Hacker News Reader

Katelynon Ask HN: Who is hiring? (August 2014)

Defy Ventures - backend software engineer- NYC We’re a rapidly-growing startup solving a problem most people never think about.

At Defy, our mission is simple. We help formerly incarcerated men and women become legal entrepreneurs by taking them through a rigorous blended learning program.

At Defy, we believe men with criminal histories:

- Represent America’s most overlooked talent pool - Are some of the scrappiest and most accomplished entrepreneurs and salesmen - Share skills and talents with top business leaders

More here about the role here :http://defyventures.tumblr.com/lead-engineer

Katelynon Ask HN: Who is hiring? (April 2014)

Defy Ventures - Fulltime, New York City

Lead Software Engineer

Defy Ventures is 'Y-combinator for men with criminal backgrounds.' We harnesses the natural talents of formerly incarcerated individuals, and transform their hustle toward the creation of profitable and legal business ventures.

You would build and scale a customized eLearning platform based on the rapidly growing Open edX platform (http://code.edx.org/)

You: Must be able to develop code front to back, with knowledge of HTML, CSS, Javascript, Django, Marko MySQL, MongoDB, some Ruby and NodeJS

You'll get: - Competitive Salary - Full medical - Unlimited vacation days - Paid Phone bill - Paid travel to conferences

Defy is an awesome team of incredibly smart individuals who love what we do and are making waves in the most underserved population in the United States. Come join us and make your work meaningful.

If you're interested, shoot us an email at careers@defyventures.org with the subject line "Hacker News- SE"

More info here: http://careers.defyuniversity.org/#careers

Katelynon Exec Shuts Down Non-Cleaning Service

TaskRabbit has made a recent shift into a B2B play, too, as they've never been sustainable. They also made a shift in company size laying off several staff members.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6358282

Katelynon Official Hacker News T-Shirt

Order Placed! I'd be curious to know the the male/female tee style breakdown of the sales. Could the nice folks at teespring provide us with these stats?

Katelynon Path 3 is out

You can also post your request here, which they monitor quite frequently http://pathtest.uservoice.com/forums/192337-feature-requests

Katelynon Adderall Addiction: The Last All-Nighter

Dude, have some compassion. It's upsetting that this is the top voted comment. Not everyone is as well-informed and knowledgeable about things like this as you are, and this first-hand account of her experience will likely help a lot of people experiencing similar issues.

>>Using drugs to gain an unfair advantage over other people at work has unhealthy emotional side effects? Am I to be suprised by this?

Your claim that this stimulant gives its users/abusers/misusers an "unfair advantage" over those who don't use it (ie you) not only contradicts your following statement (that it causes emotional side effects) but also tells me that perhaps you're angered or upset by this perceived 'unfair advantage' you see this drug giving your peers.

If you looked at the big picture, or her story, you'd see that the drug doesn't, in fact, give its abusers an unfair advantage. Whatever temporary 'gain' they are getting is unsustainable and clearly destructive both emotionally and physically.

Katelynon I'd like to use the web my way, thank you very much Quora

I agree with this argument, but not necessarily the tone of it.

Quora is a business as much as it is a consumer facing service with a strong mission to uphold. But the reality is, if Quora didn't keep its numbers out of the red and into the black by doing "annoying things" like forcing app downloads or account creation, then they would run out of capital and cease to exist. So, take your pick. Or better yet, just stop complaining.

Also, their mobile website isn't fully functional or in some cases usable. I beta test it, and it's riddled with bugs and missing features. Frankly, a lot of services today are skipping mobile web all together, and focusing on driving app downloads to provide a richer experience.

Bottom line: Services valuable to end users are also running a businesses. We must learn to give and take.

Katelynon Ask HN: Who is hiring? (February 2013)

Care.com (Matrix, Trinity Ventures funded) is hiring an ios developer to join a small, fast-paced mobile team within care.com to lead our iPhone.

This is a lead iOS engineer position for you to grow into as we grow our iOS efforts.

You'll be working with a talented, fun and passionate team of individuals in a company that offers great benefits and compensation packages. We're also looking for an iOS designer.

Email or tweet me if interested: kfriedson@care.com / http://twitter.com/kfriedson

Katelynon Ask HN: Who is hiring? (January 2013)

Care.com (Matrix, Trinity Ventures funded) is hiring an ios developer to join a small, fast-paced mobile team within care.com to lead our iPhone and iPad developments.

This is a lead iOS engineer position for you to grow into as we grow our iOS efforts.

You'll be leading iOS development for Karoo (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/karoo/id544368641?mt=8), and for our flagship app, Care.com that isn't in market yet because you'll be helping us build it).

You'll be working with a talented, fun and passionate team of individuals in a company that offers great benefits and compensation packages. We're also looking for an iOS designer.

Email or tweet me if interested: kfriedson@care.com / http://twitter.com/kfriedson

More about the role: http://www.care.com/careers-p1089.html#SeniororPrincipalSoft...

Katelynon Ask HN: Who is hiring? (December 2012)

Care.com (http://www.care.com) in Boston, MA.

We're looking for mobile UI designer to help grow our mobile application team from the ground up, and play a big role in designing and defining mobile web and mobile app experiences for our Karoo and care.com apps.

Ideal candidates will have strong portfolios of work that demonstrate beautiful and thoughtful product design and a passion for designing simple and intuitive mobile web and mobile application interfaces.

You'll also be working on an awesome team in a fast-paced, iterative and entrepreneurial environment. Email or tweet me if interested, my name is Katelyn: friedsonkatelyn@gmail.com, http://twitter.com/kfriedson

Katelynon I made a 'search engine' for fun

I thought I was the only one who does this. There should be an easier way..

Katelynon Quora Co-Founder Charlie Cheever Steps Back From Day-To-Day Role At The Company

Yup, all day.

Katelynon Wikipedia Redefined

Wikimedia Foundation's Senior Designer, Brandon Harris, had a lot of insightful, interesting feedback[1] regarding the 'redesign,' (of which I happen to agree with):

-It's completely impractical and does not take into account some of the most basic ideas that Wikipedia is and depends upon. I don't think it's very well thought out or researched, and serves mostly as a hypothetical portfolio piece for a design firm.

For example, the fact that Wikipedia is available in multiple languages is quite possibly its most important feature. The idea of burying language selection within an incomprehensible color band (that will only work on non-touch devices) boggles my mind.

- Many, many important principles are tossed away. Why do the designers change the meaning of the "history" button? Burying the revision history is counter to all things that wikis stand for.

- Research into the Foundation projects would tell you that storing a user's browsing history is against the privacy policy - so why include that?

- > "Sharing functions will be the same so no change is necessary" - except that there are no sharing functions.

- The most basic principle of product design is "Know the product," and these designers do not.

And finally,

This is to say nothing of the exercise in 'brand manipulation.' The most powerful brand that Wikipedia has is the wordmark itself ("wikipedia"), followed by the distinctive "W" logo (crossed "v" characters), followed by a single puzzle piece, followed by the puzzle globe. The brand rework here throws ALL of these things away and replaces them with a stylized "w" glyph that is almost but not quite exactly like the logo used by Wordpress."

But that's just my opinion"

"If you want to have an idea of what the Wikimedia Foundation is thinking with regards to the future of Wikipedia, you'd be better served by reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/20...

[1] Brandon full response to the design: http://www.quora.com/Wikipedia/Wikipedia-What-does-the-Wikip...

Katelyn on The "Me, Too" Startup Syndrome

There's an element of sexism in the poem. It's not hateful but it's pretty overt.

Katelyn on The "Me, Too" Startup Syndrome

I'm not bothered by much as a female in tech (and believe me, I hear a lot of ignorant, sexist remarks), but this comment really rubbed me the wrong way.

Katelyn on Side Project: 1 Month, $10,000

re: suggestions on how to make it intuitive to scroll down:
On the shop page: An anchor link that sits above-the-fold with a call-to-action like "start shopping" or "browse designs" would probably make it more intuitive. Anything that shows me a peak of what's below-the-fold would help.
Since the main slider occupies all of the above-the-fold real estate and has its own horizontal navigation, I just assumed I was 'done' with the page once I had scrolled through each slide.

Katelyn on Side Project: 1 Month, $10,000

- I can really see this type of service blowing up, once you find the right product/market/fit.
- The slider above-the-fold on the 'shop' tab distracts me from the rest of the page. It wasn't intuitive to me that I could scroll down to begin shopping.
- A simple filter would be a great addition to the 'shop' page. It'd be nice to filter by type (e.g business, creative, etc.), price or design (rustic, elegant)
- I wonder if you would see more sales if you tried a/b testing your pricing model a bit. Is there a reason why you charge the extra $5.00 for edits? If the shopper pays $99 to own the theme, shouldn't he be entitled to edit it as much as he pleases?
- You're looking for resume writers. Have you connected with Hagan Blount? I believe he designs Infographic resumes. (http://haganblount.com/resume). Some of your designs require users to highlight a quote, etc., and I wonder if they could use help writing out these areas.

Katelyn on Side Project: 1 Month, $10,000

http://zerply.com/ does something very close to this.

Katelyn on Charlie Stross on Girls Around Me

I disagree with many of the arguments you make to support your theory, namely 1)the idea that the way users use Facebook wont evolve and get more sophisticated as they share more information, and 2) the idea that sharing more information about yourself even makes you more susceptible to stalker and hate crimes.
After I read your post, I went back up to the top re-read your proposal, which, in its simplest form, makes a the claim that reads: "Facebook-as-a-business will eventually kill the very users it needs to survive, because in order for Facebook to grow and profit, it will encourage users to share more about themselves with others, and as a result, users will share so much about themselves with others, (who they are, their interests, behavior, location) that they will become victims of crimes like rape, murder or even hate crimes and genocide.
This sounds outlandish, of not even a little silly. Surely, our acculturation with Facebook and the way we use it will evolve over time to protect our selves from this kind of thing from happening.

Katelyn on Why You Don't Need A Programmer

I don't mean to discredit the content of this post, but is anyone else tired of this argument circling around HN like a windmill? (Why you need a technical X to launch your idea). If the title of this post were (perhaps more appropriately) titled "Why you need a Technical co-Founder," I don't think this would have gotten any eyeballs.

Katelyn on Codename: Svbtle by Dustin Curtis

1. Kudos Button: Why the controversy? I've always viewed it as a meaningless counter that's fun to hover over. I never took the counts seriously. Sometimes I visit your site just to send arbitrary kudos. What's most concerning about the buttons is the number of readers that feel "victimized," "deceived" or "tricked" from, well...a css element.
2. Svbtle: There are few names I've come across in my career that are as painful as this one to read, spell or pronounce. It gives me anxiety, and what's worse is that it's inspired by Svpply. A good name is a word that you can tell someone over the phone without them asking you how to spell it. Period.
3. The ideas panel is cool. Is there a way you could generate the list in other ways than just manually adding tags? Could you add a bookmarking tool, for example, that adds keywords to your Ideas List once you bookmark a page you find thought-provoking?
4. The S* Network: Your strategy to build a platform exclusive for exceptionally high-rated bloggers to use wont work for several reasons, here's just a few:
4a. I loved your site's design until I saw others on your platform using it. Then it became boring and nauseating. The design of a blog tells a story sometimes just as much as the content does. It gives the blogger personality, and the reader something fresh to look at.
4c. Top bloggers (any bloggers) not only use design to express themselves, but also to stand out. To be remembered. Eventually when you notice a site's design enough times, you realize you might want to check out who the author is.
4d. Social elements and "Sharing" buttons can look messy at times, but the fact is, bloggers like their content shared, and readers like to share content they enjoy. Removing arguably the most widely used tool on the web much poorer design that displaying a 'tweet' button after each post.
4e. Aside from 'ideas' your platform doesn't have anything that takes away the pain that enough users have to make it worth building. I add 'blogging' to pg's list of frighteningly ambitious startup ideas..

Katelyn on A 1-star, unfiltered user review of Yelp

I use foursquare for finding the best places to eat and drink. The tips people leave about places are concise, meaningful and for the most part, pretty accurate. Not only do you know the person's been there, but you can see how many times they've checked-in to that particular location which can be telling.
It's likely you'll find a lot of like-minded ppl on foursquare, too.

Katelyn on Awful Recruiters

I agree. I think the great recruiters should be rewarded as they are few and far-between, and the terrible ones should be outed. It'd be nice to turn the tables and evaluate their qualifications just as they do ours.

Katelyn on Y COMBINATOR INTERVIEWEES NEED YOUR HELP PLEASE - ANY RED DOTS FOR YOU?

all clear

Katelyn on Learning to Code: The Roadmap I Wish I Had Been Given

still down

Katelyn on I don't think you browse like I do

It wasn't clear to me that you were trying to avoid "the filter bubble." It sounded as though you were truly paranoid/freaked out when you saw advertisers retargeting you, etc.
I din't realize inaccurate personalization could be so upsetting. I typically take everything I read or see with a grain of salt. The Internet, afterall, is made by bozos like you and me ;)

Katelyn on Show HN: I just launched a new blogging platform

You aren't authorized to [save] any changes you make. I hit that page, too, but when I tried to save changes, it threw this at me: 'You are not authorized to access this page.' http://i.imgur.com/nbMLF.png

Katelyn on Show HN: I just launched a new blogging platform

$9/mo? I get Netflix for less than that

Katelyn on I don't think you browse like I do

You are right. I don't browse like you do. That would take forever.
I wonder: Are you afraid Google is sitting at home drooling over the fact that you bought your shoes from JcPenny?
You’re not a name, you’re not a face, you’re a knode. a cookie. literally, a number in trillions of records.
Secondly, you sit on the web writing openly about privacy issues, while overtly displaying your information on those "Identity tracking" services you use, like Facebook, which If you spent the same amount of time you spend writing about how Google is out to get you, perhaps would understand that while you're browsing incognito, Google is having a frenzy with your gmail content, building a profile on you that you may never see.
At the end of the day, someone is always going to be collecting information on you, and your information will be again, one dot tied to your one number- among trillions of other records. There will always be internet ads.
To wrap this up, my point is that if you really don’t wan’t to be tracked, then cancel your credit card, pay everything in cash, disable your GPS, avoid connecting via Wi-Fi, forget doing ‘good deeds’ like filling out surveys, or giving your name and number to a blood drive. Oh and completely disconnect your router.