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What's your homepage? | Zev: Safari 4's Top Sites. |
What's your homepage? | rms: about:blankbut I almost always start from the previous session |
What's your homepage? | mixmax: I use a small page I put together that displays the weather for my location and the links I use most. I've been meaning for a long time to add a bit of functionality (adding/deleting/changing links) to it but haven't gotten around to it yet. It's just a handcoded file, but it gets the job done.here it is: http://www.maximise.dk/start/ |
E-Learning Startup | thehickmans: I would caution you against looking at e-learning as a single market - there's the K to 12 market and then the post-secondary market. You also need to look at geography and the educational direction of countries, regions, states, etc. For example, the UK market is very different than the US or AUS markets, and potential clients in each country are looking for very different things.Blackboard doesn't really play much in K to 12, but virtually owns the post-secondary market in North America. I think you could spend a lot of time and effort trying to build a Blackboard competitor and not get very far.However, if you take a look at what teachers are doing with Moodle http://moodle.org/ or Joomla http://www.joomlalms.com/, there's probably a niche there to get your hands onto.In reference to some of the sales comments - if you can connect with teachers, professors or curriculum oriented staff and get them excited, there's a good chance to find some budget. |
What's your homepage? | lazyant: my homepage is set to my bookmarks (an html page with the exported bookmarks). |
E-Learning Startup | nl: How would you compete with Moodle, which is Open source, free, and has a lot of momentum? It's also pretty crappy, but I'm not sure that matters in this case - don't forget it isn't the users of the software who are the buyers. |
What's your homepage? | wallflower: At work, my company's cafeteria menu on the Intranet. Think Maslow's hierarchy of needs. |
E-Learning Startup | ph0rque: I worked on an e-learning app for a while, and may return to it after some time. Here is what I've learned: if you really want to create a killer e-learning app, you have to approach it from the UI point of view: make it really really really easy to teach and to learn. That, imho, is the biggest roadblock to an explosion of innovation in the education space. Once you have that, you can scrape open education content into your app, open it up to users, and they'll take it from there. Feel free to contact me if you want to chat more. |
Best places to live in Silicon Valley for families? | russell: Try skyline (Rte 35) above Woodside (take Rte 84, Woodside Rd to get there). It's very family friendly., more like a small town than traditional suburbia. Going home seems like going to a national park. Schools are Portola Valley and Woodside, among the best in CA. Hundreds of miles of trails a step from your back door. I raised my kids there. |
Is Open Source a Moral Imperative? | makecheck: I develop Mac software for free and release the source under GPL. The two ideas aren't completely incompatible (though one is perhaps more likely to find shareware than freeware on the Mac, and shareware isn't typically open-sourced).It's more a question of how "pure" your environment is. Yes, technically, if Apple decided to radically change something about my system, there is a chance I may not be able to access some application or data after an upgrade (once it's "closed"). But it would also be extremely stupid of them to alienate their customer base in such a way. So for all practical purposes, there is no real risk. And I am willing to accept that minimal risk.It also helps that the company has decided not to make complete garbage, and actually makes a useful product. In such a case, why shouldn't it have my money? |
Best places to live in Silicon Valley for families? | eande: I only have 10 years SV on my back, but here are some points I have observed. SF as mentioned is not a place you want to have your children to go public school. I was told that schooling is not necessarily assigned to your local area and you can end up sending your child to school by bus, which I think is not such a good idea.
My home is in Redwood Shores and Peninsula overall is a good place to be (except East Palo Alto) with children, many good schools. Most cities on the west side along the foot of the Mountains are prime locations like Los Altos, Saratoga, Los Gatos, Woodside, but for sure not cheap. There are a couple of cities very desirable for families, because of the good schooling like Cupertino, Fremont Mission, Foster City.
You will find many good places to raise your children, but for SV has a steep price tag. Personally despite living at a nice with highly rated schools I still ended up enrolling my daughters into private school, which tells a lot about California and the broken education system. Good Luck |
Is Open Source a Moral Imperative? | parenthesis: A lot of the stuff in an OS X install is open source. |
Is Open Source a Moral Imperative? | evdawg: Before switching to a Mac, I was a Linux user for years and years.I use a Mac simply because I feel OS X is the better operating system. Linux has made strides on the desktop but when push comes to shove, it's just not "there" yet. I'm sure I'm going to be downmodded for saying that, but I really feel it's the truth. Desktop Linux is unstable. While it doesn't crash often, it does sometimes, and I feel that one crash is too many. Multiple displays are wonky. Flash still doesn't work properly. Etc. Etc.I use OS X because it has the UNIX underpinnings I need to do my job with the stable desktop and cohesive UI that I feel Linux is missing.Unlike many Linux zealots, I don't feel that there is anything "wrong" with closed-source software. I didn't use Linux for years because it was free as in beer or free as in freedom. I used it because I thought it was the better tool.And that's why I use a Mac.Here is my biggest concern though: Apple is an evil, proprietary company. In my opinion, worse than Microsoft. If you use OS X, you are legally locked in to Apple hardware. You cannot legally run OS X on anything but Apple-bought-and-branded computers. At least, with Windows, I have the freedom to install the software on any bloody hardware I want. Yeah yeah, you can Hackintosh or whatever, but it goes against Apple's EULA.Just because Apple releases parts of OS X under open source licenses, doesn't mean OS X isn't completely proprietary. You can only run it on what Apple lets you run it on. If you need to upgrade your workstation(s) and want to stick with OS X, you are completely at mercy to Apple's products and prices.In the end, I suck it up. Hopefully one day this will change, but right now OS X is a pleasure to use, and that outweighs the dislike I have with the license. |
Is Open Source a Moral Imperative? | SwellJoe: It's all about your priorities...but I'm surprised that you think switching to Linux will make you less productive (at least you've qualified it with, "for a while"). People who uses computers a lot, as I presume you are, can generally be more productive on a Linux system...it's just dramatically more flexible, and so it can be tuned to suit your requirements in ways that Windows and Mac OS X cannot. I'm completely useless on a Windows or Mac machine...not because I don't know how they work and all the things I need to do to make them more useful (like installing vim, Cygwin, and PuTTY on Windows immediately), but because they are just less friendly to software development work. Package management is also a joke on Windows and Mac OS X...every time I have to install a new piece of software it makes me want to stab someones eyes out. There's sort of a belief that Windows has more software than Linux...but, to me, it always feels like it has dramatically less, because the base system is so limited. A stock Linux system has tons of software, and hundreds or thousands of more apps are a single command away. Mac and Windows are simply anemic by comparison, and you have to hit the web to find additional stuff and install it using whatever archaic process the developer opted to use.Anyway, back to the point, if you believe Open Source is a good thing for the world, then using more of it, supporting more of it, and building more of it, should be among your goals in life. I happen to believe that, so those are among my goals each day. However, they aren't my only goals, and I don't think they necessarily need to be your only goals. I also have to make a living, so I work on some small bits of proprietary software that coexists with the Open Source software I work on. I also have to have some fun, so I have a Nintendo Wii running all proprietary non-Open Source software. I have to test my commercial products on Internet Explorer and Safari, so I have a dual booting system that can boot Windows for running IE and Safari. When I built an HTPC, I used Windows Vista, because there are no Blu Ray player software products for Linux (and there may never be an Open Source Blu Ray player). I'm less extreme than I once was; there was a time when I had no proprietary software in my life, and it worked fine for me at that time.But, I take satisfaction in taking part in the Open Source community. I wouldn't find using a Mac or a Windows machine as my primary system as satisfying. Some folks have other priorities. UI and hardware beauty, as found in Apple products, are important to a lot of people, and they are willing to accept the higher cost and the legal restrictions that come with it. I find Open Source and freedom dramatically more beautiful than the restrictive and infantilizing Mac experience, but I'm probably wired up funny. Using a Mac makes me angry, while most people seem to find it peaceful, or something. |
E-Learning Startup | aklemm: I administer Moodle for a private college (~1500 clients) and find that it works very well; one free / open source package gives us web-enabled classes (of course I also spend a lot of time training and supporting the instructors to make this a success).What shortcomings have you found in Moodle and other FOSS offerings? Maybe improvements and support to one of those is a good business model.If you do start coding from the ground up, I recommend targeting private schools where you might find less bureaucracy/resistance. |
Is Open Source a Moral Imperative? | Zev: Apple contributes a decent amount back to open source. WebKit, launchd, mach, etc. See http://www.opensource.apple.com/darwinsource/ http://developer.apple.com/opensource/index.html and http://www.macosforge.org/ for a bunch their code. |
What's your homepage? | troyto: http://helpuu.com/, check it out. |
Is Open Source a Moral Imperative? | mechanical_fish: Just try Linux. You've got a Mac; run it in Boot Camp. Or buy VMWare or Parallels and run it right next to the Mac OS. There is no need to theorize about this.If your idea of software is emacs, the command line, the browser, and a bunch of servers and compilers Linux will be just fine for you. Perhaps even better than the Mac. I am very, very close to this camp, so I was almost happy with Linux.But if you do anything with graphics, audio, or video I predict that your free-software devotion will be sorely tested. In theory there are free alternatives to Photoshop, Illustrator, Cubase or Logic or Sonar or Performer, Final Cut, iMovie, Snapz Pro or IShowU or ScreenFlow, Lightroom or Aperture, the iWork apps, and the venerable iTunes. But based on my limited sampling of iTunes and Logic alternatives three years ago, you're better off just sticking with the Mac. Life is too short to spend fighting your tools instead of using them.And now I'm hooked on 1Password, so I just can't leave the Mac. ;) |
Are we in trouble? | tocomment: This is an excellent question. I think the truth is that no one knows. However the fact that many people are asking this question (not just crazy reddit folk) implies to me something bad could be afoot. Thoughts, HN? |
Are we in trouble? | aristus: No one knows, and unless you have mountains of cash to invest, there's no reward for being right either way. The only thing you can do is think through the absolute worst that can happen (to 1% or whatever your level of paranoia) and plan to deal with that. ie, your income is X, can you live on 0.5X? Better to find out now and not when your personal trapdoor opens. But take it calmly, like a game. If you spend all of your energy in Holy Shit Mode you stop moving forward.Some friends of mine today got two messages from their employers: their pay was cut 18% and their insurance premiums went up 23%. It's going to hurt but the worst thing they can do is let the fear sap their energy.I personally think it's going to be bad for 12-18 months then a slow recovery. The financial assumptions for many businesses and people will fall away. If you are in some business that depends on consumer discretionary funds, I would look for alternatives (not jump like a spooked cat, look for for alternatives ahead of time).If it's any consolation my Brasilian, Venezuelan and Argentinian friends think we're all a bunch of pussies for worrying so much and not preparing rationally. |
Are we in trouble? | tokenadult: We might experience something like Japan's "lost decade" of the 1990s. I expect that, actually. But we'd live through it. My all-time favorite pair of HN comments was the question and answer I saw I think before I signed up here, when I was lurking for interesting discussions.Q: Anyone here lived through the Japan depression care to share their experiences with us?A: It was terrible. People were forced to eat raw fish for sustenance. They couldn't get full-sized electronics, so they were forced to make tiny ones. Unable to afford proper entertainment, folks would make do by taking turns to get up and sing songs.http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=328685 |
Are we in trouble? | Eliezer: Anyone who could predict whether the market would be up, down, or in the same place in six months time - or one month's time for that matter - could become very rich in a very short time. |
How to grow a service that is popular but never took off? | kristianp: > Question is: what can I do to get the service out of its current letargy and maybe make it a viable side-business (not planning on making a living out of it, really)?Increase its visitor number by posting a 'rate my website' style question on ycombinator. |
Are we in trouble? | tom_rath: Yeah, probably. But while you're slogging through it remember this: It will get better."The Greatest Generation" emerged from the Depression, the dot.com boom followed the Gen-X "McJob" years and the "something-something" will follow whatever we end up calling this mess.Ask any unlucky sod who finished school just in time for the last nasty recession and they may tell you how unbelievably bleak and hopeless things felt while they took any odd job they could find just to pay rent and eat (my own situation, fwiw). Still, they were able to enjoy the magical tech boom just a few years later and, during that boom, it was hard to believe there was ever a time of job and capital scarcity.The economy is cyclical, fortunes rise and fall, and you have to work with the hand you've been dealt. Times will be tough (for some, even worse than you're picturing) but things will get better and the good times will return.Then, when they do, remember that it'll crater again some day and prepare accordingly, because almost everyone else will have forgotten. |
Are we in trouble? | mechanical_fish: Has anyone seen any economic case studies, predictions, or articles...?Calculated Risk: http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/The sidebar should have all the analysis you could possibly want. Try not to overdose on it while drinking; alcohol is a depressant. |
Are we in trouble? | sgoraya: Has anyone seen any economic case studies, predictions, or articles, that can shed some light on what is REALLY going on here.I do not think that studies or predictions are what you/we really need.What are the odds that a prediction, based on past/future assumptions, modeled by some economist is really going to help anyone out? I'll answer my own question - the odds are VERY VERY low.Hunker down - work hard and put a band aid on what ails you and stop relying on Donny Deutch or Bill Maher to shed light on what is REALLY going on.If my company is struggling and I cant make it work out, I'll have to figure something out and so will everyone else who is in a tough spot. Whatever your worst case scenario is, you'll be able to deal with it and it will not be as bad as you imagined it (God/Buddha/Spaghetti Monster willing) |
Are we in trouble? | wwsculley: The economy lost an enormous chunk of itself. It will need to correct for this change - whether now or later. The world will have to call USA's debt some time.My big question: will the rest of the world continue to use USA's economy and currency as the global economic focal point and medium? -or will it abandon them for alternatives? |
Are we in trouble? | 131072: The unusually huge volatility (large price movements) in many financial markets essentially means that nobody is certain of the future (providing you believe in 'the wisdom of markets', which despite Gladwellian overtones, is not necessarily a bad idea).To my knowledge, nobody out there has anything approaching a realistic model of the current economy, either. It has countless variables that interact in countless ways, and producing results that have never been seen before.Talking heads/pundits are for entertainment value only (depending on your definition of entertainment).The only way to have confidence in a prediction for the future, at the moment, is by failing to understand the uncertainty of the situation. |
Are we in trouble? | Kaizyn: Peter Schiff has an interesting take on things. As does Ron Paul. Both seem to understand what is really going on.The problem isn't really all that complicated to explain. However, no simple solutions have been presented yet. Instead, the US government and others are opting to push for much more of the same stuff that got us into this mess to begin with. |
Are we in trouble? | chandan: i want to know abt total hacking on networking.if u can help me plz send mail to my account with some useful tips at chandan.hicet@gmail.com |
Are we in trouble? | chandan: ok dis hacking tool were nice.but i wnat to sure abt it 4 its safety requirements |
Are we in trouble? | melito: I'm not worried. I've been saving adequately for a while now and I have a good job. Even if the job goes away I'll be alright, because I'm not afraid to wait tables (or perform any other type of manual labor).I didn't buy a house I couldn't afford and I went without when I could (even went so far as to live in a small room rented from a friend, where I slept on a $150 futon from Ikea for over a year and a half [this was during 'good times']).All this talk about bailouts is very upsetting to me. I never asked for anything when I didn't have anything.A very small bitter part of me wants the country to fall apart. If it does maybe people, will stand to the challenge, by standing with one another and overcoming. If not then maybe at least the glow of their reality tv will keep them warm.There is no rational in going into a panic. This is a financial problem. It's not like people are dying en masse as a direct result from this. |
Are we in trouble? | antpicnic: How can we help but go through a slow period while households and banks repair their balance sheets? Just increasing the savings rate from the current 5% in January to a more sustainable 10-14% means people will need to forgo a of consumption. I doubt the wheels will fall off completely.You younger folks on HN have a great opportunity to save your money now and make a killing in 25 years. The stock market could lose another 30% and then move laterally for several years. But over a few decades, you might average 8% returns annually. Just remember to sell out before the great crash of 2049. |
Are we in trouble? | cpr: One depressing take: Jim Kunstler's The Long Emergency (a book, summarized here: http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/7203633/the_long_emer...).I'm afraid I think he's right (even if he's indulging in a lot of schadenfreude)--it's just a matter of timing. Our society isn't going to survive the peak oil crash intact.The bright side is that we'd have to become hyper-local in our economy, give up the hyperconsumerist dreamland of suburbia, big box stores and electronic entertainments, and deal with the real world. |
Are we in trouble? | nickfox: I think the better question is to look in the mirror and ask myself "Am I in trouble?" |
Hacker-friendly in Tokyo | kqr2: Be sure to check out Akihbara -- the otaku and computer geek mecca:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akihabara |
Best places to live in Silicon Valley for families? | miked: Check out Milpitas if you need to save a little money. Great East Asian restaurants and not too far away from the main part of SV. |
Are we in trouble? | danbmil99: hmm... you've been listening to Donny Deutch and Bill Maher, and you still don't know what's going on? Obviously, the problem is you didn't pay enough attention to Suzy Orman. |
Are we in trouble? | bianco: What the future will bring us: nobody knows, there has never been anything really similar in history...The causes are very simple to describe: our (temporary) so successful economic system didn't follow many moral rules. And now we are all (the responsible and non) forced to pay for that (silly) mistake.You may not agree with me, but I'm convinced that this will be the summary of our current situation, reviewed in about 50 years. |
Adding SMS Integration to Web App | laxman: I am developing a web application using php language.I want to integration sms in my website.what should i do?cost is no problem? |
Innovating under pressure | sam_in_nyc: Unless your class is to "invent a company," I wouldn't sweat the fact that there are patents on the ideas you've come up with. At any rate, I've been told that it's not too hard to differentiate your idea enough to file a new patent yourself. If you can significantly improve the existing patent, or implement it through different means, then you should be alright. Of course, it wouldn't hurt to have an awesome IP lawyer.I have no personal experience on the matter of patents other than filing a provisional patent. |
E-Learning Startup | ible: I think you'll find two major problems with a blackboard competitor.1. Low value of products to usersBlackboard, WebCT, and other similar 'Learning Management Systems' are products of a standard response to new technology in an established area. Essentially attempting to copy the existing way of doing things into the new mode and thus make them more efficient. Moving from the existing systems to internet systems might reduce costs by half or so, if you have a really good system, but it isn't 'disruptive'. This isn't spreadsheets or email. It isn't 1000 times better than the alternative.2. Institutional inertiaMentioned by others already, you're going to have a hard time selling to institutions. You're competing against a bunch of giant vendors with existing relationships, and FOSS solutions which are backed by and used by multiple universities. My university struck a committee of a dozen people with little to no knowledge of eLearning and spent probably $50,000 in employee time before deciding to maybe try moodle, or just stick with WebCT.If you've got an idea for how to meet the real needs of educational users several times better than blackboard go for it. Personally I'd love to see something blow the existing junk out of the water, but think carefully about what people actually need and how you can serve that need don't just make a better blackboard. |
Are we in trouble? | mkuhn: It's funny that you ask for case studies, because many people argue that what is happening right now has never happened before.I'm studying business with a healthy dose of economics, and when we ask Professors, they even don't know what is going on, and everyone who says so is just guessing. IMHO no one knows what's really going on!We have to just let it play out. If you want to be somewhat prepared be flexible and adapt quickly to new situations as you see them developing. Not very useful and very generic but the only thing you and I can do. |
Hacker-friendly in Tokyo | patio11: You are going to have a very, very difficult time living in Tokyo for $600 a month. Is that $600 you have budgeted out for rent or $600 total?At $600 total it is, flatly, impossible for you unless you intend to sleep on a park bench. At $600 for rent you can probably find somewhere in the Greater Tokyo Metropolitan area (note: this is huge and can be upwards of 3 hours from Tokyo proper by train) which will take a foreigner for a few months without requiring $2,000 worth of key money, but it will certainly not have a workbench. |
Innovating under pressure | jwilliams: Maybe it's easier to come up with an improvement to an existing invention? It's still an invention in either case... Just pick something you're familiar with and brainstorm the issues with it (and possible innovative solutions naturally). |
Innovating under pressure | trapper: What subject areas are you interested in the most? |
Submit via /submit, or via bookmarklet? | mooism2: The spammers would switch to submitting via the bookmarklet, surely? (If they don't already.) |
Are we in trouble? | mistermann: Many days of reading here:http://market-ticker.denninger.net
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.comMost of what you see in the msm (CNBC, Cramer, newspapers) is either uninformed opinion at best, or deliberate lies.By the way, Japan's lost decade is now two decades, note the current stock market level and recent 12% drop in GDP. Although to visit there, you would never know, it is an awesome country and everything seems perfectly fine on the surface. |
Innovating under pressure | Tangurena: I recommend you take a weekend and read up on TRIZ.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRIZ |
Are we in trouble? | Tangurena: Has anyone seen any economic case studies, predictions, or articles, that can shed some light on what is REALLY going on here.Look, this is all wrapped up in politics. You're not going to get any light shed on this because it is against the interests of the parties involved for that to happen. And watching the news, you can see that one party wants the other one to fail so much that they'd let the country crash and burn.Some people are going to do fine. Some people are going to end up living under a bridge, or having to make the decision to sell their gun or eat it (weasel words: when I got to that point, I sold mine). 2001 and 2003 were good for some people, and horrible for some (like me).Read Calculated Risk if you want case studies (look for the Ubernerd series) on why this happened. |
Which school do you attend? | ewiethoff: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). Also Northwestern University and Bethel Theological Seminary. |
What does motivate you to down-vote a comment? | gaius: If it is obviously factually incorrect. |
What does motivate you to down-vote a comment? | pavelludiq: redditnessp.s. I would totally downvote my comment since it is stupid, on the other hand it is the most correct answer to your question. |
What does motivate you to down-vote a comment? | spydez: I down-vote: * ad hominin attacks with no substance
* unoriginal snowclone jokes with no substance
* "+1" and "I agree", if that is the entirety of the post
* if a post is vastly, enormously over-rated
I try to reserve downvote for the last resort. Well, second to last, now that we have flag.Generally, I ignore the arrows. They are only there for things that make me say "I (dis)agree with this, and it is so good/well thought out/interesting I think everyone on HN should take the time to read it." |
What does motivate you to down-vote a comment? | Bluem00: I'll consider a comment for a down-vote if it negatively affects the conversation. Usually this means it's off-topic for the conversation that it replies to (including insults and just plain meanness).However, when I determine whether to down-vote, I first figure out what I think the score should be, and only down-vote if it's above that value. I've even up-voted comments that I thought were bad because I felt the author was being punished too harshly for saying something they obviously didn't realize would be bad. |
What does motivate you to down-vote a comment? | pg: Meanness, especially when combined with mistakenness (which is not unusual). |
What does motivate you to down-vote a comment? | ryanmahoski: If a comment is logically invalid, intellectually lazy or cruel I sometimes hit the down arrow. |
What does motivate you to down-vote a comment? | Xichekolas: Things that are false, mean, or devoid of content (things like: "thanks!", "I agree", or "haha"). Only exception is things already at -1 or below.If a comment is none of those things and below one, I'll mod it up because I don't believe in burying someone you disagree with.As for things that are blatantly trollish (linkspam, racist, stream of curse words, etc), I'll gladly pile on until they are too faint to read... and usually flag them as well. |
What does motivate you to down-vote a comment? | michael_nielsen: I ask whether the comment detracts substantially from the HN community? If the answer is yes, I downvote.The nice thing about this question is that it implies many derived reasons for a downvote: being mean or insulting; egregious stupidity; being irrelevant; being "clever" without adding real value. And so on. I try to be careful to NOT downvote someone just because I disagree with them. |
What does motivate you to down-vote a comment? | menloparkbum: I down-vote boring comments, pointless comments, comments by people I don't like, false comments, comments I disagree with, comments that are already down-voted, meta comments about what constitutes proper voting behavior, and accidentally hitting the down-vote arrow instead of the up-vote arrow.I think I'm in the minority, but my position is that the arrows should be used liberally and for whatever reason a person sees fit.I like things like voting and scores because I have a kooky personal theory that reading too much stuff online scrambles my thought processes and sometimes even makes me feel physically kind of sick. I'd rather simply ignore down-voted comments than read a well-intentioned but vacuous back-and-forth discussion about why people disagree.There's another common notion that high scores on funny quips are a bad thing. I also disagree with this. Reading genuinely funny stuff makes me laugh and boosts my serotonin levels, which is actually good for you. The issue with this phenomena on Reddit was that funny quips that weren't actually funny started getting high votes.Next to YouTube style comments, the worst stuff you can read online is the sort of middle range discussion between two people who sort of know what they are talking about but not really. It's like listening to two dentists on vacation talking about time-share apartments and tee times. It turns your brain into mush.I've been here since the beginning and have not noticed any significant abuse of the voting system[1]. Most buried comments seem to deserve their scores. I wonder why this topic keeps coming up. The stark reality is if your comments consistently get down-voted, you're probably making stupid posts.[1] aside from long ago when you could nuke someone's karma into oblivion by repeatedly downvoting everything they had ever posted. |
Review my startup, Droplink for OS X | divia: I downloaded it, but it quits right after it opens. (Macbook running 10.5.6, if that helps.) |
What does motivate you to down-vote a comment? | SwellJoe: I have to be pretty annoyed to downvote. I almost never vote up or down, actually, and downvotes are extremely rare.A personal pet peeve is when someone willfully misses the point of an article or comment in order to go off on some pretty much unrelated tangent. It happens on reddit more than around these parts (I suppose because politics are free game over there and not welcome here, and politics bring out the worst in people), but it happens around here occasionally, particularly on religious topics (Apple, text editors, pg essays, programming languages, etc.).Plain old stupidity will do it, too. Willful ignorance, spam, self-righteousness due to ignorance of limitations (e.g. a "business/idea guy" looking for an engineer and offering a pittance for the work being shocked and angry that no one wants to work with him), that sort of thing.I'm more forgiving of stupid posts if the poster recognizes their limitations and can laugh about it. Humor goes a long way towards nullifying any annoyance I might be feeling about flaws in a post. |
What does motivate you to down-vote a comment? | run4yourlives: I usually reserve my downvote for the most absurd of comments. Stupidity, trolling, immaturity.I DO NOT downvote things that are false, things I disagree with, or comments that make outlandish claims. All of these are discussion instigators, and not worthy of negative ratings.I upvote comments that make smart and sound points, get me thinking in a new way about something, or effectively counter an argument, even if it is mine.I also upvote in lieu of a comment if what I would have said has already been sufficiently covered. |
Review my startup, Droplink for OS X | JeremyChase: Is it just me or was there no audio in the video?I think divia's problem is that there is no documentation in the program itself. I downloaded it and unzipped it, and ran it. After entering the registration code I had no clue what to do. The program seems to just "end".I had seen the video so I figured that I should try dragging a file onto it. I added it to my launcher and it works as it does in the video, but had I not seen the video I wouldn't have known to do that.I suggest that after you accept the registration code you ask if the user wants it installed in the menu bar. Also I suggest telling the user that they can drag files to it to upload them. Perhaps embed the video at that point again.Hope this helps.
JerEDIT: I also find mac programs distributed as .zip to be annoying. I strongly prefer .dmg files. Also, why is my "Downloads" icon now the same as Droplink's? |
Review my startup, Droplink for OS X | sherb113: Just tried it. I like how fast this is! It's a good alternative to dropbox for a quick image upload or something. It would be nice if it auto copied just the url.I would also like it if the file stayed hosted longer than an hour. Say I want to email the link to a friend, but the friend doesn't check their email for 3 hours. If they click the link the file will no longer be there. Having the droplink icon in the top menu bar would be great, instead of having it in the dock. |
Review my startup, Droplink for OS X | mikeyur: I like it. Tried it out, works quickly. I emailed you about a possible integration, let me know if you're interested. |
What does motivate you to down-vote a comment? | scott_s: I asked a similar question a few months ago, and included my policy: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=361390 |
Review my startup, Droplink for OS X | nickb: Pretty awesome! I have an almost daily need for something like this when sending files to people over chat/irc.Your link creation needs some work, however. I can't paste the link into a non-RTF box (this input box for HN, for example). You should reverse-engineer how Safari creates links when they're copied to clipboard and do the same.For example, if you right click on any title on any website, and copy a link, you will notice that when you paste it to an RTF box, you get the same behavior as what you currently do but when you paste it into Terminal, you get the URL. When I paste Dropsend "URL" to Terminal, IRC or to Safari's address bar, I get nothing. |
Review my startup, Droplink for OS X | jasonlbaptiste: not sure if im missing something here, but you realize that you could have just dragged and dropped that same file into the chat window, right? |
Review my startup, Droplink for OS X | yan: How does it compare to dockdrop? http://dockdropx.com/Is it just stored on your servers vs. my own? |
Review my startup, Droplink for OS X | epall: There's a Dropbox Droplet (http://wiki.getdropbox.com/DropboxAddons/Dropbox%20Droplet) that does essentially this. For somebody who doesn't have Dropbox, this tool seems cool, but I wouldn't go to the effort of adding yet another tool when Dropbox is close enough. |
Review my startup, Droplink for OS X | edb: The important questions here are:1) What's my file limit?2) How long are files kept for? |
Would a product or pitch workshop be useful? | lacker: It would be interesting to watch these pitches online afterwards. Record it and post them!Also the quality of the pitches will be dependent on who you can attract, which will be dependent on how many people hear about this. So you should market it a little and make sure to title posts like this something like "Founder of Del.icio.us Starts Pitching Workshop" instead of being understated about your one company. ;-) |
Would a product or pitch workshop be useful? | dustineichler: I was just investigating this exact thing in the last few weeks. I'm pretty much ready to start pitching, but i could definitely use a forum to try it on first.Please set this up! |
Would a product or pitch workshop be useful? | wheels: I think a lot of it wouldn't depend on your level of coaching as much as your level of honesty. Most of the time when you start pitching you just need people to tell you how much of a 'tard you sound like and why nothing you're saying makes sense or is relevant.One thing I could see being problematic is getting too nerdy of a slant on such a gathering since it's pretty easy to slip into pitching tech rather than pitching a business. I can remember seeing business folks' eyes rolling into the backs of their heads when I started by asking, "Do you know what a graph is?" |
Would a product or pitch workshop be useful? | joshu: I'm also wondering if this should be a review instead of a workshop.I'll start looking for some space, I suppose. |
Impact of press coverage | brk: Hard to make a blanket statement, especially without knowing more about your specific niche (are your users newspaper readers? Would they read the paper you were mentioned in?).A lot of your PR activities are about building up mindshare. Hardly anybody remembers a site or company the first time (or two!) they read about it. But after 6 or 8 mentions of your site/company in various places, the name starts to stick.I have personally done product demos and interviews for articles for the WSJ, Boston Globe, dozen of trade mags, and TV spots (8 hours of filming for a 5 minute segment that didn't end up airing). Keep doing what you're doing and someone will run across one of your spots and think "I've been hearing a lot about this site, I guess I should maybe pay attention now". Eventually you'll find your efforts have paid off, even though it's a frog boil and you won't be able to define the precise inflection point.It's a marathon, not a sprint.Also, as soon as you can afford the ~$10K/mo, hire a PR firm. They're way better at this than you and already have the connections and know the ins and outs. Yes, you can do it on your own, but this is an example, IMO, of an activity prime for outsourcing. |
Review my startup, Droplink for OS X | cake: You should work on the website's design, there is a lack of unicity.The screencast is too short, you should describe to us what you're doing, why you're doing it and the result. |
Would a product or pitch workshop be useful? | markessien: Why don't you do a music + pitch combination. Get an unknown band to play, get a series of people to present their idea. It would be more interesting than just a bunch of unversed, poor presenters reading powerpoint slides. If people get used to the idea of a pitch being infotainment, they will start to do them correctly. A pitch is an advertisment, and and advertisement should not be a guy just reading some text.The mixed audience will also give the presenters feedback from non-technical people. |
Review my startup, Droplink for OS X | nickdynamite: damn, that's fast |
Website advice on Drilling Down fast... | JayNeely: Check out http://tiddlywiki.com - They do dynamic display of content very quickly, very well. You should be able to learn from their approach. |
I'm sick of college, any recommendation? | tokenadult: Some proffesors gave me an F even I knew so much more than they didHow can you be sure that you knew much more than your professors knew? What kind of communication did you have with those professors before you received a grade of F? |
I'm sick of college, any recommendation? | ejs: Why would you possibly think a PhD is a good idea if you find your current situation full of unnecessary work? Do you think a PhD program is going to be some huge difference (hint: it's not)And depending on where you live (US?) just having an engineering degree doesn't let you call yourself "an engineer"... you need a PE for that (add more years). |
I'm sick of college, any recommendation? | JabavuAdams: Stick it out, if it's only 2 years.Don't take refuge in the "I'm smarter than all of them, they just don't understand me" excuse. Take what is offered, and learn what you can, where you can.It may not seem like it now, but 2 years is a really, really, short time in your life.If you're bored, spend more time on interesting projects, but also spend enough time on your coursework to get decent (though maybe not top) grades.I started University 3 years early (skipped 3 grades). I failed out in my last year. Generally, I really liked my uni experience, but I regret not finishing.I've never had a problem getting a job. However, the lack of a degree has been an obstacle in getting US work permits for some sweet companies.You know how older people will tell you that the years pass quicker and quicker? It's true. One or two years is just a minuscule amount of time in your life. Don't fail to do something because you're impatient, and it'll "take a year". In ten years, it still won't be done, and you'll have "wasted" at least a year in between doing other things. |
I'm sick of college, any recommendation? | SwellJoe: How important are the grades in getting those "doors" open, or getting into a Ph.D program?I don't know what doors you refer to. I've never had a problem getting a job, and I never attended a university (I went to a handful of community colleges for various fun topics, but never got a degree...but having a degree from a good university would certainly help me if I wanted to work at Google or Microsoft or similar). A Ph.D program? Why would you want to go the Ph.D route if you hate academia? This doesn't even make a little bit of sense to me.Can't I get into a Ph.D program just by demonstrating my competence, and not having to comply with the "system"(and subsequently wasting my time)?I'm still not getting this. It's sounding like your dream in life is to be a Ph.D working in academia for all of your days. And, yet, you've stated that you hate college. This doesn't make sense.Why do you want to get into a Ph.D program? I'm not saying you shouldn't do a Ph.D, I'm just having a real hard time wrapping my head around the idea of someone who hates college seemingly dreaming of being in college for 6 to 8 years to obtain a Ph.D.I think you've gotta do some soul-searching here. What is it you want out of life? If a life of research and academia and publishing is what you want, then yes, you need to go to college. You need to go to college for many more years. That is the price of admission to that life. But, given that that life is kinda just continuing the college experience (only you answer to deans and the board of directors and students rather than answering to professors), I don't see how that could possibly be your real goal.So, what is your real goal? You tell us that, and we (being a pretty diverse set of hackers and nerds) can probably lend you reasonably good advice on how to get there. |
I'm sick of college, any recommendation? | radu_floricica: I know very well how you feel. I cannot give concrete advice, since I'm in a different part of the world and the context doesn't apply, but it sounds all too familiar.What I can say is that a job and a PhD are completely different paths. Both have advantages and satisfactions, but they require different things. If you want a job, grades most likely don't matter. This I can safely say about any free market economy, especially in this field. But for a PhD... at least where I'm from, what matters most is having your personal professor guiding you. Whatever he says goes. |
I'm sick of college, any recommendation? | icey: Life is tough, you're going to have to do things that are boring when you get a job as well. Might as well learn how to deal with it now.That being said, I'm not entirely convinced this isn't a troll. If you're not trolling, I'd recommend spell checking your post; especially the parts where you talk about knowing more than your "proffesors". |
I'm sick of college, any recommendation? | artlogic: My suggestion to you is simple: if you want to do artificial intelligence research then do it. Make a website. Self-publish. Promote yourself. If you are truly brilliant (as you seem to think you are) then you will be noticed. There are always positions for hard working brilliant people.It's also worth saying that the majority of groundbreaking research being done these days is being done in the private sector. These people care less about degrees than results. Prove you can produce and you won't find it difficult to obtain employment.While you research you can work just about anywhere - you don't need access to much to do research - a library, a computer, a notebook. Being poor is actually a good thing for research - money causes distraction. Most grad students are dirt poor.As a side note, I think we're all a bit confused by your story. What is the "crap" you are tolerating? If you really know all of it already, shouldn't it all be easy? I think that perhaps some of the issues you are experiencing may have something to do with poor communication more than anything else. Most professors are willing to work with you on a more challenging project if the given project is elementary and boring to you. |
How do you cope with incompetent team members? | JeremyChase: It depends on your current relationship, but you should be as straightforward as possible. You should tell him that you think others work is being compromised because of the way he is doing things. The best solution is for him to realize what he is doing wrong and to improve.The situation will not get better by itself. |
How do you cope with incompetent team members? | wastedbrains: I ended up giving a nickname to a coworker like that "destroyer of worlds" Then I got him bumped to a another team for awhile. Then he ended up back on my team and I eventually quit. In my exit interview I mentioned him.I am sorry but keeping an employee around that is pushed from project to project because no one wants him on his team is bad for the entire company. So I honestly would bring attention to it eventually. |
How do you cope with incompetent team members? | JayNeely: It sounds like he's not incompetent so much as he isn't efficient. If he were better at prioritizing, would he be contributing value?I'd first try to get the group to condense the 10,000-feet view into a single document, including priorities, and get the group to agree on it (presenting it as a 'helpful reference').Then you'd have an easier time saying, "Hey Bill, whatcha working on?" "I'm really bogged down with <task>." "Huh, is <task> really that important based on the priorities in <document>?"If "no": "Awesome, slash it and move on, dude. What's your next task?"If "yes": "Huh. I'll talk with some of the others, see if they agree or if you can drop this and move on to something easier." |
How do you cope with incompetent team members? | Brushfire: That depends entirely on your role in the team, which isnt clear.If you are the leader, its your job to get him working correctly or get him out. If you are not the leader -- ie you are his equal, its a little harder to go about, and it depends on his, the team, and the leaders personalities and operating style. There is no hard and fast rule.But you should do something instead of being pissed off, certainly.In my situations, I 'cope with incompetent team members' by firing them. But that is not always such an easy prospect if you are actually friends with this person, or you arent the boss. If you care more for the friendship than the job/project, then tell him what you think and help him yourself to get over it. |
How do you cope with incompetent team members? | jm4: You might also try understanding his thought process and give him tasks that he will excel at. Not everyone gets the 10000 ft view and it's probably not necessary that everyone in the group think that way. Try to figure out what his strengths and try to use them to the group's advantage. It might be that this guy is incapable of doing routine work but is able to complete the near-impossible jobs. It's very possible that the problem here isn't this particular person but rather the management style.In the end, even if it doesn't work out someone should have the decency to explain exactly what the problem is. Alienating him to get him out of the group is a pretty dick move. |
How do you cope with incompetent team members? | Kirby: You're doing nobody any favors by being passive-aggressive. The employee needs to know, management needs to know.Talk to his manager behind closed doors. Be reasonable. Provide data. Metrics can be misleading, but if you have them, now is the time. (I recall one coworker at a job, when we looked, had done 12 CVS checkins during a given period where the average was close to 100 and the next lowest was in the 30s, or something like that. Illustrative!)I have seen people improve if someone lights a fire under them! That's his manager's job. More often this doesn't happen, but it's not uncommon for the chastised person to start job-hunting and solve the issue fairly quickly anyway.I wouldn't confront him directly unless you are his manager. If you are, talk to him ASAP. Set up a plan with measurable deliverables, and make it clear that he'll either make the goals or be asked to leave.Little is as bad for morale as the crappy employee that drags everyone down and isn't fired. Good managers understand this.If the company doesn't care, it's just a matter of time before more bad employees sneak in, and like a cancer the good employees start slacking off more (because why not? The idiots are never fired!) and you don't have a fulfilling job anymore. So, that's when you dust off the resume yourself.Good luck! |
How do you cope with incompetent team members? | dgallagher: What perspectives do your other teammates have of him? Do they share your same views, or different views?They might shed some more light on the situation. Hypothetically: "Oh, yeah, Joe's a great guy, but you're right. He doesn't really get the 10,0000ft view of things. He mentioned to me the other week that it hasn't really been explained to him clearly, so he just focuses on the task at hand. He doesn't get all of that business stuff either, and really doesn't want to embarrass himself by admitting it."----------His motivations, and incentives to work, might be different than you think too. Usually you really have to get to know someone, both at work and in their personal life, to truly understand what drives them. Money isn't always everything.Maybe he's offloading work to other teammates so he can work on his startup instead, on the job! ;)----------But as others have said, it's great that you're friends! :) Talk to him about it in a non-threatening way (I know that's tricky sometimes). Ask him how he feels about things.If you do the "we're going to have a manager/employee review" thing, and it comes off negatively from his perspective, that'll probably scare him. When people are scared they can become unpredictable.He might start working harder, he might start looking for another job, he might complain to HR and fight back, etc... That all depends on the person.Some sort of non-confrontational approach usually works best IMHO.----------Best of luck to you! |
How do you cope with incompetent team members? | moe: Just do what everyone does: Apply the dilbert principle and move on. </cyn> |
So I've finished College. Now what? | tocomment: What are your ideas for a biotech startup? I've always wanted to do one of those but I don't know any biotechnology. The community here will tell you to do the startup. |
How do you cope with incompetent team members? | critic: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=424699 |
So I've finished College. Now what? | menloparkbum: If you want to stay in biotech you should go to graduate school. The entry level bioinformatics jobs available to someone with an undergraduate degree are really lame. I know this because I have done them.A startup with your friends would be the most fun. However I think a lot of money in biotech still comes from grants and pharmas so you might want a grad degree or someone with a grad degree in your startup. |
How do you cope with incompetent team members? | critic: Do what Elaine did: promote him! |
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