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Feedback on Skritter, Learning Chinese with Spaced Repetition on App Engine | dantheman: I just signed up, but once i get to my home page I click practice & it doesn't allow me to start.I'd like to learn a simple character as soon as I've signed up. |
Is buying market research worth it? | CalmQuiet: I can't imagine how overpriced their services might be. For example, to read a recent story on "10 Reasons IT should Support iPhone" they charge some $739 (summarized & linked within: http://apple20.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/04/13/forrester-to...).Who knows what they charge for their "inside stuff."
OTOH: Charlene Li worked there for some 8 years. They must have some sharp folks.How to evaluate them/their offerings? That's a toughie. |
Feedback on Skritter, Learning Chinese with Spaced Repetition on App Engine | simc: I'm a serious student of Chinese. Would I pay for this? Maybe if it was cheap, but probably not. The stroke order thing is useful, and that is the only reason i'd use it. It just revealed to me the while I was writing the strokes for 我 in the right order I was writing the first stroke the wrong way, which was interesting I guess. However, your stroke order for 好 seems wrong (the woman radical upward vertical stroke, should come before the horizontal, according to Learning Chinese Characters Volume 1).However now I'm not a absolute beginner any more so I have a reasonably good intuition about stroke order, but if I write them in the wrong order I guess I don't really care very much.There are already many good spaced repetition programs like Anki, which are free. I've implemented my own system based of Leitner flashcards for the Nintendo DS (I haven't released it), which is what I use. |
Resources for image pattern recognition algorithms | ucla_jatt: You might want to check out open cv library. They have this thing called the haar classifier/training. You train it to recognize an object and then it can look for that object in other images. Here is one example how it was used to recognize sign language. http://sandarenu.blogspot.com/2008/06/opencv-computer-vision... |
Feedback on Skritter, Learning Chinese with Spaced Repetition on App Engine | est: I am a Chinese, I'll say this app is awesome, esp with the animated Flash for stroke orders. You must have quite a large database & clever algorithm to do so.The only website I know that could lookup Chinese characters based on strokes drawing on screen is http://www.nciku.com/About GAE & GFW, I strongly suggest skritter to support httpS protocol fully |
Are there any good Image APIs out there? | pclark: have you looked at Daylife? |
When does a startup stop being a startup? | pclark: given that they rely on external funding, I'd say they were a startup. |
When does a startup stop being a startup? | bdfh42: How about on IPO, sale to third party or when the founders give up? |
When does a startup stop being a startup? | vaksel: a) When they break even with their original investment and have decent profits for their sizeb) When they are considered the leader in their nichec) When the original founders are no longer at the helm. (Bringing in a CEO for example/IPO)d) More than 100 employeesBut that's just me |
What blew your mind? | blogimus: I wake up in the morning and I'm still here. |
Are there any good Image APIs out there? | brandnewlow: Well, professional news images should be expensive. They're expensive as hell to create.Are you looking for thumbnails or full shots? |
Are there any good Image APIs out there? | luckyland: http://nodebox.net/code/index.php/Percolator |
What blew your mind? | tjic: It was 15 years or so back, but the Diagonalization Proof and Godel's incompleteness theorem blew me away.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantor%27s_diagonal_argumentThe first time I grokked relativity is also seared in my memory. |
What blew your mind? | david927: I hope it doesn't come across as narcissistic, but what I'm doing with my startup. |
What blew your mind? | hbien: Mostly the Sistine Chapel - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistine_Chapel_ceiling, but also a few other art pieces as well.One guy, did that, in 4 years ?! Makes me want to work harder/smarter to do something amazing too. |
Must have / Recommended iPhone Apps | kbrower: Here is what I use:
Google Tasks(not an application)
Kindle
Tweetie
TouchTerm
Pandora |
What blew your mind? | yummyfajitas: Compressed sensing. Specifically, Candes-Romberg-Tao's really simple explanation of it.http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/math/pdf/0503/0503066v2.pdf |
Best tools for managing AWS? | socialtistics: Cloudkick (they are a YC company) and it is free for now. Their management tools are great and very user friendly.On the expensive side there is RightScale. They have a lot more tools and good service, but like I said they are a bit pricey. |
Best tools for managing AWS? | babo: Beware, I'm heavily command line oriented, YMMV. I rolled my own management code based on Python and some shell scripts. As a database we are using SimpleDB and this is a very nice combination. We have hundreds of machines, this kind of approach is needed because of the scale of operation.Besides that there is AWS tools which is a single Perl script, powerful enough the replace a lot of EC2 and S3 operation without any other dependency, I'm using that for shell scripts and manual operations: http://timkay.com/aws/ |
Best tools for managing AWS? | staunch: You're not at all specific about what you think those tools lack. They're both pretty complete, and it's anyone's guess what you think professionalism means.There's a YC company alternative: https://www.cloudkick.com/Personally, I've found making my own utilities for AWS to be trivial, so that's what I do. |
Best tools for managing AWS? | ezmobius: If you are building apps in ruby there is a high level AWS management platform I built here: http://engineyard.com/solo. |
Best tools for managing AWS? | thorax: We're big fans of RightScale. Their developer version is free and pretty much that's all we use at the initial stages. We use S3, EC2, EBS, Cloudfront, SQS, etc. They have tools for tweaking all of those built-in so it makes life easier. Of course we have our own tools, too, (mostly with boto) but their GUI does come in handy. We manage pretty much all of our EC2 instances through that, with easy image bundling, java SSH consoles, etc.There are a few other good services/tools out there, but so far I haven't found any as full-featured as RightScale. (But I'm watching this thread for other suggestions, too.)I wish their upper-tier stuff was less expensive and we'd experiment with it a bit more. Supposedly it's free for companies who are funded through YC, though. |
Review our anonymous networking app | papaf: How do you enable constant SSL? I tried using https://www.socialface.com/ but the first link I clicked (to an empty network) took me out of https and put me in vanilla http.Also, is there any way to make an anonymous network insist on https?Personally I like the idea and wish you every success. |
Best tools for managing AWS? | csomar: I don't have any idea about that, but I have an idea about Amazon services. When I was a blogger in the EntreCard Community, their services (Amazon) went off more than one time, which causes the website to go down for several hours (about 20 hours) and this happened a lot of times, so I don't think they are a better choice |
How do you manage manual testing? | blinks: I've heard good things about Selenium: http://seleniumhq.org/ |
Best tools for managing AWS? | nolanbrown23: I'm using EngineYard Solo which is a great deal ($25 minimum) and perfect to get up and running quickly. They're also working on tools to help scale applications across multiple instances. I couldn't recommend Solo enough if you're just getting started, it makes working with EC2 a piece of cake. |
Best tools for managing AWS? | bbuffone: The development tools I use for AWS are the Amazon Eclipse plugins and the plugins available on Rockstarapps.http://aws.amazon.com/eclipse/http://www.rockstarapps.com/The Amazon tools are good for working with J2EE apps on EC2 and the Rockstarapps tools are good for general application development but don't have EC2 management. |
Best tools for managing AWS? | wehriam: I use a combination of GUI Firefox plugins and Boto, a Python package. Boto works well with Fabric, a Python based deployment tool.S3cmd is good for syncing files on Cloudfront.Elasticfox - http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/entry.jspa?ex...Amazon S3 Extension - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3247Boto - http://code.google.com/p/boto/Fabric - http://www.nongnu.org/fab/S3cmd - http://s3tools.org/s3cmd |
Cost of running reddit servers? | biohacker42: Not to be the "take this to reddit" guy, but isn't this question perfect for ask.reddit? |
What blew your mind? | pavelludiq: My mind is like a war zone, i blow it up very often. Most recently it was my realization that is math easier(and much more fun) if you approach it as a mystery to be solved, rather than a sport, like they teach you in school. Yes, they do teach it like a sport: learn the skills, and then apply them to 4 problems in 40 minutes, each problem is harder than the previous, and if you succeed, you get rewarded with a better grade. This is the most boring sport ever! This is mind-blowing to a 19 year-old who spend 12 years in pointless training of a sport that isn't fun, to get rewarded with something he doesn't care about. Man, i feel cheated.Other examples of recent mind explosions include:when i "got" recursion last summer.when i "got"(sort of)pointers in C.when i "got" what trigonometry really is, now all i have to do is "get" it itself.when i found hacker news :D |
What tools do you use to blog / where do you host your blog ? | noodle: wordpress. there are plenty of resources and a good community.provided, of course, this is all you're looking to do, just host yourself a blog. there are other good options out there that have different strengths and weaknesses. wordpress is just the overall, general usage leader in its field. |
What tools do you use to blog / where do you host your blog ? | jlees: Self-hosted Wordpress. Easy as pie. Just keep it updated...Squarespace looks a nice hosted alternative, though. |
What tools do you use to blog / where do you host your blog ? | dxjones: 1. A lot of people start out on WordPress.com.
You can get started quickly. It's relatively easy to use. It is free. There is a lot of shared knowledge and experience out there.2. It is easy to download the WordPress software from WordPress.org and install it on your own site.A good strategy might be to start on WordPress.com at first, and then migrate to your own server if/when you think the benefit is worth the added effort. |
How do you manage manual testing? | cschneid: Getting manual testing right is hard. I used to do it as my main job (testing a large java app).We had plain text test plans, which worked well enough. We didn't do as good of a job of keeping track of finished plans as we should have.You need to very tightly specify what you are testing for. Manual testing is incredibly valuable to test the things that programs can't pick up, and also very wasteful if you are testing the simple stuff like that.Also, look for what's scriptable around the manual test point. For instance, if you are verifying the 4 different kinds of order views, have a script which generates those orders on staging, and fires up a browser window w/ 4 tabs to those orders (already logged in, etc). Manual testing doesn't have to mean manual setup & tear down.An xls or google spreadsheet is the best bet for tracking, at least for a one-off smaller scale testing environment. At my job, we did eventually get around to writing a "Manual Test Manager" rails app to help us track it, but I left before it got much traction.The other suggestion here of selenium is useful, but perhaps not what you're looking for. It's very useful to record whole click-throughs of your app, but you still need to verify stuff like CSS & layout, wording of text, that labels match up with the right fields, etc. Selenium just doesn't do all that very well (too much fuzzy human intelligence).If you plan on making this repeatable, divide the test cases into "smoke tests" and "full tests". (Smoke Test == "is it spewing smoke" ie. is anything obviously broken). That gives you the ability to run through a 20 minute manual test suite right before the weekly deploy, and do a full manual test of edited areas, etc.Also, don't slack on your automated tests. Computers are just awesome at unit tests. |
What blew your mind? | bcjordan: The forgetting curve and its application in flashcard programs with spaced repetition.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forgetting_curvehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaced_repetition |
What blew your mind? | skwiddor: Plan 9 From Bell Labs |
Please review our placemarking site - Amidst | wooster: My friend and I have been working on this site for a little over a year, and decided it was finally time to pull the trigger and go live. So, HN, you get to look at it first. :-)The concept is basically "Delicious for places". It's a social placemarking app, meant to make it easier to keep track of the places you like, want to go, etc.Rather than encouraging long-winded reviews of places, ala Yelp, we want to encourage people to just keep notes on places. Also, ala Delicious, we want to make it as easy as possible to get info into and out of the system via RSS feeds, an API, etc. An iPhone app is on the way.Suggestions and feedback would be greatly appreciated. :-) |
Is .org ok for a startup? | mattberg: Thanks everyone, pretty much the response I was expecting. I think I will just try harder to find a .com. |
Best tools for managing AWS? | skmurphy: InformaScale's "One Click Datacenter" may be worth considering for new AWS applications. See http://www.informascale.com/ |
Please review our placemarking site - Amidst | cte: I would concentrate on a mobile strategy. It is probably very difficult to get anyone to placemark anything without some kind of mobile integration. Additionally, you might want to consider adding incentives for placemarking via gaming mechanics. Or perhaps ride the geocaching trend. There are a few iPhone apps that you can use for brainstorming (for instance, check out GoWalla). |
Please review our placemarking site - Amidst | selcouth: (First off, Im not a big early adapter or regular web 2.0 site user. So some of these things may not be relevant if you are going for a tech savvy audience)So immediately I think "Four Square". I see you arent, but that sounds like it'll be your biggest competitor. How you plan to get users on board? B2B? B2C?Little things:
1) I like the map where I get to click on the bubbles of numbers to a point. But once I zoom in on San Francisco, its a little weird to still have bubbles over neighborhoods. At that point I'd rather just see a list of the top places on the bottom, with pointers ala Google that change as I scan through the list.1.a) ah, and when I got too close, all the bubbles just go away. How do I actually find the places? I thought it would be through the map...2) The white check is a little confusing for "I want to see it" Can it be a totally different icon?3) Ah, was worried I would have to remember the address of the place I added. Love that you have ACCURATE suggestions. :)4) Rating with the stars is a bit tricky. I love that you do %, but I was momentarily confused when it scanned back down even after I clicked.5) Super easy to use, congrats. Your UI is clear and concise - I was able to post with ease.6) Do you have a phone app? In the works? That seems like it would be your most important thing. I would never think to do this sitting at home, but I would definitely do it while just leaving a restaurant, or sitting in a park with friends. |
Should I Accept or not this internship opportunity ? | tjic: When do you have to decide?How much looking have you done for an internship in Canada? |
What blew your mind? | oz: Leaving Christianity and realizing that I alone am responsible for my destiny....my will be done... |
Please review our placemarking site - Amidst | andrewljohnson: Are you using a geospatial database? |
Please review our placemarking site - Amidst | aditya: Love the nice clean interface, couple of points:1. Definitely go mobile2. Detect my location and immediately show me stuff nearby (there was a geolocation database on HN recently)3. You're making me zoom in too much with those nice aggregated bubbles, at some point I just got tired4. Socialight built a nice community, but they don't seem like they're going anywhere (incidentally they're based in NY too!) - they do some good things, like mobile strategy but the interface is hard.5. Don't force the sign up before someone adds content, let them add content and then ask them to sign up or provide an anonymous nickname6. Placemarking and location based services is a massive but very hard and less understood market, keep innovating and develop based on feedback - community is very important! |
Please review our placemarking site - Amidst | aik: Good and simple UI. I would use it.Bug: I created an account and clicked on 'settings' in the top right, and my email address displayed in the "city" field.Also, both the city and the password fields had a green background initially, but once I clicked in them the green went away.Also, the "Upload New Place Photos" page doesn't have a back button. |
Suggestions for PadMapper, Apartment Rental Search | padmapper: Link: http://www.padmapper.com |
Please review our placemarking site - Amidst | jbenz: "Bookmark your favorite places, and explore places your friends like to find new favorites."What? I think this line needs to be rewritten.Your map is a little confusing for me. Clicking through to Texas shows me 32 places in Austin and 10 in San Antonio. I assumed this meant that there were no places listed in Dallas, but if you continue to click down, 2 show up. I probably wouldn't have gone that far if I wasn't exploring.On the plus side, the design is great. There was just an article at the top of HN that mentioned being "Pixel Perfect" in web design. Your site is a good example of that. |
Please review our placemarking site - Amidst | trickjarrett: I had an error trying to signup for the site. Here is the traceback posted on dpaste.com - http://dpaste.com/33427/plain/It ended up that I was registered fine, but I still saw the error rather than be redirected. |
Please review our placemarking site - Amidst | shiny: Good idea, though when I tried to sign up I got an error page titled:KeyError at /signup ... |
Please review our placemarking site - Amidst | trickjarrett: So having taken a quick look through the site, here is my feedback:1) Great look and feel, very nice and clean.2) Process is simple3) Not a fan of the single percentile fine-grained rating. At the finest I'd do half stars, but really I spent a good 10 seconds trying to rate my favorite comedy place 100% and could only get 99%. So I'd say roll it back to 5 stars or just half stars.4) A small pet peeve: Just put the USA at the top of the country list. Your greatest majority of users are going to be from there.5) Copyright is out of date, it says 2008 in the footer.And to be honest I'm not sure why I'd use this over Yelp right now. I understand your separation, one is for reviews and long-winded info, but I mean even with an iphone app I don't really see any added value for myself. |
Please review our placemarking site - Amidst | andrewljohnson: Here's some tips from on your mapping site, from a guy who's been there and is there :)1. Don't spawn a new page for Google Directions. You can show directions on your site and your map:directions = new GDirections(map, gel('directionsId'));
...
directions.load("from:" + startLoc + " to:" + endLoc);
})2. You should use a little ajax to fetch waypoints on pan and zoom. For example, using YUI:GMap2.prototype.getSurroundingData = function () {
size = this.getSize()
center = this.getCenter()
var dataURL = '/get_quadrant/' + center.lat() + '/' + center.lng() + '/' + size.width + '/' + size.height + '/' + this.getZoom();
var cObj = YAHOO.util.Connect.asyncRequest('POST', dataURL, { success: function(o){ this.fetchQuadrantCallback(o)},
scope: this
});3. Use the new Google zoom control, instead of the old one you use:
this.addControl(new GLargeMapControl3D(), topLeft);4. Use a function to clear input boxes (such as your search box) when they are clicked:function clearInitialValue() {
this.value = "";
this.onclick = null
this.style.color = "black";
}I have other suggestions, and if you are interested email me at andrewljohnson [AT] trailbehind [dot] com. |
My idea has just been launched...by someone else. Now what? | davidw: There are definitely a lot of successful startups that take an idea from one country and do it in another. Sure, they may not be huge, but might make some good money in any case. |
Should I Accept or not this internship opportunity ? | jchor: Do u go to Waterloo? I'm an alumn there and have been through this many times.My advice is that your first few jobs are very important. I have done countless interviews (as an interviewer) myself and when it comes to selecting students to interview, the coversheet with the companies you worked for and the titles on them usually count the most. So if you want to be a dev and get leg up on the competition then make sure that you get a dev job as soon as you can and this way you can jump ahead of the curve. I have seen a lot of people take an IT job early in their co-op careers and they paid for that mistake later. But all said and done, no matter what happens its what you make of it. Let me know if you want some hints on how to get noticed. There area lot of things that you can do to stand-out and get noticed.In principle, here are the basic 3 steps.1. Submit kick-ass resume that gets noticed and selected.
2. Interview for the job.
3. Negotiate terms of your offer. This is more-so for FTE, but interns can negotiate a lot of things too if they choose to do so.To answer your question though, do you think that this company can help you learn and explore an area that you are interested in? If so, then go for it. Co-op is the time to explore and really go out there and try things out with little risk and to network. My biggest regret from my co-op was not going to Europe, Japan, and other places for opportunities. I did 5/6 of my internships in the US and I felt that really hampered the opportunities that I would have had now if I went further out.Good Luck! |
My idea has just been launched...by someone else. Now what? | cadalac: Could you possibly improve on the idea, in a way which would give you a significant edge over you competitor? |
My idea has just been launched...by someone else. Now what? | aheilbut: What is the idea? |
My idea has just been launched...by someone else. Now what? | ScottWhigham: Clearly the size of the market is going to be a huge factor (if not the primary). If the market cap is $100mm and you think both you and your competitor can only get 1%, then sayonara; it's probably not big enough to carry both of you. If, however, it is $100mm and you think that, between you, you can both capture 20% of that market, then it might be doable provided that you think you can capture about an equal share. |
My idea has just been launched...by someone else. Now what? | vaksel: I always say to continue doing your thing. These guys are just starting out, so even if you are a year late, at most they'll maybe have 1-2% market share.Go look at their site, see what they did right, see what they did wrong, and modify your product accordingly. If necessary add a few extra features to differentiate yourself |
My idea has just been launched...by someone else. Now what? | floozyspeak: Consider it validation and figure out the big picture, who will get to market faster, is backed by a more aggressive vision and where are the short to long term wins for the consumer. |
My idea has just been launched...by someone else. Now what? | shubhamharnal: This has been happening to me for a looong while! Its reasonable since I didn't really take initiative(quick enough, atleast) for it to be "my" project.Technology is a weird thing; inspite of being unpredictable, there are milestones we know that will be reached; how they are reached, how soon they are reached or who does, is a matter of initiative, luck and money.I would suggest that you look at it as an opportunity; get in touch with the guys who're onto the idea now and express how passionate you are about this; share your ideas, and any work you've done on it yet.In short, try and jump into it with those guys! You may hit upon more than you were expecting: they're obviously people who got started and who think alike: Match made in heaven?The rest is upto you, grasshopper!!
Good Luck! |
Please review our placemarking site - Amidst | javert: Good job.Don't know if it's been said but I get an error message (from Mal the duck) when I click on the link to your blog. |
My idea has just been launched...by someone else. Now what? | agotterer: There are very few (if any) industries that only have room for one player. If you love the idea, you owe it to yourself to at least try. If your competitor is just starting, they havent captured all the available audience, there is space for competition. If the idea is that great, your real fear should be who else is going to try and play. |
What tools do you use to blog / where do you host your blog ? | smwhreyebelong: thanks for the advice, everyone. Wordpress it's going to be, to begin |
Please review our placemarking site - Amidst | unohoo: isnt this same as plazes ? or am i missing something ? |
My idea has just been launched...by someone else. Now what? | RiderOfGiraffes: Simple analysis shows that any commodity that follows a linear price/sales response has space for two major players.http://www.solipsys.co.uk/new/OptimalPricing.html?HNGo for it. Learning from their mistakes lets you travel faster initially, and if you're skilled, you can probably catch up. |
My idea has just been launched...by someone else. Now what? | donw: KEEP GOING!Look at your 'competition'. Do you want your product more than theirs? Can you see areas where your product will be more appealing? If either of those is yes, don't stop.There will always be competition. I'm working on something (with a partner) that has LOADS of competition, and a lot of that competition is good. But we think that we can do better, because even though other people have written similar things, our product solves our particular needs (and desires) much, much better.Also, keep in mind that somebody in that market segment, who is making money, validates that your idea can make money.So get to it, and don't worry about the Joneses! |
Feedback on Skritter, Learning Chinese with Spaced Repetition on App Engine | si2: What a cool application. I would love to be able to use it without paying when you do launch. I find that learning Chinese on there becomes enticing, and there is a certain feeling that I am playing a game. I don't think it would hurt to have a ten character demo on the front page with a full tutorial for the Chinese and computer illiterate. That may hook inidividual users, especially if you can buy in at a good rate for starter packages. It seems like you guys are trying to exclusively appeal to the very intent on learning Chinese people, but even from your testimonials it seems that Skritter is a good pass time, even for those not studying Chinese and just want an easy, fun way of drawing chinese letters. I think offering a startup package for cheap will draw a lot of people, and as I have found out, you will soon get hooked.Also, it may be sweet to add little quiz games to Skritter. Like timed strokes, or something fun (you appear to be creative) to really entice people and motivate them to move on to the next lesson. It always feels better to conquer something like that in an online learning app... And finally, please tell you guys are planning an iPhone app? |
My idea has just been launched...by someone else. Now what? | catfish: This is an easy one....McDonaldsBurger KingWendy'sIn n' OutJack in the BoxWhite CastleThey all sell burgers.Nuff said...Keep going... |
My idea has just been launched...by someone else. Now what? | krav: Just do it. Being in limbo, going back and forth, is the worst place to be. What's the worst that'll happen? You'll have gone for it. That's more than most people can say.It's really that simple. Now get off Hacker News and build that damn thing and submit it here for review. |
Should I Accept or not this internship opportunity ? | frossie: We use Canadian co-ops at our shop. Being offered a second internship at the same place is a big compliment - we only offer a second term to the best students. Doing a second co-op in the same company has certain practical advantages (eg. minimising your moving costs) but also professional advantages: it allows you to deepen your expertise, and it makes you more memorable to the people who work there - I am still writing references for co-ops we had years ago, and one 2-term co-op now has a permanent position with us.If your main concern is whether you will be able to secure an internship in Canada, you should raise this issue with your co-op co-ordinator at your University - s/he will know whether they are successfully placing all the students or not.I have no advice about the girlfriend situation :-) |
Please review our placemarking site - Amidst | paul7986: Nice design. I suggest using Twitter to mark the most talk about/popular places. Then those who want to go rate it themselves will add to what the crowd has said.If this can be done efficiently using Twitter search then the data is automated and makes your site more interesting because content is indirectly being created via Twitter. |
My idea has just been launched...by someone else. Now what? | kineticac: keep going, your motivation needs to stem from you having some distinguishable element to your idea that nobody has done yet. The element needs to be important enough to make a difference.Spend some time finding how you can be distinct from people around you. Good ideas are rewarded by others trying them out, it shows that you're not just on a limb by yourself, but that it's actually something others think would be successful.There are many companies out there that do almost exactly the same thing as another one, but the subtle differences might be the most important one. Also nobody ever said sharing the market has ever been a drawback.Instead of being first, why not second? You could be much more successful.Goodluck, don't lose hope. |
My idea has just been launched...by someone else. Now what? | markessien: This is excellent. Let them do the market research for you, examine their user trends to see what works and what does not, and build on their failures. Take all that worked from their site and add some new stuff. Target the same sites they targeted and a few more. They have broken the walls, you now just need to copy them. |
My idea has just been launched...by someone else. Now what? | asimjalis: What problem you are solving? They might have the same idea, but are they solving the same problem? Maybe they are not solving any problem, and just infatuated with the idea. Suppose you have a deeper understanding of the problem and who has that problem, then this is your edge. |
My idea has just been launched...by someone else. Now what? | dmillar: There is always room in any given space for another company. What if Google took that attitude when looking at Yahoo, AltaVista, or HotBot? |
My idea has just been launched...by someone else. Now what? | cvboss: How about joining that startup? |
My idea has just been launched...by someone else. Now what? | mahmud: "2) could be easily monetized."I think that's a problem there. You want to work on something that's profitable, not "monetizable". |
My idea has just been launched...by someone else. Now what? | profgubler: I say this, find me a business with out competition and I will show you a business without any customers.Every business is going to have competition. If you didn't then your area of business is likely something no one wants. |
My idea has just been launched...by someone else. Now what? | evansolomon: Great post from a couple weeks ago on Josh Kopelman's blog on stuff like this in the search engine business: http://redeye.firstround.com/2009/03/pivoting-and-yogi-berra...Summary: Don't give up. |
My idea has just been launched...by someone else. Now what? | b3b0p: Take advantage of this situation.If they fail, why did they fail? What will you do differently to succeed that they did not?If they are successful and service becomes popular you now know there is a market. Take your idea, take their good ideas, and combine them into your own better than originally planned idea. Take some of their market, make some of your own market.Think of it as competition. If you know you can do better go forward and nip on their heels. Your product will be better (theirs might too).However, it almost sounds like you are trying to make an excuse to give up. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it. |
Please review our placemarking site - Amidst | tlrobinson: Very nice. Looking forward to the iPhone app.One issue: on the 3rd most zoomed level no markers show up. |
My idea has just been launched...by someone else. Now what? | wenbert: Same thing happened to me. Someone beat me to it. But I just kept working on it (still not done actually. hehe). They are making money, so this confirms that my idea will work. It is more of a reassurance than a threat/de-motivation to me.And the other guy could use a little competition. I jsut have to "up" my product a little bit. |
Suggestions for Framework for CMS for multilingual site | wenbert: Maybe try Zend Framework. take a look at that components. http://framework.zend.com/manual/en/ |
Please review our placemarking site - Amidst | blogimus: I haven't logged in to explore it yet, but the front page is nice and uncluttered. I do have one critique:Tighten up your front page to really make it stand out.I viewed it through a 20" iMac, so I've got plenty of screen real estate. First time visitors shouldn't have to scroll to get to the bottom bar and the /places/all resource is hidden below the scroll as well. |
My idea has just been launched...by someone else. Now what? | sscheper: The day before one of my portfolio companies launched, a stealth competitor launched. And it out-shadowed ours. Two months later we've compiled, (i) more traffic, (ii) more revenue.Put your shoulder to the wheel and grind it out. If you don't, you'd probably of failed anyways. |
My idea has just been launched...by someone else. Now what? | lowdown: Is your concept search? If yes, get back to the drawing board.Seriously though, if you aren't going against a company that whose name is used as a verb in the common vernacular, I think you should stick with it. As mentioned, the fact that your idea has been implemented is a validation. If you take it as a defeat then you lose. |
My idea has just been launched...by someone else. Now what? | adsyoung: a) Is it working? If not, why?
b) Do you think you know how to do it better?If yes to both then do it. If no to a) then you'd want to be fairly confident that they got it wrong in some way and didn't just prove it to be a bad idea. |
My idea has just been launched...by someone else. Now what? | cdibona: It can be discouraging, but move on or try to out-execute your competitor. Either way, not doing anything about an idea means you should be happy to see someone else do it for you. More ideas will come. |
What is the name of the site wher you get designers to submit logos | Jeremysr: 99designs? http://99designs.com/ |
What is the name of the site wher you get designers to submit logos | pedalpete: crowdspring is another one http://cloudspring.com |
My idea has just been launched...by someone else. Now what? | jamesgpearce: The best thing a company can have is competition.Otherwise you're under no pressure to innovate.Also it validates your market. If no-one else is doing it, it must be a sucky idea.I should think they will be thrilled to see you starting up something similar. Seriously. |
What is the name of the site wher you get designers to submit logos | alex_c: http://worth1000.com also has logo contests. |
What is the name of the site wher you get designers to submit logos | e1ven: There is also http://designoutpost.com
They have had a few very talented designers in the past, and there is a very collaborative discussion, where you can help guide the designers to a final version. |
My idea has just been launched...by someone else. Now what? | jwt: There are very, very few markets that it is truly winner take all. Ex. even Airbus/Boeing, Microsoft/Linux/Apple, etcFor most part, I find that ideas are essentially worth the paper that they're scribbled on. It almost always comes down to execution. Go for it! You'll never know until you try, otherwise you'll always be saddled with the shoulda, coulda, wouldas(particularly if that startup competitor ends up exiting in a big way down the road). I learned my lesson the hard way.Remember, sometimes its better to be a fast follower (and faster at reiterations) than a first mover. |
Hosted landing page analyzer apps | geuis: Google Analytics. Its free and works really well. We ran several A/B campaigns with it at my last company and increased our overall landing page(s) performance by about 75-80% on average. |
Please review our placemarking site - Amidst | cb33: Try to make it easier to rate a place. Seemed like there was at least one extra step there. Also, go with a 1-5 star system with halves in between. |
My idea has just been launched...by someone else. Now what? | malte: Thanks for all the great feedback so far. I really appreciate the valuable advice of you guys. I think I'll go for it. However, it showed me one thing: I need to get things done right now. I will keep you up-to-date. Thanks HN! |
My idea has just been launched...by someone else. Now what? | grunties: I can't remember who said it, but: "If you can't be first, be the best" |
Hosted landing page analyzer apps | pitra: Google Website optimizer is your answerhttps://www.google.com/analytics/siteopt/preview |
I have an Aussie startup and I need to bank in the USA. Where do I start? | NonEUCitizen: I believe dontronics is an Australian company that sells internationally. Here are the payment options they offer:http://www.dontronics-shop.com/dontronics-payment-options.ht...Also, check with international banks that have operations in Australia and USA (e.g. HSBC). Drop by a branch and ask their business accounts people. |
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