Hacker News Reader

prponon Turmeric - eBay's SOA Platform, now open source

Service Oriented Architecture in short allows companies to compose new web services or re-use existing web services. eg: A check-driving-history module in an auto-insurance company software can be externalized as a web service.

Various SOA platforms provide tooling via eclipse plugins or standalone IDEs and run time environments (as application servers) to compose web services in different programming languages like BPEL, Java etc.

You can manage versions of your web services using the platform (eg: webservice_v1.1 talks to A and webservice_v1.2 talks to B).

You can add access control to your web services.

You can monitor your web services, start and stop them using the monitoring tools provided.

I've worked on a team that built a SOA platform. I am not sure if any existing platform delivers half the things it promises. It sure helps management feel that they are agile and can compose services quickly to changing business needs.

prponon I think the equity a startup is offering me is very low. Am I crazy?

PG: What do you think of the equity offered?

prponon Help wanted: Google hiring in 2011

The post mentions Google is still the same entrepreneurial company it was when I started, encouraging Googlers to take on big ideas and high-risk, high-reward opportunities.

I do not know what the current salary/options numbers are but is it really high-reward for the top notch engineers they are seeking at this point in the game?

prponon LivingSocial Hacked

Honest question to fellow hackers and entrepreneurs: Do we have to take every opportunity to put down your competition? Are there not enough venues to market yourself?

Wouldn't a simple post like this be enough? LivingSocial does not guarantee that you get what you ordered like Tippr does.

prponon Beans make you gassy, and other advice from last night's first YC dinner

By meeting frequently with the constant push of “have you launched?” and then “can I see your chart?”, PG and Harj helped us focus on making the right trade-off to do what it takes to make a great product but not a perfect one.

What chart is he referring to here?

prponon Dead End Jobs: Are You Suffering from Stockholm Syndrome?

There will always be things you want to tweak in your resume to showcase your skills in the best possible light. I would say, get any resume with all your skills in it and float it around....starting with Groupon. Goodluck.

prponon Entrepreneurs We Love: Jessica Mah (YC S10)

Not the energy level but US has great advantage at giving second chances. The press who put out these glory pieces will not think twice about writing flame articles if the company/person is down and out.

However, there are many businesses, VCs and co-founders who are willing to respect and hire you for the experience of trying and failing.

Not so in most countries I have experience in.

prponon Offer HN: free design work.

Kareem, I may not be the intended audience for your webapp but I couldn't figure out what the term 'booking' calendar meant. May be you could put up a few situations when someone would use your app to help understand your app better.

prponon Patrick McKenzie and The Long Tail of Optimization [audio]

Max, Don't let one person's opinion be a judgment on you by the entire HN community. I, for one love your blog and you comments here. I may not agree with all your comments but you provide a different perspective and you definitely don't mind ruffling a few feathers :). Keep up the good work.

prponon "I modeled this website on the same principles of Walmart"

I am sure this is an elaborate joke. One of the ad that shows up on the landing page is this: Arrogant garage - Where customers are treated like friends.

prponon A Picture Emerges - Ex-Sun CEO, Jonathan Schwartz' next move

I am Indian and grew up in rural india. Have not seen it in 2010 but I still doubt that the people who lack electricity and sanitation are cruising the internets.

prponon A Picture Emerges - Ex-Sun CEO, Jonathan Schwartz' next move

According to the web site PictureofHealth.com,

"Most places on Earth, the internet is more accessible than electricity, clean water, or basic sanitation."

I have a hard time believing that statement. May be so, but not to the people who lack electricity, clean water or basic sanitation.

prponon Skype Loses Engineering Chief (possibly due to TechCrunch commenters?)

If it is very very hard to be a good manager, it doesn't matter if your manager is Indian or not. right?

I've been on H1-B and I didn't think about my H1-B on a day to day basis to be a lousy manager/person. On that list could be any number of things like mortgage, car payment, family & kids etc.

Your comment is great for explaining why being a good manager is hard. Not sure if I would assume that the comments about Madhu Yarlagadda are true.

prponon Ask HN: anyone ever drop everything and leave software dev behind?

File access and monitoring is possible in Java. Using Java will make your app OS independent though. I am not a Python person but I am sure it is possible. It all depends on how much stuff you want to take on, getting back into Programming.

Regarding 'no body cares for my stuff', we all have our traps. Mine is, moving onto the next interesting project. May be there is merit to just doing it. Finishing something, putting something out there and let it do its thing.

prponon Ask HN: anyone ever drop everything and leave software dev behind?

If you can, rewrite the application using Python/Java that u are learning (Ruby, if you want to catch up). May be you can refine the idea and do a better job now. I admire your path. Goodluck and keep us posted on your progress.

prponon Ask HN: Surprised by your revenue? Easier than you thought?

Guy Kawasaki had an article where he mentions doing a bottom up approach to financial projections. "How many biz dev meetings can I attend, how many people can I reach out every single day and add in the conversion rates for each one of them". It's probably better than saying my company will get 1% of a 10 billion dollars market.

prponon Richard Stallman: "I Wished I Had Killed Myself"

I guess Richard Dawkins' selfish gene theory and Free Software Foundation don't go together. :)

prponon WakeMates are shipping! Congrats WakeMates

Wakemate may or may not have handled the situation as best as they can. I do not know. I, for one, pre-ordered and wanted this thing in my hands soon. I am mighty pissed at the expectations set and what was delivered.

Giving premium features for free? I don't even have an idea of what the basic features look like, to get excited about premium features and accept the delays.

You might say 'take your 5$ and go some where else'. They definitely are losing me as a customer. If only they saved me the trouble and time, I would have bought and made use of other products months ago.

prponon Ask HN: Hackers in LA?

I am in arcadia as well but work on the westside. Would love to meet fellow hackers. Email is in my profile.

prponon NY Pays 230 “Consultants” $722M For Project 7 Years Behind Schedule

If you are a startup, leave government contracts for someone else to figure out. By the time it comes thru and makes you a boat load of money, you will be long dead (as a company).

This was said by PG or someone definitely smarter than me.

prponon Ask HN: How can I go full-time on my startup with H1B visa?

Based on your description, you seem to be on EAD or will qualify for one (Employment Authorization Document).

A person in the final stages of green card qualifies for AC21 (American Competitiveness in the Twenty-First Century Act of 2000)

Being on an EAD allows self employment provided that a) It is a full time employment b) Your new responsibilities are similar to the one original green card application.

For more information refer to the AC21 document or one of the several online forums. Here's one I recommend: http://imminfo.com/Library/AC21_issues/AC21-portability-self...

prponon Tell HN: Thank you

Keep up the good work brother. We, fellow HN users have seen you and mixergy evolve into something we look forward to. I hope you will be able to monetize your effort as well as keep most of us around.

prponon Sun/oracle closes project kenai

From wikipedia:

Project Kenai is Sun Microsystems' collaborative hosting site for free and open source projects. The service will be discontinued for public use as part of Oracle Corporation's restructuring of Sun.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Kenai

prponon Stone: Leonardo da Vinci's Resume

Let me see if I understand the skill set listed here:

1. I know of a bunch of open source code that I can download. 2. I can run code written in Javascript, PHP or C. I have scripts that I copied from other places I can run as well. 3. I will put your shared data in the cloud and create lots of mirror sites similar to your own.

In case any of this sounds impossible, watch me steal your customer credit card numbers from your data center.

prponon AT&T To Launch Yelp Competitor

I agree with the fact that this is doomed to fail. AT&T does own Yellow Pages and they do have a head start in that regard. Wasn't there a story about Yelp being lousy for business owners on HN active list the last few days?

prponon The Real Reason Outsourcing Continues To Fail

I am an Indian, not sure about the relegious part. Karma at least in India/Hindu culture is tossed around more freely than in the west. Mostly associated to negative incidents. "I had a flat tire, its my karma", "Someone got kicked out of a job, he is reaping his karma".

You rarely would say "He has accumulated lot of good karma by doing good, I better see what he has to say". On HN, its a different story.

prponon A Ponzi scheme that works

I've always considered myself a 'global citizen' after living in the US for 15 years. During a 10 day trip to Germany. I was thrown out of a bar for asking directions in english, yelled at by some crazy dude in a train station for stealing their jobs and people crossed streets just to avoid a dark guy.

When I landed in Los Angeles, the minute I saw a mexican american immigration officer, I almost cried. I was home. No one will question me why I am here. The mexicans, the chinese, the Indians, the whites and the blacks. They are all my people.

I might have my curry everyday but my spirit is american.

prponon Step one is admitting you have a problem

There is only one failure and that's not trying. You could tweak a million things to perfection and stress yourselves about it but, I doubt the outcome would be much different. Whether or not this works out for you, you will have learnt a great deal both personally and professionally. Good luck to you.

prponon Ask HN: Rate this Start Up - Venmo.com

Nicely done interface. A minor nitpick, if you send SMS to 646-863-9557, shouldn't the second screen have a different phone number? Or does all of the interaction you show there happens on the person sending the money?

prponon I'm 20, brilliant and totally lost

There's a crisis brewing every quarter year of your life, if you let them be your crisis. There are some crisis that need intervention and help but whatever happened to a simple kick on the butt to move ahead and go do something useful?