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mitchelldm7

36 karma · joined May 6, 2011

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mitchelldm7··on Amazon Flexes Its Muscles in Fight Against Publishers
Exactly. Look at big box retailers -- Target and Walmart all give preferential treatment to manufacturers willing to sell at a discount or give special benefits to the retailer.

Better shelf placement, positioning near the front of the store, checkout placement ... All assets that retailers can exploit to woo vendors. Amazon is doing the same thing. Their assets are less tangible but offer just the same incentive to cooperate and play by their rules.

If you don't, you get pushed to the back of the store, placement out of eye level, etc.

mitchelldm7··on Ask HN: Is anyone doing a VPOS with card reader and printer for the iPad?
There are all kinds of them...

Lightspeed: http://www.lightspeedretail.com/ipad/

Shopkeep: http://www.shopkeep.com

Silver: http://ncrsilver.com/

Verifone MPOS: http://mpos.verifone.com

mitchelldm7··on Peter Thiel's unexpected job requirement
It's a poor assumption, for sure.

I, for example, went to a state school because quite frankly, I was not really interested in taking on hundreds of thousands in debt to finance a college education. I was accepted to a couple of top-tier universities but for financial reasons, attendance at such schools was not feasible.

mitchelldm7··on Peter Thiel's unexpected job requirement
Ridiculous. To say that a top-tier university produces a better employee, or business leader, is to say that a person's individual personality, upbringing or work ethic plays no part.

A high GPA - that's an understandable requirement - but to base it arbitrarily on a 'top-tier' university is depriving qualified, talented employees from consideration.

mitchelldm7··on Offer HN: A few domains I have that I won't need at cost
Hello!

Do you still have ObjectivePixel.com? I'd love to make use of it!

Cheers, Derek

mitchelldm7··on Ticketmaster Processing Fees Will Be Refunded To 12 Years Of Customers
Seems excessive and clearly obvious to consumers. This case indicates seems to indicate that retailers - Walmart, for example - would need to place signage in front of their products announcing that they make a profit on a sale.

The point of business is to make money. Consumers actually need to be reminded of that?

mitchelldm7··on Groupon burns small bakery with 102,000 cupcakes
This article suggests that it is Groupon's fault. Nothing could be further from the truth. Not even the most aggressive account executive could force this plan down the throat of a business owner. They solely elect to proceed with a Groupon promotion or not.

The fact that it was so successful is hardly a negative for Groupon -- quite the opposite, in fact. It suggests instead their command over marketing capabilities and their eager customer base.

This business owner should have worked with Groupon to design a promotion that covered costs - so that this wasn't so financially damaging.

mitchelldm7··on Ask HN: Ten step, hands-on Ruby programming course
I'm interested in this opp as well... Curious if anyone else has tried the course they are promoting, or might suggest this as a possible way to learn Ruby for beginners.
mitchelldm7··on Ask HN: what is the best way to get authorised data from users esp students?
The school kept trying to motivate us by pitching the selling points of this 'activities transcript' and how it would make it easier to show prospective employers what we were up to while earning a degree... I'm not sure I particularly enjoyed it, but the system made it as easy as possible so it only took a minute. It became a less popular Facebook, basically -- you'd keep it updated just like you did your Facebook profile.
mitchelldm7··on Ask HN: what is the best way to get authorised data from users esp students?
Look at companies like CollegiateLink (www.collegiatelink.net) or Orgsync (www.orgsync.com) ... They collect this type of non-academic/participation based data and use it to, among other things, generate 'extra-curricular transcripts' for students to document the activities and organizations they participated in while in college. Might be an interesting model for your approach.

As a former student user, I vaguely remember students self declaring their affiliations/memberships, but them having to be validated by an organization contact on campus -- like an advisor or group president.