mmcdan

For better or for worse... I doubt Jeff Bezos, Meg Ryan, Larry Page, or even Jacqueline Novogratz would be attending and interacting at a conference that wasn't at least some bit elitist. To know that the fellow attendees are "peers" who have some comparable "level of achievement" puts them in a different mindset than being surrounded by people who are extremely passionate about something but may not have as much of a track record. The former scenario is networking for them, the latter is putting in face time/public relations. I think that if you make the TED conference itself more open, then you'll lose some of the big name people. The big name people who do attend will be in that "lecture to the audience" mode and likely leave right after the speeches.

TEDx is the non-elitist version of the TED. I think these are just as inspiring and motivating, but without the distraction of the big names. The character of the event is different(less money, prestige, and social posturing in the room) but the spirit of sharing ideas and doing what we can is the same. I think there is a place for both TED and TEDx in the world. Whichever you most want to attend depends on your own personal goals and circumstances.

I thought this was a good comment up until "Contrary to many people on HN, I don't do startups for the money." By what metric are you judging this?

I honestly don't think that was his argument. His argument was more like: "You started off with a cool idea that no one wanted, accidentally found something people were willing to beg for, then got rid of what people wanted to work more on the cool idea."

It would have been just as valid to stick with the idea people begged for/made money and add features that made you happy. Wouldn't it have been valuable to test/market View to thousands of customers with the need they were trying to solve?

I really like the bottom toolbar as a design element. It drives home the point that this is a full-featured web application. I also like that you have a narrated video.

Suggestions: -Decrease(or remove) the outer blur/glow on the Rela Logo. It's very distracting in my peripheral vision when trying to read the rest page.

-Instead of having each box title be "Rela...", make them more descriptive so that a band manager/artist would want to read.For example, instead of "Relay" put "Track Merchandise", instead of 'Relate" put "Manage Tours", instead of "Rely" put "Track Soundscans".

-Get rid of "Relational",and "Relax".

-The video is very complicated to me. Maybe have 1 overview video where you gloss over most of the features and focus only on the critical ones... maybe using a fictional band as an example? Then have your more detailed video as a tutorial.

-Consider a beta test group(with non-techie musicians/managers) to help refine the software workflow.

Overall, I think the front-page has information overload and over-relies on the "Rela..." concept. You obviously know the market(serious musicians). If you can make the landing page less cluttered and streamline the software workflow a little, you have a good chance of having a winner.

I like the general design/colors. It looks non-threatening and inviting. Does it take location into account? Suggestions: -Increase the width of the content area. Things look too close together. -Try adding a drop shadow on the rounded rectangles. -The corner of the rectangles is visible over the background. Try making it a transparent png. -Try moving the "Dating Made Easy" signup box below the explanation of how the service works.

Overall, I think it has potential if you play with the design a little and give it a marketing push before VDay.

Only the "ia" has the strikethrough. I think it's to show that the product name "Socl" = "Social" - "ia". I agree that it is confusing though.

Thanks for your feedback. What would make it more useful for you? Finding teas that contain ginger isn't too useful, but apple and cinnamon-flavored teas that help improve digestion would be useful for me, at least. I get the health benefit with my favorite flavors.

You're right, the diversity of vendors is pretty small at this point. My first goal was to make the # of searchable teas as large as possible. Next on the TODO list is to add those smaller shops that have some delicious custom brews. Soon there will be a filter to search by vendor size(e.g large tea retailers vs. mom-and-pop shops) so that they don't get lost in the larger suppliers.

Nice:) At what point does a search engine become an index/directory? The site scans the tea websites for product updates periodically, but it does add contextual knowledge about the domain(tea) rather than general matching like google.

Good call... still debating which direction to go with it. My initial prototype was search-box based. But I found I actually had more fun exploring the teas by slowing adding filters rather than typing exactly what I was thinking of.

Thanks, will send an email!

I'm using JQuery, Rails w/Passenger, and super-fast searching with Sphinx. Rails is awesome. This combo makes coding awesome and efficient... I wouldn't even bother with Wordpress.

Successful use of rmagick also requires that you explicitly call the ".destroy!" method on all images(including intermediary ones) to ensure that memory is freed up. Looking at Ruby's Object space shows that this method successfully marks the images for deletion. This eliminated the memory leaks for me. You may have to also call GC.start after ".destroy!" if you want the objects cleaned up as quickly as possible.

See: http://rubyforge.org/forum/forum.php?thread_id=1374&foru...

I've used AIR apps(as a consumer, not a developer) and there are times when I get a little frustrated with the experience. Still, I use the software because it saves me time and makes my life 10x easier. Overall if customers are criticizing your use of AIR as a platform rather than praising you for solving their problem, then you have bigger problems than the AIR vs. Native debate. Many users will tolerate even the crappiest of experiences, see IE6-IE8, so long as it solves their needs.

The project-based method of learning really appeals to me. It encourages goal setting and taking action, in this case writing code, and doing whatever is necessary to get stuff done. When you finally start dabbling on the academic side, you have "hooks" in your mind to hang bits of knowledge that some might gloss over. These are earned from past experiences.

Another benefit is that even when your earlier projects don't turn out the way you want, you have a visible path of progression that you can show your potential employers, potential co-founders, or even yourself just to reflect on. In a way, my past projects are my programmers diary.

It's technically true that tea is only made from the camellia sinensis plant, but you can get the same experience from other "hot, tea-like drinks" as well such as Herbal and Rooibos "teas".

Please take a look at http://www.theteafinder.com. It's a tea search engine that I made after getting motivated reading HN a few weeks ago! You can search for tea by flavor and health benefit.

Would love feedback from other tea-drinking hackers.