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aproductguy

25 karma · joined July 25, 2014

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aproductguy··on Ask HN: What are you working on? (May 2025)
I've been working on a platform for car collectors to manage their car collections. https://capsured.com
aproductguy··on I wish I didn't miss the '90s-00s internet
Reminds me of this article from Salon published back in 2002: https://www.salon.com/2002/05/31/back_in_the_day/
aproductguy··on Ask HN: What are you working on (August 2024)?
Just soft launched my app for landlords to manage their rental properties. It is targeted to Canadians with a focus on Ontario to start.

https://boredlandlord.com

aproductguy··on Losing my son
We love you too.
aproductguy··on Ask HN: Are blog comments a thing of the past?
I run a pretty large NBA blog, that gets crazy traffic. We decided to spend energy and time moderating comments. Basically we go by "don't be an asshole", and while it's onerous, the community that has sprung up around it is incredible. We have people who've been commenting since 2007, and it was worth it if you have the time to spare. My $0.02
aproductguy··on Ask HN: Tech-savvy parents, what are the gadget rules for your kids?
Solid points. And I agree. I played hours of video games when I was like 10/11.
aproductguy··on Ask HN: Tech-savvy parents, what are the gadget rules for your kids?
I truly hate it. The only saving grace to all of this is that both my boys read at least an hour a day. hopefully it all balances out, but we will have a strict no social media rule until they get to the teenagers that we can't manage anymore.
aproductguy··on Ask HN: Tech-savvy parents, what are the gadget rules for your kids?
Two boys, 9 and almost 7.

They get 40 minutes a day (mon-thur) of tv that they watch together.

On Friday and Sunday, we have family movie night. Age appropriate, which is getting harder.

2 hours a week of games (mostly switch, but they sometimes play minecraft or approved games on mobile devices). This happens over Sat/Sun, and we let them manage how they want to allocate time over the two days.

One observation is that after they play video games, they get agitated and angry afterwards, and it ruins the next hour or two of activities as they act like little assholes.

They do have access to Spotify to listen to music (content controls are turned on), but if we notice that they are watching the videos and not "listening" the phones turn off.

The one area where it gets dicey is my 9 year old is learning how to code, so managing that screen time is weird (is it like watching tv/playing games?). I dunno, but I generally don't say anything as this is his best use of devices during the week.

Shit is hard to keep up with tbh.

aproductguy··on From Æthelflæd to Ælfthryth: The Idea of Queenship in Tenth-Century England
The books are so much better; big fan of Cornwell.
aproductguy··on Ask HN: Looking for a CTO
Awesome, have them email me sam [at] aproductguy [dot] ca
aproductguy··on Ask HN: Employees who exersised stock options: how did it go?
Worked for a startup in 2000 which Sun Microsystems bought. My options get switched to Sun options, and had a strike price higher than the value of the shares. Right before the options were set to expire, I got a call from someone at Solomon Smith Barney (remember that) who was like "I know the answer is no, but do you want to exercise these?" lol

That job, and especially my time at Sun, super kickstarted my career (I really valued my time at Sun), so I wasn't bitter at all.

aproductguy··on Netscape and Sun Announce JavaScript (1995)
I legit miss Sun. Worked there for two years in 2002/03, and the level of talent there was astounding.
aproductguy··on Ask HN: How would you invest $500K?
How you invest depends on what your goals are. You need to define the "why" before you can move on to the "how".
aproductguy··on Ask HN: Bloggers, what are your tips?
Lots of people start blogs, publish a ton of articles, don't get the traction off the bat that they are expecting, and it slowly/quickly dies. Start small. Consistently publish (whatever you can handle in terms of pace, but 1-2 articles a week published at 9am is a good start). Specializing in a niche is huge; it keeps your blog focused, and if you do a good job, people will look to you as an influencer in that space.

Getting out there on Twitter/Reddit and building a following go without saying.

This is from my experience (I run a successful sports blog, and currently launching two other ones with the same model).

Good luck!

Edit: added 'Good luck!'

aproductguy··on JustFab: The Billion Dollar Startup with a Dark Past
It's definitely feature, not flaw; think of all the lost revenue from merchants/acquirers/issuers/associations/etc when a card needs to be legitimately replaced (e.g. updating your Netflix subscription is the last thing on your mind if you lost your wallet). Full disclosure: currently working on a product that does this very thing.