instruction
stringlengths 4
105
| output
stringlengths 8
56.7k
|
|---|---|
how do i move 5 GB of photos? | Kilimanjaro: Get a .info domain really cheap for $1.99, get the cheapest unlimited hosting service, upload pics via ftp, get an open source photo manager.See? less than $5 a month splitted among 5 guys for your own personal photo sharing site, easier impossible. |
Professional Python IDEs? | Erwin: I've tried Wing personally, but it was just too much pretty but superfluous GUI stuff all over the place.As a primary editor I use xemacs21 in full-screen mode with everything extra disabled; I typically have 2-3 instances running (due to parallel development in multiple branches) with 200 open buffers.I'd love to pay $$$$ for a GUI that would make more efficient but I sppose I may be stuck with xemacs forever.Ropemacs was the last impressive thing I saw, but it was a bit buggy. I don't seem to have need for refactoring, tag search is enough for me to navigate and dabbrev-expand based on other buffers contents is usually enough for me. |
Would free copywriting assistance appeal to you? | wafflesrevenge: Zacharye it sounds like you have a valuable skill and could get something out of this, go for it and grow your connections.I have similar skills and would want to build upon them in a similar fashion so if you find yourself with more then you can handle let me know @ mattyfo@gmail@yan ad-hoc sounds like an awesome way to get things off the ground and keep costs low...how to implement? |
Would free copywriting assistance appeal to you? | sweetweb: This post couldn't have come at a better time. I really need your help with my elevator pitch/sign up frame.
My name is Tommy Nguyen, I'm the co-founder of a site called www.ratemyideas.comIts a rating/voting where users submit made or market ready cool products/gadgets/inventions/ web sites etc.We are not officially launching till next week but during testing people are confused at the purpose of the site. They think its "submitting ides that haven't been created yet" I wanna convey its a place to submit finished product that is new and undiscovered.please advise
thanks!
Tommy |
Professional Python IDEs? | ivank: I use Eclipse 3.4 on Windows with Pydev/Pydev extensions. I really like the mark occurrences feature - even made something like it for Emacs, but it's not as seamless. |
Professional Python IDEs? | nloadholtes: Eclipse with the PyDev plugin is very nice also. I'm using that on both OS X and Windows. |
Professional Python IDEs? | froo: I'm enjoying e-texteditor, its basically textmate for windows (but its not free) |
Professional Python IDEs? | j2d2: I must admit, I have a hard time knowing what I'd need an ide for when I can use emacs and have a python interpreter running inside it. I haven't worked on any python projects large enough to make me need help navigating the code though. |
Professional Python IDEs? | pchivers: I've been using Wing 101 for the last couple of months (after reading the Python IDE reviews on Jonathan Ellis' blog), and I've been fairly happy with it.Links to the reviews:http://spyced.blogspot.com/2005/09/review-of-6-python-ides.h...http://spyced.blogspot.com/2006/02/pycon-python-ide-review.h... |
how do i move 5 GB of photos? | brfox: Are there any companies where they will send you a 16gb flash drive, you fill it up and send it back, then they host the files (or upload them to flickr, smugmug, etc)?I'd pay $25 for that service. |
Would free copywriting assistance appeal to you? | bkovitz: I would love to hear an expert's (free!) suggestions on how we can improve our copy on decisionero. I believe very strongly that, especially on the web, short copy that gets the message across is crucial--and short copy is the hardest to write.Our current home page is the one I'm currently most eager for suggestions about, particularly the two paras at the bottom:http://decisionero.comThere are two other pages that present our message in a little more detail:http://decisionero.com/decisionero/abouthttp://decisionero.com/decisionero/originIf you'd like to post here to HN to demonstrate your style of analysis and feedback for others to see, please feel free. Or, if you prefer, email me at bkovitz "at" acm "dot" org. |
Seeking a personal spam filter (an actual person) | PieSquared: How about Gmail? I haven't had a single problem with gmail spam filters, which used to surprise me. |
Professional Python IDEs? | oz: have you tried Eric? http://www.die-offenbachs.de/eric/index.html |
Professional Python IDEs? | sb: I use emacs for all my coding work (multiple languages) and am very satisfied with it. I have tried Komodo and a couple of my colleagues at work swear by it--it's a bit bloated for my taste, but probably I am kind of old fashioned...
(btw: same holds true for Eclipse--imho at least). It would probably be nice to know what experience you've had with emacs and why you are looking for an ide, then people might be able to point you towards comparable/corresponding emacs features...(e.g. my problem is the completion feature with both python modes--i just can't get it to work, which is definitely a pitty, but probably i am just too incompetent :) |
Would free copywriting assistance appeal to you? | zhyder: I'd love to have help with our copy. More generally, our team lacks Marketing/BizDev expertise; perhaps you'd be interested in more than just editing our copy. Contact me at zhyder AT dabbleboard DOT com.The startup is at http://www.dabbleboard.com . We launched on HN 1.5 months ago. |
Yahoo spam filter, is it possible to get through? | nfriedly: Here's what I've observed. It doesn't directly apply to your problem, but may shed a little light:My company sends out a lot of emails to our users. Yahoo will occasionally, for no known reason, put our first email into spam. From then on, unless the user explicitly marks that email as not spam, yahoo bounces all future emails sent to that user with a "mailbox doesn't exist" message.I've repeatedly had to do phone support where I directed the user to their spam folder to find our very first email. Once that gets ok'd we no longer have any trouble with that specific user.On the topic of hotmail, this article is interesting:
http://hubpages.com/hub/Hotmail_Fails_To_Deliver_Up_To_81_Of... |
Professional Python IDEs? | zain: I've found it very hard to find an IDE that works properly with Django.In particular, there seems to be no way debug code while using the Django dev server with its autoreload feature. This means that either you don't debug code, or you have to restart the Django dev server every time you make a change. Very annoying.Also, I haven't been able to find any Eclipse/IDEA level features in a Python IDE... things like being able to ctrl+click on an object to see where it was defined, or a "Find Usages" feature.All in all, I think there is a huge opportunity to innovate in the web IDE department. Python, RoR, and even PHP all still need a killer IDE. |
Networking in the valley | mat3: I'm thinking of using zipcar -http://www.zipcar.com to get around. Has anyone here used it? What do you think? |
Seeking a personal spam filter (an actual person) | Spyckie: Get a virtual secretary - you can ask them to do much more than just spam filtering.A bit on the expensive side, though. :)http://www.b2kcorp.com/basic_services.html
http://www.taskseveryday.com/Pricing.htmlOther ideas, if you're willing to allow other people to see your emails, why not just mechanical turk it? |
Professional Python IDEs? | martinr: I tried Komodo and PyDev, now I'm back to my favorite editor SciTe. Sufficient for me as I don't work on large Python projects. |
how do i move 5 GB of photos? | aneesh: i can't seem to find a simple solution on-lineEven in this day and age, the off-line solutions are better. Get a DVD or flash drive and send it by mail or FedEx. Even on a moderately fast connection 5 GB is no joke to download. |
how do i move 5 GB of photos? | jimm: www.pando.com |
Would free copywriting assistance appeal to you? | zacharye: Awesome - so glad to see enthusiastic responses! Let's give it a go then...As I said in the OP, I will be more than happy to assist startups with one piece of marcom at no charge. No I'm not a dealer handing out free fixes, I just don't have the time or independent wealth right now to be able to offer more assistance. Believe me when I say that I love to be challenged creatively and I love variation. If I did have the time and independent wealth, nothing would make me happier than to do this for a living. The sentiment behind yan's / ia's suggestion above is something I've wondered about plenty in the past.So here is what I ask of you:1. Please send me an email and introduce yourself. Tell me a bit about your company, your core product(s), your target audience, your ideal customer and so on. Then tell me about the one problem item that we'll be tackling, be it product sheet, homepage, elevator pitch, mass email, etc.2. Please be thorough. No one knows your product better than you so highlighting key features is of the utmost importance. When you've been eating, sleeping, breathing and living something for XX months, it becomes very easy to forget how to look at it from an outside perspective (this very fact is half the reason marcom people have jobs). Make sure you think about the key messages / features that you are hoping to highlight with this particular piece.3. Please be patient. I promise that I will respond to each and every email sent. In fact, if you don't hear from me a few days after sending an email then by all means resend it. Regarding deliverables, please be understanding if I estimate a turnaround of six days and you haven't received anything from me on the seventh. I have no reason to believe that keeping an open line of communication will be difficult but at the same time, I do have other things on my plate. Re: time zone, I'm just outside of Manhattan (EST).4. Please be clear. If there are elements of any job that should be considered confidential please ensure that you make me aware of them. I will not be sharing anything we discuss or work on but this relates to item 1 below.5. Please include your HN username in your intro email.What I ask in return:1. Portfolio building - In the event that my own project does not pan out, I will likely end up re-entering the marcom world at some level. Your permission to include whatever we work on in a future portfolio would be greatly appreciated. If for any reason this is not a possibility, just make sure to specify that (item 4 above).2. Friends and family plan - Please keep a few things in mind as I perform this service for you. I am in fact hoping to find a technical co-founder to work with me on my own SaaS so if you know talented and motivated people who might fit the bill, an intro would be greatly appreciated. I'm not going to ignore people who don't open their intro email with, "Hi. My buddy is ready and waiting to build your vision!" At the same time, bear in mind that networking is indeed my not-so-ulterior motive. Even if all you can do is connect to me on LinkedIn and write a two-sentence recommendation that might help me sometime in the future, I would appreciate it.3. Your ear - Once my work for you is complete, feel free to ask me about the SaaS I am considering. The opportunity to bounce ideas off of intelligent people "in the thick of it" is something I will never refuse. It is perfectly understandable if you are too busy with your own business to chat along these lines. No harm, no foul and good luck to you in your endeavors. I hope I was able to make a difference for you.4. 2% equity - Calm down, that was a joke...So with all that behind us: My name is Zach, I have nine years of small-company marcom experience under my belt, I'm now seeking more out of life and my email is in my profile. Looking forward to doing what I can to help. |
how do i move 5 GB of photos? | dhouston: http://getdropbox.com(granted, we don't let people buy additional space yet, but ping [email protected] and we can hook you up :P) |
how do i move 5 GB of photos? | tk999: try: http://share.memeo.com1. install the desktop client2. drop all the pictures there3. invite everybody you know.everybody will sync all the photos (no limit). And it is FREE. |
Professional Python IDEs? | bdr: I'm addicted to WingIDE (Professional). The killer features for me are vim mode, fast context-sensitive autocomplete, cross-file go-to-definition, automatic syntax and indent checking, and "Source Assistant" which shows you the prototype+docstring of whatever function you're in the middle of calling. Altogether it's significantly faster than vim alone, which is what I was using before. |
Professional Python IDEs? | enlightenMe: Wing - I found this very useful with good debugger, auto-complete, project management and it is scriptable in python. Can be a bit slow at times though - you need a good machine to run it.emacs - I ended up getting frustrated with the number of different options for python (ECB vs rope vs python.el vs python-mode.el vs ...) and I also couldn't get auto-complete working too well and it seemed to take a lot of setting up. It is good to have choices but as a novice it can be somewhat bewildering.SPE - no-one has mentioned this yet but I found it usable - auto-complete is surprisingly good. With some project management facilities it could be very good indeed. Worth a try... |
how do i move 5 GB of photos? | jgamman: thanks for all the tips everyone. i'm glad that the answer wasn't obvious but still it seems strange to me that we're all connected yet for non-ITers to move anything large a usb stick and a postage stamp is still one of the top contenders!! |
Flex/Flash, Authenticating your .swf + decompiling | hashtable: Um, isn't this the same problem as DRM? (which we all know cannot be solved.) The fact is, if my computer can execute the code and make the request, so can I. The only thing you can do is to try to mitigate the risk or make it more difficult. |
how do i move 5 GB of photos? | verbal: you should try out syncplicity. they do backup and syncing like dropbox, but you can sync any folder(s). you can also share what you've synced with other people. |
Flex/Flash, Authenticating your .swf + decompiling | e1ven: Unfortunately, there really isn't a way to do this-One of the fundamental rules in security training is never trust the client.Anything you can write, they can open. For the most part, it won't even be that hard. Don't waste time obfuscating it..If it's at all possible, time would be better spent redesigning the infrastructure such that the client never has any data that you don't want the user to have.. The best way to do this is to generalize an API that the backend uses to talk to the front end. Then, modify your client to use this.We do this with Chron X- We have a generic Card game API that we call from our Client.. It's not perfect, but we're actively making design decisions assuming that someday, other clients may connect, with or without our consent and blessing. We may never allow it, but we have to work under the mindset that the hackers can do anything our Flex can.I'd suggest writing a middleware layer, which takes in requests based on a sessionID, and then allows only certain commands to go through, and only certain data to come back. That way, you minimize your exposure. |
What's stopping HN going the way of Reddit/Digg/Slashdot? | xenoterracide: I don't think anything... the algorithm that decides what's on the front page is currently just so so, and no one wants to improve it. |
Any hackers looking for a roommate? | alnayyir: I'd offer my space if I were in your area :(.
I'm in friggin' Ohio. |
Flex/Flash, Authenticating your .swf + decompiling | wmf: Newer versions of Flash Player and FMS include remote attestation aka SWF verification; AFAIK it hasn't been cracked yet (but it hasn't been reverse-engineered by Red5 either).http://livedocs.adobe.com/flashmediaserver/3.0/docs/03_confi... |
Flex/Flash, Authenticating your .swf + decompiling | ars: You're authenticating the client? Not the person? That's impossible to do. |
Why shouldn't I drop out of college to do a startup? | alnayyir: As someone who is trying desperately to get back into school, do as brianr said.Stay in school, throw ideas at the wall, see what sticks, go from there.By all means though, try to finish your degree though.Even the greatest of minds can fail due to circumstance, when it comes to things like a start-up. |
Flex/Flash, Authenticating your .swf + decompiling | fatjonny: If you can trust the client by having them enter in a password, can't you then set up a system that uses the same idea as public-key cryptography (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public-key_cryptography)? Once the user has logged in and authenticated with their password they generate their public and private keys and send the server the public key while keeping the private key local. This method would be processor intensive, but good security usually isn't cheap. Or maybe my understanding of how public-key cryptography works isn't accurate and someone can explain why it wouldn't work? |
Flex/Flash, Authenticating your .swf + decompiling | jm4: Hmm... The fact that you're so concerned about requests not hitting your web app without going through your Flex front end raises a red flag...Anyway, you can obscure the key into the code all you want. If it's a string value there's only one place it will ever be when the .swf is decompiled and that's in the constant pool. If it's a number value stored in a variable or even a few concatenated strings it might be a little more difficult since it's not going to come out and slap somebody in the face, but to say it's trivial to retrieve the key would be the understatement of the decade. Before going this route it might be a good idea to decompile some .swf files to see what it looks like. Check out a program called Describe SWF and take a look at the documentation for Flasm. Lots of good info there.There's no good way to secure your Flash/Flex code so it's not worth the effort to even entertain the thought. I develop a bot with a custom Flash player and I'm just amazed out how many people do stuff like this. The best advice I can give you is that anything you put in a Flash file is there for the taking as if you were advertising on your home page. Bad idea. |
Networking in the valley | ScottWhigham: If you're looking for a place to stay, I love, love, love Dinah's Garden Hotel (although I don't know how close it is to where you want to be). It's actually one of my favorite hotels inside the contiguous: http://www.dinahshotel.com/ |
how do i move 5 GB of photos? | qwerasdfzxcv: 1. install eMule (from emule-project.net) or aMule (for mac users)2. put pics in your shared folder (do not share or download ANY other files)3. go to shared files screen, select all, right click and select 'copy ED2K links' iirc.4. send links by email5. tell all the others to not share or download ANY other files. |
Would free copywriting assistance appeal to you? | bootload: "... No, I’m not offering to write copy for entire websites free of charge. What I am considering is to take a look at your homepage, marketing sheet, mass email, elevator pitch, or whatever other single item you need the most help on, and refine / polish it ..."Hey Zac this is an interesting idea but looking at your contact suggestion and work flow:- intro email- detail of requirements (clear idea of company & wants)- your analysis (is it worth doing)would it not be better to find a way to mechanise this where a potential client enters these details into a form (using http://www.google.com/url?q=http://wufoo.com/about for example) then letting the client see the progress? If there is one way to build a project it would to be build an App that allows writers and people who want stuff written about them to meet.An example of this process I have in mind is http://99designs.com/ where designers pitch for a clients brief. The advantage of this approach is the client is required to pay upfront a fixed fee. |
Networking in the valley | skmurphy: You can meet other entrepreneurs at a Bootstrapper's Breakfasts http://www.bootstrappersbreakfast.com/ there are three scheduled for August. We get a number of out of town visitors and you would be welcome. The other events you list all look very good, if I had to pick one from those you mentioned to make sure of attending it would be the the New Tech Meetup in Palo Alto. SVASE (http://www.svase.org/) runs a number of events where you can meet VCs: breakfasts, Startup-U, CXO Leadership forum. SDForum (http://www.sdforum.org/) runs 20+ SIGs, I would check out the Startup and VC Funding SIGs during your visit as well as any related to technologies you are working with. |
how do i move 5 GB of photos? | symptic: It'll cost you a little bit of cash, but why not Amazon Web Services? |
Would free copywriting assistance appeal to you? | pyroman: I think this idea is great. This site has been pushing me towards quitting my comfortable job and going for some of the crazy ideas I've had. I just might be contacting you in the future. |
Professional Python IDEs? | sharjeel: I do my development on WinXP and most of my work is in Python/Django. I am using PyScripter and I am pretty satisfied with it.Previously I used Eclipse + PyDev but found it pretty slow and sometimes buggy. The debugger used to hang a lot even for simple python scripts. I switched to PyScripter and found it way better than any other free IDE available.PyScripter is perfect for me in all sense except for debugging. The debugger is a bit unstable and does not work well with django.Few days back I tried WingIDE. Being a Windows user I have a few issues with its look & feel as it is in GTK but prolly a *nix user feel will feel more comfortable with it than PyScripter. I've found its debugger better than any other and works for django perfectly. Stability is also good. I think it is worth the price. |
Professional Python IDEs? | nailer: gedit, with the syntax highlighting, and the inbuilt terminal. The neat 'Oblivion' text highlighting theme is really readable. glipper for a stack based copy-paste buffer.Only for Linux alas. |
Would free copywriting assistance appeal to you? | Tichy: I must admit I would feel a bit weird about the foggy trade agreement. I get something for something unspecified in return, I would feel like I owe you "something". I prefer clarity - make a price, I pay, done. Otherwise the issue will remain lingering in the back of my mind, which is wasteful. |
Professional Python IDEs? | gtani: Wing and Komodo IDE are great if you get somebody to shell out the cash. I think everybody should have a main editor, that may or may not be vim or emacs, but also learn one of these, since they will always be available on whatever platform you're forced to use.http://praisecurseandrecurse.blogspot.com/2008/04/abysmal-st...http://www.protocolostomy.com/2008/04/28/ubuntu-804-and-pyth...http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=130429 |
Professional Python IDEs? | zackola: I'd check out the free version of WingWare first. It feels not so polished in terms of the GUI, but the features/integration with Python in general is pretty sweet. What are your complaints/missing features of some of the other things you've used? |
Fair share deal between me and my cofounder | brianlash: I can only answer one piece of your question, and it's just a suggestion: agree to allocate your shares over time. Set out a schedule (say, every quarter) that you'll use to decide who deserves what portion of the equity. Have guidelines around work expectations and performance goals, and include a 3rd party in your meetings if you need to.That way you can closely tie compensation to performance, and there are no surprises because each party to the agreement knows what to expect (even if you both work with 65/35 in mind).It sounds bizarre, but it's not so uncommon in practice. Case in point, a company that stands out in my mind as having adopted such an approach did so on the advisement of its legal team.>Is it common that all shareholders have to agree to sell a company or is this more uncommon?My gut tells me the need to sell is uncommon. Usually there's a buyout clause in the Operating Agreement that specifies how ownership will change in the event that one of the firm's managers leaves (or dies): http://www.docstoc.com/docs/294674/Sample-LLC-Operating-Agre... |
ASK HN: Edit Audio Files using PHP | rrival: Probably want to pass that sort of request to a helper app on the command line. |
ASK HN: Edit Audio Files using PHP | tlrobinson: It's easy enough to execute any command line program from PHP:http://php.net/execSurely there's some command line tools to edit audio files. Maybe ffmpeg or mplayer? |
ASK HN: Edit Audio Files using PHP | jawngee: Look at mp3splt> sudo apt-get install mp3wrap mp3splt> man mp3splt |
Fair share deal between me and my cofounder | igurari: I am presently in a very similar situation. One possibile solution suggested to me by a lawyer friend would be to set up two companies: one jointly owned by you and your friend, and the other owned solely by yourself.Your company would own the code you produced to date and then license it out to the jointly owned company. You could then build in an agreement where the jointly owned company has the right to purchase the code for a nominal sum at some future date if certain benchmarks are met.This should give you the flexibility and protection you seem to want. You could agree to move forward with your friend as a business partner, but if he turns out to be a flop, you still have ownership over your code. At the same time, your partner should feel confident that if he performs his part, he won't be shortchanged.As for the appropriate percentages, I am also currently grappling with this issue. I haven't settled on a figure yet, although I recall reading somewhere that the best deals are where both parties feel shortchanged. |
Fair share deal between me and my cofounder | ScottWhigham: What does he want? It's fine for you to come up with in your head all of this but does it match his expectations? He could be expecting 50/50 and want to walk when you show him something complicated.What have you done to protect yourself from him starting a competitor if the two of you can't come to terms? |
Fair share deal between me and my cofounder | webwright: Well, whatever split you take-- you'll have a vesting period (2-4 years). So, another way to look at it is this:After 4 years (or whatever the vesting period is), how much of a discrepancy will there be between the total value you've created and the total value he has created? How much discrepancy will there be in risks you've taken and the salaries you've missed? With your 3 month head start, that'd be 51 man-months vs. his 48 man-months.At the end of the day, there's no formula here, and you trying to calculate in assorted risks and values really isn't going to come up with an correct number-- all it's going to do is give you a feeling that you went thru appropriate motions.But, I can say that 99 times out of a hundred, the first 3 man months of a business are really not the most critical months... And it honestly sounds like you're over-estimating the value you've created and the risks you've eliminated.Also, from the way you're describing it-- you're not looking to bring this guy on as a partner or co-founder-- you're describing a decidedly non-partner relationship. It sounds more like you're looking for someone who walks and talks like an employee, but is happy to take no salary and a minority stake.You really haven't eliminated that much risk, though you've clearly accomplished a good amount in 3 months... But you really don't even know what sort of business you're creating yet and whether the market wants it.I'd go 55-45 or 60-40 with each of you having a 4 year vesting period (yours could have a 1 year acceleration due to your head start). |
Corporate structure for software development? | noodle: if you don't intend on selling your company, selling any part of your company, or getting funding from VCs, you sould form an LLC. its the easiest to deal with and its just a liability shield that will help protect personal assets form lawsuits, basically. it can be more if you treat it as more, but if all you want is protection from lawsuits, LLC is it.delaware is the ideal place, but if you don't live there, it'll cost you a little extra. it doesn't matter that much, it'll just be better for you if you do get sued, as delaware has the most established body of legislation on LLCs. consider a vermont LLC, also, because iirc, they are allowing purely virtual companies. |
Fair share deal between me and my cofounder | gunderson: If you don't plan to seek funding it doesn't matter what you do. If you do plan to seek funding, figure out a way to make it a 50/50 split if you are going to have a cofounder, any other arrangement will raise eyebrows and cost you time and legal fees when you try to get funding. |
Corporate structure for software development? | ScottWhigham: LLC works for me while talking to angels but, like noodle says, VC's will want the tried and true C corp.I incorporated in my home state of Texas after consulting with an atty. Don't just go for the hype or advice from these boards after this state or that state: spend the money now on an attorney to set it up right so that you don't have to spend the time and money fixing it later. |
Fair share deal between me and my cofounder | Mystalic: FAR too complex - you already sound like you're demeaning someone who is going to have co-founder as part of his title. How's it going to be three to six months from now? Are you EVER going to see him as an equal? Because if you don't, the entire project will collapse.And by the way, you'd be shocked how much of a business person you'll need even with your first idea - a person to do relations while you code, a person to do design, UI, all of that (I'm on the business side, but I've piled on a load of coding and non-coding skills to make sure I carry my weight with any web start-up). |
Suggestions for ads on videos | JacobAldridge: I checked out videomailz.com briefly - from what I can gather, you allow users to record their own video message via a webcam and send that (with a storage facility being planned). Now you want to include ads.I can see two issues - not annoying the user with the type of ad you include, and determining context.My guess is users don't want a pre-roll ad if they're sending a message (especially if it's a short message). Post roll ads need to be exciting very fast or they'll get ignored.So your best bet may be a rolling text ad beneath the video message (but formatted so it looks like the CNN ticker, part of the screen without blocking the image, if that makes sense). Other, more subtle advertising means (like product placement) won't work because you don't have control of the recording.2) Getting the context will be more difficult - unless you have the technology to analyze the video for keywords, you will need the user to give you information, which they may be reluctant to do.I would suggest making some kind of tag mandatory when they send, and being honest about why you want that information - this is a free service, your vision is to improve the effectiveness of communication, and contextual advertising is the most profitable and least intrusive way to do so. The users who like your service won't mind. |
Suggestions for ads on videos | ars: Just don't put the ad on top of the video. I hate that. It makes the video skip, and is irritating.JacobAldridge's suggestion of putting something seamlessly under the ad sounds like the best plan to me. |
Fair share deal between me and my cofounder | carl_: You're talking 65:35 of... zero right now. I'd say he gets that share if he sticks with it (meaning you stay in business) for three years.Additionally if you make this such a large pain point, then are they the correct co-founder to begin with? |
Suggestions for ads on videos | iamelgringo: IMO, broadcast TV for soccer games has had the right idea for advertising that can be co-opted for online video.Soccer game broadcasts usually play two 45 minute halves with very few breaks for commercials. So, they do a lot of banner advertising along the bottom of the screen. Sometimes it's a text crawl, sometimes it's animation. I've noticed that Google has been experimenting with this on YouTube recently.As to context sensitive advertising... that's a tough one. Probably your best bet would be tagging. But, if you know that most of your audio is going to be spoken word into a microphone, that makes your job a bit simpler. You could try running a speech recognition program on your audio stream, and then pick up repeated words from that to use as contextual ads. |
Suggestions for ads on videos | agentbleu: look into adsense for video |
Suggestions for ads on videos | jm3: check out VideoEgg.com |
How do start-ups deal with (black hat) hackers? | noodle: rule of thumb: sanitize your inputs.if you do this correctly and thoroughly, you're better off than like 70% of the web apps out there. doesn't take much time, just requires that you set up everything and remember to do it for everything from GET/POST to cookies to manipulating the DOM.edit to clarify, based on child comments:sanitizing inputs doesn't necessarily mean you apply one filter to everything. it just means that you're ensuring that what you're taking in from the app is something your code is expecting and can handle. if you're expecting a sql query or some unescaped html, you don't need to filter out the query or the html. |
How do start-ups deal with (black hat) hackers? | jm4: I think the best advice is to take a common sense approach. Do the things you would normally do to protect against things like this and don't sweat it too much. As a startup, you're a pretty small target. I doubt you'd even register on anyone's radar.It seems like the motives for a lot of these attacks involve extortion or high profile destruction. You're basically a worthless target to anyone interested in either of these.If you've put effort into protecting yourself you're making the decision to attack even more difficult for a blackhat. If it's going to require about the same effort to attack you and some larger target, chances are they'll go for the bigger fish. |
How do start-ups deal with (black hat) hackers? | modoc: Raise the barrier to entry as high as you reasonably can.If you aren't securing your servers, running a good firewall, logging a solid audit trail remotely, sanitizing your inputs, parameterizing your sql, encrypting your credit cards, and hashing your passwords, you're failing your customers. If you're doing all of that, and are consciously thinking about security as you go, you're doing alright.Frankly, if you're doing that, the benefits of attacking you usually fall below the effort required. There's plenty of sites out there with SQL injection vulnerabilities and un-encrypted credit cards in their DB. There's a million sites with giant XSS holes. If you don't have those holes, they'll leave you alone.The bigger worry at that point is dealing with a DDOS, either network level or service level. Much harder to protect against, and much easier to launch against you, and a much more measurable bottom dollar impact.Don't forget about security. I know you're cash-strapped, I know you have a million features you want to build, bugs you need to fix, etc... But put yourself in your user's shoes. They've entrusted you with their personal information and possibly their credit cards. Your highest priority is to protect that data and live up to their expectations of privacy and security. Display bugs in IE take a distant second place to that responsibility.I've dealt with a large number of attempted attacks both on my small sites, and when I worked for a Fortune 500 doing security architecture for their e-commerce sites. My stuff is usually pretty secure, and I have lots of notifications about suspicious activity giving me visibility into who's prying at the door. Thankfully no one has actually gotten in (that we're aware of) so we haven't had to respond to that, although we did have plans for that eventuality involving mostly our legal team and the FBI. Frankly other than capturing as much audit trail data as you can on a separate internal secure server to provide to the LEO, there's not much you CAN do. California has a number of notification and disclosure laws which cover a number of scenarios. Good karma probably means you should abide by those laws for your non-California customers as well.I'm happy to answer any specific security questions you might have via e-mail ([email protected]), although I'm sure there are a large number of even more qualified people than me out there. |
How do start-ups deal with (black hat) hackers? | Erwin: http://www.modsecurity.org/ can provide an additional layer of defense for your web apps. |
How do start-ups deal with (black hat) hackers? | swombat: One thing I'd say is to never underestimate the ingenuity of crackers. We had a system that had an email unsubscribe page, and under some circumstances, on a sub-screen of that, if you gave incorrect details, because it was the second step I had assumed that the user had already identified by entering their own email, so I would print out the email.A few weeks into that, my test addresses in our system started receiving the odd spam. Took me a few days, but eventually I noticed that on occasion there would suddenly be thousands of errors coming from the unsubscribe page, as they scanned through the user_id's from 1 to whatever, and I made the connection and so was able to fix that particular leak. Fortunately the spam stopped then! I guess they didn't bother to keep a list of the addresses.Even if I'd been aware of that hole, I would have thought it very unlikely that a cracker would find it and abuse it within weeks of the business launching.Anyway, so since then:* I am extra careful whenever printing out personal information, particularly valuable stuff like emails, to make sure the person has properly authenticated first.* I don't assume that crackers won't get somewhere just because it seems far-fetched. I don't know what tools they use, or whether it's just being observant, but they're pretty good at finding holes, and quickly too. |
How do start-ups deal with (black hat) hackers? | rdj: That's just my game.First, you have to be purpose driven in your start-up. Everything you do has to have a purpose, security included. So, ask yourself what needs securing and why. Will an attack cripple your finances, reputation or maybe something else? Once you know what you are protecting and why, you can then make a better decision regarding the options available for protecting that resource. You then have to balance your needs: is it more important to pay (in time or money) for a new widget or business thing or do you need to devote that resource to security first.Now to the more high-level stuff you asked. 1) Yes you will be attacked but the sophistication will vary depending on the attacker and their purpose. 2) You will probably survive, just a little bruised but smarter for the experience.I have worked with large and small banks before, during and after attacks (different banks, at different phases). Some of the attacks were very well targeted and sophisticated. However, all of these banks are still opening and managing financial accounts. However, they cannot ignore the problem and assume it will always turn out that way. |
How do start-ups deal with (black hat) hackers? | simonw: A decent server-side programming environment will provide protection against SQL injection by default - if you're using a database library that requires you to glue strings together and escape arguments manually, stop using that and use something that does safe parameter replacement (you can write a function to do that in about three lines of PHP, for example).XSS is pretty easy too - use a template mechanism that escapes all output by default. Django has thankfully been doing that for quite a while now; I think there are Rails plugins that will do it too.CSRF is the scary one, mainly because most developers still don't know what it is or how it works. Look it up online and spend some time implementing a decent mechanism for adding hidden tokens to your forms that are derived from your user's cookies. Django has CSRF middleware but it's a bit of a cludge; Rails has a pretty good solution for this as far as I know. |
How do start-ups deal with (black hat) hackers? | SwellJoe: The vast majority of security issues we see (and we see a lot of them--systems management has been how I make my living for about ten years, likewise for my co-founder) are not related to web apps at all. They come from basic misunderstandings of the underlying system and the software that runs their services.So, here's the first three recommendations I make to pretty much everyone concerned about security (which should be everyone with a machine connected to the Internet):1. Use strong passwords. A strong password is 8+ characters long, has numbers, letters and optionally symbols. A strong password is changed every year or so. A strong password does not contain dictionary words.2. Update your software. If you use Linux, use one that has good package management and a long lifecycle so that packages are easy to install and will be available for the three+ years that the average server is in service. CentOS/RHEL and Debian are the only ones I really trust on servers. Ubuntu LTS releases will do, in a pinch. If your system does not make it really easy to do this, then you need a better OS. Imagine the worst possible time for a security problem to show up--you're at the beach with no WiFi for miles and all you can do is call someone to walk them through the process--and if that sounds scary, then you've got a problem. It's pretty easy to say, "OK, login to the system using PuTTY (or better, Webmin, but I won't demand that everyone run our software) and type 'yum update httpd'", or 'apt-get install apache2', if it's a Debian system. But imagine, "OK, go to Apache.org, and click on the download link...oh, wait, click on HTTP Server, and then click on download. Now download the latest one. No, not to your local machine...download it to the server. Use wget. Yeah. Type wget and paste the link from the Apache website. OK, now untar it. No, type in 'tar zxvf blah-blah-blah'. OK, look for the previous Apache version directory, because we need to copy the default configuration over. I don't remember what it's called..." etc. Careful with stuff installed from sources other than native packages is what I'm saying here. You'll have to do it for a few things, obviously, and your own app will probably be in SVN or git, but don't make it a habit to get everything from non-standard sources. It's just a security disaster waiting to happen.3. Don't run unneeded services. If you don't know what it is, google it. If you don't need it, turn it off. If it exposes a port to the Internet, keep a very close eye on updates for that service. CentOS/RHEL and Debian usually roll out security fixes within hours of exploits being discovered...this is usually good enough. If your database doesn't need a public port, run it on localhost. If you do have a separate database server, see if your host can give you a private network for your web servers and backend database(s). Some won't even charge extra for private connections between multiple boxes in the same data center (though most will charge a few bucks). If they're not on the same physical segment, this generally won't be possible, though.This is the low-hanging fruit, and should be standard practice for pretty much everybody with servers to manage. |
Good finance books? | nostrademons: Have you checked out Investopedia?http://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/dilutedeps.aspThey hyperlink to all the related terms too. Probably the easiest way to get around financial terminology. |
Good finance books? | sebg: Here's what I did in the past when I encountered the same situation:1. Looked up what reports a company has to file. The key one I liked is 10-Q.10-Q: (from investopedia) A comprehensive report of a company's performance that must be submitted quarterly by all public companies to the Securities and Exchange Commission. In the 10-Q, firms are required to disclose relevant information regarding their financial position. The form must be submitted on time, and the information should be available to all interested parties.2. Look up your favorite public companies 10-Q. For me: Google's 10-Q filing => http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1288776/0001193125072...3. Get a book like Brealey, R., and S. C. Myers. Principles of Corporate Finance. 7th ed. Irvin McGraw-Hill.4. Using 10-Q, book, and google, go through each line of the financial statement to figure out what it means.5. For some insight and wisdom, look at Warren Buffet's letters to investors. => http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/letters.htmlenjoy! |
How do you know if you're becoming a better hacker? | bootload: "... How do you know if you're becoming a better hacker? ..."Maybe this article (Great Hackers: Recognition) might help ~ http://www.paulgraham.com/gh.html |
How do you know if you're becoming a better hacker? | pmorici: Beware the Dunning-Kruger effect |
Best way(s) to teach someone else to program, person to person. | ScottWhigham: I have tons of classroom training experience and tons of video training experience. On those rare days when 1-2 people would show up for training, I found myself in that situation and it's tough for the trainer. 1v1 - what I would suggest is that follow a timeline. What can happen is that the trainee can get stuck on one item (big or small, doesn't matter) and then you find yourself spending 2 hours explaining what a classroom would spend 10 minutes on. People tend to get frustrated and think that asking 100 questions is the best way to learn. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. Sometimes "64 Questions" just leads you into an area that the user isn't ready to go - no matter if they think they are or not.So pick a timeline, agree in advance that, "If you get stuck on something, we'll try to work it out but we must make it through this section by 3:00PM today no matter what."2nd piece of advice - don't let them ask so many questions that they take you off topic or into areas that your timeline has you covering later. "We're going to cover that in a bit..."Training is an area in which the trainee can make or break the experience. A trainee that lets you be their guide will learn from a good trainer but a trainee that tries to wrestle control from even a great trainer will not learn much. |
How do you know if you're becoming a better hacker? | ScottWhigham: This strikes me as just a weird question; one of those, "What kind of person asks that question?" type of questions (and I mean no offense by that lol).It's like asking, "Am I pretty/handsome?" Well, do people tell you that you are? Do you notice people that you think are pretty/handsome staring at you? If so, there's a chance you are. |
Best way(s) to teach someone else to program, person to person. | raquo: I was tought PHP that way (I only used to program in Delphi before a bit). Initially, I read the basic parts of the PHP manual (about syntax, etc), then we and my friend (a PHP master) sat for about 5 hours and wrote code that did a lot of different stuff - cycles, regexps, reading files, basic XML parsing, etc. Of course I forgot it all in the next several hours, but I later often returned to it to see how to do various stuff (we commented the code generously). Useful, especially given the lack of examples for some topics in the PHP manual. Although this is probably not the kind of teaching you meant... |
What books can I use to help teach my girlfriend Lisp? | raju: There are some good beginner books on Lisp, and there have been several discussions before. Two books come to my mind, PCL and "Gentle Introduction to Symbolic Computation", both for the Lisp beginner. I have read most of PCL and really liked it. I have just begun to read Gentle Introduction to Symbolic Computation and so far, am really liking it. Both are freely available on the net, so you have nothing to lose to try them out.PCL - http://gigamonkeys.com/book/
Gentle Intro to Sym Comp - http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/LispBook/index.htmlReference links -http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=125766http://www.pchristensen.com/blog/articles/how-to-learn-lisp/Hope this helps. Good luck! |
Best way(s) to teach someone else to program, person to person. | aasarava: I've done this a few times (C++, PHP, HTML, CSS, etc.) and it seems to work best when you treat it as if you're teaching someone to drive a car: Both of you are sitting side by side in front of the same computer, with the trainee driving.First, I like to show the person some feature in the program or Web site, like say a popup window. Then I show them the code for that window. Then I show them how to modify different components by adjusting variables and so on, so that they get the feel for where all the moving parts are and see how their changes directly affect the popup window.Then, I have them write a basic function that does the same thing, but this time from scratch. Once we go over what worked and didn't and debug the code and get things working, we move on to a second function or construct.Ultimately, the goal is to start small and continue expanding from there, kind of like having the trainee drive around a parking lot, then city streets, then the freeway.Most importantly, I find that the key is to keep building on the same code, and helping the trainee see their program grow into something useful -- as opposed to simply showing them one construct in the abstract and then another and then another, without tying them together in any way. |
What books can I use to help teach my girlfriend Lisp? | vikram: SICP is a good introduction book. It is fairly deep too. The goal of little lisper is to make you understand recursion. If she gets that then she can get into SICP. |
Propagating configuration changes to multiple servers | Tichy: Maybe puppet and capistrano are for that kind of thing? Haven't tried it myself yet. |
Propagating configuration changes to multiple servers | makecheck: I believe cfengine is used for this where I work (http://www.gnu.org/software/cfengine/). |
Anyone going to Facebook f8 today? | lyime: people who are not can watch the stream here http://www.visualwebcaster.com/Facebook/50038/reg.html |
Hackers on Poetry | brk: Do you like use warnings and strict?I do not like use warnings and strict.Do you like them here or there?I do not like them here or there?I do not like them anywhere.I do not like use warnings and strict.I will not obey your good coding practice edict.Could you, would you in your code?Would you, could you in your PerlMonks node?I could not, would not in my code.I would not, could not in my node.Not in my program.Not in my script.Not a one-liner.Not with shebang.Say! At night?Would you, could you at night?Not at night.Not in the mornings.I do not use strict and warnings!If you do not use warnings and strict.Then upon your code bugs you'll inflict.I will not use warnings and strict.My freedom of coding style they will restrict.I am too Lazy to declare with my.I do not need it; I'll get by.You do not like them.So you say.Try them! Try them!And you may.Try them and you may, I say.If you will let me be,I will try them.You will see. The stubborn hacker finally relents to trying them.
Say, I like warnings and strict!I do! I like them a little bit.I will use them in my code.And I will use them in my node.And in my programs.And in my scripts.warnings and strict are right for me.They are so good, so good, you see.(not my writing, just something that fits your request) |
Hackers on Poetry | mellowgeek: http://members.tripod.com/~Sprayberry/poems/howl.txt |
Hackers on Poetry | bayareaguy: Aristotle, by Billy Collins
http://members.cox.net/mppowers1/aristotle.html |
Hackers on Poetry | unalone: Why would you memorize poetry? Just curious.One of my favorites: http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/57.html |
Hackers on Poetry | sharp: True ease of writing comes from art, not chance;
As he moves best who learns the steps of dance;
'Tis not enough no harshness cause offence;
The sound must seem an echo of the sense.
Alexander Pope, early hacker & investor (in the south sea bubble) |
Are Frameworks the Way to Go? | parenthesis: If you like Python, you might want to consider web.py too:
http://webpy.org/ |
Are Frameworks the Way to Go? | mechanical_fish: It all depends on what you're trying to build.If your application fits well into (e.g.) Drupal or Wordpress it might not make sense to reinvent those wheels.If you're mostly trying to educate yourself Ruby or Python will be great. Building tiny sites or individual modules without a framework is educational, but, yes, generally people gravitate toward frameworks or modular systems once they need productivity. |
Are Frameworks the Way to Go? | edw519: You answered your own question when you said, "both languages are new to me".Then you should not be using a framework just yet.Sure, a framework may speed your app along, but at what cost? At this point, you should be more concerned with getting a solid grounding in your technology of choice. That means coding as close to native mode as possible.Once you have spent time "in the trenches" and even "suffered" a little, you'll have a much clearer picture of exactly why you may need a framework. Then you'll be in a much better position to evaluate which one is best for you.In the meantime, have as much fun as you can. |
Are Frameworks the Way to Go? | richcollins: In my opinion, you should only use a framework if you have a deep understanding of how it will benefit the specific problem you are trying to solve.Good frameworks have a sweet spot. If you are outside of the sweet spot, then you will probably be better served writing code specific to your application. When you write your own solution for your specific problem, it is almost always smaller, faster and more flexible.Bad frameworks try to be everything to everyone. Don't even consider a bloated, "general" solution. |
Is credit necessary and how/where do you bank? | amberb617: Adolescents tend to make tons of mistakes when it comes to credit and taking out loans - I say that you should take it as it comes and only acquire one if it is of absolute need.For now, just spend the little money you have. It makes life simpler and you don't have to worry about drowning in debt. |
Is credit necessary and how/where do you bank? | ericwaller: Good credit is important for everyone, but especially so for entrepreneurs.I didn't realize this until my application for Web Payments Pro (on behalf of a newly formed corporation) was rejected by Paypal. Since the corporation had no credit yet, my credit had to be approved. As far as the credit reporting agencies were concerned, I didn't even exist.If you plan on applying for business-related loans, you will definitely need good credit. And my understanding is that credit reporting lags by at least a year so get started building credit asap. |
Is credit necessary and how/where do you bank? | noodle: credit is necessary if you have plans to ever get anything with a loan, such as a car or house or, as you say, entrepreneurial purposes. people won't give you money if you don't have a history of being responsible enough to pay it off. its also good to have a line of credit for emergencies.get a card, use it to buy small things on occasion, and pay it off in full every month.edit:
oh, also, i bank with bank of america and hsbc. hsbc for the high yield online savings and payment accounts, bank of america for the size, checking, and potential perks coming from establishing a long line of credit with a big bank |
Is credit necessary and how/where do you bank? | brk: In your case being that you don't want to overspend, this is more about convenience than credit, with the side benefit that you will build up a good credit score just by acting naturally.I put almost all my charges on my credit card. From a $1.50 bottle of soda to a $100 tank of gas. The bill of course gets paid in full every month. Using the card means I don't have to carry a bunch of case, and I'm afforded some minor degree of security should my wallet get lost/stolen/misplaced as compared to cash. I also get to "keep" my money an extra 30 days to earn a trivial amount of interest.It's good for you to be thinking about these things, but getting a credit card is not a life-altering decision, it's just a normal thing like getting a cell phone or a pair of shows. How you use the card, and put it to work for YOU, it what makes all the difference. |