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forums built in python
bockris: I thought that the pocoo guys were doing one but it seems to have fallen by the wayside.http://pypi.python.org/pypi/Pocoo/0.1http://dev.pocoo.org/hg/pocoo-main/They don't even show it in their project list anymore but it might be a good starting point.http://dev.pocoo.org/
forums built in python
samueladam: Found those links but never used any of them.http://code.djangoproject.com/wiki/ForumAppsComparisonhttp://yvan.seth.id.au/Entries/Technology/Code/Django_Forum_...The pocoo team used to have a BBS software but I believe they dropped that project.
I have an Aussie startup and I need to bank in the USA. Where do I start?
mhp: Australia is part of the commonwealth (although it's not in N. America) so this might help: http://dan.matan.ca/US-Bank-Account-For-Canadians-Save-on-Cu...Alternatively, opening a Canadian bank account and merchant service might be really easy for you and it may have the option to operate entirely in USD.
I have an Aussie startup and I need to bank in the USA. Where do I start?
jkent: HSBC in Australia will allow you to open a USD bank account. This is likely the easiest way to keep money in USD.http://www.hsbc.com.au/1/2/personal/savings/foreign-currency
I have an Aussie startup and I need to bank in the USA. Where do I start?
mmp1: HSBC will do dual currency accounts - they have US offices as well. Go and see them. Infact their dual currency is better than NAB (it can be say Euro and US) - you can even move between currencies and make money on any exchange changes as well as plain interest.
I have an Aussie startup and I need to bank in the USA. Where do I start?
Luc: I'm in Belgium, and have USD 'currency compartments' on bank accounts with several banks. They're free, and I have set them up so all USD payments automatically go into the USD compartment. I can then use the USD to pay foreign contractors without incurrent the exchange cost (and risk). The compartment isn't a sep...
Effective arguments to convince someone to get on Twitter?
davidw: > I haven't figured out any clear, universal argument.Because 99% of humanity really doesn't need to be on twitter?The only reasons I can see are to follow 'trends' and spam people interested in your product(s), or follow celebrities.
Effective arguments to convince someone to get on Twitter?
noodle: i use twitter primarily to universally sync up stuff, like my gmail status to my facebook status, and the like.beyond that, i follow people who i have an interest in, and have successfully used twitter to interact with people who i'd probably not have been able to interact with otherwise.its also nice for infom...
Effective arguments to convince someone to get on Twitter?
pavel_lishin: Well, it all depends on what you want them to use it for.I have zero interest in knowing when my friends are eating a sandwich, and sadly, that's the only types of updates 90% of them make. I wish I could convince them to get off Twitter.Other than that, the best way to show them the utility of Twitter, I...
Effective arguments to convince someone to get on Twitter?
oscardelben: I'd use this statement: "If you want to do micro-blogging, try twitter. If you don't know what micro-blogging is, check twitter"
Effective arguments to convince someone to get on Twitter?
brk: Just curious, why are you trying to evangelize Twitter?I think your approach of "try it and see if you like it" is the best overall.I've been on/using Twitter for a while now (year or 2, have lost track). It does have value, but I find myself using it less, not more. Part of the problem is that it seems the more...
Effective arguments to convince someone to get on Twitter?
mikeyur: I get friends to use it by basically showing them my twitter and how you can update/chat with people. And then I show them Ping.fm so they can update their Facebook and Twitter at the same time.I've only converted a few so far, but the ones that have moved over really like it and have gotten into it. The other...
Effective arguments to convince someone to get on Twitter?
vaksel: Thats because twitter is useless for personal stuff. Its ok for businesses/internet celebrities, since its another way to push their crap, but regular people gain next to nothing from using it.
Effective arguments to convince someone to get on Twitter?
vorador: Ask HN: Effective arguments to convince someone to leave twitter ?
Effective arguments to convince someone to get on Twitter?
padmanabhan01: I thought people don't need mobile phones, before they started to be everywhere. I thought email was for top executives and business people when I first heard about it.I now think twitter is useless and people just don't need it.
Effective arguments to convince someone to get on Twitter?
z3r0p4r4d0x: You: Use TwitterThem: I don't want to, I hate it, it's bullshit just broadcasting stuff in 140 characters!You: Do you use Facebook?Them: Yes.You: Do you use IM/IRC?Them: Yeah.You: Do you send out emails?Them: Of course I do!You: Use Twitter at least 10 updates+10 follows everyday for 30 days, tell me why i...
Effective arguments to convince someone to get on Twitter?
trezor: there's also a whole variety of possible arguments for why someone should get on Twitter, and so far I haven't figured out any clear, universal argument.I think that's your answer. If you can't make a proper, solid argument for what they gain from being on twitter there is no gain, and whatever reasons are left...
Effective arguments to convince someone to get on Twitter?
jemmons: I really hate that old tale about the man telling the doctor "It hurts when I do this!" and the doctor advising him "Don't do that." But here I go (with apologies):Why are you trying to convince people to get on twitter? Twitter scratches an itch. An itch I have. An itch it would seem you have. But not an itch...
Please review our placemarking site - Amidst
kingnothing: When looking at the "all places" map, it would be nice if I could enter a location and zoom to it. Cool concept, I like it.
which is the best flash video player?
kierank: JW FLV Player.http://www.longtailvideo.com/players/jw-flv-player/It's the one you see a lot of sites using.
Effective arguments to convince someone to get on Twitter?
paul7986: If your subject likes conversation they will love Twitter. If your subject likes text messaging they will love Twitter. If your subject leaves comments on blogs/Digg/etc they'll love Twitter. If your subject wants 2 hear the latest news (national to news within their inner circle) in real-time they'll love Tw...
Effective arguments to convince someone to get on Twitter?
behe: Don't try and convince anyone to get on Twitter. Show them how useful it can be with real examples. If they don't want to use it then don't push it, because the one thing everybody hates is peer pressure to 'get on' something you don't particularly want to.Take Facebook for example. I won't ever get an account. W...
Effective arguments to convince someone to get on Twitter?
joe_bleau: Yeah, convince me. I don't blog, twitter, facebook, myspace, IM, text, etc. My cell phone is a company phone and it doesn't have a web browser. Heck, I still read usenet, believe it or not. (I'm an information consumer more than a producer, so when I do work up something that might be interesting to othe...
which is the best flash video player?
kbrower: JW player works well for playing videos, but if you plan on using the plugins be aware that many of them conflict. http://corp.kaltura.com/ is another option.
which is the best flash video player?
asnyder: You mean http://flowplayer.org. In my personal opinion flowplayer is excellent. It has the most extensive customization and API of any of the available flash players. Especially if you're using their most recent 3.x version. Furthermore, they have an excellent set of documentation and examples.
Effective arguments to convince someone to get on Twitter?
almost: You could start by trying to convince me. I have no interest in regular updates on what my friends are doing (I'm quite content with them telling me the interesting things when I actually see them). I also have no interest in giving anyone regular updates on what I'm doing (again, I'd rather just tell them if i...
Effective arguments to convince someone to get on Twitter?
onk: Shouldn't this be discussed on Twitter?
What Paid Services Do You Use For Your Startup?
johns90: My partner and I started a company together and we both work out of our home. We did not want to spend a lot of money on a phone system. We did some research and we signed up for a virtual pbx service online. We configured the system in less then a half hour including getting our greetings recorded. The vi...
Effective arguments to convince someone to get on Twitter?
darwinw: I'm on twitter too, but I'm not using it for personal blabbing, i used it to promote my site tripntale. I only have 1 friend that is using twitter religiously to broadcast what she's doing everyday, and she's a housewife, albeit a lonely one.
An early client wants to pay for our SaaS offering using revenue share
noodle: the only way i would even consider this is if you could strongly and cleanly define some very clear-cut metrics and compensation levels based on them. ensure that you're getting compensated extra for what is effectively guaranteeing different levels of results.
developing for iphone?
tvon: If you want to get your feet wet in Objective-C and Cocoa-like API's (assuming you don't have a Mac), I suggest taking a look at GNUstep: http://www.gnustep.org/.
An early client wants to pay for our SaaS offering using revenue share
medianama: Based on my experience - Revenue share deal with a bigger partner never works out. Unless they invest upfront and their skin is in the game, they'll not too be worried about monetizing your efforts.My suggestion - Ask for minimum guarantee before you invest your time & effort doing it.
browser share on your website
medianama: Based on this month's dataInternet Explorer - 55.06% Firefox - 27.94% Chrome - 14.37% Safari - 1.23% Opera - 1.17% Mozilla - 0.13% Netscape - 0.02% BlackBerry9500 - 0.01%
browser share on your website
jamroom: 1. Firefox 55.81% 2. Internet Explorer 28.37% 3. Safari 7.88% 4. Chrome 3.92% 5. Opera 2.79% 6. Mozilla 0.78% 7. HTC_P3700 Opera 0.13% 8. SeaMonkey 0.07% 9. Konqueror 0.05% 10. BlackBerry8900 0.03%IE has been consistently under 40% for a very long time now.
browser share on your website
sho: Cool idea! Mozilla 39% IE 36% Firefox 18% Safari 5% Opera 1% Chrome 1%
browser share on your website
thenduks: Wow, I'm lucky :) 1. Firefox 71.43% 2. Safari 12.30% 3. IE 5.36% (7: 70% / 6: 30%) 4. Chrome 4.96% ... a few others, negligible %'s
An early client wants to pay for our SaaS offering using revenue share
cheriot: I'd be wary of any metric that can be manipulated by creative accounting.
browser share on your website
enra: A startup news site: 1. Firefox 53.11% 2. IE 21.47% 3. Safari 16.54% 4. Chrome 4.46% 5. Opera 2.41%
developing for iphone?
soc: I had a similar background and it took just a couple of weeks to get the basics down. I would just start by trying some of the online tutorials for obj-c/iphone and/or an iphone sdk book.Start writing a few simple apps and you will be up to speed in no time.Also, if you are interested in gaming the cocos2d librar...
My idea has just been launched...by someone else. Now what?
checkwit: If it's a good idea, just go for it. Friendster came out first. Then Myspace, and now Facebook.
browser share on your website
sosuke: 1. Firefox - 84.96% 2. Internet Explorer - 12.64% 3. Safari - 1.49% 4. Mozilla - 0.28% 5. Chrome - 0.27% 6. Opera - 0.22%
browser share on your website
mattmcknight: my blog Firefox 53.72% IE 28.93% Safari 7.44% Chrome 4.79% Opera 2.64%my company site IE 54.55% Firefox 35.65% Safari 6.06% Chrome 1.60% Opera 0.71%
browser share on your website
timmaah: Internet Explorer 47.33% (25% of that IE6..ugg) Firefox 35.39% Safari 10.50% Mozilla 4.39% Chrome 1.38%(political based site)
An early client wants to pay for our SaaS offering using revenue share
pierrefar: Whether your offering helps or hinders their business is irrelevant to you. You are a provider of software and they pay you to use that. Whether they succeed or not is not your problem. Don't get entangled with their business success.
developing for iphone?
darwinw: thanks for the advice
browser share on your website
darwinw: Wow, thanks for the response guys. My site is travel oriented website, and that's why you can see IE is getting 50%, and a year ago it was 70 %, so I was shocked as well as ecstatic when it's getting to 50%.For those of you who has non-developer-geeky-tech website, do you also see IE getting over 50% of browse...
Anyone using GWT in an app?
warfangle: No JS library like jQuery (especially jQuery) makes sense. jQuery is useful, but the code written with it tends to be fragile (and when things blow up because of an IE6 bug in jQuery - and they do happen - you're pretty much SOL)..In fact, the only kind of library I could consciously condone is one that prom...
browser share on your website
mixmax: My blog, http://maximise.dk/blog/ which is pretty technical and nerdy in nature.Firefox 60.48%Safari 17.13%Chrome 10.00%Internet Explorer 5.44%Opera 2.53%Mozilla 2.44%Mozilla Compatible Agent 1.34%Camino 0.28%Konqueror 0.14%
An early client wants to pay for our SaaS offering using revenue share
anamax: > His reasoning behind that is to give us a stake in the success of his business.He's figured out how to shift his costs to you during an economic down-turn.He's probably projecting a down year. If your software hits a home run, he has an even year. Unless he does a lot better than that, he's going to come ba...
An early client wants to pay for our SaaS offering using revenue share
jellicle: You're investing in his business. You're putting up cash (the monthly fee of your software) in exchange for an ill-defined share of his future profits. It's the same as buying shares in his company.Why would you invest in his business? Don't you have your own business to run?Say this: "I've thought about y...
Please review our project SiteCanary
aristus: Very clean value prop, easy and fast signup. Asserts is a good concept and well-done.I can't tell if the test contact worked -- I did not receive an email or an IM. Don't know what contact to allow for gchat.
Please review our project SiteCanary
dantheman: Nice, simple & clean.On the bottom of the assert page, why do you have an add Asserts button & a continue to checkups link? They should be combined into a continue button?
browser share on your website
thorax: http://www.yumbunny.com (dating site) Firefox 63% IE 24% Safari 5% Chrome 5% Opera 3% http://bug.gd (error search engine) IE 55% Firefox 38% Chrome 3% Opera 2% Safari 1% http://tinyarro.ws (world's tiniest URLs) Firefox 59% Safari 21% Chrome 7% ...
browser share on your website
DEinspanjer: I know it doesn't help you at all, but I thought I'd toss mine in there: 1 Mozilla 92.7610% 2 Microsoft 6.1730% 3 Safari 0.5710% 4 Other 0.2514% 5 Google 0.1807% 6 Netscape 0.0502% 7 AOL 0.0088% 8 Opera 0.0040% I guess y...
browser share on your website
wenbert: Firefox 72.35% IE 11.36% Chrome 05.39% Safari 05.26% The blog is about Zend Framework, PHP, jQuery, etc.
Please review our project SiteCanary
kiwidrew: It's a really clean site that feels responsive (even from .nz) and isn't too cluttered -- great work!A few bits of feedback: - When I was adding a new site to check, it wasn't immediately clear whether you support sending text messages to non-US mobiles. The only example provided is formatted US-style (1-xx...
I have an Aussie startup and I need to bank in the USA. Where do I start?
jacques_chester: I rang HSBC, no good unfortunately. They don't offer merchant services -- ie, they'll bank foreign currency but won't let me accept card payments. I'm a bit shocked by that actually.
When did you first get confirmation that you were doing the right thing?
lacker: Don't settle!The privacy excuse sounds bogus. Probably they just don't want to look bad when a student makes a better website than theirs in their spare time. If you just give them your opinions, they will nod politely, take notes, and then never make anything better, because it's the laziest, easiest thing to ...
looking for criticism for projectEUREKA.org
streety: In my opinion eureka doesn't sound anything like euler. Personally I would stop worrying about that but if you can't I would suggest you stop apologising for it anyway.
An early client wants to pay for our SaaS offering using revenue share
CyberFonic: I have actually done a similar deal in my early days. Turned out the management were pathological liars. I would have needed to pay for an auditor to suss out the truth in the accounts they "revealed" to me. They also were too caught up in internal politics which actually lead to their eventual demise. ...
looking for criticism for projectEUREKA.org
thamer: Some quick thoughts:* Make the logo link back to the index.* Don't make me register. I'd like to try the problems but am not interested in saving my results. I can't try such and such problems because I need an account simply to validate my answers .* I'm not sure if displaying the last 10 on the front page is ...
Please review our project SiteCanary
jgfoot: I like it.Your notification e-mails were flagged as spam by Yahoo mail. Consider using DomainKeys or something like that.I noticed your TOS requires that we only monitor sites that we own. Smart. In case someone breaks this rule, you might want to give site owners a chance to report problems. Maybe you coul...
How much equity do you give to employees?
brk: Equity equation...You should give them a vested share amount equal in proportion to the amount of value you feel they will add to the company. This is usually a variable range (and it varies), but something along the lines of: Every new developer adds .25% of value to the company minimum. Higher caliber people...
How much equity do you give to employees?
sivers: From the book "How to Get Rich" - by Felix Dennis (worth about $1 billion):"To become rich, you must be an owner, and you must try to own it all. You must strive with every fiber of your being, while recognizing the idiocy of your behavior, to own and retain control of as near to 100% of any company as you ca...
How much equity do you give to employees?
nagoff: My understanding is that funders will expect to see an option pool for employees of around 10-15%.
Did Apple ban the Lala iPhone app?
ScottWhigham: Interesting... I used to love lala several years ago but it seems they are just getting less and less interesting. I'd try the app though.
looking for criticism for projectEUREKA.org
turtle3: You waste alot of space in your layout. Specific thoughts to address that:* Trim some of the top and bottom padding off of the logo.* Instead of having the search field inside each of the tab groups, pull it out so that it is in the upper right, just under the "logged in as" text. Search all entries when som...
How much equity do you give to employees?
wensing: Have you seen http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35015 and PG's article? I found it helpful, YMMV.
browser share on your website
csbartus: 1. Firefox 51.49% 2. Internet Explorer 37.03% 3. Opera 4.89% 4. Chrome 4.76% 5. Safari 1.46% 6. Mozilla 0.30%
How much equity do you give to employees?
coopr: Are you giving equity in place of some portion of a "market" salary, or are you giving equity in addition to a fair salary? This (should) make a big difference in how you calculate how much to give.And of course, all equity should be vested, with little or none granted up front. Virtually no employee adds value ...
Books on Agile development for non-developers?
systemtrigger: It's not clear if you are asking for a management book or a programming book. Assuming you want to hack, my question to you is What do you want to accomplish? That would drive which sort of development book we're talking about. Then I would ask How much do you know about programming? Nothing at all? If y...
Please review our project SiteCanary
smokey_the_bear: I like it a lot. I'd been looking for something just like this. I set up a test though, and when it alerted it only emailed me, I didn't receive the gchat messages or sms.EDIT - Upon further fiddling with it, I added my AIM account in addition to GOOG, then I got both alerts.
Anyone tried a food-related startup?
davidw: No, but I'm curious about it. What's your product? My guess is that the biggest hurdle is actually producing and certifying as safe whatever it is you're cooking up.
How do you sketch out the design of your code before you start coding?
asimjalis: I use a combination of TDD and long conversations with myself. Here is my algorithm in the form of a checklist: CHECKLIST FOR CODING [ ] Is there a conversation with self about this program? [ ] Is there a user scenario that has been customer validated? [ ] Does the conversation describe the ...
Anyone tried a food-related startup?
coopr: I've started, grown, and sold a food startup - contact me privately if you'd like to know more about what I learned...
What do you do when you meet people with influence?
pg: The best way to handle powerful people is to teach them stuff. That's both interesting for them, and good for the world. It's better not to consciously try to develop relationships with them. Everyone they meet is trying to do that, and they get sick of it.
How many of you use ad blocking on most websites?
mcav: I have ClickToFlash, which almost amounts to complete ad blocking nowadays. The rest I don't mind, though I don't often see an ad worth clicking on.
How many of you use ad blocking on most websites?
visdo: Never use ad blocker. As an entrepreneur, you should keep your market sense(IMO, blocking ads is against it.).
How many of you use ad blocking on most websites?
makecheck: I use fairly sophisticated filtering to block things that are shaped like ads, to block URLs matching certain patterns, and to control JavaScript behavior.I honestly don't mind ads if they're sane, which is probably why Google is successful (their text ads tend not to be annoying at all). I understand the n...
How much traffic do you get from hitting the HN front page?
visdo: Show your site then answer your own question.
How many of you use ad blocking on most websites?
RobGR: I aggressively block all the ads I can, with the exception of the google text ads. I might start blocking those too.I have different browsers I use at my client's offices, on which ads are not blocked, so I see the ads then. I occasionally unblock ads specifically, if I want to see what types of ads and how ma...
How many of you use ad blocking on most websites?
thorax: I read advertisements from time to time. I click on them from time to time, especially on Google searches when I'm looking for a company/service that solves a particular problem. I almost never click them on any other site.
How much traffic do you get from hitting the HN front page?
thorax: Last time it happened for one of our sites it was ~1500 visits or so. I'm sure it various depending on content/interest/day/etc.Though I'm not sure why you'd be so keen on the actual numbers. This isn't the sort of site where you're really looking to get pageviews-- it's more about the great feedback and commen...
SEO Mystery - What's this 'MarchSEO' guy up to?
brandnewlow: Here are the rest of the sites:http://www.indianpad.com/general_news/667464/the-epic-tale-o...http://tipd.com/tag/pittsburgh+samaritanhttp://www.malaysiastory.com/WorldNews/the-epic-tale-of-the-...http://ngopost.org/story.php?title=The_Epic_Tale_of_the_Pitt...http://www.kaboodle.com/reviews/latest-activity...
SEO Mystery - What's this 'MarchSEO' guy up to?
rms: I think he is testing those sites to see if any of them outranked you, or to see how they rank in comparison to each other. Since you're #1, I wouldn't worry about it.
SEO Mystery - What's this 'MarchSEO' guy up to?
alex_c: Hmm. Only hypothesis I have is that person is trying to build up legit-looking accounts on social news sites by submitting random stuff, so that the links they want to promote don't get recognized as such when they get submitted? (in which case, the "SEO" in the username is a bit puzzling, because it's not ve...
SEO Mystery - What's this 'MarchSEO' guy up to?
vaksel: maybe you have an alter ego that posts the stuff when you "sleep". Check the timestamp on all those posts and see if thats the case.although that bizsugar name sounds familiar, I believe someone on here runs that.
How much traffic do you get from hitting the HN front page?
cperciva: Going through my server logs counting lines which were (a) within 2 days of my submitting a link here, and (b) matched /ycombinator/i, I get the following:http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29791 (16 points, June 21, 2007): 260 hitshttp://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=70823 (2 points, October 21, 2007): 39 hi...
How much traffic do you get from hitting the HN front page?
patio11: About 3,000 to 4,000 in 48 hours the last three times.
MemberGate -- Worth It?
ShabbyDoo: Was it a seminar that offered free stuff (like lunch) for showing up?As the marginal cost of providing this service ought to be low, any reputable provider ought to give your client a single-member license on an evaluation basis.$5K doesn't sound like much if it's hosted and no additional fees are levied. I...
Anyone tried a food-related startup?
RobGR: I cannot remember ever purchasing food over the internet.However, I have driven 30 or 40 miles to go to a speciality ethnic grocery store or farmer's market to get a specialty food I learned about over the internet.Perhaps you should look into finding non-internet ways to sell your item, and then simply advertis...
Anyone tried a food-related startup?
joshu: Foodoro (a YC company) and Foodzie both do this.
How do you learn to be creative?
mtinkerhess: Know your craft. Find inspiration in everything. Practice, practice, practice.
How do you learn to be creative?
noodle: in my humble opinion, everyone is creative in their own area of expertise. its just much more difficult and less obvious when expressing creativity in fields like engineering. and it is difficult to express creativity when jumping fields. as an engineer-type, i can't really do creative graphic design. i've ...
How do you learn to be creative?
tjpick: Being creative is not something you learn. It's something you _do_.Examples: start building webapps or working on free software, publish writings on your blog, do paintings, record yourself playing music and put it on youtube, tinker with mechanical devices or build your own electronics, build furniture, conduc...
How do you learn to be creative?
dbul: My bias is that creativity is something that you develop as a child.Nevertheless, I also think creativity can be emergent: when you are focusing on being creative in one area, draw analogies from other areas (interdisciplinary). I knew someone who once determined where to situate a package shipping center by usin...
How do you learn to be creative?
nreece: I feel that one of the ways to realize and induce (your) creativity is by getting bored - proscrastinate - do nothing, and let your thoughts guide you.Often, I see/find people trying to stay busy doing something or the other all the time, but I think somewhere down the line it blocks their creative side.Try tak...
What do you do when you meet people with influence?
krav: Here's my rule for all interactions: provide value. Usually it is knowledge, connecting the right people, whatever. But provide value.Don't expect anything in return. The irony is, it'll come back to you in ways that'll blow your socks off.
How do you learn to be creative?
patio11: If I were a cynical man, I'd note that "expressed creativity" means anything you want it to mean, that it is largely in the eye of the beholder, and that you can find it in any applicant you want to accept and fail to find it in any applicant you don't want to accept.Ask your MIT admissions representative whet...
How do you learn to be creative?
kwamenum86: Go against the grain. Look for beauty in unusual places and you will find untold riches.