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TimothyBurgesson Required steps for investments? Can private investments be simply automated?

What if I just add a place for visitors to donate and in return for donations I offer an arbitrarily small percentage of the company that just so happens to be proportional to the donation amount? Those who donate will just have to take my word for it. :P

TimothyBurgesson Required steps for investments? Can private investments be simply automated?

Is stock exchange not automated for the most part? People can buy and sell their stocks with pretty much just the click of a button. That's essentially what I'm looking for.

TimothyBurgesson Crash Course: Design for Startups

Great comment... but am I the only one who is slightly bothered by the inconsistent capitalization? :|

TimothyBurgesson Using prime numbers to make better backgrounds

Yeah what's up with that?! I think in this day and age people are more than capable of being both highly creative and logical.

TimothyBurgesson Using prime numbers to make better backgrounds

Upvoted solely for "keep 'em coming!"

This article was truly awesome. I'm kicking myself for having not thought of it before because it seems like such a simple concept! Makes me wonder what else out there I haven't thought of... ;)

TimothyBurgesson Collect HN: Aprils Fools

I've never played StarCraft but I would totally play that. That actually looked like a lot of fun. Make it happen Blizzard!

TimothyBurgesson Auto submission bots on Hacker News

There's gotta be quite a few auto submission bots going on here...

cough TechCrunch cough

...not that I have any problem with it. I'm just amazed at how quickly TechCrunch (and similar) articles find their way onto HN.

TimothyBurgesson Venture capitalists are not record labels

As someone who's signed to a record label (Victory Records) and has talked with many other bands about their experiences with their record labels, I'd have to say that this post is mostly true in the sense that VCs and record labels are comparable... but it's way over-generalized.

There are some record labels out there who really do care about their artists and do everything they can to help without tossing moral and ethical standards out the window. I know this for a fact. As for Victory, if you know about the label, well... they're not exactly known for their kindness and would probably fall into the blog entry's generalization, but I believe they are getting better about it.

It isn't nearly as black and white as Jacques is making it seem.

TimothyBurgesson The Tyranny of the Extroverts

I've noticed that I have the ability to go between introverted and extroverted (regardless of alcohol consumption haha)...

When I'm solving problems and piecing stuff together while glued to my computer I definitely get into a zone or mode or whatever, and don't really care for much outside interference. Most of the time it actually annoys me to get interrupted. But it only takes a few minutes away from it (sometimes an hour or two if I've left something unfinished haha) to get into the extroverted, outgoing talkative mode.

I've actually noticed a little bit of a curve in how well I communicate. The first few minutes after ending problem solving mode consist of me pausing a bit in my sentences (thinking ahead and seeing the conversation as a whole) and as time goes on I end up speaking very quickly and fluently without much thought at all.

Any other developers here transition between intro and extroverted like this?

What sucks is that it takes a few minutes for my brain to switch modes... because at work everyone probably just thinks I'm some really quiet, super serious guy.

TimothyBurgesson Bookmarklets to Sort Hacker News' Comments

That'd be pretty easy to implement! :O

TimothyBurgesson Bookmarklets to Sort Hacker News' Comments

You can sort them either way. :)

TimothyBurgesson Bookmarklets to Sort Hacker News' Comments

You don't have to sign up for anything unless you want to rate the bookmarklets. Everything else you can do anonymously. I don't have a github account but I'll look into it tomorrow. Sounds like a good move to make if I want people to trust and use it. Thanks for the suggestion!

And what's wrong with being creepy? >:)

TimothyBurgesson Bookmarklets to Sort Hacker News' Comments

(I actually posted this earlier under a different title but I don't think anyone saw it.)

A while back I had the urge to sort HN comments and figured a javascript bookmark was the best way to go. My thoughts eventually led me to, "Hmm what other cool stuff can I do to modify my favorite websites?" And then of course that led to, "I'll create a repository for this kinda stuff!"

So I registered the domain jsmods.com a while back and finally had the chance to whip something together last weekend.

The entire site is contained within a single PHP file under 600 lines long, and I don't use any database... just encrypted flat files with file concurrency prevention algorithms.

And I actually didn't find out until yesterday that it's called "bookmarklets." I googled the term afterwards and I must say, the current bookmarklet repository sites out there are horrendous.

However, I think JSmods is the appropriate name as I created it for people to create and share javascript modifications for specific websites, not just the usual any-site-bookmarklet.

I'd like it to be conducive to learning and hacking.

After I get some more submissions I'll add a search function (similar to the instant searches we see everywhere these days) and some other fancy stuff. And I may end up replacing the disqus comment system with my own custom system because the disqus system doesn't work as seamlessly/smoothly as I would like.

Overall it was a pretty fun little project to whip together over the weekend. :)

TimothyBurgesson Math Becomes Music: What Pi Sounds Like

I thought it sounded quite beautiful. Gave me chills.

On a related note, a tech metal band called "After the Burial" wrote a breakdown according to pi. The song is actually called "Pi (The Mercury God of Infinity)"... and for those of you who are unfamiliar with the term "breakdown" (in metal these days)... it's typically just chugging a certain pattern on a low note (sometimes a few more) with everyone in sync.

Here's After the Burial performing Pi live: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_Msy-YUs4Y (The Pi pattern starts at 1:10 but I like the intro hehe...)

TimothyBurgesson 8.9 earthquake hits Japan

You know, I'm really not sure what they'd say Florin. What do you think they'd say?

TimothyBurgesson Epic Games shows jaw-dropping graphics for next-generation consoles

This is why I've always been a huge fan of Unreal Technology. You could definitely call me a fanboy since I played the original Unreal (the game on which UT was based) avidly for years... but for good reason. Just like most males my age, I've played tons of first person shooters... but I've always felt Unreal was way ahead of its time, not just with graphics but with gameplay as well. Although the gameplay of the Unreal series has steadily declined since the original but these days it's still hard to find a game on its level in the sense of how many different ways can be approached to be good at the game.

But back to the graphics, rendering these graphics in realtime with a high framerate is definitely possible... but not presently feasible. The only problem I've noticed with the Unreal series and its graphics is as I just said: it's ahead of its time. Sure, there's hardware out there that can handle it no problem... but the average consumer can't afford it. I have a feeling that even when the next generation of consoles is released, they'll still struggle to handle the Unreal Engine at its full potential. But I guess someone has to raise the bar.

I remember when UT3 came out... I was so stoked. My gaming PC was probably only a year behind the top (affordable) components at the time... and I wasn't about to go spend $500+ on a new video card, ram, and all that. I figured I'd be able to run it decently enough... but boy was I wrong. I got 30 fps tops (and that was when nothing was going on!) and if you've played an FPS like Unreal competitively, you'd know that the only way you stand a chance at dodging rockets and sniping people midair and all that awesome stuff possible with the Unreal series... you need upwards of 60 fps, consistently. So I only played the new game for a couple of weeks before giving up. It's probably for the best too because I needed to concentrate on my studies haha... but the moral of the story is the entire game basically died within a few months because only a small handful of people could run it.

TimothyBurgesson The Billionaire Who Is Planning His 125th Birthday

Have you seen Back to the Future?

TimothyBurgesson Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

I strongly disagree about the "stretching is bad for you" part... but I guess he did say "without your body warmed up"... you always want to stretch before working out but get your body warmed up first by jogging in place or doing jumping jacks or something for a few minutes. You want ballistic stretching and static stretching. It has without a doubt helped with my overall fitness while reducing soreness.

TimothyBurgesson Making Science & Technology Cooler Than Sports (w/ Dean Kamen and Neal Bascomb)

I heard a small portion of this on the radio earlier today and I thought it was good enough to share. There are a lot of excellent points made.

I tuned in around 41:50 in the audio feed. Start listening there for some good points made by Dean Kamen.

TimothyBurgesson Rate my startup (3rd time's the charm)

Yeah I had noticed that but didn't think much of it. It does get kind of annoying.

It shouldn't take long at all to do... so I'll add a div with a fixed position way off the page and out of sight to preload the images since I want the landing page(s) to be 100% functional without javascript.

TimothyBurgesson Rate my startup (3rd time's the charm)

I put the "Get Started Now" buttons on their own lines and indented them slightly.

And as for the logo, I have the g's hanging over the image so that the rest of the text lines up. I tried moving it up but it just looks weird to me. I prefer it to hang over like that... reminds me of when I was first learning to write... and the g's, p's, j's, etc. hung below the line.

I did add a slight stroke to the g's to make the bottom overhang stand out more.

Let me know if that's any better!

TimothyBurgesson Show HN: I taught myself PHP and built TweetPerView.com

It only took me a minute or two to write a javascript bookmark (i.e., paste this in as browser URL) that will bypass the tweet requirement:

        javascript:a=window.frames[0].document.getElementById('bg').src.split('/');a.pop();window.location.href='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v='+a.pop();

It's only been tested for the OP's site (and will only work for his particular page structure) but the point is that it could easily be adapted for any one of these.

TimothyBurgesson Rate my startup (3rd time's the charm)

Haha yeah I had a feeling people who saw the original would doubt I created the new version. I had a number of people respond to my previous revisions telling me to hire a designer. I never bothered saying "I can do it myself" because I figured I'd let my new design say it for me. My original design is very misleading regarding my abilities... I was just trying something different but it clearly didn't work out.

I'll definitely let your suggestion about the sight-seeing confusion twirl around in the ol' noggin. Thanks! :)

TimothyBurgesson Japan Airlines' CEO pays himself less than the pilots, takes the bus to work

Regardless of whether or not life's necessities are provided for the CEO(s) outside of their salary, the fact that he is taking a relatively massive, honorable paycut remains... which frees up a hefty sum of money every year, allowing workers to keep their jobs and support their families. Even if it's a small handful of workers or just one... it is a very honorable thing to do and should not be cheapened in any way. I wish every other CEO or person in a position of power/wealth would follow suit.

TimothyBurgesson Jerry Seinfeld's Productivity Secret

Man Jerry Seinfeld is a freaking genius. I'm going to start doing this every day for multiple habits. Maybe a few different color markers for everything.

This article just changed my life.

Thank you!

TimothyBurgesson PayPal Freezes Support Account For Bradley Manning

>In fact, I wrote my comment before reading anyone else's.

Really? Because your first comment says:

>All the people commenting on this thread implicitly approve of its presence on HN

TimothyBurgesson PayPal Freezes Support Account For Bradley Manning

You are missing the point entirely. As was mentioned, the vast majority of "political crap" does directly affect the tech and startup world... especially something as widely used as PayPal... so this submission is entirely relevant to and valid for HN. Now, I agree with your sentiments on some "political crap"... submissions solely about Sarah Palin's stupidity or along those lines probably have no place here. But you expressed your disinterest in a submission about PayPal and their actions (of which strongly infer their detrimental stance on the progression of mankind) not because it isn't relevant to HN, but because you don't agree with the majority of the comments here. If the majority of the comments supported PayPal's decision to hold all donations made to Courage to Resist, I have a feeling you'd feel much differently about the submission.

TimothyBurgesson PayPal Freezes Support Account For Bradley Manning

I rarely exercise my ability to downvote but I feel I should let you know that I did for your comment. I appreciate your opposition on the matter, but your comment is entirely based on your opinion, provides little substance, and does not promote any forward thinking whatsoever. I agree entirely with jpd23 that this isn't just "political crap" as it has many, many implications of the state of the world... which greatly affects not just the startup world but everyone.

The term hacker is not limited to tech and business... it means analyzing all aspects of life, tearing them apart, figuring out how they work, and making them better.

TimothyBurgesson Hacking your apartment's electronic entry system

Any particular reason you haven't turned this into a startup?

TimothyBurgesson Stay with a fellow HNer for SXSW

I can't be the only one who thinks these types of things are sketchy... possibly dangerous. (Craigslist killer(s) anyone?) Of course I'm not... so I wonder what kind of screening process goes on to prevent harmful intruders.

I googled a few combinations of the following keywords "airbnb couchsurfing safety precautions screening" (etc.) with no specifics. It looks like airbnb leaves safety entirely up to the participants.

I'm guessing the majority is based on ratings... so you end up with a bit of the chicken and egg scenario... so at first it would seem everyone's gotta take a bit of a risk.