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What programming language to use? | MoeDrippins: The biggies have been mentioned. Ruby/Rails has a very fast time-to-market, but suffers runtime performance issues. However, it might very well be "fast enough" for what you want to do.Python has a screaming gajillion well written and supported libraries, and the language itself is very...orderly. That ... |
What programming language to use? | BlueSkies: I program in PHP and Perl (intermediate skill in both) and had to decide which one to use recently for a new project I'm starting. I plan on using Amazon Web Services including SimpleDB and SQS. This made my choice of language a little easier.Perl natively supports multiple threads whereas PHP does not. M... |
What programming language to use? | abstractbill: I suspect flash may be a greater learning curve, but I could be quite wrong.Flash actually doesn't have much of a learning curve - in particular, actionscript doesn't have many ideas you won't have seen already if you know javascript.The trouble with flash development isn't that it's hard to learn, it's t... |
What programming language to use? | typedlambda: If you really want scalability take a look at Erlang
though ErlyWeb (erlyweb.org/) is not that mature, Yaws (yaws.hyber.org) really is. Ruby and Ruby on Rails are really great for development i had never been that productive. Rails seems to scalo quite ok wenn adding more servers and rewriting som/lots of ... |
Ethics and laws regarding scraping websites? | toddcw: This might be informative: http://blog.screen-scraper.com/2008/04/21/screening-scraping... |
What programming language to use? | matthewsimon: It's not as "hip" as Python or Ruby, but I remain a big fan of Perl for server-side self-hosted web/database applications -- depending on what you're building, you can often find pre-existing modules on CPAN that provide a lot of the plumbing you'll need.And of course, Perl's syntax is very similar to PHP... |
What programming language to use? | rcoder: I'm going to buck the general trend here, and recommend that your next language not be Perl, Python, or Ruby. If you really want to become a well-balanced programmer, you should either learn a lower-level, compiled language like C or Java, or you should stretch a bit and try Lisp/Scheme or Erlang.Working only w... |
What programming language to use? | manny: C, Perl, bash.Currently on my way to buy SICP so I can learn Scheme LISP.edit: it may interest you to know that I do absolutely no web development. |
What programming language to use? | Hexayurt: Unless proven otherwise for a specific application, the answer is python.In general, the reason is simple: python programmers tend not to worry too much about the language, although there's a fair bit of fretfulness about the folks trying to do functional stuff in Python, or people who want Python to be LISP.... |
Where did you top out in math classes? | jimbokun: I was required to take two semesters of Statistics as an undergrad. I didn't think it was especially difficult, but I didn't see applications for the things I was interested in (mainly Computational Linguistics at the time).A few years later, pretty much all Computation Linguistics/Natural Language Processin... |
What programming language to use? | gexla: Forget about the academics (Lisp? SICP?.) You want to make a web app RIGHT NOW and make some cash. If you are good with PHP then look no further. Start working on your apps ASAP and update your PHP skills as you go. Take a look at the Zend Framework and CodeIgniter for some good frameworks.If you must learn ... |
experience using big LCD TV (42"+) as monitor? | cconstantine: This sounds less like a second monitor, and more like a test environment that is meant to mimic real life usage.I've found TVs to not be very effective second monitors. |
experience using big LCD TV (42"+) as monitor? | brk: It all depends on what you expect from the display.A 42" plasma/lcd/etc doesn't have as much resolution/pixels as even a standard 22" monitor these days. So while your image is larger, it's also going to be less crisp. Text will generally be less readable as well.If your use is primarily graphical, then it may w... |
experience using big LCD TV (42"+) as monitor? | jsjenkins168: A 42" screen 4 feet away will only appear the same size as a 21" monitor 2 feet away. Remember its all about view distance. Any distance at least 1.2x screen width is usually considered acceptable but if you want the screen further away for being able to show more people thats fine. It will just diminish ... |
experience using big LCD TV (42"+) as monitor? | pmjordan: In my experience, TVs are terrible for displaying anything but video. Driving a TV from a computer can be problematic for a variety of reasons: signal timings, available resolutions, overscan, etc.You'd think that with HDMI being essentially the same as DVI (leaving aside audio and such) we'd be rid of this i... |
experience using big LCD TV (42"+) as monitor? | spydez: I have a 42" plasma TV hooked up to a Windows computer and Mac Mini. I use it for playing games and watching movies.At 'couch distance' (~10 feet), normal size (10-12 pt) text is pretty much too small to read. I have 20-20 vision. 16-18 is readable, but my eyes get tired of it after a few hours of following cha... |
experience using big LCD TV (42"+) as monitor? | SwellJoe: My girlfriend bought a 46" Sharp Aquos LCD 1080p TV a few weeks ago, and I built her an HTPC to drive it. It's a tolerable monitor, but only for games (for which it rules) and movies (also awesome). Since it's the only Windows machine in the house, I use it for testing our UI with IE, and even briefly using... |
experience using big LCD TV (42"+) as monitor? | radley: At home I use my old Mac workstation as a media/internet server and have it plugged straight into my HDTV as the monitor. I use Teleport for controlling mouse / keyboard on the workstation from my laptop instead of running cables.I don't think I'd want to run my HDTV as often or as long as I have my laptop open... |
experience using big LCD TV (42"+) as monitor? | paulhart: Quick observation. Your eyes will need to make a dramatic focus change between a monitor on your desk and another on your wall, or it's really close to your face, in which case you'll be scanning all over the place looking for stuff). Either way you're probably going to tire them out faster.My boss (day job) ... |
experience using big LCD TV (42"+) as monitor? | thehickmans: You've got to look at the native resolution of the LCD, which for a 1080p TV would is 1920x1080. For a comparison, a 30" Apple Cinema Display is capable of 2560X1600. So, fewer pixels over a greater screen area = kinda chunky! |
easiest way to set up secure development environment with public urls? | epall: Use HTTP Basic authentication, probably with .htaccess files? Seehttp://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/howto/htaccess.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_access_authentication
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/howto/auth.html |
What programming language to use? | andrewbadera: C#/ASP.NET specialists are pretty well paid. Microsoft has a lot of architectural pieces you can plug together for extremely scalable solutions. Remoting servers for your application tier give you a TON of cheap scaling. Clustered and federated SQL Servers give you a beefy backend when you eventually need... |
What programming language to use? | JohnReel: Thank you for your suggestions everyone.I was expecting much different answers, so this is interesting. It sounds like there probably isn't any real reason to not continue with PHP, which will be quicker to get up to speed with current standards.I'll do some more research on the options suggested though.Than... |
tutorials on using the file system for storing data? | jsjenkins168: Have you considered using Amazon SimpleDB? Its a very simple and fast way to persist data. Avoids the scaling and implementation headaches associated with a typical database. |
Most Useful Bookmarklet? | ichverstehe: http://www.instapaper.com/ – definitely.
It's so darn useful. |
tutorials on using the file system for storing data? | Maro: Maybe you want something like Berkeley DB aka. libdbIt's a library that you link to your application which exposes a database API for storing and retrieving records in tables (which are stored in files). No DB server is involved, and since you use the programmatic API, there is no need for SQL (and it's not suppo... |
tutorials on using the file system for storing data? | typedlambda: consider using sqlite made for being an allmost universal fileformat also allowing transactions. Its fully
ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability)
and even allows concurrent access (serializes writes)it's probably the most deployed "database" (thousends of embedded devices, it's the fs one so... |
tutorials on using the file system for storing data? | ajross: Generally, sane file metaphors try very hard not to change stuff in the middle of the file. Try to keep with one "record" (which might be a bigger object than a single row in a database!) per file, and read/write them all in one swoop. If you need indexes other than the one you get for free (the path name, of... |
Most Useful Bookmarklet? | BSeward: I find http://www.sprymedia.co.uk/article/Design Design to be really handy when I'm making sure text line cadence is right. It's handy all around for design: powerful grid, rulers, measuring, and targeting tools.http://westciv.com/xray/ XRAY keeps a spot on my bookmark bar. It's an HTML-traversing bookmarklet ... |
Most Useful Bookmarklet? | strick: "Gmail This" is great: http://contrapants.org/blog/2005/07/gmailthis.html |
tutorials on using the file system for storing data? | bayareaguy: I would recommend reading Transaction Processing: Concepts and Techniques by Gray and Reuter, particularly the sections about ways to construct Atomic commits.SQLite's atomic commit design is also good food for thought - http://www.sqlite.org/atomiccommit.htmlHowever, while it's good to think about low-leve... |
tutorials on using the file system for storing data? | yaj: Among other document-oriented databases mentioned, also check out CouchDB http://incubator.apache.org/couchdb/ |
tutorials on using the file system for storing data? | Hoff: For transactional file systems and transactional databases, the lower-level software deals with this for you. This whether a transactional SQL, or Mac OS X Core Data and its undo, or otherwise. ACID is goodness.For non-transactional databases (and non-transactional file systems in general), look at the concept ... |
Most Useful Bookmarklet? | joshwa: The bookmarklet for the app I'm building... :) |
Most Useful Bookmarklet? | vanekl: http://turtle.dojotoolkit.org/~david/recss.html |
Most Useful Bookmarklet? | faizur: http://www.plum.com |
Most Useful Bookmarklet? | tlrobinson: This JavaScript console w/ autocompletion, etc: http://tlrobinson.net/misc/console_bookmarklet.html |
Good Web UI Designers | izaidi: I'd recommend a listing on the 37signals Job Board (http://jobs.37signals.com/). It costs $300 for a 30-day job listing or $100 for a gig listing, but it'll get you by far the highest quality crop of applicants. |
Most Useful Bookmarklet? | ivankirigin: I tip sites I like with this: http://tipjoy.com/bookmarkletWe're going to expand on the functionality soon. |
Most Useful Bookmarklet? | bigtoga: Tinyurl: http://tinyurl.com/ |
Good Web UI Designers | bigtoga: I've done some posting on elance before and I will suggest to start with the smallest job (i.e. cheapest) first to get used to working with bids and vendors. Start with a logo + business identity for $300-$500, go with only 5-star people with 6+ months of feedback. Once you have that, do a 3-5 page website for... |
How do I beat the solo development blues? | noodle: option 3) build and grow your own business, if there are enough opportunities and the money is good.i know that i'd be willing to jump into something like this if the pay was good, with a small group of consultants.and i wouldn't mind joining, either, though i use codeigniter. ;) would have to learn cake. a... |
Good Web UI Designers | josefresco: There are some (not many) UI designers on HN, like me for example./shameless plugI would stay away from Elance type sites unless cost is your only factor. 37signals job board will attract the exact opposite candidates as Elance (read: expensive/overpaid)Ever think of hiring local?Attributes to look for wou... |
How do I beat the solo development blues? | TFrancis: 4) learn a framework other than CakePHP. |
How do I beat the solo development blues? | JimEngland: You could try expanding your current company with additional developers and tackling more complex client work. If you add on cakePHP developers, perhaps a more collaborative environment will spawn a unique idea to develop into a web application. |
How do I beat the solo development blues? | natrius: Working on an open source project is extremely different from working on a large corporate software project. For example, there are few consequences for missing deadlines (if there are any deadlines), there is little to no management structure, and there are no perpetually changing requirements that you have t... |
Good Web UI Designers | bmaier: It always surprises me when people go looking for good AND cheap. There is a difference between cost and value. |
Good Web UI Designers | richesh: I am in the same boat as you and am actively seeking a UI designer. We are willing to pay up to $5000 or maybe even more for this service, but it has to be good and the chance of someone getting it wrong or asking for double the money is what's keeping us from taking the plunge.But I digress, the point of this... |
How do I beat the solo development blues? | lux: Use Cake to build an app that you can sell online as a service. If the service takes off, there's all kinds of opportunity for learning as it grows and technical requirements change (scalability, security, etc).I've been doing client work in my one company for years (7 to be exact) and while it's an okay model fo... |
How do I beat the solo development blues? | richesh: Option 1 - seems like an easy way out, and would probably negate your experience so far since "big companies" might not value your skills.Option 2 - is very hard to do unless you have an idea that the community really really needs.In my opinion you two other options:
Option 3 - try to expand your company by ge... |
How do I beat the solo development blues? | thorax: Isn't addons.mozilla.org written in CakePHP? They might need open source helpers.If you did the same sort of thing for the Code Igniter framewor, then we'd be willing to help/donate a tad bit in that endeavor. |
How do I beat the solo development blues? | sosueme: You could work with/for me.Seriously.I am one of those "non coding" founders.
I come from the entertainment biz and know first hand that there is a need for web app suite that would help about 1.5 E+3 people each to do what I did for the last 5 years.The tools that exist for what I want to have developed eithe... |
Most Useful Bookmarklet? | jacobbijani: The only ones I use are "Post to Tumblr" and "Save to pHome.us" (my site).I submitted this handy bookmarklet the other day: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=206066It translates between local and remote urls, including the stuff after the domain. http://example.local/user/foo becomes http://www.example.c... |
How do I beat the solo development blues? | danw: I'm in a similar position to you. Since going solo I've missed working with other people and have found that I'm learning new skills slower without regular code reviews, pair programming, etc. Here are some solutions I've been looking at:1) Join a small company, such as a startup or web dev studio. The small size... |
Most Useful Bookmarklet? | petercooper: The one that I use to post the current page to del.icio.us with. I've clicked it several thousand times in the past few years. |
Most Useful Bookmarklet? | mudge: http://newsconomy.com/ |
How do I beat the solo development blues? | Harkins: You do web dev, you could also consider getting into a JS library.And I recommend everyone who works in a team read http://producingoss.com/ -- its insights aren't just good for open source code. |
tutorials on using the file system for storing data? | elad: I started using the filesystem for storage a while back, and then realized that I'm re-implementing a lot of DBMS functionality in my own buggy code. I switched over to using a database.I'm just saying that you should consider all of your requirements first, figure out how much code you're going to need that just... |
How do I beat the solo development blues? | randy: Adventure time!> Do you actually want to work in a large dev team? -- Yes
>> Why ?
--- Want to gain knowledge about 'working in a large dev team'
>>> Why?
---- Because... it might be useful?
>>>> You're stupid.
---- Don't know.
>>... |
Good Web UI Designers | mark_ellul: I would say odesk is is good for 1 reason only.... you can see snapshots of what the UI developer is working on as they do it. So you should be able to see if they are going down the right track early before they finish!It depends if its pure GUI or UI ... I think you should split up the project into 2... G... |
Good Web UI Designers | mark_ellul: also if you have the design in a psd... you could try http://www.psd2html.com/order-now.html |
Most Useful Bookmarklet? | seregine: I like the one for http://faves.com, primarily because it's the social bookmarking app most of my friends use. Del.icio.us is the other one. |
How do I beat the solo development blues? | wenbert: I rented a cheap room. Got an internet connection and then invited my friends over. We hack a few hours every night after work. We each have our own projects (outsourced ones or pet projects).The good thing about this is that we never get bored. and we share our ideas. |
How do I beat the solo development blues? | vikram: If cakePHP works for you then use that. I'd look to build something that uses something that PHP and cakePHP is good at.For a while I've been thinking about a wikipedia for apps. Where people contribute code rather than text and help others build applications out of it, by using a plug-n-play sort of functional... |
Most Useful Bookmarklet? | akirk: http://www.blummy.com/
"The bookmarklet management bookmarklet"Sorry for the plug, but it fits well :) Since I wrote Blummy, I have not changed it much, but IMO it is still useful. The database contains 400 bookmarklets to add to your own blummy.Also see http://alexander.kirk.at/2006/08/02/unknown-blummy-treasur... |
How do you track user data? | mdasen: For #2: You simply need to change the session store in PHP. You can easily make PHP sessions database backed. |
What web language for server side scripting? | chuchurocka: If speed really is key i'd say Perl, otherwise I would just stick to PHP. Ruby and Python are nice for writing code really fast in but Perl / PHP execute much faster. |
What web language for server side scripting? | icey: You're going to have to define what sort of speed you need for #2. If you're talking about basic CRUD, then all of the languages you've specified will work just fine. If you're doing a lot of scientific work, then you might want to look at Python, along with NumPy / SciPy. If it's a small core of calculations tha... |
What web language for server side scripting? | yourabi: Python, reasons follow:1) Django
2) App Engine
3) Highly expressive |
What web language for server side scripting? | lr: We use Ruby on Rails for the web app, and our sys admin scripts are written in Ruby as well, as they can easily integrate with our DB via our Rails setup. |
What web language for server side scripting? | ii: Python, of course.#2. Python usually wins: http://www.alrond.com/en/2007/jan/25/performance-test-of-6-l...#3. Django was written with Postgres in mind. |
Offers to help with webapp | webwright: You have enthusiastic users and you think you're going to sneak up on an incumbent?
(suggest reading: http://www.unionsquareventures.com/2008/06/the_spooky_econ.h... )I'd add a donate (or tipjoy!) button. Or a bounty page where people can buy their favorite feature request to the top of the list.If people w... |
What web language for server side scripting? | davidw: Ruby on Rails or Django. |
What web language for server side scripting? | sadiq: If speed of execution is a key requirement, beyond C++ and some good programmers, your main options are Java and C#.I use Java with Struts on Tomcat for a couple of projects and it's served me well. |
Offers to help with webapp | abstractbill: From what he's told me, axod has had a similar experience with users offering to help with mibbit, and he's managed to put some of these offers to good use. Care to say more axod? |
Offers to help with webapp | tptacek: I don't care what else you do, but you should find out more about each of them, and take the information down. You will be surprised how valuable that list will be down the road, and how hard the list is to develop on your own. |
What web language for server side scripting? | anonym: If you want speed, why not Common Lisp? Nice, high-level, a pleasure to work in, fast and compiled out of the box, with the ability to optimize the hell out of specific critical parts of your code (using, e.g., optional type declarations, speed and safety settings, inlining declarations, etc.). Hunchentoot is a... |
What web language for server side scripting? | tachibana: I myself am a strong proponent of Java. There are enough tools out there that take much of the tediousness of all the common functionality (basic CRUD, form handling, workflow, etc).The real strength of Java presents itself after you've moved to production; I almost always am able to hand somebody an .ear o... |
Whats a Good Karma Score? | nostrademons: It doesn't really matter. Post when you have something useful to say and don't worry about the karma. |
Whats a Good Karma Score? | rms: yeah... it's really just a measure of activity on this site. If I could give you some I would.At 250 you get to change the color on the top navbar! that's pretty cool. |
Is there any other web-business as easy as online dating and blogging? | smoody: User-submitted news sites that allow people to vote articles up and down. ;-) |
Is there any other web-business as easy as online dating and blogging? | josefresco: If you want no hassle, affiliate sites are the way to go as you only generate the sales lead and they do all the rest. Once you find something that works, you just replicate. CJ.com is a good place to start.I'm not sure what you mean by "blogging business" though, you mind elaborating?Social sites where t... |
Is there any other web-business as easy as online dating and blogging? | gaius: But the people making money in ANY business are the ones who aren't looking for something easy. As PG says, they're the ones looking for an opportunity to get rewarded for working harder than their competition. This is truer than ever on the web. Sure match.com or whoever may have cheesy ads but in the boiler ro... |
Is there any other web-business as easy as online dating and blogging? | thedob: Gimmicks work well - http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com/ |
alternative news management sites, worth the effort? | josefresco: You opened a rather large can of worms here, the short answer to your question is that you're kind of late to the game, there are hundreds if not thousands of Digg/Reddit competitors and taking on FriendFeed/Twitter has and IS being done on a daily basis (Plurk etc.)Anyone familiar with Reddit or Digg will ... |
Is there any other web-business as easy as online dating and blogging? | babul: Most service based business like this have been done e.g. fininding jobs, houses, love.If you want to go that route, just do what many others are doing - use web 2.0/3.0 tools to do them better and play the niches. |
alternative news management sites, worth the effort? | wheels: You don't want to end up in a pissing match in a dominant market unless you've got something that will truly differentiate you up your sleeve. This isn't to say that you couldn't compete, but even in your best case scenario, you've captured part of a market that is heading towards being a commodity. Sure ther... |
Is there any other web-business as easy as online dating and blogging? | noodle: drop shipping on ebay, i would argue, is easier if you have a good product to drop ship.blogging requires effort to write content. online dating software requires effort to build the community and improve the site to a level that makes people actually want to use them. both require active work on the website ... |
Is there any other web-business as easy as online dating and blogging? | pg: To make a successful web startup you have to deal with problems much harder than pedestrian ones like inventory and shipping.Creating a successful dating site "doesn't require anything other than building a web-app" in roughly the same way that being a successful novelist doesn't require anything other than writing... |
Developing an Online/Offline Web App, Where to Start? | noodle: google gears or adobe air.here's a good summary of their differences:
http://almaer.com/blog/gears-and-air-the-open-source-differe... |
Is there any other web-business as easy as online dating and blogging? | byrneseyeview: Why would you deliberately look for low barriers to entry? If it's so easy that people will do it for free, you may have some trouble making a profit -- especially if your motivation is to do a minimal amount of work. |
alternative news management sites, worth the effort? | adrianwaj: I'd like to see a way of comment aggregation, eg for 1 article there are comments and duplicate articles at multiple degrees of separation:- Article + same story elsewhere on news site + each one's comments- Blog reference to article + duplicate references on other blogs + each one's comment- Digg + competin... |
alternative news management sites, worth the effort? | geuis: Go for it. I've sat on my own ideas and watched the world go by to see the same ideas become popular websites. Ignore what you see as competition. The worst that happens is you gain no users. You learn from it anyway and its a springboard to your next great idea. Fear doubt and just start coding n |
good hosts for static files? | johnm: What's your usage model? Lots of files, long tail? Very few files but very popular? Are the files really large (videos) or medium (images) or small (text)? How much are you willing to spend? Do you care about latency or just throughput? Etc. |
What are the requirements for TC50? | aneesh: TechCrunch wants you to launch your product at TC50 - so you should have a product. A beta is fine (I'd guess many of the TC50 are in beta stage).If you want to build the product between June 23 and TC50, after submitting just the idea, I suppose you could, but I don't like your chances since TC50 won't know w... |
Bet the farm. Python or PHP? | lakeeffect: Python, It is more responsive than php. |
Bet the farm. Python or PHP? | jrockway: Why throw away Perl? You already know Perl, and Perl has lots of things that PHP and Python don't. Before you ditch Perl, look at DBIx::Class, Moose, and Catalyst. And the other 10,000 libraries on CPAN.Then look at the 500 or so libraries available for PHP.Perl has a really insane library culture, and it'... |
Bet the farm. Python or PHP? | iamdave: >calendar/scheduling/notifications with some social networkingWhy?More and more web apps are coming out with social networking tied in, and very few of them succeed BECAUSE they have social networking tied in. Socializing a site is a bit more than giving people profile pages and enabling them the ability to "... |
Bet the farm. Python or PHP? | underscore: What are your feelings as a beginner in each language? Have you found any little design decisions that leave you scratching your head, or make you start cursing loudly at the computer? Have you built anything with them? If so, did you run into any issues that you feel were a result of the language?I'm a bit... |
Bet the farm. Python or PHP? | rms: Python... both languages are along far enough that they will meet all four of your points, but people that program in python are on average better programmers than PHP programmers. So it makes hiring good hackers easier by eliminating many of the bad hackers.Other than that, if you like the syntax of PHP, it is... |
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