ammmir

nice! have you thought about storing upvotes in a special meta article that you periodically update with the latest counts? iirc, you can use the Supersedes header field to replace the meta article so all nodes get the latest vote stats.

or you could store each vote in an adjacent thread containing the upvotes/downvotes for that article and periodically coalesce them into a single count for easy retrieval. that way, the whole system can be stateless from a single node's perspective.

Hey everyone! This is one of those things that’s already been done, but I feel like none of the existing solutions have nailed down an ergonomic API or feature set for storing key-value pairs, especially numerical data. I built this over the weekend to help me store auto-expiring counters for metrics collection for different apps and devices. Hope it’s useful for someone :)

this is a great idea for a blog, especially if you focus on side projects like reviewing Show HNs and the like! i just released my weekend side project https://kvdb.io and would love a fresh pair of eyes to review it. it's a key-value store as a service for collecting arbitrary data and metrics for almost any application. let me know what you think!

I couldn’t imagine writing a huge web app in Go without a framework, but you can go framework-free if you’re doing microservices or APIs. I recently used Echo to build my latest side project https://kvdb.io - Echo and similar frameworks provide small enough API on top of net/http that you’re reducing boilerplate without framework lock-in. Most provide basic middleware like anti-CSRF, Basic auth, etc. but for app-wide security and access control like roles, you might want to use a specific library.

Compared to Rails and Django, Go web dev seems closer to the metal with less magic going on, and that’s probably a good thing.

SEEKING WORK - San Francisco, Anywhere - REMOTE ONLY, TRAVEL OK

Hi. I'm a full-stack product and systems engineer who can solve your business problems. I'll help you navigate the tech side of things and avoid common pitfalls when hiring third-parties who often demand to use shiny new tools and frameworks without understanding the long-term business consequences.

I recently released a licensable on-prem software https://www.pilvy.com/products/vpn-server and I'm currently taking a short break from building a hosted business VPN service (soft-launching next week at https://www.businessvpn.com ). I'm looking to consult on a short-term project (1-2 months) to get a breath of fresh air and recharge (I know, it's a funny way of putting it), either as an engineer, tech lead, or a CTO to create your tech strategy.

If you're looking to hire a professional with a wide range of experience, let's get in touch: amir AT pilvy DOT com

Resume: https://www.pilvy.com | https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirmalik/ | https://github.com/ammmir

Languages & technologies: Go (golang), Erlang/Elixir, Swift, Objective-C, JavaScript, React, Cocoa, node.js, Ruby on Rails, iOS, Cocoa, VPN, SDK, Linux, API, networking, TCP/IP, protocol design, security, crypto, blockchain, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solidity, MVP, AWS, S3, Heroku, Docker

actually, both HTTPS and WebSocket over TLS (wss://) require a TLS handshake, so it's not like you're constantly doing that after you've loaded the page, but HTTP request/response header sizes could def be a concern.

Hey everyone! I’ve been working on a new VPN solution for a few months, and decided it’s time to ship something, even if it’s not finished yet. It’s a VPN server with minimal UI clients for desktop and and command-line clients for major platforms. Currently, it speaks a custom binary VPN protocol over TLS/TCP, but will adopt a Noise Protocol Framework based one later. I’m building it for companies that need a turnkey remote access solution for their employees with some “enterprisey” features but without the price tag. It’s currently in beta, but I’d love any feedback on what you’d like to see in a simpler VPN solution :)

SEEKING FREELANCER - Anywhere, REMOTE

Seeking a Go (golang) developer who has experience in cross-platform desktop app development to build a super simple tray icon app for Mac and Windows. Experience in Cocoa, Objective-C, Win32 API, and cgo of course are a plus, but not required, as long as you're motivated to figure things out :)

Email amir at pilvy dot com with your coolest Go project and anything relevant. It's a small project, but could lead to more work in the future.

really cool, great work! any plans to relax macOS 10.12 as a hard requirement?

euler's identity e^ipi+1=0 of course. it connects all the dots (e, pi, sqrt(-1), 1, 0), is fun to prove, and just plain cool. i have no idea of its practical applications though.

SEEKING FREELANCER - Seoul, South Korea or REMOTE

We’re looking for a JavaScript UI engineer who is well versed in React, JSX, ES6, HTML5, CSS3, etc. to implement the UI of a desktop app built with the Electron framework. The app has already been designed and we’re now looking for some help on the UI implementation side to make things look beautiful. Experience with CSS animations would be a huge plus!

Please email inquiries AT pilvy DOT com with your portfolio, GitHub, or anything else that showcases your work. Thanks for looking!

SEEKING FREELANCER - Seoul, South Korea or REMOTE

We're looking for a JavaScript UI engineer who has great design sense and deep experience in React, JSX, ES6, HTML5, CSS3, etc. to build a cross-platform desktop app (Mac, Windows) using the Electron framework. You'll be responsible for implementing the (stateless) UI, which will be driven by a JSON-RPC backend.

Bonus points for experience with Electron or other cross-platform app toolkits using web technologies. This project is roughly 75% development and 25% design.

Please email inquiries AT pilvy DOT com with your portfolio and put "HN" somewhere in the subject line. Thanks!

would you mind providing some details, such as, the hostname you're using (mx.google.com doesn't resolve), the exact error message, and if possible, the certificate chain you're seeing?

we absolutely are not injecting any certificates or otherwise modifying or inspecting traffic.

(disclaimer: i am an employee of PIA)

awesome! i've been waiting for something like this for iOS, even though i should've built it myself :)

if you're looking for something similar for Mac, check out my app http://cloudplay.fm/

Poor man's anycast: Setup a hidden master and push zone updates to multiple slave DNS servers at different providers, which are all registered as your domain's DNS servers (at your registrar).

Actual anycast: Piggy back on a network provider that already announces an anycast network block and "lease" a single IP address. Have lots of time and money? Obtain BGP access, colocate servers, purchase network equipment, etc. and do it all yourself.

A good compromise is to use a DNS provider that offers anycast already, like DNS Made Easy, AWS Route 53, or a number of others at reasonable cost.

Location: San Francisco, CA

Remote: No

Willing to relocate: No

Technologies: node.js, Objective-C, Cocoa (Mac & iOS), Elixir/Erlang, Ruby on Rails, Swift, C#/.NET, Go, Python, Lua; and PostgreSQL, Redis, Riak, MongoDB, CouchDB, Docker, RabbitMQ, AMQP

Resume: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirmalik and https://www.pilvy.com and https://github.com/ammmir

Email: amir at amirmalik dot net

About me:

I'm a software engineer with 8 years of experience, of which I've spent the past four consulting. I'm now looking to move back into a full-time job at an established company (i.e. with a shipped product, and ~20+ employees). I'm fairly language-agnostic, as I believe in using the right tool for the right job, but I'm also excited about Elixir, Objective-C/Swift, Go, and hybrid application stacks.

I'm looking for a product engineering role or a similar full-stack position where I can contribute both on the frontend and backend. I've been learning design on the side, and it would be great to put those skills to use. I'm interested in products revolving around mobile, collaboration, messaging, B2B, SaaS, etc.

There's a lot more we can discuss, so email me if interested. Thanks for looking!

this is great! one suggestion would be to update the suggestions under each filter type based on the current search results. for example, say i'm interested in Sean Connery movies. now that i see the results, it'd be nice to further filter the results by rating, director, etc. the directors tab would show all unique directors appearing in the current search result set.

maybe there's a better UX paradigm for this drill-down approach, but i think it would be a great addition.

Location: San Francisco, CA

Remote: No

Willing to relocate: No

Technologies: node.js, Objective-C, Cocoa (Mac & iOS), Elixir/Erlang, Ruby on Rails, Swift, C#/.NET, Go, Python, Lua; and PostgreSQL, Redis, Riak, MongoDB, CouchDB, Docker, RabbitMQ, AMQP

Resume: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirmalik and https://www.pilvy.com and https://github.com/ammmir

Email: amir at amirmalik dot net

About me:

I'm a software engineer with 8 years of experience, of which I've spent the past four consulting. Now, I'd like to get away from the hectic consulting lifestyle :) I'm fairly language-agnostic, as I believe in using the right tool for the right job, but I'm excited about Elixir, Objective-C/Swift, Go, and hybrid application stacks.

I'm looking for a product engineering role or a similar full-stack position where I can contribute both on the frontend and backend. I've been learning design on the side, and it would be great to put those skills to use. I'm interested in products revolving around mobile, collaboration, messaging, B2B, SaaS, etc.

I have a lot more we can discuss about, so email me if interested. Thanks for looking!

P.S. At this time, I'm interested in more established companies (i.e. with a shipped product, and ~20+ employees).

it's great to see friendlier APIs for working with email! is Inbox intended more for building email clients, compared to something like Switchboard (http://switchboard.spatch.co/) which is more for processing inbound email?

any plans for a WebSocket API? seems like it would be easier to receive pushed emails on an existing socket, than registering a webhook and then sending a push notification out-of-band to the client to fetch new emails.

Location: San Francisco, CA

Remote: No

Willing to relocate: No

Technologies (languages/frameworks): node.js, Express, Objective-C, Cocoa (Mac & iOS), Elixir/Erlang, Ruby on Rails, C#/.NET, Go, Lua

Technologies (stack): MongoDB, Redis, PostgreSQL, Docker, RabbitMQ, AMQP, CouchDB

Resume: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirmalik and https://www.pilvy.com and https://github.com/ammmir

Email: amir at amirmalik dot net

About me:

I’m a software engineer who has been consulting for the past few years, and I’ve decided the time has come for me to move back into a more stable full-time job. While I’m language agnostic (“use the right tool for the right job” philosophy), recently I’ve been really excited about working in Elixir, Go, Objective-C and Swift. Areas that interest me include mobile in general, collaboration, messaging, developer APIs, hardware, and music.

Ideally, I’d like to be involved in a product with a mobile or platform component, and where I can contribute both on the backend (~75%) and frontend (~25%). Of course, I’m very flexible and not bound to these ratios :) The most important points for me when evaluating a company are (in order): great team, interesting problems, and technology stack.

Thanks for looking!

mixed content warnings only appear if http content is included on an https page

SEEKING FREELANCER - Remote

I'll be taking a break from consulting for the next few months, and I have a project with a fantastic client that I'd like to hand off to someone capable and trustworthy.

The project is a VPN client for Windows and Mac OS X. It's written in C#, .NET, and Xamarin.Mac/MonoMac, with a dash of Objective-C. OpenVPN is used for VPN connectivity, and the client integrates with firewalls (Windows Firewall, pf on Mac), monitors Wi-Fi connectivity, and a few other things. It's a client/server model with the UI built using WPF/XAML (Windows) and Interface Builder (Mac), talking to a "backend" Windows Service and LaunchDaemon on Mac over localhost.

I'm looking to find a strong candidate I can recommend to my client. The work will consist of adding functionality (UI work is relatively minor) on both platforms, resolving bugs found by customers in the field, etc. The apps are mostly feature-complete, but there is always room for improvement :) Strong understanding of networking fundamentals (TCP/IP, DNS, routing, firewalls), and significant experience working with C#/.NET is a must. Some experience with Xamarin.Mac, Mono, Objective-C, Cocoa, and Xcode are highly desirable :)

Email amir at pilvy dot com if interested.

Thanks for looking!

That's funny, seems like a lot of us have built music players because none have seemed adequate :)

I built CloudPlay (http://cloudplay.fm) because I wasn't satisfied with Mac music players and none supported streaming from YouTube or SoundCloud. At the time, I had also been itching to build my first Mac app, so what better opportunity to learn Objective-C/Cocoa and improve my music listening experience?

It turned out to be a longer journey than it should have. I got most of it working in a month or two, but I spent too much time with unnecessary detours like:

- writing a low-level audio streaming framework that I scrapped once I discovered a higher-level API

- building a basic search index and deciding to use LuaJIT (!) to implement it, thereby requiring me to build my own Objective-C/Lua bridge, only to discover that the OS already provided a full-text search framework

Yes, I could've read the documentation more carefully, but it's also easy to get sucked down a rabbit hole building stuff from scratch for the sake of exploration. Sometimes building at a lower level helps you appreciate and understand the higher level and why you shouldn't always reinvent the wheel :)

gut instinct is a wonderful thing, don't ignore it completely :)

this sounds like yet another case of a non-technical person trying to strong arm a developer/designer/the person that does actual product development into signing away their rights.

in my very limited experience and from others i know, unequal equity split for co-founders usually always ends up with someone becoming sour over time that they're not getting their fair share. you may not think you might be that person, but if the app takes off or somewhere down the line the company is acquired, would you be okay with not receiving a single penny?

don't sign anything without talking to a lawyer. if you don't know what you're signing, you might even be worse off than signing a "standard NDA".

you can always say no.

SEEKING WORK - San Francisco, CA or REMOTE, TRAVEL OK

I build apps, websites, APIs, and turnkey solutions that solve critical business problems. Here are some recent projects (more at https://www.pilvy.com/):

* (client wishes to remain nameless): An iOS VPN client for a major VPN service provider that uses iOS configuration profiles to deliver an easy-to-use VPN experience. [Objective-C, Cocoa Touch]

* IVPN Client for Mac & Windows: Built a custom VPN client (on top of OpenVPN) for IVPN (https://www.ivpn.net/), who needed built-in privacy features like DNS leak prevention and firewall blocking. [C#, .NET, Objective-C, Xamarin.Mac]

* VMware End User Computing Demo Portal (https://www.vmwdemo.com/): A purpose-built Desktop as a Service (DaaS) that allows VMware's sales and marketing teams to easily demonstrate the Horizon product suite to high-value customers. Eliminated a ton of time-consuming work by automating Active Directory/LDAP account provisioning, expiry, and integration with Horizon Workspace. Deployed in different sales regions with full i18n support. [node.js, Windows Active Directory, various VMware APIs]

I'm looking for short-term (1-3 months) projects. Thanks for looking!

tech: Objective-C/Cocoa/iOS, node.js, JavaScript, Ruby on Rails, C#/.NET, Python, Elixir/Erlang

https://www.pilvy.com | https://github.com/ammmir | amir at pilvy dot com

SEEKING WORK - San Francisco Bay Area, CA or REMOTE, TRAVEL OK

I build apps, websites, APIs, and turnkey solutions that solve critical business problems. Here are some recent projects (more at https://www.pilvy.com/):

* An iOS VPN client for a major VPN service provider that uses iOS's built-in configuration profiles.

* IVPN Client for Windows: Developed for IVPN (https://www.ivpn.net/), who had some unique security & privacy requirements. Based on OpenVPN.

* VMware End User Computing Demo Portal (https://www.vmwdemo.com/): Allows VMware's sales and marketing teams to easily demonstrate the Horizon product suite to potential customers. Eliminated a ton of time-consuming work by automating Active Directory/LDAP account provisioning, expiry, and integration with Horizon Workspace.

I'm looking for short-term (1-3 months) projects. Available from mid-March.

tech: Objective-C/Cocoa/iOS, node.js, JavaScript, Ruby on Rails, C#/.NET, Python, Elixir/Erlang

https://www.pilvy.com | https://github.com/ammmir | amir at pilvy dot com

SEEKING WORK - San Francisco Bay Area, CA or REMOTE, TRAVEL OK

I build apps, websites, APIs, and turnkey solutions that solve critical business problems. Here are some recent projects (more at https://www.pilvy.com/):

* An iOS VPN client for a major VPN service provider that uses iOS's built-in configuration profiles.

* IVPN Client for Windows: Developed for IVPN (https://www.ivpn.net/), who had some unique security & privacy requirements. Based on OpenVPN.

* VMware End User Computing Demo Portal (https://www.vmwdemo.com/): Allows VMware's sales and marketing teams to easily demonstrate the Horizon product suite to potential customers. Eliminated a ton of time-consuming work by automating Active Directory/LDAP account provisioning, expiry, and integration with Horizon Workspace.

I'm looking for short-term (near-full time) and long-term (part-time) projects. Available from mid-February.

tech: node.js, JavaScript, Objective-C/Cocoa/iOS, Ruby on Rails, C#/.NET, Python, Elixir/Erlang

https://www.pilvy.com | https://github.com/ammmir | amir at pilvy dot com

SEEKING WORK - San Francisco Bay Area, CA or REMOTE, TRAVEL OK

I build apps, websites, and APIs that solve business problems. A couple of recent projects (more at http://www.pilvy.com/):

* IVPN Client for Windows: Developed for IVPN (https://www.ivpn.net/), who had some unique security & privacy requirements. Based on OpenVPN.

* VMware End User Computing Demo Portal (https://www.vmwdemo.com/): Lets their sales and marketing teams easily demonstrate the Horizon product suite to potential customers. Eliminated a ton of time-consuming work by automating Active Directory/LDAP account provisioning, expiry, and integration with Horizon Workspace.

I'm looking for short-term (near-full time) and long-term (part-time) projects. Immediate availability.

tech: node.js, JavaScript, Objective-C/Cocoa/iOS, Python, Ruby on Rails, Elixir/Erlang

http://www.pilvy.com | https://github.com/ammmir | amir at pilvy dot com

does anyone know of similar quality job boards that are focused more on turnkey projects and less on staff augmentation?

i've had the best experiences with clients who care more about the end product and results, rather than specific languages, frameworks, or even skillsets. nearly all of them have been inbound or referrals, so i'm not sure if a job board (maybe a reverse job board?) would be able to replicate that.

SEEKING WORK - San Francisco Bay Area, CA or REMOTE

I build apps, websites, and APIs that solve business problems. A couple of recent projects (more at http://www.pilvy.com/):

* IVPN Client for Windows: Developed for IVPN (https://www.ivpn.net/), who had some unique security & privacy requirements. Based on OpenVPN.

* VMware End User Computing Demo Portal (https://www.vmwdemo.com/): Lets their sales and marketing teams easily demonstrate the Horizon product suite to potential customers. Eliminated a ton of time-consuming work by automating Active Directory/LDAP account provisioning, expiry, and integration with Horizon Workspace.

I'm looking for short-term (near-full time) and long-term (part-time) projects. Immediate availability.

tech: node.js, JavaScript, Objective-C/Cocoa/iOS, Python, Ruby on Rails

http://amirmalik.net | https://github.com/ammmir | amir at pilvy dot com