HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

willbill

43 karma · joined May 17, 2013

rails dev in ny

reach out: willsommers@gmail.com

submissionscomments
willbill··on Earn $4 in bitcoins for any commit to sferik/t, a command-line Twitter tool
I love how whitespace has turned into an "issue" and how a problem has also turned into an "issue"
willbill··on North Korean Central News Agency server logs protected by client-side JavaScript
If you want to learn about NK read "Nothing to Envy" by Barbara Demick. Interviews with refugees.
willbill··on Things that suck in AngularJS
Neither good SO answers nor docs emerge out of thin air. If you find the right way to do something, document it, write it down, submit a PR.
willbill··on How to get Gogo in-flight wireless internet for free
Credit Louis CK at least.
willbill··on Essential Tools for Starting a Rails App in 2013
I might add the pry gem to that list. It has a pretty robust community around it and it can help when debugging hairy code.
willbill··on Documents Shed Light on Border Laptop Searches
Moxie Marlinespike of WhisperNet has explicitly said that he leaves his devices at home when traveling because of this.
willbill··on Washington Post to be sold to Jeff Bezos
It doesn't do the same investigative reporting either.
willbill··on One Month Rails (YC S13) Teaches How To Build Your Startup While Learning To Code
I remember reading his quite useful blog post on learning rails quickly which included what was involved in creating a website and how to attain a simple understanding of web-specific database design, REST and front-end design.

It was pretty good. Two things sort of dismay me though when I see something like this:

1. There are lots of free resources available online, like the above mentioned blogpost. We need to make a better case for open and free learning.

2. All start-ups are forms and the display of the information entered into those forms according to nearly all of the start-ups I run into in NYC.

willbill··on Unlikely Recommendations for Startups and Entrepreneurs
I can rich and you can too!
willbill··on Can Marissa Mayer save Yahoo?
Can we stop posting articles from businessweek? Please?
willbill··on Angular or Backbone: what are startups using?
Derek Bailey is a boss. His lost techies blog is great even if you aren't using marionette.
willbill··on MBA builds app in less than 2 months
You should reword this.

Few of these schools are free. Most supplement a course fee with a placement fee they receive by acting as your recruiter.

willbill··on Ask HN: What Freelancer site do you recommend?
None, just meet people. You'll get better jobs and introductions through clients who like your work.
willbill··on Always Be Coding – How to Land an Engineering Job
I also cringe whenever I see 'Now building things' in a person's profile. What were you doing before?
willbill··on Show HN: My new homepage
no, use this. https://github.com/mattspitz/completeme
willbill··on NY official: Airbnb stay illegal; host fined $2,400
One of the main problems I have with it is that in New York, I know of people who are doing a taking account AirBnb rates when calculating a break even for their sublets/extra rooms. This will push rents up in the city and ultimately not help a lot of the actual residents.
willbill··on An eBook pricing model that resulted in $100,000 in sales
This pricing model also works for consulting as well. Listen to Obie Fernandez talk about 321-Launch and you'll understand that value of bundling when it comes to consulting services.

Simply put, price yourself high. People will attach value to your work because of this.

Also, from a consulting standpoint:

This accomplishes a few things. It affords you time to spend on non-billable hours such as taxes and filling your pipeline. Finally, adding a 'special sauce' packages allows you to eventually de-commoditize yourself and allow you to start transitioning those jobs that are interchangeable to others under you without your client objecting too strenuously.

willbill··on Dear American Consumers: Please don’t start eating healthfully
Until you tasted it...
willbill··on NY Agency Creates Electromagnetic Dot Display, up in NYC
I'm really happy to see agencies selling better advertising than standalone CRUD apps or native apps. Hope ya'll like it too.
willbill··on The $3B+ Exit Tumblr Could Have Had
I'm very curious to know how many consumer focused sites/companies/apps have had 1 billion+ buyouts.
willbill··on Skip college and become a plumber: Mayor Bloomberg
Remember that a good portion of college debt is held by people who thought they wanted to go to college, went in, accrued debt and then decided to do something different. Its good to have people in power say, 'do what is right for you.'
willbill··on You can use Code School for free next weekend
For the people who actually sign up for this and are learning rails -- ie have done the M. Hartl tutorial but might not have seen many projects live -- take a look a Rails Best Practices.

Its definitely doable within a weekend.

willbill··on Evolution of Hacker News
I wonder to what degree these people are gaming the system to get on the front page in the first place...