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_jdamson Ask HN: Looking for recommendations on decent penetration testing tools

I am looking to get more into web app testing - Side note: I already have a NetSec degree and work in the field. Should I be pursuing the GWAPT: GIAC Web Application Penetration Tester? Should I just be working through the OWASP Top 10 manual and learn/practice the "Top 10s" first? Thanks !

_jdamson Want to Build a Side Business? Just Buy Great Domain Name

Will be a good domain to have once we make way for our robotic overlords and see our usefulness decline

_jdamson Ask HN: I failed at my startup, what's next?

Strip out all the bullshit you called "rapidly expanded the scope" until you have one core feature, and implement that one feature to the best of your ability. Keep things simple and you will progress, I promise you. I think you found yourself at the bottom of a heaping pile of spaghetti and no longer see the exit. Don't let your frustration stop you!

_jdamson Ask HN: Books you read in 2016?

I read Kafka on the Shore in 2016 and let me tell you, I'm not a big reader (I'm working on it), but it had me thinking about it for weeks.

The book itself is like a dream state, it's magic; There's something about it where even when I think about it again, I get taken off into the lands within the book. I hear other Murakami works are similar in that regard. It is really hard to explain but it had me thinking about my life, who I am as a person to outsiders who meet me, how I see myself and what I feel my purpose in life is, etc.

_jdamson Ask HN: How would you invest $500K?

Making the world a better place through constructing elegant hierarchies for maximum code reuse and extensibility

_jdamson Careers in security, ethical hacking and advice on where to get started

Because certifications mean you can read a book and pass a test, unless the certs are similar to the OSCP ones which require some hands-on activity. Working through the Web Application Hacker's Handbook or the OWASP guides is a much better use of your time. When you're interviewing, you can talk about all the success you've had working through those projects, which shows hands-on, practical knowledge.

_jdamson Things You Notice When You Quit the News

I thought we liked BBC?

_jdamson Ask HN: When did you feel to resign/leave your last job?

Yes pretty much everything you did was the incorrect move (at the time). Take the promotion, become manager, then look for other employment using that experience, promotion, and increased salary as a boost.

_jdamson Ask HN: Do you have a side project you want to sell?

As a starter I would suggest to you and any others that read this reply to just simply shoot a quick note over at https://www.freesunglasscompany.com/pages/contact-us. It will come direct to me

_jdamson Ask HN: Do you have a side project you want to sell?

https://www.freesunglasscompany.com

It's an e-commerce fashion store for sunglasses. It is very similar to a website that sells watches, freewatchcompany. The website is built off the Shopify platform, which is amazing. Products are dropshipped from China, and made easier using an app called Oberlo. I don't put any additional time into the website, though I should.

I advertised using Facebook/Reddit one time and made over $100 revenue in the first 24 hours (end of September), then got busy and haven't touched the site since. The site is pretty much setup and ready to go. You would have to run through the site's products and confirm that the seller on AliExpress is still in business and still has the product, but you can easily use Oberlo to wipe out all inventory and start over with sunglasses that you want to sell.

The sunglasses are all $0 to the customer, but we charge for shipping, which is where the profit comes from. The "free" brings the customer to the door. Typical sale is $10, with profit being between $6.50-$8.00.

Any tips to market the site or make it better are appreciated, as well :)

_jdamson Ask HN: What is your goto resource for learning about big data, ML, AI etc?

Great resource thanks. Would love to learn how to make a website like this. Not necessarily detecting books, but detecting [anything] and counting, but with the scraping features, still.

_jdamson Ask HN: Weekend wasted again

1440 minutes in a day :)

_jdamson Ask HN: Blindsided by YC competitor after MVP and starting to promote, advice?

Having competitors is great! Congratulations on that.

Now is where the real work begins. Continue to improve your product or service and you will prevail.

_jdamson Screw Passive Income, I Want Active Income

Hey man, I have a quick question. You may know the answer, you may not, it's a shot in the dark but I'll try anyway.

I've been wanting to get into the affiliate marketing space for a while now. I was curious if one way to approach is to setup a shopify-type store which contains actual products I'm looking to sell, but the links to the products actually go outbound to amazon affiliate link or something else, or is your approach more blog-related, where you type text about something and then include affiliate links within the body of the blog post? Have you tried both, which is more effective?

The other thing I've researched and read a lot about is how to validate an idea to see if there's interest. The way to do this is to setup a simple 2-page landing/splash page on Strikingly, Unbounce, Instapage, or any other similar site, explaining what your product or website is about, with a direct button to complete the purchase, but then you redirect the user to a "Sorry, we are not yet ready", and see how many "convert" - that is, users who are immediately ready to pay for said product. Do you do any of this validation for your affiliate marketing sites, or do you just open them and start selling through your web store or blog posts (depending on answer from first paragraph)?

Thanks so much for taking a moment to help me get started.

_jdamson Ask HN: Best passive income method for a solo developer?

I have an idea for a blog that could also easily be an ebook or video series of tutorials. So, which comes first? Wouldn't it be easier and smarter to release free content on a blog and build up a following while capturing emails for a newsletter before creating a marketing/landing page for ebook/video tutorial sales?

Are there any good resources or plans available I can follow from people who have already done this?

_jdamson Ask HN: Have you launched a failed web business?

You were probably sitting on gold and your bad attitude killed the business. They were too lazy? Should have figured out what was causing them to not want to put in the effort and then added a feature to your project that eased that pain point of theirs, either through automation or some other solution..

_jdamson Ask HN: How do you overcome the fear of starting?

Seems similar to how I mentioned I created an outline of topics I wanted to cover. I can turn these into really small modules, just pick one, and go.

_jdamson Ask HN: Those making $1,000+/month on side projects – what did you make?

Smart. In that context, I can see the value. If I was going to create an ad campaign or something, I would want to start with a base that I knew was working.

_jdamson Ask HN: Those making $1,000+/month on side projects – what did you make?

Upvoting for visibility. Not because the question has been asked to death, but because reading those threads are so damn fun.

_jdamson Ask HN: Those making $1,000+/month on side projects – what did you make?

Congratulations on your success. Curious who is purchasing that kind of info, though..

_jdamson Ask HN: Considerations when asked to write a book?

Thanks for sharing your experience. Never heard of Authority, I'm going to check it out!

_jdamson Ask HN: Are the Pokemon Go articles real, or is their PR firm amazing?

Pokémon is one of the biggest franchises in the world. It's like the McDonald's of gaming, and the people that grew up consuming it are now in their 20s-30s and extremely active on Social Media.

Before major news outlets pick it up, micro-blogs, niche blogs for gaming, and other entertainment media outlets are going to publish stories about it, and the content writers of those sites are all the demographic that grew up with Pokémon, so it's no surprise really.

_jdamson Ask HN: Is Safari the new IE?

Did you mean Chrome and Firefox don't quite fit?

_jdamson Ask HN: Can I use a Pokemon's name as my product name?

Kudos for the excellent example. "Sea King" would be a quite believable coincidence.

_jdamson Enrollment Is Surging in Machine Learning Classes

Thanks for posting this

_jdamson Leaf: Machine learning framework in Rust

_jdamson Ask HN: Where can I get constructive criticism for my app/website?

Few starting suggestions below. Note that you should have a working example, but it doesn't need to be 'final' or 'perfect'. Don't be afraid to release to a select group of people early for feedback. That feedback will help further the development of the product or site.

https://www.reddit.com/r/web_design

https://www.reddit.com/r/webdev

https://www.reddit.com/r/startups

https://www.reddit.com/r/entrepreneur

_jdamson Ask HN: Those making $1,000+/month on side projects – what did you make?

Revenue is from LEGO and toy-related ads? What is the pricing model for an information-based website such as yours? I'm at work and unfortunately can't browse at the moment.

_jdamson Sublime Text Build 3101

I believe you'll have great results with Sublime Text 3, why don't you give it a try this weekend? It's extremely stable and I haven't had any issues with it!