I'm working on ONE, which is a collaboration platform for projects, tasks, invoices, ...
Want to bring some of the YC spirit back here, so many posts about normal internet stuff.
Today I was going to add a few features to my web app. Instead, I guess I'll be changing 20 year old programs to not update databases, but print reports. I think. Not sure.
So I thought I would just have a cup of Columbian Supreme, a donut, and a quick visit here. Makes about as much sense as anything else.
(If only this were an April Fools joke.)
It's name? http://www.chompchompdead.com . It's roughly what happens when you get eaten by a shark.
We should be launching in about two weeks with a full cast of mostly professional writers.
- A few months into a new start-up in the mobile space, Kimua, working towards having a prototype by the summer (my partner and I have hired two programmers, so I don't have to do any of the coding here!):
http://www.kimua.com (still nothing really to see here)
- Doing some heavy research in functional programming for my work-in-progress text editor (codename 'ngedit', the final actual name will probably be 'kodumi'):
http://www.ngedit.com/ngedit.html
- Trying to prioritize the above tasks appropriately. Some days it's difficult to get anything done just by the sheer size of my "to do" list.
I'm trying to extract that information and turn it into something usable by humans.
We've tried to leverage the internet and digital media as much as possible: the business has a blog, the vast majority of our promotion is on the internet, we sell the digital files, all proofing is done online. But I'd happily solicit any feedback from the resident hackers as to how we could do this even better.
And I'd like to head off the comments about Flash, yes we're aware of the disadvantages, and you'll see we do off a non-flash site for weddings. ;)
bookmarks "picture"marks "socialmedia"marks...
(I wish people would tell me to do this more often with my ideas)
PROBLEM: Search results are full of noise.
PROPOSED SOLUTION: (1) Take a raw search feed; (2) Give searchers a tool that enables them to maintain a persistent search state (i.e., it keeps track of your previous queries and all the results you have clicked on while using the tool); (3) Use results from user data to aid in constructing a better ranking of the raw search feed.
The seed for this idea came from a link given to me by one of the professors at BGSU: http://research.microsoft.com/~merrie/collaborative_search.h...
At night: A service that will help locals find what they want more easily for things like going out for a fun night, events, etc. Think a better Yellowpages. Where I am, nothing like this exists so it's something I will be using for myself as well. Plus it's a fun learning
And just as I was writing this post I got my Python in a nutshell book on my desk. Yay :)
It's just an evening project and should be online later this week on Heroku.
But in my spare time I'm thinking about writing a book about how to run Agile projects in large organizations. If anybody is interested, drop me a line. My email is in my profile.
I've found in my experience so far, that Agile works better for new development and can't or shouldn't be used as a hammer for everything.
I read once that a programmer tried agile and gave up after arguing for two hours about what to put on the story card. This kind of BS happens a lot: it's the nature of dealing with large numbers of people who see things as binary. If you understand the _principles_ of agile, and why they work, then all the books and authors are just re-digesting common sense and peddling them as books. At that level of understanding you can work on all sorts of things: new development, existing development, non-software work, etc.
That's where my team is trying to take this organization I'm working with. The problem is that influencing large populations (thousands and tens of thousands) of technical people is far worse than herding cats. It's more like trying to get angry flaming weasels to perform circus acts by using a twinkie and a Disney song.
Lately I have been doing quite a lot of MIDP Java development for the same client, and it was quite a bit more enjoyable. With great powers come great responsibilities.
Actually I am also kind of doing the same thing in Java as in C++, and hoping to be able to ditch the C++ version in the future.
cadalac FTW!
Encyclopedias are objective truth and they are boring.
Even better would a screencast of your editor.
Specifically, we just announced/launched an experimental tool for (any) Python interactive interpreter. Whenever you run into an error, you can do a quick search for how other people got past the same error.
The bug.gd site is more like a 'recycling bin' that reminds you to come back and share your workaround so it's not lost for the next guy who searches. Searching on Google works for a lot of people, but this is a lot more focused and helps the community when it's used.
Long-term we'll be integrating client-side tools into every application/language we can.
I had posted it earlier, and took most of the suggestions, though still working on some of them. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=109155
Since then, I've added facebook integration, and not just a new look and feel, but made it more "me-centric". Just working on getting some bugs ironed out, and will be rewriting the incomplete "tour" section today.
Note the current version is prone to restarts...
Have you guys considered a watered down free version with a lower price tag to buy the full? Like $10?
And, putting together a Meetup in Mountain View the evening before Startup School: http://entrepreneur.meetup.com/1737/
Also, everything in this game will be scriptable. Users will be able to create programs to control anything, then license those programs to other users to make money. They will also be able to license designs. Exponential proliferation of designs and scripts is prevented by limiting designs per user to some maximum number.
Basically, I'm going to make a MMO, where the developers are out of the business of creating content. The users create the most compelling content anyhow. Oh, and the "gold farmers" -- I'm going to have them writing content for me! You can't beat market forces. Better to co-opt them.
You can think of this as Second Life in Space, with much easier implementation requirements.
Have you written any more about this anywhere? I'd be very interested to read about your game & systems design and the process you're going though.
It strikes me as a project of such complexity and delicacy that the risks involved in publicising some of your ideas are much outweighed by the potencial gains from starting a public dialog. (though I would say that, as I'd love to read about it ;)
I found Second Life after reading about Asperger's Syndrome and the communication problems associated with the syndrome that Second Life seems to break down. (No, I don't have Asperger's Syndrome; I am just an prolific reader.) What I was fascinated with is the variety of user created items and the pseudo-economy that developed within the world.
If you could create something like Second Life, it would definitely be used.
The galaxy will be procedurally generated. There will be millions if not billions of star systems. You will not be able to bookmark arbitrary locations in space, however. (Hyperspace is extremely chaotic and changing, so any jump to a coordinate in "Real" space will always be randomized and never precise.) You must drop an item called a "beacon" to be able to warp back to a specific location. A user will only be able to afford a certain number of beacons.
One interesting twist to ship design, will be that the shape of your ship will actually change its stats in meaningful ways. For example, if you have a ship that uses armor for protection, then having the hull of your ship angled like an arrowhead will give you higher armor values from the forward direction. (And much weaker from the sides and rear.) Having a ship which is longer will also improve the performance of axial mount weapons. However, increased length, size and mass also have drawbacks, as it will reduce your maximum turning rate and the rate at which you can change angular momentum. Components will require some internal volume, so you won't be able to make an invulnerable Death Pencil.
The game will have elements of "space opry" and not just have hard science fiction. I want people to experience the thrill of epic space battles. There will also be exploration and trade.
There are certain elements of "content" for which there will be "structured content creation." Players will be able to design new items. They will be able to play as whole factions if they want. (Using a distinct RTS style of play, controlling an entire economy of autonomous drones.) But there will be no drudgery of missions, no mining, no leveling up, no camping. Only either the action of combat, or the management of wealth generating economies.
Surprising as it may sound, the downsides that many MMOs have as games actually help them succeed as the glorified social networks most of them are. Boredom and disempowerment bring people together. As the cliché goes, they come for the game and stay for the community.
That said, I love your concept and I'd definitely give that game a try. I wouldn't consider playing a MMO that runs on rails and where I can't automate away my repetitive tasks. I think you'd get a smallish but interesting and loyal player base. Maybe it could reddit out from there if that's what you want; otherwise I believe it would work great as a lifestyle business.
Is it on purpose that you don't provide contact info in your profile? I'd love to exchange some thoughts with you (see address in my profile.) I worked for a few years in what is today the leading commercial space MMO, and I've been entertaining some ideas on those lines too.
Faction players will need pilots. Their AI drones will never be a match for human pilots in player ships. On the other hand, pilots will need factions -- otherwise it will be hard to generate enough wealth for the very best high tech equipment.
In my experience advocating player scripting in a MMO forum, I've observed that there is much prejudice against real life technical skills. Players seem to have less of a problem with other real life factors having an impact. Factors such as social skills or ability/willingness to spend more time on the game. I think this is because it takes technical skills to evaluate the true impact of mechanics involving technical skills, in order to come to the conclusion that they are mostly benign.
OTOH, I've also observed that some nontechnical people actually like scriptability and others can be convinced (with some difficulty; they often assume you're trying to skew the game towards your abilities for the sake of getting an edge) if you have the chance. And of course, people that can program absolutely love the feature. Unless you start with millions and a recognized IP, I think your best bet is making some underserved audience love your game rather than try to please the mainstream.
So I was playing devil's advocate here. As I said, I myself would love player scripting, and if I was to make a MMO, I'd bite the bullet. But whatever you do, I think these are factors to take into account.
Also, watching sci-fi TV shows for a long time, I've come to appreciate the visual value of "away missions"/shore-leave. It's boring staring at a starfield for hours at a time (even with cool nebular effects.) Is there a way to land on planets that have life on them (that is, not boring ol' asteroids) and perhaps stay there, living off the land for a while where no one can find you but for your radio pollution?
Sorry if this is all irrelevant to your particular implementation, but I've been planning my own similar venture for a while.
I'm sure you've thought about this in depth, but my first thought was, that if you could make it a game that a child could play WITH a parent, and both coud enjoy, then that would be something I would buy for my family!
Consider movies... everyone knows the highest grossing movies are the kids movies that ALSO appeal to parents, (Shrek, Bee Movie, Shrek II, Everything Pixar, anything with the word Shrek it in...)
I have the connections, and have recognized that massive inefficiencies can be capitalized on by an upstart with the right knowledge.
Wish me luck.
So instead of painfully stepping through your code line by line, you just press M-t inside a function definition and voilà: it shows you what goes on inside the function, using some example inputs to annotate the source code in a new Emacs buffer.
My "debugger" in fact executes a whole function without stop and prints the values of all used variables and the results of nested function calls next to the code itself.
I'm not yet sure how useful this is, but it's a fun project and a good excuse to implement an interpreter for said esoterical language.
A really different approach to online backups. My nightly full backups take only a couple of minutes over broadband...
Right now I'm porting C# code to win32 C/C++. .Net has some really nasty bugs. So half my code is already in win32 C/C++.
I will give away some free subscriptions here when I am ready.
Apart from that, I've got about 10 other things on my "current stuff" list, most to do with Hypernumbers (http://hypernumbers.com), but there's a couple of Arc-related things as well.
:)
http://www.quicksilverweb.net/sbucks/sbcharts.htm
4 shots of expresso with milk and foam and such, venti being the large size. With that order though, I am still unsure if it is served hot or cold. My guess is if you don't specify, it is served hot.
I also want to work on something else, but as a project it would very involving, and I will need to work on it full time, and with partners. Unfortunately I am a H-1B servitor, and can't just take long breaks from my job.
Ah, and my full time job (mobile tv and multimedia, working on java and lua). Not bad, as I am actually working on advanced stuff.
Working on my client lead-flow. Trying to break the 100 sales/day mark.
Setting up new content sites to generate more free advertising.
Billing upstream clients, paying downstream advertising vendors.
Trying to convince my partner to leave his full-time job at Dell.
General day-to-day business stuff, I suppose.
Building an "excess data" exchange to re-market unsold lead data, which is kind of cool.
After that's done, I'm going to either spend some time working on the Netflix Prize (just to learn more, not in a real attempt to win) or doing some music programming in either Lisp, using the Common Music API, or Mathematica.
I do like all the music I've clicked on so far though. . .
Edit: It does have the artist and title in the embedded link. Just seemed weirdly placed. My bad there.
Startup that makes a gaming platform. >1 million hits per day. Alexa ranking of <1000. http://gg-game.com and http://garena.com
We're also trying to grow the team. If you're a hacker in Singapore or South East Asia, I'd love to get in touch with you! =)
</shameless_plug>
I focus on capturing users and marketing, writing for the blog at http://www.stampedeblog.com.
Was trying to do the android competition but too much junk happened in my life the past month that kept me from starting that idea.
There have been quite a few studies that indicate that trivial reward systems tend to backfire, and have unintended side effects. These are definitely trivial rewards for good developers. Have you instead considered just implementing the measurement system, without the rewards? People can then see their success rate and have clearly defined goals for doing the work you want done. Then, perhaps take everyone out to a really good lunch, or have a catered lunch, at the end of a successful week of pruning? It's no more expensive than your reward system, and feels more like a prize to most folks--everybody says they like cold hard cash, but once basic needs are met, things like the work environment take on more importance. For example, Google pays lower salary than almost any other employer in the area, but it is the "best place to work" in the country.
When offering large enough rewards, you can convince people to do things they don't want to do. And when you ask people nicely for help, and give them clearly defined goals, you can also get them to help without a reward--they'll probably even enjoy the work more, because the human brain shoots out good chemicals when working within a community for a common cause. but, when you offer them a trivial reward, you both offend them and only grudgingly get results (with unintended consequences like code that gets written with the intention of claiming a reward later to clean it up), and morale will go down. Humans are fickle creatures, and I think you're setting yourself up for a long painful lesson in human resource management.
Just a humble suggestion.
(Ok,not technically a start up, I started up many years ago. Been there, done that, forgot to sell the company.)
I am working on version 2 of a simple tool for a friend that he uses for some contract work in the statistical analysis field.
Version 1 was a Java app and minimally featured, version 2 is web based, done in Django and intended to be a lot more robust.
But then many great ideas in history seem obvious in retrospect.
Keywords: functional frictionless.
I might re-implement it in Django though, just for fun.
trying to figure out what changes need to occur to our YC app to make it more understandable
Almost done!
not reinventing the wheel, just hoping to make some money so i can afford to reinvent the wheel later. :)