robyates

That search functionality is much better! The changes you made look good. However, when I search for 'CHQ5066' and it brings a list of flights, I click on one flight and it brings up a page with the Fatal Error message: http://flightlite.com/track/CHQ5066/2010-12-28T09:55

Also you say "flightlite.com is all about what's in the air at the moment". Think about how it would be easiest to present this information. Rather than make something that looks like a competitor to flightcaster.com or flightstats.com, try to make something that compliments it.

As veb said, using the Google Maps API is probably better than Google Earth since users wouldn't have to install anything. Perhaps you could have a map of one city on the front page and show all the lines of each flight going into and out of the city. See the Facebook friend visualization for inspiration: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2002742

Ok, that's it for now. I actually have a flight to catch tomorrow since that AA one got canceled. Feel free to contact me privately (contact info is in my profile) if you want more feedback after making some changes on your site.

Finally, remember what Paul Graham says: It's better to make something a few users love than a lot of users only like. (Paraphrased from http://www.paulgraham.com/13sentences.html)

How does that compare to Uniserver and XAMPP?

Another lesson to be learned is: shipping is a feature.

“George’s genius was realizing where games were going and taking it to the next level,” says Paul Schuytema, who worked for Broussard and Miller heading up the development of Prey, another 3D Realms title. “That was his sword and his Achilles’ heel. He’d rather throw himself on his sword and kill himself than have the game be bad.

Broussard simply couldn’t tolerate the idea of Duke Nukem Forever coming out with anything other than the latest and greatest technology and awe-inspiring gameplay. He didn’t just want it to be good. It had to surpass every other game that had ever existed, the same way the original Duke Nukem 3D had.

But because the technology kept getting better, Broussard was on a treadmill. He’d see a new game with a flashy graphics technique and demand the effect be incorporated into Duke Nukem Forever. “One day George started pushing for snow levels,” recalls a developer who worked on Duke Nukem Forever for several years starting in 2000. Why? “He had seen The Thing” — a new game based on the horror movie of the same name, set in the snowbound Antarctic — “and he wanted it.” The staff developed a running joke: If a new title comes out, don’t let George see it. When the influential shoot-’em-up Half-Life debuted in 1998, it opened with a famously interactive narrative sequence in which the player begins his workday in a laboratory, overhearing a coworker’s conversation that slowly sets a mood of dread. The day after Broussard played it, an employee told me, the cofounder walked into the office saying, “Oh my God, we have to have that in Duke Nukem Forever.”

Wired has a really good article from last year about why DNF was never finished: http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/12/fail_duke_nukem/

Executive summary: The first game was too successful. Failure can be, and often is, a good thing.

"Normally, game developers don’t have much cash. Like rock bands seeking a label to help pay for the cost of recording an album, game developers usually find a publisher to give them an advance in exchange for a big slice of the profits. But Broussard and Miller didn’t need to do this. 3D Realms was flush with cash. [...] Yet the truth is, Broussard’s financial freedom had cut him off from all discipline. He could delay making the tough calls, seemingly forever. One day, Broussard came in and said, ‘We could go another five years without shipping a game’ because 3D Realms still had so much money in the bank"

You could also go to the BIL conference - http://www.bilconference.com

I just tried using the site. It seems quite a bit rough around the edges.

The search bar looks kind of strange with the black background and the bars between each character. I wasn't even sure where I should start typing as the search bar doesn't really look like a search bar. From http://sivers.org/quirks, "The best design should do what people expect, and should not make them think."

Also, I tried searching for my flight today that had been canceled. It was American Airlines flight 5066, but I entered "5066", "AA5066", and "American Airlines" and searching the flights, and could not find it.

Finally, how you checked out flightcaster.com? It's a YC startup from 2009. I'm not sure how your site does much different than that website other than the google earth visualization. I was using flightcaster.com and flightstats.com to check the status of my flight today. Perhaps you could just focus on the google earth visualization and import the data from these websites?

Sorry to be so critical above, but I hope this helps in some way. Congrats on your first launch!

Thanks for asking this question! I don't have an answer for you, but I just want to say you're not alone. I'm 24 and after college, I decided to work for $big_company. Now I really think I should have worked for a startup instead. Perhaps do what rms said and form an early stage startup yourself or join someone else's.

Or try what friends of mine have told me, and just work on as many potential startup projects as you can in your free time until one of them becomes successful. A quote I saw recently: "Have multiple sticks in the fire because you never know which one is going to bring you luck." I think that's a good rule to live by.

P.S. If your interested, feel free to contact me if you want to work on something together.

You edited the post to include it! It's a Festivus mircle!

If you are still in college, do study abroad.

It's a great way to meet new people, both from your home country and the country you are visiting. Living in one country you get accustomed to a certain way of life, so this can help you break out of your comfort zone to try new things. Studying abroad was really an eye opening experience for me; definitely one of the best decisions I ever made.

Also, have you tried dancing? :) As Woody Allen said, "80 percent of success is showing up."

It looks similar to args4j in Java: http://www.whenbrainsfly.com/2009/05/args4j-is-magic/

Same here, I just sent you an email. That's a really great gesture! Thanks!