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TimothyBurgesson I know there isn't much HN can do about it but can we stop opinion-based voting?

I just read your thread: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2095500 ...and that's a great idea. It would be very difficult to implement accurately, but definitely not impossible.

TimothyBurgesson Website Hosting

Well if you're just starting out, you probably don't want to go all out. Start simple and cheap. There are plenty of affordable and reliable hosts out there. I use a dedicated server with JustHost... I upgraded from a shared server for pretty cheap. Their shared server lagged every now and then but was overall very reliable... and I've had 0 problems with their dedicated server. As far as control goes, I have quite a bit of control over everything - as much as I really need. You can add SSH/Shell access if you really need it. I'm sure other hosting companies out there offer a bit more control than JustHost (or similar) but if you want ABSOLUTE control, you'd need to host the site yourself. The best thing for you to do when starting out though is save your money... there's no point in going all out until you expect a lot of traffic.

TimothyBurgesson Google: Bing Is Cheating, Copying Our Search Results

Oh I definitely did read it in its entirety and understood it perfectly. What you're failing to do is see the whole picture.

Let's put it this way... if Google hadn't bought the PageRank algorithm from Stanford and put years of work into perfecting their search results, Microsoft wouldn't have any way to track which Google search results users click. It's an unfair tactic that clearly demonstrates Microsoft's sketchiness and desire to monopolize themselves (by any means necessary, "evil" or not) wherever there's a computer.

As for the fanboy comment... I'm certainly not a fanboy but I'll let the following speak for itself: Microsoft Internet Explorer vs Google Chrome

TimothyBurgesson Google: Bing Is Cheating, Copying Our Search Results

As we all know, this isn't the first time Microsoft has copied someone else. And I'm sure it won't be the last.

I think Google has a right to complain. Microsoft has resorted to these less than innovative tactics to monopolize themselves for a long time now, and it isn't fair to companies like Google who have worked their butts off (and gave 1.8 million shares - $336M in 2005 - to Stanford for the PageRank algorithm) to develop their superior product.

TimothyBurgesson Backbone.js Tutorial - by noob for noobs

Along those lines is exactly what I'm saying... in addition to shortening the function names and other small (yet important size-wise) optimizations that would really help out in the long run. If I had the time I'd specifically address each optimization, but I don't.

It's cool that my comment is at -1 points. Thanks HN! You make me want to return here more and more every day with your unbiased contributions.

TimothyBurgesson Backbone.js Tutorial - by noob for noobs

It's a good library in theory... but it could and should be condensed to a fraction of its size. Maybe I'm just being too critical and OCD but I feel like there's too much code for what it actually does.

Off topic but... what in the world is up with the lowercase b's, d's, and u's on that site? Haha :)

TimothyBurgesson [dead]

Just when I thought I was fed up with the Zuck, he goes and does something like this.

TimothyBurgesson Little Known Hacker News (2008)

As long as immaturity and disrespect are weeded out, I think we'll be fine. Just remember the "flag" option to report such comments.

TimothyBurgesson Android device with 3 flexible touchscreens?

Haha I thought you were being serious up until traveling instantly through time and space... because at first it seemed like yet another completely unrealistic "design" by yet another "designer" who doesn't quite grasp current technological limitations. But you're right! You are much better at it!

I will say however that without the (seemingly, given the limitations of their time) unrealistic visionaries, we would not have the technologies that we have today.

TimothyBurgesson [dead]

That's fine because people who do visit the site will know what it is beforehand. It isn't for you. I'm more interested in criticism on its functionality (the actual app) rather than comments on the purposely limited landing page and judging a book by its cover like most people here seem to be doing.

TimothyBurgesson [dead]

Hahahah what you don't like inception?! Kidding. When I was coding the site around the time I made the video... I was on an Inception soundtrack binge, so I figured what could be better background music?! On second thought... perhaps I should change it haha... thanks!

TimothyBurgesson [dead]

Thanks for all your feedback! I'll definitely keep this in mind and do some a/b testing here in the near future.

TimothyBurgesson [dead]

The site is for specifically for touring artists and their management/booking agents/record labels. I can't imagine someone outside of the industry being referred to it, as it's a very specific niche... would it be wrong to assume that 99% of people visiting the site already know what it is? Even with that said, the limitations on the front page should force you down a path that tells you what it is. 4 seconds after the page loads a tip appears saying "What is RELA?" And there's a video tutorial link in the bottom left... with facebook and twitter links at the bottom right (which are pretty much the only things on the page)... all of which explain what it is. I was thinking anyone visiting for the first time would be nearly forced to at least check out one of those things. I mean... they're visiting it for a reason - probably not just some random skim through like people here at HN would do.

TimothyBurgesson [dead]

I have a feeling I'll get some comments about how its intent isn't immediately obvious but I wanted it to operate like a true application. I am honestly tired of seeing 99% of startups' websites looking like only a slight variation of the last.

I've intentially made the initial page is so (seemingly!!) limited so that anyone who visits for the first time is pretty much forced to read what it is (you'll see it if you wait 2-4 seconds!)... and once you know what it is... you know exactly what it is and for that information to remain afterward makes it cluttered. I'm also covering a fairly small niche with the product so most people who visit will know what it is beforehand anyway (by word of mouth - given the nature of the business). You'll notice that if you start typing your name before 2 seconds arrives, the popups telling you what it is don't appear. ;)

If you can't tell, I'm a big fan of simplicity and efficiency but with high function. There's a lot more going on with my app than it seems at first glance.

I would also like as much feedback as possible regarding the mobile version since I've only been able to test it on a small handful of phones. I'm actually in the process of downloading as many emulators as I can right now.

On average I've been putting in 70+ hours a week since July, as I've put it together entirely from scratch. No frameworks whatsoever other than a graphing library and the phpmailer library (more reliable/portable than the native mail function). I think it's time I slow down a little bit and get on with my life... lol... I'm 23 and this is my first startup... and I'm going solo... unfunded... so any guidance in helping this move forwards is GREATLY appreciated!!!

TimothyBurgesson UseHipster (Hipster) stealth startup screenshot leaked

Looks original... new and innovative...

TimothyBurgesson DHTML5

Haha I thought it was a virus too at first!!

TimothyBurgesson AngularJS - Complex Web Apps Made Simple

Just so I'm clear on the etiquette at HN... it's acceptable to advertise your own products/work (without a "Review my...")?

I'm not trying to undermine Mr. Rosadi... just curious.

TimothyBurgesson Goodbye Facebook

It was like high school all over again.

Bingo! I've been feeling this way about facebook for quite a while now. I still check it every day when bored or to take my mind off work for a minute but never more than a minute or two... interaction with facebook has become minimal. It was cool back when I was a freshman in college 5 yrs ago and only other college students were on it.

TimothyBurgesson GET vs POST in terms of security

Indeed. I actually just finished implementing the secret token method throughout my app less than a minute ago. I have fullscreen and mobile versions... and without going into too much detail on exactly why in my particular case, it's cleaner and easier to use simple links (i.e., GET) for something like removing items from lists... so the token method is the only feasible solution to prevent something like I mentioned in my other comment (fake images and what not). But with the fullscreen version, since it's all AJAX and to make things easy on myself, I converted everything (except file uploads) to send data via POST (all links are generated by a function so instead of href it's onclick+ajax)... along with the token too of course... which was all a win-win because I lifted the data limit that GET used to impose as well.

But anyway... today I learned that even though GET and POST are no different security-wise... always use a secret token when security is an issue... and it's best to use POST because it allows MUCH more data than GET.

TimothyBurgesson GET vs POST in terms of security

This is probably an atypical type of thread for HN but I figured I'd share anyway. It's pretty obvious once you read it but I was a bit curious on the topic regarding SSL/https and sending data via GET. I'd never thought of posting an "image" (or whatever) for an admin to see that could contain harmful data in its URL.

TimothyBurgesson How to Smell Difference Between Humans & Robots - Annoying Captcha Forms

Random but... you could take a few pictures of your hand... and go the classic route of asking how many fingers you're holding up.

TimothyBurgesson How and Why I Switched to a Standing Desk

This timing is perfect! Just yesterday I was reading the post about how sitting for hours at a time increases risk of heart problems significantly (regardless of exercise) and... began to wonder if it'd be feasible to work at my computer standing up. I use a laptop but I think I could definitely work something out.

It'd probably make me an overall happier and more motivated (to do other things) person. I've noticed that sitting down all day staring at my laptop makes me feel like crap and not really care to do anything else.

Again... perfect timing for this article. Now I just need to figure out how to make the transition...

TimothyBurgesson What Google can learn from John Sculley

It's amazing how a single error in the article (or typo? "H.265") immediately turned me off to the rest of it.

TimothyBurgesson What the Heck is Shadow DOM?

Did you people downvoting this comment actually read the entire article? "Teens seem to like it" (referring to "Team Edward" in his pseudo code) was without a doubt one of the most hilarious things I've read in a tech article. Lighten up... geez.

TimothyBurgesson Projects: hijack (Hijacking the iPhone earphone jack)

Maaaaan I had this idea over 2 years ago... except my ideas revolved more around robotics. I wish I was a bit older so I had the resources (money) and time to work on these kinds of ideas that I have. Previously, all my time was consumed by school/internship/band (I was a signed, professional touring musician). And now all my time is consumed by getting my startup going... in the hopes that it will eventually be somewhat self-sustaining enough to cover my living costs while giving me time to pursue these other more interesting ideas. Sigh... sorry for the rant that I'm sure no one cares to read.

TimothyBurgesson What the Heck is Shadow DOM?

Teens seem to like it.

TimothyBurgesson A Comfy Helvetica frontpage for Hacker News

Yeah... I'm an engineer (a bit OCD too but who isn't these days?) and perfectly okay with change. I enjoy it rather... but I definitely prefer HN's current look over the OP's. The current font size is perfect as it is. I feel like larger fonts make sites look less professional... can't quite put my finger on why though. Maybe it's because larger fonts require more scrolling and is less efficient when I can read 12px (or even 11px) font without squinting just fine. There may also be a correlation (at least for me) with large fonts and say... children's books/sites and those with poor vision (typically the older generations who are mostly computer illiterate)... i.e., less professional and more casual.

TimothyBurgesson Why doesn't this code simply return a to z as the output?

This actually makes perfect sense to me. Knowing this would have really come in handy a while back when I was creating my dynamic excel spreadsheet generator in PHP. While it doesn't follow ASCII char indexes, it follows a base 26 numbering system.

Edit: Oh... and if anyone was wondering, PHP's "char" function (provided an index) should perform similar to incrementing an ASCII char in C/C++.

TimothyBurgesson "Rate My Startup" Post Policy

Welp... just registered today so that hopefully when I try to post my own startup thread, I can. I'll try to post more from now on instead of lurking but I'm pretty busy. :|