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How can a 19-year-old find web programming work? | samratjp: Remember, there are federal (some called stafford I think?) loans that are interest-free during the entire time you are in school (this includes grad school). You also get a grace period of about half a year after graduation to start paying them back.I bet you will find plenty of work-study ops in college with your skill set. College is a great time to witness how much so many things are broke and understand people's pain points - if you are observant enough, you will more than survive.So, go to school, start applying for good internships starting in the fall. Regardless of what you do, go forth and network like it's your birthday party. |
Any HN readers want to share what their Eagle Scout project was? | derwiki: I got my Eagle around 2000 when a bunch of local companies were tossing their old computers because of Y2K. I led a group of scouts and students to refurbish them and give them to the local schools. We got about 50 computers placed, ranging from 386s up to a rare few P2-266s. Most of them were internet ready (at least that was the goal) but we're pretty bare other than that. I can't remember for sure, but I think they all went to classrooms that didn't have computers newer than Apple IIs (including my preschool, where I first used a computer).In retrospect, I learned a lot about managing a project -- more than anything else I could imagine doing at 15, short of starting a company. |
Best Ruby News Sites? | gtani: these are pretty good at-a-glance type page viewshttp://ruby.alltop.com/http://www.reddit.com/r/rubyhttp://searchyc.com/ruby?sort=by_date |
What's the best way to get started with Vi(m) | derwiki: Type `vimtutor` on your command line and hit enter. |
What's the best way to get started with Vi(m) | mbenjaminsmith: Assuming you're on Mac you'll need to set up a decent .vimrc to enable syntax highlighting, indentation and some other bits. Vim is a different beast depending on how it's set up.The built in tutorial is a decent place to start. I think that's the only thing I did apart from editing code. It takes a while to get over the hump but it's worth it.I also suggest remapping your CAPS LOCK key to ESC. PCKeyboard Hack is free and simple to set up for that purpose. I've never liked the role of ESC in vi. It's too far away from the home keys.If you learn to love the efficiency, I'd suggest looking at Komodo Edit or another editor that has vim key mappings. I prefer Komodo because it's vim plus code completion (I'm not aware of a vim solution for that) and a bunch of other bits that will save time. |
What's the best way to get started with Vi(m) | samratjp: I switch between vim and textmate. My favorite textmate/vim feature is column select - in vim, its ctrl+v (http://sethmason.com/2007/09/27/vim-tip-select-column.html) in textmate it's option+click.Also, fwiw, Macvim may help retain vim usage. |
What's the best way to get started with Vi(m) | andrewljohnson: Type this into your terminal: emacs |
What's the best way to get started with Vi(m) | samdk: I think with something like Vim it's best to get a grasp on the very basics (saving/opening documents, moving into and out of insert mode, navigating with hjkl) and then add one of two things at a time as you get comfortable with those. If you try to do everything at once you just end up getting overwhelmed.I didn't really start to like Vim until I started playing around with my .vimrc file. There were too many minor irritants and things I wanted changed. An Ask HN on the subject came in very handy: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=856051Mine (along with a few other minor customizations) is at http://github.com/samdk/vimconf/blob/master/dotvimrc if you'd like to take a look.Some other good resources:
http://dotfiles.org/.vimrc
http://www.vi-improved.org/vimrc.php |
What's the best way to get started with Vi(m) | jraines: Check out vimcasts.org. The guy who makes them even occasionally refers to how to do things in vim that he likes in TextMate. |
What's the best way to get started with Vi(m) | markkoberlein: This is the cheat sheet that I used to get started:
http://home.uchicago.edu/~gan/file/vim.pdfLearn the basics first:1. Basic movement (h l k j)2. Insertion mode (i), deletion (x), selections/visual Mode (v), copying/yank (y), pasting/put (p), and exit insertion mode (esc)Once you learn those the rest is pretty easy to pick up.I should warn you though, once you get used to the key commands it's hard to go back to another editor. |
What's the best way to get started with Vi(m) | philwelch: Attach this to a visible surface near your desk: http://r00tsecurity.org/db/cheat-sheets/SOFTWARE/Vi/vi-vim-c... |
What's the best way to get started with Vi(m) | yesimahuman: IMO the only thing you can do is to start writing real code and force yourself to use it. Honestly, the vim help stuff was almost useless to me at first because I would forget it as soon as I learned it, since I didn't understand the vi mindset.You will notice a big drop in productivity at first, but hopefully you should notice yourself getting faster in a week or so. |
How to follow up on promising investment leads? | joubert: If you're not quite ready to take investment, I would send a quick thank you note. They will remember you; when you know what you want from investors you can then reach out more formally. http://web.archive.org/web/20070406175803/blog.guykawasaki.c... |
What's the best way to get started with Vi(m) | nose: You can borrow my vim cheat sheet tomorrow. |
What's the best way to get started with Vi(m) | th: To become a vim power user, you will really need to understand how and why vim works the way it does and how you should think about editing while using vim. Once you have gone through some of the great tutorials on basic vim usage take a look at these:Stay out of insert mode: http://cloudhead.io/2010/04/24/staying-the-hell-out-of-inser...Good explanation of how vim commands are actually formulated (Stack Overflow answer): http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1218390/what-is-your-most... |
What's the best way to get started with Vi(m) | pmccool: As a long time vim user, I have to ask: what's the appeal?I use it because I already knew vi, and I knew vi because it was the one editor I could be confident of finding on any UNIX box.I'm curious: what's the motivation for learning it from scratch? |
What's the best way to get started with Vi(m) | icco: I just started using it do code everything I do. Found other coders I know through IRC that know how to use it, and we traded tips. Over time I found my self becoming more and more efficient with it. vimtutor, as mentioned in other comments also works really well. |
What's the best way to get started with Vi(m) | ppereira: I started by learning ed from "The Unix Programming Environment", and then vi. By tackling vim directly, you may get swamped in the details. |
Could you please help me appreciate OS X more? | shadowz: Quicksilver, with its magical plugins, will save you tones of time. I also have a mouse with many functions (hooray for Logitech), so I tend to bind those to Exposé. |
What's the best way to get started with Vi(m) | heresy: I learned Vim inside and out because it was the only Linux console editor at the time that did syntax highlighting, and it kind of stuck.Also, working in 80x50 with only the editor open for a couple of months kind of gets you into the mode :) |
What's the best way to get started with Vi(m) | saurabh: The way I learn to use my tools is I start customizing them, thereby understanding how they work, how others use them and how I can utilize them. Look for .vimrc's of other hackers. I learn't many things just from the dotfiles. |
What's the best way to get started with Vi(m) | pkrumins: Start with hjkl and see where it takes you. :) |
Where are the WebGL JS game engines? | Scaevolus: They're waiting for widespread availability of WebGL.Right now it's only available in Firefox or Safari nightlies and Chrome with command-line options. |
What's the best way to get started with Vi(m) | jng: This was my best answer to the question, written 4 years ago, hope it helps:http://www.viemu.com/a_vi_vim_graphical_cheat_sheet_tutorial...I also prepare this write up answering "Why vi?":http://www.viemu.com/a-why-vi-vim.htmlThey've been on the HN front page a few times, too. |
What's the best way to get started with Vi(m) | wrinklz: Use the Vimperator firefox plugin, so you can exercise your Vim muscles while you browse the internet. |
What's the best way to get started with Vi(m) | ananthrk: In addition to all the excellent suggestions here, I will also suggest reading the free book "A Byte of Vim" (http://www.swaroopch.com/notes/Vim_en:Table_of_Contents).This is how the book introduces itself:"A Byte of Vim" is a book which aims to help you to learn how to use the Vim editor (version 7), even if all you know is how to use the computer keyboard.The first part of this book is meant for new users who want to understand what Vim is and learn how to use it.The second part of this book is for people who already know how to use Vim and want to learn about features that make Vim so powerful, such as windows and tabs, personal information management, making it a programmer's editor, how to extend Vim with your own plugins, and more. |
Memresistor CPUs | joshu: Memristor, not memresistor.Memristors are a fundamental component, analagous to resistors, capacitors, and inductors.You probably wouldn't notice the difference, as computers work at a different abstraction level. |
Where To Find Design Founders | puredemo: Seriously! Luckily, I am in a relationship with an excellent one. whewIf you are only looking for college students the search will have a pretty limited scope, won't it? Isn't there a design club on campus? |
Memresistor CPUs | drivebyacct: I don't understand why your post implies that compilers produce... what? schematics of capacitors, resistors and inductors? |
Are you an information addict? | blados: My problem is I read a lot, I am open mind to a very wide variety of subjects. I like reading and I know I am not alone with that, here on HN. The main question is: do you use those information somewhere else or it just sticks in your brain for some later usage? Even if I am focused only on information that I am intrested with it is _too__much_ to gather everything. So, filtering. Still too much. Maybe it's time to switch internet off? There will be always something interesting to read/watch/listen but what will you do on blackout? |
Anyone else need to stop and smell the roses? | sgt: I always say... it's better to be too busy doing what you love than to have too little to do. |
File browsing with xmonad in Ubuntu? | khingebjerg: You could use Thunar, it's lightweight and fast. |
What's the best way to get started with Vi(m) | ZeroGravitas: I found that being a touch-typist helped, since the concept of vim is to have your hands on the home row using letter keys rather than arrows or mice. (I happened to learn Dvorak but I'm sure Qwerty would have a similar impact on getting the most out of vim). Plus it's a transferable and generally recommended skill for programmers. |
Could you please help me appreciate OS X more? | mark_l_watson: Two comments: I think that the OmniGraffle and TexShop applications justify keeping an old Mac around. Excellent. Also, Macbooks run Ubuntu very well, especially models that are not brand new. I strongly recommend a dual boot OS X/Ubuntu setup: covers all the bases. That said, the Macbook could be a cheap used one, and spend your budget on a very fast i5 or i7 Windows/Ubuntu laptop. |
Diplomacy Tips | sfdhgdg: Looks to me like you've already tried diplomacy, and it's failed. |
Diplomacy Tips | hga: Actually, it seems to me that you have a very good mind for business, in that you understand enough about it to do the right things for your domain of programming. I.e. you:Got concrete details on the proposed setup and insisted on getting them locked down on paper.Didn't do very much work (a couple of weeks) before failure to do the above and an unnegotiated adverse revision of your position plus other warning signs prompted you to cease work.Kept total control of the work you've done.Anyway, at this point, it doesn't seem like the startup is viable unless and until the "founders" are pared down to a smaller set who grok reality (like the importance of what you or any technical people are doing and the fact that they have nothing without that) and who are actually willing to put work into the venture.If there aren't any who do, then it's time to cut your losses; make your excuses and offer them the code for a suitable price (not that this will get them funded by anyone who has a clue, the latter will of course want to talk to you etc.). |
Where did your most passionate users come from? | imp: I've had success with domain-specific forums. If your product really is something that people can get passionate about and you present your website in a non-spammy way, there's a chance that you'll get initial traffic and then eventually the members will spread the word about your site to other forums they're members of.For your project, I would suggest having a no-signup live demo that they can use right away. No one will get passionate about a landing page. That might be useful for gaging interest and collecting emails, but if you can't solve someone's problem on their first visit (or at least make it clear how you could) then it's going to be hard to turn them into a passionate user. |
Diplomacy Tips | seven: As already mentioned, you tried diplomacy and it failed.Do you trust this guys? I mean, do they act like they do because of malice or stupidity?In case it is not much additional work, give them the demo without access to the source. This way you are still in the game and they are under pressure to work _with_ you in case the investor likes your stuff. |
Where To Find Design Founders | megamark16: Man, I'm in the same boat, and I work with some great designers, I just get the impression that they'd rather be doing cool designy stuff than get involved with a boring business oriented app. :-( |
What's the best way to get started with Vi(m) | genieyclo: I'm surprised no one has mentioned Derek Wyatt's excellent series of videos.See his blog page with links to his videos: http://www.derekwyatt.org/vim/vim-tutorial-videos/vim-novice...Or go to his Vimeo page where they all sit: http://vimeo.com/user1690209 |
Could you please help me appreciate OS X more? | dmlorenzetti: First off, I think if you're not getting it, then that's OK and you shouldn't worry too much. I made a similar few attempts to love Linux, but while I could get along OK, I never came to feel at home there.A lot of it is, I think, personal preference. Part of what I like about OSX is just the general logic by which everything hangs together-- but I wouldn't try to convince somebody who likes the way Windows is set up that they're "wrong."That said, here are a number of specific things I like about OSX.As a developer, I really like the integration between the command line and the GUI. Examples: (1) Command "open <thing>" equivalent to double-clicking <thing>. (2) Commands pbcopy and pbpaste move information to and from system-wide pasteboard. (3) Drag-and-drop an icon onto the Terminal window fills in its path. (4) Standard copy and paste keyboard commands work in Terminal.As a person who just has to use a lot of software, I like a number of other things. The wide standardization of key bindings across apps means very short learning curve to get competent, and no mental remapping when jumping between apps.Furthermore, I'm required to run MS Office for work, and I like the fact that it's no more painful than on a PC.I guess overall, I would say that OSX gives me the feeling of control that Linux promises, without the feeling of needing to become an expert in everything that Linux often imposed on me. |
is there a Twitter hashtag reach vanity metric? | uuid: Doing the math roughly is actually easy.
Every tweet that doesn't come from search endpoints has the user details inline. The user details include the number of followers.So just consume the filter streaming api with your chosen hashtag. You will get all the tweets, or at least some and a measure of how many you missed (limit notices).For every new user in said stream, add the number of her followers.It's so easy you could write the code in the length of this comment. Of course, if you want to avoid counting duplicate followers, you'd have to do an average of 1-2 additional calls per user. |
Where To Find Design Founders | proexploit: Is this a common problem among technical founders? As a designer, I've often had the opposite problem. |
Could you please help me appreciate OS X more? | Magneus: If you already use Vim or Emacs, I don't think you'll be blown away by TextMate. If you're coming from a lesser editor, definitely jump on it.If you're missing a package manager, there's MacPorts. I've heard that HomeBrew is a good alternative, but have no personal experience with it.If you're missing GNOME Do, or any of those command launcher programs, I recommend Quicksilver.For a better terminal emulator than Terminal.app, there are a few options out there. I use iTerm. It supports 256-color and a bunch of other goodies.Also, DTerm lets you open a terminal in the current working directory, based on the context of the currently active program. |
Experiences Programming Outside of Tech? | hernan7: He forgot about finance for some reason :-\ |
Is this a new HN feature? | wmf: It's probably a new feature; pg has been optimizing the code to make /threads and /saved much faster. |
Keeping track of the business rules | briandoll: Attempting to keep track of business rules in a system other than your code base will cause more problems than it will solve, and it will _always_ be out of date.Every business of a certain age has more business rules than any one person can keep in their head at one time. These rules manifest themselves in your code. They are the business rules. Everyone has their own opinion on what the rules are, but the developers know the answers are in the code, not in our foggy memory.Now that we know what business rules are and where we keep them, we need to think about how we organize them. Instead of a business problem, we have a technical problem. Organizing 'business rules' becomes organizing software. This is a well-worn field, so you'll find lots of good advice on domain-driven design and the organization of software (object-oriented or otherwise).A related software principal here is 'tell, don't ask' (http://pragprog.com/articles/tell-dont-ask). This is especially important in environments with lots of conditional rules, which must be considered at various times. |
How would you build the perfect team? | jcapote: I happen to agree with Fred Brooks stance on the matter, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month#The_surg... |
Is this a new HN feature? | jamesbressi: I believe it is a new feature along with some other subtle things like your profile (if you happened to look at it recently). |
How would you build the perfect team? | lisp123: The ideal time comprises 3 ninjas, 2 rockstars, and a level 10 archmage. |
Question about Google Tracking Disparities | byoung2: Hubpage visitor count will be higher because it counts requests on the server side, including page views where the user had Javascript disabled, or left the page before the Google trackpageview event fired.Google Analytics should accurately count visitors who have Javascript enabled, which is a subset of all users. Even then, sometimes Analytics loads, but the trackpageview event might not fire before the visitor leaves the page (sometimes this results in a 0:00 time on site, if the pageview is counted, but the timer event doesn't fire).Adsense pageviews are usually equal to the number of Analytics pageviews times the number of ad units on the page. So if you have 50 Analytics pageviews, and one ad per page, you will get 50 Adsense page views. In your case, Hubpages randomly selects to show either your Adsense code or theirs, so you have 25 Adsense pageviews (and Hubpages has the other 25). That's Hubpages' revenue sharing model, as described here:
http://hubpages.com/hub/Does-hubpages-take-a-percentage-of-m... |
What's a PC (for Linux) laptop that doesn't suck right now? | blangblang: Lenovo T410s come standard with matte, LED-backlit screens. |
Memresistor CPUs | DennisP: Memristors can function as both transistors and storage, so we could end up with a lot less concern about cache misses.They can also mimic the function of neural synapses, so a neural net coprocessor is a possibility. |
Experiences Programming Outside of Tech? | johngalt: Cross out respected. |
Anyone else need to stop and smell the roses? | megamark16: Lets see, stop and smell the roses, I think I've got a user story for that somewhere...I'll move it up in priority, but it'll still be sometime in late May before it gets into a sprint. |
Recommemd an HTML CSS editor for an 8 year-old Girl? | si2: give her Coda. Its fantastic for beginners! It will break down the CSS file visually so you can pick out each element you create. It also allows her to see all of the options she can implement and allows her to implement them without code, and then look at the code that was generated., AND it has a CSS book built right in. (plus others.) I started with Coda, and then switched to textMate once I felt proficient. good luck.. maybe teach her microWorlds.. |
What's the best way to get started with Vi(m) | 687: http://vim.runpaint.org/ and seconding Vim wiki (http://vim.wikia.com/) |
Could you please help me appreciate OS X more? | foljs: Some apps and stuff:Coda or Espresso, (html IDEs)
Adobe Creative Suite, ('nuff said if working with Bitmaps, Flash, Vectors et al)
Terminal.app, (CLI love)
UNIX (tm), (a full blown unix under the hoods)
CSSEdit, (css editing)
TextMate or BBEdit, (programmers' editor)
Scrivener, (writers' editor)
Navicat, (MySQL admin)
MAMP and MAMP Pro (Mac, Apache, MySQL, PHP stack),
MacPorts (app repository),
Vim, Emacs, MySQL, Postgresql, Python, Ruby et al (familiar unixy apps),
Automator (task automation),
Omnigraffle (graphs),
sips (CLI image editing),
Pixelmator (image editing),
Transmit 4, (ftp client)
Little Snitch, (application firewall)Just google for the above... |
Is there a PC equivalent to Skitch? | mschaecher: I use SnagIt for screen capturing on my PC and I love. It provides basic capture editing as well. |
Best, Safest Interest-Free Ways of Investing 100k? | ozres1: Given your restriction, I'd say stocks. But stocks are inherently risky. And unless you're willing to put in the effort, I'd recommend you stay away.Further, many companies have cash and some of it will be earning interest. They will also hold bonds of sorts which would also be earn interest. They may raise money in the bond market which would require the company to pay interest. This would severely restrict the amount of companies you can invest in.Mutual funds typically don't do very well, not when consideration is given for their fees and their performance benchmarked to the S&P.I would buy commodities like gold and silver except that they're at an all time high. And what your timeframe here is important. |
Can someone explain how Groupon works? | vincentchan: You can check out this that we have few days ago:http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1282627 |
Any entrepreneurs and/or engineers living with ADHD? | realitygrill: I have been diagnosed with Type A in college, and I've got that hyperfocus ability at times. Medication didn't really help me so I stopped. However I recently learned I have Convergence Insufficiency, which can cause you to look as if you're ADHD. So now I don't know. |
Bother them or not? | adrianwaj: There might be others that want it just as bad as you. I'd just sit tight (unless you omitted something major from your application.) If you get rejected, then tell them how much you wanted it, and ask them to consider you down the line, and what you could do to make yourself more hirable. |
Improving my service and client interaction as a freelance developer? | _neil: You could get a Basecamp account and manage your milestones that way.I made an app that let's me post private status updates while I'm working. It's like having an imaginary project manager to keep me motivated. It also makes it a little easier to report updates to clients. |
How would you build the perfect team? | adrianwaj: Go out and meet people. Ask them what they would want in a startup, and see if you can cater to their needs in your own. Ask them what they'd ideally like to be working on. Ask for referrals to others. Try and get everyone doing what they want to be doing and personalities won't matter as much. Better if you can laugh at their jokes. |
Can someone explain how Groupon works? | csmeder: it makes sense for companies that hope to create repeat customers. Many fitness places love Groupon for this reason.Or for companies that have huge mark up because they can't improve numbers with lower prices. |
Experiences Programming Outside of Tech? | tom_b: I've worked in enterprise software dev and testing, a big financial corp, on a small bioinformatic data export contract project, and now in a bioinformatics group in a pure research setting where the focus is on the science and not on programming except as a support to the science.I strongly believe that deep tech skills with extensive domain specific knowledge is the most valuable combo in all those environments. If you can quickly soak up domain specific knowledge as even an average developer, you're going to be well respected and thought of. I'm not great at this part, but do well simply by having reasonable communication skills - it's flat out amazing how many tech folks fail based on bad people skills.Honestly though, I think expectations are so low, so often that people are completely willing to put up with really low quality results if they can simply pay bottom dollar for coders. This ties in with organization culture in any of those environments - it will far and away be the dominant factor in your ability to be successful programming. If the culture is restrictive or narrow-minded, you'll struggle.Maybe Zed is trying to drive home that there is lot of headcount floating around in tech companies with a job title that would lead you to think they were doing a bunch of development, but they amount to magic TPF report generators. The other option, and one that I love stumbling into, is that there are some tremendously smart people in those fields he mentions who have taught themselves to code to do cool hacking in the field. I find that as an "officially credentialed" CS type, many of these people have picked up a significant amount of what I spent more than a few years in formal education pursuing. |
Experiences Programming Outside of Tech? | starkfist: I used to work in bioinformatics and got paid less and worked with worse engineers on more tedious problems than when I worked at a pure tech company. I don't know if I was respected. It was one of the few jobs where the level of Asperger's syndrome increased as one went up the management chain. I don't think my boss, a PhD/MD, really ever remembered my name or what I was supposed to be working on, or that it registered that I was a human being. I'm not sure if he considered himself a human being. Mostly it sucked.When I was very young I made the website for an alternative newspaper (like the Village Voice) and they thought I was a cool whiz kid. The kinda hot and MILFy single mom secretary always came onto me at the company drinking outings. Maybe that's what Zed means? |
How would you build the perfect team? | tom_b: Your "not specific to a domain" part scares me. I currently work with two extremely talented people with completely different backgrounds - one is a top-notch, get it done engineer, the other a smart startup minded person who has a MBA (don't worry, I tease him mercilessly).I specifically picked these two from my personal network based on the skills I needed for my current effort. The top-notch engineer could work with minimal spec and teach herself tech as needed for web apps (I had her move from Java/J2ee to RoR and completely assumed she'd crank it out, result=homerun), the MBA guy had real tech skills but possesses a real (and non-slimy) way of interacting with our users that engenders trust and commitment (and people in our environment are now recovering from a period of plain dislike for working with our group).Neither would have made sense if I was building a team to write graphics drivers.I guess the answer is something I alluded to - personal network. |
Bother them or not? | ismarc: I would suggest a follow-up email. I always remember the answer to a question, or realize a bug in some whiteboarded code, etc. It's also polite to thank them for their time...interviewing someone took time out of their day. I typically do it within 1-2 weeks and try to work in something that likely would be memorable from the interview (not a "remember me, I was the guy whose battery died" and more "since that blunder of my laptop dying during the interview, I've started carrying a spare battery!"). There's no feeling of obligation for them to respond, but puts you back in the forefront of their mind, shares some more of your personality and can lead to a follow-up interview/discussion.That being said, I've only had one interview not result in a job offer of some sort (I've had some offers for contract work where I didn't get the full-time offer I consider successes) and I'm confident that had I been local and done an in-person interview I would have done much better (was my first remote/on the phone interview, and I imagine it must have been painful for the interviewer). When interviewing people, if they were good, I'm elated to see the follow-up. If they weren't, I dread it since it means I really need to start writing up rejection responses. What's the worst that'll happen, not getting the job? |
How can a 19-year-old find web programming work? | bbastian: Hmm. This is rather difficult. I'm under a lot of pressure from my parents to move out of the house and support myself. However, I have no experience doing anything else. I've applied to many jobs which require no skill, but have had no luck. Not really sure what to do... I don't dispute that building a portfolio, going to college and getting a degree would be a good idea, but I'm just trying to solve a difficult situation. |
RubyFlip - Rss Feeds In A New Presentation Layer | egonzalez: http://rubyflip.com |
RubyFlip - Rss Feeds In A New Presentation Layer | nreece: Doesn't load anything for me in Chrome. |
RubyFlip - Rss Feeds In A New Presentation Layer | brandonkm: Very neat seeing the webkit2png tool in action. This is something I may find useful, nice project!Scanning rss feeds in this type of format is sometimes preferable to the list inlay style that Google reader uses. It's also more enjoyable to discover things this way as well. I would only really want to scan topics I'm highly interested in this type of presentation layer rather than all the topics in my feed reader. This format definitely works best for that. |
Review my start-up Add yours while your at it. | andyjdavis: I'm either blind or there's no way to search. I tried to add a service I'm part of and apparently it's already listed. Surely there's a better way to find a particular start up than next-ing through page after page.Anyone interested in a particular start up will want to be able to jump straight to it to see how they're doing/vote for themselves.Maybe you could create a little page for each one. Screenshot, a short blurb and bigger vote buttons. Have the screenshots on the main page take you there instead of directly to the outside site. That would give you a set of pages that would be indexable. Put them at urls like sinkfloat.com/news.ycombinator.comJust an idea :) |
Do you look down on non-entrepreneurs? | jaekwon: you're surrounded by statistical outliers. are you based in san francisco by any chance?the good spirit is to follow your own calling, so do whatever you want. don't mind the others.also, a non-entrepreneur movement sounds like a good idea. it would benefit both sides.also, i look straight at people. |
Do you look down on non-entrepreneurs? | gizmo: For many of us self-employment / entrepreneurship is not a choice, it's not something we just want to do, it's something we have to do. There is no plan B. If we have to start 10 companies and fail 10 times, then so be it. Self-destructive as that may be.So when somebody decides to get a regular job after all, I won't think less of him. I will wonder though... "maybe he wasn't one of us after all, maybe it was just a hobby, an experiment". Maybe you were just bicurious.Having no respect for regular employees makes no sense, because you need them to turn your vision into reality. And employees with an entrepreneurial mindset are often worth their weight in gold. I don't know any real entrepreneurs who dismiss employees as mindless sheep.(I realize I'm not speaking for everybody. Take what I write with a grain of salt.) |
Do you look down on non-entrepreneurs? | trevelyan: Perhaps the people you're talking to consider it a critical judgment on their own plans and prospects. I think anyone who starts a business appreciates how difficult it is and realizes it doesn't work out all the time. |
Do you look down on non-entrepreneurs? | dpcan: The world is FULL of articles about finding jobs. Most people are just looking for a J.O.B.Right or wrong, your entrepreneur friends probably see you as a quitter. They probably see your going back to work as a failure, and naturally, your friends don't want to see you fail.Think about it though. You probably set out on your own to be a billionaire, top the of hill, a titan of industry.Why wouldn't your friends still want that for you?If this is the image you've portrayed to other entrepreneurs for a while, don't blame them for wondering why you no longer believe in the goals you've expressed to them. |
Anyone else need to stop and smell the roses? | samratjp: Sometimes, you just need to throw away your laptop and just do nothing. I find that staring at clouds on a cool spring evening can clear your head real fast :-) In fact, it's my best debugging strategy. |
Do you look down on non-entrepreneurs? | johnthedebs: My guess is that they're disappointed about losing a fellow entrepreneur rather than disappointed in you or your choice. That's how I'd probably feel if I were in their shoes. |
Do you look down on non-entrepreneurs? | frownie: Think of it this way : what is your social contribution (what do you give to other) with your work/time ? Do you think it is worth the effort ?I think entrepreneurs are a bit more selfish : their prime motive is their own good, the social good is just a consequence. I don't think it is bad per se, ut I recognize I don't like it much.Another point of view is : our society is based on employment (and other stuff, that is). Those who create employment are therefore seen as more useful, better.But again, is giving employment to people to make cigarettes or junk food a real benefit to the society ? |
Do you look down on non-entrepreneurs? | ruang: Just do both.Being an entrepreneur and employee do not have to be mutually exclusive. You can simply work on creating prototypes of new product ideas in your free time.If I had a buddy doing that, I would still love talking with him to pick his brain. |
Do you look down on non-entrepreneurs? | mnemonicfx: Honestly, yes.Sometimes I look down on them, but sometimes I'm not. This is also the case for most entrepreneurs. Of course, an entrepreneur won't look down on his/her own employees.The only factor that influences my view is what kind of employment the resigned entrepreneur is switching to. If it's a great job, then I would respect him/her.It's a false perception to compare entrepreneur to employee. We should compare "What are we contributing to the society?", instead of merely "How do we contribute to the society?". |
Do you look down on non-entrepreneurs? | astrec: Do you look down on non-entrepreneurs?No.Entrepreneurship isn't some static thing, and there are many kinds of entrepreneurs. Our appetite for risk, our values, priorities and desires all evolve over time.Some entrepreneurs start out as employees and discover their entrepreneurial streak later in life; others start out as entrepreneurs and become employees (by acquisition, opportunity etc.); some shift from academia to entrepreneurship and back again; others are serial entrepreneurs. And so it goes...People do great things from all sorts of roles. The disappointment and disinterest may just be naivety or a lack of maturity: I wonder if your entrepreneurial buddies look down on Hennessy for example? |
Anyone else need to stop and smell the roses? | thibaut_barrere: I'm always keeping a balance between the two, yes, absolutely.Sidenote: having reduced your expenses will help you ensure you can feel free to smell the roses whenever you feel the need. |
Do you look down on non-entrepreneurs? | arethuza: "If you're smart enough, not a sheep" - sounds like a sociopath from the sociopath/clueless/loser model of organizations:http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-o... |
Do you look down on non-entrepreneurs? | psyklic: When friends of mine get married or get in serious relationships, I am happy for them. But I am also (selfishly) disappointed, because that means less time hanging out with me and sharing life experiences.I see this in a similar way -- I perceive many employed friends as being tied up time-wise by the combination of work and (for many) family. Often, they fall off my radar because they wouldn't be able to help out with interesting projects due to exhaustion from work or due to work-related restrictions. |
Do you look down on non-entrepreneurs? | iuguy: I don't look down on anyone. Everyone makes their own choices in life to move closer to the goal of happiness. Sometimes that involves running your own business. Sometimes it involves working for someone else's business. Sometimes it may not involve working at all. |
Do you look down on non-entrepreneurs? | jjs: If you're just doing it to keep your head down and live a comfortable existence, then yes, a little bit.But if you're doing something that you find satisfying, challenging, fascinating, or worthwhile, then I would never dare to look down on you.For me, the real point of entrepreneurship is to take control of your own destiny. If you're doing what you really want to be doing, then you're already there! Just remember to live beneath your means and build a nice cash cushion, so you can keep control of your destiny as well. |
Do you look down on non-entrepreneurs? | arojahn: "I'm getting an unspoken but almost palpable sense of disappointment and disinterest"The disappointment might be due to your entrepreneur friends believing you were great at being an entrepreneur, and that it's a waste to the community if you go back to being employed? I know I sometimes feel that way when I see a potentially great entrepreneur quit; but that doesn't change the fact that getting a job can still be the right thing for you.
And personally, I wouldn't worry about those people who display disinterest - they were probably only interested in the fellow entrepreneur, not the person. |
Do you look down on non-entrepreneurs? | DaniFong: I have trouble relating, on some deep levels, to people of all kinds who haven't yet taken their destiny into their own hands. But it is not as if entrepreneurs are the only people who are in charge of their lives. |
Do you look down on non-entrepreneurs? | known: Are you proud of your neighbor? If not, entrepreneurs will not succeed. |
Do you look down on non-entrepreneurs? | kn0thing: I think it'd be fun to ask non-entrepreneurs what they think of us (I'm sure most would be equally as tolerant, but I'd like to hear their impressions). Anecdotally, I've been pitied before for working the startup lifestyle -- running one of course means you're working/thinking/stressing it nearly every waking hour. There's certainly a quality of life tradeoff.One example: I know I spend less time out with my friends - I'm actually a pretty AWOL friend, frankly. I don't understand or participate in the routine of, say, getting drinks at happy hour, because even when I'm with my childhood pals (fortunately, they've excused my aloofness and welcome me back seamlessly whenever I'm back in maryland) at some point in the night, a few beers in, I'm thinking about the work I'm going to do when I get home.But that's just because, like most entrepreneurial folk, it's so invigorating. It's feel criminal to enjoy working so much, but I've got friends who wouldn't dare trade their happy hours and weekends and routines for my lifestyle -- and that's just fine with me. |
Do you look down on non-entrepreneurs? | dgabriel: Most people have a strong investment in their worldview, and sometimes have difficulty empathizing with people who don't embrace the same view with the same intensity. There is no one path to fulfillment or happiness that is right for everyone, but it can be hard to remember that when someone you consider a peer makes a choice you would never make. |
Do you look down on non-entrepreneurs? | csomar: Imagine that everybody becomes a Blogger or an iPhone apps developer. I know it's a great job, to stay in front of a screen for 10 hours a day and pull insane money, just from typing in your keyboard and moving a little device called mouse.But who will work for us? Who will build those roads? Deliver merchandise, teach your 5 year child... ???
Everyone has a job, we can't all become doctors, we can't all become entrepreneurs; it's a balance and everyone decide what to become and how. |
How do you keep meetings short? | datums: Make sure there's an agenda.
Meeting can last forever, if everyone drifts from the topic that the meeting was set to discuss.Make sure there's a timeline 45 min.
You need to have an end.See if the attendees are willing to do the meeting standing up ? |
Do you look down on non-entrepreneurs? | wushupork: For me, it's not a matter of looking down. I don't think people should look down on other people in general. That said, I do feel like I have less in common with people with J.O.B.s and no ambition. I feel like I can relate more with other entrepreneurs and thus spend more time with them.I think ultimately if you want to be successful at whatever it is you want to do, you have to create your own reality distortion field. You surround yourself with people doing what you want to do so you can learn from them, be inspired by them, and feel a sense that you are not alone in that pursuit.In my case if I hang out with J.O.B. people, all they want to talk about is the latest video game, movie, tv show or sports game, none of which interests me. And me talking business and startup to them sounds like greek and their eyes glaze. |
How do you keep meetings short? | donohoe: I ask two questions at the beginning of most meetings in a very friendly and non-attitude way:(1) "Hey, so whats the agenda here? What is it we all need to know by the time this is over?"(2) "I have a conflict with another meeting. What do you need to know from me right now? (or what do I need to know from everyone right now?)"Works wonders and also helps other people get to the point too.In my particular case I don't turn up at most meetings. On rare occasions I'll get a phone call at my desk or someone will swing by, in which case I'll happily go. |
Do you look down on non-entrepreneurs? | JangoSteve: I don't look down on non-entrepreneurs at all. However, I do feel like I have less in common with them. It's a lot like any other interest, passion, or activity. People tend to gravitate and associate more with people that share commonalities, probably because you are naturally more interested in what they have to say/do. Couple that with the fact that entrepreneurs tend to be unusually self-involved (almost a necessary evil of entrepreneurship), and I think you end up with the obvious disinterest you've been seeing. |