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Please review our startup - timzon.com | pedalpete: I'm not sure why this is, but when I first get to your site, i don't know what to look at.
My eyes are being dragged all over the place, and I had to concentrate to read a single heading/paragraph.You'd think with the big lettering you've used, and the layout (which is good), this wouldn't be an issue.The 'call to action' isn't clear enough.
Could be that I'm just having a strange day, but it isn't exactly clear to me what I'm supposed to do (and yes, I see the (ready to begin/sign-up), but something about your overall layout/design just isn't sitting right with me.Sorry, wish I could explain exactly why. |
Just cashed out for 2M. What now? | JabavuAdams: Take a cooling-off period of a few months to relax, and research. During this time, do not buy a home, or any other large purchase (> $4k ?) that you wouldn't have before your windfall. Stay out of the stock, market, except for GICs.Think about what you would need to be permanently semi-retired. I.e. you don't have to work for anyone else, but you don't upscale your lifestyle. You now have 24/7 sweat equity, independent of your other capital.The problem with this particular time is that we're in some kind of transitional period. I have no confidence in my ability to predict what the Canadian and US economies will look like in 10-20 years.I've been very aggressive in paying down my house and contributing to my RRSP. OTOH, I now wish that some percentage of the funds I put into my RRSP had been devoted to disaster preparation. Nothing too extreme -- just another form of insurance.I.e. an RRSP is preparation that makes sense within our current model of society. I currently have few hedges for scenarios outside that model.I guess the main thing is to take small steps. It's very hard to scale back your lifestyle once you've scaled it up. If you are mostly content now, then be very careful about up-scaling.You may have different goals, but for me the greatest luxury is free time to pursue my ideas wherever they take me. |
Just cashed out for 2M. What now? | look_lookatme: Two chicks at once. |
Just cashed out for 2M. What now? | JabavuAdams: Take the Canadian Securities Course, if you're at all interested in money. I did. It's easy if you prepare. I crammed it over a weekend, and just squeaked by. I've heard of a lot of people failing after cramming, though, so YMMV.After reading Fooled By Randomness, I don't trust anyone else to manage my money. It helps that my wife and I are somewhat interested in finance. I would definitely go to others for ideas, but not for decision-making.It's the same kind of "Ah ha" experience that PG tries to create in young techies. You really can run your own business. Well, you really can manage your own money (assuming some minimal interest in the subject).NOTE: about the CSC: the material is a bit boring for someone coming from an engineering background. I.e. you're supposed to repeat what they want to hear (including some dogma), rather than actually give a nuanced confidenced answer. There are quite a few calculation questions, though. |
Just cashed out for 2M. What now? | tlb: Don't over-think it. Put half in cash and half in 3-5 stocks you think don't suck. You would have to spend a huge amount of time on money management to get better results than that.When I cashed out, I gave away 10%. Mostly to family, and some to local charitable projects I personally cared about. It can feel good.Spend your time thinking about what to do next, now that you're not constrained to make an income. Start a new business? Become an international playboy? Go back to school? Up to you. |
Just cashed out for 2M. What now? | lr: Buy lots of gold and silver! But yes, diversify (savings, CDs, stocks, bonds, etc.). |
Just cashed out for 2M. What now? | gcheong: Try having a look at the Motley Fool website.www.fool.com |
Your startup is worth 100. So what is 51% of it worth? | jacquesm: Well, 49% really would be worth 49, but to hand over control that is quite a different kettle of fish. It very much depends on how much you trust the party you are dealing with, to me if you sell 51% you might as well sell it whole in most cases, so I figure 51% = 100 - (whatever risk you think is acceptable).Not sure if that makes sense like that, but that's how I would do the calculation. In other words, the risk factor determines to a large amount how close to the 'real' value of the 51% we'd end, if I think the risk is large (that the party that will now control the start-up will crash it or disappear into the night) then I want it all now. |
Your startup is worth 100. So what is 51% of it worth? | mkuhn: I don't have a conclusive answer but a few inputs.I think it drastically depends on the state a company is in. An established business which is listed on the stock market probably has much less of a markup for the 51% than a very young company.Also, I don't know for sure about the US, but in Switzerland and a few other European countries 51% don't give you full control over a company, 2/3 is needed.If I had to say what I would pay for 51% of a StartUp? I think I would pay a markup which is within of my evaluation of the company. |
Your startup is worth 100. So what is 51% of it worth? | brk: I'm not sure what you mean.From an investment perspective you would ordinarily go through an exercise to determine what the business is valued at. There are various tools and methods to these calculation, but the outcome is that you get a mutually agreed upon number.One you've reached that stage, 51% of the company is worth 51% of this valuation number. If your business is valued at $1,000,000 US, then 51% is worth $510,000. Most investors would be happy to take 51% of the business for some number LESS than this, but as a rule of thumb none would take 51% for MORE than this amount. |
Just cashed out for 2M. What now? | dag: 1. Get in great shape.
2. Help the poor. |
Your startup is worth 100. So what is 51% of it worth? | aidenn0: If I want to give up control of the company but still keep part of the future profits of the company (which is basically what this question asks), it makes more sense to just sell to a public corporporation for a mixture of cash and stock. This is basically the same idea.You get Money, give up control of the company, but also the rights to some of the future value generated by the company. The waters are muddied a bit by the fact that the corporation has existing business that affects the dividends received, but in theory that's already priced into the stock by the market. |
Please review our startup - timzon.com | releasedatez: When I'm on the "About Us" page, I couldn't find my way back home. The logo image doesn't take me home. |
Your startup is worth 100. So what is 51% of it worth? | app: 51% == 100% |
Your startup is worth 100. So what is 51% of it worth? | notaddicted: Good Question.It depends on whether someone is trying to buy the 51% or the 49%Selling the 49%: 49 by what I assume the definition of "worth" to be.Selling the 51%:If: You think the buyer can run the company better than you
Then: 51If: You think the buyer can run the company tolerably well
Then: 60
- Extra money to account for loss of control. Note that now the $$$ worth of the company will be changed such that the new worth is 117If: Don't think the buyer can run the company
Then: Forget it, no price
Unless: You need to sell. Then I guess negotiate what you can get.EDIT: I guess this is basically a formula based on the expected future worth of the company, but I can't think of the expression at the moment. |
Just cashed out for 2M. What now? | seanc: There is a whole class of financial planners who only work for rich people. They typically want you to have 500k net worth before they'll talk to you. They provide better advice for much less money that the retail mutual fund pushers at banks.Google Baskin Financial and Doherty and Associates, and ask around for somebody like that local to you. Take meetings with them and discuss their investment strategy and philosophy until you find a good match with someone you can trust. |
Just cashed out for 2M. What now? | tomsaffell: Any advice would really need to based on an understanding of what you want to get from the money, and more broadly from life.I slightly get the impression from the wording of your question that you don't quite know what you want to get from it, but you feel that you ought to do something (there are plenty of people who's job it is to tell you that you ought to).I think that unless you know what you want from it, you'll never be able to answer this question. Some options to consider: seeding your next company, angel funding, charity, friends & family, financial stimulus of your local area, etc. - these are all investments of sorts.If you're just looking for somewhere to park it whilst you decide then make sure you're within FDIC limits on each account... |
Just cashed out for 2M. What now? | anaphoric: No offense, but I don't believe you. I think you are spoofing HN.On the very small chance you are telling the truth, I would say diversify your investments and keep your mouth shut. And then start ramblin' |
How do I get through to startups for a summer position? | vaksel: email and offer to work for free |
Alternative to the tag cloud? | kurtosis: I prefer a ranked list, one tag per row. Also draw bar graph next to each item to visually show the difference in magnitude between the ranks. |
How do I get through to startups for a summer position? | jncraton: I would definitely recommend trying to get on the inside of the startup somehow. A huge part of business is networking. Do anyone of your friends know someone who works at or owns a startup? See if they can put in a word for you and maybe get a face to face interview set up.Make sure that you are clear that you are doing it for the educational experience and not for the money. I wouldn't necessarily offer to work for free, because I think that makes you sound a little desperate, but be clear that you aren't expecting to get paid a whole lot.This is basically what I have done to get jobs the last two summers, and it has worked really well for me. Last summer, I worked for a guy who spoke in one of my comp sci classes and who I had a few connections with. The summer before that, I worked for an international nonprofit that I had several connections with. The pay was not great (basically just covered living expenses), but the experience was well worth it. |
How do I get through to startups for a summer position? | mrtron: Carleton or UofO? Are you in the co-op program or looking for a general summer position?Startups tend not to hire co-ops, because they cannot afford the risk of getting a dud. I worked for a term at a startup and it actually was very difficult to dive into, it was a very niche technology and nobody had time to guide me.This early in your career, maybe working for a large company doing a small project would be ideal. You would probably get paid better and have a boss that has time for you.If you want to volunteer at a startup and find the right team it would probably be the best opportunity for skill growth. |
How do I get through to startups for a summer position? | simonk: Check with your a university advisor. In Vancouver we have someone from the local university that helps places students at startups. |
How do I get through to startups for a summer position? | DanHulton: Join this meetup group: http://www.meetup.com/The-Ottawa-LAMP-Perl-and-PHP-Meetup-Gr... and try networking there. There's a lot of smart local folk, and many of them are hiring. |
Just cashed out for 2M. What now? | kingkongrevenge: Many eggs, many baskets.Make sure some of your wealth is out of the reach of your government. Bullion stored in switzererland or the channel islands is good for this.Learn how to hedge with options. Puts were quite cheap before the crash. People who had insured their positions are doing fine. This occurs to remarkably few. |
Alternative to the tag cloud? | joshu: I've always kinda hated tag clouds.Can you give us a sample of what the data looks like? |
How do I get through to startups for a summer position? | lepacha: You should also consider putting a link here to your blog/portfolio or just a way to contact you. I am the founder of a Montreal-based startup and always love to talk to smart students who are eager to learn. |
How do I get through to startups for a summer position? | psyklic: Go to entrepreneurship or tech networking events. At least in LA, I'm always surprised that no students show up! |
My 13 year-old cousin hacked into his school's system. What advice would you give? | markup: I'm guessing "war games" wouldn't help :-) |
My 13 year-old cousin hacked into his school's system. What advice would you give? | vaksel: define "hacking", did he do anything complicated, or did he just guess a password? |
How do I get through to startups for a summer position? | paulgb: Networking at local tech events would be a good start. If you code outside of class (which it sounds like you do), you are already ahead of 90% of people in most CS programs in Canada. In my experience, if you meet someone in person or are referred by a friend you have MUCH better odds of getting a reply than just sending an email with a resume.Being able to demonstrate some working code is always good, whether it's a live site or some open-source contributions or some other code you can show. Assuming you have no work experience as a developer, it's pretty important that you demonstrate your abilities somehow.Are you looking to stay within Ottawa? Ontario? Canada? There seems to be a lot going on in the GTA these days, if you're willing to live there. |
My 13 year-old cousin hacked into his school's system. What advice would you give? | r11t: The best reference I can recommend would be Eric Raymond's "How To Become A Hacker" : http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html The key point the article points out is that "The basic difference is this: hackers build things, crackers break them." The teenage thrill of breaking into computer systems is certainly exciting but perhaps he will be even more enthusiastic about learning to be curious about how things work under the hood, how to do clever things via programming and how to develop a true hacker mind set. Of course all this without the risk of getting into trouble like breaking into his school's computer system. I am glad to know that he did not choose to do any major damage but nevertheless I hope he grows up to become a fine hacker and understand the true meaning of being one. Good luck and great effort on your behalf to try to advise him in the correct path! |
My 13 year-old cousin hacked into his school's system. What advice would you give? | jacquesm: Why was it wrong ?He shouldn't have been able to do it anyway. Compare it to a kid kicking against a fence and finding out that it swings open.Simply explain that if you have no business in a system that you should not try to gain access, that should be plenty. |
My 13 year-old cousin hacked into his school's system. What advice would you give? | nsrivast: Show him this:http://www.paulgraham.com/hs.html |
My 13 year-old cousin hacked into his school's system. What advice would you give? | xenophanes: he didn't do anything wrong. congratulate him, and offer him links to some things you think he may enjoy to learn more.if you fear he will make mistakes, the best way to combat that is with knowledge, not by taking the school's side against him and calling his great success immoral. |
My 13 year-old cousin hacked into his school's system. What advice would you give? | grouchyOldGuy: Just because you CAN screw around with someone else's property doesn't mean you SHOULD. Although it can be exciting (especially at that age) to do something forbidden, he can suffer the consequences if caught. He might inadvertently harm the system and could wind up in serious legal trouble. It's like walking up to someone's front door, twisting the knob and discovering that they forgot to lock it when they left. That doesn't give him the right to enter the house, even if all he wanted to do was "look around". Turn the situation around: would he want someone hacking into his home computer because he didn't have it properly secured? Would they have the right to do it to him? |
My 13 year-old cousin hacked into his school's system. What advice would you give? | sounddust: When I was in high school, I guessed the administrator password of our computer lab (it was the administrator's daughter's first name) and basically maintained the computer lab for the rest of the semester. I never did any harm in the process. The administrator, upon finding out what I had done, recognized that I knew what I was doing, and supported my work. I fixed permissions that repaired apps that had been mysteriously broken for years, reset other students' passwords at their request, and lots of other helpful things..Then one day my teacher switched places with the only other person who had the admin password, and she didn't know about what I had been doing. When she found out that I had administrator access, she was infuriated. She called me a "hacker" and reported me to the principal. The principal planned to give me a 0 in the class and possibly expel me from school. The only people who were allowed to be in the "hearing" which decided my fate was the pissed off teacher and the principal. The administrator, who vouched for me, was told that no one asked for his opinion and that it wasn't relevant. I almost failed to graduate because of this, and it was only through being persistent and involving every teacher I knew that I managed to not fail (the principal reduced my grade to 75/100 instead of failing me).I would tell your son that most adults who have authority (including principals, teachers, judges and police officers) do not understand technology and computers very well, and therefore it's important to not only operate within the scope of the law and rules of his school, but to also not even appear to operate outside those rules. Computers are cheap, and in 2009 there's not much more interesting in his school's network than what he can set up on a $200 netbook. |
My 13 year-old cousin hacked into his school's system. What advice would you give? | endtwist: Whatever you do, do not punish him for this. While what he did was not right (though your use of "hacking" here is very broad), instead of telling him how wrong it was, simply try to push him in a more positive direction. My suggestion would be to ask him to work on some sort of project for or with you, perhaps even get him involved in something small and open source. Starting a website may even push him in the right direction.An alternative would be to talk to the school and see if they could give him some sort of credit for helping administer the network, or work on a special project for the school.To give you an anecdote: in high school (and this was only a few years ago), me and my friends consistently were cracking passwords and breaking into various parts of our school's network. We never did anything harmful, nor did we ever cheat, but we did it for the fun and the challenge. One day, we happened to find a file containing all the passwords to every user on the network -- teachers, guidance counselors, and principal included -- and we turned it into the principal. Instead of telling us we were wrong for "hacking the network" and questioning us, he thanked us profusely and got the file deleted from the network. No punishment.In middle school, however, I got in minor trouble for "hacking" by using proxies to skirt around the school's filtering system. The "techs" in the computer lab quite literally pulled me out of class and angrily questioned me, telling me how I was wrong and what I did was bad. What happened? I continued doing it, and just made sure not to be caught.My point is that telling him he is wrong will not stop him, and he will likely continue what he is doing because it stimulates him and he finds it exciting. By nurturing that excitement and funneling it into something constructive, such as an alternative project, he will learn what the better avenues are and likely forget about "hacking"/cracking almost (if not) completely. |
My 13 year-old cousin hacked into his school's system. What advice would you give? | noonespecial: I'd try the "with great power comes great responsibility" angle. They did the best their muddled minds could do to secure their system. It was trivially easy to break into it using your l33t haxor skillz, but might does not make right. Have a little compassion.Also, remember, embarrassing them in this way might cause them to use the great power they have over you to make your life miserable as well. It goes both ways. The luddites in charge of public schools are usually docile, slow moving creatures, but they can become suddenly fierce if poked in the eye with a sharp stick. |
My 13 year-old cousin hacked into his school's system. What advice would you give? | dylanz: Just let him know what the potential consequences are, and your recommendation (which I'm assuming is to "not" continue).See if there is any way you can spin this toward the "good", by possibly having a meeting with the schools principal and systems admin. This is obviously a crap shoot, but could possibly be beneficial to your son's education. |
My 13 year-old cousin hacked into his school's system. What advice would you give? | cabalamat: Don't get caught. |
What do you look for in a PR Agency? | tristmegistus: My goals would guide whether I spent a retainer or not on a publicist. If I needed a reactive, damage-control publicist, then a retainer would make sense to have them at the ready. But if I were planning a product roll-out and wanted media placements it might make more sense to hire someone for a finite campaign.As far as expectations, for the proactive job I would negotiate goals with the publicist for number and stature of media outlets I wanted coverage from. e.g.(blog coverage, trades, or national TV and newspaper coverage). I would expect them to spend their time understanding the product and then pitching the story to reporters, and then to field press calls and handle logistics (press releases, arranging interviews, etc.)Expectations for a reactive publicist are not as clear cut. I'd want them to control damage, but I can't think of a concrete metric for that.In either case, I'd make sure they had news or reporting experience before hiring them. If they don't understand how the media works from the inside, they won't be as effective as someone who does. |
My 13 year-old cousin hacked into his school's system. What advice would you give? | thomasswift: Tell him to stop before he gets caught. Even though he didn't do any damage, a school's administration will not take kindly to the potential threat that he is.here's one example, a quick google search - 69 felonies for stealing tests and changing grades http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/38012/118/Also, even though he got in, I wouldn't attempt to notify them of their breach, because again the school will probably go ballistic on him, I think there was a news story about this, but what happened escapes me. |
How do I get through to startups for a summer position? | spencerfry: It's as simple as emailing and asking. It's good to be specific about what you're good at and what you'd like to work on. It helps if you're in the area and can commute as well. We had a few people email us and have picked one Computer Science student at Michigan (who lives in NYC) to work with us this summer in New York. |
How do I get through to startups for a summer position? | carlosrr: When I was looking for internships I would just look for startup lists on cities I was interested in. I saw their open positions and sent a mail with my resume and a well crafted cover letter based on what I was interested on. Most companies were very accessible and would at least reply back. |
My 13 year-old cousin hacked into his school's system. What advice would you give? | kirse: Tell your cousin he gets about 3 more years of goofing around like that where he should use the "stupid kid" or "I dunno" defense and get off scott-free or with a slap on the wrist. Once he's an adult though, the kiddy stuff has to stop.If he's messing with financial systems or other serious stuff, give him a thwock on the skull and remind him that it would be unfair and immoral to screw with the systems more than the CEOs and bankers already have. =) |
Just cashed out for 2M. What now? | gorillak: Give it to me. I will put it to good use. Promise. |
My 13 year-old cousin hacked into his school's system. What advice would you give? | Allocator2008: Each man has a right to his own property, including his intellectual property. Therefore it is wrong to "hack" if this means breaking into somebody's system without their permission, because it is a violation of the right to property. A copy of 'Atlas Shrugged' could drive this point home I think. But there are great jobs in computer security, in which people can get payed to "break into" systems to smell out the security flaws. This might be a positive way of channeling this individual's skill set. |
Python and web services | anthonyrubin: I don't believe that SOAP is especially popular in the Python world. Note that an XML-RPC library is included with Python, but a SOAP library is not. Most "web services" are likely done using REST. |
My 13 year-old cousin hacked into his school's system. What advice would you give? | jollyjerry: If your cousin is interested in doing that kind of work, why not suggest him to volunteer with the school? All the other responses seem to romanticize the rogue hacker. Instead, I think he should come clean, and do his work in the public. He could offer to audit the school's network. For a 13 year old, this would be a great opportunity to teach him to be professional and helpful. |
Python and web services | vidar: soaplib is decent |
How do I get through to startups for a summer position? | thinkcomp: I'd be interested in talking with you about an internship.jobs@thinkcomputer.com |
Just cashed out for 2M. What now? | judegomila: invest in heyzap.com (haha) |
Just cashed out for 2M. What now? | jaspertheghost: If you're not actively managing your portfolio, the biggest thing you can make sure to do is asset allocation a la David F. Swensen. I'd recommend Unconventional Success: A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment. |
Just cashed out for 2M. What now? | Flemlord: You need an investment advisor, not recommendations from your accountant or hacker news. ;-) Find somebody with a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation. A good CFP may charge you $1k-$3k up front for a comprehensive financial plan, then around 1% of your total portfolio annually if you want him to actively manage your assets. I work in finance and can give you some recommendations if you'd like. |
Just cashed out for 2M. What now? | newseller: Just wanted to chime in to thank everyone for the great and diverse advice. I definitely can't respond to all the overwhelming feedback, so I'll keep it at thanks. This is a great community, and I appreciate all of you. Seems nobody has any good financial software other than quicken for mac, but that's ok. Maybe that'll be my next project. :)You've definitely given me a lot to research and think about as I approach my retirement. Thanks again! |
My 13 year-old cousin hacked into his school's system. What advice would you give? | pavel_lishin: My only advice is to go for B's. A will be too suspicious. |
An introduction to web platforms? | halo: Web server sends pages to client on request. Examples are Apache and IIS.Web server interacts with server-side scripting language. Examples are PHP and Ruby. Allows you to generate pages on the fly custom-designed for the user, and allows you to do useful things like templating via databases with ease.Web application framework is built on top of server-side scripting language. These are designed to make life easier for the programmer. Examples are Ruby on Rails or Django.Serves to a browser. Browser displays HTML (structured content), CSS (for designing the HTML), JavaScript (client-side programming language that deals with interaction on a page). Ajax is a buzzword for JavaScript communication with the server without refresh. jQuery is a library (essentially a bunch of useful functions designed to work together) for JavaScript that makes things like Ajax and selecting individual parts of HTML, something that's usually a pain, easy to do. Cookies allow small amounts of data-storage on the client-side.Typically, people learn HTML first, then mess with a server-side language (or learn "how to program" in general), then once those two basic skills sets are there build on them at the same time. |
My 13 year-old cousin hacked into his school's system. What advice would you give? | andreyf: Do what my parents did when I got suspended for "hacking":1) Get him a new computer (but with a crappy video card, if he's into gaming)2) Find him programming internships and introduce him to programmers you knowI would also add:Tell him that he isn't a real programmer unless he understands Prolog, Haskell, C, and a flavor of Lisp (Scheme/Arc), although Python might be a good first language to start with. Be prepared to spend lots of $ on books - all of these topics have books which work for different people. I would recommend:The Little Schemer series: http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/matthias/BTLS/
and
Programming in Haskell http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~gmh/book.htmlThese are solidly good books, there are others, but they really depend on personality. |
Just cashed out for 2M. What now? | brianobush: actually insurance companies have many rules put in place by the states that will assign the accounts to a different servicing company. but that is US, I am sure Canada has similar rules.check out coffee house investment strategy, I have been doing this for years (10+) and have fared well in this recession. Less worry and excellent gains. Make sure you always bleed a large sum of money slowly into the market, so you will not be caught at a specific point price-wise.See: http://kd7yhr.org/bushbo/coffeehouse_investing.md for pointers |
How do I get through to startups for a summer position? | wehriam: I was in a similar situation years ago and found some great internships with small organizations.Determine what type of company you'd like to work for and the region you'd like to work in. Put together your resume and a cover letter explaining your situation - student with skills seeks internship. Enthusiasm, personalization, and academic credentials will likely go a long way.Breadth is important. Contact a lot of companies. You may not be able to work with your first choice, but there may be opportunities you're not aware of.This worked well for me. I met enough people during my second internship in NYC that I had a bonus and a great job when I graduated.In hindsight, I'd also recommend contacting non-HR employees of companies you're applying to. Don't be afraid to track down the CEO's Skype or AIM account. If you send a personal email, I see no problem in following up with a phone call.I want to emphasize that it's unlikely something interesting will fall in your lap, so you need to be proactive. That said, I think you'll be surprised by the response and happy with the results. |
My 13 year-old cousin hacked into his school's system. What advice would you give? | whalesalad: Just don't let him blog about it... my dumb ass did that and got expelled. Best thing that ever happened to me, looking back, but it caused a whole lot of turmoil. |
An introduction to web platforms? | russell: Start with a static website on your own computer. You need to learn things in this order.HTMLCSS so you can style your pagesJavaScript so you can do dynamic thingsJQuery makes JavaScript much easierWith this you can actually publish a fully functional web site with a hosting company.The server side is needed if you have a high volume site or one with dynamic content, such as a shopping site or with visitor created content. For that you need an application server: Django, PHP, Rails, Tomcat, Jboss, etc. About that time you will need to think about databases and SQL. My advice is to learn how to create good pages before learning the server side. |
Just cashed out for 2M. What now? | tdeslaurier: Hello there. I am located in Edmonton, Alberta, and licensed in most provinces. I am in the Insurance industry and have dealt with Lottery winners, widows, business owners and many others in my 17 years as an advisor. The best strategy for you is not going to be found through a forum like this. I can say that for every case I have dealt with where the monies involved exceed $1,000,000 the solutions have been different. Some products and strategies I can assist you with, and for others I have peers that I have dealt with for years including Tax Accountants, Tax Attourneys and others. I would encourage you to check out my website at www.dfsinc.ca to see if you like what you see. If so, my contact information is there and I would be pleased to do a no-obligation initial interview with you at your convenience. I am NOT fly by night - I am past-president of our Professional Association, and have rune a Managing General Agency with over 200 brokers working with me for many years. I have references. I hope to hear from you soon. |
How do I get through to startups for a summer position? | apalmblad: I've both been hired at startups through the coop program and have hired employees through the coop program for my startup.Give that a try.In Canada, if your marks are high enough (B average), you can also qualify for an NSERC undergrad student research award, which basically lets a startup recoup half of a reasonable salary if they were to pay you. |
How do I get through to startups for a summer position? | cvinson: We'll actually be posting an opening for an intern at Carleton; we can definitely use a generalist like yourself. Our company, bandzoogle.com is based in Montreal, but we have employees in the UK and US. We're not really a "startup" anymore, but we can give you some experience in scaling a web app (we use S3/EC2). If you're interested, hit me up at chris[at]bandzoogle.com |
Just cashed out for 2M. What now? | teyc: Set aside some money in Kiva.com, it'll be the happiest investment you ever made. |
My 13 year-old cousin hacked into his school's system. What advice would you give? | teyc: Firstly make sure he realizes if he gets caught, the government is going to ground him from coming near another computer for 20 years. |
Just cashed out for 2M. What now? | klahnako: I am in Ontario. My advice is:1) Stay in real cash (not equivelents) until this market turmoil is done.
2) Figure out what you want your next "career" to be. You are in a position to take some risks, but 2million is not that much. You want to give yourself purpose and continue making some money.
3) Do not travel unless you are one to learn other languages: Travel is addictive but does nothing to improve you. Like all drugs, travel should be a reward to yourself, not the purpose. |
Python and web services | erqwer: I've had good luck with Suds (https://fedorahosted.org/suds/) in the past. |
Can we get a quick undo vote like on reddit, it is easy to click the wrong arrow. | someperson: Requested many times: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=363 |
URL-To-Comments? | nreece: The Hacker News OnePage Greasemonkey script ( http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/30512 ) or the SplitView Greasemonkey script ( http://www.nirmalpatel.com/web.html#splitview ) for a split view of the story & comments may help you. |
Quick wins for your business? | aristus: When comparing technology vendors in a mature area I think it's good to pick a new, smart entrant who's somewhat proven but still hungry. They are the ones who get customers by competing on quality and features. Don't always go with the default or the sexy choice."somewhat proven" is key. Don't shoot yourself by piloting something experimental without the ability to fix it yourself or replace it in a hurry.Know the technology well. Build the quick+dirty version yourself, then shop around for mature software that does what you now know you need. |
Quick wins for your business? | moe: Welcome to the world of automation. This is also how many underdogs manage to grab a slice from the "big players". You'd be surprised how many large companies that could easily afford to optimize their processes just don't do it.You find dedicated people (or even departments) doing nothing but strictly repetitive tasks. Things like filing invoices, keeping a stock of parts according to a set of rules or even, like you said, aggregating always the same information and mailing it in always the same format to the execs.In every company that I have worked so far there were quite a few people who could have literally been replaced by the proverbial shell-script.Doing so (when appropiate) always gives you an edge because you'll be faster and less prone to errors in that area than the meatbag-driven competitor - plus you free up ressources for more interesting tasks. |
Quick wins for your business? | DenisM: In the same direction: -wrote a script to download daily sales data from iTunes and upload to google docs for charting
-use http://www.moopf.com/appstorereviews/ to keep track of my reviews on iTunes
-automated IIS6 deployment from empty machine
-wrote an admin panel for the web site users
-outsorced hosting
(I was tinking about buying a server to host my ASP.NET app at first).
I think this is all basic stuff. Interested to find what others have. |
What sites do you go to mostly to read the comments? | jacquesm: digg -> just some of the articles, not the comments
/. -> articles in some sections, comments in some sections, there is overlap between the two but not everything, for instance, most articles on genetics are way over my head but the comments sometimes explain them
HN -> both articles and comments, but definitely not every articleI'm a bit of a news junkie I guess, it is my source of inspiration and because of the amazing knowledge in the crowd present on those sites I never come away from that without learning something useful.In an earlier article somebody today compared it to 'watching discovery channel' because it seems like you learn but you really don't. I think that is up to how you use the internet, if you take a subject and then go in depth I think it is very well possible to learn a lot.I also think that each of the sites above has something going for it, digg because it literally has just about everything on it (even though the crowd there is absolutely terrible), ./ because it has a very easy way of limiting the discussion to just those parts that are somewhat interesting with the capability to 'drill down' in a thread if you want to, HN because of the general quality of the discussion.However, I doubt HN will be able to preserve its current culture without some major moves. |
Has a human been cloned but not been released to the world? | jacquesm: There are enough unethical scientists out there that it is a distinct possibility, the problems that still need to be overcome according to literature are 'doable'.That said, I would also bank on the ego of those scientists to attract attention to the fact that they 'did it' as soon as such as human was carried to term.So, on balance, can it be done ? Yes, probably. Has it been done ? Probably not.The age of the individual would not really factor in to the equation at all imo. |
Quick wins for your business? | skmurphy: Patrick, you've also mentioned this dashboard on JBoS. I would be interested in licensing the script(s) from you. Contact info in my profile. |
How do I get through to startups for a summer position? | shafqat: We're always looking for good interns at NewsCred, although summer is a long ways away for us. Drop me a line and we'll keep in touch (shafqat at newscred dot com). We're launching a lot of new products in the next few months, so should be an exciting time. |
My 13 year-old cousin hacked into his school's system. What advice would you give? | mburns: Being smart is not an excuse to be lazy. Also, don't be stupid. |
URL-To-Comments? | RiderOfGiraffes: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=370399It's not mine, I don't know how it works, sometimes it goes wrong, but I think it's worth investigating. It seem to be a problem several people have had a go at solving.No idea what terms to search for to find previous discussions on it, though. Perhaps bookmarklet and greasemonkey.http://searchyc.com/bookmarklet+greasemonkeySome of the results seem relevant. |
Quick wins for your business? | brandnewlow: Every morning I wake up and read all the latest Chicago news, looking for stuff to submit to my social news site or pass along to other users to check out.This was taking a long time and wasn't very fun.So I created my own private alltop/tinyURLs for every mainstream media RSS feed, local blog and the search results for "Chicago" for all the big social media sites.It's saved me great big gads of time. At some point I will possibly open this up to others. |
What sites do you go to mostly to read the comments? | pj: I notice comments are better on most sites late at night. |
Best email for elders? | davidw: My mom is happy with Gmail, and she really isn't a computer person. |
Hackers And Founders In Boston | garetjax: Don't count out vc events / pitch meetings. There are a lot of cool people ie hackers that attend them - I highly recommend going to the next Boston Web Innovators meetup - its March 10th http://www.webinnovatorsgroup.com/They usually have about 3 formal pitches and then before and after them people mingle and also check out "side dishes" of startups at tables around the room. |
Hackers And Founders In Boston | apgwoz: The page at: http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/startupswiki/Hacker_Groups# lists two "groups" in Boston. One of which is http://betahouse.org/ which seems to be a CoWorking space. Co-Working, I would think would be a great way to meet people. It seems to be at least in Philadelphia at http://www.indyhall.org.I'm sure there are lots of programming meetups in the area too, which while not startup related per se, probably are attended by some founders to do the same sorts of things--network. |
Hackers And Founders In Boston | steveplace: hackrtrackr.com |
please review our online load testing service - loadimpact.com | mechanical_fish: You passed the first test: I asked myself "wait, how is this not a one-stop-shopping service for aspiring, technically incompetent DOS attackers"? And I found your FAQ and answered that question inside of 45 seconds:http://loadimpact.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=7 |
Hackers And Founders In Boston | aikiai: http://www.meetup.com/Boston-Startup-Poker/I'm pretty much in the same boat as you (aspiring founder), but the event is hosted by Ivan Kirigin of Tipjoy (YCW08 I believe) and there's been a number of other local startup founders at the games, YC and otherwise. Really fun time.Also, I've got good things to say about the Betahouse meetups. I've been for Django and Plone. Interesting group of people, and great hacker space.FYI your email is not in your profile. |
please review our online load testing service - loadimpact.com | epi0Bauqu: On the free results page at the bottom there are some FAQ graphs, but they all link to the same place. |
Hackers And Founders In Boston | rshao: The email field in your profile is invisible to other users. Put it up in your about me. |
please review our online load testing service - loadimpact.com | vaksel: I think your pricing is pretty much way off.Why would I want to pay you $40/mo, if I'm paying $3/mo for shared hosting that I know can handle 250 users?And its the same way through out. Even at the highest level, it'd be cheaper for me to lease a second dedicated server to spread the load, than it is to pay you for your service.And I don't think this is something that should be a monthly service. I only want to check my load once in a while to see if its doing fine, so I think by asking so much money on a monthly basis, you are driving users away. I think you'll be better off doing it as one off results. i.e. the $499/mo option, should be a $29.99 one time fee for 3 reports |
please review our online load testing service - loadimpact.com | caustic: What would happen if I tried load testing loadimpact.com? |
please review our online load testing service - loadimpact.com | wesley: So, what can I learn about these results:http://loadimpact.com/result/www.improvingtheweb.com-b75533d... |
please review our online load testing service - loadimpact.com | agotterer: You guys should offer a daily or limited time use rate. I would think many sites dont need to load test every month. But instead when they are first building an infrastructure or making upgrades.One of the sites I am working on now is moving to a new codebase. We wanted to load test for a few hours but found everything we looked at to be too expensive. |
Hackers And Founders In Boston | speek: You might have a good time meeting people at Northeastern University. Every wednesday we have a speaker come in and talk about something they're interested in. It'd be a great place to meet geeky students and faculty at NU. http://acm.ccs.neu.edu/?q=videos has some videos of past talks, but they haven't been updated in a while.Next week we've got Foy Savas giving a talk about Ruby.You're welcome to join us. |
Hackers And Founders In Boston | shizcakes: As others have stated, the email in your profile is invisible. I am curious about your 'main' startup project (I work at one in Boston right now that could be construed as being in the music industry).My email should be available in my profile. |
please review our online load testing service - loadimpact.com | quickpost: Under the "Need help interpreting your graph?" section all the graphs lead to the same explanation! Need to have a different explanation for each one. |
Hackers House in Dallas, TX? | Radix: I would drop by. I havne't had much luck in meeting people like you describe, the only drawback would be that I might not know enough myself. :) |
please review our online load testing service - loadimpact.com | chops: Maybe I'm just retarded, but I couldn't find the answer to my question on your site. Does your service just pound the exact page that's targeted, or does it follow links, submit forms, etc to try to simulate actual users? |
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