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Best way to learn C | emerose: "The C Programming Language", commonly referred to as just "K&R", is probably one of the best introductions to a programming language ever written. It's short, clear, and concise — even today, 31 years after its first publication, it should be your first stop: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_C_Programming_Language_(boo...As previous commenters have said, don't worry about the details early on. Advanced pointer arithmetic tricks and the like are to C what zany metaprogramming tricks are to Ruby: dangerous, and almost always a bad idea — except in those few cases where they're exactly what you need. For your first pass, you can ignore anything that's not obvious. You probably won't need it anyway, and you'll pick the truly important things up with time…Code on UNIX, preferably Linux, using CLang and a simple text editor to start. The Windows APIs are just plain confusing for beginners, and OS X adds some wrinkles to the compilation process that it's better not to worry about in the beginning. Linux isn't as austere as some of the BSDs, but that makes it an easier platform to learn on. Similarly, while GCC is more common than CLang, CLang has a bunch of features — actually useful error messages, for example — that make it much much easier to deal with. Fancy IDEs like XCode and Eclipse have their place, but are more complicated than they should be for "hello, world"-type exploration. All you really want is syntax highlighting…Since it sounds like you're coming from Ruby, check out the FFI project: http://github.com/ffi/ffi FFI makes it reasonably easy to call C from Ruby, meaning you can build scaffolding in a language you're comfortable with while you focus on particular bits of C code. Similarly, it's not worth trying to learn the arcana of the C tool stack — make, autotools, etc — all at once, especially if you already know Rake.Read other people's code. It's probably better to stick to smaller projects at first, especially reasonably modern ones which haven't gone too far off the deep end with the optimization. I don't have any great pointers here, unfortunately — the only thing that comes to mind is that (C) Python has some really nice, well-commented code and .txt files in its source tree, and that MRI Ruby is horrible. The libev API also strikes me as a good example at the moment — but that's probably at least partially because I've been staring at it so much recently…Once you're feeling reasonably literate, the next step is to read some algorithms and data structures books. It's both a strength and a weakness of C that you essentially always end up implementing your own; even if you don't end up writing a lot of C code, getting a solid footing (or refresher course) in these will help make you a better programmer. After that, you can probably read code with the best of them. If you're still looking for more, I'd suggest maybe "UNIX Network Programming" by Stevens, Fenner, and Rudoff (a good introduction to the sockets API); or "Modern Operating Systems" by Tanenbaum … really, it just depends on what you're interested in.-sq |
How good are freelance programming sites? | ankeshk: From a buyer's point of view: odesk.com and elance.com are pretty good. All the others - not so much.As a service provider - you will always get paid a bit less though - because of the real time competitive bids. When 15 coders bid for the same project, no matter how skilled you are - you will have to make competitively priced bids to win the projects. |
How good are freelance programming sites? | gigl: I've used it for small web coding projects and had decent luck.I always lay out the items which need to be completed with excessive specificity. That's the stage where I've seen a lot of people get let down, disparity in the expectations due to assumptions from each party involved. Never had any issues with payment, either.If you're very plain and up front things will work out. Make sure you ask any questions so everybody understands what they need and what they're getting prior to any work or payment being completed. |
How good are freelance programming sites? | natch: I've had great luck with rentacoder, and have only good things to say about the site itself and the controls and mechanisms it has in place to help ensure the process goes smoothly (ratings, on-site communication so there's a paper trail, escrow, etc.).However, there are caveats:1) Best used with very small, very well-defined jobs.2) You must put in a fair amount of careful work to specify what you want done, in a way that leaves no room for interpretation.3) Best used with low-risk (experimental / proof-of-concept) type projects.4) Don't bet your company on getting good quality. You'll usually get something usable, but it often won't be exemplary code.If "usually get something usable" sounds scary, see point #3.5) Don't expect to save yourself time. Instead you spend the same amount of time as you would have spent had you already known how to do what needed to be done but you instead spend the time on communication, and you get your job done by someone who knows how to do it.A corollary to #5 is for some small jobs, you might be able to learn how to do the task and then do it yourself, all in the same amount of time you spent directing the freelancer.So why do it at all? Because of #6:6) Using such a service can move an item off your to-do list, because having a person at the other end of a job bid (and having your reputation on the site as a buyer on the line) you get forced to finish the item. So effectively it's an anti-procrastination tool.This is my experience, which is biased toward small jobs. But then, I wouldn't use one of these sites for a big job. |
Best way to learn C | saurabh: http://www.reddit.com/r/carlhprogramming/Carl is seriously awesome. |
How good are freelance programming sites? | rajasaur: I have been using RentaCoder for about 2 years now and find it pretty good. Once you establish a reputation, its upto you to pick up projects that are interesting and there are many prototype projects. Gives you an opportunity to try out new technologies that you may never do otherwise.But as I get more experience on the site, I stopped bidding for low bid projects as the back and forth between buyer and seller takes a lot of time (for e.g. some sellers expect that you do a prototype before accepting the bid) and it does not work out for the amount bid for.As for payment, Ive never had an issue with RentaCoder, Ive tried both snail mail and PayPal and they both have been fantastic.My experience has been this: I only work for 2 or 3 clients now on Rentacoder because that takes all the time I have. They have been repeat buyers for me and keep giving more projects as I finish the current ones. |
How good are freelance programming sites? | lucasvo: It looks more like you're asking from a providers point of view... I'm usually a buyer so I'll tell you about my experiences as a buyer:I've been working with numerous freelancers for quite a while. It took me a long time to figure out how to choose my freelancers and I've had several failures along the way. The first things I outsourced were website PSD to HTML conversion ("slicing") and php scripts. These projects were usually somewhere between 50$ and 200$. While I did check their references and their ratings, I always tried to take one the cheapest providers. The projects grew and my average project size currently is 1000$, with the smallest ones still 100$ and the bigger ones 15k USD. I have changed my criteria since then and now look for the following things:1. If you need a special skill (i.e. I once had a project that involved a lot of work with the google maps api): I most often search these sites my self and usually invite only the people that actually have that skill mentioned on their profile page. That way you can be sure that they actually know what they're doing and that they don't have to learn it while working for you.2. Average hourly wage & price is the most reliable predictor about the quality. Usually providers will try to be as cheap as possible, providers who have enough work and who are confident enough that their work is really valuable however won't play this game and usually charge more per hour. I usually pick developers who charge more than the average.3. It may look like you'll get a great deal but most of the time you won't. If someone is bidding 200$ on a project that even a non techie like you can say that the project won't be just a 3hour job but weeks of work, then don't pick this bidder. Most of the developers quickly loose their motivation to do anything after they have exceeded their own budget for this project, start to do sloppy work, or argue about not implementing required features.4. Don't trust the ratings. There are some providers that go out of their way to get good ratings even after they screwed up big time. I've had people begging me not to give them bad ratings even offering me a refund. When looking at their ratings the valuable information is usually in the buyers comments not in the 5-star "grades"5. Always check the code they're writing. I've had freelancers who screwed up you couldn't even imagine. Like putting and SQL query into a GET variable and then execute it on the server unfiltered.This is when buying from one of these sites. By now I more or less figured it out but especially in the beginning I burnt my fingers quite a few times when working with freelancers. It's something that takes time to master.I agree with ankeshk, I've had the best experience with odesk because their workforce is better qualified and the hourly billing is ok for me. I also oftentimes use elance for some projects.Another helpful tip: I was working on a project where I needed a twisted proxy to translate something for me. I started reading the documentation of twisted and after a few minutes I decided that I'll try my luck in their IRC chat. I went in there and basically just said: I need some help with twisted, would anyone be interested in a small half day project and earn a few bucks? and worked with the first guy to answer in the chat. It worked out quite well.I've also hired people from djangogigs.com and it worked out ok however you have to watch out that these people really are freelancers that want to do freelancing, I've worked with a few who said after a couple of weeks that they couldn't do it after all because they don't have enough time after their normal workday to do freelancing.There are outsourcing companies like Itteco.com and x-minds.org which I can really recommend for bigger projects and longer lasting partnerships. I have worked with both of them, I don't know all of their developers but they certainly have good developers. If you decide to work with a bigger company I would usually only do that with a personal introduction and/or careful due diligence.Generally speaking: if you're looking for freelancers, ask people in your network, if they know good freelancers that's the best way to find them. |
Getting a grip on economics | billswift: "Basic Economics" by Thomas Sowell is the easiest to read, accurate introduction I have read."Hidden Order: The Economics of Everyday Life" by David Friedman requires a little more work.Several previous commentors have recommended Hayek's "Road to Freedom", but I think his last book, "The Fatal Conceit" covers more or less the same ground and is easier to read."Software As Capital" by Howard Baetjer, Jr is interesting, but I wish he had discussed open source in it, since his analysis contradicts most open source theories and practice.A good Engineering Economics text may be useful.And I second the other commentors who suggested Jane Jacobs's "Economics of Cities" and "Cities and the Wealth of Nations" and O'Rourke's "Eat the Rich", his "On the Wealth of Nations", an analysis of Adam Smith's classic is also worth reading. |
How good are freelance programming sites? | andrewbadera: Independent tech consultant here. I did a healthy five figures in part-time indie consulting in 2008. I went fulltime indie in June 2009, and in that last half-ish of the year, did more in Twitter-related work in '09 than all work in '08, and billed something like 200-250% total in '09 over '08.I've subscribed to various freelance sites for years (since 01 or so) ... guru.com, elance, rentacoder ... I've never once landed work off of any of those sites. You have to spend too much time competing with:a) cheap offshorers
b) cheap "clients" uneducated in project management/software development and are therefore unwilling to pay appropriately for it
c) noise, noise, noise
d) general wage pressure of the "marketplace"... to make it worthwhile. Some people who got in and got big early on made their reputations there, but individuals on these sites tend to top out at maybe 40k/year -- and those are rare. The only people making any greater money on them tend to be people who have turned around and co-opted teams of other developers via the site.You're better off networking, both online and in-person. Make sure you have a solid skillset and a unique value or unique sales proposition. Focus in one area to begin with -- new consultants who try to generalize too soon tend to fail before they have a safety net of money or reputation. Once you're really, really good at something, consider branching out.Attend and present at local and regional user groups and unconferences. Offer webinars and seminars. Maintain a regularly-updated blog and newsletter that focuses on that initial niche. Write (useful, not overly markety) whitepapers. Join your local Chamber of Commerce. Attend relevant Meetup.com meetups; start relevant meetups. Check out your local SBA office. Always carry a business card, and manage your personal brand and reputation -- it's your finest and most valuable tool.All of these things are far more worthy uses of your time than piddling it away on noisy, garbage-filled, flake-filled "freelance marketplaces." |
Best way to learn C | percept: This might be of interest:http://publications.gbdirect.co.uk/c_book/ |
Where is the Tivo social network? | mikeryan: Comcast bought one (Plaxo) and BTW Comcast is the only company you've mentioned who owns content. Comcast is also active in pursuing a new recommendation and rating systems similar to your post - its going to be rolled into new versions of their guide and interactive tv strategies. The hard part about this is that Comcast is glacially slow and deploying something like this. (By "this" I mean new set-top-box based interactive technologies - they're not really looking to deploy these apps as a "two-screen" experience)But I think what most content providers are looking for are ways to leverage existing social networks (twitter and facebook come up a lot) as opposed to a new type of social network.Oh and BTW Tivo's popularity is dropping precipitously and not a good example right now most people are switching to cable provider DVRs (especially if they start implementing network DVRs)http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/11/24/tivo-loses-314000-subsc... |
Seeking a cofounder | lfittl: Did you already talk to the guys from OpenIndie? http://openindie.com/They seem to be working on a similar idea, though focused more on screenings.Arin Crumley (one of the founders) did quite a nice job with the distribution of his film Four Eyed Monsters. |
Seeking a cofounder | d4ft: So, I'll play the devils advocate. What exactly is the value proposition here? Are there people scouring the internet for certain indie movies? I like indie movies, and I like the idea of rewarding the people who are behind them, but it is hard for me to imagine what an itunes for indie movies with a marketing spin (is that what we are talking about here?) is really going to accomplish. I have netflix. I can get a lot of movies from there, for cheap. (including many of the more famous indie films). I also have HBO, more cheap movies. Granted, they aren't indie movies, but I can't see my self spending extra money for movies by people I don't know and have heard nothing about. Maybe I just don't get it. So, I guess, could you explain a little more about what the niche you're filling is? |
Weekend update -- What weekend projects are you up to? | sunir: I'm working feverishly over the holidays to get my project, Bibdex, running on production legs. It's an online bibliography service meant for collecting and sharing references and notes.http://www.bibdex.comOne of my personal goals for the project is to spend absolutely no money on it except for servers, domains, lawyers, and accountants. While seemingly insane, I wanted to do this project to learn the full 360 degrees of how to create and launch a web product so it could help me in my day career. No better way to learn than to just dive right in and do it yourself, eh? It's a slower process, but rewarding. (Also, I'm cheap.)Here's an example of why it's valuable. Over the last year, I got pretty far except for the logo, which used to look like I drew it in MS Paint. In fact, the old one is still here: http://bibdex.com/images/logo.png . I was hunting around on BrandStack (http://www.brandstack.com) and LogoPond (http://www.logopond.com) and contemplating spending up to $1000 on a logo designer when I realized a common theme to all the logos I liked. 1. They all looked good in black and white because they were simple geometric forms.
2. They only had two elements that played off each other.
If you go through those two logo sites, you'll see what I mean. Complicated logos are worse. Logos by their nature are small, short attention span, high impact communication forms. Keep it simple and deliver the message through some tension.I decided I'd try my hand at it, so after a few hours of sketches, I loaded up Paint Shop Pro (yes, PSP. I mentioned I'm cheap, right?) and drew the new logo myself. The constraints of simple geometric forms and limiting it to two concepts led to something I'm happy with: a book that is also a rocketship to demonstrate 'bibliographies in action'. Even if I ultimately find it an unsatisfying implementation, I like the core idea and can later hire a designer to redraw it.So, what did you do this weekend? |
I have the domain hackerbrain - what would you like to see on it? | messel: I'd love to see a complete network of all modern web programming languages,and their advantages and disadvantages clearly compared.Might as well do the same for operating systems, and hardware. |
Seeking a cofounder | chrischen: Clarification:
> This includes a digital distribution platform Which let's end users keep their purchases in the cloud and let's producers sell their work online as downloads.People will be able to download DRM-free videos, and storing in the cloud is simply a backup to their purchases. There are several ways I've come up with to try to make this model sustainable. I won't go into that unless requested.Also the reason I emphasize DRM-free is that it's quite clear to me that it would be impossible to compete with other DRM-enabled services with another proprietary DRM system. THis would mean lock-in to a small unknown service. But DRM-free video is universally compatible and not locked into any specific platform. |
Weekend update -- What weekend projects are you up to? | csytan: I worked on http://www.webnodes.org/ - it's a proggit visualization. |
Weekend update -- What weekend projects are you up to? | mquander: I'm working on a piece in Inform 7 for this interactive fiction design comp:http://jayisgames.com/archives/2009/11/game_design_competiti... |
Weekend update -- What weekend projects are you up to? | cosmok: I had just finished on this: http://www.goopendb.org - Elastic Lists for movies. Back to work from today ;( |
review my app - a minimalist's to-do organizer | zaidf: Using it! Love it so far, for the few minutes I've used. Perhaps this will replace my need for tadalist which I resort to every now and then when I have too much on my plate.Would help to see numerical numbered list. I get a good kick personally knowing I have x things to get through. |
Weekend update -- What weekend projects are you up to? | woid: currently: http://totalfinder.binaryage.commore info on blog |
review my app - a minimalist's to-do organizer | nicpottier: I like the idea, but anything like this, at least for me, needs to be syncing to the web and have a web UI too. You don't necessarily need a mobile client, but a mobile optimized website for it is kind of a must have too.But I agree that there's a need, though it is a crowded market. |
Weekend update -- What weekend projects are you up to? | jacquesm: Busy trying to implement an automated image tagger.It's probably going to last me a bit longer than the weekend though :)Most fun I've had coding in a while. |
Weekend update -- What weekend projects are you up to? | leftnode: Working on my new shopping cart software. I've grown pretty disgusted with most shopping cart options out there, so its time to finally buckle down and finish mine.IONCartOn Github:
http://github.com/leftnode/ION-CartMy blog:
http://leftnode.com/progress-on-ioncart-basic-mockups-starte... |
Seeking a cofounder | lkrubner: I should say, as a warning, that I've had 3 different clients approach me with roughly this idea, since 2007. There is a lot of interest in this area. There is a lot of investment going on. I do not doubt that eventually there will be a big hit in this area, but anyone who wants to get into this area has to be aware that the competition is intense.Also, attacking this idea from another angle, it should be noted that small-scale content producers are suffering badly in the current environment, and sites pitched to them are pursuing a market where there is, potentially, very little money.When I was at Bluewallllc.com we started working on iHanuman.com, which sells yoga videos. Although yoga videos represent a very small niche, the goal was to eventually reuse the technology to build other niche focused sites - an infinite range of them.The ihanuman store offers some basic services to yoga teachers who have videos to sell:http://www.ihanuman.com/store.phpWe worked on iHanuman for roughly 5 months, from April of 2007 to August of 2007. After it launched, the site was written up in Yoga Life magazine. It attracted some traffic and developed a small but steady stream of sales. I stopped working with Bluewall in late 2007. I think they may have had one week where sales got up over $1,000. The site was never well publicized or marketed.I think the project cost roughly $70,000, but it would be tough to say for sure, since the project was one of many projects that Bluewall was working on, and it would tough to say which expenses belonged to Bluewall and which expenses belonged to iHanuman. At its peak we had 5 people working on the site:a designera PHP programmer (me)a Flash programmeran HTML/CSS specialista project managerThe site runs on a dedicated server from RackSpace.The ultimate goal was to build a backend that would allow any yoga teacher to upload their videos and sell them. I think the revenue split, at that time, was 50/50. We got the frontend working nicely, though we never finished the backend.There was some really cool technology on that project. The Flash programmer was Starrie Williamson and she did an impressive job, utilizing a lot of what was then cutting edge ActionScript 3 techniques. The Flash player could function as a widget on other websites, reading RSS feeds off of the iHanuman site (the RSS feeds were full of data from our database). In other words, it could be embedded, a lot like the YouTube player. Last I heard (early 2008), they were working on adding the ability to sell videos through the player. Very cool stuff. Anyway, if you ever need a really good Flash programmer, Starrie can be reached here:http://www.linkedin.com/profile?goback=.con&viewProfile=...Some of the yoga teachers sell lectures as MP3s, and we knew we wanted to also use the same software for online music stores, so the Flash player also plays MP3s, and the PHP code handles the sale of both MP3s, FLAC files, and videos.We also ported the software to the Monkeyclaus.org music store (also owned by Bluewall), and we added in the ability to import hundreds of MP3s at a time, using their embedded meta tags to fill out the info in the database. Out of all the code that I wrote for this software, almost a full year of my life (if you include the time spent on the monkeyclaus music store), this import code is the code that I am most proud of.The management problems on that project were epic. The owner/designer and the project manager, who were boyfriend/girlfriend, had some strong disagreements with each other about what direction to go, and how much funding was appropriate.There was, at one point, talk of pursuing a white label strategy, where Bluewall might sell the software to others. However, the code, as I left it, would not sustain a white label strategy. I wrote this code at breakneck speed. There is considerable technical debt. I was told that as soon as the site launched there would be time to clean up the code, but in fact, as soon as the site launched all development on the project ended. Also, Bluewall was very sloppy in its legal affairs - they never sought a copyright agreement with Starrie regarding her Flash player, so she still owns the copyright on it (or at least she did the last time I talked to her, which would have been the spring or summer of 2008).The PHP code was written using a framework I developed during the period 2003-2007. I have since abandoned that framework and now I use Symfony for all PHP work. If I were going to do a project like that again, I'd probably build it in Symfony (or, if the JVM and Tomcat are acceptable to the project, Groovy/Grails).Now, this particular project went nowhere, largely due to misjudgements on the part of those in charge. However, my point is that a lot of entrepreneurs have been looking at this space for several years now. There has been a lot of investment. The competition is intense. It might be wise to assume that there is no real profit to be made in this space, since no clear winner has emerged yet. Or you should assume that creating a winner for this space is going to be very, very hard.I do believe that targeting niches is the correct way to move forward in this field. I do think that targeting indie filmmakers is an interesting and exciting niche. I have a friend who recently finished a documentary about the culture of the workers who worked at a somewhat notorious parking lot, in Charlottesville, Virginia. I'm aware that she is looking for distribution channels. But here is the problem: most indie developers will either be broke, or they will get funding, and if they have funding, they may not need this site.So I would be wary.All the same, if someone can go into this field and create a hit company, then they have my admiration. |
review my app - a minimalist's to-do organizer | johnrob: It looks like you've already written the app. Most people won't install an app just to review it; however they will visit your site. You should have put the site together first and posted that. Then you'd have feedback before you started building it. |
review my app - a minimalist's to-do organizer | patrickryan: Logo design must be inspired by Hulu. |
review my app - a minimalist's to-do organizer | dagw: As such I like it and it seems to be exactly the sort of thing I've been looking for, however there needs to be sync feature and a way for me to view and update my todo list from a browser. Add that and I'm really interested. |
Seeking a cofounder | wgj: What stops Netflix from coming out with a long tail model for self-publishing indie film producers?Right now, most of their cost is in the DVDs, but already many movies are offered with a streaming option. The next step would be to offer a streaming-only option for long tail content. They would appear to have no barriers to doing this any time now, and a formidable user experience model behind it. |
review my app - a minimalist's to-do organizer | caxap: I didn't like that I had to download Adobe AIR for downloading and installing your app. What speaks against making a .dmg file and allowing the user to copy your app wherever she/he likes? |
Weekend update -- What weekend projects are you up to? | thomasswift: A small web scraper to get my gears of war 2 multiplayer stats. |
Weekend update -- What weekend projects are you up to? | dangrover: Building the online store component to my sheet music reader for the iPhone: http://www.wonderwarp.com/opus |
review my app - a minimalist's to-do organizer | meaydinli: A couple of things I would like:
- Mark todos as recurring
- Reminders/Alarms
- I would prefer if we could add more to todo. Add todo, give it a title, then fill in the body.
- A "Done" button rather than a checkbox
- Give todo items a due date in addition to today tomorrow someday.You say this is a minimalist app, but these are essential for me. |
review my app - a minimalist's to-do organizer | city41: todo list apps are incredibly hard to get right. I have found I don't like most of them, and I have resorted to using tadalist most of the time. So far I am liking yours though.It's really clean and simple, which is great. I also like that you used Air, even if others disagree.I wish I could see all tasks at once. It looks like just adding an "All" list would accomplish that.I also wish I could select more than one list at once (with cmnd and/or shift) and see both of them merged together in the main pane.Adding tags with the pound sign is great, and the auto completion is even better. I really like that.I wish the tag section could include a "tagless" option, to show me all tasks that lack tags.If I select more than one task, I wish clicking a checkbox would effectively click all their checkboxes.It really needs to have an online counterpart though. This unfortunately is really essential. I need my todo lists at home, at work, on my phone, just about anywhere. If you had that, I think I would totally use your app. |
Weekend update -- What weekend projects are you up to? | jberryman: working on a befunge-93 interpreter in haskell... that sounds epically useful, no? |
review my app - a minimalist's to-do organizer | jim-greer: This looks good, but I'm pretty happy with TaskPaper, which hits a very similar niche and doesn't require Air. |
Weekend update -- What weekend projects are you up to? | sammcd: I'm working on a Mac GUI to control Django and Rails local development servers. Hoping to really take log viewing to the next level.If you are interested: http://141312.comI hope to launch in March. |
Weekend update -- What weekend projects are you up to? | steveklabnik: I put in some documentation for Hackety Hack, and started a new Secret Project.Should be fun. |
Weekend update -- What weekend projects are you up to? | technomancy: Integrating package.el into the main Emacs codebase. |
review my app - a minimalist's to-do organizer | DXL: Maybe I'm dumb, but I can't quite figure out what the "Review" label means. What does it mean? |
Weekend update -- What weekend projects are you up to? | warfangle: My toy twitter app. Trying to teach myself Scala/Lift and collaborative filtering techniques at the same time. Good times :) |
Weekend update -- What weekend projects are you up to? | thaumaturgy: So far this weekend I've lapped in most of the valves for the new engine for my truck, worked on some parts for my model T speedster, done a little work in the garden, and worked on some advanced features for the $5/month unlimited domain mail hosting service that's getting turned on in a couple of days. |
Weekend update -- What weekend projects are you up to? | cmars232: Ported Mafia Wars autoplayer to Google Chrome. Doing Little Schemer in Clojure, converting to use tail-call recur. Mowing the laundry. |
Weekend update -- What weekend projects are you up to? | rodyancy: I'm building a photo subject generating/photo sharing app for the iPhone. |
Weekend update -- What weekend projects are you up to? | pclark: Writing an e-book on managing your social identity.Creating a twitter "I just had sex" bot. |
Weekend update -- What weekend projects are you up to? | kd5bjo: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1027418 |
review my app - a minimalist's to-do organizer | andrewljohnson: Nice app, but I'm not switching from my current scheme of a .txt file for local todos and Google docs for stuff I need to share or get from afar.I wonder what it would take? I often have a list or two going, but .txt is just so convenient. Why leave emacs at all? |
Weekend update -- What weekend projects are you up to? | stevejohnson: Regular expression parser and compiler for a VM regex implementation similar to the one described in [1]. Part of a larger project, and the VM doesn't actually operate on a normal string data structure.[1] http://swtch.com/~rsc/regexp/regexp2.html |
Weekend update -- What weekend projects are you up to? | thibaut_barrere: I've been working on http://www.learnivore.com (my ruby/rails/iphone screencasts aggregator) - more specifically:- an iphone specific version (using jQtouch)- better ways to share the site (using topsy + facebook widgets, instead of addthis and sharethis that proved uneffective here after a few weeks of testing)- a more responsive site (using google cdn for jquery for instance + other tweaks)- some bits of SEOBtw, I'm now tracking my time for this kind of side-projects using Freckle. Good to know how much time you spent at the end of the month! |
Weekend update -- What weekend projects are you up to? | savant: I'm working on a few things, both spanning at least two weekends.The first is my baby, a project management tool built in PHP. Tired of messing with slow trac installs on PHP or fugly-looking/complicated PHP tools (I'm watching you, bugzilla!). It is mainly targeted towards the types of projects I've seen were useful for development with the clients and staff I work with as a student working in a university and freelancing on the side. It will definitely allow me to sleep a little better on the weekends and keep everyone on my team up to date as to what they need to get done and where projects stand.The second is a generic file upload system that will likely be used within the android hacking community to track resources etc. This one is actually very far along it's development after only two days of real development, and I am quite happy with it. Hopefully it will be of use to people in other communities/companies looking for a collaborative alternative to dropbox. I'm a fan of minimalism, so while the app will have many features, you wouldn't notice them all immediately. Hope to launch this within a week if everything goes well with development. |
review my app - a minimalist's to-do organizer | IgorPartola: Offtopic: I thought that the market for to-do organizers is supersaturated at this points. Is it that there just aren't any good ones? What do you expect the marked for this thing to be?Personally, I use a white board for lists of projects that need to be accomplished, and my e-mail inbox for the list of things that need to be accomplished soon. Not a perfect system, but at least I can glance at both quickly as I always have Thunderbird open and sit in front of my whiteboard. |
Weekend update -- What weekend projects are you up to? | Klondike: Finishing up an Android app for Campfire, a web-based chat service. I did the app before they released an official API, and then rewrote it all. I think it'll end up on the Market this week. It's been a lot of fun. |
Weekend update -- What weekend projects are you up to? | nostrademons: Playing around with Haskell LLVM bindings for a compiler of a small experimental language. |
review my app - a minimalist's to-do organizer | lefstathiou: Good work man.One suggestion: I think it would be nice if you could tag when a task is "done". At first it doesnt mean much but I can imagine 3-4 weeks into using this id have hundreds of tasks completed. It would be helpful to be able to see when stuff was completed. |
review my app - a minimalist's to-do organizer | Sapient: Great for a minimalist app, but I have found a bug already. I created one todo for today, then created another and immediately clicked the Move to Someday button. The Today todos all vanished except for one I had created earlier.
Clicking on New Todo restored the lost items. |
Publish Startup Revenue Numbers? | patio11: What advantages and disadvantages do you see in publishing this information to your community and the world?It makes for good linkbait, gives you a quick cut-through-the-noise hook (utility of that declines sharply with exposure), and especially for solo entrepreneurs I think it sort of helps with the crushing social isolation we're otherwise prone to.People I respect (and respectfully disagree with) have said that it promotes small-time thinking, encourages competitors to come eat your lunch, and complicates your professional dealings with parties who may be concerned that you cannot stuff the genie back in the bottle. (For example, potential acquirers).I would not expect any substantial increase in conversions from publishing numbers, since the people who are most interested in them are your professional peers rather than your customers. |
Weekend update -- What weekend projects are you up to? | dangrossman: I'm working on a fraud management tool for ecommerce sites that integrates the Twilio API to automatically call customers' phones to verify orders and record voice authorizations. |
review my app - a minimalist's to-do organizer | kingkawn: Instead of for minimalists, why not just say "...for You." The minimalists know who they are, and those who aren't sure yet may not be ready to jump into all of the associations. |
Weekend update -- What weekend projects are you up to? | tobtoh: I've been working on my own personal expense tracking software. Not just because it will have exactly the features I'm after, but also as an exercise to re-aquaint myself with php/mysql, then moving to make it iphone friendly (as a web app) and finally to produce a iphone app version. |
Publish Startup Revenue Numbers? | blantonl: If you wonder what brought this on, see the following HN post:http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1028418Thanks, |
Too kool for school, but nowhere else to go | jacquesm: This is coming from a high-school dropout, so it's typical do as I say do not do as I do advice: Learn to finish at least something.After reading your story it sounds like you are very good at starting stuff but not very good at staying until the job is done, that could turn in to a real liability in the long run.If you get lucky doing a start-up (the chances of which for a first-timer are relatively small) then you should definitely count your blessings, for everybody else there is always the job scene.edit: Oh, and nothing precludes you from doing both, if your start-up takes off you can always drop out. If it doesn't you'll have at least some marketable skills with a piece of paper to help you along and one failure notch on your belt. |
Too kool for school, but nowhere else to go | olalonde: I pretty much in the same situation as you and have a similar background (currently studying software engineering). Actually I did quit school for one year and worked as a web developer. I liked it, good salary and all, but I chose to go back to school for a few reasons.1) School is a great place to make connections.2) My parents are supporting me while I'm still studying.3) Most of all, I'm an entrepreneur and school is a great time to start a company (see 2 reasons above + http://answers.onstartups.com/questions/2059/founding-a-star...).4) Although I also learn better on my own (didn't learn much at school), bachelor opens the door to post-graduate studies and gives some credibility when looking for VC funding.Finally, nowadays, you can launch a startup with minimal capital investment, so don't worry about money. |
Too kool for school, but nowhere else to go | zaidf: I took two years off after my second year. I was doing terrible in school upto that point and prayed everyday that one of my ideas will kind of mature and give me a genuine reason to leave. I got that chance and left for two years.During the two year break, I learned a TONNE...about everything I didn't know. It was pretty humbling. But even more educational!I returned to school last year. And it's been AWESOME. Nothing like the first two years.Before taking time off: I signed up for random classes.After taking time off: I nitpick each classBefore: I didn't care if a class I signed up for sucked(for any reason)Now: I drop it the second I feel I won't enjoy the classBefore: I didn't think I could learn much in classNow: I know areas that I outrightly suck at. Each semester I load myself with courses in one area(last semester was strategy; the semester before was marketing; this semester is going to be interpersonal communication).Lesson: Take time off! Best case you won't need to come back. Worst case you'll come back knowing what you gotta learn. |
Distribute visualizations of code to increase sales? | chaosmachine: It might make an interesting blog post, but don't expect it to have much impact on sales, unless your app audience is other coders. |
Tools for making writing markup less painful | SingAlong: HAML and LESS.But Sass has plugin support and a lot of plugins like FancyButtons. I use less coz it's minimalistic.I use Balsamiq for mockups and heard about lxEdit recently. |
review my app - a minimalist's to-do organizer | anigbrowl: Like it so far. Air doesn't bother me, I guess I'm an Adobe whore. In a weird way I prefer it for simple tools like this. |
Any Internet retailers of physical goods here? | michael_c: (For what it's worth, I used to interact a lot with similar businesses when I was working for eBay plus I am currently running my own similar business).Here are some tips:
1. Keep your costs very low while you are figuring out if there is a market. If possible, use sites like shopify, eBay, Amazon, etc to find some first buyers for minimal web development and only order a relatively small amount of inventory - hopefully you won't end up with a pile of un-saleable inventory while working out if this can sell.2. If you can source the inventory cheaper than is the current market price, that can be a good advantage - but don't think that cost will be your only advantage without worrying about marketing etc.3. When calculating your sale price, factor in fraud, refunds, wastage, etc. Regarding fraud, it seems like a regular occurence - be hesitant shipping large orders to unknown customers with unverifiable addresses.Hope that helps. |
Too kool for school, but nowhere else to go | alanthonyc: Advice you don't want to hear: finish school, pile up that debt, kick ass in those classes whose material you could "pick up on your own more easily."The best kind of debt is school debt. If you leave school, you'll be piling up debt anyway, but not that kind that is easily forgivable. And those connections you're looking for? You get them at school - either by meeting classmates or professors, or showing future employers that diploma.Like someone else mentions on here, the important thing is to learn to finish something. Your list of cool and interesting stuff you've studied is only cool and interesting to us here, not to your potential employers, even if any of us here were your potential employers.Unless you've got somewhere else to go, school is the best place to be. And if you had somewhere else to go, you wouldn't be asking about it online. |
Review my holiday project | rick_2047: I would like to have you sync the time with users local time. I am in india, and my day does not change when its supposed to. |
review my app - a minimalist's to-do organizer | carterschonwald: one thing you might like to look into is having it talk with some of the todo websites out there, like remember the milk (one of the more popular ones) |
review my app - a minimalist's to-do organizer | zaph0d: I installed it on Ubuntu and the menu/tool bar was missing. |
review my app - a minimalist's to-do organizer | greyman: I use Evernote for todo management. For me, the essential feature is, that the todo application is the same as the knowledge management (or notetaking) application.For example, the todo might be "Fix the bug #1234". In Evernote, this will be the name of the note, and in the body of the note, I copy the bug description, and write any other stuff I discovered during my work. I found that the applications which only maintains the lists of todos are not useful for me. |
review my startup, a planning/analysis app for cyclists | davidw: Looks pretty cool and well done. I think that it's definitely something where, if you get enough people, it will also start to be really interesting seeing routes other people put in. |
review my startup, a planning/analysis app for cyclists | buro9: Nice.Questions I have:
1) Is your home location or post code displayed to anyone else? If so could you by default "approximate" the location to others unless a user specifies that they want their precise home location shown. Reason: Bike theft. Don't tell someone precisely where your bikes are, especially when combined with data showing when you're likely not going to be there.2) Upload photos of equipment/accessories. Add a Flickr picker... I immediately balked at having to go to Flickr, download a photo just to re-upload... actually a URL in addition to a browse would sort this out pretty simply.3) I'm pretty sure I said to hide my email address, yet options implies it's visible.4) Time-zone... set it according to home location.5) Health page... weight inc' bicycle and gear? Nope, you should put the weight of equipment on the equipment page... this data varies depending on what bicycle I take out.6) Health page... age instead of date of birth?7) Route drawing... remember prior preferences. Avid cyclists will start to begrudge always telling the tool that they aren't "Driving".8) Full screen mode is nice, as is the elevation cross-section. A few of the route segments seemed to be wrong but I suspect this is Google's doing and not yours (it would send me needlessly down side-streets and correcting it is a pain in the ass).9) Route planning should allow for the addition of markers. Think of things like: Lunch stop, viewpoint, toilet break, etc.10) Consider a way of displaying several routes on the same page... think of scenarios like the Dragon Ride and the short and long rides sharing a considerable chunk of the route (show specific routes on the same page). Also consider scenarios like "I'm going to ride Ventoux, allow me to visually compare the routes in that area" (show routes that meet a search criteria on the same page).11) Haven't yet used the GPS functionality, but you appear to have the basics covered.12) I liked the embedding widget... but it's ugly. Does it have to be in black? Could you not have a prettier logo?13) Before I enter in too much data I'd like to see when it's no longer free. Even if everything is free now, you should let people know at what point it ceases to be free. The issue is... "Why should I invest my time and data with you when I don't know how long the functionality offered will be offered to me at the price you're giving it to me (currently free)?". Even if you just say, we're not sure, but in this ballpark when we feel that we have a finished product... you'd increase the amount of trust and faith I have in supplying you with so much data.14) Route sharing, route widgets... go beyond the simple. Look at this scenario: http://www.londonfgss.com/thread31699.html A single ride, with over 100 participants, that recurs and changes direction... yet it's obvious it should only be stored as one route, but you should allow multiple people to say that they're riding a route in the future (scheduled event rides as well as individual rides in addition to route planning). There's a big space for being the people who can route plan sponsored rides let alone community rides and things like that.15) I'd consider adding ride photos or something to pull in photos from Google and show those. If someone is remotely route-planning (prior to a foreign vacation) they will want to know whether the place looks good... i.e. This: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/23644 does not communicate the beauty of this: http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=nesque%20gorgesOverall it works really well with even the poorly mapped areas: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/23644I run a large bike forum and will pimp it there and ask for more feedback for you: http://www.londonfgss.com/thread35392.html |
Hacker News for electronics enthusiast? | brk: Have you tried the forums at http://www.nutsvolts.com/ ? |
review my startup, a planning/analysis app for cyclists | prabodh: It is good if the default map loads based on my location..currently i have no idea where is it pointing to it..and there is no easy way to change that |
review my startup, a planning/analysis app for cyclists | abraham: Look into importing My Tracks data: http://mytracks.appspot.com/ |
Hacker News for electronics enthusiast? | J3L2404: http://electronics.stackexchange.com/ is like StackOverflow for electronics. |
review my startup, a planning/analysis app for cyclists | whalesalad: This is just the kind of site that I am looking for. I've had lots of GPX/KML data from my Android phone (with the My Tracks app) and no where to put it. I'm incredibly excited to start using this daily after every ride, to both share what I've done with my buddies and keep track of how far I go.I really wish I was doing this all day every day whenever I ride... I think I rode 10 miles a day for the past 2 years rain or shine to and from my job and it would have been super rad to see the hundreds of miles ridden all added up!So, sorry I don't have any immediate feedback yet but I am using your app and hope to have some good feedback soon:)Here I am - http://ridewithgps.com/users/4151 |
Too kool for school, but nowhere else to go | mping: It seems to me that you are experience that "lostness" sensation every teenager feels. I reiterate zaidf's advice. Take a year off or so, travel the world, enjoy your life. Having 18 is a great time to travel or do other stuff that you probably won't have the guts to do again.In due time, you will probably feel the need to come back to get an education. Just don't let the education completely out of your life, in my experience having a degree is great both personally (you acquire alot of skills, meet interesting people, etc) and professionally (I would almost always prefer the guy with a good CS major AND some programming experience over the guy with 10+ years programming but no CS major). |
Too kool for school, but nowhere else to go | rms: Are your parents willing to pay for anything? If they aren't paying anything, my advice is to go to school somewhere where you don't have to rack up as much in student loans, unless it's a university that really has something special to offer (Stanford, MIT, etc.).If you want to work for a year or two or start a startup before you transfer, go for it. To show potential employers you are good at what you do, build something cool. |
review my startup, a planning/analysis app for cyclists | flog: Can you explain how you're getting elevation data? Last time I asked around this wasn't possible (at least according to Yahoo! maps team at FOWA) |
review my app - a minimalist's to-do organizer | lallysingh: Anyone else here use Org-Mode (ala emacs?) Getting a text file sync'd is an rsync matter (but it does require 1 box with a public DNS name/static ip). |
review my startup, a planning/analysis app for cyclists | andrewbadera: It seems like you have a great UI and lots of features already covered, but in case you haven't looked at these guys, they're worth knowing about: http://www.walkjogrun.net/ |
review my startup, a planning/analysis app for cyclists | MicahWedemeyer: No specific criticisms of the app, but I did notice this on the about us page:We have put together some money and quit our jobs, with the intention of making Ride with GPS the best site of its kind on the internet.Having 3 full-timers working on a bootstrapped project (especially one with no current revenue model, as far as I can tell) will be very tough. Ramen profitability is that much further away, and you burn through your seed money very quickly.Since I don't want to start the whole "quit-your-dayjob vs dont-quit" debate, all I will say is this: Consider not waiting until your seed money is completely exhausted before exploring avenues of funding, and by this I mean getting some kind of job. Any sort of income that still allows you to work on your project can help you stay alive until you start making a decent income from your startup. |
review my startup, a planning/analysis app for cyclists | justliving: nice app!Reminds me somewhat of http://www.mapmyrun.com/ |
review my startup, a planning/analysis app for cyclists | etherealG: one thing I'd recommend, try using google maps local search api for your search box. It has much more accurate results, and seems to use a completely different database for search results, especially in the UK. Here's a link to it, try using this instead of the search call in the google maps api. http://www.google.com/uds/solutions/mapsearch/index.htmlIt's a bit more work, but the results are much better, UK postcodes will actually work instead of being random. |
review my startup, a planning/analysis app for cyclists | wensing: I just started biking again for the first time since childhood, and I bought the $4.99 Cyclometer app for the iPhone.So I came to your site as an excited novice and I'm sort of clueless. Hard to know where to go on the home screen. I assume I want to sign up, but I don't know your feature-benefits well enough to make a decision.To that end, why are the "Start drawing" and "Sign up" buttons given equal weight in the UI? Do you expect 50% of your visitors to do each? Seems unlikely--and is that even what you want?The right-left arrows (<|>) to bring up that other blurb is totally unexpected behaviour given a right-arrow click. The content should be coming in from the side, and be progressing me along some kind of 1, 2, 3 step process. Otherwise, why hide the first blurb in order to show me the second? |
review my startup, a planning/analysis app for cyclists | Dmunro: As a developer and cyclist, I really like your idea and implementation. It's modern and intuitive, something a lot of cycling sites lack, unfortunately.One feature you can think about that I've often thought would be useful, would be to track road quality via a device that detects vibrations. Poorly maintained roads = big vibrations. I don't know the technical feasibility of this off hand, but hopefully it gives you a new avenue to explore. |
review my startup, a planning/analysis app for cyclists | patio11: You list an awful lot of features on the home page. ("Plan, share, upload, analyze." are all features. Or take a look at all of your bullet points.)Benefits sell software, not features.Think of it this way -- you're a cyclist, right? Supposing you were trying to convert a family member into cycling, would you say "Involves moving a pair of pedals in circles quite a bit! Spins wheels! Forward motion while cycling!" No, you say "Do this and you will be healthier, have more energy, save money on gas, and not kill the planet." (Feel free to strike the last one if you are not an environmentalist. Gaia knows I'm not. But you get the general idea.)Figure out what your software does for your user rather than what your software does, and then sell them on buying that tangible benefit to their lives. |
review my app - a minimalist's to-do organizer | thinkbohemian: I like it, very clean and simple. The # tagging allows to make it flexible. |
review my startup, a planning/analysis app for cyclists | Maciek416: Nice idea!You should let people drop in their RunKeeper user URL and scan their activities GPX data from there (it's all there).Quite a few people I know use RunKeeper for cycling now because it's one less device to buy/maintain/ride with (running on the iPhone and all). In addition, the RK guys are likely to help you promote your service -- they're quite active with respect to their community. |
Too kool for school, but nowhere else to go | semanticist: If you're still at Edinburgh, I'd recommend discussing this with your DoS, especially if they're an Informatics person. You might be able to find projects being run by AIAI (http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/) or other institutes inside Informatics that are interesting to you and you can contribute to. If nothing else, this will help make contacts and looks good on your CV.There's also the Entrepreneurial Club (http://www.edinburgh-entrepreneur.man.ed.ac.uk/), which again will help you make contacts and give you a place to discuss ideas and ways of achieving them. There's also http://techmeetup.co.uk/, the local $LANGUAGE user groups (I've found http://scotrug.org/ really useful) - there's a huge number of tech/web meet ups in Edinburgh that offer really good opportunities to make connections.If you can afford it at all, I'd definitely recommend finishing your BSc/BEng at Edinburgh - if you're intending to stay in Europe it's a very well respected university, and there's a pretty good geek/tech culture in Edinburgh. I think maybe you just need to push beyond the lectures a bit and make contact with it? |
What's a math major to do? | mbrubeck: No, don't lower your expectations. If you want to get into programming, you can. It's not clear how much you've done already, but what you don't know you can teach yourself. First, start some programming projects on your own or contribute to existing free software projects. That'll force you to learn most of the practical skills you need. If you want jobs where you get to work on interesting problems, you should start learning computer science theory too. With your background you should find it fairly easy to pick up much of an undergraduate CS education from a few good books. (In your position I'd start with SICP, which is available online with video lectures by the authors at MIT OpenCourseWare.)Even before that, you can apply for entry-level software development jobs. Companies that hire new graduates don't really expect them to have useful real-world experience. (It's a big plus if they do, but it's not necessary.) If you can learn basic data structures and algorithms, for example, you might well qualify as a college hire at a big shop like Google/Amazon/Yahoo/Microsoft that has the resources to hire a lot of junior programmers and train them on the job. And use your friends, professors, and alumni network to find companies that could use a good undergrad math student - these are rarer but they do exist. [Update: mga mentioned the financial sector, which is a great idea too. I was a joint math/CS major, and some of my math friends went straight from college to companies like Fair Isaac (FICO).]You will need more experience before you can explore certain opportunities - an undergrad math degree doesn't open many doors by itself - but you should try to get that experience working in development, not in IT. Or if you're serious about working on research problems, also consider applying to grad schools in either math or CS. |
What's a math major to do? | hga: There are lots of companies that need people who can solve hard (but not always well defined) problems, and being a programmer is certainly a plus. E.g. check out companies that are famous for effectively applying both, e.g. Wal-Mart and Amazon.com (seriously, the latter poaches from the former); prior to the financial industry meltdown, that would have been a place to look into (e.g. many MIT EECS grads used to go there first).If you're good at problem solving and passable at putting it into code (hey, others can clean that up if need be), you ought to be able to find a niche. Maybe first think about the sorts of problems you like to solve? |
What's a math major to do? | lmkg: Not too long ago I, too, was a math major utterly unprepared for getting a career. My strategy was to look for job postings with the word "Analyst" in the title, and focus on small companies. Those are the positions where you'll be working on solving innovative problems, at varying levels of definedness. Small companies, especially in niche markets, are more willing to hire people with a BS and good potential but not a lot of experience. Companies in a more niche or botique line of work, or a new emerging field, are also more willing to hiring people with more potential than experience (I got into web analytics myself, which hasn't been around very long).If you're not sure about the opportunities you have, find a part-time position or a paid internship. It's less risk for you, and it's less risk for the company so it's easier to get the position. If it's something you like you can upgrade to full-time (as was my case), and if not, you can still gain skills and experience while shopping around.In terms of lowering your expectations, you likely won't achieve the most prestigious position, but you can certainly find a position that's interesting and personally rewarding in an area that you want to be in. It's up to you to decide if that's lowering your expectations (I wouldn't consider it so). |
review my startup, a planning/analysis app for cyclists | acj: Using Chromium nightly (build 35301) I can't update my profile settings. Clicking on "Save changes" gives no feedback and does not appear to save the changes. Other buttons in the app appear to work.Nice work! |
Please criticize my idea =) OMyBills.com | DanielStraight: Are there still bills that can't be automatically paid? |
Please criticize my idea =) OMyBills.com | billturner: 1) It's "What's the Big Idea?" and not "Whats the Big Idea?". And there are more spelling/grammar issues on the "About" page.2) The layout seems a bit off: http://i47.tinypic.com/jj7hpg.jpg3) Many banks now offer this sort of feature with their online banking. What makes yours better or different? |
Please criticize my idea =) OMyBills.com | tdedecko: This problem has already been solved sufficiently. I use Google calendar and its reminder feature. |
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