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the risks of blocking IPs | ScottWhigham: I've done IP blocking for about 5 years on my site and will continue to do so. I put up a special page when the IP is blocked that has my phone number and I explain, "Hey - this sucks for both of us. Here's the problem and one of the possible reasons your IP might have been blocked. Those stupid spammers - it's all their fault. If you are a human, we apologize and here's our phone number." I get probably 2-3 calls a year.Is this ideal? Of course not - bluesmoon's solutions are far more elegant. But how much time will it take me to code/manage those solutions over the next five years? Lots. How much more money will I have made as a result? Probably none. So I made the choice to be more aggressive but to be humble on my "You're blocked!" page and the customers that do call get it; they understand. |
Grails hosting (or is 100mbit enough?) | lsc: 100Mbit is way more than enough, unless you are trying to break into the adult industry or similar.The problem with doing it at home is usually the reliability of network and availability of network, ventilation, and the reliability of power. But if you have some 100Mbps FTTH then sure, buy a UPS and rack up a server at home. Make sure it's in an area that doesn't get much warmer than you would like for yourself (whatever you do, /do not stick it in the closet./ )Really, the colder you can keep it the better, but you shouldn't have any real problems through 80-85 degrees (I'd like it cooler, but eh.) I've worked in home-made data centers like that where the temp. regularly hit 100 (F, not C) and things mostly worked.Do the math on your power usage, though; many places have retarded pricing for residential power, meaning you could actually save money by bringing it to a data center.Me, I'm stuck on a 3m down, 768M up connection or something like that. Wholly unsuitable for actual hosting. |
Cool Things You've Done (Brag Thread) | jgalvez: * I wrote a book on ActionScript when I was 14* Dropped out of school the same age (8th grade)* Wrote another book on Flash when I was 18* Worked as a remote consultant from ages 15 to 18* Still working as a remote consultant for startups (I'm now 24)I had a great start but I think enjoying success (and money) too early in life can be extremely distracting. I stopped achieving when I started making over 50kUSD a year. Also got into a lot of debt. Not too clever after all.Best thing I did, tho, was quitting Flash and getting into server-side development. Learned Python and then Ruby, now back to Python (but still doing lots of Ruby).I think the biggest lesson I learned is that no matter what you do, make sure you use at least SOME of your time doing something for yourself. Start getting businesses out the door as soon as you can and don't stop until you're successful with one of them. All you need is to get yourself to start -- understand Parkinson's Law and the 80-20 rule. It gets easier over time. |
finding partners for hobby/experimentation projects | fleitz: Take the DIY approach.A couple suggestions:
Get a Photoshop WOW book. This will teach you how to do the things you want to do graphics-wise.Get a design book, the principles of design and spacing are fairly straight forward.WikiMedia Commons: There are lots of great graphics on that site, they are all public domain. Combine these with the Photoshop WOW book.Flickr: Learn to use the advanced search features and search for images that are public domain.However, most importantly, iterate: Like great apps, great designs don't get there the first time. Use the wayback machine to convince yourself that it's ALRIGHT. Look at youtube's first iteration. It REALLY sucks.Just make something and then ask people about it. You've got the perfect audience here at HN, throw the URL into an Ask HN and say, what do you think of my design?Seriously, if you can teach yourself to program you can teach yourself design. There are a couple tricks to it but it's not really that difficult, like programming however it IS a lot of work.Also, buy/find a template design and then rework to suit your needs. Check deviantart find something you like and talk to the guy about it, most of them will even do the work for you if you're willing to pay.If you can find dev partners, become the design guy, problem solved. Plus, devs love to work with designers who can code.Also, beg borrow and steal design ideas. Look at jquery-UI, jqTouch, etc, there are lots of pre-made great looking designs that will get you by. |
Is artificial intelligence/natural language processing a futile pursuit? | sdrinf: I'd like to address the market risks:Did you know, that large retail sites increasingly employ people to post merited positive, and no-merit negative reviews to funnel consumers into a buying decision? And, by economy of scale, they do this in volume -usually massively overwhelming genuine on-site reviews. Working out the impact is left as an exercise for the reader. |
Exclusive startup coverage TechCrunch vs Mashable? | rwhitman: I get the impression these days that TC and Mashable aren't super psyched about covering startup launches anymore unless said startup has a pre-established relationship or part of their sponsored events.If both of them give you the cold shoulder, I'd definitely go for ReadWriteWeb. I'm always impressed by the quality of journalism over there, and I feel that they really value their community and staying true to their focus.And that "TC won't cover you" stuff, I dunno. If you are getting a lot of buzz, they'll have to cover you eventually. Who's to say either TC or mashable will even honor your exclusive? Chances are they won't even shrug until someone else starts buzzing about it at a lower level. Unless you have a guaranteed home run, I'd play it safe and hit up individual writers, build buzz from the ground up. |
Can your website be different than your LLC name? | dctoedt: 1. If your LLC will be doing business (that is, holding itself out to the public) under a different name than its official name, you should probably file an assumed-name certificate in the appropriate office (which varies by state).2. If you put a copyright notice on your Web pages (a mouseprint copyright notice is normally a good idea for evidentiary purposes, although technically not required under U.S. law), then the copyright notice should use the official name of the LLC, not the site URL.Usual disclaimers: I'm a lawyer, but not YOUR lawyer, so this isn't legal advice, don't rely on it as such, don't disclose anything confidential in the comments (lest you waive any privilege that might apply), you and I aren't establishing an attorney-client relationship via this thread, etc., etc. |
Help For Clojure Addiction | mahmud: I am a "PHP" developer at work. All day I sit around writing "PHP" code. Here is how I start my day: "You guys want this done quickly and reliably or should I do it in PHP" ..We're a PHP shop with a huge Common Lisp code base. |
Best practices for creating unique IDs | Quarrelsome: Do you have security concerns besides someone guessing the id?
I always figured you just make sure you only allow authenticated users to edit/view the data they are authenticated to see.I always figured people used GUIDs over ids to avoid the performance implications of re-pinging the database to get the new id.
I would be cautious of creating my own GUID generation though. I'd assume that the db's GUID implementation is probably WAY better than anything one can hack together within a short time-frame.I'm an auto-increment man (if I can get away with it). :) |
What's the most simple way to accept monthly subscription fees? | stympy: Don't forget the SaaS Rails Kit at http://railskits.com/saas/ if you're writing a Rails app. :) |
Best practices for creating unique IDs | ratsbane: GUIDs (UUIDs) are not necessarily good for cryptography; some implementations or versions make it easy to predict subsequent values. Originally UUIDs were created to provide uniqueness in cases when you didn't own the namespace: http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4122.txtI'm trying to figure out a solution to a similar problem this week. I'm leaning towards an AES of an auto-increment ID + random salt and my coding partner wants to create a random MD5 hex digest and store it as a second key in the database. He's probably right but I'd like to avoid creating yet another index. |
In C, why is the * operator both reference and type casting? | cperciva: Substitute the obvious character for $%^& below -- I couldn't figure out how to convince HN that I wasn't just delimiting italics.What was the historical reason for using the $%^& operator for both things?I think the argument was that it allows you to say "foo is a pointer to an integer" == (int $%^&) foo == int ($%^& foo) == "that which is pointed to by foo, is an integer". |
In C, why is the * operator both reference and type casting? | dasht: The * in the parentheses is part of type name and it indicates that the type being named is the sort of type to which it makes sense to apply the run-time * operator. |
In C, why is the * operator both reference and type casting? | jey: (Mentally replace all ^s with asterisks in the following:)I don't understand your C code. What is "(int foo^)" supposed to do? It looks almost like a cast, but "int foo" isn't a valid type in C. Maybe "(struct foo^)" or "(int^)"? |
In C, why is the * operator both reference and type casting? | Locke1689: The second * has nothing to do with type-casting -- it is part of the type identification. The operator performing the typecast is the pair of parentheses.Consider: int and int * are two different types. So typecasting to int when you really mean int * is completely different. |
In C, why is the * operator both reference and type casting? | tmsh: I imagine the rationale was something like: how do we indicate that types are references to memory? Let's be concise and use the asterisk after the type of the memory.How do we dereference an address? Since it only makes sense that types with an asterisk will be dereferenced, let's use an asterisk like we did in the type declaration. There, we have uniformity.Oh wait, f-. What about if we want the address of something on the stack? Oh, maybe use the ampersand, and then that returns a pointer just like a pointer to something on the heap. Awesome! Let's even extend that ampersand to return the address of anything. Dereferenced pointers. What have you.And yet, it's not completely symmetrical. Hence, pointers not being completely intuitive.In addition, the ampersand as 'reference' is another completely unrelated syntax convenience. Which of course makes the language even slightly less symmetrical.But, once you understand exactly what it's doing -- and your mind will adapt until it seems completely intuitive -- it is quite concise.But the trick is that it's not concise like s-expressions. There's no clear symmetry. A lot of C (and even more C++) is simply syntax. |
What do you listen to when you code? | zellux: I don't feel like listening to music when I'm coding, especially songs, it may disturb my thoughts. |
Where can I meet entrepreneurs in Japan? | nreece: patio11 (http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=patio11), who's a regular HN user, is based in Japan. You can touch base with him. |
Where can I meet entrepreneurs in Japan? | jason_tko: There are a few of us around. Perhaps we should organise a Japan HN get-together. Patio11 is out in Nagoya though I think, which might make things a bit difficult.If anyone in Japan is interested in this, please contact me through my email address, and I'll organise a small event. |
Where can I meet entrepreneurs in Japan? | pwim: You should investigate some of the events that go on.Here are some more internationally minded ones:Tokyo2point0 - web related: http://www.tokyo2point0.net/Business In Japan - general: http://businessinjapan.jp/TLUG - Linux related: http://tlug.jp/MobileMonday - mobile related: http://www.mobilemonday.jp/Ninjava - General Technical - http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ninjava/ (presentation tomorrow!)For Japanese technical events, check out this calendar:
https://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=fvijvohm91uifvd9hr...You could also check out Tokyo Hacker Space: http://www.tokyohackerspace.org/Once you start participating in the community, you'll find more and more ways to meet other like-minded people. |
Where can I meet entrepreneurs in Japan? | delackner: Check out the next Pechakucha night in Tokyo maybe? The few entrepreneurs that I know usually attend. |
What do you listen to when you code? | froo: Thanks for this thread, I was just thinking about this myself and was going to ask HN... figured I'd check the ASK section first. |
What advice would you give college students about starting a business? | ostrichpincher: Although it doesn't address your questions directly, this talk about making money online by David Heinemeier Hansson, co-founder of 37Signals and creator of Ruby on Rails, makes quite a lot of sense when you're juggling around all the thoughts about becoming an entrepeneur.
http://37signals.com/svn/posts/981-the-secret-to-making-mone...
Enjoy.
Take care,
Karl |
finding partners for hobby/experimentation projects | sushi: I will just say like everyone is, that you should start doing designing on Photoshop as much as possible but it takes time to learn design. I have been doing it since last two years and only now starting to create designs that I will use myself (since I am my own harshest critic).I have although so far only done projects for myself but I'd love to try out new things if it's worth it.Shoot me an email (on my profile page) if you seek any help. |
I use and love Python. What's the best book to learn C ? | Kliment: I'd suggest you start dissecting small programs written in C. Those UNIX tools you were talking about? Grab some UNIX tools, see how they work. Dissect cat, grep, etc. It's the best way to learn. |
I use and love Python. What's the best book to learn C ? | bensummers: K&R is still the best book on C. Short, simple and accurate.C++, on the other hand, is a moving target. Difficult to know what to recommend, apart from suggesting you get something modern which concentrates on using the STL, and perhaps Boost. |
I use and love Python. What's the best book to learn C ? | plinkplonk: First, K&R. Second , C interfaces and Implementations by David Hanson. |
Is artificial intelligence/natural language processing a futile pursuit? | fezzl: I was probably careless when I did my research, but I just found a company that does the exact type of sentiment analysis on Amazon reviews (as I have independently envisioned):http://techcrunch.com/2008/06/30/pluribo-is-cliffsnotes-for-...Not sure how to react to this but sigh. |
I use and love Python. What's the best book to learn C ? | prog: I found "The Complete C Reference" by Herbert Schildt to be quite good. Most of the language is covered in about 250 pages followed by standard library function, algorthims and data structures and ends in a good project "The Little C Interpreter". Its about 800 pages but then its a reference so you don't need to read it in one go :-) |
I use and love Python. What's the best book to learn C ? | 1331: I highly recommend _C: A Reference Manual_ by Harbinson and Steele. It has many tiny examples, but it is mainly used as a reference manual (as the title suggests).http://www.amazon.com/Reference-Manual-Samuel-P-Harbison/dp/...A good book for learning C is _Mastering Algorithms with C_ by Loudon. The source code is over-commented and contains too much white space, which is a bit annoying, but the content is quite nice.http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Algorithms-C-Kyle-Loudon/dp/... |
I use and love Python. What's the best book to learn C ? | andrewcooke: not for learning, but as a reference to keep on your desk when programming in c - harbison + steele http://www.careferencemanual.com/this is also worth reading once you've got the basics down - http://www.amazon.com/Expert-Programming-Peter-van-Linden/dp... |
I use and love Python. What's the best book to learn C ? | tptacek: C Interfaces and Implementations by Hanson. It'll give you back most of the things you depend on in Python, like variable length strings and dictionaries.I'm teaching a 4-month weekend C class for Ruby programmers starting in April, and my syllabus is pretty much built around CII. |
I use and love Python. What's the best book to learn C ? | pvg: http://www.c-faq.com/resources/books.htmlTake a look at the Amazon reviews of some of these, you'll probably find something to your liking.K&R is an important book to have on your bookshelf but the idea that it's the only or best book to learn C from is absurd.Another thing to do is scan the C FAQ and some of the online C tutorials just to get a feel for the language and where it fits in the language universe and to understand why a 'modern topic like threading' is not strictly a C topic. The C coding standard documents of various projects and organizations are also useful to give you an idea of what peoples' notions of sensible C look like - they can be surprisingly varied.Lastly, review known good code in the field you're interested in - in your case, this might be Python extensions. There aren't a lot of terribly good reasons to use C to 'hack on small Unix tools'. Your best path to learning the language is writing things that you actually need and where C is a good (or only) choice. |
I use and love Python. What's the best book to learn C ? | kiwidrew: Slightly off-topic, but in case you haven't checked out Cython (www.cython.org) before, please do! It allows you to write Python code which is _translated_ into C code that uses the CPython API. This includes classes, list comprehensions, generator expressions... practically all Python code is valid Cython code.I'm honestly never going back to writing C again. Cython gives me all the expressiveness of Python combined with all the performance and close-to-the-metal-godlike-powers of C. I've been using it to implement high-performance graph traversal and routing algorithms and to interface with C/C++ libraries, and it's been an absolute amazing productivity boost.However, all of this comes with one caveat: you really need to have a good knowledge of C to understand Cython and what it's doing. It merely saves you from the tedium of hand-coding against the CPython API and all of the boilerplate code that's needed to get much of anything done in C. |
I use and love Python. What's the best book to learn C ? | numeromancer: Try this:http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/cclass/cclass.htmlOnce you can stand on your C legs, you should read the C-FAQ, here:http://www.c-faq.com/and get a copy of the C99 standard. It's supposed to be here:http://www.dkuug.dk/JTC1/SC22/WG14/but the site was unavailble when I tried to check it before writing this comment.Various C-related stuff that is good to read:http://www.lysator.liu.se/c/duffs-device.htmlhttp://www.lysator.liu.se/c/ten-commandments.htmlhttp://www.lysator.liu.se/c/pikestyle.htmlTake this with a pinch of salt:http://www.seebs.net/faqs/c-iaq.html |
I use and love Python. What's the best book to learn C ? | j_baker: I might get downvoted for this, but I'd recommend going with C++ before you get into C. You don't have to learn all of the crazy stuff like template metaprogramming, but C++ does have some tools to make C-like programming easier. Personally, I'd use C++ just for the string and vector classes.If you do want to go the C++ route, I hear good things about this book: http://www.amazon.com/Accelerated-Practical-Programming-Exam...Now that I think about it though, if you're still deadset on using C, the Python source code is actually a pretty easy read. You get two benefits for the price of one: you learn C and you get to learn more about the internals of Python. Look here: http://svn.python.org/view/python/trunk/ |
What do you listen to when you code? | J3L2404: Pandora QuickMix of Sound Dimensions, Ratatat and Menahan Street Band, at very low volume. |
Best practices for creating unique IDs | johkra: I read 15 Bytes from /dev/urandom, use base64 on it and cut of the last two padding characters.That's 2^120 possibilities - just guessing a valid id will require a lot of luck and a collision is very unlikely. |
I use and love Python. What's the best book to learn C ? | bballant: I will second the vote for Mastering Algorithms in C. This book will bring you right into the details you want:
http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Algorithms-C-Kyle-Loudon/dp/...Accelerated C++ was also mentioned and I just love this book. It brought me back to C++ after years of being away: http://www.acceleratedcpp.com/ |
I use and love Python. What's the best book to learn C ? | Apreche: Pointers on C helped me really understand pointers like no other book was able to do.http://www.amazon.com/Pointers-C-Kenneth-Reek/dp/0673999866/... |
I use and love Python. What's the best book to learn C ? | nfnaaron: From my C days, I second and third Harbison & Steele. I learned from K&R, but I learned better from H&S.From this list (can't say how current they are),http://www.c-faq.com/resources/sd19.htmlI liked: - K&R and H&S (if you have to choose, H&S)
- The Standard C Library, P.J.Plauger.
- C Traps and Pitfalls, Andrew Koenig. |
I use and love Python. What's the best book to learn C ? | gcv: After K&R, I highly recommend Peter van der Linden's Expert C Programming (http://www.amazon.com/Expert-Programming-Peter-van-Linden/dp...). It's fun to read (yes, really), and you'll understand the language better for it. C is fairly quirky, and this book helps navigate those quirks.For example, I bet most people who claim to "know" C can neither explain the difference between arrays and pointers, nor clarify where they cannot be used interchangeably. I was lucky to have read that book early on in my days of C, so I actually know the answer. |
What makes Lisp hard to learn? | pchristensen: The hardest thing is the lack of a "batteries included" standard package. There are competing implementations (which all have strengths and weaknesses) and lots of libraries (many of which are good, few of which are widely accepted as "standard").The short answer is to setup SBCL and Slime/Emacs (here's a guide I wrote: http://www.pchristensen.com/blog/articles/installing-sbcl-em... )A previous discussion on learning Lisp: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=125766Plus another article I wrote: http://www.pchristensen.com/blog/articles/how-to-learn-lisp/Additional resources:SLIME/Emacs cheat sheet: http://www.pchristensen.com/blog/articles/public-beta-open-f...Watch the SLIME movie (http://www.guba.com/watch/3000054867 ) and read my notes on it (http://www.pchristensen.com/blog/articles/reference-for-the-... )EDIT: To avoid the setup hassle entirely, try Thnake (http://jasonfruit.com/thnake/ ) - a Linux liveCD with SBCL/SLIME/emacs preconfigured, complete with webserver and gui packages. |
What makes Lisp hard to learn? | conanite: For me, coming from java, macros and closures were the two concepts that were completely alien and made a huge difference. Java provides a lot of structure (packages, classes, interfaces) that result in a lot of reassuring boilerplate code. If you're using lisp for conciseness, there is no boilerplate to comfort you, to signal where you are and what you should be doing at this point in the code. |
I want to write a book (fiction) | yesbabyyes: Well, starting with tools, I have heard good things about Scrivener: http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.htmlI think it helps you to start just writing stuff down, and then, as your story takes shape, helps you organize all that to a story.Since you say that you have writing abilities and imagination, I guess what you need is a way to start, and this might be it, since you could start in the beginning, end or in the middle and then organize everything as it becomes more clear. |
I use and love Python. What's the best book to learn C ? | Maro: A number of people have recommended David R. Hanson's C Interfaces and Impementations, so I'll mention his A Retargetable C Compiler: Design and Implementation. I own this book though I haven't read it, but it's about writing a C compiler in C. You should pretty much just go out and buy these two books because they'll eventually go out of print, and then you'll be screwed. CII used to be out of print and impossible to obtain until Addison-Wesley started printing it again a year ago. |
I use and love Python. What's the best book to learn C ? | adrianscott: If you really want to do Python modules, I can understand.In terms of hacking small Unix tools, have you considered other options like perl, bash, combo's of unix commands, etc.? I suggest that those options could be a lot more productive for your time investment than C. IMHO. Hope this helps. |
Anyone willing to build a "ls" with Subversion integration? | zeugma: svn status does not provide you enough information ? |
Any alternatives to Mixpanel ? | suhail: I upvoted just because I'd like to know myself and to hear your guys' thoughts =). We're always open to discussion with our potential customers. |
What makes Lisp hard to learn? | hga: Hmmm, I started learning it in 1979 (sic) when my major experience was FORTRAN, BASIC, and an obscure language called PPL who's major features I hadn't taken advantage of (it was for a summer class). I'd toyed with/looked at COBOL, PL/1 and C.The biggest thing, I think, is that it's based on expressions rather than statements, which is rather a different model than the Algol family (more or less) languages mentioned above. And for me, learning the importance of indentation for code comprehension, but that had already started with my learning C.And then there's recursion; you can't do idiomatic LISP without it (The Little Lisper or nowadays Schemer is good for that).Ideally you'll also learn functional programming; optional in Common Lisp, hard to avoid in Scheme, and there's little point in using Clojure without it.Frankly, I find it delightfully simple. The conceptual base is small, the syntax of parens, atoms, immediates (e.g. numbers) and special forms (e.g. if) makes is a very regular language, no "cancer of the semi-colon.It's really quite nifty, and of course back then there was pretty much nothing faster with which to develop software. You mostly just have to unlearn some stuff and be willing to put in some effort, which will be well rewarded. |
I use and love Python. What's the best book to learn C ? | gte910h: This post only contains non-aff linksWhile I'm certainly good at C, and have been the guy people asked the C and C toolchain questions at a couple places I've worked, I'd say you're in for more than 1 book to grok the topics you've expressed interest in, and haven't met the single book that does all you want.1: If you're a python programmer, I do suggest staying with pure C and AWAY from C++. You have little use case for it if you can mix python and C and it is literally pain incarnate while you do not know every little bit of it and/or work with people who do not know every little bit of it.2: Secondly, a single book on C will not get you where you're going. You will need several.3: I'd stick with K&R for reference, but then go to the following two books for threading and all the other stuff like networking:You need these two books to get down C and it's ecosystem (make, autotools, etc):
Advanced Unix Programming by Rochkind (Really good explanation of signals especially): http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-UNIX-Programming-Marc-Rochkin...Gnu/Linux Application Programming by M. Tim Jones (Recovers some of the same stuff as AUP, but does better with the toolchain):
http://www.amazon.com/GNU-Linux-Application-Programming/dp/1...If you want to go more advanced, this is likely the correct book:
Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment:
http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Programming-UNIX-Environment-...Although if you're diving deep into networking, this is likely the correct book:
Unix Networking Programming: Vol I by Stevens:http://www.amazon.com/Unix-Network-Programming-Sockets-Netwo... |
Any alternatives to Mixpanel ? | jfarmer: http://kissmetrics.com/ is the most similar product.R is a programming language with huge number of data analytics libraries. It's not really an alternative any more than, say, Python is an alternative. |
Any alternatives to Mixpanel ? | SlyShy: I'v been using http://wingify.com/ and have been quite happy with it. It's by a fellow HN member. Not sure if it fits your exact needs, though. |
I want to write a book (fiction) | Scott_MacGregor: Well since I am in an "out of the box" thinking mode today, here is my idea for you based on that. For me it’s all about the folding green.First off, I’m not a fiction reader at all. I only read technical stuff, but I do not believe this specific idea is being done in fiction works.Why not offer to work with an already successful best-selling fiction writer and automate one existing bestseller work. Turn the book into software and have multiple paths through the story that vary depending upon user input. Let the reader modify the character names, and put in some random paths that auto-generate depending on the readers choices. Have the ending be totally random from a choice of 10 endings.Instead of a single story, the reader would be buying a set of random stories with a common thread based on a best seller. You could try selling it through regular book channels like Amazon and Borders and let the reader have 3 complete reads for X dollars plus the ability to recharge the number of available re-reads via a website generated password for X dollars.Offer a 50/50 split on the net profits with the author on the shipped software.The benefit to you would be starting out with a product that already has a proven demand—more likely to have cash flow. Plus you can learn the business somewhat.The benefit to the author is additional income and lots of media exposure publicizing the book.If this is popular, every so often the scenarios, paths and randoms can be refreshed online for an additional fee.The interactiveness of the story may draw additional new readers (buyers) plus re-sell to those who bought the hardcopy. A lot of new books come out every year and from a money in pocket standpoint not very many hit a home run. It seems logical that piggybacking our type of technical expertise on a proven winner might make you a lot more money than trying to go it alone.Note: If you do this and make it big, you owe me a pizza for this. (I’m serious) |
How do you build a self-serve ad network to compete with Google? | maxdemarzi: I would look into http://www.openx.org/ad-server and that community for advice. |
Any alternatives to Mixpanel ? | emmett: I don't really understand your problem fully, but if Mixpanel looks like a good fit I would recommend using them for your new data, and creating a separate system for viewing your historical data.That reduces the requirements for the code you have to write (it only has to be able to deal with historical data, you don't need to figure out how to deal with updates), while giving you maximal features in the long run. |
Any alternatives to Mixpanel ? | revorad: mtarnovan, I can try to help. Drop me an email at hrishi@prettygraph.com. |
Any alternatives to Mixpanel ? | dotBen: I'm not aware of any service that lets you import historical data.For a start, each of these services collects a slightly different dataset measured in a slightly different way-- and so if you wanted historical data to analyize trends, you might be comparing apples to oranges with the data from the old system vs the new one. I'm also not sure there is a standard format to import/export this kind of data.What system is the historical data sitting in right now? |
Any alternatives to Mixpanel ? | eel: Metricly seems to allow importing historical data. However, I suppose being in a private beta is a drawback. |
What makes Lisp hard to learn? | hernan7: I come from a C/Unix shell/Perl background mostly (with a sprinkling of Java). The main stumbling blocks that I found were:1) oddly-named functions -- rplaca, cadaddaddr and the like2) weird "macho" indentation -- more so than the much-maligned parens. I found that at some points of The Little Lisper, I needed a ruler to make sense of the indentation level. I have hopes that the default 4-column indentation in Clojure will make it much easier for me to learn.3) strange control flow constructs. Trying to make sense where the condition, if and else clauses begin and end in an "if" can be a pain. More so for "cond" or "do". Combine that with 2), and things become unreadable quite fast.By the way, none of these would be a showstopper if I had to learn Lisp for work or college. Just that, they made it not worth my time to try to learn it for fun.Edit: I forgot, tail-call recursion. A single misstep and your CPU and memory footprint go from constant to exponential and/or Ackermaniac. |
How do you keep track of your group/shared expenses ? | roam: 1. Spreadsheet shared through Dropbox
2. No, no problems |
Any alternatives to Mixpanel ? | siong1987: There is Vanity for Rails: http://vanity.labnotes.org/ It does not support funnel analysis like Mixpanel tho. |
Best practices for creating unique IDs | dan_sim: You can take a look at this : http://www.rubyfleebie.com/encryption-with-alphanumeric-outp...It cares more about readability than security but I guess it is safe enough. |
Your favourite (oldschool) software? | RevRal: I used to like working with MathCad, but I haven't needed it since ~1995. |
Book recommendation for a future Angel Investor? | joshu: There isn't one. You learn on the job. |
Your favourite (oldschool) software? | noonespecial: Laplink, baby! Copy that 200meg hard disk over your LPT port in just 40 hours! |
Your favourite (oldschool) software? | MattF: +1 for XTree Gold, I was stoked when I got my hands on that.Stacker was magic too. |
Raise your hand if you're tilting your external Display | weaksauce: I have a 24" hooked up to my 15" MBP. The Monitor is up and to the right of the laptop. It does not bother me to have different height monitors because my workflow is such that I use keyboard shortcuts to move windows to the other monitor.(sizeup and cinch are the best apps that I have purchased) If you have/are getting a mac look into sizeup and then map the keys according to this scheme:
http://zacharypinter.com/2009/06/15/keyboard-driven-window-m...with one addition from me: ctrl+option+command+k should center the window in the screen. This is useful for making the window the left half of the screen with ctrl+command+j and then centering the smaller window. (sometimes pages are too hard to read on a large monitor but you don't want to have the window off to the side.)Edit: I personally would not like positioning the monitor above the laptop because I use the 24" much more than the 15" and always looking up would be extremely bad for ergonomics. |
Any alternatives to Mixpanel ? | khangtoh: Thanks for starting the thread, I would be interested in knowing what you eventually decided to go with. I too had been running our own analytics for a while and started looking at Mixpanel to see if we could possibly migrate to mixpanel in order to make more sense of the data we've collected and collecting. |
Are there any alternatives to the now-closed DocVerse? | aptimpropriety: Tag-along: Are there any alternatives to the long-closed Grand Central (or Google Voice if you don't have an invite)? |
Your favourite (oldschool) software? | joshu: vi! |
What's the YC startup that detects motion changes in video? | jonallanharper: I remember seeing a YC startup a while back that allows a user to analyze a long video recording and find the points in the movie where motion was detected. Does anybody recall the name of that startup? Thanks in advance. |
Any alternatives to Mixpanel ? | aditya: http://chartbeat.com/ is pretty impressive. |
What's the YC startup that detects motion changes in video? | pclark: HilightCam |
Your Failed Startups | jolan: 1) 7 minute abs2) Work out your abs in 7 minutes instead of 83) Our "If you're not happy with the first 7 minutes, we're gonna send you the extra minute free." policy |
Your favourite (oldschool) software? | nfnaaron: Gopher. Usenet (whatever client). Stacker. HP made some replacement desktop for Windows that I really liked, not New Wave.Tapcis addon for Compuserve. |
Your favourite (oldschool) software? | protomyth: PFE - I dearly miss that editor |
Common sense emacs tutorial that doesn't assume I'm stupid? | Ixiaus: DrScheme (included with PLT-Scheme) is best for learning Scheme IMHO - the different language packs are really helpful, the stepper is AMAZING (using the stepper was the only way I was able to grasp/see a continuation and collector in real time).Emacs is my primary programming environment but thus far DrScheme beats Emacs with it's visual debugger and stepper - it is perfect for learning. |
Your favourite (oldschool) software? | revorad: Not that old school but I miss Winamp. |
Your favourite (oldschool) software? | nathanb: Definitely +1 for LapLink. Sure it required a null modem cable, but at least it beat sneakernet!QBASIC that came with DOS. The built-in context-sensitive help is how I taught myself how to "program".Also, Norton Commander and Norton Disk Doctor. In the bad old DOS days of no tab-complete and dodgy floppy disks, Peter Norton was a hero. |
Your favourite (oldschool) software? | hga: Stuff I'm still using:Windows Eudora (nothing I've found has the features from it that I really want).All the rest are from the '70s:UNIX and cygwin. Specific utilities I started using in 1978 include dd, du, dc, ed/ex (death before vi!), tar, ls and ps.EMACS, of course ^_^.Scheme.A bit later, command line FTP and dbx, the first unix debugger with source line correspondence (mid-80s, and it was a godsend).Stuff I've stopped using for whatever reason, although I might get back to it: nroff, Scribe and TeX (before LaTeX). ITS and it's COMSAT equivalent to sendmail. Multics. Lisp Machines. Chaosnet, with its named ports (not numeric). UUCP email. Lex and yacc ... as long as I can rope someone else into writing their inputs ^_^.Adventure, first generation Zork and Peter's Langston's 3D porthole spacewar and empire. Xtrek, the maze games on the graphics machines attached to MIT-DM and the Alto version. Rogue, rogueamatic (sp?) and nethack. The Artic Fox Amiga game. |
I want to write a book (fiction) | xl-brain: Please start here: It was thirty years after bogleron emancipated the children of the shadowrealm... |
Your favourite (oldschool) software? | bootload: "... Your favourite (oldschool) software? ..." > You are in a twisty maze of passageways, all alike...
Advent ~ http://www.rickadams.org/adventure/ The first bit of software I really used & liked. Still marveling at ths source code now ~ http://www.wurb.com/if/game/1 |
How can you proof that your website content has been plagirized? | proexploit: While that's a difficult question depending on your meaning, you can get some info at http://copyscape.com. I paid for some premium credits personally, allows you to automatically check every page of your website.Edt: clickable link. |
Good Drupal resources? | 1331: Smashing Magazine has an article with links to many resources:http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/09/24/drupal-developers... |
Raise your hand if you're tilting your external Display | ableal: I just use the external 24 (or 25) inch display, and turn off the laptop display. I paid a bit more for 1920x1200 pixels, not the 'HD-TV' x1080 screens they're selling more of nowadays.I also found simple plastic laptop stands with USB hubs. Plug regular keyboard and mouse into stand, shove stand+laptop to the side. As good as a desktop machine, plus it suspends with the lid shut.As for the 'second screen', I just use multiple desktops/spaces. Less aggravating than switching screens, unless you really, really, need both visible simultaneously. Linux works fine, Mac seems a bit weak on moving windows around. Dock or 2nd Gnome toolbar on the side.P.S. My local IKEA had on exhibit a good DIY monitor stand. Made by screwing 11cm Capita legs onto an Effektiv file frame front 80cm wide. I built a couple of those - they're great to place the display and laptop, with space to shove the keyboard and whatever underneath. (Sorry, no URLs, seems IKEA now thinks you have to login to browse the catalog - news to me.) |
Your favourite (oldschool) software? | johngalt: This old sysop enjoyed Wildcat v4.0 BBS |
How can you proof that your website content has been plagirized? | jacquesm: Proof, as in 100% proof ? Or prove ? And Plagiarized.You are going to have to prove 'provenance'.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ProvenanceThis is a very complicated subject, the best thing you can do is to document very carefully the process of creation, time stamps and so on, and then to use those to challenge the people that cloned your content.Mostly in the context of college, but useful stuff anyway:http://www.bobbyelliott.com/Plagiarism.htm |
Is artificial intelligence/natural language processing a futile pursuit? | ffhix: Hmm. you should probably look at http://adaptivesemantics.com/ . I just heard their founder present at SXSW, who was introduced as a "machine learning guru". they do machine learning for sentiment analysis |
Your favourite (oldschool) software? | jacquesm: The dos xcopy command. Command line globbing seems like a great idea until you find out the hard way that command lines have a maximum length. |
Your Failed Startups | vitovito: Answered in reverse order: I'd have done market research first. They all failed because the intended market didn't exist and I couldn't afford to retarget.The ideas:1) Unrealty, a 3D real estate startup. This was tech-driven: Quake 2 and Unreal had recently been released, and I was doing consulting for a real estate developer. Unreal Engine 1 had compelling outdoor scene capabilities, the ability to link areas in a map to and from the web via URLs, and other things. Why not build 3D models of commercial real estate, and have real 3D virtual tours with text and voice chat, AI NPCs who could give "tours" of properties, and link things in the level to web-based stuff like web admin consoles for HVAC systems (or whatever)?So I built all of this. We had some success, mostly due to the novelty. NASA used it for a commercialization demo around the ISS. There was another startup that had us develop even more interesting tech like an in-game web browser and player view tracking for in-game, clickable, ad-served billboards (in 1999!). But, ultimately, it failed because I was not a salesperson, and we didn't hire any salespeople, and architects are generally only interested in doing the amount of work the client needs, and the client (real estate developers) are used to seeing drawings, and the client's clients (tenants) are always going to visit the site in person anyway, so there wasn't really a market.2) Infrastructure for supporting "developer networks," like an MSDN, an API platform community, etc. The problem here is that the infrastructure is the easy part. The hard part is either convincing yourself that you're not a product company any more, you're a middleware company and you have to support your developers really well; or to pay a lot of money to hire dedicated support people (who pretty much have to be really good developers) and then pay them even more money to not go work for your clients once they've learned all there is to know about your middleware or API. If you can do one or the other, you don't need the infrastructure because you'll sort that yourself pretty quick; and if you can't, you don't need the infrastructure, because you don't believe in it.3) Dorm Duffle. Ever go to a Target or a Wal-mart during the weeks leading up to a new semester? The shelves are bare from all the parents and kids buying shampoo and conditioner and soap and notebooks and backpacks and towels and on and on and on. Wouldn't it be nice if all the essentials were waiting for you at your dorm? A big, military-style duffle bag. All you need is your personal effects, books and clothes. Mom and Dad breathe a sigh of relief, and Junior has a sweet college-branded duffle bag to hide the bodies in.Coming from the northeast, that sounds like a pretty good deal, of course I'll pay to have someone else do some boring work for me.But we actually tried it out in the southwest, and got only 1 response. Not 1% from our mailing to the parents of over 15,000 incoming freshmen. 1 single order. Our theory was that in the southwest, culturally, going shopping for kids is something you do, it's important. But I was too broke to follow up.C'est la vie. |
Your favourite (oldschool) software? | smackfu: My dad still uses DOS Quicken. At heart it's the same as the current program, just without all the bells and whistles. Plus it was a very mature DOS program: think his is version 11. |
Help a Highschooler with His Resume | weaksauce: I would put the projects and job experience above the classes. Classes are easy and everyone with a (decent) brain can do well in them but spearheading a project and working without getting fired are two things that employers like to see.Most employers do not care about your research interests. They are selfish beasts. All they are thinking about is can this person help me with a problem I have.Do not send out a resume without a personalized coversheet. I know this is a pain but you NEED to do some research on the company and show them that you can craft a few sentences that pertain to a solution to a problem that they are having.Also, If you know how to code, which it looks like you do, you should have no problem getting a job. Most employers are overwhelmed with terrible candidates who do not know how to program at all.Good luck, I'm sure you will do fine. |
Help a Highschooler with His Resume | mpk: Filling a resume at your age (yes, making an assumption here)/level of experience is tricky, but one the plus side it's easy to stick to the 1 A4 rule.I'd strip the details of the courses you've followed - people reading the resume will probably know the general details already and use that space to add a section on motivation and interests (feel free to tailor that to whoever you're sending it to). Would front-end development interest you? Backend scalability? Systems automation? Networking? Security? Don't mention specific technologies, just some broad problem domains.Good luck! |
Help a Highschooler with His Resume | alexgartrell: Work on an open source project. A real one. Mozilla is super-friendly to new guys, and working on Chromium means working with Google Engineers and other smart people.Also, go to an epically good college. That'll be a huge help down the line.You should probably consider working for a medium-sized company. Large companies have a tendency towards being soul crushing places for interns. A strong, almost-all-of-the-time tendency. The only exceptions might be Google or Facebook, but your odds of getting in there with only introductory programming. Most big companies want interns that they can recruit. |
Help a Highschooler with His Resume | aaronbrethorst: Definitely put practical project/job experience above education. That'll help differentiate you.When I took Csci 1901 (at the U of MN, see Matthew's resume), I—and the other 200 people in the class—had an end of term project that applied what we'd learned. I'm guessing you probably had to do the same, right? Mention your end of term class projects. It'll help make your in-class experience seem more concrete.On a vaguely related note: if you have the chance, take anything Loren Terveen or Joe Konstan offer. The experience you'll gain from their classes will pay off in spades down the road. |
Help a Highschooler with His Resume | patio11: Your resume is all about you. Successful sales is all about them. I'd focus less on what classes you're taking (of rather less intense interest to other people than it is to you) and more on what you can do for them. Give higher billing to the fact that you have Actual Shipping Products With Code You Wrote In Them. ("Code I wrote actually executes in a production environment! And it doesn't explode!") This is a signal of ability to complete tasks, maturity, and a bit of professionalism sadly lacking in most academically inclined programmers.(And I say that as somebody who was 25 before he started using, e.g., source control and routinely writing things that successfully executed the first time I pronounced them "done".) |
Help a Highschooler with His Resume | lambdom: My 5 cents, but I don't really like the A, B, A-, etc. Focus on what you know and what you like.. and if you want to show your grades, just join them on another paper. |
Your favourite (oldschool) software? | MaysonL: Spacewaralso - the eve editor on Vax/Vms |
Help a Highschooler with His Resume | psyklic: Just list the titles of the classes -- they are impressive enough. Put your GPA instead of your grades if it is good.Emphasize your projects the most -- if you have a good GPA, you need to distinguish yourself b/c lots of people have good GPAs. So, startups and companies will be impressed that you do personal projects and show passion.Elaborate on the exact role you played in each project. For example, for ImpishIdeas you say you "run" the community, but this is very vague. Did you found it and design the website? What specific things (briefly) did you do to "maneuver" it to a #1 site? Similarly with TactfulTokenizer -- after reading about it, I'm still unsure about your exact role, whether you were part of a larger team, etc. You may want a brief bulleted list of major things you did for each project, just so it doesn't become too wordy.I would put your honors (which are great but lots of people have them) at the very bottom.I'd also get rid of the "Languages" section (unless you're applying for an internship with unique language requirements). Instead, mention the technologies you used in the body of each of your projects. The problem with a "languages" section is that everyone will list a ton of languages, and it is unclear how well the person knows each of them (even if you say "highly skilled" or whatnot), thereby making it a useless section for differentiating candidates. |
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