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What do your users think about Facebook Connect (or Twitter oAuth, etc)? | tonystubblebine: I posted our own usage data for these services:
http://blog.crowdvine.com/2009/10/16/twitter-auth-vs-faceboo...The feeling I'm getting via my own anecdotal research of users behavior on our sites and from talking to people is that these are not major conveniences or site differentiators. The people I've talked to who seem most optimistic are looking for ways to make the experience more compelling than just saving the user from typing a password, for instance by auto-importing their contacts. |
Propaganda for creative salary manipulation? | ible: I find the type of salaries discussed here downright surreal. I live in Vancouver, BC which has some of the best 'quality of life' according to various random surveys. This translates into an median annual FAMILY income of ~$60k CAD and a median house price approaching 1 million CAD. My wife and I both work in tech, and both make more individually than the average family income, but not a whole lot more.The salary range in Vancouver seems to top out around $150k, and that is uncommon. New grads can expect something between $50k and $80k. The intangibles definitely make a difference to expectations. I sacrifice both salary, and to some degree interesting work (at least at my day job) to live here. |
What do I do about this internship? | Travis: Well, you can either keep bugging them to no end, or you can wait for a week or so then politely bug them again.Remember, this company has a million other things to do besides hire you. So while it's the most important thing to you, the reality is that it's probably lower on the importance ladder than lots of other tasks.Ping, wait, ping again. AND, if you never hear from them, is a company that rude really one you want to work for? |
Propaganda for creative salary manipulation? | wlievens: I was like this four years ago (the first few months after graduating). My idea, and my plan, was basically "lock me in a box and make me write cool code, and I'll be happy".It's not true. I've discovered that I need my input and my work to be economically validated. Someone (preferrably myself; but someone else is better than nobody) needs to make money off my work. I don't think that's a bad evolution :-) |
Help with talk for Non-Profits | mschaecher: I've worked with a few non-profits and political orgs regarding new technology. Regarding small NPOs implementing new tech initiatives, one of the problems is that the people running them might not know how to implement or execute some of this.I would recommend that they tap their volunteer and donor network for the skills they need. Some old school NPOs tend to still only use their volunteers for menial office tasks. There is a good chance that they have volunteers that have the skills they need for various projects, they just don't ask. Make your talented volunteers a CEO of something and they will work their butts off for you. |
How to find a mentor/advisor? | sgoraya: My 2 cents:Attend and participate in local technology and business meetings/events. Even if you are not in the immediate 'Valley', you will still meet some local business folks who might be willing to serve as a mentor and open up additional contacts for you.You also mentioned that the both of you are students...possibly approach a professor for advisement? |
How to find a mentor/advisor? | metajack: You'd be surprised what you'd get just by asking politely. Find people you think can help you and that would be good teachers and just ask. |
How to find a mentor/advisor? | jhancock: HN'er DanielBMarkham has done this. A few months ago he posted a request for HN'ers to be his "advisors". I've participated (a little). Daniel has made fantastic progress on his new product and I've greatly enjoyed the reports he sends. |
What do I do about this internship? | jpt: Not trying to be a dick, but make sure you proofread and have someone else proofread your documents before they're sent out.Errors tend to stick out, like conference in this case.Anyways, be patient and persistent, and good luck! |
How important are terms and conditions? | JacobAldridge: I guess the issue with terms and conditions is that they're not important until they're important. Suddenly you act in good faith and get taken to court because a customer interprets something differently - precision leads to verbosity, particularly in the law. |
How important are terms and conditions? | zepolen: An online TOS is not worth anything unless you can prove to a judge that the user did indeed read and agree to that exact version of the TOS.For example, a user can edit the html, print it out, and claim that was what he agreed to when he signed up.Or, after getting involved with a user legally, the website can alter the TOS on their site to better their own position.Even if you register with a 3rd party (we get the police to date and verify with a signed document everytime we change ours by making them visit our website and printing off the TOS) - however that still is suspect to tampering.The best way is to make the user print, sign and return the TOS. |
Please review my web app for web designers with no programming skills | todd3834: I wanted to create something that would let users easily take care of the day to day tasks of building a website. The first two items that came to mind were slideshows and contact forms since I used to get hired to create those repeatedly in my freelance days. I know solutions exist for each of those individually but I wanted to create a simple portal where web designers could have a toolbox for creating their sites.I plan on adding more items but I'm just starting with those solid two.No business model or anything yet, I'm just trying to see if anyone finds it useful.Please let me know what you all think! And I would love suggestions for more simple scripts to add to it. |
How do you send mails from Amazon EC2? | Magneus: I'm not sure who to recommend you to for an immediate solution, but it looks like Amazon is in the process of putting together an in-house SMTP service:
http://mailchannels.com/contact/ec2-outbound-inquiry.html |
Please review my web app for web designers with no programming skills | zephyrfalcon: I'd rather see an app for programmers with no web design skills... <0.5 wink> |
How do you send mails from Amazon EC2? | RobGR: What you really need is an smtp relay, on a fixed IP, carefully configured to relay only from your hosts and on a reputable block of IP addresses.That is entirely possible. The server itself does not have to be very extreme, the lowest end Rackspace cloud or Godaddy server should do it, it all just comes down to if those IP addresses are blocked too.The real problem is that you will spend too much time figuring out reverse DNS, SPF records, and all kind of email trivia. I'm not sure it's really worth it. How many customers do you lose if you just ignore the problem ?If you can't just ignore the problem, get a host on a reputable block of IPs and hire a freelance sys admin to set up and baby the system. You will want to monitor bounce rates and other metrics and fix problems as they arise. |
Please review my web app for web designers with no programming skills | dskhatri: Catchy app name!Some suggestions:- The "Start Building Stuff" menu is too wide (1/3 of the page width). When a user selects to build a contact form or a slideshow, you could hide this menu or offer a smaller menu instead.- I signed in but still get the "Join Today" button on the home page.- The button on the top right that reads "Free Account, Click Here for Dashboard" could be redone for a logged in user. Maybe "Welcome firstName! Start Here". Would your typical user understand what a "dashboard" is?- Finally, a comment you'll probably hear a lot: let a user start building without having to join. As a final step, you could ask the user to join. |
Please review my web app for web designers with no programming skills | Androsynth: I would put a 'demo' or 'samples' link in the header nav bar. When I clicked on the 'view demo' links, I had to go back to the homepage to view the other demos. |
Would you go to Iraq for a year and be paid $200k? | organicgrant: I think you've already decided. Do it. |
Would you go to Iraq for a year and be paid $200k? | albertsun: I'd do it. Living and working in Iraq would be an amazing and unique experience, even without the high pay. Pick up an Arabic phrasebook while you're on your way. |
Please review my web app for web designers with no programming skills | Osmose: If you're targeting web designers without programming skills, you may do well mentioning something to that effect on the home page. My first thought when looking at it was that it was for people who have never made a website.Also, the "than before" in the blurb on the left seems awkward to me. Perhaps take it out? |
Would you go to Iraq for a year and be paid $200k? | roundsquare: As long as it'd be safe, I'd go for it without hesitation. New place, fun work, big accomplishment, lots of money and free time? I'm not sure what down side you see, but it would need to be huge to turn this down. |
Would you go to Iraq for a year and be paid $200k? | jwb119: sounds like an interesting decision. best of luck.one thing to keep in mind is that 200k probably means more like 100k after taxes. that only leaves you about 20k overhead after you pay your student loans. just something to think about. |
Please review my web app for web designers with no programming skills | adelevie: I don't like the idea that web sites are just implementations of scripts. They are applications.
Someone sells a photo album application, not a photo album script with a pretty html+css layout. |
Would you go to Iraq for a year and be paid $200k? | metra: You're not giving us the alternatives. From how you've described it, the opportunity sounds great.But we don't know much about your current working situation. From what you have written, I assume that the other alternative you have pay (considerably?) <$200K. We don't know anything else about your current job. Thus it's tough to say NO because there's really only one choice that you've presented.So without knowing much about your best alternatives, I'll leave you with this piece of advice. When considering a new job, consider 1. the people, 2. the position, 3. the salary and 4. the company. And place a big emphasis on numbers 1 and 2 rather than 3 and 4.Also, the other guys are right - it does sound like you're very excited. I'm only hesitant to say "Go for it!" because I don't know anything about what it's like in Iraq. I'm all for new experiences but I wouldn't be able to recommend something I had no clue about. |
Would you go to Iraq for a year and be paid $200k? | olalonde: I would as long as I'm not used as a flesh shield ;) What kind of job would you have there? |
Would you go to Iraq for a year and be paid $200k? | ajkirwin: Where can I find a job like that? |
Would you go to Iraq for a year and be paid $200k? | jawngee: Allow me to be the dissenter.If you're doing this for the military or the government, I would urge you to consider if your work is contributing to all of the wrong reasons why we (as a country) are there, or if it's going to contribute to helping correct the mistakes that got us there.Is war really something you want to experience? Things are calm there now, relative to a few years ago, but - imho - still is a pretty bad place for American civilians.Anyways, if it were me, it would more or less come down on the morality of what I'm contributing to directly through my work. Yes, 200K is a lot of money, but there isn't any reason, if you're good, that you won't eventually be making that every 1.5-2 years in a metropolitan area like NYC.This is all under the assumptions you'd be working for the US government. |
Would you go to Iraq for a year and be paid $200k? | mattwdelong: It's fairly easy to say that I would do it, especially without being in this position.Really, I think you would have to evaluate your current situation. Do you have other job offers, or a current job? How do those jobs weigh in comparison? The fact that you are asking us leads me to suggest that perhaps you want to go and people are trying to convince you otherwise? If that be the case, then I suggest you do what you want to do, screw what other people think - unless you have significant others, or kids depending on you.However, if you are solely interested in the money, but scared of going to Iraq I really would advise against taking the offer. Going to a place like Iraq for that much money seems like you would be getting yourself into a situation you couldn't easily back out of. It would suck to live an entire year in regret - especially in that part of the world.Regardless, I wish you the best of luck. Take our suggestions as a grain of salt. You will have to live with your decision for an entire year..not us. |
Would you go to Iraq for a year and be paid $200k? | thesethings: Pretend the salary is the same in both places, and judge the decision just on the experience factor. (I say this because for a variety of reasons, you could make that much money in the States as a reasonably curious, skilled person. You read Hacker News after all :D You know all about salary ranges, entrepreneurship, affiliate programs, Parrot Books, and Adsense. I'm not saying we all make 200K, we just all know about opportunities... :D ).So... unless it's desperate, debt or any kind of financial incentive is probably a bad reason to pick any job under such unique conditions. That said, if the experience is compelling, then listen to that part of your heart.Good luck. Let us know what you choose. |
Would you go to Iraq for a year and be paid $200k? | cellis: Hell yeah.I say so now, but i wonder if I'd get over there and have to confront Hurt Locker-esque situations. I'm 22, so my risk tolerance may be above average. |
Would you go to Iraq for a year and be paid $200k? | setori88: Shan't tell you what to do mate, but after seeing a family member go out there and get his leg blown off, I highly suggest you to avoid this kind of environment. Keep your mind focussed on what you are doing, and not avoiding bullets, incoming shells, kidnapping, etc. |
Would you go to Iraq for a year and be paid $200k? | Magneus: I have to echo the sentiments of everyone else: as long as you'll be (reasonably) safe, do it.Having lived abroad myself (China), I can tell you that the experience will broaden your mind. Keep an open outlook and heed albertsun's advice to learn some Arabic and you'll have an amazing time. |
Would you go to Iraq for a year and be paid $200k? | colinplamondon: If there's a 3% chance of a mortar landing near you, is that worth it? Honest question. A lot of folks would risk their life for a 3% chance at any significant amount of money. Personally, I wouldn't- I would rather keep my 'risks of dying' to things like mugging (.05%/day), bus crashes (.005%/day), and dying in a nuclear holocaust (.00005%/day).Just a matter of how much risk you're cool with. |
Please review my web app for web designers with no programming skills | izak30: From my POV (SaaS CMS for Designers and their Clients) You are filling a gap. That gap is "Designers who want to fiddle with code a little bit".Most of our designers would rather be done after a PSD, but some want to tinker with it a little more (we call them front-end developers if they know HTML and CSS... and dabble in javascript) |
Would you go to Iraq for a year and be paid $200k? | Zak: I'd do it just for the experience... and the extra money wouldn't hurt. |
Would you go to Iraq for a year and be paid $200k? | Zarathu: Yes. Very solid yes.You don't see much of this in the media, but Iraq is a stunningly beautiful country. There's a lot that you can learn from the people there (and certainly much they could learn from you), and the Arabic language is nothing short of remarkable.Diving head-first into another culture is one of the few educations that the Internet and college cannot fully convey via text. You won't regret it. |
How do you send mails from Amazon EC2? | wrs: If you're willing to risk going over a vague TOS restriction (no "excessive" usage), try fusemail.com.If you want to pay for certainty, some standard SMTP services are: Sendgrid, AuthSMTP, fastmail.fm. |
Please review my web app for web designers with no programming skills | lftl: I'd link the text "watch my screencasts" to your blog page. At first I thought you actually didn't have any screencasts done. I'd consider highlighting them more as well, maybe making them have a section like the demos and featured as prominently. |
Would you go to Iraq for a year and be paid $200k? | democracy: don't go there mate, it's not worth it |
Would you go to Iraq for a year and be paid $200k? | waffenklang: I'd do it if I wouldn't have a family here and realise: one year. what is one year? its about to be nothing and in the end maybe you like this country get contacts there and more opportunities for more jobs, projects, whatever.
And about the risk. Scientists found out that the risk of dying on a heart attack increases about 50% if you are spending more than 5 hours per day in front of a computer or tv, so what are 3% compared to 50%? Offices equal all over the world.One year for debt free living and extra money? Yes, you can.edit: but please keep us informed and upload pictures :D |
Would you go to Iraq for a year and be paid $200k? | patrickgzill: If you are going to be coding, I would think that you are not going to be in too much danger - they aren't going to ship you out to places to install things in the thick of battle, right?I say go for it. IIRC the entirety of the $200K will be tax free.While there, network amongst the people there (you should be able to make some long term friends) and well, who knows where those contacts will lead afterwards. |
Would you go to Iraq for a year and be paid $200k? | blim: Money is a huge incentive especially early in your career. It will absolutely be a once in a life time experience, that said it may be your last experience in this lifetime.You enjoy your job now and are only 4 months in. Do not discount the value of local experience relative to foreign experience. Later in your career taking experience abroad may be an asset depending on your role, but early on local experience and the local contact network you build has a lot of value.I suspect the hour or two a day you spend relaxing can be filled with starting those projects you have "always wanted to get off the ground". It is far more dangerous there than it appears on TV; private contractor casualties are NOT public information. If it was elsewhere in the region like Dubai it'd be an entirely different equation, but it is Iraq.This link will give you an impression of the lifestyle of a tech guy in Iraq http://www.rezendi.com/travels/bbbb.html "blood bullets ad bandwidth" be aware that the situation has changed since this was published and the danger is very real. If it seemed like you've been in that kind of environment before I wouldn't have responded at all as you'd know the score, but it sounds like you've never served in the military, or been in hot zones before, I urge you to consider carefully. |
Would you go to Iraq for a year and be paid $200k? | aaronblohowiak: Fortune favors the bold. |
Please review my web app for web designers with no programming skills | jaw: nitpicking: "allow you build websites" rather than "allow you to build websites" looks like a typo to me (which is an unfortunate first impression) |
Would you go to Iraq for a year and be paid $200k? | rdl: I am a defense contractor; I've worked in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, etc. since about 2004.1) $200k is pretty weak, even for today (it's gone downhill overall). If you can get a secret (basically, us citizen and not a felon), and have decent tech skills, you should be at $200-350k.2) It's not tax free. The FIRST ~$85k is tax-exempt, which saves you about 18k. You then pay taxes at the normal 27-36% rates above that. My win s that I don't have an apartment back in the US, so my only expenses while here are car payment, storage, and server colo.3) Big difference in quality of life throughout the country -- if you're on base at Balad or Victory it's basically like living in a small town in the US. If you're out in a Bn or smaller unit on an iraqi army base, or out in the city, it's a lot different. I've done a variety.4) If you've never been in the military or had contact with it, I'd do it for a year just for the experience -- it's actually something I think everyone should do for a couple years.The biggest downsides for me:1) I gained about 20 pounds last year in Afghanistan living on Bagram, due to the shitty but high-calorie carb-laden food.2) Generally, working for government is the anti-startup. You are specifically instructed not to take any initiative, everything is more concerned about process than results, etc. Actual combat is different, but there is no real combat in Iraq or Kuwait now, and in Afghanistan it is unlikely a contractor involved in direct combat support would be posting like this on hackernews. (If I could get a job where I got to put bullets into bad guys 12-24h/day, I'd do it for $20k/yr, but aside from joining a government agency or the military, it would be difficult to find a contractor in 2010 who does this ... blackwater/triple canopy/etc. etc back in 2003-2005 were about the only ones)3) There is no firm end date. I did this for 6 months just to see what it would be like, and have wasted about 4 of the past 5 years in the sandbox. I'm planning to leave in a few months to work on a startup of my own in the USA again (maybe YC 2010 Summer!), using some of my experiences from here, but it's totally possible to keep doing this indefinitely.4) The war is definitely winding down, so pay, upward mobility, etc. continue to decrease5) People in the defense industry are NOT like startup people -- there are huge amounts of fraud, backstabbing, incompetence, etc. Startup deals for $50m can be done on a handshake; here you need lawyers, contracts, audits, etc. or you will get fucked. |
Would you go to Iraq for a year and be paid $200k? | rdl: Also, people here do not realize:An IT contractor (presumably for ITT, at that low salary) is working at a helpdesk on a big base. The contact with locals is almost zero. You'll encounter a lot of interesting third country nationals (filipinos, indians, etc.) working on base, but that's about it. Mainly, you will be dealing with other Americans (military or contractor.It's basically the most boring helpdesk job possible in a boring environment.The "contact with local culture" is "local vendor sets up a shop on base selling overpriced carpets and camel figurines".If you just want contact with an exotic culture, go backpacking in India/Nepal/Indonesia/etc.The only reason for defense contracting in 2010 is money, and "seeing what the military is like up close" (I thought it was much more homogenous and omnipotent than it turned out to be. I'm not sure if I like it more or less now) |
Would you go to Iraq for a year and be paid $200k? | Timothee: If it were me, I would not go. I would love to be paid $200k, but it's not a life changing amount of money worth the risk I see associated with going there. (if it were $500k+, it starts getting a bit different)If you want to do it for the experience, that's one thing, though there are many places in the world that are fairly safe without bearing the same risk at the moment, and I'm sure spending one year in a completely different culture will be a life-changing experience!But if you want to do it for the money, this isn't a significant amount of money in the long term.But, of course, that's just my opinion. :) |
Would you go to Iraq for a year and be paid $200k? | mos1: There's going to be an election in March, and the results of it will help determine what sort of place it will be for the foreseeable future.It's clear that if the sunnis and the shiites can't share power politically, that the levels of violence are likely to escalate. If they can, they'll likely stay level or trend downward.That said, if you're seriously considering it, I'd read some of the numerous accounts from journalists and other non-combat professionals who have spent time over there.If after recognizing the possibility of changes in the security situation, the dangers associated with working in Iraq (both physical and mental) you still want to go.... go ahead.But personally, I wouldn't even consider it. Making money isn't really that hard, and there are countless interesting experiences I can have that don't involve substantial risk of trauma.That said, everybody's money threshold is different, and it's a lot easier to say no to $200k as somebody who already lives comfortably and has a family to take care of, than it would be to say it as somebody who isn't yet financially comfortable, and whose passing would affect only parents, not wives/children. |
Would you go to Iraq for a year and be paid $200k? | rdl: On security in 2010:1) Afghanistan can still be dangerous. The risk for a trigger puller/door kicker is very high, but for an IT contractor it's about the same as riding a motorcycle 50-100mi/day in Seattle.2) Iraq is actually safer (on base, for IT contractors) than living in a lot of big but not especially nice cities. The biggest risk is honestly chronic health conditions (like a heart attack) or people having emotional/relationship/etc. issues and self-inflicted injury.3) Kuwait is INSANE. Specifically, driving off-base is insane. I drive about 2-3h/day between US bases, and see one obviously-fatal motor vehicle accident on the highways every day. The only time in my life I've ever done CPR and treated arterial bleeding (I'm an IT guy, not a doctor!) was responding to a Kuwaiti on Kuwaiti vehicle accident a couple years ago. I'd say the risk is about the same as riding 50-100 miles/day on a motorcycle, drunk, in a not-especially-motorcycle-friendly city.4) Qatar is like Kuwait only safer.5) Bahrain is safer than Kuwait and fun, except on Thursday/Friday when lots of drunk Saudi weekend guys show up, turning it into Kuwait-level danger.There are lots of reasons to do or not do this, but safety is basically not an issue (except if you're driving between bases in Kuwait, which people don't really do) |
Would you go to Iraq for a year and be paid $200k? | akamaka: My friend had a job that sent him there for a "tour" of many months, with similar pay. It was boring at times, and he lived in a trailer on a base, but he kept going back for more tours, so he definitely thought it was worth it. |
Would you go to Iraq for a year and be paid $200k? | hedgehog: Figure out where/what you'll be doing and what level of interesting work and risk you'll be seeing. I went over in 2004 and it was definitely an exciting time but I wasn't working on a base so YMMV. I liked the local food, I don't know how I would fare on a year of mess hall fare. |
Would you go to Iraq for a year and be paid $200k? | jdietrich: I'm really rather keen on having my head attached to my body, so I would have to say no. I bet Ken Bigley thought he was on to a nice little earner, right up until al-Zarqawi's men came through the door.I'm just a clueless civvie, but it seems to me that the insurgency in Iraq is becoming more indiscriminate and that the risks to all westerners there are largely similar, regardless of what they are there to do. IEDs and mortars don't distinguish between military and civilian targets. The kidnapper actively seek out civilians.Other posters with far more relevant experience than I seem to think that you won't really have any contact with the locals and spend most of your time doing grunt work, so it doesn't seem to me like there are many intangible benefits beyond being able to say that you've worked in a warzone. If you want a great cultural experience, surely you'd be better off going to places where you don't have to travel in a convoy of armoured cars? Travel is tremendously cheap at the moment and there are plenty of opportunities to work your way around, especially as a young, educated American - half the world is willing to offer you a Working Holiday visa. If you don't fancy teaching English, tending a bar or picking fruit, you could tote a laptop and freelance.Think about longer-term earning potential. What would you learn in Iraq that would make you attractive to civilian employers? What opportunities would that entry on your CV open up? What would be the value of a year's experience as a junior developer at a bank, for instance?If you're typical of the average HN reader, you could do far better. I can't begin to estimate the value created by the average startup founder in their first year, but I'm guessing that it's a hell of a lot more than $200k. It's never been cheaper to startup and never easier to reach ramen profitability. There's never been more angel money and never more VCs willing to make small, early-stage investments.The opportunity you have strikes me as a boring, dangerous dead-end for not very much money. As a recent graduate, I'd be far more concerned about building up long-term equity than about making quick cash. I expect that your student debt must feel like a massive burden, but relative to your career earning potential it's chump change. Think long term, think about what you can build up for yourself. |
Would you go to Iraq for a year and be paid $200k? | duncan_bayne: I'd certainly consider it if I didn't have a wife with her own career here in Australia. If I had a student loan to pay off I'd be even keener.One suggestion though: get a little bit of training in first (maybe from Suarez International or a similar organisation).I don't mean high-speed low-drag gunslinging ninja stuff (although their vehicle gunfighting course _does_ look like fun). What I mean is advice on how to keep yourself safe in a foreign, hostile environment. Precautions to take, places to go and not to go ... that sort of thing. |
Would you go to Iraq for a year and be paid $200k? | richcollins: You can make $150 an hour doing software consulting in San Francisco. Thats 240k a year assuming you can bill 40 full weeks a year. |
Would you go to Iraq for a year and be paid $200k? | carpdiem: In the wise words of Marilyn Monroe, "Ever notice that 'what the hell' is always the right decision?" |
Please review my web app for web designers with no programming skills | teej: Aesthetics: the color scheme is murdering my eyes. Use a simple palette and use colors that work well together. I prefer to start with http://colorschemedesigner.com/Logistics: You have _5_ calls to action on your front page. Pick one and drive it home. Focus on _1_ and either remove or tone down the others.Idea: definitely seems reasonable. Without signing up, I don't really have any concept of how it works. |
Would you go to Iraq for a year and be paid $200k? | ciex: US coder gets sent to the middle east for a bunch of moneyReminds me of Ken Follett's 'On Wings of Eagles' - definitely a recommendation if you're into thrillers! It's about a team of coders from EDS (now part of HP I think) who get sent to Iran to work for the government and are then refused to leave the country. |
Should I focus on getting API customers or direct customers? | bensummers: Have you done the sums? Factoring in sales volume, your time (dev + support), marketing costs, growth curve, etc?Numbers always beat guesses. See anything patio11 writes. :-) |
Would you go to Iraq for a year and be paid $200k? | ahk: IMO, 200k doesn't set you up for life, so it's not worth your life. One year is quite a long time and things _will_ go wrong. |
Would you go to Iraq for a year and be paid $200k? | melito: It depends on the job.I don't have any problem going to a non luxurious part of the world thats inhospitable. Not even for an extended period of time.The only thing that would keep me from going are my 'opinions' about middle east foreign policy.If its a good opportunity don't not go because you're scared.If you got a good thing going where you're at, no sense in leaving either. Your call. |
Should I focus on getting API customers or direct customers? | wakeupthedawn: You're charging $3 per stamp w/o a plan and at best $1 per stamp with the intro plan?! Wow! It's cool that you're able to attract customers at those margins.I'm a bit confused as to why your API customers are given better rates (I assume this is why you have lower margins with them). Why not use the regular rates and give an API key to every customer who wants one? |
Please review my web app for web designers with no programming skills | tcarnell: ...Be careful: Are you sure this is something people need? Is this something YOU believe web designers want? What problem does this solve? Ultimately, how will get get money from it?I think maybe the 'eye candy' has taken up more time than the quality of the product. Always remember Google, a plain white page, a form field and a 'search' button...worth billions...Go for it!! get users, get feedback, improve it etc, but be sure you can answer the above questions...Also, from my experience, dont rely on friends/family for useful feedback/support - find people that have the right way of thinking and draw from them... |
Should I focus on getting API customers or direct customers? | patio11: You have far, far more intestinal fortitude than I do to go into that business. (It involves marginal work and low margins. Yikes -- software sounds so much better.)I'd say "both". My reasoning is that you can use the B2C customers as the kindling to light the B2B fire -- they're cheap, easy to service, and numerous. Get them to do your marketing for you. (You can use your existing technology to quickly roll out linkbait mini-projects: web form + visual design + PDFification + a letter physically delivered to grandma = instant remarkable content. You can launch one of these a week: Send A Solider A Valentine, for example. That is probably a little late but you get the general tenor of the sort of emotional buttons I'd suggest you push.)This gives you something to do while waiting for the phone to ring on the B2B deals, and will help you with SEO. Why focus on B2B over the long term? Well, it allows you to have much more predictable revenue, and having a lifetime customer value which could buy a pizza is very helpful once you start think of incremental-cost marketing options like, say, AdWords.Mind if I give you the same advice I gave cperciva? Thirty minutes on that home page will double your sales. Heck, if you're in a hurry, you can do it in two: put a BIG OBVIOUS BUTTON on it. I don't know, 10 kilopixels of big. Maybe bigger.If you have graphical talent, something I lack, I'd collapse the entire sales pitch into an illustrated:1) Put in address
2) Type letter (We take PDFs, too!)
3) Pay money and it gets mailedI'd put the API & login links in the top corner and the bottom of your textual description, or somewhere similarly discrete. (The audience for those is very different than the audience who you want converting within 90 seconds of landing on your site.) |
How do you send mails from Amazon EC2? | scraplab: We use AuthSMTP.http://www.authsmtp.com/ |
Would you go to Iraq for a year and be paid $200k? | stse: After reading this thread, I'm just amazed how out of touch with reality a lot of the people here seem. Iraq is a war zone, one of the most dangerous places on the planet. Going there to experience the culture or the people is just absurd. There's a reason why you'll make relatively much money. And it's not because it's an awesome experience while you're there. Just the fact of being confined to a military base for a year is going to affect your life tremendously. |
Would you go to Iraq for a year and be paid $200k? | plinkplonk: I would (got to Iraq for 200k a year), but then I am not American and so the Iraqis probably don't hate me as much. OTOH if I am working with the American Occupation, my nationality is probably a moot point for the Iraqi aiming a gun at me. |
Would you go to Iraq for a year and be paid $200k? | 371c: would you sell your life for 200k? |
Would you go to Iraq for a year and be paid $200k? | marknutter: Dear God no. |
Should or shouldn’t Amazon.com create a publishing company? | stonemetal: They do publish, or rather let you self publish through them.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/seller-account/mm-summary-page.html... |
Should or shouldn’t Amazon.com create a publishing company? | ippisl: It's a long term strategy, and very much dependent on kindle market share.It's not a move that will help the kindle in the near/mid-term future. And that's where they're focusing now.But in the long term if the kindle becomes popular , it might be a good move. |
Should or shouldn’t Amazon.com create a publishing company? | mooism2: I'm sceptical. What does Amazon know about publishing?With the Kindle, they were already skilled at retailing and designing user interfaces.With their cloud services, they were selling a service they had to provide for themselves anyway.Why would an author sign to Amazon instead of an established publisher? What could Amazon do better than them? |
Please review our redesigned Web App, GradeMate | mikegioia: You can access the demo here: http://www.mygrademate.com/demousername/password: demo/demo |
Please review our redesigned Web App, GradeMate | gkoberger: Beautifully designed, and looks easy to use. Seems to be heavily inspired by Basecamp (which isn't a bad thing).Two questions: - Out of curiosity, how do you make money?
- How are you marketing it,since grade school teachers are rarely the techie type? |
Please review our redesigned Web App, GradeMate | CoryMathews: The idea is really good, I really could have used this in college.However it seems like its trying to do to much thus it is a bit confusing at first. |
Please review our redesigned Web App, GradeMate | mrduncan: Initial thoughts - It looks really nice, very clean and organized compared to most education related software.It seems like there are a lot of settings that can be updated, but what about just picking good defaults and cleaning up the unnecessary ones all together? For example, why would I want to turn Enable iCal formatted feed for my Calendar. off? Does Enable my RSS feeds for upcoming assignments and tests. do? pull in other RSS feeds, or make my rss feeds available? If it makes mine available, why would I ever want to turn it off? If I have a profile picture, who gets to see it and where is it displayed?Editing course grades (clicking on the numbers) didn't seem very intuitive to me. It took a little clicking around to realize that I could even update them. Same thing with the Mark as complete button on assignments, it looks like the button is disabled.Hope that helps, I only took a quick look at the demo so don't take me too seriously. |
Please review our redesigned Web App, GradeMate | maxklein: I'm not going to sign up for this unless you tell me what pricing ballpark you are looking at, or give me some guarantee it will always be free.Do you know the amount of trouble it would be to move an entire school to your system? And what if you come and say $500 a month and then we have to move the entire school back.That's why I'm not going to sign up - I don't want to enter a bait and switch situation.Another thing that turns me off is the language - the teachers I deal with are serious people. Smileys, share the love, Sit tight and such things will make the tool seem frivolous to them. The school owners would see this as a toy and not a proper tool for management. You are speaking designer language, not school teacher language.What about the exams and the result generation for the students? Can't see it in a quick look over. |
Please review our redesigned Web App, GradeMate | alexk: I've noticed that sign up page was http only and felt quite uncomfortable. |
Please review our redesigned Web App, GradeMate | vaporstun: One thing I found a bit odd is when editing a course, the button at the bottom says, "Edit <course name>"It seemed as though I had to click that button to edit the course when in fact I was already editing it.Seems to me it would make much more sense to have that simply say "Save Changes" or something to that effect to be a bit more clear. |
Please review our redesigned Web App, GradeMate | Vindexus: What are you using for that help function? That's pretty well done. I like that it shows help relevant to the current page.I don't really get the reminders. I can't set the date they show up so they're not really that helpful to me.I made something similar to this as a Facebook application back when I was getting started with stuff. One thing I thought would be awesome would be a Wiki for your course notes that anyone in your class could edit. Probably out of the scope of your project, but I still think it's a good idea :)I really like the design. It's very clean.On the Grades page it wasn't immediately obvious to me that the grades fields were textboxes. They have no border or anything to make them look like inputs so I was looking for an "Add a Grade" button.Also, how do you make money? |
Please review our redesigned Web App, GradeMate | _Lemon_: One question that comes to mind: does my teacher have to be using it for it to be worthwhile/possible for me to use?When you say teachers, who are you aiming at? Would it be helpful for a university student? Would it help if I'm in the UK and not the US (aside from perhaps different lingo)?I don't think who the web application is for is communicated effectively. |
Please review our redesigned Web App, GradeMate | daok: Very nice design. Love the way it was clear to get to your demo. Love it. |
How do you send mails from Amazon EC2? | papyromancer: I remember having a problem with this when I set up an ec2 instance. I don't have any links handy (it was over a year ago), but I remember getting some helpful responses from gmail when my server attempted to send mail to their users. Something about being Greylisted or maybe I'm remembering that it came through in my postgrey logs.The best I can remember for my solution was to get an elastic ip, then fill out some forms with a watchlist organization, and add some fancy txt records to my dns.A couple days later emails were going out fine.Sorry I can't be more specific, but it was one of those things that hat me beating my head against a wall for a few days, and after a few days of the steep learning curve for sending email the number of things I tried vastly exceeded the number of things that worked, so my notes are of little help. |
Please review our redesigned Web App, GradeMate | sync: Very pretty, I'll give you that.But it feels like a database. All I'm doing is creating, updating, deleting... CRUD all over the place, and not much else. |
Please review our redesigned Web App, GradeMate | karanbhangui: Great job, I'm going to use this when I go back to college this summer. Btw, would it be possible to add email to the reminders section? |
Please review our redesigned Web App, GradeMate | brandon272: I think that the lack of pricing is a big problem. It's the first thing I was scanning for as soon as I hit the website. For some reason, it almost seems kind of insulting, and I'll tell you why:Teachers are already quite organized. They already have methods, processes and often software in place for managing most of what you're offering here. Switching to this system from their current system would take an investment of time and effort.A website with a "we'll tell you the pricing later!" strategy basically sends the message that you think that the service is either so wonderful, or that their current methods of staying organized are so crappy, that it need not matter what the prices are. But the truth is, you should be showing them the prices from the get go so that they can get some kind of immediate register of value in their mind before they proceed to investigate your service. |
Please review our redesigned Web App, GradeMate | ThomPete: Very 37Signals, perhaps a bit to much.But overall looks good and at least it's clear and concise. |
You must build a backlink index of the web. How do you do it? | jdrock: Are you trying to build your own index or do you just want to make a limited number of calls to someone else's index? |
Bugs vs. Mistakes | DanielStraight: "NASA has managed to write bug free code at a rate of about $1000/line. If you'd prefer to work that way, we can."The simple fact is that it's cheaper to get it approximately right and fix bugs as they come up then to guarantee no bugs in the beginning. |
Bugs vs. Mistakes | skennedy: In my opinion, bugs are identified after mistakes are made.Mistakes are items that are not clearly defined as a requirement to the client and use cases identified. If your code passes the documented requirement and use cases supplied, then it is a mistake. Further requirements analysis should have been conducted by the client. Mistakes happen as the set of requirements and use cases become very interrelated to make a complex solution.A bug would be not thoroughly testing the code to pass all identified requirements and use cases.The dilemma I have previously run into is the balance between client happiness and my own. If you endlessly do free work for the client, they may come to expect it. If you do not, future work may be lost. My opinion would be to go over requirement docs and statements of work with a fine tooth comb, line-by-line. Any holes, plug them. Any questions, clarify them. Make sure the client knows which party owns which set of risks. You should not take 100% of the risk when maybe the client can spend more time identify requirements. |
Bugs vs. Mistakes | jeffmould: In my opinion a "bug" is when you complete the project based on the client's requirements/spec and a piece does not work as intended. On the other hand, a "mistake" is when you miss or do something not defined in the client's requirements/spec that causes the application/site to function contrary to the client's wishes.Based on these definitions, the charge for a "bug" is covered by the client, while a "mistake" would be absorbed by you.There is one disclaimer here, mistakes can results in bugs. If you were unaware of this issue at the onset then you are partly responsible for the bug in a sense. In this case you may choose to offset some of the cost for fixing the issue.The key to determining where "bugs" and "mistakes" fall is in having a clear requirement/spec document ahead of time. Each party should understand where their responsibility lies and who assumes the risk. |
Everyday things you do that seem like magic | mbrubeck: * Running another OS in a virtual machine.* Jumping around between/within apps using only the keyboard. (I use vim, xmonad, Gnome Do, etc.)* Dropbox, Google Voice, Android Maps navigation |
Everyday things you do that seem like magic | dmd: Watched a movie by plugging my laptop into my TV. |
Please review our redesigned Web App, GradeMate | srik: Couple of questions.1. Possible to update through mobile/email/iphone-app/phone-call, do u have plans to do so anytime soon ?2. * Could you be more clear about your intentions on offering the student account for free.3. Is all my information exportable (also as spreadsheets etc.), do u have that option right now/plan to do so soon?4. Possible to check grades with a classmate, but not a teacher(privacy features etc.) and compare ?5. * Possible to arrange the courses according to semesters/years ?Also perhaps, a facebook/goog/openid/ etc. login should help convincing students to signup. |
Everyday things you do that seem like magic | nishantmodak: I wrote several Gtalk bots and asked them to add those as friends.They had fun chatting! |
Bugs vs. Mistakes | towndrunk: I look at them as the same thing. In either case there is a modification that is going to take place to correct the issue. To error is human and in 17 years of software development I have never come across a project that didn't have both mistakes and bugs in it. |
Everyday things you do that seem like magic | d4rt: Using a text editor (Vim) to edit text.
Particularly in this case use of the :g/ and :v/ commands to filter text and edit all lines matching a pattern.Excel scripting and filtering and text functions. (Basic things, like looking for a particular string, and filtering a list to just those containing it using formula functions). |
Bugs vs. Mistakes | run4yourlives: It depends on how you choose to define both, really.In my mind, there is no difference, but there are different categories of "bugs".1. The first the "mistake". In that there is universal agreement that a piece of code does x yet it does y. These are usually trivial and often picked up either prior to ship or in initial testing phases, whatever that may be. In order words as long as you are competent, you will catch and fix 90% of these.2. The second is where the result does not match the intended result. There are two sub-classes of this bug.
a) The spec/directive/customer request is not properly followed, or interpreted in a way that is incorrect.
b) The spec/directive/customer request does not exist for a specific component.
c) The spec/directive/customer request is incorrectly defined or invalid within the business context.This second class is where there are more opinions than stars in the sky, and it's also where we differ from building houses and such. Interpreting a customer's intent and desire (even if the customer is you) and translating that into a functional program is one of the most difficult parts of being a programmer. |
How do you send mails from Amazon EC2? | bhiggins: We have Postini already, so we decided to relay through them. Also, I noticed that my emails were blocked before I had an elastic IP, but after I got an elastic IP address they weren't. YMMV. |
Everyday things you do that seem like magic | clistctrl: I'm amazed at how fast computers are. For instance I recently wrote a query on a medium sized database with several thousand records in a few tables joined together. The query took about 2 seconds, which was frustrating to me as I'm trying to get it under a second... but even 2 seconds is actually really impressive when you think about what you are doing. This machine can do more math in less than a second, then I could do with a pencil and paper over a year. |
Why does Google say X million results and only gives up to Y? | pivo: I imagine that the first part of the question has to do with paging. The first page is just the first n hits. But for subsequent pages they need to start at the beginning and skip page size * page number hits until they get to the hits for the current page. That gets expensive, so much so that they don't let you do it past 1000. |
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