instruction stringlengths 4 105 | output stringlengths 8 56.7k |
|---|---|
Would you go to Iraq for a year and be paid $200k? | theprodigy: if this job entails working with the militaries technology (servers, networks, etc) you should take it. A lot of the very smart network engineers and programmers that I have met have worked in military; Iraq and DOD.You are going to be dealing with some high tech environments in Iraq and will get good experience and money in the process. |
Why does Google say X million results and only gives up to Y? | dalke: I just did a search for "football checkers acequia moon" (without the quotes). It says there are about 11,400 pages, but when I go through them it ends up with 221 pages. I assume the estimation is based on some statistical predictions using the individual search words. Here they are relatively common terms (well, except 'acequia') which rarely go together.I found http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/008851.html say "I work for google these days, though not on search. The number of hits for phrases are estimates, based on overall word frequencies". The invalidity of the estimated results has been haphazard for a long time. See http://danfingerman.com/dtm/archives/000004.html from 2003. |
Is China throttling Google.com? help me | jrockway: Why run an Internet business in China? Even the giants like Google can't quite get it right. Why do you think you will succeed?Much better to be in the US or Europe. It's worth the extra taxes or whatever. |
Project Collaboration Web Apps? | dzlobin: www.basecamphq.com
I'm not sure there is anything better |
Is China throttling Google.com? help me | reedlaw: It's working fine for me in central China. Why not just use the VPN if you're having trouble? |
Tips/Guide for thinking like a physicist? | hga: The approach I used is called physical intuition. Specifically, you try to envision using some sort or set of metaphors of what's going on. For electricity (what level? DC, AC, AC with calculus?), e.g. moving electrons, for AC add the propagation of current. Try to connect visual plots of voltage and so on to that.Then see how the formula apply to your visualizations. And/or use the formula to help produce them ... i.e. the formula says "at this point, voltage will be X and rising" ... how does that translate into current and electrons moving? Or try to visualize fields.Also seek out other explications of this. If you have trouble with the calculus as it's taught today, look into infinitesimal calculus (one free on-line book, one Dover reprint of a good MIT Press book). Maybe The Manga Guide to Electricity would help. Or Purcell's Electricity and Magnetism; yeah, it's an advanced, "honors physics" treatment (e.g. it derives magnetism from electricity using Special Relativity: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relativistic_electromagnetism), but maybe it'll give you some useful approaches. (If you can't find a copy to look at, try to get the Tata McGraw-Hill Indian edition ISBN-10 0-07-066729-2), it's not in print elsewhere and copies are $$$).Talk to other people and see if they can wave their hands in ways that make sense. Etc.Good luck. |
Is China throttling Google.com? help me | thaumaturgy: Can you use traceroute to determine where the lag is being incurred? |
Suggest an attorney? (Google is after us) | foldr: Is it worth all that trouble just to keep the domain name? |
Why does Google say X million results and only gives up to Y? | Rantenki: Because they walk a small part of an index to figure out how many hits there _probably_ are.Geez; you think they actually count a giant left join on the internet?Also: http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2004/11/26/SearchSort |
Suggest an attorney? (Google is after us) | delano: If you're in Montreal, I know someone you can talk to. Send me an email.delano (@solutious.com) |
Suggest an attorney? (Google is after us) | ams6110: IANAL but I think their claim is weak. "Site" + "Google"? OK, where did the "z" come from?They can't really claim dibs on any name that happens to end in "oogle" and your firm does not seem to have anything to do with web search. Domino Sugar once tried to claim that Dominos Pizza was infringing on their name, a claim which they ultimately lost.They've surely got the pockets to harass you and sadly you're going to need an attorney to respond to their complaint. |
Suggest an attorney? (Google is after us) | keefe: honestly, there was no thought of google when you decided to suffix your names with "oogle"? The actual spelling of the word is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googol so you just happened to choose the bit of the word the misspelled... |
How can I get my hourly rate from $65 to $125 in the next 90 days? | pedalpete: Well, after reading that blog post earlier, I really wasn't getting anything out of it, so I understand why you would be asking the question.I wouldn't focus so much on how you can get your hourly rate TO $125, but rather think of it as 'what can you offer to make your hourly rate worthy of $125.Is anybody really looking for a PHP/MySQL programmer? No. They are looking to get a product/service/feature etc. built.
What do you offer in that equation. I suspect that your experience with the language is only a portion of that.It isn't always easy to figure out what soft skills you bring. Why do you program? What do you really like about it? Do you like creating beautiful code? If so, only so many clients will pay extra for that.
Are you able to make systems run with incredible efficiency, so the client could save on server costs? That may be worth the extra $$ to them.
Are you good at designing usability? If that is a missing piece, that may be valuable as well.I've found 'what can I offer' is better than 'what can I get'. |
Suggest an attorney? (Google is after us) | aresant: http://www.coastlawgroup.com - great team, Seyamack Kouretchian there is the technology guru to speak with. |
How can I get my hourly rate from $65 to $125 in the next 90 days? | richcollins: Get good at charging for results rather than hours. You can get a higher hourly rate if you're good at it.Find a niche with strong demand but without a lot of competition. New platforms are often good targets (Facebook, iPhone, Hadoop ... etc)Move someplace where the billing rates are higher. You can almost always clear more in big cities, even after accounting for the higher cost of living. |
Suggest an attorney? (Google is after us) | blueag: Google's case is weak. Since you own Bandzoogle.com before Google's sites, you should counter sue. BTW, whatever happen to "don't be evil"? All sugarcoated PR craps from Google? |
How can I get my hourly rate from $65 to $125 in the next 90 days? | gexla: Some thoughts...Project rates rather than hourly.Get out of the freelancer mindset. You are a small business, not a roving employee.Become a full service shop rather than an hourly component added by someone else. You create more value that way. Maybe even partner with a designer and grow your team as you go. Contract out parts of the project your team doesn't have expertise for.Establish yourself as an authority as a developer by blogging and creating great open code (oh, you are the guy who built that?!) If I haven't heard of you, then you have a challenge on your hands!Become a better salesman rather than becoming a better programmer. Though certainly keep growing as a programmer.Move more into niche areas in which your skills are more scarce.Sell a unique service and build a brand as opposed to taking in nearly ant type of job.Sell! Sell! Sell!Indirect ways to raise rates...Hire cheaper developers to do work for you.Move to an area with lower living costs. |
How can I get my hourly rate from $65 to $125 in the next 90 days? | patio11: Freelancing isn't quite my baliwick but since when is lack of knowledge a barrier to commentary on the Internet.1) You need to focus on marketing/selling yourself to better clients. I don't know what your current strategy is, but hypothetically say you're primarily getting your work from Craigslist. You're generally going to get mostly cheapskates that way. If clients were coming to you because you were identifiably the best in the field and they felt We Are Willing To Pay For The Best, then they'd be offering rather substantially more.2) Its fine to describe yourself as a PHP/MySQL programmer when you're with friends like us. Never talk like that in front of a client. You aren't a PHP/MySQL programmer -- that is just the tool you use to solve the problems that keep them from making stupid amounts of money. Code monkeys are cheap, people with strategic vision/soft skills/industry expertise/etc who also have the ability to knock together a DB when required are expensive.3) In service of #1 and #2: get a blog if you don't have one already. Start solving the problems that people who have money have. They'll soon start coming to you with their problems and offering you money.4) Some folks have already mentioned OSS contributions here, which is great if you want to brand yourself as The Man to do X. That could either be customizing your OSS for their needs, adding a few feature for it, or doing something related.5) Find folks to mentor you. I learned more about freelance rate setting from five minutes talking with Thomas than I had in the previous five years of working at two companies which do consulting as their business model. |
Suggest an attorney? (Google is after us) | cduan: Have you considered contacting the Electronic Frontier Foundation? They might take interest in this case (I know they did some work in these sorts of domain name disputes before), and they are near enough to Google HQ that they might have some contacts there. |
How do you send mails from Amazon EC2? | rksprst: We're going to be using SendGrid http://www.sendgrid.com |
Suggest an attorney? (Google is after us) | cvinson: Thanks for all the responses. The quality of feedback you get from HN is really amazing. |
How can I get my hourly rate from $65 to $125 in the next 90 days? | wushupork: Related to what some of the people are saying here, focus on what problem the customer is having. No small business needs a "PHP developer to create an e-commerce system" - they need a solution. If you can show them that you can solve their problem and help them MAKE MONEY, it's a much easier sell.It sounds very infomercial-ly but I think it's true.Also if you sell yourself as a PHP/MySQL developer, clients might not know what that means or what you can do, so you'd be limiting your clientele who are knowledgeable enough to know that PHP developers can do X. What you should be doing is to say you can solve X, Y and Z problems, and that you've done that for A, B, C clients. |
How can I get my hourly rate from $65 to $125 in the next 90 days? | rwhitman: I've been a freelance-only web developer for 10 years.Honestly with only general web dev skills and mostly PHP you'll be hard pressed to get over $65/hr. I know Django and I still strike out at getting Django projects pitched at $65/hr. But I think it has mostly to do with the economy.Once you want to cross a certain threshold you need to have more structure in place as a business (with project rates and lots of time spent coddling clients and doing documentation), some really specialized and in-demand skills or a long-running career with some impressive success behind you.I've pulled in $100/hr+ in the past, but it was due to a complete package of project management, design and creative direction and oodles of documentation and meetings etc. Operating almost as a shop, not freelanceI don't know who all these folks are that claim they're getting $125/hr rates but I suspect they have more up their sleeve than just run of the mill web programming. You take what the market will give you or you lose projects its that simple. |
What should Microsoft do to get its mojo back? | jcapote: This implies they had some mojo to begin with. |
What should Microsoft do to get its mojo back? | mbrubeck: Don't be so obsessed with what Google and Apple are doing. Stop entering markets that they have defined. Instead of focusing on crushing the competition and stealing market share, focus on creating a new market according to your own vision, where there are no other players. |
How can I get my hourly rate from $65 to $125 in the next 90 days? | ddemchuk: Rather than increase your rate, maybe you can try and increase your bandwidth. Your rate will be able to go up as your portfolio grows and the size and quality of clients increases.So keep taking on more and more projects, and bring in someone straight out of college to work for $15 an hour to take on the smaller ones with you. That's how I started at my current job, and my boss has taken our company from $1000 sites to $20,000 sites. The more work you do, the more experience you can leverage to raise your rates. |
What should Microsoft do to get its mojo back? | ChRoss: hmmm Bill Gates return? jus like Jobs return to Apple.
as for mobile product, i want Surface technology in WinMo. |
How can I get my hourly rate from $65 to $125 in the next 90 days? | Zak: Ditto on selling products/solutions rather than your ability to use certain tools.For some clients though, it is about the tools. They need an X programmer to extend their app that's written in X. I think part of your problem is your chosen X; PHP is popular, and it's easy to find work, so everybody's doing it. The supply of programmers is rather large, so it's hard to get anyone to pay more. Sure - you're demonstrably better than the average contractor, which is why they're willing to pay you $65 instead of $45.Learn some other tools. Find something with a higher barrier to entry, but still some demand. Try to be the guy who never says "that's not possible". |
How can I get my hourly rate from $65 to $125 in the next 90 days? | mikeyur: I have to agree with a lot of the other comments, start thinking on a project basis vs. hourly.I have a friend who runs a small dev shop and has spent the past few months selling a simple Facebook app she built.She charged a company around $10k for the app and got that rate by explaining how it would benefit their company. ie. Another form of interaction with customers, better brand recognition online, lead generation, etc etc. Apparently it took her about 2 weeks to build and she had to outsource some design work for ~$500. Assuming she worked 80 hours over the 2 weeks, she made roughly $120/hr.Now, that's really good money, but that hourly number keeps increasing over time because she realized she could resell it to other companies by simply changing the branding and some design elements. She continues to sell it for $10k, but her investment each time is significantly less because the bulk of the work is done. It just costs her a few hours and the price of the design work.In the past few months I think she's rebranded and sold it to 4 other companies. There are a bunch of factors into calculating the hourly rate for the project, but she essentially made $500/hr for that work.Think about your work differently and what you offer, sell a product or solution - you won't get your rates up if you make your clients think of you as just another employee. |
What should Microsoft do to get its mojo back? | steerpike: Release that delicious, delicious looking courier tablet. |
What should Microsoft do to get its mojo back? | korch: Microsoft's sole, yet-painful solution: a hard-reboot across the board resulting in "Winux". |
How can I get my hourly rate from $65 to $125 in the next 90 days? | bigiain: 'Please don't post something like "just ask for it" because I just can't believe that it's that easy.'It's certainly not, but keep in mind _not_ asking for it is 100% sure to stop you getting it. You _do_ have to ask for it before anybody will give it to you, but instead of "just asking" you're going to need to ask and have already demonstrated (or at very least be prepared to justify) why you are worth twice as much as some random PHP/MySQL guy off Craigslist. |
What should Microsoft do to get its mojo back? | og1: I'd really be interested in seeing MS continue to develop out Microsoft Robotics, don't know if it makes the most business sense though. |
How can I get my hourly rate from $65 to $125 in the next 90 days? | jonah: You're not going to get $125/hr as a "PHP Programmer". You'll get it as a firm delivering solutions.You'll likely need to partner with/subcontract out to others with the skills you need to offer a complete package. Marketing, design, copywriting, photography, and SEO come to mind. |
How can I get my hourly rate from $65 to $125 in the next 90 days? | jonah: Above all: Impeccable communication and delivery on time as promised. |
What should Microsoft do to get its mojo back? | volomike: - Push out a system patch (and a Silverlight update for those who don't download patches) that causes IE6 to post a warning bar at the top of every page it visits, with a link that they should upgrade because the IE6 browser is no longer patched. Also, pay a sum to Adobe to cause the latest Adobe Reader Plugin to issue this same warning.- Get out of the browser business. It costs you too much money and gives you too little in return. Let everyone use all the other browsers like Firefox, Safari, Opera, Chrome, and others. But if you plan to stay in it, then switch to the Webkit engine and please by all means support CSS3 just as good as Chrome does.- Push for open audio, video, and vector animation standards in HTML5, moving with the pack instead of against it, and don't even bother whether Adobe or Apple are on board with those plans.- Remember the years when Apple was going through the transition from the old OS to the new OS based on BSD UNIX? They had an arrangement where you could run old apps as well as new apps. Microsoft should do something similar, but with Novell Suse Linux.- Take MS Office back to the old interface before the funky menubars, and slim down the interface a good bit so that there aren't so many menu items by default.- Simplify the registry or eliminate it altogether. It's a mess. Linux guys love .conf files.- In the new Linux-based OS, once you lock in where settings are located, quit changing them dramatically because it angers people.- Give Steve Ballmer a golden parachute.- Merge the company with Novell. And if not that, then rename it so that it kind of helps with the new image.- Push for the elimination of software patent laws that you introduced in the first place. But, since that takes a long time to achieve, do the IBM approach for now. That approach is to gobble up a bunch of software patents, but do not sue people who infringe. In fact, legally protect those who infringe, who are also challenged in court, because it generates more business for you, instead. |
What should Microsoft do to get its mojo back? | sqba: They should have split into 3 separate companies as was suggested (and ordered?) a long time ago. Now's too late. |
What should Microsoft do to get its mojo back? | aresant: Swap out the CEO. Ballmer has kept things even keeled and done a great job releasing Windows 7, why not go out on a high note and put in somebody that represents the future, not the past? |
What should Microsoft do to get its mojo back? | Pahalial: A very specific suggestion:Push the Zune. With WiFi, HD decoding & output and significantly increased storage size, they could turn it from a pure iPod competitor to a significantly better SlingBox/iPod combo. If I walk into a friend's house and have it recognise the network, it should instantly start serving files over wifi, which any pc (Windows Media Center or XBOX, if you're looking for the tie-in) could play. If I want to charge it as it plays, or play particularly high-bandwidth content over a weak network, or output pre-decoded stuff, plug it in directly and stream it that way.As it stands, it can 'only' play 720p. Also, at 16/32 gb options and with current transfer speeds onto the device, the zune can't really achieve this. With 64/128 it starts to be possible, and Wireless N might help for streaming via wifi. Perhaps USB 3.0 will help load it with content faster?They need to milk the early adopter crowd as well, to win back mindshare the Zune has completely failed to grab from the iPod due to being such a "me too" project. This means working with all file formats at the very least, and arrangements with Hulu, Netflix, Spotify - if they don't already have them - would be good moves too. |
How can I get my hourly rate from $65 to $125 in the next 90 days? | dmhomee: One thing that I found useful in my craiglist sales pitches, was to get away from pitching yourself as a LAMP developer and pitching yourself as a consultant of popular technologies -- instead of just listing out php/mysql etc, have a section where you emphasize drupal, facebook, mobile applications etc. -- basically follow some of the hot markets that organizations want to break into. This falls a lot in line with selling on benefits and not features. "writes PHP" is a feature; "developing viral media platform for organizations" is a benefit.Taken with the advice that other people have on here, if you are able to make people think that you develop technology based on thought out, data/fact driven market/product decisions, they will be much more likely to buy from you at a premium. |
Suggest an attorney? (Google is after us) | pvh: Just change the name. Not a big deal. |
What should Microsoft do to get its mojo back? | andyjdavis: 2 possibilities 1) less command and control 2) more command and control1) less command and controlFund a whole bunch of branch new products to be built by people not currently employed by MS. Start ups essentially although they may or may not be 100% owned by MS.Make sure they are all separated from the rest of the company by an impermeable barrier featuring a moat, crocodiles and boiling oil.Let them work on whatever they think is best without concern for where it fits into MS's broader strategy.Some of them will be profitable. Some won't and will have to be shut down. Some will compete with the rest of MS. Some will compete with each other. So be it. That just increases the odds that one of MS's many arms will be successful.Kind of like a VC firm but they don't necessarily need to be separate companies.2) more command and control
MS has so much going on that it must be impossible to keep track of everything. Shut down "me to" or otherwise failed products. Concentrate on a smaller set of things and do them better.Whittle down the product offerings to a small set of strategically aligned products which can be carefully managed.Be more like Apple I suppose. |
Is anybody solving really cool problems anymore? | taitems: No offence intended, but this whole post reads like you are really dissatisfied with the world. |
Is anybody solving really cool problems anymore? | dangrossman: 1) Maid.2) They exist, you can go out and buy one now. Might need a pilot license.3) Gastric bypass surgery.4) Not quite there yet, but once you get her name you can look her up on Facebook and Twitter.5) Dunno about that one. Out here on the east coast, our stereos don't have any kind of remote control receivers to zap from your window.6) Ask Applied Digital Solutions, they made implantable GPS's in 2003.7) Look at the Darpa Urban Challenge. We have self driving cars, the only reason you can't buy it at your local car lot is that consumers don't trust computers to drive them yet. Toyota's said as much.8) Look at the front page right now, we've got remote control robots that ride around the office with video of your head as their head. |
Suggest an attorney? (Google is after us) | tzury: Whichever lawyer you will hire, should start the response letter with the following statement: "Do Not Do Evil"
What kind of a rubbish is that |
Is anybody solving really cool problems anymore? | coffeemug: Sorry for the shameless plug, but we like to think we're solving really cool problems: http://www.rethinkdb.comEDIT: I don't have the time right now to make a list of really cool startups, but I could probably come up with a list of at least ten. Here's one that immediately comes to mind: http://www.directededge.com/ |
Is anybody solving really cool problems anymore? | olalonde: You might want to add http://singularityhub.com/ to your feed reader ;) |
What should Microsoft do to get its mojo back? | chrisbolt: McDonalds does not own Chipotle, they sold their entire stake in 2006.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chipotle_Mexican_Grill |
Is anybody solving really cool problems anymore? | iamwil: The way to satiate your dissatisfaction is to work on it yourself. |
How can I get my hourly rate from $65 to $125 in the next 90 days? | ErrantX: > d) Find places to find great work (I mostly look on Craigslist right now)This is probably your problem. I had a lot more success finding bigger companies with more money to spend. Or entrepreneurial types who work in the "real world" and were willing to spend hard cash on a web presence too.A lot of my consultancy work comes through my consultancy partner; it's all Jewish clientele (and they are usually big spenders). We got gigs that, really, and less than 3 month old consultancy shouldn't have got - all because my partner is Jewish.So you need an "in" to a niche market of clientele. |
Is anybody solving really cool problems anymore? | sli: 6) EMP. Seriously. They make them, you can build them, they work. And they can cause some serious damage, so be ready to get slapped with vandalism charges. Here's another solution: call the police on that guy (for a terrible taste in music, oh God, introduce him to some real hip-hop!). |
Is anybody solving really cool problems anymore? | amih: Accelerated learning?Search for Vera Birkenbihl.
She has an audio course which is really amazing. I improved my memory and creativity and helped my kid memorizing foreign language words in school. He really enjoys the playful way we do it and aces at school. |
Is anybody solving really cool problems anymore? | aaronblohowiak: Do you work out? |
Is anybody solving really cool problems anymore? | ErrantX: One mans definition of cool isn't always another's :) |
Is anybody solving really cool problems anymore? | Tichy: I think the technology for augmented reality dating is almost ready, or might be ready now. Face recognition seems to have become really good lately.The only real problem is getting all the profile pics out of facebook. |
Is anybody solving really cool problems anymore? | ible: I'd love to have most of the things you mention, and some are on their way such self driving cars but there is lots of interesting work out there
How about
- pranav mistry's sixth sense project
- bio printers creating organs with ink jets
- combinatorial genomics
- google street view (still blows me away to check out a friend's new place in NZ from my couch in Canada)
- photosynth
- Self replicating 3d printers
- open source UAVs/autonomous helicoptersand that's just off the top of my head. I remember being prett impressed by the last 'what are you working on' thread as well.
- combinatorial genomics
- |
Is anybody solving really cool problems anymore? | roundsquare: For laundry, why not automate at least a part of it? I'm sure you can build a device above your laundry machine where you can toss your clothes. Once it gets above a certain weight, it can dump your clothes into the machine and trigger something else to add detergent and maybe something to push some buttons to start the thing.About getting it in the dryer and folding it... I'm not sure, but surely you can come up with something to do part of the work for you.I think the immersive VR bit is being worked on, but its slow going. I see Avatar as a step in the right direction. One necessary condition for this will be to get proper 3D. Once we can speed up that process, we'll be almost there.Other stuff... I dunno. |
How can I get my hourly rate from $65 to $125 in the next 90 days? | psyklic: When you get new customers, tell them that you give discounts for the first job so they can see what a good job you do. On the invoice, put your real rate minus a discount. Then, the next time they ask for your services, charge the real rate.To switch existing customers, just say that due to demand, you're raising your rates. However, for the next x hours of work, since they've been a loyal customer, you will continue at the existing rate. Then on your invoice, do as in the first paragraph! If it's a reasonable increase, I doubt many customers will drop you. And you may want to wait between projects to switch your rate, but the first x hours at the old rate still applies :-)Good luck! |
Is anybody solving really cool problems anymore? | marshallp: -google goggles - image recognition is what's required for many of the things you mention including robot maid, driving car (the darpa challenge used lidar, which is expensive - purely vision based would be much cheaper).-the limiting factor to flying cars is actually air traffic control - which is still manually done, but could easily be automated (it's basically a giant constraint satisfaction/optimization problem)-kiva robots (constraint satisfaction/optimization applied to mobile robots)-heartland robotics - rodney brooks's startup, uses machine learning to control light robot arms so that heavy expensive limbs used in industrial robots aren't needed (robot arms for a few dollars in parts). |
How can I get my hourly rate from $65 to $125 in the next 90 days? | jacquesm: The very best way - and the simplest too - to up your rates is not to charge by the hour, but by the job and to work like the devil. |
Is anybody solving really cool problems anymore? | tallanvor: Of course people are working on a lot of these (and other) interesting technologies. In Tokyo, you can see some models of self driving cars and robots that Toyota has come up with. You'd better believe there are a lot of companies working on furthering 3D technology and immersion - everyone from Sony and Nintendo to Microsoft and Google.Why don't you hear more about this? Simple, the companies that can afford to spend money on this sort of thing like to keep a lot of the work quiet until they determine whether or not they can commercialize it. |
Is anybody solving really cool problems anymore? | jacquesm: Regarding the hose in your stomach, how about some self control? It shouldn't be up to science to come up with solutions for over indulgence in what is essentially a scarce resource.Limit your intake, exercise and it will take care of itself. |
Is anybody solving really cool problems anymore? | marknutter: I'm trying to think of a way a website can solve all of these problems for you.. |
Is anybody solving really cool problems anymore? | st-keller: We're designing a new "evaluation-system". It uses a new pure functional, time-unaware, inherently parallel core which works without using monads.
The core can be considered as a read-eval-print loop without the "read" and the "print".
If it works, we will solve some problems which mostly are not considered to be problems. If it doesn't work, we learned more about programming that i ever could have imagined.
In short: Yes, some people do some things they themself consider as really cool :-) |
Is anybody solving really cool problems anymore? | dagw: I know academia is considered a dirty word among some people here, but seriously if you want to see cutting edge cool stuff that is the place to go. Pick something off your list, find out which university as at the cutting edge of that field and apply for a PhD position. |
What engineering decipline does weapon design come under? | gexla: Check the career pages of weapons manufacturers.http://www.heckler-koch.de/Apprenticeship |
What engineering decipline does weapon design come under? | hga: I would go for Mechanical Engineering if I were you.Do you live in or plan to study in the US? Even if you don't, try contacting the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Shooting_Sports_Founda...) and Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute (SAAMI, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sporting_Arms_and_Ammunition_Ma...). In Europe, the equivalent of SAAMI is The Commission Internationale Permanente pour l'Epreuve des Armes à Feu Portatives (C.I.P., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commission_Internationale_Perma...)I can dig up a German small arms research organization out of my email archives if you're interested. |
Apple's Java now that Oracle has taken over | hga: Hmmm, Oracle has claimed that what they're planning on doing with Java is "More! Better! Faster!" (well, the latter is implicit). And it's all been GPLed (except for those bits of the library that are getting replaced, probably have been by now).I would think it's up to Apple; I'm not aware of any animosity between Oracle and Apple. |
What Professionals Should be Hired to Sell a Startup? | medianama: Depends upon the size of deal. You can do it yourself if it's in low millions |
improving your design skills? | davidw: For some clickable examples:http://www.hecl.org - I think this one has a bit too much text; that much I can figure out on my own.http://www.squeezedbooks.com |
What should Microsoft do to get its mojo back? | beagle3: I don't remember any time when Microsoft was "cool" or had "mojo", and I've been doing work since '88 at least. People who joined the scene in the mid '90s or later often think Microsoft is great -- because they don't know any better.Microsoft is the McDonalds of software. Does McDonalds have a mojo? Did they ever? |
improving your design skills? | gexla: Are the clients happy? More importantly, are the clients reaching their goals with your designs? Design is a lot more than a pretty face. It's also about usability, driving sales, , telling a story, engaging visitors, etc. If your design results in increasing my sales then I don't care if people think it's ugly.If current clients are happy but potential clients are complaining about the looks of sites in you portfolio, then maybe you should be tweaking your own sales pitch. Include not just images of your work, but also stats which show how your design helped conversions among others.As a designer, it's your job to educate the client as to what's really important. Maybe all the client knows is to look for a pretty face. |
improving your design skills? | utku_karatas2: Highly recommended: Non-Designer's Design Book - http://www.amazon.com/Non-Designers-Design-Book-Robin-Willia... |
improving your design skills? | oneplusone: Looking at the two examples you provided, I think your problem falls into two categories. Typography and colors.Typography: The information hierarchy is not clear enough. In your second link the top section has near identical sizes and weights which makes it hard to see what is more important. I suggest you read The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst. It will teach you how to use type effectively and is a very good and interesting book.You have way too much copy on the page. You need to make it interesting or people won't want to read it. Things like bulleted lists and pull-quotes will break it up a bit and add visual flavor.Color: The colors you pick doesn't really work. In the first link the gray is way too dark and looks really dreary. In the second example the link, text, and header colors are so close together you can barely see the difference. They also don't really work well together. This is a matter of taste. Nobody can give you taste, its something you will need to develop.Practice makes perfect really. Take a look at other websites and just observe which colors work well together. There are lots of little tricks you can use to make a minimalist site looks great. For one, don't use pure black for type. It shimmers on the page. Instead use a really dark gray. I personally use HSB(0, 0, 15).Another thing you can do is to use HSB to pick your colors. Pick a single color you like, and then adjust the H slider to find a matching color. Its not perfect, but it works well enough. |
improving your design skills? | thinkbohemian: I got similar complaints about my designs, (which can be super frustrating..."i gave you a website...now you want it to be gorgeous too...sheesh").So I started taking note of what I liked and didn't like about site designs. I made a delicious list and tagged the sites i liked with "webdesign-inspiration" if they have something that specifically stood out to me. Design is an art, and every artist learns by imitating. Find a feature you enjoy and try to duplicate it. Firebug is your friend.But never get too attached. Just because a child spends hours on a macaroni picture doesn't mean everyone will love it. Listen to your users/friends and take their advice with a grain of salt. Re-design, is just part of design.Find a few design blogs that you can relate to, i like css-tricks, and check them every once in a while. If you like sparten designs, read http://www.alistapart.com/ . A typography based webpage design takes more skill and patience to make look good than just throwing some blue web 2.0 buttons on your nav bar.Keep a folder of screen shots of web designs you like and constantly ask yourself what makes you like them, and how can you incorporate those features in your site.Finally, if you have any limitations (mine is colors) there are plenty of resources to help you out, just search for them. Such as http://www.colourlovers.com/ Good luck! |
improving your design skills? | pxlpshr: There are a few fundamentals I see lacking in your sites that would be a night/day improvement:1. Grids2. Typography3. Thorough understanding of CSSBoth of your example sites are accessible but good minimalism generally emphasizes #1 and #2. Think Apple. You can find plenty of books on those two topics because they are so fundamental to good design. |
improving your design skills? | dctanner: Learn by example, just like you read someone else's code to learn a lang or framework, find sites that you like e.g. from http://www.designmeltdown.com/Open a few up in the background, fire up photoshop and start getting inspired by the layouts and themes around you. Once you've done this a bit you'll find you suddenly have a much larger vocabulary of design elements to pull from. |
improving your design skills? | spatulon: I found The Non-Designer's Design Book pretty useful.http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321534042/It provides a list of simple typographic and design rules to follow, and explains why they're important. As written on that Amazon page, they are contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity.There's no reason why you can't have a simple site that also looks 'good'. There are some fundamental issues with your sites that wouldn't be fixed by merely making them more complicated. The lack of repetition and alignment in your sites particularly jump out at me (once you've read this book, you'll see mistakes everywhere).Look at the Squeezed Books site. The "Home" link isn't aligned with the links below and above it. The text in the logo in the top left is nearly aligned with the "Log in" link, but is actually centered within the image. Even if people don't consciously spot it, it will likely feel 'off' to them. You've centered the "What is Squeezed Books?" text. Centering looks messy and feels weak. A good rule of thumb is to avoid it entirely until you know when it's appropriate to break the rule. As for repetition, I simply ask, how many different font styles do you count on that page? There are too many. |
Do you need angel funding? | epi0Bauqu: The form submits here: https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AvP564P3eSROdGtnQ2N... |
improving your design skills? | pmjoyce: This is a constant issue for me. I get excited by good design - it scratches a purity/elegance/zen itch in me. Can recreate it? No chance. I've even had one of my sites defined by one HN user as "...like a domain parking page".[1]To loosely paraphrase Justice Potter Stewart: I can't define good design but I know it when I see it. [2]The reality is I need to engage professional designers earlier in the process but, being self-delusional, I'll always give it a bash anyway.1. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=902408
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_know_it_when_I_see_it |
improving your design skills? | PhrosTT: learn C.R.A.P. * Contrast
Elements that aren’t the same should be very different so they stand out, making them “slightly different” confuses the user into seeing a relation that doesn’t exist. Strong contrast between page elements allows the user’s eye to flow from one to another down the page instead of creating a sea of similarity that’s boring and not communicative.
* Repetition
Repeat styles down the page for a cohesive feel — if you style related elements the same way in one area, continue that trend for other areas for consistency.
* Alignment
Everything on the page needs to be visually connected to something else, nothing should be out of place or distinct from all other design elements.
* Proximity
Proximity creates related meaning: elements that are related should be grouped together, whereas separate design elements should have enough space in between to communicate they are different.
...and ask girls for feedback. they're better with color for some reason. |
improving your design skills? | Nekojoe: Have you read Jakob Nielson's work? - http://www.useit.com/Designing Web Usability would be a good start - http://www.useit.com/jakob/webusability/And Homepage Usability is good for screenshots with examples - http://www.useit.com/homepageusability/I would take what he says with a pinch of salt at times, as he can be very metric based. Sometimes it helps when to know to bend the rules. I remember for years he was very strict about hyperlink colours insisting that they should always be blue for unvisited and purple for visited. |
improving your design skills? | SlyShy: I'll give this a shot.I'm expecting you don't want to spend tons of time on graphics and the likes, but you don't need to in order to drastically improve your sites as they are now.Your typography definitely needs to be improved. A lot of people say they can't tell when they need to fix their typography, so here's an easy test: paste a chapter of a book you are reading into your template, and see if you can stand to read it there, instead of in the book. The shorter the amount of time you can stand, the worse your typography is.As for colors, first pick a primary color. This'll usually be some pleasing shade of blue, red, or maybe green. Draw some blobs and lines of different size and thickness, and see how the color holds up. Then pick a complimentary background color. For example, when I use red as a primary color, I don't set it against a white background. The red will appear too jarring. Instead, I use a pale cream or very faint yellow. Your background doesn't have to be white, but it should be very light so that your text still shows up well. The point of having an off-white background, though, is that it changes the eye's perception of your primary color, and makes it look like it 'fits'. Test out your primary color again on your background color, and tweak the two.I think, actually, your color choice is already good on your personal site, but it is being marred badly by two things.The first is the navigation. I know that the two leveled effect is on purpose, but what it looks like to the user is that you had one very long navigation bar that wrapped around. The structure of this navigation is poorly conveyed here. The second navigation strip is supposed to be "under" David, so to speak, but you don't convey that at all in your design. Here's an extremely quick and dirty example of what might be better: http://mkbunday.googlepages.com/2010-02-05-091156_1024x600_s... Note you still wouldn't want "Padova Chronicles" taking up two lines.Also, please, please remove the ads from the top of the page. The whole "above the fold" thing is overrated... however, above the fold is where the user develops their impression of your site. When I see those ads right in my face, before I've even gotten to read the first paragraph of text my immediate association is with a cheap Yahoo Sites page.You might want to ask yourself how much that ad revenue is really worth. My guess is that it's not exactly a significant portion of your income, and you would be better off removing the ads and having a more favorable professional appearance.Minus the ads, the site looks a lot more favorable already. http://mkbunday.googlepages.com/no_ads.png Look at how front loaded the content is! The user can get right to the point, and read about you, rather than some really not that relevant ads! |
improving your design skills? | sambashi: I highly recommend the book "The Principles of Beautiful Web Design" from Sitepoint. Get the basics right first. |
improving your design skills? | bokonist: I am hacker who had made a fair amount or progress in learning graphic design.Here are the things that helped me:a) read as much as possible on graphic design. The non-designers design book is a great choice. But there are tons of articles across the web on fonts, spacing, coloring, contrast, etc.b) pick out sites that you like (and that people with design sense like), and practice copying them exactly. If there is some button or styling you do not know how to reproduce, find a photo shop tutorial for how to reproduce it. As you do this, you build up a toolbox of great design techniques. Gradually as you get better and learn how to make pretty sites, your old designs will become embarrassingly deficient to your eye.c) as you make sites try to solicit detailed feedback from people who know how to design.Here are some thoughts on specifically why I think your pages do not look so hot:For your home page: http://www.welton.it/davidw/The text in your logo needs to be anti-aliased, the edges look jagged. The alignment and spacing of the menu links are off (the horizontal distance is not consistent). Again the text is not anti-aliased so it looks jagged. The spacing between the headers and the text feels off, the header should be closer to the paragraph it represents, not the paragraph above. The top of your bio pic is not aligned with the top of the paragraph. Finally, as a general point try and avoid pure black (#000) on pure white (#FFF). Using slightly grayer font ( #555) softens the page considerably. Also, don't use the default blue for links, use a better looking color. The Adwords look very tacky.For Dedasys: http://www.dedasys.com/Again, anti-alias the logo. Try being creative with the font too, maybe download a font set and try making the logo with a more unique font. Alignment of the menu items looks off, centering them does not work. The bullet points should be aligned left. Even better, use a custom designed bullet point rather than the browser default. The colors for the page overall are terrible. To get good colors, I often download a really nature picture, then use the eye dropper to pick out a couple colors. Doesn't always work, but can be quite useful.Overall, great design is not about being glamorous versus simple spare. Its about getting all the little details right. The balance, color, alignment, etc. And it's about adding that extra little touch in a lot of places - the custom icon for bullet points, the creative logo.Getting good just requires a loop of reading/study, practice, and getting feedback. |
improving your design skills? | og1: Learn to wireframe and sketch out your websites ahead of time. It is much easier to try ten different layouts on paper than starting them in css. Some people like to mockup in photoshop, but I prefer paper. It is just faster for me.Some people already mentioned "Non-Designers Design Book" - Robin WilliamsSome other good ones are:"Design of Everyday Things" - Donald Norman (Conceptual, but gets you in the right mindset)"Dont Make me Think" - Steve Krug (Usability matters)"The Visual Display of Quantitative Information" - Edward Tufte (he has a set of 4 books on information visualization, all of which are good)One of the key concepts that I've taken from these books is that everything in a page has a visual weight so you must consider how everything in a page balances out together. Never add stuff just for the sake of adding it, because it will distract the user from the information they are trying to gather.And most of all just build more websites and try to improve each one. Design is still a lot like programming. If you dont like the particular look of your site you can refactor it. I know you don't get the benefit of seeing it, but some of the best designed sites out there have gone through multiple iterations. |
Should TechCrunch Reveal Who Paid For Posts? | pclark: Did the company do anything wrong really though? |
Any one handed hackers? | jdietrich: Are you using the one-handed Dvorak layout? Because if you're not, there is one. You might find it helpful to use a short stroke laptop-style keyboard and/or a mini-keyboard with smaller keys. If you're willing to spend some cash, you have quite a few options. There's the http://www.frogpad.com/ a compact, one-handed keyboard. If you're investing for the long term, http://www.maltron.com/ make superb one- and two-handed keyboards with phenomenal ergonomics. |
Do you need angel funding? | cookiecaper: This seems like something better off with private results, right? |
Should TechCrunch Reveal Who Paid For Posts? | shareme: they already did..see update blog post pointer |
Do you need angel funding? | wesley: I see you've made the spreadsheet uneditable. A wise choice! (Users that have seen the previous posting will agree) |
improving your design skills? | CoryMathews: Normally the biggest thing people screw up is the colors. Use a color generator and then always pick colors from the theme. Two of my fav sites for this arehttp://colorschemedesigner.com/
and
http://kuler.adobe.com/The next step after color is Typography. You don't need to get into all the nitty gritty crap about it but choose some good fonts normally something very clean and simple is your best bet. ie Arial, Helvelica, Verdana (used on this site) and Georgia. When you get into other fonts its very easy to use them incorrectly. For example you do not want to use Georgia as body text its to hard to read but it makes great headlines.After those two changes the third is the hardest, making things feel well designed. Take a look at how other people have done similar things. A great site for this is http://patterntap.com/Just because something is simple/spare/plain does not mean it cannot look good. For example take a look at these minimal siteshttp://www.fedthread.org/fr/today/
http://mattbango.com/
http://www.pixelhavenllc.com/
http://bobulate.com/ |
Should TechCrunch Reveal Who Paid For Posts? | pplante: I think this is much more common than you might expect. I don't like the idea of asking for compensation for a favorable mention, however is it all that different from when a company gives away their wares to someone unsolicited? I suspect that most people in that position will have their opinion slightly altered by the act of getting stuff for free. Many bloggers get stuff sent to them by various companies, some keep the items, others give it away to the readers.So is asking to keep the item, or asking for an item all that much different? I guess its more overt from the author that they are after something, but if the author still maintains an objective viewpoint what harm is really done?Can you really trust the product opinion of someone who hasn't put out their hard earned cash to acquire it? Amazon reviews in my eyes are much more powerful than something like Consumer Reports. What about you? |
improving your design skills? | Ixiaus: This is an excellent question - one I've been trying to answer for myself for quite sometime.You certainly don't need to go graphics heavy, but having an eye for arrangement, matching color palettes, typography, flow, etc... are all crucial to an elegant design. I've found you don't ever need to go graphics crazy if you can master all of those fundamentals with what HTML+CSS provides you.Graphics and graphic design should just "add" to it. A lot of designers I work with use graphic design as a crutch for their inability to understand true elegant web design (hence why I will never subcontract a designer that "does primarily print work and web design on the side").In all honesty, a programmer is more capable of devising and creating an elegant and magnetic site design for one primary reason: a programmer grasps the underlying technology and capabailities (hell, it's programmers that made Photoshop possible!). Just adding in a classical eye for aesthetics will make your ability to arrange and select out of what you already know much more efficacious. |
improving your design skills? | mrduncan: Ryan Singer of 37signals gave a great talk at Windy City Rails last year about this very topic.http://windycityrails.org/videos#4 |
improving your design skills? | ssp: Andy Rutledge's blog has lots of good stuff. His five-part introduction to gestalt principles is about the basics of graphic design:http://www.andyrutledge.com/gestalt-principles-1-figure-grou...http://www.andyrutledge.com/gestalt-principles-2-similarity....http://www.andyrutledge.com/gestalt-principles-3.phphttp://www.andyrutledge.com/common-fate.phphttp://www.andyrutledge.com/closure.phpFor typography, Robert Bringhurst's The Elements of Typographic Style is a must-read. http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Typographic-Style-Robert-Brin....You mentioned the looks of your sites, so the above are about visual and graphic design, but good interaction design will also help making people think your site looks better, is faster, has more features etc.Be careful whose judgement you trust. People here on HN sometimes seem to have a caricatured view of users as only being attracted to visuals. In reality, visuals can't do much more than support (or ruin) an otherwise well-designed site. |
Who's Hiring? | tocomment: I might be looking for a subcontractor if a contract comes through.Looking for a good all around programmer with database and web development skills (Python a plus). Ideally I'd like someone in the MD/DC/VA area but remote work might be possible.Email me if interested. |
Do you need angel funding? | chime: I've always seen posts like this here on HN and was always too shy to share this early-on in development. I keep hoping for the day when I can do "Review my app: Blah" but the difficulty for me is actually getting to that stage because of time/motivation reasons. So I'm hoping that by sharing my idea early on, I can work more on it if others like the concept and feel it could be worthwhile. Even if you think it isn't practical/fund-worthy, feel free to let me know. |
Who's Hiring? | thinkcomp: We're looking for mobile developers and UI designers in Palo Alto. http://www.thinkcomputer.com/corporate/jobs |
improving your design skills? | brlewis: Here's a quantifiable source of information on what the rest of the world wants: http://www.tumblr.com/themes/popular |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.