Hacker News Reader

Revisoron Finding awesome developers in programming interviews

Can you elaborate on the difference between a system and an application programmer?

Revisoron The unlikely life and sudden death of The Exile, Russia’s angriest newspaper.

To answer my own question: http://exiledonline.com/the-exile-archive-page/

Revisoron The unlikely life and sudden death of The Exile, Russia’s angriest newspaper.

We need more people like him, just to remind us of the absurdities we pretend or choose not to see every day.

Is The Exile online somewhere, at least partially?

Revisoron Ask HN: How to setup a merchant account for a new startup?

Thanks for the rules. Despite your claimed attachment to one provider, can you please recommend some specific providers?

Revisoron How to keep someone with you forever

Honest question: Why does this article resonate so much and has over 200 upvotes as of now? Is this really such a wide-spread phenomenon?

Can't one detect such behaviour very fast and get out of the rollercoaster before any damage is done?

Revisoron AwesomenessReminders now has 750 paying subscribers

Seriously, who buys something like this? Even as a joke it's weak and drags on for at least a month. I can imagine it's not funny anymore after several days. Like canned laughter.

Revisoron Lose It or Lose It - Why, How, and How Much

14K for a design and 5K for the initial legal work seems pretty steep to me for a completely new, unproven web. Surely it could have been done an order of magnitude cheaper for similar quality, no?

Anyway I'm glad he shared the data.

Revisoron Some tidbits from Joel Spolsky's talk last night on recruiting programmers

I just bought Smart and Gets Things Done by Joel Spolsky on hiring the best programmers.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1590598385/

This article has whetted my appetite even more.

Revisoron Ask HN: The Price is Right.. or is it?

I can heartily recommend the book The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0136106811/

It's pretty expensive as far as books go, but very much worth it. It not only explains how to set a price, but also how to set different prices across segments, how to calculate/estimate value your product is worth to your customers, how to price differently over time (honoring the changing business cycle) and how to react to competition (a very short summary: add value, target more segments, don't go into a price war and instead force the others out of it by restructuring your offer or by adding "threats" ("we'll match the best price" etc.)).

Revisoron How I Used Amazon’s Mechanical Turk to Validate my Startup Idea

Do you think they would lie so as to mirror the national averages?

Revisoron Today's Resource: Designing for Social Traction

I was daunted by the 120 slides at first, but they were absolutely worth it.

To sum up a few points: Use lazy registration (delayed to as late as possible), first-time user help, gradual profile filling. Remove features that encourage mindless hoarding (of points, ratings, reviews, whatever) and design for the flow, ie help the user improve/learn new things but don't make the experience too challenging.

Revisoron The difference between talkers and doers

Writing a web app is doing. Writing a blog post about writing a web app is talking.

I don't know J.D and I don't know the blog. If he makes money off of talking about doing, good for him.

Revisoron The difference between talkers and doers

I'd argue that writing a blog is not exactly a doing. Much less blogging about getting rich.

Revisoron Four Minutes in the Morning

I think it's understood that by these rules you ensure the minimal time spent with the important people. Neither the 4 minutes a day, nor the 1 week a quarter are adequate, they just build the low threshhold in stressful times.

Revisoron Duke Nukem Forever.. is back on.

You can relive the nostalgia here http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/duke_nukem_3d_atomic_edition

Revisoron Clone software to start my own business. Is it ethical? (discussion)

On a side note: The guy is outsourcing his core activity - the actual development of the product. That can't end well.

Revisoron How to Focus

Concentration depends on context, surroundings, motivation. It can be trained and improved. To use a drug as a quick remedy is dangerous and frankly rather sad.

Please rethink what you're doing.

To put my tin-foil hat on: I consider ADHD an artifical diagnosis pushed by the pharma companies.

Revisoron Would You Unschool Your Child?

But it's you who should motivate them and provide structure for the learning, no?

Revisoron Ask HN: Does domain name affect success?

As an abstaining domainer let me sum up what I learned:

The shorter the name the better.

Don't use hyphens nor digits.

Dot com is the king for any international project.

In many countries their CCTLD is better than a .com (eg .de in Germany).

Do three tests:

- Radio/phone test. Say the domain name over a phone. There should be no problem spots you should repeat.

- Writing test. Look out for any easy typos: repeating letters and language-specific grammar problems.

- Association test. Ask your friends for their first impression and what occurs to them immediately after they hear the name.

Made up names are ok.

A good rule of thumb is: Make sure there is only one thing the users have to remember.

Eg unusual TLD + a made up name = 2 things to remember. Reduce to just one.

IMO the domain name doesn't really affect success, there are far more important things like founders' skill and passion.

However not observing the above-mentioned rules can make the success harder to reach.

Revisoron India's red rain may contain life not seen on Earth

And it has more than 100 points at HN.

Revisoron Competing Hypotheses - Made for the CIA. Now free to the public.

Hello, can you please remove the OSX "dot underscore" meta files from the archive?

Revisoron Competing Hypotheses - Made for the CIA. Now free to the public.

I'd also love to see any real-world examples (without spies, maybe in startup/business/management context?).

Revisoron Is a Crash Coming? Reasons to Be Cautious

That's what I meant, thanks.

Revisoron Is a Crash Coming? Reasons to Be Cautious

As for the indebtedness, I was speaking about the key layers of the economy - personal/household debt[1], corporate debt and public (government) debt[2]. We've grown accustomed to the debt as a regular part of our life, of how our households, businesses and whole countries work. This is very dangerous.

Regarding the unaccountability of the for-profit players, mind you, I'm pro-free-market as anyone here. But this piece of news[3] makes you rethink what happens at the highest level of the market, how the largest enterprises become uncontrollable institutions on their own.

[1] http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/housedebt/

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USDebt.png

[3] http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/12697/64796

Revisoron Is a Crash Coming? Reasons to Be Cautious

The crash is not coming, it's just returning. The original one was never over. Its effects were just postponed by pouring money in it (aka bailouts and buy-outs).

The real reasons - ultra high debt of all players, errors in the system, for-profit players not controllable by the three political branches - were not remedied, in fact they might have been even worsened (the debt increased because of the bailouts).

Revisoron Hey, Guys, It's Totally Okay If You Don't Get Rich

I’ve watched him lose his health, sanity, credit and girlfriends again and again for this obsession. “This is literally killing you,” I tell him. “It has to stop.”

If she can see he's doing something wrong, she should help him get on track, not discourage him. I would avoid this lady like plague.

Revisoron What Happened to Yahoo

And let's not forget the very useful and free Yahoo Pipes. http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/

Revisoron Don't Hire That Developer

Let me turn that around: What is a better course for an employer, say an internet startup or a small software / webdesign company? To hire contractors or employees?

My first thought would since software/web is the core activity, employ them (bind them closer).

What do you think?

Revisoron U.S. Is Bankrupt and We Don't Even Know It

Fair enough. I'll explain why I find this article important.

The current crisis is not cyclical, it's man-made:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/12697/64796

Some have seen it coming, ie it could be averted.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2I0QN-FYkpw

Countries have been breaking the basic economic law - income >= spendings - for a long time. There are several ways to get rid of the debt, eg inflation or nationalization. All of them are unethical and are basically stealing from all but a select few at the top. That's what this article is about.

If things come as far as the author writes, it will affect all of us here at Hacker News. There is a lot of people here trying to create something, to enrich the others and thus to get rich. It will all be in vain if our governments decide it's time to rob us.

I could have been less emotional and more specific about this. Thank you for challenging me.

Revisoron How far off am I?

Even better: Go build something you're interested in. It needn't be important, just fun for you.