Split (1)

train · 50k rows

instruction stringlengths 4 105	output stringlengths 8 56.7k
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. Based on execution model. PHP. mod_php, as an apache module, works and it’s scalable.6. Based on frameworks: PHP. Symfony and Zend Framework offer a modular, MVC, loosely-couple architecture. They not only provide a solid infrastructure, but also an extensive component library.7. Based on performance: Any, as long as you cache everything.Good luck!
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 for intellectual challenge and creativity, and hiking and martial arts are also good for physical health.Martial arts is also good for stress relief ;)
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, when the 3rd cup is empty, you know exactly what needs fixing. You may program computers, but the point is to shape that friggin' turing machine equivalent so it helps people.
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. I agree with jlouis, do something else, or figure out why what you're doing matters.Look for a position in an area you can care about, or make your own position, or tell your boss your work bores you. Your boss could fire you, or he could give you something interesting, I have no idea about your current situation.
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 have work to get done.Also, one of the side effects of setting a limited timeframe to do work in, is that you end up doing better quality work out of necessity more than anything.I also found that I'm generally most creative in the mornings and late evenings - so I schedule coding time around then... so I dont end up wasting time chipping away at something and getting nowhere.
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 fixing a single line of code, and you'll end up doing the whole task.For me, I always have that initial adverse reaction and stop myself right there, tell myself I'm going to do it NOW, and then just get it done.If your work is truly dull and uninspiring though, find something else. I find it hard to see any programming as "dull", because it always presents new problems that need solutions.
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 wealth, but is to jostle with my coworkers for the favor of the people handing out the wealth.Fear is a powerful motivator.
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 when i'm in a slump - dull work is way easier when you're constantly finishing little parts of it and crossing them out.
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 of how you want your project to look and feel.3. Baby Steps Rome wasn't built overnight. Work on the simples pieces first. That will build your moral, and you'll be ready to conquer bigger challenges.4. Relax A lot of times I come up with great solutions after a short break. When I'm sitting for a long period of time in front desk, my mind feels confined and tired, which can be demoralizing. Hence, small breaks are good for re-energizing your mind and moral.
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 talking to bloggers, sites, writers. Those people are useless by themselves, as you have now discovered. PR can bring people in, but it can't make them stick.Talk to some hobby investors. Find some online forum full of them and beg some of them to come and give you some feedback.What site all those folks using now? What do they hate about that site, and can you fix it on yours?I was going to suggest that you build something that would draw people in, like a fantasy-trading game... but a quick Google convinces me that the market for that particular idea may be totally saturated.
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 to understand what your customers want, which is crucial to early development in an application. You'll need to constantly get customer feedback and validation.
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 hires are the ones who really enjoy what they do, and those people usually have interesting side projects they can show you or talk about.I imagine a sales person who is good at his job will be able to show you exactly how he helped out the last several companies he worked for. He should probably be able to "sell" you on why he's perfect for the job ;)I probably wouldn't hire a sales guy until I have the product fully developed and tested, have happy customers, and know there is a strong demand. I wouldn't rely on your sales guy to push a product that isn't ready.
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 position (does it need to be filled?) 2. Find someone who can tell you when you're about to make a bad hire 3. Would the process allow you yourself to be hired? pre-interview / resume screening 1. Make phone contact 2. Ask for a letter & resume 3. Give an assignment 4. Read resumes in teams 5. Cast the widest net 6. Use caution with big changes (is this a huge leap for the candidate?) interview 1. Pre-interview interview (keep the initial interview very short) 2. Walk around the office (to help candidate relax) 3. Trust your gut 4. The passionate candidate (...is great!) 5. Ask all your questions at once 6. Have fun (ask a few offbeat questions) 7. Assign a mini project 8. Seek closure (at the end say "we have five more minutes" and then pay a LOT OF ATTENTION to what is said at the end) 9. Inappropriate Behavior (Beware it!) 10. Strengths and weaknesses (pay attention ; each is the flip side of the other: "big picture" == "bad with details", etc.) 11. Be the expert (ask questions in areas where you are an expert) 12. Take notes - left side of paper: candidates answers / facts ; right side of paper: your thoughts 13. Interview in teams 14. Ask for a legal release 15. Throw a few curveballs (walk candidate to his car ; get him/her out of interview mode) 16. Ask for a return call / email "Send me a list of competitors / ideas / whatever 'on Monday'" (looking for promptness - 8am monday!) 17. Assign a take-home project 18. Psychological tests 19. Use an Intuitive person to help you interview (in our case - Suz. Look at Strengths_Finder_for_various_folks 20. Ask candidates "what will I hear about you when I check your references?" reference check 1. Devise a phone checklist for use with references 2. Use the Internet to research people 3. Perform due dilligence (credit checks, etc.) 4. Ask for a call back from references "if this is an excellent candidate" 5. Use your network to check on candidates (LinkedIn) end stage negotiations 1. Put problems on the table- talk to candidates about potential problems (because there WILL be problems with every candidate) 2. Use a trial run on new candidates not for us / duh 1. Travel with the candidate 2. Meet the spouse 3. Handwriting analysis 4. Meet references in person 5. Invest in people - (duh!) 6. Three rules 1. honest 2. no addiction / crime problems 3. good health 7. Ten questions 1. has candidate sued a lot of people? 2. does the candidate dress well? 3. is the candidate a druggie? test? 4. is the candidate responsive? 5. use a model of previous good hires to hire new candidates? 6. offer hiring awards to current employees. 7. put all job offers in writing 8. use search firms, etc. ? 9. review the hiring process ; don't let it get too idea-rich 8. Design your own system (Duh) 9. Pre-interview combinations
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 sales skills (make friends easy, take rejection, try and try again, etc...)
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 initial reaction to your site (this time around, I couldn't really make much sense of it before) is that it likely just isn't sticky enough. Though I agree that the 'communities' are way over done, you've included a sign-up to customize option, so you are gathering user details. Your site has the opportunity to serve users who have signed up, and those who have not. You don't have to be a social network to be a community, but I think you should be leveraging the 'community' that you have. For instance - when I come to your site now, it offers me the opportunity to sign-up, or to click on one of the above icons. Wouldn't your site be stickier if when I first come to the site it tells me what you suspect I am looking for? I'm not much of an investor, but your users should be, therefore I should be able to come to your site and be shown a few things that the community is currently finding interesting. Everybody benefits from that kind of stuff- new users and return visitors.As I see it now, i can get quotes and news from a number of sites. But if you were to aggregate into a popularity list somehow (it can be done!), or recent activity, etc. that might bring people back to your site more often. Doesn't have to be a social network, but even the news sites show you stuff they think you'd be interested in right off the bat. Right now I go to your site and i have to decide what I want to look at. You're probably loosing people right there.
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 investor to fund me. That brings me to the second problem, I'm tied down into middle america. I love the city I'm in, but it doesn't have the kind of abundance of cash that the coasts have.So, my plan moving forward is to contribute to open source and personal projects. I'll try to make a few bucks off them, but probably nothing serious. If I hit on an idea that I am really passionate about, I'll work on it more exclusively on the side or whatever day job I have, until it is able to provide decent income by itself.As far as your ideas question, I have no shortage of ideas, but I have a shortage of ideas that would be good businesses. They are either too small, too hard to monetize, or they are simply that I don't have the passion for them to take them far enough to make them viable.
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 appealing to them - They have other interests in life that are more important to them - Their life situation prevents them from pursuing a startup ideaI don't quite agree that "web developers" don't have the qualities of "startup founders". Many probably do, but might not show them for whatever reason.Chance plays a huge role is success, so the qualities of "successful" startup founders might not be that different from the "unsuccessful" ones.Ambition, passion, persistence, motivation, good communication skills, a certain level of intelligence, ability to work with and motivate people are some qualities (certainly not all) that you'll probably find in founders.
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 will. If you give them an incentive to walk away from a potential sale without making an effort, they will. If you give them an incentive to sincerely represent your company's product and practices, they will.A large number of CEOs are recruited from sales. It's a motivational, high energy world, and good salespeople make more than almost any other position in a company.Consider salespeople part of your product's UI. If you give the salespeople perverse incentives, they will make customers dislike your company. The opposite is also true.I recommend that to find a salesperson you sign up for demos from companies who you think would employ the kind of salesperson you'd want, and if you find one you like, offer him/her a job.
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 you negociate a salary, and you set a target. The target need not be about sales, it can be about appointments set (very useful), calls made, emails sent or any other metric.Now, the don't-be-stupid part: never _ever_ hire somebody in sales with fixed salary without targets. Where there is a salary, there must be targets. You can of course offer both comission and a salary, but the salary must be dependent on some other metric then the comission.Also a good part of the sales process is finding the best metrics. It should be something like: for 100 phones you get 5 appointments, from which you get 2 second appointments and 0.7 contracts. Each of those steps can and should be optimized separately, once you have the process established.
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 sales and what would be possible?At what point do you let the sales person go, how long do you give them to learn the ropes before they're expected to get some sales?Obviously for a startup, especially a bootstrapped one, paying each bad sales person a few months of basic before finding out they're useless is a serious cash concern.I'll be approaching that stage in a few months with my startup and it's definitely worrying!
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 likely to have a higher salary that would be a lot harder to match with just seed funding.
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 anything else of use. Eventually I figured enough of it out to launch a profitable startup, but it took 15 years. lol.I think the most important thing to success you need is a successful mentor, who is doing something similar to what you want to achieve. The more the better. That was the major turning point for me.
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 clicks. If not, perhaps it was never meant to be.The other factor, of course, is that technical skill is only a part of what you need as a startup founder. You need some Jobs to go with your Woz. If this guy doesn't have the marketing spark, and he realizes that ("No ideas, I guess"), he's acting quite rationally. Maybe he'll choose a different path if and when he meets the right business person.
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 get that.
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 fulfilling and I love the freedom and the challenges. I want to share the feeling with her and, frankly, I also want her to better understand me. Her complete lack of interest in starting her own business is so alien to me that we have really struggled to even communicate about it. I've bought her books and cut out articles of people that have started successful businesses in her field of interest in an attempt to entice her to the startup fold. She is completely not interested, and she gets tense and testy when I even suggest she start her own business.One of her best explanations was that her very traditional, 'ladder-oriented' upbringing (father was a military officer, then a corporate man, and her mother was in academia) has made her most comfortable with a traditional job. She wants the safety and structure of working for someone else. Even if a startup would be more lucrative, fun, and flexible than her current job, her fear of the unknown outweighs those benefits. She doesn't want to have to always "figure out what to do next", and she doesn't want her income to be inconsistent.* She also needs quite a bit of external positive reinforcement for her emotional well-being (that is, she needs people telling her "Thatta girl!" when she does a great job in order to feel good and keep going.) She thinks a startup would be lonely and she thinks her self-confidence and motivation would falter without frequent external reinforcement from co-workers and supervisors. All of which is probably true.Both of her parents are very educated (PhDs) and have always worked for someone else. They are also relatively wealthy. My parents didn't attend college, and are "rural middle-class," but they have both owned their own businesses. My parents also have some very wealthy entrepreneurial friends that I was around quite a bit as a child.* I went from making $40K/yr working for someone else, to making more than that A MONTH working for myself. Even though I was making EXPONENTIALLY more money by working for myself, the income was sporadic, so my wife asked that I get a 'second job' making about $10 an hour as a 'backup'! She is completely emotional and irrational about money, and it drives me crazy.
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 is in a corporate job, has no clue about techcrunch, and knows that whatever idea he comes up with has been done by Google etc. And if it hasn't they'll just steal his idea before he can make money.So in the end he doesn't want to give up his corporate job, his income, and 2 years of his life, to develop an application has little probability of success.I mean look at your average startup founder, its a younger guy who has no other commitments. And they can survive with a burn rate of $500 a month(live with parents + cost of dedicated server + other minor bills), while an older guy has a $2500 mortgage, $500 food bill, college tuition payments etc. And he thinks he needs $100,000 in servers, since that's what he is used with working at his corporate gig.
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 teenagers to mom and pops who know nothing about design or programming. Everyone here already has a one-up on them. Instead of trying to create a new 'web 2.0' service, pick a content site and do it good! It doesn't matter if it's been done before. I created a site that offered MySpace layouts and graphics, despite there already being like 300 of them, and it was making close to $1k three months later. I sold it six months later for $12k on SitePoint. No investors, no big expenses.I now leave you with a quote from Nas: No idea's original, there's nothin' new under the sun It's never what you do, but how it's done
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 rolodex or will you supply the leads?3. How much risk are you expecting the salesperson to take? How much will be base compensation and how much will be commission driven?4. Are you looking for someone with demonstrated experience, or will someone more junior work?We've experimented with variations on all of the above to find the right "pattern" for us (in terms of what works and what doesn't).
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 access to the underlying platform. There are some things that are just not possible...Except for the C++ part, which is the native language and thus has almost complete access to the system.
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 that bypasses the carrier decks with iTunes. Which is huge because it's a pain in the ass to get on carrier decks, seeing how most NA phones are locked from installing software unless you download it directly from the carrier's portal. Then you have the fact that Apple users tend to open their wallets more for software.
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 answers you seek.
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 everybody does runtime compilation.Runtime compilation, however, won't work with Android. For licensing reasons, they use their own funky Dalvik VM, with a different instruction set to the JVM. Although you write Android code in Java, all the code in your .class files is translated into Dalvik bytecode as part of the packaging process. This is naturally incompatible with generating JVM bytecode at runtime.The upshot, then, is that none of the big dynamic languages will run on Android, which is a big pain. Scala is an exception among the "other JVM languages". Because it is very static and doesn't have "eval" functionality, it can be completely compiled (and translated) ahead of time.Unfortunately, even Scala has problems with Android development: For starters, the runtime libraries are over 3MB (compressed!), which is going to tax if not completely blow the memory of any phone. All that extra code between you and the VM is also going to take its toll in CPU and extra garbage collection - and on an embedded device, that's battery life you can't afford to spend.For my money, then, the only sensible choice for Android development is native Java. This sucks, relatively speaking, but think about it as a progression: For most embedded development, C is still more or less the only sensible choice. Java is still velvet cushions and hand-holding by comparison.
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 which matches up allocations with frees and gives me a list of every time memory was allocated without being subsequently freed.Of course, this is only feasible because I'm working in C; and I'm sure there are better tools available if I could be bothered to learn how to use them.
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 other tld you need.
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. Was I at least marginally successful?
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 show them what they can do beyond that.
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 by non-registered users in a separate tally? When I click to vote, I get a screen that says "Thanks for voting!" and has two sets of results: A "low-quality" set that includes all the non-registered user votes for the last 2 hours (or 12 hours, or 24 hours, or -- if there haven't been too many -- the last week) and a "high-quality" set that only includes registered users. Next to the registered user data is an explanation ("these are the results that really count") and a link ("join our site if YOU want to cast votes that really count!").
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 votes uncontaminated, but you said that you wanted to make this site more fun than statistically valid, and seeing the login requirement was not fun for me.Later impressions:This site has the potential to be an interesting/fun way to spend some time, and if I could A: see the predictions before voting (ie. just being able to browse and see what most people think about a specific subject), and B: not have to log in except maybe to participate in a discussion afterwards, then I would be very likely to use this site as a way to pass some time.Also, a thumbs up for having a "correct users" section. I think the possibility of getting the predictions "right" and being able to be respected everywhere (on the site) as an accurate predictor is another fun angle that will attract and keep users.Final impressions:This is a startup, and by definition is designed to earn you money. Is there a plan for this in the future? Do you think ads are the way to go, or maybe sell the results to marketing agencies (for targeted subjects and users)?
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 money on protecting yourself.2. Bad business partners. Judge your partners not by how much you like them but if they'll complement your skillz, add value to the team, and are dedicated to the project.3. Not saying no. It's a personal problem, I'm a really nice guy, it's hard for me to say no sometimes, but it's necessary. It's not personal, it's business.
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 spent 2 years at a relatively low-growth startup because I thought that its profits meant it was successful, when I could've learned much more at a higher-growth yet unprofitable startup.3. Letting ideas sit too long. I had the idea for http://www.whatshallidonow.net/ about a week before I started implementing it, but was busy with job apps. In the meantime, http://nowdothis.com/ launched, and now they have all the momentum.4. Spending too much time on super-ambitious projects and ignoring the low-hanging fruit.
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 look at models like reddit and digg to come up with a nice balance.2. Like everyone else is saying, don't require sign-ups. And if you must, use OpenID and FB Connect to streamline the process.3. Pretty pictures. Use some nice flash charts to give a better understanding on how your predictions are trending.4. To be brutally honest. i don't see this site making critical mass. The problem with web 2.0 is that most people don't have time to join so many social networks, you need to consolidate this as either (a) an API for other companies to use and make your business a b2b model (there are a bunch for predication markets already) or (b) make it a social network application (but there should be a couple of these already too)http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/veepstakes/index.htmlThat's a good example of how to leverage some cool algorithms and a funky API to integrate with major sites.Perhaps I'm a dick wad, but I think honesty is better than sugar coating. If you want to talk further, e-mail me charlesju[at]gmail[dot]com.
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. Not 6 months in rigidly structured classes with no leeway for progression above and beyond what is in the curriculum. I could have got a job that paid my pocket money, whilst learning more and coming out with less debt. "but would this have paid off?" I hear everyone say. My degree or time in education has absolutely no standing of where I am now, apart from the fact that I feel I could have been here by early twenties instead of mid twenties
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 instead joined this one startup of sorts, worked literally 15+ hour days including Saturdays. Unfortunately it hit a rough patch and they could only afford one programmer and I wasn't it. So the other guy now is making around 15k a month now. They hired me back but I make about a 3rd of that. The system generates about 50k a month in free cash flow and I built all of the fundamentals of the system.
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 decisions, we all got plenty of time (hopefully) to work everything out as we want it to.This quote sums up a lot of things nicely: The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one. -- Elbert Hubbard
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 security.But at least I came through - I had friends that time who are dead now (one overdosed on heroin, one crashed a stolen car while a fugitive from prison).

Subsets and Splits

No community queries yet

The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.