Hacker News Reader

Blake_Emigroon Solid Project: All of your data, under your control

March 2020 I was investigating Solid for legaltech projects I'm designing. I thought it sounded like a great way for a user to create a master profile that can be used with multiple web apps and service providers, while maintaining more control over their data. I engaged with the Solid community and with Ruben, who was very nice and helpful. However, I found that the tech was still at the hobby stage, and I didn't really think the toys being built on it were very compelling. It was very disappointing considering it was already a couple years old and had a lot of hype around it. I hope that this moves forward, but it's almost a year later and seems to be the same story.

Blake_Emigroon The True Size Of Countries: Mercator projection

Okay, I should have been more clear - to get their mostly undistorted size and shape, not equally distorted.

Blake_Emigroon The True Size Of Countries: Mercator projection

Um, comparing two or more countries only works properly if they're all dragged to be centered on the equator.

Blake_Emigroon Mozilla lays off 250 employees while it refocuses on commercial products

The only 10X browser improvement that can be made these days is if it cuts RAM use by 1/2 compared to the others, (and isn't tied to crypto). I would pay for this!

Blake_Emigroon Y Combinator has lost its soul: A YC founder's perspective

My understanding of it is that much of the money is supposed to be for Google and Facebook ads - something which I would never want to have to pay out of pocket for in the US market. So it's not just that the founders can pay themselves a ramen salary or better, but that there's a big early marketing budget built-in.

Blake_Emigroon Ask HN: Brave browser as a platform for the legal industry?

Thanks for this! Certainly I have some experience with this already from my legal services business. The main difference being the clients trusted me first.

Blake_Emigroon What Would a WeChat Replacement Need?

And much more. Not going to through it all in detail, and there are probably many things I don’t know about WeChat since I’m not a heavy user living in mainland China.

The team definitely needs to get the experience of being behind the great firewall. Try using a VPN there to watch YouTube, try using a locally purchased cell phone without access to Google Play or the Apple app store. Try bashing PRC government policies in WeChat.

Only then will they see how tightly things are locked down. It's not like they're the only ones to have this idea, so why doesn't it exist? Oh, because it's really difficult and even dangerous with the current police state that controls the communications.

Blake_Emigroon Python for Non-Programmers

You know what's better than criticizing negatively? Helping. So, to avoid being a hypocrite, how can I help you? LOL

Blake_Emigroon How we recovered $300k of Bitcoin

FYI, not sure if english is your first language or not but this should be "If you have interesting technical analysis..."

I'm not sure if English is your first language, but this should be, "if you have interesting technical analysis..."

Everyone can pick apart the mistakes of others, find mine!

Blake_Emigroon Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (March 2020)

SEEKING WORK | Vancouver, Canada | part-time / contract / freelance | onsite / remote

This is something I've been considering for a while, but now the pandemic is pushing it forward as I may be having a gap in my income coming. I'm looking for some paid work with a startup or fellow entrepreneur.

I'm a mechanical engineering technologist and project manager turned tech entrepreneur. I don't code, but have been slowly learning, and also trying out no-code tools. I have extensive experience in manufacturing and construction from my original career, and had a profitable consulting business in legal services that I pivoted to a tech company, releasing one web app in 2017. But this is all history now and I can't generate income from that in the near term. You can find more info about it in my IH profile.

I realize that there will be many talented people unfortunately entering the job market soon, many of them being specialists - engineers, marketers, designers... I believe I have something different to offer as a generalist that has filled many different roles and has very diverse experience.

If any of this resonates with you and you want some more info, I'm open to chat about any opportunity. Thanks so much for reading, and best of luck during this challenging time!

blake@emigro.io https://www.linkedin.com/in/blake-sieders/ https://www.indiehackers.com/Blake_Emigro

Blake_Emigroon Airlines flying empty planes to keep flight slots during coronavirus outbreak

Yeah, I had a GF that worked for a government research department. The last quarter of the year the department staff did ridiculous things to ensure every penny of the budget was spent. Frivolous travel, non-relevant conferences, parties, etc. As someone who worked in the private sector and managed project budgets I was blown away haha.

Blake_Emigroon The Perils of Private Provision of Public Goods

Nope. They just walk on through the front door, or sneak in the back one when someone is getting off. I just spent the last 1.5 years commuting down Vancouver's infamous Hastings Street on the bus, and there's not a day goes by where you don't see something messed up. I moved last weekend in part to get away from it.

Blake_Emigroon The Perils of Private Provision of Public Goods

Right, I forgot about the government tie-in. This part of free rides is definitely dysfunctional. Bus drivers aren't obligated to do anything, for their own safety, except notify the transit police.

Blake_Emigroon The Perils of Private Provision of Public Goods

In Vancouver, Canada, this is a problem. But we also have the bigger problem that the public bus system, operated by private companies, allow the homeless to get free rides. It makes some routes unbearable and even dangerous.

Blake_Emigroon The Perils of Private Provision of Public Goods

There are some of these public toilets near the high-density of homeless in Vancouver, Canada, but not nearly enough.

Blake_Emigroon The Perils of Private Provision of Public Goods

This is exactly how Google maps knows traffic conditions.

Blake_Emigroon Ask HN: What industries are underserved by software?

As far as I know, he had a business model involving an emerging technology, and wanted to select a product that would be most successful with it. He felt books was that product. He's said as much in interviews.

Blake_Emigroon Ask HN: What industries are underserved by software?

And then there is the whole construction / contractor / material aspect of it.

A big problem with a renovation is the uncertain number of surprises that the contractor will encounter when tearing out the existing material. The contractor doesn't want to get stuck cleaning up that black mold for free.

Blake_Emigroon Ask HN: What industries are underserved by software?

It really depends on the area of law, type of firm, type of client, etc.

In immigration or family law there is lots of procedural work, the lawyer might be solo, and the client is an individual or family. In this case the lawyer can generally not charge thousands per hour, they're doing most or all of the work, and the work has lots of steps that are repeated every case. This is a good case for the use of software to increase efficiency.

In big corporate law the work is specialized, the lawyer belongs to a firm, the client is a multi-national, paralegals and associates do a lot of the work, and the firm can charge thousands per hour. Here there's not a lot of incentive for efficiency.

Practice management software targeted to solos and small firms is very successful, look at https://www.clio.com/

Blake_Emigroon Ask HN: What industries are underserved by software?

"Temp laborers could probably use some software to help with tracking hours etc. Typically all the hours are tracked with just the supervisor writing down on a carbon copy how long they worked and gives it to the laborers to take back to their office which is then manually input to the billing system to pay the laborers at the end of the day."

You're exactly right on this one and it exists in Vancouver, Canada: https://faberconnect.com/

"Keep in mind there's a much larger population of non-smartphone users that only use flipphones in construction especially day labor so any sort of app meant for the workers or laborers to use would just go unused."

Right on the first point, wrong on the second. The app is used by a different crowd - mostly younger, and many newcomer professionals or working holiday visa holders. This crowd doesn't need the daily pay to buy a 12-pack after work, and a cash advance in the morning to get smokes and a bus ticket.

I've used both types of service regularly over the last couple of years to fill in the gaps while I work on my startup.

Blake_Emigroon Atrium shuts down, laying off 100

I made tools to automate parts of my Canadian immigration practice, (as a non-lawyer, licensed legal services provider), but that was only increasing my profit and ability to scale. What I really got paid for was perceiving what the customer wanted, and matching that with what they could endure / afford / likely become eligible to do, while reassuring them they could still be happy. This part could not be automated.

Blake_Emigroon The Next Leap in Self-Driving: Prediction

I think another leap can be achieved with communication between vehicles. Once there are many more self-driving cars on the road, they can feed info to each other as needed. A car experiencing black ice can pass that info to the cars around it. Cars approaching an intersection can adjust their speed so that they all pass through without stopping, etc. But, because there are several manufacturers, this will be hampered without an open standard, and it doesn't solve the randomness of the world that will still be experienced.

Blake_Emigroon Iota cryptocurrency shuts down entire network after wallet hack

Haha, fair enough. I'm a relative newb here. I guess I've seen too many Twitter flame wars.

Blake_Emigroon SoftBank’s $375M bet on pizza went bad fast

If you must, then do it right! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxbjZiKAZP4

Blake_Emigroon Iota cryptocurrency shuts down entire network after wallet hack

Your entire statement closely matches most cryptocurrencies, (now I'll get down-voted to oblivion).

I rode the crypto train for a few years but got off because of the ridiculousness.

Blake_Emigroon SoftBank’s $375M bet on pizza went bad fast

The robot is incredibly over-sized and under-utilized for this task and costs what you would pay for 5 employees in a year - not the best application. If the robot isn't tossing the pizza dough, then who cares haha!

Blake_Emigroon I built a dating app with over 60% female users. How to reach more males?

When I was in the 18-29 year old age range, like more than half your users, I definitely wasn't thinking of ways I could date a girl in another city or country. That would be incredibly frustrating in a way that I don't need to explain further. (I had a relationship that had a long-distance stint in my 30's and it was still maddening. I gained 25 pounds from depression.)

It seems to me that the guys would have some type of non-typical motivation to do this when they could otherwise just get out of the house or use an app to meet local girls. Remote worker and rural? Personality type? Older man, younger woman? Expat not wanting to date locals?

Can you survey some of your users, male and female, to determine their motivations?

Blake_Emigroon Remote Jobs from Companies Hiring Remotely in Feb 2020

Nice list, what tools are you using to scrape these jobs and then format the sheet? I've used Octoparse to pull from Indeed and it worked well, but I wouldn't be able to format the spreadsheet like this automatically.

Blake_Emigroon Deadcoins

Last year I had the domain altcoindumpster.com . I thought it would be a funny goof to have a list of wallets and an animation of coins being thrown in a dumpster if anyone sent any. That was yet another $20 GoDaddy got from me...

Blake_Emigroon More Than 750M Worldwide Would Migrate If They Could

You can keep your costs down by doing a lot of your own research, but there are still shortcuts and pitfalls that you can be made aware of by getting some professional advice. My recommendation is having a paid consult at the beginning of your research, and then near the end before submitting an application. The people of forums can typically only talk about their own experience based on their own profile / program / timing, which will not be exactly like yours. I've cleaned up many people's application messes, (I'm not trying to solicit any business for myself.)