Hacker News Reader

mvaon Ask HN: Who is hiring? (April 2015)

Usabilla - https://usabilla.com/jobs - Amsterdam, The Netherlands. We are looking for Full Stack developers and experienced Front-end Developers.

Stack: AWS, MongoDB, Elastic Search, Go, AngularJS, PHP (Symfony 2). Awesome team & most beautiful office in Amsterdam (https://instagram.com/usabilla/)

mvaon Show HN: Headphone Enhancer for Techno and 5.1 Movies

Would be great if I could adjust the bass myself a bit. Some songs are now just a bit too much. Furthermore vocals are missing that spark and sound quite dull. I have the idea that you are boosting the mids which pushes high freqs a bit to the background.

mvaon One-click video conversations without registration on iPhone

"Video conversations with up to 8 people for free."

Guess there will be a paid plan later which allows more people.

mvaon Ask HN: Who is hiring? (January 2014)

Usabilla - Amsterdam - The Netherlands

We build cutting-edge feedback technologies. We have just reached a record exposure of 2 billion monthly Live Feedback button displays – serving an international client base, including big online players like Booking.com, Vodafone, T-Mobile and Spilgames. Time to expand our team with highly motivated and skilled web developers.

We use: PHP / Symfony 2, Go, NodeJS, Javascript, MongoDB, AWS

http://blog.usabilla.com/hiring-skilled-web-developers-amste...

mvaon Show HN: Kraken.io – image optimization service

What would be the difference from tools like http://tinypng.org and http://www.jpegmini.com/main/shrink_photo ?

mvaon The Data Behind Purchasing Behavior at UserVoice – Pricing for Conversion

I think he meant that the actual conversion to a paid customer. Of course you will get more sign ups (we saw the same at Usabilla), but that doesn't mean those additional sign ups will convert into a paid customer.

We have seen as well that there is less dedication from a customer when they sign up without a credit card. People sign up and forget about it, because it isn't paid anyway (even when you send them regular update emails). When requiring a cc for sign up the user is more motivated to actually trial the product and see if there is a fit.

It basically shifts the drop by sign ups from the actual users who want to use your product for a longer period.

Above is all from B2B experience. B2C can be totally different.

mvaon Ask HN: Who is hiring? (July 2013)

Amsterdam, Netherlands, sales executives, Usabilla.com

We are looking for full time ambitious native speaking sales executives, who can actively sell our SaaS-tools Usabilla Live and Usabilla Survey in the UK, Germany and France.

Usabilla is a fast growing Software as a Service company that offers website feedback tools to big online players like: Vodafone, Booking.com, Tele2, G-Star and T-Mobile. By continuously innovating our frameworks and using the highest possible technical solutions, we make sure that we keep ahead of the leading edge of the technology curve and remain the standard in user feedback.

Full job description: http://blog.usabilla.com/we-are-looking-for-sales-executives...

Apply or more information: jobs@usabilla.com

mvaon Why I Dislike EC2

First, people seem to think EC2 saves you time and hassle. Compared to collocated servers, this is true. But compared to dedicated servers, managed or unmanaged, it simply isn't. Hardware fails? They'll replace it (at no cost).

I totally disagree. OK, maybe it takes a bit more time to set everything up, but when you have it all up and running (AMI's, Autoscaling, etc.) you have a robust setup that can scale when you scale (up or down). Adding a new instance literally only takes some minutes. Try that with a dedicated setup. It's more expensive for sure, but comes with a lot of flexibility.

What I see as an EC2 (or AWS in general) issue / challenge is that it's hard to switch providers. When you use S3, SQS, Cloudwatch, Elasticache, Cloudfront, DynamoDB, SES, Route53 your code is totally integrated / adapted to AWS. You can't take your code and deploy it on a different setup elsewhere.

mvaon Optimizely Raises $28 Million to Go Global

I was quite astonished when reading about their insane growth. Most of the companies we talk to in The Netherlands (Telco's, E-commerce, Banking / insurance, travel) are using VWO, Sitespect and last week I heard two clients talk about Maxymiser. Not one time I heard them talk about Optimizely. Seems there is still a lot of room for growth (at least in NL).

We (usabilla.com) are using Optimizely with great satisfaction though!

mvaon Wizard for Mac - a tool for statistics and data analysis

Or upload it to youtube and split it up, so it's scrollable (wasn't able to scroll in the 30+ minute video now).

mvaon How Google takes feedback

We just deployed a change. When you give feedback for a second time (when you are still in the feedback flow), you won't see the intro dialog anymore.

mvaon Kindle Edition of The Pragmatic Programmer for $2.99

For the ones that are seeing a different price. There is a small trick workaround for that. You can generate a real US address here: http://www.realusaaddress.com/ and make that your primary address. As you as shipping digital stuff it doesn't matter that it's not your real address. Prices of the Kindle store should drop immediately.

Watch out when making non digital purchases though that you select the correct address ;-)

mvaon Pie chart progress in your website's favicon

We are using Notificon (https://github.com/makeable/Notificon) to display notifications in the favicon of Discover (http://discover.usabilla.com/), but I really this pie chart as well. Now I have to think of useful ways to implement it.

mvaon Ask HN: Recommendations for learning and improving UX/UI skills?

shameless self promotion - On our company blog you can find lots of articles which can improve your UX/UI skills:

http://blog.usabilla.com/category/design/

mvaon The Most Successful E-mail I Ever Wrote

Great book, loved him being open / honest in the book.

mvaon Show HN: HandsFread - Hands Free Page Scroller Bookmarklet

Can't you make a button which you drag / drop on the bookmarks bar in stead of all the steps you've written?

mvaon WebKit Limit on Retina JPG Image Display

Another issue, but also there: PNG images above a certain height failed to load on the iPhone 4. We were facing that problem with our mobile testing tool. Converting the images to JPG solved the problem.

mvaon From 10 Hours a Week, $10 Million a Year

Here some more information on their architecture: http://highscalability.com/plentyoffish-architecture

mvaon How I Quickly Test and Validate Startup Ideas

I've read about this idea in the 4 hour work week. This is the way Tim Ferris tested his ideas.

mvaon Poll: Your preferred music for working?

whoops, then you've been living in a different world ;-)

mvaon Poll: Your preferred music for working?

haha, no eletronic music in the list? Silly Americans ;-)

I vote for minimal techno

mvaon Google Analytics blog integrates Mixpanel analytics

Keep your friend close, but keep your "enemies" or competitors closer. Make sense to compare results of both of these products.

mvaon Realtime web analytics service UserLook

First thought they were location in Ukraine / Russia, because of these cheap prices. Apparently they are located in Torrance, CA. With these prices, you won't survive... (8.95 USD for the most popular plan).

mvaon My project, updated: Trending Tech News. Feedback appreciated

I don't really see why Linux should have a separate category at the top. Doesn't really fit the line of Business / Gadgets / Programming. Maybe add a category for UX/Design? Or maybe a category focused on startups?

Overall, awesome project. Keeping an eye on it!

mvaon Ask HN: Copy & Undercut. Should I do this?

Are there any pain points in these services which you are currently experiencing? If so, focus on those and that's how to differentiate.

I don't think competing on price will help you a lot: 1. People use a certain tool because they like it and they are willing to pay for it. A couple of dollar less, won't convince them to use your tool. 2. Too low prices tools makes people think there is something wrong with it. 3. You won't survice when you don't charge enough.

There is always a market for another tool. As long as you solve a problem, you'll attract users.

mvaon Our Amsterdam startup partnered with Virgin Mobile

Great news, congrats!

mvaon It's Time to Fix Subversion Merge

use git -> fixed

mvaon Say hello to Appsterdam: developers aim to move the Valley to Amsterdam

Wouldn't say that hiring is easier in Amsterdam... It's always hard to get real good developers and when pusing out a job vacancy, most responses are from non Dutch developers who want to work in Amsterdam (not that is a problem).

mvaon Apple Hires The Guy Who Hacked Together A Better iOS Notifications System

Looks a bit like the notification system I've seen on an Android device (I can be wrong though). Personally I was more into this notification concept which was made by a Swedish designer: http://vimeo.com/21208357

mvaon The Only Way to Get Important Things Done

What really helped for me is closing email and only check email at two times a day (a bit before lunch and around 16.00) -> tips from the four hour work week. Don't check email when you get into the office, because your further work day will be influenced by it.