SHOwnsYou

I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to type in the result field. May not be the standard ux though - I'm on a tablet.

How it actually happened doesn't matter.

If you've accepted the role of svp of IOS software, you're at fault if there is horribly broken IOS software.

I'm not suggesting the person that overruled you is free from blame. I absolutely am suggesting that if you are in that situation you have to take your lumps and accept it, not deflect ("it's not my fault because Tom told me we had to use xyz"). The other person who is at fault should also be accepting blame, but it's not your job to render the blame. In fact, you're never at all the arbiter of blame with anyone lateral, above you, or (usually) anyone in another department; it's always your fault.

Your boss told you to use xyz technology? You (and others, if necessary) should have convinced him otherwise. If you can't and his decision is a bad one, you have to be the one that says no. That's right -- it's your job on the line, not his. If you signed up to be vp of IOS software, you're in the wrong if something is broken in IOS software. That's why you need to learn to say "no", not only to clients, but to coworkers as well. If that's absolutely not possible, it's time to put on your big boy/girl pants and take the blame because you couldn't fix a problem that you knew existed.

If you're in a situation where different people are telling you different things, then it sounds like you get to decide the specific implementation. It's even probable that those different people telling you different things are really giving you their unsolicited opinion, rather than micromanaging your career.

I think it's cowardly to avoid responsibility for what you sign your name to.

There is never it's not my fault --- unless you're not attached to your job. Accepting responsibility for your division, even if you personally did nothing wrong, is part of the territory.

If you work with people that constantly offer excuses, even if they are "I was overruled", it is an awful work experience. Imagine you have to team up with that guy to code something and as soon as it goes wrong, he jumps to blame you. Even if it is entirely you're fault (you should claim it yourself, not be called out by a coworker), he still was working on the project. You can't expect to get anywhere by denying your involvement in toxic software that you are clearly involved in.

I hope I'm reading the situation incorrectly, but all I get out of this is that Forstall has an epic ego.

He is asked to sign an apology letter for the short comings of an app that he was in charge of and was at least confident enough in to present to the world. When it was time to pay the piper and accept responsibility for the app he told the world was great, he shirks all responsibility.

I fully support the decision to remove him from his position.

I think a major factor in conversions isn't that people are seeing offers and booking it themselves. The problem is that people sign up and fill out a form (and register) expecting to see prices right then, and instead have to wait at least an hour to see prices.

It may be better UX to show some hotels immediately via a hotel booking API and have very prominent messaging that they will receive lower offers within 24 hours. I'm already assuming you're emailing them with new offers (with tracking pixels) to determine if they're even opening, if they click through, and then what they do.

You should accept payments on your site... for several reasons.

1: Increase conversions - Not only because it's a quick and logical flow through the site, but also because you may be deal with people that don't want to talk to hotel agents on the phone and would rather get everything done online.

2: Know exactly how your business is doing - If you're just relying on the hotel to pay you the correct amount, you're leaving so much information about your business on the table. You can gather some, but informally. It'd be useful to know at what step people aren't converting, what is triggering changes, etc.

3: Shift responsibilities - Make the hotels invoice you.

4: Influx of capital. Paying hotels every month still makes it look like you have a lot of activity on the books. I dont know what your goal with the site is, but activity like this would be good to show to investors, interested buyers, etc.

I didn't like the screen shot at the bottom of the first page. I figured I could see what the app looked like, but instead it kicked me over to a slide where each line has a transition. I would normally leave after I realize that the screenshot only shows the top ~100 pixels of the app.

I like the idea. Though I don't like social anything, would a smart long game here be, after many users, to turn this into a social network where users can opt to change their content from private to public ?

Millions of profiles could go live on the same day? All individual content as well as types of content (tweets, images, posts, etc) could have public/private flag, giving you ultimate control but also free to have all tweets or images display instantly from twitter or instagram?

I'm wondering if people in the position to "change the world" have any desire to make that change?

If I were in the billions of dollars rich, I don't know if I'd want to do much to change the world. You can call me unenlightened, but and the end of the day, I'd be the unenlightened billionaire and you'd just be some person trying to tell me how to spend my money.

Start by deciding what you want to cure. "Cancer" really is a colloquially term for what is actually thousands of diseases.

I wouldn't be interested in something like this.

Having two devices for me is a feature rather than a burden. If I'm using my phone, someone else can use the ipad. I can also talk on the phone while browsing on the tablet. Two devices is a good thing for me. The weight of both is negligible, so I'm not worried about carrying both around.

Additionally, there is something to be said for the convenience of having a big screen to view things on. If I'm reviewing comps, it's a lot easier on the ipad precisely because of the 10" screen.

Amazon's one-click patent only applies to sites with a shopping cart. So if you only offer a single product or allow purchasing of one thing at a time (but that has obvious drawbacks for physical products), you can still utilize the one-click checkout.

Google recalculates pagerank and search rankings, you were using underhanded seo tactics and google will nix you, or you could just be lying about what the site does.

Other less common things: legislation, new competition, or a bad server outage.

What were you expecting to get?

I think usually the general rule for smaller sites like this is 8-12x your monthly gross. A small site can quickly lose its money generating ability and 10 months is still a long time in the internet world.

Also, put your contact information in your profile.

Anytime I need to figure out how to dig deeper into a technical problem, I start with http://stackoverflow.

A lot of questions like yours have already been asked with hundreds of great responses. Just spend an hour searching around for database indexing, using a CDN, and writing better sql queries and you'll have pages and pages of invaluable information at your fingertips.

Try to find freelance clients. If you're either not confident enough or feel like you're not ready, you could get a regular job. It doesn't matter if it's as a junior dev somewhere or flipping burgers. You can make over $2k in 4 months.

....ImpromptuItinerary.com? It's available. I don't know if I like it though. Too many vowel sounds, not enough hard consonants. Though the name is a pretty good description of the product.

I don't think this product entirely competes with travel books.

I think the value is that it makes the decisions for you. You already have your itinerary set in logical/geographic order.

If I'm running through a city for 2 days, I know I can't squeeze in everything. I can either waste time deciding what to do or I can buy this and see something I know will be awesome.

Not to say that there isn't room for other revenue streams or that other revenue streams may be better, but I don't think direct sales should be discounted before a proper test.

Started my consulting company and booked ~400k of business from formation through May 2012

Around June I will start looking for my first revenue generating employee.

Combine with sendwrite.com like functionality for effortless letter sending?

Keep contracting to pay the bills. As you guys save up some cash, hire a designer to make the pages prettier.

So many people will disregard the praise for your site if it's ugly or they can't figure it out.

Edit: A little more food for thought - I opened the page you linked, then went to the homepage, then closed the page. It just didn't appeal to me visually. It wasn't until I saw the comment about charging too much that I even realized you sold something.

So on the cost thing - split test! Run a test between $5 and $10. Seriously. Combine a pretty product with a price that seems just barely over the limit and you will likely find that people are finding your product "re-assuringly expensive". It costs $10 and it's pretty. It must be a high quality itinerary.

Dude really? Be less snarky in your replies and I'm sure people will be more willing to help you.

If that's how you use it, advertise it that way.

That is a neat way to use the app and is way more interesting than telling me I can tag tags. If I can scroll through what is essentially a menu on my phone, pick the items I want for meals, and the ingredients automatically get added to my list - that's pretty useful.

I still wouldn't use it, but I think that angle of usage would appeal to more people.

This too complex for me to use.

For a shopping list I want what I have on paper. A list of items that gets crossed out when I put it in my cart.

Trying to revolution the shopping list with technology (tags and tagging tags) is a losing battle. Try to mimic the tried and true, hundreds of years old shopping list. Complicating it by adding technology seems like a recipe for disappointment.

There are a lot of trailers made for Broadway. Even tours of Broadway shows have trailers advertising when a show is coming to a city near you.

A lot of plays (not musicals) might not have trailers, I don't follow plays as I do musicals.

But I suspect the reason there are fewer commercials available to a wider audience is actually due to the type of audience they want to attract. Neither theater owners nor performers/actors want the typical movie-goer to be the audience screaming, talking on their cell phone, or generally doing anything against the rules. At a Broadway show excessive phone use or talking can get you kicked out. Trying to take a picture often will get you kicked out.

I don't get to travel to far away lands while I program from the beach, but I do get to travel around the US for work.

I was in NYC over the summer, Dallas in most of the fall, and now LA until Christmas and maybe some of next year. Because I go to work for different companies and actually work in their offices with their people, I also get all my travel and housing expenses paid for, on top of a nice pay check. So now I am travelling around on another company's dime while I explore some cool cities in the US.

Honestly, I would expect someone with the qualifications you listed to be able to easily get a job at a highly desired company (fb, MS, google, fogcreek, etc).

Only having experience with a scripting language can easily land someone a job. I don't know anyone that is good at javascript or PHP that is also out of a job.

I don't know anything about algorithms, how to write a bubble sort, and I refuse to do anything open source. Still, I've always had a good job and even now have a decently successful consulting practice.

Adwords can provide nearly instant gratification for driving traffic if that's all you're after.

However, it would be foolish to neglect the free and (arguably) better way to drive traffic: SEO.

Patio11 has a blog full of information about enhancing your SEO, creating targeted content, and building your site to generate a lot of traffic without the need to spend money.

Edit: Start Here - http://www.kalzumeus.com/greatest-hits/ I know it seems like a ton of stuff to read, but it is absolutely worth it.

Fortunately it doesn't need to explicitly happen for us to still derive benefits as if it did.

You're taking everything way too literally also. There is more than just black and white you refuse to see it. No good candidates until salaries were raised... That's not what I said nor what I meant, and I think you're fully aware of that. Obviously that isn't true because small towns with limited or no budgets for elected officials still have people running. However, I think you'd be hard pressed to convince someone to put up with the scrutiny and death threats that come along with being the mayor of a big city for no compensation (Bloomberg is the huge exception).

Working as an elected official is much more stressful than it may appear -- Their every move is analyzed, they are accountable for every word they speak, and threats are commonplace. And all of these things drive up the wages required to take the job.

Also I believe you're grossly overstating the other "rewards" for elected officials. For starters, re-election is limited in several cases by term limits. Furthermore, I don't think any elected official (save President and the like) receive any more respect, admiration, or congratulations for their jobs and if anything, actually receive much less.

Finally, I don't want people that do not have demonstrable success in other areas of their life (or as you refer to them - "poor people") running my town or my country. A high salary serves as a psychological barrier to keep successful people interested and others disinterested. I want to keep those barriers as high as possible, even if I get some false positives.