears, and subsequent refreshes only bring up the uservoice 'feedback' tab. |
Your Feedback on www.PlopQuiz.com | axod: scrolling up+down is pretty slow. Too much going on.... Simplify. |
Your Feedback on www.PlopQuiz.com | prawn: The name is incredibly awkward. Plop = poop. I suspect you may struggle to gain traction because of that issue (and the design/look&feel of the site). |
Your Feedback on www.PlopQuiz.com | geuis: I'm an american so of course I could be wrong, but isn't "plop" kind offensive in Britain? I heard it's the same as saying "shit". |
Where to find expired domains? (startup domain search) | timf: If it must be expired domains, try none other than http://www.expireddomains.com |
Your Feedback on www.PlopQuiz.com | RK: The site brings my browser (Firefox 3 on Linux) nearly to a halt. |
How is routing done on maps? | rchiniquy: Check out http://www.openstreetmap.org. They provide open-source map data and code (like rana which has a module for routing) that does least-cost routing. There are a variety of approaches based on simple graph algorithms like naive A*. |
How is routing done on maps? | gojomo: Though Google shows the shortest route by default, you can drag the line to select alternate routes, and the instant updating suggests the other paths are already locally loaded. So their APIs may already provide (or leak) enough info for you.But even if they don't, you can probably buy the same data from their source or another provider. (See that little 'Tele Atlas' copyright at the bottom of Google Maps? Or 'NAVTEQ' at the bottom of Yahoo Maps?) |
How is routing done on maps? | frisco: I'm pretty sure Google uses a variant of Dijkstra's algorithm by default.Here's a thread where they go through how to use Dijkstra's manually with the GMaps API:http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Maps-API/browse_thread... |
What can I improve in this demo video? | melvinram: Do you think this video is clear (message wise)? Is it too long? Boring? Does the background sound add to the video or is it a distraction? |
Please review my web-app - Shopialize.com | adityakothadiya: Hi HN, I've been working on http://shopialize.com application in the part-time since quite some time now. I'd really appreciate your feedback, critique comments, suggestions to improve, or new ideas to take this to the next level.I'm not explaining what, why, and how aspects of this web-application here because I want to see how much of it is clear from the website itself. So please visit http://shopialize.com, explore different pages and let me know what's your first impression.I understand that there are many social components that need to be developed for the viral distribution of this application like Facebook, OpenSocial and iPhone apps. But first I wanted to release the core idea and learn what exactly people want, so that I can continue building this application from their feedback.Believe me, this is just the beginning - so please - pour in your thoughts and ideas about how you want to improve the social shopping experience on the web. You can also email me at aditya@shopialize.com.Thanks, Aditya |
Please review my web-app - Shopialize.com | vaksel: you should really think about changing the name. You are pretty much killing your word of mouth referrals since everyone will go to shopalize.com |
What can I improve in this demo video? | hotpockets: I thought the narrator audio was a little weird. I can't put my finger on it but I think it was more than just the narrators syncopation. Some words were hard to hear - I could make everything out, but I found myself distracted by it every once in a while. It might be an issue with compression or editing or being too far from the mic occasionally.Also, I didn't know anything about your site before I viewed it. The video helped but I still don't know why someone would create a lesson. The end mentions something about "client acquisition" but I have no idea what that means. I assume the lesson creator wants to get email addresses of people so they can try to sell them something? Personally I think you should consider letting people sell complete lessons, rather than posting crippled lessons that require the lesson-master to try to hawk products through email. |
Please review my web-app - Shopialize.com | paul7986: I would suggest sucking in Twitters and or features Twitters where people said I just bought this or this was on sale ....could be on the frontpage and you would not have to sign up and the visitor would be viewing deals possibly with links left by those on Twitter.good luck! |
What can I improve in this demo video? | TomOfTTB: My thoughts (with the obvious grain of salt)...The background sound is distractingWhen you first create the course you copy and paste the info in. I've found this can be confusing to users (though I don't know why). I'd put in a small part that says "I've prewritten this text and am just going to copy it in to save time". It just spells it out for the user and lets them know they aren't missing anything (You do it perfectly during the "creating a lesson" part, I'd just move that up to the beginning)At :48 you move forward only to move back. I've found that it's best to stay linear with the steps. Don't move back and fourth. Refer back later if you have to but when people are watching a demo they expect to see it step by step not jumping all around.Again, when you add the remaining lessons I'd personally put a hard pause. So say something like "I'm going to pause the video for a second to add the rest of the lessons"Overall I'd slow down the whole presentation and ditch the recap at the end. It's a video that people can rewind so they don't need a recap. At the same time you do speed through a lot of the demo (you have to on some level sense this since you felt the need for a recap to begin with).Anyway, hope it helps |
Your Feedback on www.PlopQuiz.com | sjs382: Is that the jParallax script in the background? Please kill it! Haha |
how can I generate youtube style id? | inklesspen: uh, in python: import string, random
''.join(random.sample((string.letters+string.digits), 12))
I hope that's what you were asking for. If not, you might want to clarify your question. |
how can I generate youtube style id? | staunch: First thought is that they're generating a globally unique video ID number and base-62 encoding it to keep the URL shorter. Maybe not though?You could do that easily by just base-62 encoding your table's auto-generated primary key. |
Please review my web-app - Shopialize.com | ajaypopat: Where is your target market? If it's the US, then I'd suggest using American names in the images/collateral so that the target audience can connect with the message. |
Please review my web-app - Shopialize.com | latortuga: On the Tour page, there's a typo in one of your screenshots: "What product or service you want to review?" |
how can I generate youtube style id? | jcapote: def generate_code(len = 5) (1..len).map { (("a".."z").to_a + ("A".."Z").to_a + (0..9).to_a)[rand(62)] }.join
end |
Please review my web-app - Shopialize.com | huhtenberg: Ease off on neuro-linguistic programming techniques. They are really annoying and make the page look needlessly busy. |
how can I generate youtube style id? | compay: Here's a very quick and dirty one for Ruby:require 'zlib'base = "whatever"salt = "whatever"Zlib.crc32(base + salt).to_s(36)This will generate 6-7 character strings. Not sure how likely collisions are, but they should be rare enough that a simple check/regenerate should work. |
Please review my web-app - Shopialize.com | shiranaihito: Maybe you could replace "FREE" with "free"? That word in uppercase is often a bad sign. |
Review Clusterify.com - small coding project meetups - creators met on HN | fsav: Me and Aneesh have been working hard on an idea I described here a few weeks ago (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=450810): a site where you propose small coding projects and others can join. The goal is meeting new people and sharing tips while working on fun ideas. We've added a voting twist: you can vote for ideas, and then showcase completed projects on your blog for people to vote up.We think some of you will be directly interested in this, and we hope for your feedback:http://www.clusterify.comThanks to all who helped/are helping/will help us! |
Should there be a not-for-profit social network? | pclark: for what benefit?why isn't there simply a decentralized for profit social network, where your data is stored on your personal web hosting |
Should there be a not-for-profit social network? | Allocator2008: Who would pay the hosting costs in such a scenario? Costs have to be offset some way or other. Unless users want to do "donations" or something like that, as what wikipedia recently did. |
Review Clusterify.com - small coding project meetups - creators met on HN | ashleyw: Awesome, very awesome! I'm not to keen on the colours (feels a bit dull), but love the idea! |
Review Clusterify.com - small coding project meetups - creators met on HN | shimon: I like this not just because it's fun to meet up and hack with other folks, but because it gives people a way to post/discuss/brainstorm ideas. It's always more fun to discuss these things in an open, social setting where the emphasis can be on improving ideas and generating new ones, and can draw people away from the traps of being possessive and defensive about their ideas.Your main challenge is likely to be getting enough volume on there to keep it interesting. You might try making a dramatically more lightweight way to participate -- a simple "What would you like to build?" prompt where people can type an idea anonymously and other users can vote on the idea, comment on it, or turn it into a proposal.In general, you need to find a much more concise way to explain how I get involved and what the benefit is than a 150 word "basic concepts" page. Probably there should be a new proposal form that I can see and fill in before registering, and that form should be designed to explain clusterify as I fill it in. |
Review Clusterify.com - small coding project meetups - creators met on HN | jwinter: Add location information to users. I'm more likely to work on a small project with someone local. Also, local user groups are doing this already, if you add location info they could use your software. |
Review Clusterify.com - small coding project meetups - creators met on HN | wesley: Very nice, subscribed to the RSS feed but the RSS links point to invalid locations. |
Review Clusterify.com - small coding project meetups - creators met on HN | jmtame: This looks great. I want to open hndir.com with other hackers, I'm fairly busy on another project right now but really like the idea. It's down right now, moving the host to linode. |
Should there be a not-for-profit social network? | tokenadult: Foundations might fund online networks that help people contribute more to society. One example is Cogito.org,http://www.cogito.org/default.aspxwhich has full membership for young people who pass a screening process, but good resources for lurkers too. |
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