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Bet the farm. Python or PHP? | fedecarg: 1. Based on content management: PHP. The biggest publishing site on the Web, Wordpress, uses it.2. Based on libraries: PHP. You have PECL, PEAR, ezComponent, Zend and many others. Whatever you need, it has it.3. Based on syntax: PHP. It's damn simple.4. Based on deployment: PHP. It's fast and painless.5. Base... |
Realtime video encoding: how to? | cschneid: The best approach would be to piggy-back on an existing protocol that works. VNC is the one that comes to mind first. |
Your hobbies? | Tamerlin: Photography, mainly landscape (large format) and macro (digital) -- http://pbase.com/Tamerlin
(I do aspire to professional status as a fine art photographer)Hiking -- goes well with the photographyMartial artsFilm making, specifically in special effectsAs for the reasons, all of them give me more opportunity ... |
Your hobbies? | nolasimon: i play badminton twice a week at my local badminton club. it's awesome. remember playing badminton in gym class? fun, right? go to your local club and watch a high level game. ask for some beginning pointers, how to hold the racket, etc. and give it a shot. you'll have fun i bet. |
How do you keep motivated? | brlewis: Connect with users.http://ourdoings.com/ourdoings-startup/2008-07-29 |
How do you keep motivated? | jlouis: Don't do dull work. Seriously. It will kill you. If your work doesn't matter to you, then you will either have to find out why it matters, or find something better to do that does matter.I like to sit down with users and talk with them. Pour a cup of coffee and talk. You'll get the coolest stories and usually, ... |
How do you keep motivated? | matt1: Take a break.When I'm feeling worn out there's nothing like a day off to reinvigorate me and get my creative juices flowing again. |
How do you keep motivated? | wheels: http://searchyc.com/motivatedPerhaps there should be a message in the article submission to suggest searching for duplicates before posting an Ask YC... |
How do you keep motivated? | izak30: If it's a few things that you don't particularly want to do, but have to do: Cut out all of your distractions (twitter, e-mail notifier, digg, children, co-workers, etc) and do it in one big burst (I like mine with espresso or Code Red Mountain Dew).If it's a bigger issue of not caring about your work at all. ... |
How do you keep motivated? | stcredzero: I use procrastination and guilt. It's actually why I read Hacker News. |
How do you keep motivated? | swombat: Switch to something interesting, e.g. a pet project that's quite different from your main work.Productivity breeds more productivity... as you do things, your energy and enthusiasm will come back up.Taking a break works too, but less quickly. |
How do you keep motivated? | froo: I find that by ensuring I have time set aside for specific tasks, that I get more accomplished and that sense of accomplishment helps keep me motivated.For example - I try to limit the time spent on certain personal activities (scouring websites) to specific times, that way I dont find myself losing track when I ... |
How do you keep motivated? | kirse: Start with the smallest chunk of work. If you look at it as one giant dull task, it's going to be really tough to start. You can't picture the task as moving a whole mountain at once, when in reality the only possible way to move it is a single rock at a time.So start with a simple goal to get engaged, like fi... |
How do you keep motivated? | jobeirne: Watch Hackers.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113243/ |
How do you keep motivated? | danw: Surround yourself with other smart productive people and it'll rub off on you, it's easy to do dull work if you're in the right environment |
Web 2.0 Expo - worth it? | geuis: I went to the one here in SF earlier this year. My company paid the badge fee. Honestly, the sessions were way too short. No speaker had time to go into depth about anything and they were always rushed. Little time to answer questions. If you can go for free then do it. Don't pay out your own money though. |
How do you keep motivated? | richcollins: I think of the alternatives.It is easy for me to find energy when I imagine myself working for a company where I never do any interesting work. Where I sit there watching youtube for hours because I know nothing I will do there will matter anyway. Where the best way to get ahead is not by creating real w... |
How do you keep motivated? | vaksel: schedule small breaks throughout the day. So you always know that you only need to work at most 45 minutes before you get your 15 min break |
How do you keep motivated? | robfitz: for stuff like this, i spend a lot more time really clearly designing the solution.. then you've got an end in sight, and you just have to plug through the todo list (when it's fun work i just play around and try things, since i don't mind backtracking in those cases).also, i make incredibly specific todos whe... |
How do you keep motivated? | ucdaz: 1. Accountability Make sure you and your partner keep each other in check. No partner? Reach out to the community and provide them with updates on how your project is going via blogs, forums, etc.
Remember, we're your community too. =)2. Plan Plan out your game plan ahead of time. Create a draft or wire frame ... |
The Quest for Webapp Publicity - Now What? | mechanical_fish: I truly feel that 9 out of 10 'hobby investors' seeing the site would be very interested.The problem may be that every "hobby investor" is using some site already. There are communities on those other sites, some of them very old indeed, and those communities may be pretty sticky.Generic advice:Stop ta... |
Your best marketing idea that has helped spread the word about your product? | iamdave: Networking. |
Your best marketing idea that has helped spread the word about your product? | jmtame: Paul Buchheit at Startup School '08:Focus on making 100 people happy, and then you'll be validated for opening up your app to more people.I don't think it's that difficult getting 100 people (especially if you offer private beta invites to smaller niche sites that you're targeting). Plus it gives you a chance ... |
Your best marketing idea that has helped spread the word about your product? | babul: Competitions.Prize can often be trivial/small, but competitions that are fun and involve the userbase often get great response in my experience. |
Your best marketing idea that has helped spread the word about your product? | ctingom: Great feedback everyone, thank you. |
Your best marketing idea that has helped spread the word about your product? | icey: With any product I've worked on that has succeeded, nothing has ever beat word of mouth by way of providing a superior product.With the software I work on now, every sale we've ever made has been from word of mouth.Also; I missed you at Gangplank on Wednesday - I hear you don't make it down there much? |
how do you find a good salesperson? | jmtame: I would look for good track record, and verify their references, as with any type of position.If I'm looking for a good developer, I want to see their past projects or companies involved, and possibly some source code. I'll probably ask them to write part of an app on the spot and see how they work. The best ... |
how do you find a good salesperson? | tjic: I'm working through the Personal MBA program that was discussed here recently.Josh Kaufman suggested the book "45 Effective Ways For Hiring Smart", which I thought was really great.As I read it, I took notes in our internal wiki (I do this with all business books I read).The notes follow:concept 1. Rethink the ... |
how do you find a good salesperson? | gm: I think it depends in the industry. If it is a "good ol' boy network" (ie, banking), then hire from within the industry. Your new guy will already be "inside the club," and will be able to get right down to selling.If you are in an industry that is more open (ie, educational software), then focus on traditional s... |
The Quest for Webapp Publicity - Now What? | pedalpete: Hey mstefff, you've clearly done a good ob with the PR so far, getting yourself on Lifehacker and Webware - any tips on how you managed that? I've also always been curious as to what % increase sites see as a result of getting on Lifehacker, and how much of that traffic remains visitors a month later.My init... |
Why don't more web developers found startups? | cschneid: The reason I haven't made the leap is pretty simple: money and location.I currently work for a large corporation, making money, and slowly saving, but it's not very fast. I can't support myself for more than a few months before being forced to work again.So, if I want to do a startup, I need an angel investo... |
Why don't more web developers found startups? | bookhuddle: Everyone has their own reasons, I'm sure. Here are some that come to mind:
- They don't have an idea for a startup
- They've never thought about entrepreneurship
- They don't know how to go about doing it
- They might be afraid to try
- They just don't feel like it; the commitment involved is not app... |
Why don't more web developers found startups? | auston: I am not making the leap because I don't have enough reserve money saved up. |
how do you find a good salesperson? | gunderson: It depends on what you're trying to sell. Some products just need someone to take orders. Other products require a more technical sale, and others require more traditional sales skills and negotiating skill.The most important thing for salespeople is incentives. If you give them an incentive to lie, they ... |
how do you find a good salesperson? | radu_floricica: I'm looking for the same answer, but I'll share what I found out so far (the hard way). There are two ways to pay a salesperson. First is by comission, where you pay according to the amount sold. This is best, but it will be hard to find somebody on this terms if you're a young startup. Second is where ... |
how do you find a good salesperson? | matthewking: Good question, it's one that I've also been giving some thought to lately.I've been involved in a startup before where we hired sales people, and they were always on the verge of a sale. We ended up going through 4-5 which were all pretty dismal.How do you set sales targets, when you don't know much about ... |
Why don't more web developers found startups? | ALee: Ambition and Perseverance.The way that one of the RescueTime founders described his YC class was:"I’ve been damn impressed with the other YC founders, but they aren’t that much better than many of the great coders I’ve worked with. They’re just bolder."http://gigaom.com/2008/04/02/ycombinator/ |
Why don't more web developers found startups? | felideon: A lot of people don't make the leap because they're afraid of the risks associated with not having a stable income. A lot of developers working day jobs would at least like to match their current salary if not more to account for the risk.This becomes a bigger problem along the years, since you're more likel... |
Why don't more web developers found startups? | JohnReel: I was that guy, except I had loads of ideas. I even created them, includidng the first content management system ever, which I designed and was in use by our web development clients in 1994, for a company I owned.Sadly, I had no freaking idea how to market, run a business, get funding, get mass customers, or... |
Why don't more web developers found startups? | webwright: Passion and tolerance for risk (both emotional and financial). Ideas, too, I guess. Lots of people truly don't have any ideas and just don't think that way. |
Why don't more web developers found startups? | mechanical_fish: "Ever heard of Paul Graham?" I asked. "Nope"There's your answer.Although it's easy to forget it after hanging around here for a while, doing a startup is not intuitively obvious. If you don't have a role model you're not going to get far.Hand the guy a copy of Founders at Work and see if something clic... |
Why don't more web developers found startups? | gm: Not everyone's built to be an entrepreneur... Nothing wrong with that, all of us that are, we need employees ;-)Just cuz you are capable of doing it does not mean you should. |
Why don't more web developers found startups? | cypress-hill: lets remember you have to do quite well to match the pay, benefits, and lifestyle of joe corp coderi won't toot my horn but i leave at 5pm SHARP, go to the gym everyday, great benefits and 401k, and i get about $150k, lots of vacation time tooyou think about how hard you would have to work on a startup to... |
Why don't more web developers found startups? | Shooter: Only some people are wired for it.My wife is smart, hard-working, and has skills that would translate into much higher paychecks if she worked for herself. Even her hobbies could make her lots of money. I've tried numerous times to get her to start her own business, because I find entrepreneurship so fulfill... |
Why don't more web developers found startups? | vaksel: Lack of good examples. Most people here probably read techcrunch, so day in and day out they get to read nothing but success stories. So they think success is the norm. So they have no problem developing something extremely simple, because they know that simplicity has paid off for some people.An older guy who ... |
Why don't more web developers found startups? | rob: None of you guys are making money because you keep over-analyzing things. This thread is a brilliant example. Stop thinking you need to move to CA, have some brilliant, big idea, and a truckload of cash from YCombinator or investors.There are thousands of people making thousands every month, and they range from te... |
how do you find a good salesperson? | dshah: We've hired several salespeople, and have been successful with it. Here are the things I'd figure out before going too far:1. Do you need "transactional" selling (lots of small deals), or more "consultative/solution" selling.2. How important is domain expertise for you? Do you need someone with an existing r... |
Why don't more web developers found startups? | bullseye: The ability to sling code by itself is not good criteria for building a company. Just like being a good cook doesn't make you well equipped to own a restaurant. If your friend is happy with his current situation, makes a decent living doing it, why would he change it? |
Which programming languages for mobile apps? | scorpioxy: I can answer the Symbian part since i've been there before.You can use JavaME on it with some specific extensions, you can also use Python(at least on S60), and you can use C++(not C, if i remember correctly).But note that the languages on this platform do not all have equal capabilities with respect to acce... |
Which programming languages for mobile apps? | phd2000: It all depends. If you want to get your programs on carrier decks you are either going to have to learn J2ME (Java) or Brew. Java powered phones are by far the most popular, including all Nokias, S-E, and RIM Blackberry models.However, I think the iPhone platform is the future. You have a distribution model th... |
Which programming languages for mobile apps? | babul: I would say find a problem you want to solve and build for that rather than worrying about mobile languages.If you alreay have an iPhone, go with that, if you use a HTC/Nokia smartphone, build for that.After you have built a few initial apps, you'll find things become much clearer and be better able to find the ... |
Which programming languages for mobile apps? | meredydd: Android: Java? Or any language?The bad news is that the vast majority of the "other" languages for the JVM - and this includes Clojure, JRuby, Jython, and rest - are dynamic. This means that they are either interpreted or compile to Java bytecode at run-time. Pure interpreters are fearsome slow, so these days... |
What's the best way to learn Erlang? | globalrev: Erlang book part 1:
www.erlang.org/download/erlang-book-part1.pdf
Buy:
http://www.pragprog.com/titles/jaerlang/programming-erlanghttp://www.erlang.org/doc.htmlWrite a spamfilter.Write a chatclient.Write a webserver. |
What's the best way to learn Erlang? | prakash: The guys at Process one are writing a book on Erlang, you might want to wait for that. |
profiling memory - what should we use | cperciva: What are you using to test memory leaks?I'm not suggesting that this is a good approach or that anyone else should use it, but... I run with ktrace and with MALLOC_OPTIONS=U set in the environment. This logs every single call to malloc(), realloc(), and free(); I then throw the log files at a perl script whi... |
Recommendation services? | sanj: The one I have found is http://the.echonest.com/recommend/ |
Recommendation services? | senthil_rajasek: Here's one from the GroupLens project for movies,http://www.movielens.org/quickpickIs HTML "machine - queryable" for you :-) ? I didn't see an api, sorry. |
What top-level domains do you register? | aneesh: Don't go overboard. For example, neither facebook.org nor facebook.net redirects to facebook.com. And you don't even have to own the .com. 37Signals doesn't own the .com for any of Backpack, Basecamp, Campfire or Highrise. Get the .com, and then go worry about making it good, instead of worrying about what ... |
Review my startup | herewego: Hey guys! I finally got my site out the door tonight and thought I'd see what the HN early-adopter crowd thought of it.The idea with SocialPredictor.com is that it's meant to be fun. There were two angles I knew I could take with a prediction site - fun or statistically valid predictions. I chose the former. ... |
Review my startup | tdoggette: It looks interesting, but it might be better to do a little more handholding on getting users started, instead of just having the list of directions. Maybe handpick a market and put it up top and ask people to predict on it, before even registering. When they want to register an opinion, let them, and then s... |
Review my startup | mechanical_fish: Here's the results of my two-minute test: I tried to make a prediction and was greeted by a login screen. Fun over.I completely understand why you'd want to limit your voting to actual registered users. Nevertheless, I'd try to find a way to let visitors pretend to participate. How about tracking votes... |
Review my startup | dkokelley: First impressions:A: SocialPredictor is similar to SocialPredator which is what I thought when I first read it.B: "You must be logged in to use this feature!" = Fail.I won't touch on the name so much, but there is a much better way to approach the login issue. I assume that logging in is only to keep the vot... |
Review my startup | Alex3917: I didn't think I'd ever say this, but this would be a good candidate to have a Facebook app. The logic being that I can go on the website to make predictions, and then show them off to my friends on Facebook. |
Review my startup | globalrev: * I want to try stuff without any signup-process.
* How will you make money?
* Looks good |
Review my startup | ltbarcly: There are like 1 billion prediction markets out there. The measure of a prediction market is the quality * quantity of earnest participants. What secret sauce do you have? If you don't have something killer, give up now. |
What has been your biggest mistake? | icey: #1 with a bullet: listening to the hype. |
What has been your biggest mistake? | charlesju: I think this is in terms of startup mistakes, seeing as how "life mistakes" could start an entirely new forum all together.Here are my top 3:1. Wasting money on a legal entity. If you're not making money, you cannot be sued. Wait until you make money or have someone willing to give you money before you waste... |
What has been your biggest mistake? | vaksel: try to hold on as much equity as you can |
What has been your biggest mistake? | watmough: Not listening to my own ideas. |
What has been your biggest mistake? | aschobel: Not launching soon enough and waiting until the product was "perfect". |
What has been your biggest mistake? | nostrademons: 1. Not majoring in computer science the first time I quit my physics major. If you like something, don't stay away from it for silly reasons (like thinking that school will make you un-like it).2. Not knowing the difference between profitability and traction when I was looking at startups to work for. I... |
What has been your biggest mistake? | morbidkk: havent dared to make enough mistakes yet |
What has been your biggest mistake? | aneesh: Not saying "no" enough. Trying to do too much, and doing none of it well.So work on a small task you can complete rather than trying to tackle a giant problem you'll never finish. |
What has been your biggest mistake? | picnichouse: Not playing football in 6th grade. I would have been a completely different person, I believe. |
Review my startup | charlesju: Let me start off with what I like:1. Pretty good presentation. Looks clean, professional.2. Easy to understand what your site does and the value proposition. This is a huge step in front of most major sites.-----
Here is my criticism:1. Your demo page is too tailored towards first time users. You need to loo... |
What has been your biggest mistake? | timcederman: My PhD. Sure I learnt lots of great stuff and met some great people - but I could've done all that with a master's. |
What has been your biggest mistake? | stanley: Focusing on quality rather than volume. |
What has been your biggest mistake? | Alex3917: Thinking other people are dumb. Even if it were true, it has yet to get me anywhere. |
What has been your biggest mistake? | menloparkbum: startup-wise:1. working as employee #6 at a startup in boston instead of google in 2001.2. working as employee #6 at a startup in SF instead of youtube in 2005.whoops! |
What has been your biggest mistake? | brentr: Quitting work in the physics lab at the University of Florida my freshman year and then switching from a physics and mathematics major to a finance major. |
What has been your biggest mistake? | vineet7kumar: afraid of making mistakes . |
What has been your biggest mistake? | jobeyonekenobi: .Getting a degree.
Honestly, I didn't need it. Contentious subject I know, but from the Hacker perspective, I have always relied on self learning in concentrated bursts to get me through - want a thorough understanding of TCP/IP? Spend 3 weekends going through the documentation and then playing around... |
What has been your biggest mistake? | nickfox: Not getting it in writing. It doesn't have to be a long drawn out contract, just a short email explaining what the agreement is. Even amongst friends, you will never regret having an email stating your agreement. |
What has been your biggest mistake? | johns: Compromising the long-term product vision for short-term gains. |
What has been your biggest mistake? | rokhayakebe: Given up to early. |
Subscription management/billing software? | mmohan: We use freshbooks. Its inexpensive and had good support. |
What has been your biggest mistake? | gscott: I applied for a job at Lycos around 1997. I passed the simple phone interviews and they scheduled an in-person interview. My wife did not want to make the move it would take so I cancelled the interview. We still live in San Diego, I feel if I was up in a more exciting environment I could have done better.I ... |
What has been your biggest mistake? | fallentimes: Majoring in finance. |
Subscription management/billing software? | mmohan: BTW I have also heard about Zuora. Have not used it, but you may want to visit their website to learn more.http://www.zuora.com/products/z-billing-product.html<disclaimer: I met the founder once, but have no affiliation with the company.> |
What has been your biggest mistake? | luckystrike: I think the mistakes that can be classified as the 'biggest', are typically the ones made in personal relationships. Those are the things that probably cannot be mended/replaced with any other 'equivalents'.In terms of career/work etc, i really do not think one needs to worry much or brood over past decisi... |
What has been your biggest mistake? | flashgordon: Most of the below!!! (except playing football and doing physics!!) |
What has been your biggest mistake? | gunderson: 1) Granting people respect just because they are older than I am.2) Not moving to San Francisco sooner. |
Subscription management/billing software? | jasonlbaptiste: go with zuora for sure. email me if you would like an intro.jason [at] publictivity dot comdisclaimer: publictivity is a customer |
What has been your biggest mistake? | cubix: Spending the first half of my twenties working my guts out for a big corporation where my efforts went largely unnoticed outside of my immediate sphere. I'm certain that if I put that time into a start-up I would be much better off today -- even if it failed. |
What has been your biggest mistake? | babul: Not sleeping with more women. When I was younger, women were more plentiful (and looking for relationships) but I spent most of my time in front of computers.Today, computers are more plentiful and most of the nice women I meet are already married or in long term relationships. |
What has been your biggest mistake? | pavelludiq: I didn't have the guts to ask this one girl out. |
Subscription management/billing software? | prashantganti: You can take a look at our invoicing service at http://invoice.zoho.com ; If you need any help you can contact us at support(at)zohoinvoice[dot]comRegards
Prashant
http://invoice.zoho.com |
What has been your biggest mistake? | goodgoblin: Not focusing on a single product. We moved into a related sphere because our technology applied, but doing it part-time we ended up shortchanging both. |
Review my startup | Harkins: Sounds like a stripped-down version of http://www.ideosphere.com/I get that you were going for fun over market, though. |
What has been your biggest mistake? | johnyzee: I spent a year after college goofing off, and not in the good way either. When I finally woke up (literally, pretty much) and realized a whole year had passed by I had lost a lot of momentum. Otherwise I would definitely have completed my master's (or at least worked on something useful). I blame social secur... |
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