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How can I start my own bank? (Let's redesign banks) | DanielStraight: I'm not saying banks are perfect, but it seems like 90% of your complaint is about overdrafts. If you don't want to worry about overdrafts, check your balance in the morning, write down the amount, and don't spend more than that. Or pay for everything in cash from an ATM and use the ATM to double-check ... |
How can I start my own bank? (Let's redesign banks) | imajes: This is cute. I like the tenacity of what you're doing here.Thing is, it's entirely impossible. To start a bank you need capital to leverage your deposits. That's anything from 10-30%, so to have a liability of $1000 you'll need $300 in capital reserves just to keep within the rules. Then there's the insurance... |
How can I start my own bank? (Let's redesign banks) | sunkencity: First: make your own currency. |
how hard is it to maintain your own clone of HN ? | iamelgringo: If you're interested, I'd be willing to give you a clone of the http://Newsley.com codebase. It's a bit bare bones right now, and since I'm the sole developer, I haven't worked on the documentation much. But, it's Python/Django, which might be a little more familiar to you if you're a Ruby/Rails guy. I... |
What do you use for bookkeeping? | rs: Using Sage for everything now (I've got the Instant Accounts Plus).Not the prettiest, or easiest to use, but once you get used to it and over the learning curve, its actually plenty useful and powerful.In a nutshell, the user thinks in terms of invoices, customers, suppliers, payments, etc.. and Sage takes care of ... |
How can I start my own bank? (Let's redesign banks) | mhb: I think for about 1/10,000,000 the effort of starting a bank you could locate a more user-friendly, local coop. |
Possible fix for the 'lost' submissions? | icey: Reddit handles this one pretty well by displaying a random new story in a box at the top of the page. That way lots of new stuff gets some exposure. |
How can I start my own bank? (Let's redesign banks) | zoba: I feel like there is a lot my bank could be doing but isn't. Most of it relates to technology.First, I think a decent web interface for my money would be nice. The bank wont let me have 20 checking accounts, but it would be nice if I could have the appearance of that many accounts in a web interface. One accou... |
How can I start my own bank? (Let's redesign banks) | pengelbrecht: Check out Matt Mullenweg's take on it http://ma.tt/2009/08/starting-a-bank/ |
How can I start my own bank? (Let's redesign banks) | cabalamat: I listened to a radio programme a few months ago which concluded that to set up a bank in the UK would cost £100,000,000 to comply with regulatory requirements. |
How can I start my own bank? (Let's redesign banks) | WesleyJohnson: Banks are indeed incredibly frustrating. I recently posted a rant on Chase bank which I'll link below. They really do make it unbelievably difficult for you to monitor your balance properly, which is why I don't rely on the bank to tell me how much money I have - I keep track of it externally and the ban... |
Why doesn't nasa.gov get its url to work? | zacharydanger: This is part of a really old host-naming convention from when a domain name's usage wasn't 99.999% web. So people would relegate their world wide web servers out to www.<theirdomain>. |
How can I start my own bank? (Let's redesign banks) | noonespecial: Since it seems that most of your complaint is centered around orverdrafts, perhaps it would be more beneficial for you to start a service that helps people avoid them? |
How can I start my own bank? (Let's redesign banks) | lutorm: The fact that the word "check" is still used regularly in US banking seems to indicate that it's not a business that is amenable to a tech startup... I mean, come on: "If I need a check somewhere real fast, they can do that too and overnight it for a $20 fee." It's not ING's fault, of course. I don't think an... |
How can I start my own bank? (Let's redesign banks) | steveplace: It's the 3/6/3 model, and it works beautifully.Savings accounts at a 3% rate.Mortgages at a 6% rate.On the golf course by 3PM. |
How can I start my own bank? (Let's redesign banks) | raphar: I work for a bank (not from USA though) and what I see as the toughest barrier in initiating a Bank is the massive amount of banking regulation that every institution must comply (not negotiable). Also the impact of new regulations on the systems running the business are usually non trivial.
Missing any of the... |
How can I start my own bank? (Let's redesign banks) | ams6110: I am stunned to see this on the front page. It boils down to a bunch of crybaby whining by people who can't balance their checkbooks. Banks by and large give you more tools than ever to keep track of your transactions, and it's all free. Good grief. |
How can I start my own bank? (Let's redesign banks) | kdaigle: Or simply join a Credit Union which has a much different approach than banks. Focuses on returning profits as services to the consumer via lower rates, more features, etc.And, like others have said, if a big concern of yours are the overdraft fees call your bank and tell them you no longer want overdraft prot... |
How can I start my own bank? (Let's redesign banks) | jokull: Banks in Iceland (yeah laugh away) are quite high tech. You get a text message when your card is used online, you can create accounts and move your funds around online. Transfers between accounts within Iceland are all instant (huge DB2 database run on an interbank computer). |
"So... What happened to the last guy?" | DanielStraight: What if you told them, "If I get this position, I'll be expecting a budget between x and y. Does this seem about right?" |
"So... What happened to the last guy?" | davidw: I'd definitely ask him, as well as ask to have a look around the facilities/code/whatever. It's not like a non-profit has a bunch of really high-value IP, I would think. |
"So... What happened to the last guy?" | jacquesm: I'd absolutely try to contact my predecessor. Just in case you step in to a catfight or a nasty can of worms, it can only be to your advantage.Take what you hear with a grain of salt. Trust but verify I think was the motto. |
How can I start my own bank? (Let's redesign banks) | shykes: Right or wrong, the general public hates large banks. If you can find a niche where you can compete with them on customer service and margins, while avoiding major legal barriers, I would say the timing feels right.Also, a lot of the innovation in that field is limited to the US. I don't know of anything compar... |
What do you use for bookkeeping? | wglb: Quickbooks Pro. If i started now, I would probably use Gnucash. I would certainly not put my financial books in the cloud. |
"So... What happened to the last guy?" | tom_b: This is not directly related to your question, but as someone who stepped from the corporate world to the non-profit world (medical research center affiliated with university hospital), I can say the pay is lower but the freedom is greater.I'm more in charge of projects, trusted to make technical decisions and s... |
how hard is it to maintain your own clone of HN ? | adrianwaj: I wrote up a detailed spec for an enhanced version of news.arc, I literally saved the HN item, home and user pages and made changes, which I elaborated upon in the rest of the document.I'd be interested to share it in some sort of collaboration. |
"So... What happened to the last guy?" | JunkDNA: Talk to him, recognizing that you may be getting a very jaded opinion. Also, I think it's a perfectly relevant question for you to ask for a ballpark dollar amount of your budget and what they expect you to accomplish. I've intentionally stayed away from positions where it looked like I was going to be a "team... |
"So... What happened to the last guy?" | lhuang: Absolutely. At the very least this guy will help you read between the lines and act as a good gut-check to your interview experience.I would reiterate what Tom_B said about greater responsibility but I think it should be noted the kind of non-profit he worked at. Depending on organization, its mission, and pe... |
"So... What happened to the last guy?" | SamAtt: I'd honestly ask yourself whether you're willing to walk away from an offer if what the guy says is bad. If you are than talk with the guy. If not than I wouldn't.Because he's going to be bitter. So you're going to learn a lot of bad stuff about the place you're starting at. That's a disadvantage in itself ... |
"So... What happened to the last guy?" | flybrand: Yes, you should absolutely contact the predecessor. It is good corporate diligence and failing to do so would be a bad decision on your part.Have a script put together of what you are going to ask;
- Start with an overview.
- Allow them to back away if they feel uncomfortable about a question.
- Get a feel f... |
"So... What happened to the last guy?" | gyardley: To me, not getting a forthright answer (even after 'further prying') is a big red flag on its own.At this point, I would wait until you received the offer, and then say something like "Look, unless there's a legal reason why you can't give me a full explanation of what happened, I'm going to need to know the ... |
"So... What happened to the last guy?" | crocowhile: Always try to get in touch with the other person. You are already listening to a biased voice (the emplyoer), listening to the other one is the least you can do for your career. |
"So... What happened to the last guy?" | psranga: My two cents: companies check references on their prospective employees. The ethical ones ask you for a list and claim to contact only them; the unethical ones will contact anybody they please.Your contacting the ex-employee is you checking up on the employer's references. To keep it completely above board, yo... |
How can I start my own bank? (Let's redesign banks) | thaumaturgy: YES. I agree wholeheartedly with you. This is something that I've wanted to do for years -- but unfortunately has been way too far out of the reach of my resources. For now.Most of the comments here seem to miss the point: banks act as liaisons between people and money, and most banks -- even local ones --... |
"So... What happened to the last guy?" | hurt: Assuming that your predecessor acted in a professional manner, then I would probably contact the individual after I'd had a chance to take a look at how everything had been laid out.Non-profits may not have a lot of money for technology, and the recent economic disruptions have really hit them hard due to the dro... |
"So... What happened to the last guy?" | brk: Of course you should contact him, and/or anyone else you can reach that has relevant information for you.I wouldn't ask him for inside dirt on the HR admin's tryst in the conference room, but questions about the job, the organization, and the people are charge are certainly fair game. Unless they are trying to hi... |
How can I start my own bank? (Let's redesign banks) | mcherm: Hi! I'm a developer for ING Direct, and I'm pleased that you speak so highly of your experience here. I wonder if I can help out some with the concerns you still have. You mention not having branches -- which is true, but we DO run the occasional internet cafe complete with trained ING barista/bankers (no... I'... |
How can I start my own bank? (Let's redesign banks) | j_baker: Erm... don't take this the wrong way, but this is one of those things where if you have to ask, you probably shouldn't do it. You'd probably be much better off finding a cofounder who has experience in banking. There are a lot of regulations that banks have to comply with, and every time you miss one of them... |
"So... What happened to the last guy?" | itgoon: Well, I'm going to be the dissenting voice.I agree that they should give you better guidance as to your budget before you accept the position.As for contacting your predecessor, I wouldn't bother. You're not going to get an honest answer out of anybody; everything said about the other will be heavily influenced... |
How can I start my own bank? (Let's redesign banks) | jhouse: Michael, open an account with someone nicer. Direct banks usually have to try harder because they don't have local branches and need to incent you somehow. ING Direct is good, but Charles Schwab (http://www.schwabbank.com/checking.do) might be better; they even refund your ATM fees. I'd keep an account at a loc... |
"So... What happened to the last guy?" | 9oliYQjP: I have a client that's a non-profit. They've got the best IT infrastructure I've ever seen. Non-profit does not always imply limited budgets. That said, is the organization in question a charity? If it's a charity, then keep in mind that most try to only spend a maximum of 25 cents of every donated dollar on ... |
"So... What happened to the last guy?" | holdenc: You'll need to find out what your budget is sooner or later. And you might find that "an interesting challenge" means building everything from used desktop computers. As long as that's inline with your expectations, you should be fine. |
"So... What happened to the last guy?" | romland: Regarding whether you should contact the former IT director: to put it in two words:Of course.You will spend eight hours every day at that place, you want to gather as much information as you can. Naturally you have to filter/sort/disregard, but that is the next step. |
How best to communicate iPhone to Blackberry | aheilbut: email? |
Review my startup, WebServius | yan: Clickable: http://www.webservius.com |
"So... What happened to the last guy?" | synnik: I don't see the need to talk to him.For one thing, it sounds like your satisfaction there will boil down to your personal agenda. If you are trying to build a world-class IT shop, you'll struggle. If you are trying to help the non-profit do their work, which will clearly entail sacrifices in IT, you'll be fine.... |
"So... What happened to the last guy?" | billswift: You should definitely contact him, unless you would be willing to quit almost right away if they start jerking you around somehow; which I don't think would be a good idea.Several commenters have said you should take what he says with a grain of salt; You should take anything anybody says with a grain of sa... |
Why doesn't nasa.gov get its url to work? | zosi: By saying that it's not working, you assume that a raw domain.com is "broken" if it doesn't resolve to an address which is presumably the same as www.domain.com, which is pretty much baseless. There's no technical reason for a bare domain to resolve to anything, it's just a popular convention to make it redirect... |
Review my startup, WebServius | sync: The site looks nice. Logo, however, could use some work.I also wonder about speed. Having the developer connect to you guys, which in turn connects to us, just seems like it would be super slow. And API's are generally all about speeeed. |
Review my startup, WebServius | jfarmer: http://mashery.com ? |
Review my startup, WebServius | vyrotek: The site looks nice, the idea sounds great. At first I thought this would be a great service to integrate into our service but there are a few blockers.If we charge our customers for other things besides the API access then this will require our customers to manage their account and payments on our site as wel... |
feedback wanted on my open-source project: envbuilder | j_baker: FYI, this is an early-stage Python build system that's sort of buildout-like, but more transparent and less "enterprisey".Bear in mind that this is the "minimum viable product". I'm looking for feedback in terms of what's a pain about it and what features would be cool to add to it. |
Please review our Startup: Twitalbums.com | fabiandesimone: A little about the app:What does it do?Twitalbums lets you share files on Twitter by creating "albums" which are Social Venues for the crowdsorcing of media, by invitation only. Albums provide a simple and powerful way to have control of what you share online.How is it different?Different from Twitpic o... |
Best Ad Netowrks? | nickFaraday: Found this link for anyone interested. It gives a pretty good summary of some of the networks:http://howtosplitanatom.com/news/21-great-advertising-networ... |
Review my site, ModsLog.com | hkuo: http://www.modslog.com |
Are there any fast-paced cs education programs? | hga: There's pace and then there's content covered. Let me tell you, MIT's EECS undergraduate curriculum is fast paced and hard, and I assume they cover more ground than the ArsDigita University did (even subtracting the general requirements that don't overlap with an EECS degree).I think 10 months is just too little ... |
Please review our Startup: Twitalbums.com | johnrob: I read the name as "twital-bums" |
Review my site, ModsLog.com | idoh: Some suggestions:- get your friends to add their cars to the site, and make sure they use your code on the forums they frequent (I'm assuming that you link back to modslog)- make the value prop clearer: add a car, share the details online. It doesn't jump out right away on the front page- show how the auto-genera... |
Please review our Startup: Twitalbums.com | dschobel: I like the idea but why did you choose a public channel to share links to a private resource rather than something like direct messages? |
Please review our Startup: Twitalbums.com | fabiandesimone: Here is the review they did for us on ReadWriteWeb:http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/twitalbums_private_coll... |
Payment systems? | ig1: Let me know if you figure out a good solution for this. The only thing I could find to do this was PayPal. I've had lots of ideas for marketplace type of sites, but the stopper was figuring out a way to let sellers accept payment. Often individual sellers aren't making enough to cover the hassle/cost of getting me... |
Are there any fast-paced cs education programs? | Xichekolas: I'm not sure how you could squeeze the education I got into 10 months, but I think, properly motivated and with good books, you could self-study an equivalent to a solid BS in 18-24 months.Topics that come to mind (that my CS bachelors had):Boolean algebra and gate level stuff (one semester)Calculus and Lin... |
A human nature thought experiment. | yannis: If they are all hackers they will simulate the situation using a genetic algorithm based on ant colonies and sail away:)If they are lawyers they will debate the issue until one dies and they will never sail.If they have a background in marketing they will probably try and convince the fatter not to eat anything... |
Is there any web apps that finds your site's security flaws | yan: No web app, but a lot of individuals who'd love to offer this as a service. For general guidelines on writing secure web code, refer to http://www.owasp.org |
find a rockstar-level HTML5/JS expert for few hours? | ig1: You email Mark Pilgrim and Ian Hickson and ask them if they'd provide a couple of hours of phone consulting in exchange for xyz. |
Please review our Startup: Twitalbums.com | roachsocal: I read the name as Twidal Bums. |
"So... What happened to the last guy?" | CyberFonic: By all means possible talk to the "last guy". Then take what he says with a grain of salt. Both the employer and employee will have very different perspectives about the split. You are the sole judge as to whether it's a warning sign.Personally, I think that the danger sign are the words "Non-Profit" whi... |
A human nature thought experiment. | mooism2: Really, it depends on the people.I am reminded of the two miners who were trapped underground in China a few years ago. Finally one gave in to his hunger pangs, killed and ate the other. He was then rescued, less than 24 hours after they had become trapped.Granted, the news reports I heard did not mention th... |
Is there any web apps that finds your site's security flaws | Travis: The web apps I've seen that do this all look pretty scammy. I wouldn't want them poking around my site. Then again, it is a public site, so...Anyhow, since there are several major attack vectors, there are also several different types of scanners. I recommend you read the book "breaking web software" to get ... |
Please review our Startup: Twitalbums.com | vaksel: in your about us page the 4 of us is actually five people: The 4 of us
This is our team: our main developers Ramon and Hernan,
our designer Lorenzo and our founders: Mauricio and Fabián |
Is there any web apps that finds your site's security flaws | cperciva: I'm sure there are web apps which will find security flaws; but you shouldn't trust their results. Finding security flaws is equivalent to determining whether a Turing machine will halt -- i.e., there is no algorithm which can guarantee to give you the right answer. |
Please review our Startup: Twitalbums.com | scotje: Only was able to see the maintenance page so watching the tour video was about all I could do.I would suggest simplifying the tour video a bit so it's more "what is" and less "how to." Not that howto videos are bad to have, but I got pretty bored by 30 seconds in when all I really wanted was to learn what the s... |
Please review our Startup: Twitalbums.com | jayliew: Basically the value proposition is providing more granular privacy controls for Twitter; you can decide who can see a piece of content or not.I think it's a good idea, although I probably won't use it since I don't have enough followers on Twitter in each group that I can nicely classify as: "family", "co-work... |
Please review our Startup: Twitalbums.com | joshsharp: Could only see the video.The scrolling text effect wears thin very quickly, please don't use it. Also you've written "lets" instead of "let's" in there.Also by the end of the video I still wasn't sure what could go in an album. Photos? You never actually made that clear. |
Please review our Startup: Twitalbums.com | gridspy: What can you do that is of value that Flickr cannot?It seems that you are trying to compete with a lot of well established, free technology, such as wikis, stuff from 37Signals and flickr.I don't see a competitive advantage in here.Also, your video assumes from the get-go that people know what your service doe... |
Invite manager? | riffer: It's a good idea. The compelling part is that you could add additional complementary services over time, as you figure out what makes sense. Biggest drawback is that startups probably make demanding customers for a product that is fundamentally software plus configuration. |
Invite manager? | alabut: http://www.performable.com/ |
Possible fix for the 'lost' submissions? | MaysonL: Maybe a karma threshold for letting people resubmit stuff? (that is no longer accessible other than via ?id=x)I was going to suggest decaying old stuff faster, but looking through the 210 current items available through clicking "More" from the /news page, only 3 are listed as 2 days old (none 3 days). |
Invite manager? | DanielBMarkham: Niche product with customers who are broke?Hmmmm. |
Invite manager? | dustyreagan: Have you looked at http://prefinery.com? |
Do all techies have a huge list of pet projects? | aaronblohowiak: No.Some of us have interesting resumes. |
Do all techies have a huge list of pet projects? | sophacles: A lot do. A quick look at my "projects" folder shows 12 different projects. My snippets and quickies and tests folders have hundreds of files. Various accounts at github, googlecode, etc contain more projects publicly available. The src folders of various machines contain projects for work, or OSS projects w... |
Do all techies have a huge list of pet projects? | ax0n: Too many to list here. I should probably start a project to enumerate my projects. |
Do all techies have a huge list of pet projects? | jasonwilk: Personally, I keep a running list of ideas (I have about 50), but I try to stay focused on one project only, or two depending on how many cofounders and my level of involvement with each. Trying to actually push to market and think you will hav success by managing 100 working concepts is just crazy. Don't do... |
Do all techies have a huge list of pet projects? | dlsspy: I've got quite a few: http://github.com/dustin (I've also got unpublished projects and projects not published on github).I've met people who don't have such things and are still competent, but not terribly commonly. |
Do all techies have a huge list of pet projects? | alanthonyc: My running list is at twenty-nine, of the ones I thought were good enough to write down. I'm working on one at the moment and really want to get working on two or three more. The rest are just "might be nice" to work on someday. |
Do all techies have a huge list of pet projects? | johnrob: I've used csvjdbc quite a bit over the years - thanks! |
Do all techies have a huge list of pet projects? | kingkilr: I'd say so. http://github.com/alex of those at least 7 are ones I've worked on lately, plus some others that aren't on there. <3 open source. |
Do all techies have a huge list of pet projects? | mahmud: I have close to 40 pet projects and businesses that I oscillate between throughout the year. Most of it is on my TODO for learning purposes, others as a gift to friends, but a good chunk of them as support projects that I use in my other projects. I do A LOT of niche software: Arabic applications written in Com... |
How many days in advance to contact bloggers before launch? | Alex3917: I'd recommend launching, then buying some Google AdWords traffic so that you can A/B test your site and optimize until it converts decently. Then start emailing bloggers after that. Just send them a 3-sentence personalized note with a link, nothing fancy. |
Do all techies have a huge list of pet projects? | trjordan: No.I understand the mentality that draws people to try new things, experiment with new technologies, and learn different ways of doing things they've previously struggled with. Personally, I don't have any side projects anymore. All of my effort goes into my job, simply because the challenges that I face at w... |
Do all techies have a huge list of pet projects? | cabalamat: phil:~$ ls ~/proj -F|grep "/"|wc -l
100
Not all are programming projects, mind. |
Do all techies have a huge list of pet projects? | rms: Most of mine involve raising money for resarch |
How can I remove my submissions? | cwan: If your submission/comment is older than 2 hours old, your ability to delete it expires. I'm also pretty sure you can't delete your account so that your comments that you don't delete within 2 hours or that admins don't delete remain on the record. |
Ask HN:Does Higher Resolution screen helps in programming? | niyazpk: Of course more resolution is always better. Most of the good developers I know use a 2 monitor setup. There are guys who use 3 monitors too. The more screen real estate you have, the better.See: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001076.html |
Ask HN:Does Higher Resolution screen helps in programming? | PureForm: I use 2 monitors, one at 2560 x 1600, and one at 1680 x 1050 ... made things WAAY more efficient than my previous 1680 x 1050-only setup.I also despise laptops for development, so that wouldn't be right for me. |
Ask HN:Does Higher Resolution screen helps in programming? | theone: I am stuck with the size of laptop... Can't afford multiple screen. |
Ask HN:Does Higher Resolution screen helps in programming? | jacquesm: More screen = better, but it can also become a distraction.I don't want to get in to a pissing match about 'whose screen is larger' so I'm not going to spec my monitors but I've found that it works wonders if you stick two smaller screens rotated next to your main central screen.I have things set up so the ce... |
How can I start my own bank? (Let's redesign banks) | Raphael: See, I've been thinking that money is fundamentally broken. We don't need a better bank; we need to abolish banks. (If they do serve some purpose, then they can remain as a service for the wealthy.)Paper money works in its simplicity. You always know how much you have, because you can hold it and count it. The... |
Invite manager? | Mz: I would be concerned that doing something full time that you describe as "a pain in the ass" might get to be something you dread. |
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