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Common Lisp vs Clojure for web apps? | itistoday: I was in a similar situation: I love LISP and I wanted to use it for web development. I spent several days looking at Clojure and Compojure for this purpose but came to the conclusion that it was far too restrictive and cumbersome for rapid web development.Then I discovered the Dragonfly framework, a web framework for the newLISP scripting language and became its co-author.Advantages over Clojure/Compojure:- No need to switch web servers to Jetty/TomCat. (runs as cgi).- PHP-like development, no need to recompile/reload code.- Extremely dynamic and flexible routes.- Very fast and very low memory usage.- newLISP is an awesome language.http://www.rundragonfly.com/http://www.newlisp.comQuestions to the Dragonfly forum:http://www.newlispfanclub.alh.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=17It's still young and is being actively developed, but I think if you give it a look over you'll find much to love about it. |
Do you find developer screencasts useful? | assemble: No, I hate screencasts for several reasons.- I can't stream video at work. I can read documentation all day long, but streaming video, audio, etc. is not a valid use of company resources.- I can't easily find the information I need. Video is not searchable, and it's difficult to just skip to the right spot.- Documents can work as a reference. A lot of tutorials are good enough to be reference materials, especially when the thing they document is lacking in the documentation department.- I don't like listening to people talk to me, I read at least 10x faster than somebody can talk to me. |
Want to build a team for red balloon? | mjfern: "All balloons are scheduled to go on display at all locations at 10:00AM (ET) until approximately 4:00 PM (local time) on Saturday, December 5, 2009."Unfortunately, it looks like we missed the window to participate. |
Do you find developer screencasts useful? | mattwdelong: Yes, and no.When I am beginning a subject of interest, I find screencasts to be exceptionally useful because I am a visual learner; however, there is a point that I reach in which screencasts become a hindrance opposed to a useful tool. To define that point precisely is a bit difficult, but if I had to I would say it`s the point at which I know enough on the topic to transition into 'hands on' learning. At that point, I find textual references far more useful and videos just slow me down. Of course, most of these points have already been touched on, but I figured I could back them up. More data is never a bad thing. |
Which US tech events in Jan-April are worth going to? | dalke: PyCon is in Atlanta in Feb. |
Do you find developer screencasts useful? | pbh: Screencasts seem to me like they are the right tool for explaining standard paths through complex user interfaces. This is especially true of poorly documented and/or very open ended interfaces (e.g., in my case, Emacs or Photoshop). (For example, I only realised that I could open a remote MySQL prompt through SQL-mode, using TRAMP, after watching a screencast.) That said, in the same way that people argue that good naming practices should obviate the need for many comments, I worry that people use screencasts as a crutch to avoid implementing needed usability improvements.I think screencasts also guarantee that your thing sort of works, which adds an air of professionalism.That said, gripes include: hard/impossible to speed up while watching, hard/impossible to bookmark a specific spot, hard/impossible to skip over bits that you already know, requires headphones/speakers/video, often hard to see what's going on, and easily goes out of date. |
The older you are, the more you want to see non-tech on HN? | rmason: I am over 50 and you don't speak for me. I want tech and startup news and nothing else. There are many other places I can go for poltics, arts and culture on the web.I value the HN community as a chance to network with like minded people. I sometimes feel isolated living in a rust belt state where coders and startups aren't understood and barely even tolerated. |
Do you find developer screencasts useful? | martian: Screencasts are helpful for me, but only in a few settings and with one major caveat: There should be little if any transition/fade/time-lapse in the video. A discontinuity of presentation can really make it difficult to follow what is happening.And I agree with many other folks here that a screencast should best be used for an introduction to a subject, and that it can never replace detailed documentation. |
Do you find developer screencasts useful? | keyboard032: Yes, I do -- and I like 'em a lot. Although, not for everything. I love railscasts.com because of their concise and properly paced screencasts. Peepcode's, not so much. They try to cover way too much in a very short span. With that being said, I don't see them as a replacement for documention (for obvious reasons), but sometimes a 5-10 minute screencast showing a feature can be easier & funner than spending 30 minutes bouncing around documentation. |
Which US tech events in Jan-April are worth going to? | Maciek416: Not terribly far away from your April location, jsconf 2010 will be in Washington DC around mid-April. |
The older you are, the more you want to see non-tech on HN? | kbob: More non-tech on HN: No, for the same reasons others have said. That's what I'm here for. In fact, since I'm not planning to found a company, I'm more interested in the technical articles than the business stories (though I read both).More interests with age: true.Tech starts to look the same: sometimes, but there is more groundbreaking stuff going on than ever before.Bookstores: yes, but is that because of my interests changing, because the books available are getting more superficial? Would you believe that in the early 1980s, the bookstore at the mall stocked comp sci texts? I bought one volume of Knuth there.Consciousness: If I'm interested it's because it looks like we're on the verge of being able to program it.Tolerance of others' theories: only if they're genuinely new.Life experience: absolutely not. In fact, the one thing I've learned from joining Facebook this year is that most people spend their time doing stuff that would bore me to death.My age: 50, and gratified to see so many others of my generation speaking up here. (I can't call us old, because we're not.) |
Please review our garage startup | rmason: Simple to use, yet powerful is always a great combination. Quite possibly the coolest AIR project that I have seen. |
The older you are, the more you want to see non-tech on HN? | HeyLaughingBoy: I don't know if it has anything to do with age, but I am more interested in the business aspect of HN than the tech stuff. Meaningful changes to technology are slow and I can find that information all over the net.But people talking about startups, their problems and the solutions are fascinating. That stuff is much harder to find elsewhere. |
Common Lisp vs Clojure for web apps? | nearestneighbor: Clojure is cleaner than CL, but SLIME does not appear to work as well with Clojure as it does with CL. For example, if you have a compiler error, you have to navigate to the location of the error yourself. If you have a runtime error, you get a Java backtrace, that SLIME does not help you with at all (good luck). This is something you should consider, because it will have an effect on your development speed. |
Common Lisp vs Clojure for web apps? | mahmud: Both Clojure and CL can do those basic things, now which one do you know best?This feature-based language choice is meaningless if you're not taking your own strength into consideration. |
The older you are, the more you want to see non-tech on HN? | Scott_MacGregor: I like the tech and industry related business posts only. There are other forums for other things. Case in point, the one or two posts linked to stories from the New York Times that seems to show up every day. While I’m sure there is a subset of us who enjoy reading the articles in the New York Times those who do are probably already reading it natively and don’t re-read them in this forum.I realize the NYT is linked on the main page of the YC main site, but the two posts that seem to show up every day strikes me as being spam in a tech forum. They are not on topic. Same with the climate change conundrum posts, there are other forums that discuss that on a daily basis such as http://www.abovetopsecret.com/ .If this is a vote type of thing I would vote for tech and industry related business posts only. That is what makes us special and unique as a forum. |
Do you find developer screencasts useful? | ericd: Ryan Bates' Railscasts (http://railscasts.com/) are uniformly excellent short introductions to different topics, and a great example of how to do screencasts right. They're short, give a quick overview of a new and relevant topic, and you can pick up a lot of little tips and tricks on how to develop in general as you watch him code (especially if you use the same tools).They're a great way to get jumpstarted on something you've never approached, after which you're in the right frame of mind to jump into the docs, since you will have grokked the general overview of the topic from Ryan's short summary. YMMV, but I find it much easier to get an overview quickly than hitting a pile of docs cold. |
Want to build a team for red balloon? | nohat: That doesn't really matter. the important thing is the information from others, which the people on hacker news are likely to be good at gathering. Of course more fun might be preventing everyone else from getting it... |
A site that allows you to create programs other people ask for? | somecanuck: Are you referring to reverse-auction programming sites? There's plenty of those to be found.I do not have a favorable opinion of most of them, and that's because they list the bid amount and bid text. It ends up becoming a race to undercut each other, to the point where I have seen a prject with a $10 USD bid that would take me 10 hours.I frequent Guru.com to pick up small side projects here and there. It does not list the bid amounts, lists the country of origin (for both employers and freelancers), and uses an escrow service. |
Common Lisp vs Clojure for web apps? | nunb: > I'm building a somewhat complex web appI'm guessing that if you had a CL background the choice would be easy!The answer also depends in part on what your app structure's going to be like.. some considerations:A. Will you embed your UI logic in Lisp?B. How interactive do you want your application to be?C. How computationally intensive will it be?D. Is horizontal scalability (ala swarmiji) important?E. Will the application deal heavily with forms?F. Do you want to use SQL, or go through an ORM? Or use objects directly? (eg (mapcar #'do-foo (all 'clients)))> make it easy to deal with data in json and xml, andcl-json has been very easy to use, with trivial mapping from lisp objects to json.> allow me to generate html and javascript.We use html-template. If you're using forms you'll have to decide where you want to put your validation logic. With html-template you'll probably end up rolling your own, or do it in javascript.A big consideration may be that Clojure is much more strictly functional than CL. That may limit your coding flexibility (and be harder to adjust to if you come from an imperative-coding background).IMHO going with CL will yield greater benefit with Slime and the debugger, related to dynamically responding to requests, debugger-tested programming etc.Real-world Clojure programming seems to require a knowledge of java libraries. CL libraries have been available for everything we've wanted to do. Postmodern is probably faster, and more "native" than JDBC.If you want to put your UI complexity in Lisp (as opposed to javascript) then check out Weblocks, which has many nice features, one of which is generating validations from the data-model. If you want to write a RESTy app then plain hunchentoot should serve just as well.Have you checked out some of the Clojure/CL webcasts? They should give you a feel for the relative strengths and weaknesses of developing in both environments. |
possible Java contract, what alternatives to suggest? | pivo: It's hard to say not knowing the scale of the application or any of it's requirements, etc. In any case, if you do stick with Java you might try out the Play framework, it looks like a nice alternative to the typical gigantic Java framework. http://www.playframework.org/I haven't used play myself, but if I had to use Java myself I'd certainly look a it. Also, play 1.1 is supposed to support Scala, which would probably be much nicer. |
possible Java contract, what alternatives to suggest? | roam: If you or your friend are not comfortable with anything else, stick with plain Java. Check out the Play framework if you really want to prevent boredom because you've all done it before. Or Groovy.If you don't want to do Java projects in the future, I suggest getting comfortable enough with other languages and frameworks on your own time.For now: what's wrong with "RESTful" URLs? And you do understand you're not required to use 4 different layers in Java either, right? |
Do you find developer screencasts useful? | YuriNiyazov: I like them in a specific situation - when I am taking a break from coding, and want to learn something new that may or may not be related to my immediate task, I prefer screencasts - video gives your eyes a rest from text, but you can still claim that you are productive in a way. |
How do you customize TextMate? | yan: I think the TextMate theme that's popular in webcasts is Vibrant Ink: http://alternateidea.com/blog/articles/2006/01/03/textmate-v...I use a clone of it for vim called Vivid Chalk: http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=1891 |
How do you customize TextMate? | mgrouchy: There are a bunch of free TextMate themes here http://wiki.macromates.com/Themes/UserSubmittedThemesassuming the theme that yan linked isn't the one you are looking for. |
Do you find developer screencasts useful? | julio_the_squid: I don't find screencasts useful, I suppose for the same reason I don't like video interviews. It requires a different sort of attention than text and is more time consuming. There's no cut and paste for code in screencasts, and I find it difficult to follow the flow of tutorials. I guess I'm not a video oriented person - I don't have a TV and don't watch much on the computer. I'd prefer normal text documentation any day. |
How do you customize TextMate? | marcamillion: Thanks Yan & Mgrouchy.The one that Yan posted was exactly what I was looking for, but I will definitely continue looking through those UserSubmittedThemse that you posted mgrouchy. |
Front End Development | systemtrigger: > Do you think it can be completely automated?
I think that will always depend on how complex a page/site we're talking about. If the design is standard and our toolbox (in this IDE) has all the standard "prims" then yes it's maybe automatable. But if what you're trying to build is edgy those primary building blocks might not be in the toolbox. So unless the web reaches some kind of technical limitation our tools will always be behind the creativity of designer-developers.As for which framework to use I think the answer may be to move away from Photoshop toward something like Fireworks. I'm in the same boat as you, I get designs in PSD and have to make pixel-perfect html - and like you I notice the friction points (e.g. text sizing in pts vs. pixels, drop shadows don't copy-paste easily, every copy-paste manuever is a "manual" operation). Photoshop is probably the wrong tool for web design. It's great for photos and for going into creative heaven but Fireworks is Adobe's product for mocking up web sites, and I think it's more practical than Photoshop for web designers. As far as the html/css it generates, I would have to learn to trust it. Today I hand-write all the markup myself but there are a lot of tools that are tempting me, especially when they promise cross-browser compatibility. |
Front End Development | oneplusone: The answer in improving seed is not in more frameworks (especially crappy CSS ones), but in improving the actual browser with support for box-shadow, border-radius, and border-image, etc. which takes a significant amount of time to implement.Getting the core CSS and HTML right is such an important part of performance and a vital investment in future development that I cannot even comprehend letting a program auto-generate it for me. |
Want to build a team for red balloon? | karanbhangui: It's already been won by MIT: http://www.darpa.mil/news/2009/DARPAnetworkchallengewinner20...Moral of the story: implementation before ideas. |
How have you dealt with the sharp edges of the Macbook Pro? | pjw1187: I've had my mbp for a few months now and haven't had any problems with the edges. You could possibly try and adjust the way you access certain keys, I believe I had to make a few adjustments once I started using mine. Give it time and I'm sure you will adjust. |
How to block proxies like hotspot shield? | nzmsv: You'll never block them all, so unless there is a really good reason (such as your lawyer tells you to, like Pandora) - don't. Proxy server does not equal evil.If you don't care about blocking all proxies, just the ones most people would use, you could do two things:- Google "proxy list". See what comes up. Now write a script that blocks these IPs automatically.- Look for headers such as "X-Forwarded-For" in your requests. The problem with this is that you will be blocking legitimate proxies that advertise their presence. This is not a good idea. Many people (for example, on corporate networks) rely on a proxy to get their web access.Again, you will never block all proxies, out-of-country logins, or whatever else you are trying to defeat. Tor and SSH tunnels immediately come to mind as the first things to try to defeat your proxy filter. I'm sure there are lots more. |
Any startups offering summer internships? | andrewljohnson: If by "hiring an intern" you mean you work for us for no money, we're hiring this summer :)You have to move to Truckee, CA too. You can sleep in our spare room and eat our food if you like. |
Any startups offering summer internships? | dzlobin: I'm in the same boat as OP. Looking to spend 3 months in the bay area working with some bright young minds. We should start an official "taking interns for Summer 2010" list, but until then; please feel free to email me at dzlobinsky@gmail.com ! |
Any startups offering summer internships? | derwiki: Yelp will start recruiting interns in January. Last summer, our interns made significant contributions to the Palm Pre app and the Monocle augmented reality feature in the iPhone app -- definitely not busy work. Check yelp.com/jobs for more deets. |
Any startups offering summer internships? | trevelyan: We will be hiring in Beijing, and offering a stipend to cover airfare and cost of living (http://languagesystems.net). Strong preference for candidates with some degree of fluency in mandarin or cantonese, interest in all-things-mobile and a desire to stay in China post-graduation. Inquiries by email are welcome. |
Any startups offering summer internships? | quizbiz: I don't mean to hijack the thread but I will be in Israel this upcoming summer and I would love to intern. If anyone is connected to a startup in Israel, please let me know. |
How do you customize TextMate? | Janteh: You can get the one Ryan Bates uses in his railscasts here http://github.com/ryanb/textmate-themes |
Any startups offering summer internships? | jeffiel: Twilio will be hiring summer interns, in addition to several full time positions now open... We'd love to meet you!http://www.twilio.com/company/jobs |
possible Java contract, what alternatives to suggest? | spitfire: Ada. It's what Java should have been to begin with.
Strictly typed, safety minded OOP programming language with modern features like generics and tasking (in 1983 no less).
It's designed to handle large projects over a long lifespan - millions LOC over decades.The F-16, F-15, F22, any boeing/airbus aircraft and most rail systems are developed in it. As are financial systems, medical equipment, etc. It's the strong silent type of programming language you don't hear about it much because it just works.And there's a JVM target for it.EDIT: You might wonder why I mentioned all the safety critical stuff - Because safety is synonymous with reliability and maintainability. With Ada I find things are at times quite boring - things just get done without problems. This sort of thing tends to appeal to more mature developers. |
Front End Development | ScottWhigham: I think Adobe has the chance to just totally own the whole market if they will just improve the slicing/HTML output of Photoshop. At this stage of the game there aren't likely to be any new players on the graphic design side (not without significant investment). That means that it's either the graphic design software companies improve their output options or someone writes a tool/add-in that improves it. |
Who's hiring (take 3)? | codemoran: Looking for Really Really Good .NET Developers in Sydney. If you are one, or know one, apply http://bit.ly/6i5wCS |
Any startups offering summer internships? | endtime: Rocket Fuel, based in Redwood City, hires paid summer interns - and they pay competitively with Amazon and Microsoft. I don't work for them, just interviewed with them last year.http://rocketfuelinc.com/ |
Any startups offering summer internships? | profquail: Where are you based, and what are you interested in? There are folks from all over the world here! ;) |
possible Java contract, what alternatives to suggest? | andrewcooke: i think i have a similar skill set to you, but i have tried both django and scala, so perhaps my perspective can help.if you're fluent with python, django's way better than java for most web stuff. it's nowhere near as efficient, of course, but typically that doesn't matter for presentation layer (unless you're having to do some heavy processing of data for display, for example). the documentation is pretty good, but if you need to tweak something, be prepared to read their code.[i don't really understand your objection to rest - even my java code (with spring + jsp) uses rest. anyway, it's easy to change that.]i was surprised by scala. if you've got experience with functional languages, it might make sense. however, i was disappointed by the instability and lack of documentation, given its age and reputation. it's a sweet language, and i am using it for a personal project that requires efficient code, but i was hoping to recommend it for use at work and decided against that (for now - in another year i am pretty sure that will change).but you don't give many details of what experience you have outside java.if you do go with java, i find spring to be the "lightest" framework, typically with just jsp and a few tags. but compared to django that's still very heavy. |
Any startups offering summer internships? | jreposa: We're hiring paid interns all year round. We need programmers and writers (content producers). Brooklyn, NY. Get in touch.jobs at mybanktracker.com |
Recommend a nice man-bag/briefcase | nunb: Tucano. Simple and functional portfolio type case, very slim.Also has a leather option. |
I'm a programmer. I am always angry at job. Is this normal? | ScottWhigham: Not normal, not by a longshot. |
I'm a programmer. I am always angry at job. Is this normal? | nreece: Being always angry and frustrated at work is more common than many might think, but it's certainly not healthy.Ideally, you should do what you love in order to be able to love what you do. |
Any startups offering summer internships? | ig1: There's a startup for that: http://www.enternships.com/ |
Any startups offering summer internships? | ronzensci: sorry to post a slightly tangential (but related) Ask HN: Is there any high technology startup looking to do remote hiring of grad CS engineers in advanced web technologies/wireless sensor networks - of someone with verifiable credentials (trust/integrity), a google soc finalist and with high degree of motivation/passion? I am doing intermittent traveling in south asia for a year and have broadband access 7 days a week. |
Has the GMail graph been published? | mcherm: I don't know the answer to your question, but I do know that one of your assumptions is incorrect. The reason for making gmail invitation-only was NOT to build a graph and keep nodes artificially small. Rather, the goal was to provide a way of ramping up usage in a controlled manner. By throttling the number of invites given out, Google could control the rate at which new people signed up for the service and make sure that there were always enough servers available to handle the load so the experience for existing users wasn't degraded.They are currently doing the exact same thing with accounts for Google Wave. In this case, there is an added benefit: unless you know someone else who has a wave account, having one is of absolutely no use because you have no one to communicate with. |
I'm a programmer. I am always angry at job. Is this normal? | andrewcooke: i find that i am happier once i have a project "rolling along" - the start and end are more frustrating, but the work in the middle is pretty peaceful.maybe you are in a transition period between projects, or need to shift to a position where you get to work longer term on a single project?[edit: this applies on more than one scale - it's best if a project lasts for a couple of months or more, but even within a single week i prefer to not switch around too much, so try to do avoid anything smaller than day-sized chunks when possible] |
I'm a programmer. I am always angry at job. Is this normal? | Jim_Neath: I hope it's normal because I'm pretty much the same. |
Any startups offering summer internships? | al_: Same here, looking for a summer internship, in Europe.
Any European startup that needs an intern ? |
I'm a programmer. I am always angry at job. Is this normal? | roqetman: I think it's your subconsciousness's way of telling you that it's time to search for a new job. |
Any startups offering summer internships? | tptacek: We hire (paid) interns year-round; we've gotten at least one from HN. NYC or Chicago. Contact info's in the profile. |
I'm a programmer. I am always angry at job. Is this normal? | hackoder: You know something's not right when people say stuff like how it's normal to not be completely satisfied at work, to hate monday mornings and so on. Feels like we're being told this just so we can shut up and keep working like zombies. And it amazes me that so many people feel this way and yet nothing changes at companies.Anyway, yes, getting help is one option (bad code, like bad driving, is a part of a dev's life. You try to keep a safe distance away from it ;) but you don't get angry). Create an intuitive plan of what you'd really like to be doing and at what company, and then get to work at solving the problem. Don't let it hurt you until it boils over. |
I'm a programmer. I am always angry at job. Is this normal? | bmj: Yeah, not normal. I think most of us can say that a job will have its ebbs and flows, but if you are constantly ready to blow your stack, then you should be looking for a new environment.Also, I'd split your list out. Things like bad code and unknown crashes come with the territory. That particular patch of grass is never greener on the other side. Demanding clients are also likely to be a problem just about anywhere, even if your clients are other people in the office. Your colleagues and bosses, however, well, there will also be problematic people everywhere, but you can get on with the people around you, then yes, you should should consider a change.In ten years in the industry, I've only once been "on call" and that was to test our systems after a co-lo move. Sometimes deadlines will be silly, too, but if there's a pattern to that silliness, then something is wrong. |
I'm a programmer. I am always angry at job. Is this normal? | nkohari: Being angry at work is very common, but that doesn't make it healthy. Take it as a sign to look for another job, doing something you can take joy in. |
I'm a programmer. I am always angry at job. Is this normal? | edw519: Congratulations. You have admitted being at Level 3 of Pissedoffedness, the last level before the solution.Levels of Pissedoffedness:Level 0: You don't know that anything is wrong. You just think that's just the way it is.Level 1: You know something is wrong, but you don't know what to do about it, so you just go along with the program.Level 2: You know what to do about it, but aren't yet able to do it. So you stick it out, learning as much as you can.Level 3: You know what to do about it and you are capable of doing it. Now you're really pissed off (mainly at yourself) because you're a fish out of water, in a place where you don't belong.Level 4: You do something about it. You challenge the people at work to fix things. You start fixing them yourself. Or, best yet, you just go out and do it right on your own. Either way, sweet relief.Get to Level 4. The days of pissedoffedness will soon seem like a distant memory.(I have been through this cycle many times, but now I'm at Level 4 and have no intention of ever going back.) |
I'm a programmer. I am always angry at job. Is this normal? | Mz: It sounds like most of the stuff that sets you off is people-related. If you are an introvert, certain types of social intrusions are going to generally be harder to deal with than others. The right boss (one who respects your space better), the right type of working environment with the right type of policies and/or the right job where you have less of that might help. |
I'm a programmer. I am always angry at job. Is this normal? | diN0bot: maybe it's normal for you? |
I'm a programmer. I am always angry at job. Is this normal? | moe: Here's what worked for me (YMMV): Increase your rate until you either feel comfortable again - or until they let you go.Call me greedy but the question I usually end up at with annoying clients is: "Is this worth it?". Pay me enough and I'll put up with whatever you throw at me.Obviously your pain/compensation ratio may be unrealistic (i.e. nobody is gonna pay what you need to feel comfortable). In that case you'd have to go freelance or dip a toe into different professions. |
I'm a programmer. I am always angry at job. Is this normal? | ct: It's ok to be slightly ticked off but not always angry. Maybe it is the work conditions. If so switch jobs.However, if you've been switching jobs for a while now and still feel the same way at every job, then either you've got bad luck with picking your jobs, or you're just a bit too sensitive.At the end of the day though, no job is going to be perfect, and you're not going to be at any job forever anyhow -- so my advice is to just let things slide, brush your shoulders off (channeling Jay-Z), and say to yourself this crap isn't going to matter in a year or two anyhow so why am I getting worked up about this. (Works for me most of the time) |
going to USA | patio11: Mariano, unless you have left out important information such as "Although I grew up in Argentina I am a U.S. citizen by virtue of being born in the United States", you lack legal permission to work in the United States unless you get a visa which permits it prior to arriving in the US. I'll just give it to you straight: it is not likely that you will be able to do this in anything like the timeline you are currently planning.Without legal permission to work in the U.S., you will find it extraordinarily difficult to find reputable employment.I would counsel against illegal employment -- when I was young and stupid I worked on a cash basis for a man who "didn't want none of that OSHA paperwork nonsense", and I was forced to quit the job after he threw a 20 lb. pipe at my head. (Cleaning oil pipeline components with a toothbrush is, by the way, every bit as fun as it sounds.) |
I'm a programmer. I am always angry at job. Is this normal? | lutorm: Sometimes anger can make you stronger (give in to your anger, Luke...) But some things you can't change, you can only change how you deal with them. Unless it's caused by an immediate physical threat to you or your loved ones, anger is a choice or a learned response and you can learn to respond differently. Have you tried chi gong or other forms of meditation? Something to help you see the big picture and realize that these annoying things don't really mean anything to you. |
I'm a programmer. I am always angry at job. Is this normal? | papaf: I'm in academia and enjoy what I do now. However, I went through years of the same frustration. My solution was "save the interesting and creative stuff for home". I feel this talk hits the nail on the head (its not just about ACLs):
http://blog.cusec.net/2009/01/05/zed-shaw-the-acl-is-dead-cu... |
going to USA | Slashed: The same issue bothers me as well. I don't need visa to visit the states as a tourist(I need one to work there though). What if my startup will be accepted at YCombinator, will I be able to go there and work on my startup without work permit? |
going to USA | kapauldo: Mariano -Get your papers in order, get on a plane and come. Nevermind the naysayers, just do it. There are 2 kinds of people in the world- talkers and doers. Be a doer! Best of luck, I applaud your ambition. |
going to USA | rgrieselhuber: Mariano - email me at ray@firewatchingmedia.com. If you're going to San Diego, I know of one Argentinian company with offices there so it might be a good way to get in.Edit: Also, if you're just going to be there for a few months, check out CouchSurfing. I've made friends with people from dozens of countries there and it's a great way to travel. |
going to USA | perokreco: I suggest you try couchsurfing. It will enable you to accomplish all your goals:. -Know about a different culture. -Improve my english skills. -Meet interesting people. at a much lower cost as you wouldn't have to pay hotels/hostels. |
I'm a programmer. I am always angry at job. Is this normal? | praptak: I believe that the word "normal" does not help here. It bundles "common" with a solid dose of "acceptable". While I think your situation is common in IT, you should definitely separate this fact from its acceptability. |
I'm a programmer. I am always angry at job. Is this normal? | giardini: How are you away from work? If you're rarely angry there, then it's job-related. Anger is a symptom: the cause can be genetic or environmental.One excellent programmer friend is "naturally angry". He takes medication to control it. When his pills run short, his voice level and agitation increases noticeably. He has shared his difficulties, which makes it easier for everyone else to work with him. Angry or not, his judgement is always sound and exacting and you'd best listen to him, whether he is raising his voice or whispering.So if you're like my friend, see a psychiatrist. They understand the organic causes of emotions better and can prescribe appropriate drugs. Otherwise try a kickboxing class or a good run or ask a girlfriend for a little sustenance. |
Ask to be acquired? | MicahWedemeyer: Direct link: http://www.obsidianportal.com |
I'm a programmer. I am always angry at job. Is this normal? | chanux: I don't know but I've heard "Love what you do than do what you love" |
Any startups offering summer internships? | AlexBlom: Also in a similar boat..coming from overseas. Most interested in NY / ON, CA and surrounding regions.. |
Ask to be acquired? | vaksel: they are definitely developing a competing product, the reason they haven't contacted you, is to avoid you raising stink later: "they talked to me, stole all my ideas, then came out with their own productwhat kind of money are we talking about here? $100K sale or $10M sale?Also looking at your Alexa rank(150,890) it doesn't look like you are driving a lot of traffic, and your forums don't appear to be all that active(~700 users)...so I see 3 strategies for you:a) tell the DoD guys, that your site is for sale for $XX thousand.b) list the site for sale on eBay(made like $250K for that note taking site, so you might find a "sucker" who'll spend more than the site is worth)c) list the site for sale on Flippa |
I'm a programmer. I am always angry at job. Is this normal? | jimbobimbo: I would say you're burning out. It's definitely not normal. I'd change jobs if it's possible.Same stuff happens to me. Alas, I'm not in a position to change my job easily (think immigration issues). |
going to USA | joubert: Unless you have a work permit, the only way you could "work" would be if you come in on a B1/B2 visa for "business meetings".But you couldn't get paid by a US office - it would have to be your Argentinian employer paying you and in their interest to have you here for business meetings (of course the US office could reimburse the foreign office for expenses, but now your salary) - that effectively means you will need to interact with a US office of the company you work for in Argentina (or an associated firm, e.g. in the case of the Big Four).If you come for "business meetings" you should be ready to demonstrate such. |
Ask to be acquired? | gsaines: This is a question I'd be interested in having answered as well. I run a small educational website that has a comparative niche advantage and you're summary of how you thought web startups worked sounds very familiar. So far no expensive car. :) |
I'm a programmer. I am always angry at job. Is this normal? | pwnstigator: If you're "always angry", you need to get out now. If you're occasionally angry or stressed (e.g. 5 to 10% of the time) that's normal.Every job has annoyances, but if you're constantly pissed off, you need to do something. My advice would to be to start speaking out when people take advantage of you. If a client is being unreasonable and making your life hell, he's probably making your boss's life even worse. Figure out who you can talk to, and what you might be able to say, in order to improve your situation. You may have to find another job. If you're this angry, my advice would be to start the search process now.A lot of Americans think it's a reasonable strategy to bottle in anger at the workplace, rather than speaking their minds. This made sense when people stayed at the same company for 30 years, and when getting fired or laid off was a disaster, because you'd be around the same people for most of your working life. Now that the average job lasts 2 to 5 years, it doesn't make sense. You're better off raising the issues (in a respectful, reasonable way) than repressing the anger and damaging your health. |
Ask to be acquired? | Nischal: I've practically no experience in all this. I dream of owning a startup, growing it and have it acquired by a bigger company and yeah buying expensive cars after that.So here's some amateur advice :1. If you are the one approaching then obviously chances of you getting a good deal would be less
2. If you do decide to approach, you should be able to make the company's decision making team salivate at the prospects of buying you out
3. In case the other company comes out with its own version, it can be a good thing for you because if the company fails again then they would definitely think of acquiring you.P.S. What if D&D officials read this query of yours? :P |
I'm a programmer. I am always angry at job. Is this normal? | robak: do you live in California / Arizona / West ? I noticed many angry people there. Almost always there are a few always angry developers/admins/whatever. Somehow never happens in the North-East... |
Ask to be acquired? | patio11: frankly at this point, it would be impossible for them not to know who we are.That might be the view from your end of the equation, where you wake up every day and check your analytics stats. However, if you are ramen profitable, your current sales are probably roughly equivalent to the healthcare costs of the night shift on the janitorial staff at one of their offices. They're a large, publicly traded company -- they might not even know who you were if you worked for them. (Far stranger things have happened.) Its not like my bosses have ever come to me in the morning and said "Patrick! There might very well be some young buck working in his kitchen on the next big thing in examination management systems! Drop what you're doing and discover his identity so we can prepare to squash him like a bug!"We could deliver exactly what they're looking for without all the risk of developing it from scratch.I don't think you're thinking like a big company here. You see existing code and think "Yay, working features!" They see integration headaches. You're not tied into their accounting system -- that is going to take six figures to fix. (You think you can do it cheaper? Wait until you start working in a large organization that does everything in teams of highly paid people whose salaries and healthcare benefits start running the second the first of three planning meetings begins.) You aren't on brand yet, which is going to require a redo of all your HTML -- including a turf war between marketing, their product-side artists, and their web group. Oh, and you. You're a bit of a problem, too -- they can't absorb your code without you, but you upset the apple cart among multiple groups within their organization. Who do you report to? Who can you boss around?When you start thinking in these dimensions, you can see why they might say "We'll do it in house, own it all, and not have to worry about any complications." |
I'm a programmer. I am always angry at job. Is this normal? | jarsj: I conjuncture being angry is directly proportional to how smart you are |
Ask to be acquired? | pwnstigator: Do you only have one potential buyer? Are you tied to one role-playing system? If so, that would be a problem. Support more role-playing systems and campaign types.If you have more than one potential buyer, and you want to get bought, then start spreading rumors that someone is planning to acquire you. Put some time pressure on your potential acquirers. Once the rumors have percolated, start claiming it (without naming names, because some people are malevolent and will call to confirm). Preselection: buyers (like women) want you only when others do. If you're not wanted by the others, lie and say that you are. It is not unethical to do this. If someone is going to make a judgment of you based on anothers' opinion, you have every right to take advantage of that weakness through any means possible.If that fails, just follow the competing product and make sure to be a bit better-- a few months ahead of the curve. They are following your feature set. Follow theirs. Buy a subscription and see what they're doing right. (Don't steal their ideas, but learn from them.) You still have a conceptual head start; you've been doing this for 18 months, and the fact that you guys are profitable at all (in gaming, in a recession) is a signal that you're very smart. You're also in a desirable industry and you'll be able to get smart college kids to work for you on the cheap (plus equity).Once you can start paying high salaries, make sure that key players-- developers and story-writers-- are treated like kings (remember: you're not a big business, and your competitors are, and as a business gets larger the status of key creators declines) with 20% higher salaries and 500% more artistic/creative freedom than they would have at the big company. Become the boutique out of which all the best ideas come. You'll still have competitors chasing you, a few months behind you, but if you can develop the status of being where all the best ideas are developed, the best people will want to work for you. The "very competent" team that your competitors have? Those guys will be talking to you. Once you're established and have 10x as much artistic freedom as VP of Campaign Development at BigGameCorp, you might not want to be acquired.By the way, the fact that D&D's publisher is trying to build a competitor is a good sign, not a bad one. That means you're working on something worth doing, which puts you ahead of all the pie-in-the-sky gaming startups. It's a signal, and remember that, although they're a competitor, you can learn from them and what they're doing.Good luck. Why don't you send me an email? I have some ideas I want to discuss with you. pwnstigator at gmail dot com |
Ask to be acquired? | rozim: If you disrupt an existing business significantly then they can't help but be interested in you and then ideally they decide:
- to reduce the number of players in the market (by acquiring you)
- that it's cheaper and quicker to market by acquiring you rather than develop inhouse |
Ask to be acquired? | dazzawazza: Business is about making contacts with people in the industry you are in.I would call the MD of the mega-corp and ask to have a meeting about potential business overlap and how you could work together. All very informal, no money talk or specifics. It's just to see if you could work with these people.You've already got a lot in common (business wise) with them so you'll find it a lot easier to talk to them then you imagine. If you arrange to meet for lunch it will give them a clue that it's a more informal chat then three hours around a board room table.Worst case you leave the office with a contact in the industry, best case it will lead to your fancy car.Good luck. |
Ask to be acquired? | brianculler: I don't think you should be too worried about it. You've got a pretty loyal (and decently sized) user base. Plus all your existing users have their content tied to your site, so don't go writing any data export features that would even allow them to jump ship.Its probably a hard pill to swallow, but you said it yourself: they know who you are, they've never approached you, and they are writing their own. Conclusion: for whatever asinine reasons, they've determined consciously that buying OP isn't in their best interests. You courting them isn't going to change that scenario. |
I'm a programmer. I am always angry at job. Is this normal? | known: I think you're frustrated. Take a small vacation. |
Ask to be acquired? | richardw: Their problem is a typical build-or-buy. There's likely a price at which it just makes sense to buy you instead of building it out.Do they have any competitors who might be interested in you? Maybe a smaller game publisher?Can you leverage your head start in any way?Can you make your service more 'sticky'? If people have committed lots of time to building up a profile on your site then they'd be less inclined to switch. People still use Yahoo after a decade of Google being around.One idea could be adding a Facebook app or link up with FB Connect - link deeper into the users life, announce targets, scores, etc. |
Ask to be acquired? | jeromec: I'm not an expert, but I think you absolutely should approach them. When you understand the rationality behind acquisitions you can see why I'd say that. Take Google for example, who has been on a tear with acquisitions, along with others. Look at their structure, at their company direction. Acquisitions for them make sense for several reasons: access to the brainpower of the startup, consolidation of power, more favorable reviews in the community. All that and it costs peanuts from their perspective.Contrast that with the publisher of D&D. How forward thinking, in terms of having strategic technological positioning, is their management? Probably not as much as Google. All they are concerned about is a 1 to 1 correlation with profits. Action A yields profit B. If they see that they can build your functionality in house, they may see a lot of advantages to that. They don't care about the other stuff as Google might. I'd come up with a figure to be happy with, yet highly enticing to them, and then sell it with rationality. Point out all the benefits, of which access to you should be the biggest selling point, as you've successfully built it up. |
Front End Development | nunb: http://www.medialab.com/sitegrinder seems to do exactly that.They have client website links in their gallery, and somewhere they claim that they make creating dynamic sites possible as well. |
I'm a programmer. I am always angry at job. Is this normal? | teralaser: Did you ever pick up a (personality) trait or habit from a co-worker, although you didnt want to ?
Did you ever have trouble understanding how a policeman ignores obvious insults and stays cool ?
Feelings are catchy like the flu, but remember you are a part of the equation too. If you treat a desperate customer with calm and being realistic, or colleagues with humor and a relaxed mood, they might catch it too.
So there is a starter strategy, although it might take patience. |
I'm a programmer. I am always angry at job. Is this normal? | jasonmcalacanis: This is not normal, although it might be common in the technology industry.some important points to consider:1. Stress takes years off your life. You will die early, probably of a heart attack, if you don't correct things.2. It is possible for two different individuals to look at the same exact situation as insurmountable/overwhelming or, on the other hand, challenging and fun. It really is a perspective thing.3. Without knowing the exact details of your situation it is impossible for the untrained folks (i'm assuming here) to know how much of your stress comes from you and how much comes from your current situation. Certainly it's a little of both--but the % is critical to understand.4. You need to talk about these issues with a life coach, career coach or even therapist. They will give you objective feedback on the state of affairs.5. If this helps, when I was younger in my career (Silicon Alley Reproter days) I would sometimes internalize the bad situations my business was facing (i.e. "What did I do to cause this?" or "Why didn't I see this problem coming?"). This made me anxious. As I got older, and hopefully a little wiser, I wouldn't internalize these things. In the Weblogs, Inc. days I would look at problems as challenges. My internal dialogue morphed to "Oh, this is an interesting challenge... I wonder what ideas my team can come up with to overcome these roadblocks?" and "If we resolve this issue we're going to soar!" This is called attribution theory in psychology and it's a very important concept to understand IMO.6. Life is short and you get one shot at it. Don't be proud or stupid: get help and get out of bad situations as quickly as possible. Do not stay in a bad situation, like many smart people do, out of some "tough it out" philosophy.Good luck with it and if you wanted to talk about it with someone ping me at jason at calacanis.com. I'm not a professional, but I been there. |
Ask to be acquired? | petervandijck: If you do decide to try for a buyout, do this:- increase your perceived value by adding something sexy tha looks hard to do, ie. an iphone app.- increase your value by finding another potential buyer or two (real or perceived) and make sure they know that the other buyer is in talks with you, and that that worries them. Make sure there's some kind of deadline involved. |
Ask to be acquired? | petervandijck: Here's a thought: they are about to do 10s or 100s of thousands of dollars worth of free marketing for YOU, if you can do these 2 things:1. Be clearly better than them.2. Make sure the people they market to know there's a better alternative (you).If you can pull that off, you'd be a fool to sell. They're about to validate and promote your market. |
Any startups offering summer internships? | adi92: Thank you for starting this post.. i see a lot of great job boards on the net but very few for CS internshipsI am a Junior CS Major in the US looking for internships related to Machine Learning / NLP |
Any startups offering summer internships? | jgeewax: http://www.invitemedia.com/careers/open_positions.shtml#inte... |
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