Hacker News Reader

jseipon Reflections on Stress and Long Hours on Wall Street

Part of it is about gauging people on their ability to perform under extreme stress. Part of it is about extracting as much work as possible from a human before he / she burns out. Yet another goal is to take dozens of analyst and weed out, over the course of years, all those who are not hungry / greedy enough to make partner.

It sure as shit isn't about doing anything that is sustainable long-term.

jseipon Cash Burns Fast for Uber-Like Startups That Grow City by City

This was certainly true for us at Livingsocial and, to an extent, it was true for Groupon as well.

The cash burn sucks, but you have to love the unit-level economics that this model provides. Want to turn on new revenue? - just open up another city!

jseipon If SaaS Products Sell Themselves, Why Do We Need Sales?

and yet I find that is a commonly held misconception, and that there are many founders who think of sales as a four letter word.

jseipon How to Get into Y Combinator

I enjoyed that one as well :)

jseipon NASA to Make Major Announcement Today About Astronaut Transport to the ISS

Boeing, SpaceX, Lockheed?

jseipon The Innovations Free Compute and Storage Unleash

That 'Cost per Transistor Cycle' graph is pretty spectacular.

jseipon Comcastify.js: Sometimes images just load too damned fast

Well done Onion!

jseipon Ask HN: 21-year-old coder recent grad has no idea what to do with his life

"Realizing that you are just an average guy who will be just as everyone else, and you'll never ever create something that truly changes the world and has impact on it is fucking scary." First, get that idea out of your head. Second, you seem to recognize that you are a)unhappy and b)unsure of what question exactly you are asking or need to ask. The good news is that a skilled therapist can help you with both of these things. Go to work, invest time in therapy, and when you're ready you can get back to pursuing the things that interest and excite you. Good luck!

jseipon VUE: Mobile Analytics. One Line of Code Now in Private Beta

Good luck Brian!

jseipon Amazon Local Register

I don't get this. Seems like a late entry into a saturated and (at least in Square's case) not that lucrative market. Any insight into why you would do this?

jseipon The CIA's Reckless Breach of Trust

Pardon Snowden Now.

jseipon Filecoin – Data storage network and crypto-currency based on Bitcoin

If well configured, the system should be fault tolerant (i.e if any node drops off the network there are other copies available elsewhere. Many systems already implement this (including Bitcoin itself). To be more robust than Dropbox, all you have to do is have more system uptime than AWS (or whatever service they're using to store all that data).

jseipon Filecoin – Data storage network and crypto-currency based on Bitcoin

This is an amazing business model. If they can make it user-friendly (big if) they'll essentially be offering a more cost-effective, more robust alternative to Dropbox.

This appears to be truly disintermediated (P2P) secure file sharing?

jseipon We put $200k into a site that sucks. Please destroy us with your criticism

Why would I want to do this?

jseipon So you didn't get into Y Combinator, now what?

It's an incredibly useful data point to YC if the applicants get rejected and then quit building. If that happens, the entrepreneurs are basically confirming YC's decision not to invest. Ain't no way to succeed without persistence.

jseipon Boosted's Electric Skateboard (YC S12)

The cost is totally prohibitive, even for the early adopter market. Boosted - I was working on this problem (far less successfully than you - hat tip) and came to the conclusion that you have to give people a low starting cost and the ability to upgrade over time. Give me brushed motors, NiMH batteries and cheap trucks to start with for closer to $600USD. Once you've hooked me on the product (and I'm confident you will) offer me upgrades to LiFEPO4 batteries, better bearings, brushless motors, RadiKS wheels, etc. Up-front pricing will not win this market!

jseipon The $13 Billion Mystery Angels

Well said! Trenton - hat tip for the (on point) gets boys reference

jseipon AdRoll Raises $70M

erlang and AWS FTW!

jseipon Gabriel García Márquez, Literary Pioneer, Dies at 87

100 years of solitude will stand as one of the world's greatest literary works for the next ~1000 years. RIP GGM

jseipon Update on Coinbase Data Security

Interesting to note that they did not dispute the claim (posted on HN with the pastebin data) that they are providing transaction data to government agencies.

jseipon AOL chief cuts 401(k) benefits, blames Obamacare and two “distressed babies”

The worst thing about a struggling company is the petty, demoralizing measures management takes to cut costs. Save a few million in 401k costs but waste eight figures in decreased productivity, increased employee turnover, and lower morale overall. This seems shortsighted.

jseipon Show HN: Probabilistically Generating HN Post Titles

Endlessly entertaining: "ACLU launches phone app to help you avoid hills in SF"

jseipon Wolfram Alpha’s New Data about Pokémon

New pickup line: I maintain the Pokemon database for Wolfram Alpha #chicksdignerds #notreally #hopeforIPOmoney

jseipon GitHub is not your new résumé

http://jseip1679.github.io/cv/

This one isn't updated for mobile, but it does print nicely.

jseipon GitHub is not your new résumé

Unless I wrote my resume in html and css and hosted it using Github pages, which I did. #winning

jseipon I Raised My Kids On the Command Line and They Love It (2012)

This. Is. Awesome.

Kudos that a dad has the where with all to give his kids an introduction to technology that will increase their understanding and appreciation of current and future tech. This is a lot harder than just handing your kid an ipad - and (hopefully) his kids will thank him for it when they grow up.

jseipon Groupon sales rep threatens restaurant with negative Yelp reviews

If Groupon sales management gets wind of this Andy will be terminated immediately. I dealt with issues similar to this at LivingSocial (one rep offered a positive Yelp review in exchange for a deal) and both legal and sales know this is a very big no-no. Andy will have to re-learn business ethics at another company.

jseipon Zynga sues sex app maker over Bang With Friends name

Glad to see Zynga is laser-focused on stopping their revenue decline...

jseipon Establishing secure connection

We need a progress bar! ~Brilliant MBA