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azharcs

2,164 karma · joined April 18, 2008

twitter.com/azharcs/
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azharcs··on Send payouts with Stripe
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
azharcs··on HN Meetup, Bangalore
I am in too. Since you've changed the location to Barleyz, Please update it on the thread too.
azharcs··on Python.org Redesign Preview
I like the design but I've some feedback.

- Search bar has to be well integrated with the primary navigation.

- Alignment of the search text field & the search button.

- Search text field has sharp edges while the button is slightly bigger and has rounded edges.

- I think increase/decrease your text size is redundant. Your target audience is programmers or people who want to learn programming. They already know how to zoom in/zoom out.

- Instead of showing an image of how to create an array. Wouldn't it be awesome, if we create a simple interactive shell where-in you show how to manipulate strings (reverse, capitalize etc. It will get user's who are new to Python excited about the language and its simplicity.

How can I contribute to the project?

azharcs··on Show HN: 6 months ago I quit my job to pursue indie dev. Here is our first game
Very addicting. Amazing stuff.
azharcs··on Design Books Every Hacker Should Read
All these books are great but they are theoretical in their approach. It's good to be knowledgeable about Golden Ration or Fitts Law but it wouldn't be of immediate help on your next project. The books for Hackers should be pragmatic in their approach and not very theoretical.

The books I recommend are: Non-Designers Design Book by Robin Williams. It focuses on topics like Consistency, Alignment, Proximity, and Contrast. With these four rules, you can make 90% of your designs look good. It also explains briefly on what colors and typography to use. When you've firm grasp of the fundamentals, it would make sense to arm yourself with more theory.

Don't make me Think by Steve Krug. It teaches you to simplify and focus on the end-user.

azharcs··on A New Look for Facebook
IMO, its an extremely average redesign.

Major problem is responsive design, its not scalable for content heavy sites. Same code scaling for different screens, makes sense in theory but is nightmare in practice. I've been part of couple of projects where-in we learnt the hard way. Hence, you don't see any big site use responsive design in major way. Almost all sites (Facebook, Amazon, Flipkart) go with a different sites for mobile & desktop.

Also the use of white text on dark background is extremely hard to read. Hence you see pretty much every content-rich site uses white or light background with dark/grey text. An exception might be Myspace which went with dark background approach and failed miserably in engagement.

When using any site, we like consistency. By incorporating panels which open up from both left and right side, it provides an inconsistent feel while using the site. My usage might be completely different from yours. It is important to keep the overall layout consistent with content personalized based on users needs.

azharcs··on Now Google is blocking Windows Phones from accessing maps.Google.com
This is exactly the reasoning that pisses me off. If MS pulled the same shit, we would be out with pitchforks ready to bury them. Have some consistency. Any corporation using their monopoly product to provide a bad experience for competitive products is evil.
azharcs··on Google Maps redirect issue on Windows Phones is a matter of competition
First they block access to Youtube API. Now they decide to block access to Google Maps. Free and Open Web BS is just going too far. I don't think there is absolutely any part of the web which is free and open. It is conveniently used from time to time to convince people to contribute to their platforms.
azharcs··on Reddit user captures video of 2012 voting machines altering votes
I would like to disagree with Mr.Param who is either being a cynic or trying to be "me-too". India is aggressively moving away from paper-ballot voting to EVM's. In our last general elections, a million electronic voting machines (EVM's) were used which reduces vote-rigging, ballot capture etc. In maybe 5 years, we will be completely rid of paper-ballots.

For further read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_voting_machines

India also has option called "None of the Above" as a voting option, which is extremely democratic.

azharcs··on Miss real-time search on Google? Try the HashPlug extension for Chrome
Useful plugin, works well.
azharcs··on Ask HN: Where do you keep your ideas?
I keep them in a private folder on Dropbox. I can easily sort them by their names and I can access it across all my devices as Dropbox has a client for all popular platforms.
azharcs··on Android users outraged over Motorola's broken promise
HTC did the same with their HTC Desire phones. I own a HTC Desire HD and I regret buying an Android phone as the only update I received was 2.3 with their Sense UI crap-ware. I've lost faith in Android ecosystem with early users being denied new features and security updates because they want users to upgrade to newer phones.
azharcs··on Design is Horseshit
Some Startups with bad Design have managed to do very well (Craigslist, Ebay etc), but doesn't mean all the startups with bad design will do well. Good Design is necessary, it is what makes you subconsciously love something and use it more often.
azharcs··on Nokia Plan B
I think a quote by Henry Ford sums up the the whole Plan B and their approach.

"You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do." ~ Henry Ford

azharcs··on I pitched YC, was rejected, just closed a multi-million dollar round.
Just because you are rejected by VC's or YC doesn't mean anything. Even best of the VC's make mistakes, here is a firm which missed companies like Apple, Intel, Google, Paypal, Ebay etc...

http://www.bvp.com/Portfolio/AntiPortfolio.aspx

azharcs··on Google: Bing Is Cheating, Copying Our Search Results
With Google results filled with Spam & I hardly find a result on the first search, any sane-minded search shouldn't be even replicating (if they are).
azharcs··on Microsoft Shipped 2 Million Units of Windows Phone 7 Software Last Quarter
Facebook for Android has close to 1 Million users, does that mean Android has sold 1 Million handsets (It has 300,000 activations everyday). I think assuming that everyone in this world is on Facebook is a wrong assumption.
azharcs··on Easing into SICP
Also recommended mostly as a prerequisite to SICP is "How to Design Programs" by Matthias Felleisen http://www.htdp.org/2003-09-26/Book/
azharcs··on C is 38 years old. K&R V2 is 22 years old. What's the best modern C book?
I recommend Programming in C by Stephen Kochan http://amzn.to/cXnEPp

I have also heard good things about Illustrating C

azharcs··on Ask HN: What are you reading right now?
It is very good, I would certainly recommend it.
azharcs··on Ask HN: What are you reading right now?
Programming in C by Stephen G Kochan & Getting Things Done by David Allen
azharcs··on Microsoft profit jumps 51 percent with record Q1 revenue
For Apple to win, Microsoft doesn't have to lose.
azharcs··on Ask HN: Reduce Load time 'appearance'
Best Practices for Speeding Up Your Web Site by Yahoo, It is a very useful link for improving website performance. http://developer.yahoo.com/performance/rules.html
azharcs··on Ask YC: Have you ever ignored Paul Graham?
Sure, I am on it. Give me a week and I will have something to show.
azharcs··on Ask YC: Have you ever ignored Paul Graham?
Hey, Do you hate CSS ;-) When I visited your website, I actually checked my web developer toolbar to see if CSS is disabled.

Can I design tarsnap and provide you a CSS template.

azharcs··on HTML5 resume
typography is bad, try to avoid serif fonts, Use sans-serif fonts for better read.
azharcs··on Skype Loses Engineering Chief (possibly due to TechCrunch commenters?)
TechCrunch article which is cited in the article: http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/06/skype-recruits-yahoo-engine...
azharcs··on Ask HN: How can I get better at design?
These were some of the books which taught me a lot about Design were:

Don't make me Think by Steve Krug http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Me-Think-Usability/dp/032134...

Non-Designer's Design Book http://www.amazon.com/Non-Designers-Design-Book-Typographic-...

Universal Principles of Design http://www.amazon.com/Universal-Principles-Design-Revised-Up...

Also make sure you go through design's everyday on Behance.net, they have some really amazing designers and design.

azharcs··on I own you, and you're easily replaceable.
I deal with this scenario everyday in a company I work with, where the founder expects everyone to work on weekends and late night (most days). Since it is an advertising agency, he accepts every work that comes his way from clients. He comes from Sales background and somehow believes that more work is equal to more money, which is not true. When it comes to any work where some amount of thinking is involved, Less work (Quality) == more money.

Most of the people in the team are stressed and are complaining that they don't have a personal life. They would quit the company, the day they get an opportunity to apply leave, so that they can attend other interviews.

Very soon, I am going to buy him a book called "Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams". It's an amazing book, and is a must read for people who are or want to manage teams.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peopleware_%28book%29

azharcs··on [dead]
The website is down with Database error.

Can't find it in Google Cache too, Bing saves the day. http://cc.bingj.com/cache.aspx?q=Introduction+to+my+business...

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