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I have three good ideas. Help me choose idea 1, 2, or 3. | andr: I'd go with number 2. It's not high-tech as the other ideas, but it's a business with real cashflow, and is supposed to do better during a recession. |
I have three good ideas. Help me choose idea 1, 2, or 3. | dougp: I think number two is your best bet but instead of being a sort of shop overseas service, you should make storefronts focused on one of the brands at a time. Try to make your visitors feel like they have just stumbled upon something thats exclusive and secretive and they are sure to tell their friends. |
I have three good ideas. Help me choose idea 1, 2, or 3. | moe: Idea 3 also sounds like the only one to me that may realistically roll in some money. Idea 1 is technically intriguing but more of an OSS side-project. Idea 2 calls for legal hassles, taxes will eat into your profits and especially the "high-profile" brands that sell $10 products for $500 will probably not like you sidestepping their retail chain. |
I have three good ideas. Help me choose idea 1, 2, or 3. | wmorein: I think that the other big con for idea 3 is that this is very likely to follow an enterprise sales model. Security in general is the kind of thing that is purchased relatively high up in an IT org. Not 100% clear if your idea would be in that basic mold, but if the model is that the tool runs against or sits on all servers, that would almost certainly be the case.If you are in the "enterprise" space, that means salespeople, RFPs, support, etc and since all that costs money you are much more tied to a traditional vc model. That could be fine depending on what you want, but it feels different from the other ideas in terms of how much progress you can make on your own or with a small team. |
I have three good ideas. Help me choose idea 1, 2, or 3. | jd: 1.The cons here are pretty big. Your target customer is somebody who will solve most problems with google and 3 lines of bash/perl/etc scripting. The generic .NET software shop pays for this kind of software - *nix people don't.I've written a few more paragraphs about this, and subsequently deleted them. It all really boils down to one thing: it's a bad idea. A lot of fun to write, but there's no money to be made.2.It's very hard to get any kind of competitive advantage here. If your idea works somebody else will do the same thing and charge less for the service. Also you will spend most of your time managing your (invariably unreliable) overseas contacts, leaving you no time to do anything else. This seems to be the kind of company that is fun in the beginning, and then turns into a nightmarish chore.3.I kind of like this idea. You have domain knowledge here, and already a few potential customers (or at least companies that can give you some feedback.) It's a niche, and there's still money to be made. Best idea so far. |
I have three good ideas. Help me choose idea 1, 2, or 3. | gravitycop: My goals are: a business that will provide me with a reasonable income, in an interesting problem space, that will grow quickly allowing me to become self employed.This is called a lifestyle business. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifestyle_business It is the opposite of a startup. |
I have three good ideas. Help me choose idea 1, 2, or 3. | Jakob: "I'd be competing with some very large software companies."I would call that an advantage. |
Looking for feedback on side-project | diN0bot: dfens, top notch! i've been looking for something more approachable than the w3c spec gooblety-gook for a while now. i've been trying to encourage the ui/html/js/css folks on my project to think about the specs. they come from varied non-engineering backgrounds, so a gentler spec navigation is crucial than scary xml (pasted below for comparison). word. <!ENTITY % InputType
"(TEXT | PASSWORD | CHECKBOX |
RADIO | SUBMIT | RESET |
FILE | HIDDEN | IMAGE | BUTTON)"
>
<!-- attribute name required for all but submit and reset -->
<!ELEMENT INPUT - O EMPTY -- form control -->
<!ATTLIST INPUT
%attrs; -- %coreattrs, %i18n, %events --
type %InputType; TEXT -- what kind of widget is needed --
name CDATA #IMPLIED -- submit as part of form --
value CDATA #IMPLIED -- Specify for radio buttons and checkboxes --
checked (checked) #IMPLIED -- for radio buttons and check boxes --
disabled (disabled) #IMPLIED -- unavailable in this context --
readonly (readonly) #IMPLIED -- for text and passwd --
size CDATA #IMPLIED -- specific to each type of field --
maxlength NUMBER #IMPLIED -- max chars for text fields --
src %URI; #IMPLIED -- for fields with images --
alt CDATA #IMPLIED -- short description --
usemap %URI; #IMPLIED -- use client-side image map --
ismap (ismap) #IMPLIED -- use server-side image map --
tabindex NUMBER #IMPLIED -- position in tabbing order --
accesskey %Character; #IMPLIED -- accessibility key character --
onfocus %Script; #IMPLIED -- the element got the focus --
onblur %Script; #IMPLIED -- the element lost the focus --
onselect %Script; #IMPLIED -- some text was selected --
onchange %Script; #IMPLIED -- the element value was changed --
accept %ContentTypes; #IMPLIED -- list of MIME types for file upload --
>
" |
I have three good ideas. Help me choose idea 1, 2, or 3. | brk: I ran an operation much like #2 when I was in college (1991). Made a shitload of money doing it, had I been able to reach a wider audience it could have made for a nice enterprise.Not only are certain brands cheaper in other countries, but products/styles within those brands are not always available in the US (double-exclusive).FWIW, one thing I did different than what you propose was that I had people who went to the country to purchase and bring stuff back. This was more so based on how this operation came into business, than via intelligent design, but it minimized the remote "friend" problem, and with some deal hunting and advance planning, the airfare can be cheap enough. |
I have three good ideas. Help me choose idea 1, 2, or 3. | markessien: The second idea is a cutthroat business. The competition will be fierce and they will be as agile as you are. Number 3 sounds reasonable, but have a way of reaching your customer before jumping in.You absolutely cannot rely on friends. If your business depends on that, forget it. |
What can't you do in Excel? | anamax: (1) Optional Fortress like "typing". It's almost always a mistake to add a number representing an amount of dollars to a number referring to feet. And feet can't be added to meters. Heck, it's typically wrong to add gigabytes to megabytes without a conversion (which depends on whether you're talking about disk space or ram).(2) Many of the complaints mentioned come from the way that a given entity, "the sheet" (or page) is used to both computation and to present multiple computations. Rethinking that is likely to yield huge benefits.(3) It should be possible to tag computations so they can be more easily used to build other computations. For example, I was recently doing some cost analysis and realized part way through that I'd like to break down the numbers in other ways. Since I was using a sequence of equations in an ordinary programming language, it was easy enough to define appropriate accumulators and pick up the values from the equations, but it would have been a pain with a spreadsheet. And, my solution was too granular.I'm not expressing (3) very well, but I think that it's a big deal, so feel free to contact me. |
Looking for feedback on side-project | FraaJad: * the newly expanded columns should line up on top.* the elements should not be pushed lower when a taller child element is introduced. This hides the elements on the left column(s).* to keep a visual track of how I arrived at the current level, set background of the clicked elements to a different colour. This should provide the same functionality provided by point 1 above, without taking away the visual cue.In summary, please take a look at how Apple Finder implements directory browsing using vertical columns. |
What's a good low profile job where I can hack at the same time? | markessien: Take care of paralysed people. They need round the clock watching, so you can sit there nights, drink coffee and code. I used to do that, it made me a good amount of money (from the code I produced during that time). |
I have three good ideas. Help me choose idea 1, 2, or 3. | antidaily: #3 seems like the best option. fastest to develop.#2 - sure, you save money on the products, but you still have to ship them and pay the buyer. and i'm sure there are legal issues. i bought a dell server recently and had to check a box confirming that i would not sell the machine to someone outside the US. |
I have three good ideas. Help me choose idea 1, 2, or 3. | prakash: Go for #1.Re. #2, there seem to be many human cogs that might not give end-users a consistent level of serviceRe. #3, the cost of getting you software in these institutions might require a sales force, and that means to you might need to raise some amount of capitalAll this said, a question: which one do you find most exciting to work on? |
I have three good ideas. Help me choose idea 1, 2, or 3. | Allocator2008: I LOVE idea number 2. For example, River Island is an awesome fashion retailer in the UK (www.riverisland.com). Perfect for "going nightclubbing" kind of apparel. So a "wrapper portal" to these kinds of sites would be great, especially for people who don't know where the "hot stores" are in a given country. I happen to know about River Island, even though I live in Austin, Texas, because I happen to have spent some time in the UK, but for people who have never been to the UK and want the "hot stuff" this portal idea would fill a real need, provided you can keep your over-head low. Can you rely on your close friends to work? Good question. I agree with President Reagan, trust but verify. You might want to retain a good solicitor to help with legal issues too. I agree the competition for Idea 3 is pretty steep, and that being able to monetize Idea 1 is going to be tough. I might get downvoted for saying this, and I don't care, but I agree with SCO CEO Darl McBride that Linux is essentially a pirated copy of UNIX, and therefore you are correct that UNIX folks won't want to buy Linux tools. Just my opinion there, so downvote if you like, but I think I'm in good company, lol. Anyway, Idea 2 I am definitely exited about, and certainly if anyone here is planning to do any clubbing in the UK and needs some "hip" apparel, definitely check out www.riverisland.com. (Of course I speak from the point of view of the LGBT themed clubs, but imagine River Island would have some good stuff for more mainstream clubs too.) |
I have three good ideas. Help me choose idea 1, 2, or 3. | mdasen: I'd definitely go for #3. It's such a pain and companies will generally pay in a way that users hate paying. I know I get driven nuts!#1 would be neat, but one problem would be that you'd have to price it cheaper than better hardware. For example, if your product costs $500/year and I can just double my RAM from 1GB to 2GB for $20/mo, well, I'm just going to double the RAM and save $250. Or likewise any other attribute of the system. It just seems like it would be a lot harder to sell this since most people could probably put the money into hardware and get a better result.#2 seems interesting, but with postage, is it still a good deal? Personally, I don't see anything wrong with parallel importing - in fact, I'd argue it's a good thing since it stops manufacturers from exploiting market segregation. You're talking about doing it on things like clothing which means problems will be lower. Things like autos or electronics often have regulatory issues. If you're going this route, you might want to consult an attorney. |
Looking for feedback on side-project | noel_gomez: I like it, I too was looking for something like this just the other day. |
I have three good ideas. Help me choose idea 1, 2, or 3. | tptacek: Re: (3):* There are at least 20 products in the regulatory compliance (GRC) category, and more in the system scanning category.* What's more, IT security teams resist buying from tiny companies, because they need to integrate their purchases into their processes and need to know that they're going to get long-term support.* Most GRC products are sold via direct sales teams (pinning their price to over 50k/sale), which makes it hard to compete without a direct salesperson. Security is a category where low price connotes low quality.* The sales cycle on new security products is very long --- 2-4 months, with high engagement through the process.I wouldn't do (3) unless I had a really good idea about how to do it in a new way; that idea should be better than "good looking UI", because as soon as customers express a preference for good UI, all your competitors will drop 20k on a designer to get the merit badge. |
Looking for feedback on side-project | bayareaguy: The menus are cool but for practical use this kind of reference information is better presented using pre-ajax techniques such as a single page of html (or possibly a frameset) with the appropriate hyperlinking. The way it is now you can't use the browser's text search.You should also add a NOSCRIPT tag with the appropriate message. All I got when I visited your site was a big empty window since I keep JavaScript disabled by default. |
Looking for feedback on side-project | pclark: really really awesome. Thoughts:* allow us to link to exact references* when you click a link (eg "title") - make it scroll the page so the entire next menu is on screen.* enlarge the buttons that can be clicked, add a rollover color.* change the tags " " blank dropdown to "all" - also when selection "all" it should reset the menus* I think it'd be handy to somehow a "go to top" button on the page somewhere - scroll to "var" then try look up "a" faff :)* also clicking the "Elements" box at the top should reset menu* can you make the example box wider? (and more of them, they're awesome!) |
I have three good ideas. Help me choose idea 1, 2, or 3. | natch: #4 keep thinking of ideasI'd love to see #2 as a way to open up more choices, but I can't imagine ever using it. Just the shipping charges alone would keep me away.#1, aren't there plenty of tools that do this already? Or at least they have been built already using Cacti and Ganglia in concert with other tools (Nagios comes to mind).#3 Maybe. You can compete with very large companies if you find the right viable niche that they aren't interested in. |
I have three good ideas. Help me choose idea 1, 2, or 3. | anamax: Almost all of the objections to #2 also apply to on-line auctions. EBay is a relevant existence proof. |
What unlocks with karma, and when? | cdibona: This is pretty interesting to me. When karma was implemented at /. we used to expose the number, but then the number became why people did things on /. Then we obscured the number by replacing it with english words like "excellent" for the top karma scores, then we started paying off in terms of allow people to moderate and meta-moderate. It was pretty neat at the time, but I have to admit I like HNs system. It seems like it embraces the karma rather than obscuring it as some kind of necessary but lamentable side effect, which is how it sometimes felt at /. |
What's a good low profile job where I can hack at the same time? | cdibona: Nothing food service related! Think your keyboard is dirty now? Wait until your laptop has been on the salad station for a night or two. Seriously though: The forest service has some -lonely- jobs watching for fires in the national forests. Lighthouse keeper? Night watchman? Lots of night shift jobs should be conducive to hacking.Seriously consider also jobs that won't be conducive to hack but would be for knowledge acquisition. Get a job at MIT that comes with course audit benefits. A job that requires the hands, but allows you to consume audio lectures on your ipod. Long haul trucker that listens to mit courseware? |
I have three good ideas. Help me choose idea 1, 2, or 3. | jdavid: Idea 4, which is much like Idea 3.=========================================Make Open Source viable for the "medical industry." There are numerous problems with deploying an opensource application environment when it is involved in the care process. Lawyers have made this a legal quagmire to validate software installs, but it can be done, just not for small startups.By validating linux installs on machines via a process you will lower the barrier to entry for using technology in the medical industry and it should help improve care and reduce cost over all.Medical companies will pay large dollars at first for this service (probably on order with what they pay for other software of its type).For example, Documenteum installs can run between $5,000,000 and $50,000,000, where IBM content manager is Cheap, it still will cost on average $500k+ and it needs to be installed on windows.By managing the documentation correctly, one could design and configure a set of 'validated' applications based on opensource technology.I know there is money in it, and I would have done it by now, except I am not a linux person.PS. if you do this well, you could probably get some support from change.gov. |
I have three good ideas. Help me choose idea 1, 2, or 3. | ShabbyDoo: Questions about #3:Considering all the servers in the world that ought to be audited with software like yours,1. Who is deemed responsible for security auditing by management.ownership? In-house administrators or outside consultants?2. What percentage of these servers are owned by little enterprises (who don't feel the need to buy from IBM/CA/etc.) vs. Fortune 1000 companies?3. Of those servers whose security audits are done by consulting firms, are those firms big or small?I'm semi-familiar with the bug tracking software space, so I'll use it as a possible parallel. Every IBM-ish tools vendor sells a bug tracking software package. They're always expensive and sometimes suck. They are sold because a salesman visits a large company and convinces them to buy a big, supposedly integrated suite of products.Yet, FogBugz (FogCreek) and JIRA (Atlassian) seem to be pretty good businesses. My experiences suggest that smaller customers (1) won't pay 10x just because it's from IBM, (2) buy based on perception of quality/value rather than vendor image, and (3) allow their technical staff to influence purchases like security audit software.So, back to the questions at the beginning of this post...What percentage of the audit-worthy servers are managed by the kind of people who would purchase FogBugz/JIRA? It seems that you could build you brand reputation among these folks with good blog posts, presentations at conferences, and some guest-authored security articles (the Joel model?).Noting that I know little about security audit software, one downside may be that companies can CYA by saying, "But, we audited with [Insert big company here]'s award winning industry-standard software tool. How can you blame us for getting hacked? Management may be thinking along these lines when choosing to spend $70K on a POS product. However, your customers may be those who actually care if they're hacked or not!I don't like #2 because I think you could easily be beaten up on margins, and I don't see why you would be better at running this business than other entrepreneurs out there.#1 is tough because it doesn't get management attention. Management expects to buy security audit software, and risk aversion leads them to want to make a purchase. However, you'd be relying on a bunch of admins to convince management that they need your tool -- they're likely to use "good enough" Open Source alternatives.WRT #3, You might consider a model where some basic features are free, but customers pay for enterprise-y features along with support. It's a lot easier to get your product in the door if the users can try it out without going through the hassle of convincing management to dole out $5K.So, those were my somewhat random thoughts. I'm considering an enterprise software start-up (non-competing) that may have similar sales characteristics. |
I have three good ideas. Help me choose idea 1, 2, or 3. | cdibona: #1: Take it and make it applicable to distributed systems/clusters and maybe you have something.#2: Is this Fashion News? I kid. This might be a fun site to write, so long as you aren't saddled with the inventory.#3: Consulting around security is a great way to make a buck, but building a security company of size is very difficult. Automated tools are tricky to write due to false positives due to weird user configurations. |
Do you program in black or white? | pavelludiq: I cant stand light backgrounds, i prefer dark ones(but not black). This is the vim colorscheme im using:http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=1778I like it a lot! |
I have three good ideas. Help me choose idea 1, 2, or 3. | gojomo: I like #2, especially given the other testimony by 'brk' about having made money with a small-scale version of the idea.There are potential problems in tariff/trade laws, consistency of customer experience, and fraud. But solving those problems gives you your defensible advantage.Beyond your initial friends, you might wind up with an enthusiastic community of 'buyers'/traders who are working more for the fun/access of it than high salaries/commissions.And the ads write themselves..."Where did you get that top?""A little shop in Milan!""When were you in Milan?""I wasn't! Let me tell you about my little secret..." |
Do you program in black or white? | Laurentvw: I recently switched from a black & white scheme to a colored scheme. As of now I'm enjoying a black-greyish background with some nifty colors.IMO, colored code makes the process much more fun. I'm not sure if it makes me more productive though, but I wouldn't rule it out.Small screenshot: http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v2102/219/106/34... |
I have three good ideas. Help me choose idea 1, 2, or 3. | bemmu: I've done #2 a bit while in Japan, but stopped because I didn't have enough scale. You have to first communicate about what they want, find where it is sold, take a trip there, box it, stand in line in post office, fill customs forms, do bookkeeping, answer to "where's my package omg wtf!?" e-mails and so on. For customers it was sometimes inconvenient because the packages would be stopped by customs in their home countries. |
Do you program in black or white? | jballanc: I've been using dark/black backgrounds for literally years. The question that most interests me now is warm vs cool colors for syntax highlighting. Without realizing it, I had been using primarily warm tones for a long time. Then, I installed MacVim and started using the default dark bg theme, which uses cool tones... I kinda like it! |
Do you program in black or white? | hbien: I started out with dark backgrounds because of vim + Linux. The default terminal was black. Now I use the dark background w/ color text for all my editors/IDEs.I tried switching to the white background for a week, but it really hurt my eyes. I had to switch back after a few days. |
Do you program in black or white? | MrRage: I've got to put a vote in for white backgrounds. I find dark background terribly hard to read, especially with colored text. White backgrounds have a higher contrast with the text. I also turn the brightness down on my monitors, so I don't feel it's too blinding.I also can't stand it if the syntax highlighting is too colorful. I like some coloring for reserved words, type names, comments, and string literals. Other than that black on white.What I find more important that color schemes is having a nice font. If you're on Windows, and not using Consolas, you're missing out big time. Consolas is actually designed to look good with sub-pixel rendering. If you can't use Consolas, Bitstream Vera Sans Mono is a nice second. |
Looking for feedback on side-project | gills: I think it's useful, it reminds me of http://www.visualjquery.com/.The cascade-on-select on langref seems a little clunkier. |
Do you program in black or white? | brandonkm: I actually program with a navy blue background in some languages and a white background in others. With ruby, python I have a blue background in vim and with xhtml, css, and javascript I use a white background. |
Do you program in black or white? | awt: I like a white background. The color schemes for black backgrounds always seem to be off for one color or another. |
Do you program in black or white? | notaddicted: I use light background. I feel like I have to. Any time I switch from light text to dark text it takes time for my eyes to adjust. So when I'm looking up documentation etc everything need to be the same. Even the bar at the top bothers me. SO I use the black on white. |
Test the market using Facebook / iPhone | bullseye: Without knowing what your application does, it's likely you're not going to get very good advice. |
I have three good ideas. Help me choose idea 1, 2, or 3. | whatusername: As an Aussie I'd love #2.Not just for the prices, but for all the stuff that we can't buy anywhere here!How about a service like this:
I give you my credit card details and I get a name/address.So anytime I need to order something online, it goes to:
Mr 12345, Your Address here, 90210,Whenever something for Mr 12345 comes into your warehouse - you slap my address sticker on it, and ship it off to me. (Charging my CC $10 plus postage). |
Do you program in black or white? | zacharydanger: See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect |
Do you program in black or white? | MaysonL: Strange - I've been using black (lately w syntax coloring) text/white background since I was first able to (early '80s - VT100 days) after using white on black for most of the 70's. |
What unlocks with karma, and when? | sanj: This reminds me of a band that gave out stamps when you came to their concerts.The top levels were awesome:30 Stamps: Special Date #1 Dinner and dancing with Dave.36 Stamps: Special Date #2. Dinner and dancing with either Jean, Mike, or Murray.50 Stamps: Ass Brand. The Frühead gets the Früvous budgie-dog (Larry Boniface Clebdon) branded on their ass. This is administered by a member of the band. |
Do you program in black or white? | raquo: #222 for background, something like #eee for common text, and light pale colors for vars/stings/etc. I found that #fff text on #000 bg hurts even more than plain black-on-white.Also, overhighlighting kills my ability to focus - I use at max. 4 colors |
Best way to create and send snail mail via an API? | shrike: Looks like Postful is what I am looking for, I still can't find it via Google, thanks oldgregg! |
I have three good ideas. Help me choose idea 1, 2, or 3. | netcan: idea 2This is a Parallel Import idea, a kind of a grey market. These markets already exist in various niches & I suppose have some potential. (1) You can avoid competition from many big fellas - They can often be kept in line by various means. (2) It addresses an inefficiency in the market. (3) The shrinking world is an ongoing condition making this easier & easier for you. a few ideas:a - I am not sure a 'buying agent' is necessarily the way to go. Seems like a high overhead.b - Fashion is an area where retail margins are high anyway. Perhaps higher then your P(London) - P(Sydney) - Incentive to buy in this complicated manner. IE, you might make more per item simply buying @ wholesale & selling @ retail.c - Parallel imports exist because of either price discrepancies or availability issues. The former is the bigger market while the latter might be more lucrative, given the right clients. If you can find enough people that will buy in $1-2K+ lots time (because they want things unavailable locally) you avoid the a & b issues altogether.d - Maybe you could use the winter/summer discrepancy between England & Australia in conjunction with price discrepancy to create a double advantage. IE buy Aussie swim brands soon @ sale prices & sell in London in a month or two @ pre season prices. |
Do you program in black or white? | astrec: Black background, green text. I've never managed to move past the televideo terminal! |
Do you program in black or white? | PStamatiou: Been using Cobalt theme in Textmate (dark blue) for years myself. |
Do you program in black or white? | there: i had a vt510 connected to an openbsd machine in my bedroom about 10 years ago and did most of my unix work with it. since it can't display colors, i setup mutt, vim, tin, epic, etc. to only use bold/underline/reverse attributes for highlighting instead of different colors.10 years later and i'm now using openbsd on a laptop and typing in an xterm instead of a vt510, but i still only use bold/underline/reverse in all of those terminal apps. however, i did switch from grey text on a black background on the vt510 to black text on a white background in xterm, but that's probably just because it's the default on openbsd. |
Do you program in black or white? | dylanz: Black Background, White Text.If I SSH into a remote machine, I'm still in my normal environment. Another reason I use VIM as well. If I need to get fancy, I can SCP my .vimrc in as well. |
Do you program in black or white? | gjm11: Black background, light-coloured text, not too much Angry Fruit Salad, very small fonts to fit as much as possible on the screen.Easier on the eyes, plus it happens to be what I'm used to. |
Do you program in black or white? | alain94040: On Eclipse and Xcode it's black text (or colored for keywords) on white background. I haven't programmed on a black background since the early 90s on the Apple II.I remember making the switch, at first I was shocked. By now, I'm completely used to it.http://fairsoftware.net : where geeks are their own boss |
Do you program in black or white? | mrtron: Terminal I go dark - Textmate I go light.Maybe I should switch to dark - it is a bit nicer on the eyes I think.Edit: Switched over Textmate to a dark theme, and I am glad for the reminder. I don't know why on this new machine I didn't have it set that way! |
SUP nightly challenges at Cambridge, MA hacker space | thegoleffect: I couldn't possibly make it every night, but I'd like to make it to at least one day. We'll see.In the meantime, perhaps you can open it up to people outside our area via IRC/IM and justin.tv the event online. Get some local companies to sponsor food for the event. Use online invitation web apps. Tumblog it. Get it Dugg, reddit'd, slashdot'd, etc.A helpful challenge could be to make an online publishing and voting system for new challenges. Who knows!Good luck! |
Do you program in black or white? | Freaky: Dark on light, always. Specifically, I use #0d2a3a as my background; a nice dark blue I find a bit more pleasing than just black. |
Do you program in black or white? | briansmith: I program in shades of gray. |
Do you program in black or white? | wenbert: I use the ZenBurn colors. http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000682.htmlVery easy to read. And not boring. |
Do you program in black or white? | colonhyphenp: I started using the Railscast TextMate theme a few months ago and have been quite satisfied - it's got a dark grey-ish brown background. http://railscasts.com/about |
Do you program in black or white? | tdavis: :colorscheme desert |
Is anyone doing Blackberry app development? | gsmaverick: Since lots of BB users are enterprise they may be less willing or able to install apps. But if you build a great app there's always customers for your app. |
Is anyone doing Blackberry app development? | martythemaniak: Yes, kind of. I have a neat little app on the Android Market (http://phonalyzr.com), which I am going to port to the Blackberry in time for their store launch. The reason I'm targeting Android and BB is because of the iPhone's ridiculously restrictive SDK - on these devices the OS notifies the user that my app will be reading their call log/contact list and the user can choose to proceed or not, whereas on the iPhone that decision has already been made for the user by someone in Apple's HQ.At my day job I use python and js to do web development while this is my spare-time project and to be honest, Java isn't so bad. Yes, it's tiresomely verbose, but Eclipse and the Android plug-in are an awesome IDE and since you're dealing only with the mobile-specific SDK, you don't have to contend with issues that make Java bad in other contexts (heavy frameworks, endless XML config files, etc). Perhaps someone with experience in both can clue me in, but I doubt Objective C is less verbose or more dynamic than Java.But I think you're right in that people might be missing an opportunity by focusing so heavily on the iPhone. The BB SDK is more powerful than the iPhone's, there's more than twice as many BB users than iPhone users and I don't think anyone will argue that they're any less affluent than iPhone users.Mostly, I think, it'll depend on how RIM promotes the app store and the kind of deals it manages to get the carriers to accept. I worked for RIM a few years ago and saw how incredibly difficult and demanding it is to work with carriers, as they are the actual manufacturer's "customers" and their interests are frequently at odds with those of users. |
Do you program in black or white? | stevedekorte: I prefer black on grey for editor windows and gray on black for terminal windows. |
Do you program in black or white? | burke: I strongly prefer light on dark, but hated pretty much every emacs theme I found. A couple days ago, I ported a friend's "IR Black" vim theme to emacs. I'm still not entirely happy with it, but:http://github.com/burke/color-theme-ir-black/blob/master/scr...EDIT: Upon further investigation, I believe this color theme originated from http://blog.infinitered.com/entries/show/6 . |
Is anyone doing Blackberry app development? | kapitti: We do, but for enterprise apps only - there may be decent sales for consumers with the Storm, but the BB will almost always be an Enterprise Play. |
Which school do you attend? | transburgh: Ohio State University |
Is anyone doing Blackberry app development? | paulgb: I haven't myself, but I've worked at a company that did. Here's what I picked up: BlackBerry users tend to use their devices a lot and are not afraid to download things.It's not going to be nearly the same market as the iPhone reaches, so iFart and the like would, IMHO, fail miserably on the BlackBerry. I bet there is money to be made in apps targeting certain verticals where BlackBerries are common. Law, real estate, and investing come to mind. |
I have three good ideas. Help me choose idea 1, 2, or 3. | ALee: A) Find the one you are most passionate about with a clear value proposition.
B) Make sure there is a wave you are riding, i.e. potentially disruptive platform or something that will put the wind at your back as you ride the waves with this business.
C) Make sure there is a customer that wants this- their hair is on fire, doesn't matter if you give them a hose or a fire extinguisher. (whatusername is one example). |
Estimating Ad Revenue | ALee: Depends on what you use. Google is actually good if you're just getting started and you want to learn about CPC and the eCPM of ads.Just learn these key phrases (CPM, CPC, eCPM) and then, do google searches from there. You would want to do a bottoms up analysis (for every one active user, I get 12 pageviews, each 1K pageviews serves 50 cents). Then you just graph it out. |
Do you program in black or white? | s3graham: I didn't realize it for quite some time, but what I actually use is: - dark means "brain: use vim keys" (:colo darkblue)
- light means use arrow/CUA keys, a la most "normal" applications.
(ps, please add <ul>/<ol> formatting) |
Do you program in black or white? | johngunderman: It depends on the language I am programming in.Java - white (Eclipse)Python - Black (gedit)Lisp - White (emacs)Ruby - White (TextEdit)C/C++ - Black (gedit)I have noticed that certain text editors have dark themes I like, whereas other dark themes just hurt my eyes. I have no true preference, only what I am used to. |
Estimating Ad Revenue | mattmaroon: Just go ahead and guess $0 cpm. You won't be far off. |
Is anyone doing Blackberry app development? | DenisM: On a related note, how complex is BB development compared to Andorid, iPhone or WinMob?I think I might want to port my app, but I'm afraid to get stuck in it without the end in sight. |
Estimating Ad Revenue | rms: I have one site that is doing $70 eCPM with adsense. You can use that number for your estimate, if you want. It's like 1996 all over again! |
Do you program in black or white? | russell: I use black or syntax coloring on gray or ivory background. My eyes are old and the contrast with colors on black is too low for me to read easily. I prefer the off white background because pure white is too bright. |
Estimating Ad Revenue | quellhorst: I have had eCPM from $0 to $200+. Its impossible to estimate based on what you have provided. |
Estimating Ad Revenue | wallflower: Arn from MacRumors said it best. Traffic to your site gives you power which brings along advertising revenue. |
Archive a MySQL database | slater: You could use PHPMyAdmin:Go to the "export" tab and use the "Save as file" option |
Which school do you attend? | herdrick: Washington State + University of Washington |
Archive a MySQL database | gojomo: This technique using LVM snapshots always struck me as the optimal way to achieve negligible-downtime backups of even largish databases:http://blog.dbadojo.com/2007/09/mysql-backups-using-lvm-snap...(Haven't done it myself, though.) |
Archive a MySQL database | thomasmallen: # mysqldump -u (user) -p (database name) > (destination filename)
mysqldump -u root -p some_project > some_project.sql
# to import:
# mysql -u (user) -p (database name) < (backup file)
mysql -u root -p some_project < some_project.sql |
I have three good ideas. Help me choose idea 1, 2, or 3. | vchakra: I think you need to do a little bit more research before picking one of the above. Rather than pick one now, it would be better to spend a little bit of time building up some sort of a business plan (not something to show VC's but just for internal clarity).Of the three, the 3rd option seems to make most sense to me. The things one would look for are:
1. Customer pain point. Of the three, the third is the most clear. For the other two, its not clear as to who the customer is, or even what pain point you are solving.
2. Your capability to compete (niche markets would be better). 1 and 3 seem better than 2 in this regard..
3. Cash flow/bootstrap options: 2 and 3 seem to be better, although you may end up paying for agents sitting on the bench before business builds up. 1 is the least attractive since its unclear who will pay for this initially.
4. Competition -- 1 has the least, 2 the most. However it might be better to have some competition, since (often) lack of any competition indicates lack of a market.Just thoughts off the top of my head.. |
Archive a MySQL database | newt0311: Read up on WALs and incremental backups. I know postgres has support for these and MySQL should too. |
Archive a MySQL database | tmm1: http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2006/05/02/how-to-write-efficient-...http://www.maatkit.org/doc/mk-archiver.html |
Archive a MySQL database | brianr: If you can't afford downtime, check out Innodb Hot Backup (a commercial product sold by oracle).If you already happen to be using LVM, check out this post: http://www.mysqlperformanceblog.com/2006/08/21/using-lvm-for...Otherwise, you're going to have some downtime, which could range from a few seconds to a lot longer depending (mostly) on the size of your data. The simplest way is using mysqldump, but that may be too slow (probably not though, unless you have really low-end hardware, 1m records isn't that many).There are faster (and less straightforward) ways, which basically involve:
-stop the server
-copy the data directory somewhere else
-restart the serverGoogle is your friend here. If you have a spare server, you might also consider setting up replication so that the next time you want to back up your data, you can take it from a slave and it won't require any downtime. |
Archive a MySQL database | chadr: Here is what I do with mysql 5.1 and my innodb tables on Linux...mysqldump --single-transaction --skip-lock-tables --all-databases | gzip > "/some/directory/backup-`hostname`-hourly-`date +%H`.sql.gz"These two options are important: --single-transaction and --skip-lock-tables. At least in mysql 5.1, mysqldump defaults to locking each table before dumping it (not good if you have a busy app and large db).I run the above in a cron once per hour. It gives me 24 hours worth of hourly backups. I then use rsnapshot (http://www.rsnapshot.org/) to store daily, weekly, and monthly backups offsite.I also run my backups with a low priority (nice -n 19) so that my application gets higher priority than the backup script. |
Is anyone doing Blackberry app development? | shimi: I have to disagree about the Java part.After developing for WM, j2ME, BB and Android I found iPhone is a mystery. Apple knew what they were doing making people downloading those applications. You've have got fart apps for all platforms and no one could turn them to a profit until iFart.BB is a different market, I'm sure that if you'll investigate you'll be able to come up with an idea.BB can be a potential good market but |
Estimating Ad Revenue | dshah: As noted elsewhere, your revenue from advertising can vary considerably based on several factors including:1. The market you're in
2. The profile of your visitors
3. The degree to which you're engaging them
4. The kinds of products/services being advertised |
Archive a MySQL database | chrisbolt: If you're using MyISAM, you can use MERGE tables to split data over multiple tables, or you can use partitioning. Then when you decide one of the 'sub' tables is 'full' you can take it out of the MERGE table, do a read lock, rsync it to a backup server, then drop it off the main server. |
I have three good ideas. Help me choose idea 1, 2, or 3. | m_eiman: If you're going to do #2, have a look at the references on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_importation .A few years ago there was a lot of talk about parallel import on the news here in Sweden, and if memory serves they said that parallel importing into the EU was illegal (but ok within EU). Might have been due to copyright or trademark reasons, so it may not be the actual importing that was the problem. Worth looking into, anyway. |
Archive a MySQL database | agotterer: One of the ways we archive data is by setting an archive cutoff point. So say we only need the last 6 months of data... Every month we will run a script that takes anything older then 6 months and move it to a separate table (or database). Obviously this solution isnt perfect for every situation. But depending on how much data you have for each row, a million rows usually isnt all that much. So far example we may have a table called "data" and a second table called "data_archive". This will keep the data table and indexes small and manageable.You should of course still backup your data since the archive is really just a reference. |
Estimating Ad Revenue | sdragon: #1: Google Adwords -see things from the other side of the equalation.So, basically you go, sign up (best spent 15 bucks, ever), start a new compaign, and type in a web site with similar content to the one you're about to build; select all collected keywords, which are related to your venture, and behold the traffic estimator. Two points of data are of interest for you here: estimated avg CPC, and estimated clicks/ day; the first one will tell you how much you would earn _relatively_ to other keywords (remember, G takes a cut); the other will tell you how much of a niche you are.#2: fail fast: you actually go out, and build a stub of your grand vision, stick up the ad network of your choice (it's always best to shop around), and measure it. You'll get much better data, than any other method -both from ad networks, and as market research (whether people would actually use your stuff)
Good luck. |
Estimating Ad Revenue | sachin: Here are some things to think about...Are you planning on direct sales or remnant advertising? Early on you'll likely be only leveraging remnant advertising since direct sales requires a large sales team or sales rep firms.The next question is how much of your traffic is expected to be US vs international. US traffic still has some value, versus most international countries (outside of a few top markets like UK, Canada, etc) have very little online ad spend. Take a look at the following data of internet ad spend per capita in top countries to help scale revenue projections depending on expected country traffic:http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pGQagieY9vfGVnTGpCmbg...You'll next want to calculate number of impressions you expect on a daily or monthly basis. Just take expected growth rates for unique visitors and come up with some realistic estimates of page views per visit and number of ads per page.Then take a look at this recent PubMatic report to get some estimates on average remnant advertising CPMs for multiple verticals:http://www.pubmatic.com/adpriceindex/ |
Archive a MySQL database | wenbert: Another thing I am curious about. When archiving/purge/whatever it is called; what happens to the dependent tables?For example, the Header-to-detail relationship between tables.Anyway, I will be trying out the Tools found in this link: http://www.maatkit.org/doc/mk-archiver.html |
I have three good ideas. Help me choose idea 1, 2, or 3. | RobGR: I would do the idea that has the shortest time to producing money. I suspect that's number two, the overseas buyer system.I would avoid the security analysis tool. The customers sound troublesome, and the competition is likely to be on grounds of the niceness of the reports or something rather and technical correctness. The field has a lot of snake oil, and to be competeing against snake oil with a real product is not necessarily a good position.The performance analysis tools for linux are needed and might make a good product, BUT: don't do this unless you have a paying customer who wants you to write some high-performance code, and you will be abl to use free distribution of the tool to get more jobs like that.The overseas buyer is the way to go. Try to get something that is mostly self-service, where you allow buyers to meet sellers and they handle most of the stuff between themselves. Since you will have a web site describing lots of desired goods and visitors who are looking for those goods, you might be able to get some income from adwords.All the potential hassels described by other folks about that idea apply, but none of them have not been solved before by other import/export people. There are also many regional products in the US that might be distributed this way, such as local brands of BBQ sauces, beer (again the possible legal issues), etc. However none of this is things that Ebay, craigslist, and etsy haven't dealt with. |
I have three good ideas. Help me choose idea 1, 2, or 3. | vivekamn: Regarding 3): Selling to enterprises for a startup is a bitch. We recently a closed an order with ask.com for our product and the the second item in the very first slide in their go/no go meeting was 'What if Radaptive goes bankrupt'. |
I have three good ideas. Help me choose idea 1, 2, or 3. | scorpioxy: I'm a programmer, so I'll refrain from giving my opinion on idea 2.Idea 3, however, seems like a good idea to me. I read the other comments, and yes it will be difficult, but i still think its a good idea.Idea 1 might be a bit difficult to to turn into a business. In fact, it is something I've been thinking about too for a while now. I was thinking along the lines of support contracts to web hosts or similar businesses. If you choose to work on this(as a business or just on the side), I'd love to help(email in profile). |
Is anyone doing Blackberry app development? | fpotter: Yep, I've been working on a downloadable app store for BlackBerry devices for a while called BerryStore (http://berrystore.com) and it's been getting decent uptake from BlackBerry users. I started way back in August, long before RIM had announced any of their plans.There is a lot of opportunity for RIM here, but there are also a lot of things they would have to get right. For example, I've heard rumors they might only support newer phones or OS versions. That would be a mistake - Curves running really old versions of the OS are still being sold today. Another rumor I heard was that they might only work with developers who are part of their Alliance Program which costs $2,000 to join. Then, there is the hurdle of getting the app store onto devices in a way that makes carriers comfortable. Presumably some sort of revenue share has to be negotiated with each carrier. RIM certainly doesn't have an easy road ahead of them.Also, if you read RIM's October press release announcing the Storefront, they claimed they would be letting developers submit apps starting this past December. December came and went and I didn't see anything. That means they're either behind in schedule, or worse, they're only working with Alliance partners and that's why we didn't see anything. |
I have three good ideas. Help me choose idea 1, 2, or 3. | ivan_ah: I like #1.Making money from that will be tough complex.
Thing about how you can turn this into a product big-corp will want to shell out thousands of dollars on.
(selling to individual programmers will be tougher since they are used to GNU being free)Think about who might be interested in bundling your tool with an existing software/monitoring package. |
I have three good ideas. Help me choose idea 1, 2, or 3. | nittwerp: Number 2 is not really a new idea, but if you can make it work and become the default place for overseas shopping it would be a goldmine. I actually already use a service like this for video games (www.play-asia.com) since I live Japan but I want the English versions of games.
Anyway, if you go with number 2 and you need a contact in Japan, send an email my way. :) |
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