Yea, I realize I could have done something more interesting with the data but I was really trying to keep it simple and focus on getting the code to work. That was my main goal, to learn how to pull something small like this off. Thanks for checking it out though.
As for your Show HN not making the front page, I am not sure what motivates HN to click through on a submission and then up vote it. Possibly, the time of submission has a lot to do with it. There is a definite advantage to have by timing things right, http://blog.kissmetrics.com/science-of-social-timing-1/
To Sahil's point on emails, short emails were something that were shocking to me as well when I first started interacting with busy people. I took it for rudeness, or dismissive. I know better now and am glad to even receive a reply in the first place, regardless of length.
Isn't the 'real world' relative? To a kid in high school, that is the real world. To a grown man among his peers at work, that is the real world. I never understood telling kids that high school wasn't the real world. I can understand telling them it gets better (and it does, I know) but to try to mask certain stages of their lives as not real doesn't seem genuine.
By saving wisely and living well below my material means. I don't plan to retire lavishly after selling a hot start up for hundreds of millions of dollars. Sure, that might happen but I am planning on retiring from a average paying job after working for many years while saving and going without luxury items like fancy cars, giant TVs, having kids and real estate I can't afford.
I just transferred all my domains from GoDaddy a few weeks ago and Hover made it simple, got it all done within a few hours. Had some trouble with a subdomain and a custom landing page and Hover's support was very helpful in helping me rectify the issue.
The idea of working more than 40 hours a weeks makes me glad I am an hourly employee rather than on salary. I don't have a choice but to work only 40 hours a week, or my company has to pay me over time. I come in at my time, do my work for my 8 hours and leave 8 hours later. No one can judge me when I leave the office. It helps create that work/life divide.
Thanks, I went through the Code Academy courses and they were fun and helpful, but the biggest strides I've had in programming have been thinking of an idea and then trying to build it from what I know. This way, I am applying what I already know, further cementing it and it forces me to run into problems that I cannot yet solve. I spend up to a week trying to figure out a solution to that problem on my own. If I can't, I'll head to Stackoverflow and ask there. That's been the best way for me so far.
I am a beginner and you are 100% right. I am working my way through learning some Python and when I started to find stuff referring to Django and web frameworks, they all seem to be touted as 'easy'. So, I thought, 'what the hell, let's build a web app'. After installing Django I was totally lost. Sure, I could install the framework and work through the tutorials but I am still miles away from actually building something on my own, because, while I know how to write some lines of code and create some basic tools I still don't know how to BUILD anything.
No, really, I don't think you ever stop learning really, or you shouldn't at least. You might be able to attribute a length to how long it took you until you felt you were proficient. But it's all relative. I could say it took me 30 seconds to learn how to program because I could get something to return "Hello?" but is that really programming?
Depending on what stage you are guys are in your startup should be able to survive a week without you. What if something happened that forced your or your cofounder to be gone for X amount of time? You need safeguards up to protect against the unexpected.
You're assuming that the SEO being performed is to manipulate or 'trick' users and while this does happen its not always the case.Search spiders are far from perfect in recognizing the relevance of webpages, seo helps them understand what a page is all about.
Also, not everyone understands what good content is, or how to properly markup their websites.
The field of SEO is quickly (or slowly depending on who you ask) being transformed into a much more holistic discipline where content creation, usability, conversion optimization, pr and marketing are falling into SEO's job duties. It's much more than page markup and links.
You don't always necessarily get banned permanently, or banned at all. Google might just discount all the links they find to be bought and adjust your ranking according to your new link count minus the paid links. You can always clean up the links yourself and then submit a reconsideration request. Whether that request is accepted, that's up to Google.
By 'unwarranted' I am referring to websites who might get dinged in this update but are not overdoing the SEO, or possibly not doing any SEO at all. It happened with the Panda update so I can't help but think that it will happen again.
As an SEO I am interested to see how this update goes. Google updates usually have a 'shotgun' result. They might kill the intended targets but there is a lot of damage from the spray to sites that might be unwarranted.
I never used Oink, but was there an option when creating an account to make it a private account, limiting access to certain types of data to certain users? If not, isn't everyone's uploads, reviews, pictures, etc. already available for anyone to see? Even if this is true, this still shouldn't be happening.
I used to get this "should be/doing somewhere/something else" feeling a lot while browsing Facebook. I would see peoples updates and think I was slacking, or not seizing my day or whatever. That feeling quickly disappeared when I stopped using Facebook. I eliminated that external "motivation" of others updates and focused on where I was and what I was doing at that moment, not what I could be doing.
I am not sure I understand why the author feels that the 'perfect syncing' tool has to be free, or close to it? Syncing files between multiple devices isn't something everyone needs, or wants, so it's a premium function. For my needs, Dropbox is perfect.
Very cool. Will this work on an iOS device? Maybe some kind of Dropbox sync in case I can't download my file to the computer I am using. Might be fun to use when I am limited to my iPad.
If by "programming" you mean, operate a computer or automated device (machine, tablet, "smartphone", etc.) with some minimum understanding of how it works, then yes I agree. But for everyone to be able to code an app or program from scratch, then no, I don't agree.
Very cool and inspiring story. I am currently neck deep in Python as my first programming language. It's tough, but I am enjoying the learning process. Good luck with your app!
I guess it depends on what your startup idea is. Does it have a short window of opportunity for you to capitalize on it? If so, pay someone else to do the work so you can get a product out now, but still learn to code so you can actively participate in the process. Otherwise, take the time, learn and write the code yourself. Even if your startup never materializes, you will have taught yourself a valuable skill.