Hacker News Reader

Wattson Ask HN: What are your hobbies?

Historical wargames!

Wattson SassMe: Visualize SASS color functions in real-time without compiling

This is insanely handy - thanks!

Wattson Chrome extension replaces baby pictures with awesome stuff.

Kids are awesome stuff.

Wattson Ask HN: Title for someone who takes ideas to pixel-perfect conceptual products?

I am having the same problem. This ZURB article struck a chord though:

http://www.zurb.com/article/932/can-we-drop-the-term-ux-desi...

Wattson Paypal Gets A Homepage Update

I can see the new page if I view it in an Incognito window (Chrome).

Wattson Show HN: Easel, web design in the browser

I agree. Let's be honest - it's kind of weird that we rely on a program that is really designed for editing photographs as our main tool for designing web sites. I'm all for exploring this further at least as a tool for doing layouts and design that CSS can handle. For everything else (e.g. designing icons), there are more appropriate tools.

Wattson Show HN: Easel, web design in the browser

I think this is great for prototyping ideas. Using Photoshop for web design is an approximation at best.

Wattson Show HN, my first iOS app: Zen Log - A new and intuitive take on self-tracking

I don't have an iPhone to try your app out, but I just wanted to say I love your app icon!

Wattson Lose It or Lose It - Why, How, and How Much

I used this site starting around February of this year. I thought it was really helpful and I ended up losing close to 30lbs in 10 weeks because of it (I've also kept it off since then, too). It wasn't really the money that mattered - I guess I saw it as sort of a game and it was fun to try and beat the goals from week to week. Also, having my friends cheer me on helped a lot (you have to have a couple of friends sign up with you to keep you honest). Perhaps I could have done it on my own without this site but the idea really worked for me.

Wattson Ask HN: List of beta landing pages?

Are you talking about a "coming soon" type page? Smashing Magazine might be a good place to start: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/11/10/designing-coming-...

Wattson MOG arrives on iPhone, Android with 7.8 million songs...

Sadly not available in the Canadian media streaming ghetto. Sigh.

Wattson What about startups in Canada?

This might be a good place to start: http://rethink.unspace.ca/2010/5/14/raising-capital

Wattson Ask HN: Is there a market for a "Facebook circa 2006" clone?

I agree. As much as I want to leave Facebook I keep my account around so I can easily keep tabs on people I don't see very often. Ah, if only Facebook would let me take my data and connections with me... I can always dream.

Wattson Tell HN: I'm 17 and I made a site with Ruby on Rails

Well done. Congrats!

Wattson The bitter truth about fructose alarmism

Your last sentence hits the nail on the head. I started eating this way in mid-January and have lost almost 30lbs since then.

Wattson Hey HN: Check out my first Muse

Where does your friend get all his products? Are they from the same supplier? Is drop-shipping something suppliers normally engage in?

Wattson Ask HN: What is the name of this font?

I think it's Freestyle Script.

http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/adobe/freestyle-script/

Wattson Ask HN: How do I get people to "fan" my facebook page?

I have had success gaining fans for my Facebook page using Facebook ads. I targeted my ad to people who fit my niche and I gained fans fairly quickly. I also made sure to keep my fan page fairly active by posting there on a regular basis.

Wattson Collaboration Tips for Designers Working with Developers

I don't agree with the idea that designers should just hand off mock-ups to developers and expect them to implement it properly. All of these points can be addressed by coding your own HTML, CSS, and Javascript. Developers don't have the time to worry about your grid, they have enough to do as it is. Design that stops at Photoshop is only half finished, and a web designer who doesn't have the skill to implement their work is not really a web designer at all.

When I work with developers, I just tell them to do their thing and make it work. Don't worry what it looks like - I'll do the rest. Using GitHub on our projects has made this really easy for me.

Wattson Your First 30 Days of Blogging

I have been doing something similar to the advice in this article and it's been working for me. I took a small hobby blog and got more serious about it, implementing these ideas as I go. So far it's going well, and while I think you can do a lot of things things at once I don't think you need to feel pressured to get it done all in one go.

Wattson RIM buys developer of the Iris browser

This is fantastic news. I have been developing a mobile version of a web site this week and WebKit has been a dream. The BlackBerry version... not so much. It seems like WebKit is becoming the standard for mobile these days.

Wattson Design HN: How many designers read HN?

Same here. I am a CD professionally, but I like to hack in my spare time. I have made a few sites in Rails etc., and I find HN to be very helpful.

Wattson GM and Segway create new vehicle

That was exactly my first impression as well!

Wattson 17 Windows browsers on your Mac. Sort of.

I like the idea as far as checking for visual inconsistencies goes, but after trying out the free account I think it's just too slow to use on a day-to-day basis. Rendering takes too long, and switching between the different browser views even takes around 5 seconds. And as someone else pointed out, it isn't useful for any real testing of Javascript etc.

Wattson Analysis of the new Microsoft "I'm a PC" ad.

Well, I am sure HP is happy for the free advertising.

Wattson Why You Should Design Fixed-Width Websites

Agreed, and frankly these "You Should Do It This Way" articles are getting a little old.

Wattson Hulu requests removal from Boxee

I tried it on my iMac, and yes you can use the Apple remote to control it.

Wattson In Defense of Sass

I've been using Sass since it came out and I love it. The author's tips are great - I came to the same conclusion myself. I think you could easily overdo nesting in Sass if you're not careful but like he mentions, it's really not necessary. It's been very handy for me on a recent (large) project - it's readability has been a great time-saver.

Wattson Don't use css or table layout, use Sass and Compass instead

I have been using Sass (and its companion Haml) for quite a while now and I highly recommend it. Working with normal HTML and CSS seems like such a chore now.