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What web hosting do you use? | DanielStraight: I used HostGator until I wanted root access, then switched to Linode. Both are excellent. |
What web hosting do you use? | albertsun: I like WebFaction a lot. It's shared hosting and you don't get root access, but their servers are set up such that you can basically install anything you want. They are also a UK company. |
How to code with a broken wrist? | gexla: Broke my wrist a week ago. I'm using one-handed Dvorak. Probably goo enough but slow learning. Thinking my wrist will be fine by the time I learn it. ;) Also use Windows sticky keys. If you don't already, now is a good time for using hotkeys and snippets / bundles |
What web hosting do you use? | carbocation: I started off with HostGator's shared service. I started going over their limits years ago (mostly CPU, IO, memory, and execution time). The execution time was a real kicker for me - they have reapers that go around looking for processes that have been running for more than 120 seconds, and kill them. So if you have a large MySQL database that you're trying to back up, good luck... At any rate, I'm not saying their policy was unreasonable - it was just a dealbreaker for me.At that point, I looked around for another host. I was impressed with MediaTemple's managed VPS offerings, as they had 3 levels of 'scaling' (for $50/100/150). Over the past 8 months, I've had major IO issues. Oddly, my IO issues have little correlation with my traffic patterns, so I suspect that I'm on a heavily loaded server - though they state that they see nothing but normal disk/CPU/etc utilization. That may be true, but I'm moving on.In the end, I decided that Linode offers a level of granularity that was not matched by MediaTemple. At Linode, they expect that you may well want to separate your production server from your MySQL server from your dev server, and their backend is built with multi-server management in mind. I've set up separate MySQL and PHP servers so far, and things have been going very well. This will allow me to scale each in proportion to its needs, instead of having to scale a monolithic server instance.For just a blog, do you want to mess around with the shell? If so, Linode or similar (SliceHost?) might be good for you. They start off small ($20/month for the cheapest), and they allow you to upgrade in small chunks.If you don't want to deal with shell, I find HostGator to be quite reasonable, and they are extremely cheap. I still host a bunch of personal sites with them. |
What web hosting do you use? | csomar: I have around 1 year with Lace Host (lacehost.com), the website/user interface are crappy but it doesn't matter since you have Cpanel and FTP.They are cheap (around $22 for 1.5 GB hosting / year). You have got unlimited Mysql DataBases, Very large bandwidth and an always (almost) online customer service (it's the owner, he'll reply to your questions even if it's not hosting related).Overall experience: Positive. I'm running 4 websites (on 4 domains). 3 blogs, 1 personal website and a bunch of auto-scripts that runs via Cron Jobs. I get around 250 hits daily.+ I got around 1,100 hit from Stumble Upon (i got a fav from a popular member) and the host seemed to be fine with that traffic.Currently, I'm keeping with them, for scaling, the admin told me that they can move me from shared to private server in no down time.My advice will be: Go for it! You can also Google for reviews about it. |
What web hosting do you use? | aarongough: I use HostGator... I've noticed several other commenters have said they left Hostgator when they needed root access, or more resources. I had the same issues, but instead of leaving I switched to their VPS service.The service has always been great, I didn't have any problem installing Passenger and the VPS is still going strong! |
Anyone else think it's a major security problem to open source Flash? | TallGuyShort: The portions of Flash that would concern the security of a user are already pretty well open-sourced, IMO. Most notably - the Tamarin project/ActionScript VM (http://www.mozilla.org/projects/tamarin/), BlazeDS (http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/blazeds/BlazeDS/). I don't think Adobe was having to stretch the truth that much when they said it was mainly the video codecs that had to be kept proprietary. Yes, they're far from being truly open-source, but they're a lot more open-source than we give them credit for. |
What web hosting do you use? | cb33: Mediatemple is great. |
Best books about nuclear energy/power plant design? | berglund: Before you read any of the following, go study a good thermodynamics book. Understand the carnot cycle.Then:
Tom Clancy's book "Submarine" for a clear understanding of current reactor design, if simplified.The thorium cycle is well documented in a fair amount of D.O.E. material which is available on the web. It is older but accurate.Wikipedia has some (mostly) accurate data about the thorium cycle.Check the American Nuclear Society web site for available books. Their really aren't that many to choose from.All of this technology is well documented and pretty old. It is simply not used. |
Press Releases - Are they worth the trouble/cost? | aaroneous: First of all, you shouldn't take the prices on wire services websites as the price everyone pays. In my experience, these can be discounted 50-75% if your account rep is hungry believes you can be more than a one-off client.Second, you should take a hard look at how news-worthy your release is to the general public. If you're announcing a rewrite of your webapp into scala, then you should skip a press release and just target the handful of outlets in your niche. This can be a hard one to do since you may have spent the last 10mo tirelessly devoted to feature x and it's all you and everyone at your company talk about. Strive to regain focus and take a critical look at how exciting the mass media is going to find your announcement.I've never just used a wire service and expected results. If you are a small startup and are really announcing something that meets the criteria of the paragraph above you'll probably land a few hits - small blogs, regional print, maybe a trade pub. Wire services should only be a small part of your strategy for announcing a new release.The direct outreach is the most important for real results. Hopefully you've been building a list of media contacts that communicate relevant information about your industry, if not start now. If you haven't already, sign up for HARO (http://helpareporter.com) and look for reporters who are actually looking to write about things your company does//makes//gives away.On the day you release your update, I would send an email individually to those people on your list. Write them a short, personal message explaining what you've announced and why it's interesting. Add the text of your press release below your email and make sure to include ample ways for them to contact you (cellphone, aim, etc) if they're interested in any followup.As for writing a press release: very few PR people will understand what you're doing as well as you. On the other hand, those people spend all day interfacing with the press you're after, so they have an idea of how to effectively communicate with them. I would suggest the best writer on your team takes a stab at writing the press release. Then pass it around for folks peer-review it (friends, girlfriends, english lit majors, whatever). Don't be afraid to cut down the verbage. Don't over-inflate your accomplishment(s). Don't use geeky terms.One thing I've had great success with is teaming up with a college student who wants to get into PR. It's a great opportunity to cut their teeth on something real, and for you to have someone else obsess about the wording in the release while you manage the 500-or-so pre-release emergencies that tend to crop up.Lastly, you should also take a look at marketwire. I've had experience w/ most of the wires you mention and mw was my fav for tech. |
What's the classic work on dataflow programming? | setori88: check out a decent implementation of dataflow in mozart/oz there are papers on the site that describe the rational behind it.
Dead end - I believe certainly not. This is just beginning.
Also read 'concepts, techniques and models of computer programming' by peter von roy and seif haridi
That book will show you exactly how to make sense of dataflow and where its correct place is.if you look at the oz kernel code there you can see how it was implemented very clearly. The book holds your hand right through the whole process of setting up dataflow in a (kernel) programming language. |
Better Regex Support for JavaScript? | skennedy: Someone who offers three solutions to mimic lookbehind's in Javascript:http://blog.stevenlevithan.com/archives/mimic-lookbehind-jav...Also, there seems to also be a lot of support for leveraging PHP's regex functionality on the server-side to accomplish this. |
Has anyone got a Kindle SDK invitation? | switch: nope. waiting for it too. |
What gaming console should I bye? | wesley: There aren't really any "hardcore games" on the wii. Those that are are mostly single player and don't take much advantage of the wii remote besides the pointer. You also won't find many online games (which is broken anyway due to the friend code restrictions).Most casual/social games have simplified or too forgiving controls. They're nice at first but you'll grow tired of them soon. And unlike what you may believe, there isn't that much quality casual games either (besides from nintendo). Heck, even the mario/sonic olympic games are waggle fests.They then introduced wii motion plus, which is supposed to give you greater control. It does. But there's hardly any games for it.Anyway, there's a rumor of a Wii HD console.. Nintendo has a conference somewhere at the end of february. Might stick it out if you want.Xbox 360 or PS3 are pretty much even. Most games come out on both platforms. They both have some interesting tech coming out this year. (Natal and the ps3 wand). |
What gaming console should I bye? | mahmud: Get a paper trading account with a brokerage firm, I suggest thinkorswim, and practice with the delayed feed. 15-45 minutes a day, 3-4 days a week. Log everything, and use the numbers to gauge your intuition.I do about one well time trade per week, it's like going hunting with one bullet. Better than any video game.I will play the Wii when it pays me to :-) |
Review my friend's app (launched today) | jparicka: I love it! :-) |
Review my startup: Conflict-free, multi-master file replication | three14: Not being a graphic designer, I can't explain why the site doesn't say to me, "company that's established enough to trust with my data," but...That being said, this is a great thing to offer as an appliance. I think that someone who's savvy enough to look for this, though, would probably not want to buy until you have a clearer story about how to do backups. Can I, e.g. install Mozy or equivalent, on the theory that your customer is looking to get rid of sysadmin headaches? |
Review my startup: Conflict-free, multi-master file replication | ScottWhigham: http://www.synctus.com |
Review my startup: Conflict-free, multi-master file replication | ScottWhigham: I think it looks great and, if it does what you say it will, it's a great product at a great price. The only suggestion that I would have would be a demo vid. |
Review my startup: Conflict-free, multi-master file replication | _delirium: As a geek, I slightly balked at the claim on the Locking and Coherence page that it's "the first file replication system" to keep files coherent via locks, since I think of stuff like AFS as doing that. But looking at your product comparison page, it's true if you think of "file replication system" as more application-level sync stuff like Dropbox.Somewhat separately, do you care at all about selling to companies that might otherwise consider a more heavyweight solution like setting up an NFS volume that everyone mounts? You have a clear ease-of-use-and-maintenance win, but it'd require separate marketing to a different kind of audience so as not to confuse people who don't even know what that is. |
Review my startup: Conflict-free, multi-master file replication | yannis: It sounds like a good product, but I do not believe you have addressed the marketing aspects of it adequately:1) Too geeky language - rather tell a story Company XYZ solved a problem by...2) Design needs work3) Call for action on landing page missing4) Let the Customer touch the product (Tour/demo/video)5) Put all technical details in white papers - the IT guys will try and rip them apart.Who are most likely to be your Customers? |
What gaming console should I bye? | wendroid: You should bye them all.Hackers hack |
Review my startup: Conflict-free, multi-master file replication | tptacek: I assume you're targeting the middle market, because enterprises went through a "replication and caching" craze (they called it "WAN Acceleration") about 4 years ago. Riverbed mostly won, but there are a bunch of other companies in the space too. They all have roughly the same appliance you do, but they transparently support a bunch of protocols and applications, too.If that's what you're doing, I see the value: you're the Drobo to Riverbed's NetApp.I'd worry a bit that your typical customers --- law firms, doctors offices --- aren't going to understand what you have up there. You need to do the "Feature/Function/Benefit" exercise (what it is, how it works, how it makes money for your customer), and then write your copy based on the benefits, not the details of how you sync. Your "benefits" section is still too technical, where it isn't, it's too fuzzy.For me, the biggest win to something like this would be not having to have employees dick around with VPNs. You get one connection set up, not 50, and everyone has access to the same files. |
Review my Startup - Preceden | mbrubeck: Awesome! But the "length of time" displayed is always "NaNy NaNm NaNd" (Chromium for Linux). |
Review my Startup - Preceden | bmelton: This looks VERY nice. My only question that I don't see an immediate answer to is whether or not these timelines are embeddable from another site? |
Review my Startup - Preceden | thinkbohemian: I see you went with my favorite icon choice! looks good. |
Review my Startup - Preceden | jknupp: A couple of questions:-The time-line on the front page seems to mark major life events. Why would I need a web site to remember when I got married or was in college?-In hindsight, it's easy to see what events were important (at any level of granularity) but much more difficult as things are happening. How do I know when something is sufficiently important to put it on a timeline?-What useful information are users supposed to be able to glean from this type of presentation of the data they enter? The example on the front page should show events that are interrelated and the copy should draw interesting conclusions from this. Right now, it seems like each time-line is totally orthogonal, which I can't really figure out the value of. |
Review my Startup - Preceden | danskil: I don't see any prices. How much will this cost, and what structure are you using? Freemium? |
Review my Startup - Preceden | diN0bot: chrome, mac 10.5 : i wish i could scroll horizontally using my macbook's mousepad (two fingers moving horizontally). i assume this doesn't work with a mouse wheel either, but i'm not sure. the click-and-drag method is less good, plus whenever my mouse leaves the square, unclicking does nothing... |
Review my Startup - Preceden | chime: Looks awesome! I need to be able to zoom in/out though. It would make for awesome Gantt charts. |
Review my Startup - Preceden | FreeRadical: I've been looking for a timeline app over the last few days, but something with an API. |
Review my Startup - Preceden | dangoldin: This looks great. I can see this being used as a new resume format. |
Review my Startup - Preceden | djb_hackernews: Definitely a cool little webapp, and I can see it being more popular as an embeddable widget.Head scratcher how to monetize, because I don't see your website being a hangout so you can't go with ad supported, and I don't know if it is useful enough to pay for.You could sell it to evite, meetup etc. maybe.
Or some type of project planning community for Gantt charts. |
Review my startup: Conflict-free, multi-master file replication | cabalamat: The copy seems to assume that users will be running Windows PCs. It doesn't anywhere say whether it worksd with Linux and Macs. It probably ought to. Most multi-site organisations probably use 2 or all 3 of these operating systems these days. |
Review my startup: Conflict-free, multi-master file replication | cabalamat: The way file locking works is that if one person is reading a file, others can't read it as well. I can imagine situations where this would be a hassle -- there ought to be a mechanism where people can get read-only access to data that is otherwise locked. |
Review my Startup - Preceden | Shamiq: Interesting, I've always assumed the long form of "Jen" was spelled "Jennifer" rather than "Jeniffer". |
Review my startup: Conflict-free, multi-master file replication | cabalamat: I would also suggest that when you have the boxes installed at a customer's site, it may be an opportunity to sell more stuff to them, by adding functionality to the boxes. For example, a customer might want VPN and if they are happy with the Synctus boxes, might want it to go through them. Or perhaps a corporate wiki, replicated through all sites in the organisation. Or accessing some or all the shared files by ftp or http. Or a revision control system -- you getb the idea. |
Review my Startup - Preceden | Concours: That's awesome , it should fairly become popular. I've tried something like this a while ago based on an opensource calendar system, a kind of Win-project for normal folk, I just at some point set the project on standby but this is awesome. Just leave it as simple as it is, maybe an api and allow people to embed, that'll be fine. |
Review my Startup - Preceden | Vindexus: I really like the design. Good choice for the logo, looks great.I really think the Timeline editing page could use some Ajax/Dialogs. Instead of going to a new page for "Add Event" and "Add Layer", I think a dialog box popping up with the form in there would be great.The top padding on your buttons seems to be off. I'm using FireFox 3.5.7 and the text seems to be down by about 5 pixels too many. I changed padding-top from 15 to 10 and height from 30 to 35 to get the button on the right in this screenshot: http://imgur.com/FouGq The one on the left is the original that you have now.When scrolling through the timeline it would be nice to see if there are any events to the left or right. Maybe even stop scrolling if there are no more events back that far. I kept scrolling back to the 1800s on one timeline because I didn't know I'd already seen everything :PThe yellow helper text at the top is really good for helping me get started. I like that you've put thought into blankstate pages.I am also curious how you'll monetize this. Any ideas?I was looking at your FAQ page and noticed this line: "This FAQ page is a work in progress. Chances are if you have a question, others have it too. On that note, please email us if anything is unclear". I'd like to completely selfishly point out my FAQ app, BreezyFAQ.com that would let you manage these easier. There's an "Ask a Question" form on the FAQ page and any asked questions get put into a queue that you can answer, and/or add to your FAQ page. |
Review my Startup - Preceden | Shamiq: Sweet, can I use this to build a resume? |
Review my Startup - Preceden | bgraves: I'm not sure if you've done this, but I'm interested in some of the details on your venture.1. What technologies are you using?2. How long did it take you to code?3. Is this your full time gig or just a side project that you hope takes off?4. Do you plan to do any additional marketing/advertising?5. What are some of the results from your split testing? |
server security intro/reference? | hga: "gaaa!" is an entirely legitimate response to this and the same one I had when I looked at it in the middle of last year (and I've been playing the game since 1980 (sic), but not since 2000 ... the threat environment has exponentially increased since then).I'm afraid my only recommendation is not immediately useful, which is to start reading/skimming a 1,000 page book, Practical Unix & Internet Security, 3rd Edition by Simson Garfinkel et. al. (http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Unix-Internet-Security-3rd/d...).But's that reference is only "a mile wide and an inch deep* (from the Amazon.com reviews).How much time do you have? How much flexibility in choosing your OS (e.g. is OpenBSD or a Linux that really implements SELinux an option)?And there are so many details today, like how do you get adequate entropy for your RNG on a VPS?Gaaa! |
Review my web app - Modern Ballots | bradbeattie: I noticed a lot of distain for the two-party system and went about investigating alternatives. Modern Ballots is an attempt to make Schulze STV, a proportional representation algorithm, easy to use for anyone that wants to hold a vote.Thing is, I'm not really all that savvy when it comes to UI design, marketing and all that stuff. Any suggestions on how to make this kind of thing more appealing? Electoral reform isn't exactly the sexiest of subjects, although it does entertain sporadic conversation. |
The less than legal startup, a boot-strapper's advantage | bilbo0s: You're being fairly vague so let me put some hypothetical context in here.Let's say you made a video game...If all you are talking about is paying taxes under your own name until you find out whether or not a significant number of people are going to buy your game, fine.Anything more than that however would be less than wise.EDIT:
Let me amend that...I should say that I was assuming the content of the game was non controversial. If your content is controversial, ALWAYS start the LLC, it is not that hard usually. |
Review my Startup - Preceden | bmelton: One slight correction: on the FAQ for "What is Preceden", your answer includes the word "let's", which should be "lets".Also, on "Are They Private", you use the word "this'll", which I get as vernacular, but isn't a recognized conjunction in any of the dictionaries I checked. |
What about computers or software would you teach to urban 3rd graders? | TallGuyShort: That's about how old I was when I learned BASIC. You probably don't want to teach them something really specific - but something like a simple example of programming would pique the interest of any student that was so-inclined. That's my recommendation. Maybe a little Ruby or something? |
server security intro/reference? | Travis: Yes, it is a very complex field of study. I am able to sleep at night by following as many of the best practices that are out there, even those I don't think apply to me.For checklists, look at the NSA's guide to hardening computers. You should also know exactly what services are running on your server, and dig hard through their manuals to learn more about how to secure them. Mysql, for instance, has 4-5 good tips on how to secure it which are in the security section of their manual.Finally, don't run services that aren't updated or aren't used. Reduce your potential attack vector to as few known points as possible, so that you can harden those points. Have a web server up? Turn off apache mods that you don't use. THat kind of thing.Turn on logging. Log everything. Check that you know how to analyze your logs. Make sure to rotate them as well -- opening 2GB files b/c you didn't rotate them daily sucks.Disaster recovery is a huge part of this. Think of it this way -- you're not a big target (I can tell b/c a big target would already have experts in this field). Chances are good that you have an exploitable part of your web app / site / server. You probably won't know of its existence until after an attack. At that point, you need to be ready to roll EVERYthing back to a known clean point. This is not an easy thing to do, so make sure you practice it.Those are just a few off my head. |
What about computers or software would you teach to urban 3rd graders? | tiffani: Teach them how to make a game of some sort. Something really simple like hangman in BASIC would teach them a few different things all at once and still have a fun result. |
What about computers or software would you teach to urban 3rd graders? | abossy: I see a few suggestions for languages. I would avoid languages; instead, go with something like the Scratch project if you want to demonstrate concepts programmatically: http://scratch.mit.edu/I recently researched languages for a programming curriculum that was to be taught to Latino high school students, and concluded that Scratch was the best choice. My reasoning is that most students you teach at such a young age will never pursue programming again, and bombarding them with the syntax that 'practical' languages use quickly leads to frustration. I'm sure a lot of people here will say, "I learned such-and-such at such age," but this is a self-selecting group for interest and natural ability in programming. Given a choice between high-level languages, you can choose Alice, Greenfoot, Stagecast, Lego Mindstorms, etc. but Scratch is the clear winner.In terms of high-level concepts, I think understanding the logic behind software third graders use every day is important. Talk about how Internet requests are routed and returned; how social networking software interacts with a database; how cell phone calls are made; how keyboards poll for input. Understanding these algorithmically requires no programming expertise and not even a lot of expertise on your part to explain. It's simply a matter of breaking down the problem and thinking about it systematically. Your example explaining hash tables with filing cabinets is fantastic. Sorting can also be explained with filing cabinets. There's also the classic "how to teach a robot to make a PB&J sandwich," of course, to get their thoughts flowing. |
What about computers or software would you teach to urban 3rd graders? | conesus: Third graders are 7-8 year olds. They are probably reading Beverly Cleary's Ralph and the Motorcycle. Their ability to comprehend negative numbers does not yet exist (for the vast majority of them).At this age, children learn best with a story. They can follow a clear linear path from beginning (statement of characters), through their problem, and unto conclusion. If you want to have an impact beyond having everything go over their heads, make a show and tell (everybody loves pictures and something to look at), and if you want to wow them, show them something they haven't seen before. That part won't be hard. Let them touch it, if you bring something in.Explaining anything more abstract than locations will probably fly over their heads. Sure, some are precocious and will grasp a hash table, but any collection of children, especially urban kids, is bound to be difficult to get them to understand anything more complicated than a toaster.My suggestion is to start with something physical, like a breadboard if you have one, and show how changing wires can influence the lighting of LEDs.Doing this will be far easier to capture their attention than something like decomposing the web stack in a console (which is fascinating if you have the background to appreciate it). |
A/B Testing? | aditya: Are you using Rails? Try A/Bingo (http://www.bingocardcreator.com/abingo) and Vanity (http://vanity.labnotes.org/) |
A/B Testing? | gosuri: Good Tutorial on http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2008/09/one-line-split-... |
What about computers or software would you teach to urban 3rd graders? | mattj: Start out with a simple game, like hangman or something else w/ clearly defined rules and gameplay that mostly depends on guessing. Have people play it a few times, and then have everyone come up with and write down the rules. Emphasize the writing things down formally part, since that's the most basic type of programming. Have them play the game again, but this time using the rules they defined. You could give out awards for the kids who find errors in the rules. Try a different game (tic-tac-toe? rock paper scissors?) and repeat the exercise.Once they've figured out that, give them a bare-bones vocabulary (eg something like python, but don't tell them it's a programming language) to write the rules in. |
Review my web app - Modern Ballots | ericd: I've been wishing the US had a score based voting system for a while now, but there are considerable obstacles:
-Two dominant, incumbent parties that have no incentive to make it easier for more parties.
-A populace that is unlikely to understand why one would even want to change the voting system, and why score-based voting would enable more parties to rise.
-Millions of dollars or more invested in the current voting system.to name a few.Not to discourage you, though, I think it's great.Education might be a good place to start, and that seems to be what you're dabbling with in writing this web app. I'd be very interested to hear your ideas regarding the other issues, though (and any other issues you think of).I don't believe the current system is codified in the US constitution, though I could be wrong - a friend and I couldn't find anything specifically prescribing the choose one candidate ballot system of voting in the national constitution when we looked. The specific methods might be decided at the state level. |
Is Google Buzz Anti Inbox Zero? | TotlolRon: Me think so. You can't process Buzz to zero nor convert it to actions. At least not all of it. |
Ensuring unique account logins across the globe | icey: Eh, what's the real likelihood of collision anyways?There can only be so many people that want a specific username out there that are going to be registering in the same few seconds or few minutes it takes before your data syncs up.Unless you really have a compelling reason to do all this stuff, it kind of sounds like you're over-engineering it to me.Why can't you just have 1 registration server and call out to it asynchronously? Even across the globe you're talking about a delay of less than a second. |
Please review my web app to help startups get free PR | ryanwaggoner: A bit of backstory: I signed up for http://www.helpareporter.com/ back when it was a huge mailing list sending out tons of PR requests every day. I liked the service, but got tired of digging through 200 requests every day, so I built 95% of this awhile back. A couple days ago, I decided to finish it up and launch it.Unfortunately, I took a look at HARO today and they've apparently launched something very similar, rather than just the old mailing list that I was competing against. So what do you think of this? Should I just drop it or should I add features to make it more valuable? Alternatively, is there something else I could use it for? |
Review my web app - Modern Ballots | Avenger42: Great app! Really enjoyed it, and definitely will help people get a more visual understanding of how these sorts of ballots could work in real elections in the future. |
Please review my web app to help startups get free PR | lsemel: How are you going to get journalists to discover and pay attention to this? |
Please review my web app to help startups get free PR | Vindexus: This is pretty cool. If you're afraid you can't compete with HOAR, maybe you could aim for a specific niche?I'd work on scanability on the home page. I'd make the unordered lists larger, with a bolder font to draw my attention to them. I'm having trouble coming up with good copy for those areas, but you should see if you can reduce the text. There's that rule from "Don't Make me Think" that goes "Get rid of half the words on each page, then get rid of half of what's left."I think it would be nice to have some more categories and/or subcategories. I see that I can subscribe to requests for "Technology", but I know nothing about hardware, or phones. It would be nice to only get requests for "Web Design" or "Web Sites".The UI is pretty plain at the moment. Nothing really wrong with that, but it looks a certain professional polish. |
What about computers or software would you teach to urban 3rd graders? | Timothee: I think I would approach that with a game or something very visual (see Processing?), and work with them in defining what things they want to see happen in terms of instructions or pseudo-code.For example, you could start with the idea of a game like a simplified OutRun and brainstorm about what should happen. Well, you want to be able to change lanes, right? You would want to have cars coming your way, the speed increases as you go, etc. so that you end up with a list of things to happen that can be translated into code that does what they wanted to do.I'm not sure this is a great example, but in principle, it would be to make them walk through the idea of defining what should happen in a program. To me, I don't think that the language matters, I don't even think that they really have to interact with the language at all or a very simple and specific language. What's important is to understand the process of: this happens ("I press the left arrow") so that happens ("the car moves to the left"), from which you can introduce conditions, loops and more.As a starting point, you could also ask them about what software they use often and see if you can build something very simple around the same core concept. |
PG on Mixergy - YCom "cut off age" is 38. Isn't it a shame? | HeyLaughingBoy: It's not a shame: it's an opportunity for another person to startup a Y-combinator clone but without the cutoff.Every limit you put on your business is an opening for a competitor. Why should this be any different? |
Please review my web app to help startups get free PR | apsurd: Possibly OT but I knew I recognized your username around here and a glance at your profile reminds me you run http://mightybrand.comI'm genuinely curious what makes you (and others) start new projects when I would think you have (or should have) your hands full with seeing how far one can go? In other words why and how do you feel your time is better spent starting a new project as opposed to improving/optimizing your current one? Is it a matter of burnout and just needing something different to think about? I guess I've always thought that running a business entailed hundreds of hats as it is, and optimizing different areas of your business would always leave you with something different to do.Genuinely interested on your motivations if you don't mind. |
Please review my web app to help startups get free PR | rscott: Well to be quite honest it's a bit slow and the design is basically nonexistent right now. Stuff like this shouldn't occur: http://prmanna.com/requests/list/1I dig the idea though, but getting people to respect it will be a challenge. |
What do you think of my startup idea ? China and Ebay related | mattm: Yes, go for it. |
Please review my web app to help startups get free PR | thibaut_barrere: The "send me feedback" area took all my first attention. Maybe it would be beneficial to reduce its attraction a bit ? |
Ensuring unique account logins across the globe | Travis: Can't find the link, but flikr recently had a post somewheres (maybe highscalability.com? I cannot find it for the life of me...) about how they handle unique IDs. In essence, they have one "ticket server" that only runs a single database, with a single table, with two fields -- `id`, and `a`. The `a` column doesn't really do anything, but it allows them to issue a mysql REPLACE INTO, which just increments the auto counter, without expanding the table size. Then they have a mechanism to retrieve this next ticket.Found the link -- does this concept work for you?
http://code.flickr.com/blog/2010/02/08/ticket-servers-distri... |
$10 Giveaway Investment | JacobAldridge: Invest it in a micro-finance venture, particularly one in a 3rd World Country (I believe the best known one is this, in Bangladesh - http://www.grameen-info.org/)The famed 97%+ repayment rates have been questioned, so it's not necessarily the best financial investment you'll make, but for a class project it kicks ass - your $10 goes to a poor woman, who uses it to help her community and her family, pays it back so you can do it again and again. Man, teachers eat that stuff up. |
Please review my web app to help startups get free PR | cullenking: I went to checkout prmanna, and was turned off by the lack of design and the slowness. You mentioned in another comment you enabled caching, however, I don't see enough on the front page to require caching at all...Toss this comment aside if you are just testing the waters on a personal machine or something.On a kinda of related note, I looked around and saw your other site, mightybrand, which caught my interest. However, it takes alot of trust to giveup a credit card before you ever see the product you might end up purchasing. I'd recommend you allow free trials without a credit card, and then once someone is hooked or reliant on the product, cripple the account and ask for money. At least this lets people try it! I walked away from the signup form the moment a credit card was requested. Don't follow this example with your prmanna site, if you do decide to go paid with it. |
Are you over social networking? What is next? | Travis: Well, the past 15 years have been about increasing the amount of data a person sees. Then it was about producing content yourself. Then it was about social networking, then producing content on those networks.I think the search engines that are trying the social graph approach to ranking might be onto something. Using all my friends to refine my searches has some serious potential.So, I'd say that I think the next big thing is filtering that firehose of data. |
Are you over social networking? What is next? | dirtbox: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hype_cycleThe next big thing might be some way to actually use the internet for something productive. Crazy talk, I know. |
customer appreciation in start-ups? | Travis: I speak only for my startup, but we are honestly so busy and broke that it would be difficult for us to allocate resources (even if it's just mind share) for something like this. We've chosen to focus on the product experience, as we solve a major pain in the industry, so customers thank us w/o little pins that cost us money and get thrown away.Rereading that sounded a little harsh. It's definitely a good idea for some organizations, just not my startup.OTOH, when I was at engineering school, Microsoft was very popular on campus because they gave out a super sized super ball with a light up inside. Gasp! That made them very popular, even amongst open sourcers. |
Are you over social networking? What is next? | hellotoby: De-centralized social networks, where users are in control of their own data and are not required a visit any site in particular in order to access their network.Perhaps this will be in the form of a new network protocol, or more realistically use some form of P2P or torrent style network. |
Where to move my blog now that Blogger is ceasing FTP support? | csomar: wordpress.* It import Blogger posts + commentsYou should be using this one already instead of Blogger if you want to use your own host. |
Where to move my blog now that Blogger is ceasing FTP support? | Concours: Blogger had ftp support? I think I'm one of those 99,5% peoples not using it, never heard about it, I guess I was (am) fine with what they offer. Are you offering files to download or anything peoples will be downloading from your blog? otherwise I will just advice you to stay with blogger and migrate the downloading to another plattform, you could use dropbox or even skydrive (25 Gigs, all free) for that, it's not just worth moving to wordpress, as blogger is improving. csomar said Wordpress if you use your own host, I may also add GAE (google app engine) if you still want to use free hosting wth high performance, but it's not an easy going. |
The Best Password Cipher? | jodrellblank: Your link seems quite conclusive.Allow me to prompt you to searchyc.com for posts by cperciva and tptacek, and to explain your need a bit more. |
What you think of my startup idea? Knockoffs & China: huge problem | maxklein: It could work, but no matter how you ask us, we would just be guessing. So stop asking and start testing:Write the text above on your website, make a simple form that is free that people can upload the pictures of the watch, and then spend $50 on google adwords to see if people are at all interested in your idea.If you spend $50 and nobody takes you up on your offer even though it is free, then it will be tough to sell it.(On a side-note, you can't get certain brands in Shenzhen Luohu market any longer. For example, Marcopolo has been taken out of the market, but some other brands like Armani are still there) |
What you think of my startup idea? Knockoffs & China: huge problem | ubu: the idea is ok but your business model not so great. why not instead of checking each product do a background check on vendors and certify them. maybe charge the vendor annualy. this model already exist for busnesses in general. but I guss for fake products this could be a niche. |
What are some good developer portfolios? | vorador: I just show my github page. |
$10 Giveaway Investment | imrehg: Microlending: http://www.kiva.org/
They seem to be very open and enthusiastic. |
What you think of my startup idea? Knockoffs & China: huge problem | lostintech: Thanks for all the comments, yet. I just want to clarify that i do not want to walk on ebay's feet with this. They would just throw a Cease & Desist if i go ahead by issuing "certifications" for their vendors. I am sure about this. What do you think ? |
What could be your lifeputer? | wglb: Lifeputer? Please. |
What could be your lifeputer? | mooism2: One computer already isn't enough for me. |
What could be your lifeputer? | csomar: I'll build it myself, so I can put enough processors, RAM, hard drive space... who knows how technology evolves in futur? |
What could be your lifeputer? | nfnaaron: Is there anything at all that stands out above the rest?Assuming that anything more embedded than a phone is not part of the question, we have two choices: a smart phone, or a PC. Kindles and iThings are just feature restricted implementations of PCs or phones. All the smart phones do the same thing, all the PCs do the same thing. The biggest real differences are in marketing and branding. All you can really do is maximize some aspect that all phones and PCs have.So, similar to csomar's "build it myself" solution, mine would be the fastest, most rugged and capacious laptop I could afford. And three years from now I'd wish I didn't have to live with this pig for the rest of my life. |
Sleeping Hacks | fragmede: If it's a short chapter, then this may not make it in, or it might not make it in because it's 'weird', but polyphasic sleep is an interesting twist on traditional sleep schedules.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep |
please review my iPhone app, Cube Paint, or What I am doing wrong? | az: Maybe before someone tries to leave your app, you 'pop up' a survey asking how they liked it. Get them to add their own answers so you can hear more how they feel about your app and see what's bothering them.There are plenty of people on youtube that review products, one comes to mind is iJustine. I know she accepts requests and she has a very large following. Send her a request and maybe she can do your app some justice.Post videos to youtube as well to promote the app from twitter. Is it on facebook? Vimeo? |
I got an intro to a VC, but am not ready to pitch. Now what? | pg: Was it to an associate or partner? If to an associate, it doesn't matter what you do, because it wasn't actually worth anything: meetings with associates almost never lead to deals.If it's to a partner, I'd ask the partner. Say "we're not raising money yet. Would you like us to come in and have an informal convo, or would you rather wait?" Then most of the pressure's off, but you can still start a conversation that might lead to funding later. Or in the ideal case the partner will say "I love this so much I want to invest now." But don't get your hopes up about that. |
Review my app - peer code review app | fendale: I needed something to do some code reviews in my day job and threw this little app together in the evenings over the past month or two. I have held back on releasing it, as I am not really satisfied with it yet, especially the 'website' around the app, but everyone keeps saying release often, so here it is. I would like to develop this into a solid code review app, but I am running short of simple features to add, so I definitely need some users to guide me.Any good and bad feedback is appreciated, especially around the application more than the home/tour pages, which I basically just threw together last night ... thanks. |
How does a parent with a day job participate in Y Combinator? | mbrubeck: If you save some money in advance, you should be able to add at least a few more months of self-funded runway before you need to find outside investors. If you have a spouse, their salary (and group insurance!) can pay the bills, especially if you can reduce your expenses. |
Can I use a credit card service that isn't PCI compliant? | skennedy: Why would you open yourself up to that level of liability? Full PCI compliance is a standard that will be used by businesses to determine if your product is a viable solution. If your solution breaks PCI compliance at any point, you open yourself up to big problems when (not if) something goes wrong.Also, why reinvent the wheel? PayPal and Google Checkout are major vendors with PCI certifications who handle the entire transaction process. Why not use them to handle all the risk? You get a transaction id and collect your money through them. Never touching the sensitive financial information. |
Please re-review my webapp: Playlistr | stuntmouse: I didn't see your first version, but I like what you've done overall.A few notes: The interface is clean, but I wish I could see the major parts without scrolling. This probably doesn't need to have a period: "Login with Google."I think you're one more design revision from perfection. |
Can I use a credit card service that isn't PCI compliant? | pantsd: Recurly claims to be PCI compliant on there web page [ http://recurly.com/features/ ]. Its possible they are on the list under another name, I'd give there support people a shout. I'm not sure if recurly,spreedly,etc. are actually storing the data, it seems like they might be having the gateway (i.e. authorize.net) store the data, but that is pure speculation on my part.I am interested in doing some re-occuring billing stuff my self so do post back with your experiences with which ever provider you go with. Best of luck :) |
I got an intro to a VC, but am not ready to pitch. Now what? | pedalpete: I would definately follow-up with at least a thanks for the intro, and give a quick introduction of yourself, maybe your team, but keep it short.Do a bit of research on what the partner specializes in, and make sure that fits with what you are building. Give a bit of insight into what you are doing, so that the partner can associate you with a project/product, and be sure to let him know that you don't think you're ready for a meeting yet.Basically, you want to build a bit of rapport. Keep in mind, that a pitch is as much for you to learn and get a feel for the VC, as it is for them to get to meet you.So, yes to #2. |
YC Intern- Housing in San Francisco? | dnsworks: Interning for a YC startup? Seeing as YC doesn't really pay anybody enough to live in San Francisco, I have to imagine your best bet is going to be a cardboard box under the freeway in-between 2nd & 3rd and Harrison & Bryant. |
please review my iPhone app, Cube Paint, or What I am doing wrong? | kleinsch: Aside from the popup on first launch, there's no help screen, so I can't figure out how to arrange things properly. I tried visiting the gallery and it's not sized for an iPhone screen, so I have to scroll around to see the entire picture.I think in the process of developing this, you may have used it too much to see any usability problems. I'd suggest finding someone who's never used your app before and physically watch them use it for the first time. Most importantly: don't say a word to help them! You want to see what it's like for first-time users of your application. After they're done, get their feedback on whether they'd use it again or not. This should only take a couple minutes. If you do this with 2-3 people, you'll realize a few things you could do to make the first use more compelling. |
Can I use a credit card service that isn't PCI compliant? | dacort: Short answer - They should be listed on the service providers list if you are using them in that capacity and you want to be fully compliant as well.Longer answer (disclaimer: I'm a former PCI QSA). You can, of course, do whatever you want to with the credit card data at the risk of not being PCI compliant. Small startups are rarely at risk for a breach, but I'd personally prefer not to be in a position to deal with that liability. As it relates specifically to those companies, they need to apply to be on that list. I know that Recurly is currently working on it and Chargify is still in private beta, so I'm assuming it's something they're working on. That said, I have confidence that some of these companies will "do it right" and obtain PCI compliance/validated service provider status by the time it becomes a legitimate concern.I've talked to both Recurly and Chargify directly. Recurly is apparently PCI Level 2 compliant and working on the external audit to reach level 1. Chargify is outsourcing storage ( http://chargify.com/blog/adding-payment-gateways-while-maint... ) which addresses a lot of concerns, but I'm not sure if they've gone through the necessary compliance process otherwise. As for CheddarGettar, the only mention of PCI compliance I can find on their site is this - http://support.cheddargetter.com/discussions/questions/39-pc... - which doesn't really indicate an understanding of what is actually required to be compliant. I can't comment on Spreedly as I didn't look at their solution, but I do know one of the devs previously worked at a large PCI shop.So a service provider like these guys can technically be PCI compliant, but not be on the service provider list if they haven't applied to be. If you use them, though, they best be on the list by the time you reach the point that the PCI assessor (they don't like to be called auditors. ;)) is knocking on your door. This isn't likely to be for a while for most startups, though.In some of the early data I've seen in a survey I'm doing (shameless plug: http://www.untitledstartup.com/2010/02/payment-security-surv... ), most companies are implementing their own system directly to paypal or similar, but have not actually gone through the process necessary to become PCI Level 4 certified. Most feel that the benefit of keeping the payment flow on their site is more important than the relatively small risk of being compromised. Can't say I agree, but I'm more paranoid than most. |
Facebook redesign - What's with the "Y" and orange bar? | Semiapies: Just one of those things to remind us we're still in the Model-T stage of the web. |
Facebook redesign - What's with the "Y" and orange bar? | zck: The original page from readwriteweb: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/facebook_wants_to_be_yo... |
Ask HN:Review our startup | gipsygipsy: This is a service for non resident Indians to send real paper greeting cards to India. We just got it out of the gate |
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