samaparicio

(Disclaimer: I work for Ringio) You can be up and running with your own 800 number that routes to employees and pops on your screen who is calling (and match it to a Google Contact) in less than 10 minutes, and try it for free with Ringio. http://www.ringio.com

I've read full length books in both devices and the Kindle is far superior. The Kindle has much better button placement. The touch screen barely works. You don't want to be holding a pen all the time while you're reading. And that Kindle keyboard is extremely handy if you like to annotate while you read. You can use Calibre with both devices.

I think they come from this:

http://www.mypersonality.info/personality-types/population-g...

The #1 reason for blogging for a programmer should be altruism, since there is so much that programmers learn from blogs.

If you only read books, then don't blog.

If you ever saved time or got a tip or some code from a blog, then you owe the rest of the programmer community.

I think that's the right spirit.

The scary thought is that their "solutions" page doesn't really offer any good solution. TOR = slow browsing, privacy mode = doesn't really help that much, browsing from your cell phone = hell no...

With regards to the "privacy mode" of most browsers, I think that the feature is mis-named since it mostly refers to the browser's tracking of your activity, not the server's.

I have no advice to offer but I there's a discussion over at this thread which may be of use

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1078750

If you're talking about this site http://www.lkozma.net/ , I think you already have a very good eye for optimization. So congratulations!

I would focus on selling yourself, not selling something. Your Pagerank should help you speak with more influence about subjects that you are an expert on, and then, use that expertise to get jobs, consulting, funding, grants or get published.

From what I've learned, that is a good approach. Doesn't necessarily have to be structured as a blog with chronological entries, could look more like a traditional website.

An example: let's say you have a time tracking web app. Your content can talk about good approaches to time management, or techniques to focus, or publish research about the average lengths of different tasks from the data that you can gather from your users.

A great example is Mint.com's blog -- http://www.mint.com/blog/

I thought I would submit this link, given all the advanced SEO discussed as of late on HN. I'm not a marketer and it took some reading to get the gist of what SEO is about.

Other great HN discussions on SEO:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1073357

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1073723

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1074659

Why mess so much with your sleep cycles? If you look at the long lives of souther mediterraneans you don't see any of this stuff. Instead: good diet, don't overwork, big naps.

I especially like the notion of only hiring partners. It's a perfect example of measuring OUTPUTS like "total job cost" and "time to get it done" vs measuring INPUTS like "hourly rate"

For me, the answer to this question is a resounding 'yes'. Not only it is working, it is sustainable. Google is taking a page out of Apple's 'Think different' campaign and showing all of us how to do it.

But I still see a lot of miopic behavior in the media. The battle is not between Apple and Google. It's more like: (Apple + Google) > (RIM + Nokia)

This seems to me like a unique opportunity for next-gen startup incubators and the coworking movement to lease space at rates that would enable startup entrepreneurs to use the kind of digs that are normally completely outside of their reach.

In the 2010 season it looks like some new teams will be having a lot more of the startup dynamic, take Lotus, Campos, US F1 or Virgin Racing, because they're up against teams with big budgets like McLaren and Ferrari and they will have to find ways to win that are different. For example, US F1 does not have a wind tunnel, they've chosen to skip it and use CFD techniques instead.

Regarding the book list, nah...

To me the list in the post is too broad. In building up entrepreneurial skills, besides regular good business books, I tried to put together a list that covered a) inspirational stories, b) reference tomes, and c) practical advice.

http://blog.aparicio.org/entrepreneur-books/

From my blog post response:

Comparing programming to an art form, and the process of maturing as a developer to the process of becoming a master, comes from the mindset of somebody who is trying to create something intrinsically beautiful.

And while beauty is a powerful concept, most software projects are trying to make something functional.

More over here -- http://blog.aparicio.org/2009/12/28/the-master-the-expert-th...

I agree with that. That's step 4 in the article. It's probably not enough, in the sense that just looking at the mock screens doesn't tell you much about navigation and widget selection.

What came as a breakthrough for me was to actually mix screenshots and statically implemented screens in a real mobile app, then play a lot with that.

The main difference I see, is that when you design a web or desktop application on a computer screen, the designer is seeing, more or less, the pixels at the same size than the end user. When you design a mobile app, if you design it on a desktop, and that's where you mostly look at it, you end up having a built-in 2x magnification, and when you finally put it on the device, things are much more scrunched up and less usable than you thought.

The idea in the post is to play with the design, in the device, for a while, and get design feedback much earlier than when you give the app to a developer.

HN distills some of the best ideas from its predecessors:

1) Scoring system for stories (Digg) and comments (Slashdot)

2) Community based story submission (Kuro5hin)

3) Infinite indentation (Usenet and Forums)

It's also interesting to note what they didn't include in the design: Subjects for comments

HN's approach is not without challenges

1) Following the conversation gets tougher when there are a lot of levels. Who said what?

2) By reordering the posts according to points the user gets disoriented.

I would say, it depends on the orientation of your business. If you're targeting cosumers, they may have more time on their hands during the holidays to go play with your service.

If it's targeted towards business, forget it, now is a terrible time to launch. For the same reason, people in business have their head elsewhere, either closing the year, dealing with the retail high season, or going on vacation.

The exception to this would be if your offering is b2b and has to do with a category that is very well allocated to an expenditure item in a budget for which there is generally speaking potential 'use it or lose it' money.

HTH

Take the FUD point of view if you want. I don't see it. When a giant enters your market, this is a great way to react. No dismissal of their impact, validation that you created a market, desire to keep on competing, and ultimately, positioning positioning positioning of your competitive differentiators... I applaud David for his post and I think we can all learn.

Have you tried dropping by a coworking space?