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dabenton Ask HN: Do bootstrapped billion-dollar companies exist?

I am pretty sure Parson's previous company, Parson's Technology, was boostrapped as well. He used, and apparently nearly lost, the millions he earned on that sale to fund GoDaddy until it was profitable.

dabenton Ask HN: Who is hiring? (July 2014)

MedTech Exchange - Atlanta, GA

We are a new company who is looking to eliminate the inefficiencies in implant surgeries. Help us make medicine better.

  We are looking for a talented front-end developer with experience in:

    * Bootstrap

    * jQuery

    * Less/CSS/Object-Oriented CSS

    * HTML5

    * Responsive design

    * Understanding of UX principles and best practices

    * Angular.js

    * Single-page Application Development/Design


  We are also looking for a back-end or full-stack developer with experience in:

    * Play Framework (Java/Scala)

    * MySQL

    * REST

    * Object-Oriented Development/Design

    * RabbitMQ (or other message queueing technologies)
 
    * Automated Testing

    * Linux Administration

Join us and have the opportunity to design and implement the look and feel of software than can disrupt the medical industry. Interested? hiring@medtechexchange.com

dabenton Facebook Slingshot – A new way to share photos and videos

Thanks for the recommendations. I actually use RedLaser and forgot Milo was still around after they were purchased by eBay. Too bad Milo doesn't seem to have an app.

dabenton Facebook Slingshot – A new way to share photos and videos

"a new product that helped users find the right offline store to do their shopping"

I'd love an app that did that. I'd love inventory search for brick-and-mortar stores. I'd love an app that let me know where a product is located in a store.

In fact, Google Maps on my phone does part of this with it's "Explore nearby" feature, which I've used more than once. Maybe the time just wasn't right for Larry Page to accept it back then.

dabenton Ask HN: Who is hiring? (May 2014)

MedTech Exchange - Atlanta, GA We are a new company who is looking to eliminate the inefficiencies in implant surgeries. Help us make medicine better. We are looking for a talented front-end developer with experience in:

    * Bootstrap

    * jQuery

    * Less/CSS

    * HTML5

    * Responsive design

    * UX design


  We are also looking for a back-end or full-stack developer with experience in:

    * Play Framework

    * MySQL

    * REST

Join us and have the opportunity to design and implement the look and feel of software than can disrupt the medical industry. Interested? hiring@medtechexchange.com -----

dabenton How to exploit home routers for anonymity

For what it's worth, the other articles on the home page look pretty interesting as well.

dabenton Ask HN: Who is hiring? (April 2014)

MedTech Exchange - Atlanta, GA

We are a new company who is looking to eliminate the inefficiencies in implant surgeries. Help us make medicine better.

  We are looking for a talented front-end developer with experience in:

    * Bootstrap

    * jQuery

    * Less/CSS

    * HTML5

    * Responsive design

    * UX design


  We are also looking for a back-end or full-stack developer with experience in:

    * Play Framework

    * MySQL

    * REST

Join us and have the opportunity to design and implement the look and feel of software than can disrupt the medical industry. Interested? hiring@medtechexchange.com

dabenton Ask HN: Who is hiring? (March 2014)

MedTech Exchange - Atlanta, GA

We are a new company who is looking to eliminate the inefficiencies in implant surgeries. Help us make medicine better.

  We are looking for a talented front-end developer with experience in:

    * Bootstrap

    * jQuery

    * Less/CSS

    * HTML5

    * Responsive design

    * UX design

  We are also looking for a back-end or full-stack developer with experience in:

    * Play Framework

    * MySQL

    * REST

Join us and have the opportunity to design and implement the look and feel of software than can disrupt the medical industry.

Interested? hiring@medtechexchange.com

dabenton We Have Luxurious Jobs but We Are Not Aware of It

Early on in my career, I put my resume out to look for another job after a layoff. Recruiters nearly called me around the clock. I expressed frustration after the third call in a row in front of my wife. She reminded me what a blessing it was to have so many people trying to get me work and so many opportunities available, most which would give me a raise.

He father struggled after layoffs to find work in his profession, with long gaps between jobs. I realized how blessed I was to be in this line of work and stopped complaining, even about the copy/paste emails.

That said, there are different levels of competency in each profession, and recruiters are just as prone to rookie mistakes and lazy work as coders are. I have the luxury of working only with good recruiters and can filter the rest easily.

I've also lived through relatively scarce times (2002) when it was hard to get a recruiter to return my calls. I can imagine that many recruiters and firms went under and know people involved in software who had to scramble to find work (myself included). That does help me appreciate the 90% of my career that work has been plentiful.

dabenton Only 90s Web Developers Remember This

In the mid-90s I discovered HTML and cleaned up the web page for the company I was contracting for. It was supposed to be a 5-hour a week side project that became 20 hours a week often. I discovered David Seigel's web site, where I learned all the magic of the single-pixel gif and table layouts. I bought his book "Creating Killer Websites," and followed his web journal, which was a new concept at the time.

I took a detour for a bit, working on server-side projects in C++ and Java, but came back to a new world of CSS and for a time was quite confused. Certainly our tools for creating killer websites have improved, but I have very fond memories of those early days.

dabenton Ask HN: Who is hiring? (February 2014)

MedTech Exchange - Atlanta, GA

We are a new company who is looking to eliminate the inefficiencies in implant surgeries. Help us make medicine better.

We are looking for a talented front-end developer with experience in:

* Bootstrap

* jQuery

* Less/CSS

* HTML5

* Responsive design

* UX design

This position will be a ground-level opportunity to design and implement the look and feel of an important web application.

Interested? hiring@medtechexchange.com

dabenton How startups can compete with big company perks

I left a rather dull bank job to cross the country and join a startup. For those running statups, here's why I joined, what didn't matter and why I left:

WHY I JOINED

1. Lack of bureaucracy. Granted, I worked at an exceptionally bureaucratic bank, but I longed for a place where I could just do something without having 10 meetings to ask permission from people who weren't qualified to decide if the project was valid or not. Projects that could have taken months took years.

2. Benefits. The startup not only paid 100% of my health insurance premium, they offered great insurance. That's a big deal in the USA. I had a child who had a hospital stay. It cost me $100 out of pocket and would have cost tens of thousands otherwise. It was like having thousands of dollars added to my salary.

3. Relocation. They paid for movers to pack and ship my goods directly. I didn't have to mess with reimbursement or advances. If you're looking to get the best you can find from across the country, this can be a big deal.

3. A new language/challenge. I had started writing code in Python and loved it. It was a refreshing change.

4. Smart people. I can honestly say that the startup I worked for had the smartest staff of any place I've worked. It was intimidating at times, but I learned a lot in a very short period of time. I ended up touching a lot of parts of the system that I didn't have much experience with and it was a huge learning experience that will benefit me for the rest of my career.

5. Great hardware. I felt like I finally had enough horsepower on my development machine to actually do my job. The default was a well-equipped Mac, but other developers could choose what they needed.

6. A great location. This is less important, but was an attention-getter when they made me their initial pitch. Santa Monica, across the street from the beach/pier. I'm not sure how it could have gotten better.

WHAT DIDN'T MATTER

1. The salary. I actually took a pay cut if you factor in the cost of living. I don't regret that decision.

2. Foosball table. Some people liked playing on a break during some very long hours, but I honestly just didn't get it.

2. Free food. They went all-out with the snacks and didn't hesitate to order-in food on our frequent late-nighters. I got fat.

WHY I LEFT

1. The hours got way out of control. I knew there would be overtime, but it became far beyond what I could sustain. The startup went through a tight spot and we all pitched in to rebuild the site three times in less than a year. I've heard that the hours have leveled off and sometimes wonder if I shouldn't have stayed.

TL;DR: Hire the best, give them the tools and environment to get their job done. Make relocation a no-brainer and health insurance (in the US, at least) best-in-class. Make salary competitive, but don't get in a bidding war with other companies. Offer the best location you can, and above all, don't burn people out.

dabenton In a Car-Culture Clash, It’s the Los Angeles Police vs. Pedestrians

That's one thing I've noticed as well. There's certainly cheaper office space and cheaper living in other parts of LA, but somehow cost of living seems to have an inverse relationship with startups, with the biggest hubs being Silicon Valley/SF, NYC, and Boston.

dabenton In a Car-Culture Clash, It’s the Los Angeles Police vs. Pedestrians

I've been living in LA for a while now and one thing I've noticed is that the area commonly referred to as "LA" is huge and that things can vary considerably from one part of town to another.

The real "startup" hub in the Los Angeles area seems to be in Santa Monica, far from downtown LA, where the crackdown in the article seems to be taking place, and outside the jurisdiction of LAPD. It's home of many startups, near UCLA and home of at least one incubator (Mucker Lab).

I've worked in Santa Monica during my time here and it's surprisingly bike and pedestrian friendly (as are most of the beach cities). I don't currently work at a startup, but the my current employer has indoor bike rakes that are well used as did my previous (startup) employer. Startups chose this part of town over downtown LA, or other parts of town for many reasons, in spite of high rents for office space. They do so for many reasons, but I have a feeling that one is the ability for folks to get to work in a variety of ways, including on foot or by bike.

dabenton Ask HN: What's the best place in the U.S. to live and work cheaply?

There are many cities in the US that are relatively inexpensive, but I'll name a few that I've experienced:

Atlanta, GA: Good tech community. It's home of Georgia Tech and while it's no Silicon Valley, it is the home of a few startups, StartupRiot, and other startup-related activities. The weather is warmer than most places, but it still has seasons. You can find a place to rent pretty cheap here and the city is large enough to have some of the amenities you're looking for, including a million or so singles in the dating pool.

Charleston, SC: Probably not quite as cheap as Atlanta, but it is beautiful and still quite cheap. Smaller in size, but not "middle of nowhere" small. Plus, there's the beach.

Florida: Someone mentioned Miami, but if you seek warm weather and reasonable cost of living, Tampa, Orlando and other cities in Florida are great. The down side is that I don't think there is much startup activity, the upside is I've heard it's great for singles and there is beach, beach, theme parks, beach and probably a few other things to do in between hurricanes.

Athens, GA: Smaller city, but a college town. See jboggan's comment.

dabenton The Onion quits print

A long time ago, I held edition #1 of this paper in my hands while attending school in Madison. Then, in a complete lack of foresight, I threw it into the trash. Still, it's good to see that campus paper have done so well.

dabenton Open Letter to My Students: No, You Cannot be a Professor (2011)

The idea of landing a job in some bucolic university town actually has an appeal for some folks. I have relatives that are professors in a relatively small US city and they seem to love it.

dabenton You Can Meet Your Heroes

There are so many ways to do this. Go to Startup School* (where I met pg, Ron Conway and more), Startup Riot (where I met Andrew Warner) or a conference like PyCon, where I met other startup people, including some YC founders. For all the money involved, the startup world is surprisingly open.

*https://news.ycombinator.com/susapply

dabenton Applications open for Startup School

Was this a new addition? IIRC, I stated age when I applied three years back and I got in as a 40-something.

dabenton The STEM Crisis is a Myth

Thanks for the suggestion. In fact, I've already done that, and am aware of what talent can charge for my line of work.

dabenton The STEM Crisis is a Myth

No. This is simply supply and demand. The more workers available for positions, especially ones who are willing to work for less impacts the supply and prices I can charge for my work go down. Management isn't going to give me a raise because they saved a buck on someone else. In fact, they're more likely to try and find a way to get rid of me and replace me with someone who charges less.

dabenton The STEM Crisis is a Myth

There are many factors at play, but wages I've seen in the US have remained flat, or even dipped once one factors in inflation. I make less than I did in 1999, in spite of the fact that I've been promoted. Part of this is the use of offshore talent, and H1-B visa workers. I've got people from both camps on my team now.

dabenton Asiana Airlines Flight 214: A Pilot’s Perspective

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-N-Out_Burger#Second_generati...

Such an accident prompted changes in the time between large and small planes landing.

dabenton Are coders worth it?

As someone who's worked through the dot-com boom and crash of the 1990's, I can offer some perspective.

- Everything is relative: My salary is just now what it was at the top of the dot-com bubble about 14 years ago, and I've been promoted twice. That $150,000 offer the author mentions would be $250,000 if we used the wages for 1999, adjusted for inflation.

- Like all things, this is cyclical. In 1999, my email was jammed with messages from recruiters. In 2002, I could hardly get one to return my call. The same will happen with this latest enthusiasm for coders. In a couple of years, the startup scene may cool off considerably. You could end up grateful for a job that pays 1/2 the salary at a bank. Enjoy the free Red Bull and flexible hours while they last.

- You will be replaced. By someone younger, someone offshore, someone with newer skills. You can't change your age or nation of birth, so keep your skills sharp. I've gone from Pascal to Python in my career and will keep going. If you want money, look for the skills people will pay for. Lisp is a great language, but Java has had this great feature of paying my bills and then some.

- Make something people want. If they want you to make a micro social network for an apartment building, do it. Some of my best jobs (and money) have come from the mundane, like software help track toilet paper production costs. One of the wealthiest people I know started as an electrician. He now runs and a company of electricians and has the kind of money us start up folks dream of because he runs wires in houses in a city that went on a building boom.

- Realize that how much money people make doesn't relate to the value their job provides to society. Athletes can make incredible money, while people disarming bombs, fighting fires and repairing power lines make little. It's just a fact of life and it isn't fair. Left handed baseball pitchers have inherent value simply due to the fact that they are left handed on top of their ability to throw a ball. Coders make money right now because of the internet and the information age. Make the most of it and make the impact you want to make in the world.

dabenton Show HN: Resumonk – a year after it was launched here

How did you decide on the pricing? Looked like $23 for 6 months.

dabenton [dead]

And from 1996, there is Richard Jewell:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Jewell

dabenton Are you an underpaid developer?

Salaried positions do include benefits packages, and in the US, the health insurance can be expensive or impossible for certain people to get. That said, if you know of one of those $124 freelance jobs in LA...

dabenton Formspring - A Postmortem

Were there any acquisition offers during that hockey-stick phase?

dabenton The hum that helps to fight crime

"This buzz is an annoyance for sound engineers trying to make the highest quality recordings."

It hit me a while back when I was writing the software for a test stand for a hearing aid as a summer intern. Mysterious 60/120/180 Hz frequencies appeared on our analysis, soon to be discovered as the motors for the building's ventilation unit. It was barely noticeable to anyone, but it was quite obvious to our test equipment, even in an insulated box.

dabenton Announcing Startup row: PyCon 2013 Edition

If you meet the criteria, apply! I was on Startup Row in 2011 and it changed my life. Even if you're not part of Startup Row, do visit the startups there. I met many interesting companies while everyone was in talks and the exhibit hall was empty.