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Know a Free Mobile Analytics Service? | qhoxie: While there have been advances made on both ends, js based statistic engines do have lingering problems for mobile apps. That said, there are a number of workarounds:
http://www.vdgraaf.info/google-analytics-without-javascript.... |
Does anyone know how to get back into facebook? | qhoxie: I've had a couple friends with similar experiences, their accounts were reactivated after:1. Emailed request/explanation.2. Short time period (~2 weeks). |
(General-purpose) Reverse Auctions — undeveloped or needless? | crazyirish: scriptlance and other similar sites are essentially reverse auctions. |
(General-purpose) Reverse Auctions — undeveloped or needless? | zacharye: I think the main issue is that the concept of a reverse auction is not practical for the seller in an online environment. In a reverse auction, the seller must work for a sale whereas in a conventional auction the site and the buyers do the work for them. Why should the seller "work" for a sale if (s)he doesn... |
Web app feedback (chatting site redux) | benjamincanfly: Last week I asked for feedback (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=267049) on my web app, Circle of Conversation. HN readers were enormously helpful and I've implemented a number of your suggestions.The initial site broke too many conventions in an attempt to differentiate. I'm now focusing on adhering... |
(General-purpose) Reverse Auctions — undeveloped or needless? | bigbang: Reverse auction already exists in some form. One thing, that comes to my mind is bidding for contracts. Normally outsourced companies bid lower to increase the chance of getting the contract(but yeah not always the lowest bidder gets the contract). |
Web server development platform, Red Hat or Ubuntu | sharjeel: I personally prefer Ubuntu because the support is great in terms of community as well as repositories.When you are doing a startup, your time is very limited and I believe you should go for anything that saves time & hassle without trading off much.Btw if you are on Windows right now, you can still install an... |
Web server development platform, Red Hat or Ubuntu | qhoxie: As far as productivity and development goes, you won't experience much of a difference. In terms of enterprise history and endorsement, RedHat wins, but that is largely immaterial. |
Web server development platform, Red Hat or Ubuntu | jonny_noog: Why not Debian??I mean if you're considering Ubuntu, why not try the original? I use Debian as my main development box for exactly the kind of work that you're thinking of doing and I love it.With Debian you will learn more about Linux than you will running either RH or Ubuntu. And if anyone thinks the Ubun... |
Web server development platform, Red Hat or Ubuntu | davidw: Redhat is a commercial product that you have to pay money to use. CentOS is supposed to be a pretty good server OS.However, I'd choose Ubuntu (and have) for this reason, amongst others: you can run the same OS on your server as on your desktop. You might be able to do that with Fedora, too, but Fedora is not ... |
What does the ideal deployment process look like for this scenario? | agentbleu: I have been looking into Jumpboxes for research on an article, maybe you could set up a jumpbox lamp stack that worked across all platforms for your test environment. Jumpboxes are like self contained virtual servers, and may save you some problems. |
What does the ideal deployment process look like for this scenario? | davidw: > slightly rusty PHP 4.x/MySQL 4.xMy first instinct is "take off and nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure", but in all seriousness, it's a pretty good question, as lots of people have to deal with fixing up code like this instead of just doing some big rewrite with tools that are nicer.If you're not... |
(General-purpose) Reverse Auctions — undeveloped or needless? | rincewind: The german site my-hammer.de does reverse auctions for craftspeople. |
Web server development platform, Red Hat or Ubuntu | gaius: If you don't know the answer, it doesn't matter to you. Flip a coin. |
What does the ideal deployment process look like for this scenario? | mtw: pretty much the standards:
you need a collaboration suite (such as basecamp)I advise git for the vcs. It's fast, good for your team's setup, and powerful.Setup a test suite for your application.(unit tests, functional tests and integration)Releases are tested against the suite.If that works, it's pushed to a stagi... |
What does the ideal deployment process look like for this scenario? | lpgauth: testing + git + capistrano |
What does the ideal deployment process look like for this scenario? | mechanical_fish: It doesn't matter which DVCS you use, particularly since you haven't mentioned using CVS (thank god). Use whatever the designers will actually use. If they're already comfortable with SVN use SVN; the git-svn integration tools are not as great as an all-git setup, but I've been using them with great ha... |
Web server development platform, Red Hat or Ubuntu | ZacharyP: Why not both? Install one of them as the base, grab something like VirtualBox[1], and install both of them in virtual machines. Take a week or so, then pick your favorite. As a bonus, once you've picked, you can mimic having a production server on that machine with a Linux VM with just the basics (Apache/l... |
What does the ideal deployment process look like for this scenario? | blender: "Unscheduled downtime of more than a couple minutes is unacceptable any time."Sounds like HA should be your #1 priority. DRBD + Heartbeat is a one solution but non-trivial to setup. There are some high-end hosting providers (BlueLock, Terremark) that offer VMWare HA configurations.Sounds like VCS should be #2 ... |
Web app feedback (chatting site redux) | pedalpete: going to the site now, the 'Top Chat Rooms' is empty, and I don't see any other directory of chat rooms, and the tags is also empty.
Makes it pretty difficult to give you any feedback.I think having the 'my settings' so prominently focused on the bottom of the page is a bit of overkill. Better to have that ... |
Web server development platform, Red Hat or Ubuntu | jcapote: RH = the windows of linux, stay away. |
Movable Type or Wordpress for personal blog? | ScottWhigham: Thanks, all. I went w/ WP :) |
Estimating ad revenue for a business plan? | pedalpete: I'm not a qualified expert, but it does somewhat depend on the market you are after, how integrated ads are in the site, etc.For example (assuming standard banner ads), if you are talking about using adwords for content based ads, you are likely going to be looking at a $1-4CPM (is my understanding). However... |
Best resources on SEO | tstegart: NetConcepts case studies page: http://www.netconcepts.com/tag/case-studies.
I've found it to be the best site out there to learn what needs to be done without coming across as an infomercial, which a lot of SEO sites annoying do. |
Best resources on SEO | procyon: www.google.com/webmasters/tools/ - Google webtools have been incredibly helpful for us. Also http://www.vanessafoxnude.com/ (no..it is not an adult site!) is a good blog on SEO |
Best resources on SEO | tortilla: http://www.seomoz.org/http://www.seobook.com/Not really SEO, but I love this book:
http://www.calltoactionbook.com/ |
Best resources on SEO | brm: Here it is: http://www.seomoz.org/article/beginners-guide-to-search-engi...
They call it the beginners guide but unless you're thinking about running an seo firm its more than you ever need. |
Best resources on SEO | ra: If you want the best, Aaron Wall's SEO Book is IMHO unsurpassed: http://training.seobook.com/ |
Best resources on SEO | fallentimes: http://SEOmoz.org (as mentioned by others) is certainly one of the best.http://Websitegrader.com provides a quick and dirty analysis of your site.The SEO Web Developer's Cheat Sheet is very handy:
http://seomoz.org/user_files/SEO_Web_Developer_Cheat_Sheet.p... |
Best resources on SEO | makimaki: Try http://www.sphinn.com ... social news site specifically for SEO related topics. |
Web server development platform, Red Hat or Ubuntu | hs: try OpenBSD, it's simplerfast install: ~5 mins default + ~5 mins untar my-essentials.tgz + ~5 mins mercurial sync ... my box is production ready (sans user database)easy upgrade: untar the tgzs, kernel, sync /etc from newer OpenBSDno automatic update: it makes default install uniform, when $hit happens, just order ... |
Best resources on SEO | papa: Another great resource from SEOmoz that some might miss (b/c it's not exactly easy to find on their site) is their "Search Engine Ranking Factors" report (it's free).http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factorsThe report tries to identify which SEO factors have consensus among a panel of 3-dozen or so SEO... |
Best resources on SEO | s3graham: Wow, really seems like there's an awful lot of "tea leaf reading" going on.The human neural network being imperfectly trained by Google's algorithms, which probably have some sort of network learning involved. Funny stuff. |
Best resources on SEO | sonink: http://www.tutorial-reports.com/internet/seo-search-engine-o... |
What do you use for HTML sanitization? | cperciva: I don't do HTML sanitization. I escape everything except [A-Za-z0-9,. ].Attempts to sanitize HTML (or SQL...) by eliminating a set of "dangerous" inputs inevitably end up as whack-a-mole processes as people keep discovering new evil things to throw at you. The only secure solution is to escape everything ex... |
What do you use for HTML sanitization? | ScottWhigham: I use PeterBlum.com's controls for ASP.NET plus some hand-rolled stuff. |
Our new logo — Tell us what you think | mechanical_fish: Just in case anybody can't indentify the red thingy — that's a headset (The ones that real customer support warriors use).In my case, this comment was sadly perceptive. A play-by-play of my thoughts:1) "Oh, no! Smiley has been injured!"2) "No, wait, Smiley is putting on clown makeup"3) "No, he's lickin... |
Our new logo — Tell us what you think | gasull: You don't get it's a headset unless you know it's related with helpdesk. |
Our new logo — Tell us what you think | bkrausz: Shouldn't the headset be either over or below the mouth? |
Best resources on SEO | procyon: http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/marketing/search... link specifically for SEO but they have plenty of information for website optimization |
Anyone use Windows Server? | Shorel: Windows Server has been painless for me. We use MSSQL Server which is a good database, much better than your MySQL.We use PHP, ASP and ASP.NET in no particular order. I prefer PHP and use PHP. It works flawlessly in IIS.Also, the subversion server is very easy to manage (tortoiseSVN to create repositories, etc)... |
tips for starting as a freelance coder | ScottWhigham: The best place to start as a freelancer is by working for your old company as a freelancer or for your old company's clients. |
tips for starting as a freelance coder | tstegart: I would strongly recommend building a side project while you work on finding your jobs. Clients are impressed when they see what you can actually do rather than just what you say you can do. Not to mention a side project would not have the constraints of a client, so you can make it really awesome (i.e. no "w... |
Questions For & About Startups | LukeG: OK, honestly, what kind of schedule & hours do you guys (and ladies) really keep? |
Questions For & About Startups | fallentimes: What was your biggest time waster? |
Questions For & About Startups | marketer: Why would someone sacrifice their secure job with good benefits and plunge into the startup world?Have you ever watched Scoble interview startup founders? It's completely unscripted, yet he does a remarkable job (in my opinion). You can tell he's passionate about discovering neat technology, and he always get... |
Questions For & About Startups | mooders: In retrospect, did you do it the hard way, or the easy way (whatever each constitutes in your context)?What will you do differently next time?How transparent are the founders in their info-sharing? |
Questions For & About Startups | rokhayakebe: 1- how will you make money? What if that doesn't work? What about your plan C to generate revenue?2- What is your exit strategy?3- What if Yahoo, Google or Microsoft launchs a competitive product?4- What would you do if you were not startupping?5- What other startup do you like? |
Questions For & About Startups | evanlong: How did you meet the people you work with in your startup (past jobs, school, randomly, etc...)?How do you solve disputes within the team?If you were not doing startups or technical things, what types of things would you pursue?Was the original idea for the startup the one you stuck with?Was there any AHA mom... |
Questions For & About Startups | aneesh: If you have paying customers, how did you find them? And how are you planning to get more? |
Questions For & About Startups | anamax: (1) What are you doing?
(2) What is important to you?If (1) doesn't directly contribute to (2)....For CEOs, "What are the last three important things about engineering/development that you didn't hear from the VP-Engr?For VP-Engr/managers, "What are the last three important things about the biz that you heard f... |
Questions For & About Startups | paulgb: How many monitors do the programmers use?Not because I need a bunch of monitors, but it seems like a rough indicator of how much programmers are valued in the company. A company looking for code monkeys isn't going to find the marginal return of another monitor worth the investment. |
Questions For & About Startups | ALee: 1) What are the weaknesses of your startup?2) How do you manage between letting people have a say in product versus micro-management? |
Questions For & About Startups | cperciva: This might be a very difficult question to get answered, but I think it could be very interesting: In retrospect, how closely (or not) did the allocation of ownership (between founders, and also founders vs. employees) match the contributions people ended up making to the company?Bonus points if you can ask s... |
Questions For & About Startups | mace: 1. Why did you start your company(ie. what problem are you trying to solve)?2. Has your original idea/product changed over time?3. Have you started a company before?4. What are your funding goals (if any)?5. Where do you see your startup in 1 year?6. What is your best advice to other entrepreneurs? |
Questions For & About Startups | DenisM: Which advice have you ignored at the outset, only to regret it later? |
Questions For & About Startups | DenisM: Man, these are awesome questions.Talk about success story in crowd-sourcing. |
Questions For & About Startups | edw519: What keeps you up at night? |
Questions For & About Startups | watmough: Some more questions:1. How do you ensure that ideas are listened to?2. How do you find technical, business and recruiting talent?3. What are the 1 - 3 central tenets to your business? What do you do if people stray from these ideas?4. Are people expected to work 12 hours a day, or is there a work-life balance... |
Questions For & About Startups | maryrosecook: Do you hang out together outside work? |
Need Mobile Beta App Testers | zacharye: username: zacharyeI've enjoyed the site a lot, definitely willing to check out the mobile version. |
Online routines and distractions? | parenthesis: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=192654 |
Questions For & About Startups | cmos: What was your biggest mistake? We want the gory details. |
Need Mobile Beta App Testers | zacharye: One more suggestion as I continue to play. The service as-is is awesome for checking out 'your' stocks, but adding functionality to search for a company by name rather than only symbol would be great in the mobile app (and the standard website as well for that matter). If I hear about a company while on the g... |
do non-dev staff at your company use version control? | olefoo: I've setup a system using mercurial where a versioned archive shadows a directory of assets (html snippets and images) that is edited by customers and support staff. It works, although the rollback interface is a commandline rather than a web page at this time.In my experience the term 'version control' might ... |
do non-dev staff at your company use version control? | sqs: Right now the non-dev people at my company use FVC, but we are trying hard to get them to use Subversion (simpler than Git and adequate for their needs). Version control is so important that everybody should be using it.FVC = Filename Version Control. SpecificationsDraft.doc, Specifications1.doc, Specifications-FI... |
do non-dev staff at your company use version control? | shabda: http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.666973.1... |
Questions For & About Startups | netcan: DO you have an exit strategy?If so, when did you formulate it?If early on, how has it affected your product? |
do non-dev staff at your company use version control? | gaius: Yep, tho' they probably aren't aware that they are, it's built into the intranet that they store all their Office documents on. This is probably the best way to do it. |
Our new logo — Tell us what you think | jauco: about the headset, but more general:If you feel the need to explain your logo (as in "Just in case anybody can't indentify the red thingy") then it still needs some work. |
Top 10 Hacks of All Time | paraschopra: The Slashdot article is old (year 1999) but still lists some cool hacks such as CC, Perl, and even AK-47.Am wondering which all hacks would you rate as top 10 hacks of all time? Mine would be:Karma System,
Python,
Hacker News,
Y Combinator,
Electric Guitar,
Google,
Firefox,
Hotmail (it was a pioneer... |
Top 10 Hacks of All Time | steveplace: One of the best hack stories was that of the Direct TV smartcard. They slowly uploaded updates to the card to create a dynamic programming interface. The first 8 computer bytes of all hacked cards were rewritten to read "GAME OVER".Full story:http://slashdot.org/articles/01/01/25/1343218.shtml |
Online routines and distractions? | ScottWhigham: We sleep less than most so that we can have the time to be distracted yet still work more than 4 other humans... Or maybe that's just me! |
do non-dev staff at your company use version control? | michaelbuckbee: From a non-dev perspective I'm not sure they would see much of a difference in complexity between SVN and GIT.It might be helpful if you could specify if the "non devs" are also "non contributors". |
Co-founding | tstegart: I think the price of obtaining limited liability is so low these days it doesn't make sense not to do it. It also seems obtaining limited liability would go hand in hand with putting your agreement in writing, so I'm failing to see your potential co-founder's reasons for not doing this. Unless you're going on... |
Co-founding | cmos: Bail.If I can summarize your words:
worry, illegal, unethical?, gray area, personally accountable, lions share, 'did not site well with me', final say, dubious.At no point did you say 'exciting' or 'amazing' or anything remotely exciting about it. |
Co-founding | tstegart: On the equity division issue, if its bothering you, then you need to let him know that and negotiate a compromise. If you can't do compromise on that issue, you probably won't be able to compromise on much, and thats a bad recipe for starting a company together. I would also suggest nailing down an exact numb... |
Co-founding | trevelyan: It isn't clear what you bring to the table, which makes it difficult for anyone to give you an answer. What can you do for the company that this guy cannot do for himself. |
Co-founding | timcederman: It is not a grey area, it is illegal and a copyright violation. What is it with all these supposed lawyers offering supposed advice to people that what they're doing isn't wrong? |
Co-founding | rubentopo: You should be equals, that's what i'd demand, i don't see a partnership where the partners are not equals...but that's my opinion. |
Co-founding | edw519: He says once he can afford it he will payRun, don't walk, the other way!Ethics is the bedrock of any relationship or business.It is also binary; you have it or you don't.You don't.I once had a partner who disconnected his speedometer to increase his resale value. No big deal, huh? Next thing you know, he was ... |
Co-founding | webwright: Hard to tell about the lion's share issue. If the site has traction or good IP, it MIGHT be fair. Probably not. The question to ask is, "how hard would it be to duplicate the effort"? The way to ask HIM is: "How much have you reduced my risk with your headstart?" and "If we take 4 years to build this and... |
Co-founding | tptacek: Psychology aside --- obviously you're talking yourself out of this gig:* It takes 1-2 days to set up an LLC. Without the LLC, you can't invoice and you can't buy insurance. Unless you get to manage the incorporation on day 1, don't sign on until they incorporate.* The risk with scraping isn't just that you'll ... |
Co-founding | mattmaroon: What data is he scraping? Unless he's doing streaming stat updates, it's a lot cheaper than that. And if he's doing live stat updates, it's a lot more expensive than that.Also, I'd tend to disbelieve that there's any gray area there at all, seems flat out illegal to me. Might want to talk to a lawyer yourse... |
Co-founding | netcan: "He says once he can afford it he will pay"
There's a few things that I never could believe:A woman when she weepsA merchant when he swearsA thief who says he'll pay -A lawyer when he caresA snake when he is sleepingA drunkard when he praysI don't believe you go to heaven when you're goodEverything goes... |
Co-founding | ninjaa: As someone who has been screwed before:
Make a buyout date and clause. Value the IP based on time, calculate your share and set an end date on your agreementpast which you can demand cash from him for your stake. This way he may have final say on all issues, but if you disagree with the general direction after... |
Co-founding | sutro: Your prospective partner's positions on both legality and equity seem reasonable to me. A startup is going to be full of risk regardless. I say take the leap of faith and go for it. Even if it all goes to hell, you'll learn a lot. |
Co-founding | gojomo: Lots of successful and respected startups have begun with questionable reuse of easy-to-collect data from others. Whether it really crosses a dangerous liability line, or is indicative of other ethical stretches, would require more details not in evidence here.You should do the research to assess the risk -- an... |
Co-founding | gojomo: Someone has to have final say -- practically, even if not formally. A perfect 50/50 partnership can deadlock or dally when any decision is better than more discussion. So it's not unreasonable for the person who created the idea and first working version to resist giving up the control they've had so far. |
Co-founding | gojomo: Right now he owns 100%, even if it's not incorporated.If you ask for 50%, at some level you're implying that [your value going forward] is equal to [his value going forward] plus [the value he's already created]. That might be insulting to him. |
how to get tough | comatose_kid: Lie under a coconut tree, and have a friend climb up the tree and drop coconuts on your abdomen [1].References
[1] - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZxGYtOXUP4 |
how to get tough | alaskamiller: Start a fight club but don't talk about it |
how to get tough | tstegart: Do something really hard that takes you past your limits. It doesn't have to be a start-up, it could be anything (like running a marathon). |
how to get tough | gaius: Regularly place yourself in situations where failure is a distinct possibility.Start to observe that failure is actually less likely than you thought it was.Repeat until desired level of toughness is acquired. |
Feedback and CoFounder - privatetransit.org | tstegart: Is it working yet? What's with the map screenshot on the front page, is that supposed to be something? Also, don't repeat the menu in any screen shots, it confuses people into thinking they're clickable and do something. Remove the tabs from screenshots.Your marketing on the front page needs a lot of work. I ... |
how to get tough | browndog: Make a list of things you have a mental block against. Then make opportunities to do them. Every failure that you learn and recover from makes you stronger. Practice your decision-making skills. Act on your decisions. And communicate decisively. Good luck! |
Feedback and CoFounder - privatetransit.org | gasull: 1) Where do you live? You probably want your cofounder to live in the same urban area.2) You want a good hacker to be your cofounder. How to find a good hacker. Paul Graham gives some advice about this:http://www.paulgraham.com/start.html"What you should do in college is work on your own projects. Hackers sh... |
How do you meet a hacker to start a startup with if you are not in college? | inklesspen: Go to local "ruby user groups" or whatever your language of choice is. Or, heck, go to "ruby/python/blub++ user groups" even if you use Java; you'll meet some smart people there anyway. |
How do you meet a hacker to start a startup with if you are not in college? | debtkid: craigslist? |
How do you meet a hacker to start a startup with if you are not in college? | dmix: The best option is to go out to all the local get togethers for hackers and entrepreneurs, barcamps, and conventions. Plus try to introduce yourself to people online, this worked out much better for me then I expected.Have your idea fleshed out and know it inside out. Theres a lot at stake when you bring on a co-... |
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