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fitztrevon Show HN: Handcrafted standing desks from reclaimed materials

I appreciate the comments. As I said, I'm just getting started with this. I posted it here just to get some initial feedback.

I understand there are other options for standing desks that are both less expensive and more functional. The value proposition isn’t a "better" standing desk, or a "cheaper" standing desk, it is a standing desk that is built by hand from reclaimed, quality materials, sourced from the community.

It allows me to continue to support the deconstruction of abandoned homes and buildings in the Detroit area, which is one of my main focuses.

fitztrevon Show HN: Handcrafted standing desks from reclaimed materials

I understand totally. Unfortunately steel and reclaimed lumber is not cheap. Each desk is made entirely by hand, so there’s a lot of labor that goes into each one.

There are others out there that do offer a more affordable solution. I even started out just modifying my existing desk to accommodate a standing position. But I wanted something that was much more durable and didn’t look like it necessarily came from Ikea.

fitztrevon Show HN: Handcrafted standing desks from reclaimed materials

OP here. I've been a developer for 10 years and have used a standing desk for the last 2. When I started, I just used whatever materials I could to prop my computer up higher. Once I was sold on the idea and benefits of standing, I started looking for a more permanent solution.

I wasn't really happy with the options. I wanted something very high quality and unique. So I decided to start building my own using reclaimed and salvaged materials.

Here's what I have so far. What do you think? What's important to you in a standing desk?

fitztrevon Shuttle - A simple SSH shortcut menu for OS X

It actually works pretty well with Vagrant. In fact, I even have Vagrant in the sample config file to show how it's done. :)

https://github.com/fitztrev/shuttle/blob/master/Shuttle/shut...

Basically just do `vagrant ssh-config box_name_here` to get the port and identity file that you need to specify in the SSH command.

fitztrevon Shuttle - A simple SSH shortcut menu for OS X

https://twitter.com/fitztrev/status/355340535659122688

It's actually the Solarized Dark, to be more specific. :)

fitztrevon Shuttle - A simple SSH shortcut menu for OS X

I used the built-in Quicktime Player to do a screen recording. Then I used an online mov-to-gif converter. I had a hard time getting it down to a decent size, though. Hope that helps!

fitztrevon Shuttle - A simple SSH shortcut menu for OS X

I was actually going to do this at first. Something as simple as openURL:"ssh://username@example.com", then let OS X handle opening the default terminal. But I wasn't able to easily specify things like a different private key (for AWS or Vagrant). This at least gives the user the ability to specify any option that they could also specify on the command line.

fitztrevon Shuttle - A simple SSH shortcut menu for OS X

I use iTerm2 (with Solarized theme), zsh, and Oh My Zsh (with the agnoster theme).

fitztrevon How We Built eBay’s First Node.js Application

"Our idea was to build a bare minimum boilerplate Node.js server that scales; we did not want to bloat the application by introducing a framework. The first four node modules we added as dependencies were express, cluster, request, and async."

I'm curious how you're using Express if not as a framework.

fitztrevon Yahoo to ignore IE10's "Do Not Track"

Issue aside, I'm curious about this site itself. The first thing I noticed is that they're running a pretty old version of WordPress. They're on 3.0.3 (December 2010) when the latest version is 3.4.2. For security purposes, I'm surprised they don't stay on top of that.

Also I was really confused if this was an official Yahoo site. No real mention anywhere on it. After some quick digging, it appears to be. But I'm surprised it's not hosted under the Yahoo.com domain somewhere.

fitztrevon Show HN: Skimling - A Platform to Help Kids Improve Their Writing

Interesting concept. Just a piece of advice that might improve conversions: I know you're using Stripe.js but you still should have an SSL cert on a payment page. And another thing with Stripe.js, don't use name attributes for the credit card input fields. That way they don't get passed through on the form submission.

fitztrevon Show HN: Crowd² - A viral marketing campaign creator I wrote in 72 hours

Stripe.

fitztrevon Show HN: Crowd² - A viral marketing campaign creator I wrote in 72 hours

The name was the result of a 5 hour long brainstorm with a friend. It was difficult to come up with one that somewhat made sense and was available. I have about 3 pages of scribbled out words and ideas. He proposed the original idea of "shared squared". All variances of that were taken, but I liked the concept of using "squared" and being able to draw a graph with "y = name^2" on it. Crowdsquared.com was available so I went with that.

fitztrevon Show HN: Crowd² - A viral marketing campaign creator I wrote in 72 hours

Thank you for the information. Because of this, and others', comments, I added an opt-out button. While the customer can still share, they have the clear option that they can download the offer without having to do so.

fitztrevon Show HN: Crowd² - A viral marketing campaign creator I wrote in 72 hours

The template is the Bootstrap template from Twitter. I mentioned in another comment that I would not have even started this project if it weren't for that. It made development so much easier.

It's built in PHP using a custom framework that I've developed over the years for fast development.

fitztrevon Show HN: Crowd² - A viral marketing campaign creator I wrote in 72 hours

Ah, yes. Cross-browser testing is one thing I was not able to do yet. If anybody is using IE, I apologize. Although the Bootstrap framework should do alright rendering in IE.

fitztrevon Show HN: Crowd² - A viral marketing campaign creator I wrote in 72 hours

For those of you interested, here are all of the tools and resources I used to produce the demo video.

Various stock illustrations, Keynote, GarageBand with a blanket over my head to reduce the echo, Screenr.com (free screencasting and they give you the raw mp4 at the end), iMovie (to import the mp4 and add the audio track), and VidYard (for video hosting and analytics)

I suggest checking out the Mixergy interview with Miguel Hernandez of Grumo Media. He has some great tips of how to make a good demo video. His website also has some great inspiration.

fitztrevon Show HN: Crowd² - A viral marketing campaign creator I wrote in 72 hours

The "demo" is the process that you go through to get the PDF. Maybe I should make that more clear. It's just a sample of how the functionality would work on your site if you offered an ebook.

The size/styling of the "Download for Free" button is just something I didn't give much thought to. I used a button generator and that's what it output. Looking at it again, it could certainly be smaller. Especially when sitting so close to my main CTA of "Create a Campaign."

fitztrevon Show HN: Crowd² - A viral marketing campaign creator I wrote in 72 hours

Yes, absolutely. I'd be very interested in hearing about it. Hit me up and I can share my roadmap of some things I may add.

fitztrevon Show HN: Crowd² - A viral marketing campaign creator I wrote in 72 hours

I'm looking forward to running lots of different A/B tests. I can change the "Download for Free" button, change the copy on the Share popup, and change how people interact with the share buttons. I definitely want to make sure I optimize the site, not just for me, but for the people who are using it to distribute their content. The purpose is to get them a larger distribution network so I'll try any changes that accomplish that.

fitztrevon Show HN: Crowd² - A viral marketing campaign creator I wrote in 72 hours

Thank you. Fortunately, I really enjoy video production so it was a lot of fun to work on.

fitztrevon Show HN: Crowd² - A viral marketing campaign creator I wrote in 72 hours

Thanks. I'll probably make some updates to the video and explain some things differently. I'm going to get somebody to do the voiceover next time, too. I think that will help with the quality.

Thursday early morning I started programming. Working prototype by Thursday afternoon. Spent then next couple days polishing it. Finished it Saturday night. Then I just spent Sunday doing design, copywriting, and video production.

fitztrevon Show HN: Crowd² - A viral marketing campaign creator I wrote in 72 hours

Most sites will have some good choices of illustrations. It doesn't have to be anything special. I really think you could get away with glorified stick figures and still make a great video.

The script and storyline is important. The big takeaway that I've gotten so far has been to make it "story-based". So instead of just a screencast saying "Crowd2 helps you create a marketing campaign to advertise your products", try, "Kevin is looking for ways to tell people about his new CD release..."

fitztrevon Show HN: Crowd² - A viral marketing campaign creator I wrote in 72 hours

I think it might depend on the offer as well. I'm probably the same on most things. But AppSumo has a similar "Free Deal" on their site where you get access to the video/product after tweeting about it. Since I may actually be interested in the offer most times, I'm usually pretty happy to do it. I know that I'm going to get value out of it and, by helping advertise the site, I'm helping them continue these offers in the future.

fitztrevon Show HN: Crowd² - A viral marketing campaign creator I wrote in 72 hours

Ahh, thanks for both reports. The G+ button seemed to be the most finicky about how things worked. I'll get both of those items updated, though. Thanks again.

fitztrevon Show HN: Crowd² - A viral marketing campaign creator I wrote in 72 hours

Fortunately, this wasn't the first product demo I made :).

Check out the Mixergy interview with Miguel Hernandez of Grumo Media. He talks about some great tricks you can use to make simple product demo videos.

Basically, it's really good stock illustrations + some good Keynote work + a blanket over your head to cut out the echo as you record the voiceover on your computer. I actually really enjoy making them.

fitztrevon Show HN: Crowd² - A viral marketing campaign creator I wrote in 72 hours

Thank you. The concept is similar. I did not like the fact that customers would have to authorize the app to post to their Twitter or Facebook accounts in order to post the status update. Instead, I just use the Like boxes from each of the networks. I look at it as a less-intrusive approach. And, if they decide the offer wasn't good enough or they didn't like it, they could remove the post. But I understand your point. I'm just as curious to see what the user behavior is.

This was my first project with Bootstrap and it did not disappoint.

fitztrevon Show HN: Crowd² - A viral marketing campaign creator I wrote in 72 hours

Indeed :) It's what made it all possible. I wouldn't have done it if I had to style all the forms and layouts from scratch.