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csytan

1,168 karma · joined August 31, 2008

https://csytan.com

https://www.cozycal.com

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csytan··on Ask HN: Web frameworks – which less popular frameworks are you using and why?
I've been using Python's Tornado (http://www.tornadoweb.org/) for years now.

Now on version 6, it's fast, well maintained, mature, and has good docs with readable code.

@bdarnell has done an excellent job maintaining it.

Here's one example:

Tornado supported async style coroutines before asyncio was a thing. Now it uses asyncio under the hood by default -- and it did so with an exceptionally smooth transition.

csytan··on The Wisdom in Kung Fu Panda
"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That's why it is called the present" - Master Oogway
csytan··on Google Meddling with URLs in Emails, Causing Security Concerns
> To be the devil's advocate, Google doesn't learn this way anything they wouldn't get to know without this intermediary link.

They'd know if and when the link was clicked.

csytan··on Asian and African super apps are following the playbook WeChat originated
Docker would an example of unbundling apps from the OS. It's specific to the server audience though.

Some other examples in the consumer space would be React Native, Flutter, Electron, etc.

csytan··on Vue 3 Beta
For folks interested in the new Composition API, the RFC is a good read: https://vue-composition-api-rfc.netlify.app/
csytan··on As YouTube traffic soars, YouTubers say pay is plummeting
I'm curious as well. Maybe it's Direct Sales?
csytan··on Ask HN: How to properly manage a product roadmap?
I'm bootstrapping a simple scheduling SAAS with my wife (https://www.cozycal.com/). As the sole developer, I definitely can relate to the feeling of constantly putting out fires.

We use Canny (https://canny.io/) for feedback tracking. It helps us with:

1. Transparency with our customers. On the support side, we can show that we're tracking their requests, and where they fit into our existing roadmap.

2. Less stressful development cycle. I'm still completing some work in our backlog, but after switching to Canny, it's much more clear what the next features will be.

Also, here's our public Canny board which lists our feature requests & roadmap: https://cozycal.canny.io/

csytan··on 'Sushi parasites' have increased 283-fold in past 40 years
From the article: "Despite their name, herring worms can be found in a variety of marine fish and squid species. When people eat live herring worms, the parasite can invade the intestinal wall and cause symptoms that mimic those of food poisoning, such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. In most cases, the worm dies after a few days and the symptoms disappear."
csytan··on Aerosol and surface stability of HCoV-19 compared to SARS-CoV-1 [pdf]
From the paper:

> Virus stability in aerosols was determined as described previously at 65% relative humidity (RH) and 21-23°C. In short, aerosols (<5 µm) containing HCoV-19 (105.25 TCID50/mL) or SARS-CoV-1 (106.75-7 TCID50/mL) were generated using a 3-jet Collison nebulizer and fed into a Goldberg drum to create an aerosolized environment. Aerosols were maintained in the Goldberg drum and samples were collected at 0, 30, 60, 120 and 180 minutes post-aerosolization on a 47mm gelatin filter (Sartorius). Filters were dissolved in 10 mL of DMEM containing 10% FBS. Three replicate experiments were performed.

csytan··on A small DIY air purifier
*to see a similar effect on air quality as mentioned in the study
csytan··on Raising Prices Is Hard
It's funny running into this article for the first time.

I've been using Tarsnap for a couple years now for our SAAS. After receiving the first month's email receipt for $0.25, I replied: saying something along the lines of "damn this is cheap! you could charge a lot more!". No reply of course. He's probably heard it a million times already.

Having gained a bit more experience with pricing our own product this past year, I think it might not be as simple as "he sucks at business".

Here's some potential (and highly speculative) reasons:

- He may not need the money. He's got a respectable day job that pays well.

- Higher prices mean less value for your users. Less value means less geek cred/love. I'd recommend Tarsnap to a fellow techie in a heartbeat. I probably wouldn't if it started at $100/mo.

- Higher prices mean you sell to a different audience with more responsibility. High touch sales, support email threads with 10+ folks all demanding different things, handling exotic types of billing, etc. Many devs don't like dealing with this kind of stuff.

- What if he's doing this as a lead gen for his consulting services?

csytan··on A Beginner’s Introduction to Python Web Frameworks (2018)
I've been using Tornado for coming on 6 years. It's a great example of a solid, well maintained project. Why it's not more popular I'll never know.

Yes it's still relevant because your framework needs to be able to run on the asyncio event loop (a feature which Tornado added early on).

csytan··on I Work with Suicidal Farmers
How come? I think it'd be likely that there will eventually be a hybrid text-to-speech engine that is trained on the narrator, and can continue where they left off.
csytan··on I let a stranger watch me work for a day and I've never been more productive
I think this is a common problem.

It's easy to start a project to satisfy a creative itch, however, once committed full-time, passion may not be enough to keep you going. Then it becomes difficult to maintain productivity and focus.

Many folks don't realize that growing a business is a continuous cycle of iteration, and that they themselves must be included in this process. For me, motivation has shifted from satisfying a creative itch, to the joy of getting a new customer.

I also think that school (especially grad level studies) may be in some ways detrimental to an entrepreneur, in the same way that an athlete struggles to correct a flawed technique burned into their muscle memory from their youth.

If school has trained you to satisfy an external stimulus (e.g. your thesis advisor), then you may be looking for the same thing in someone telling you what to do. At the end of the day, a business is about customers. I'd heartily recommend you tie that into your own iteration cycle of how you work.

csytan··on A barber shop on wheels that you book via an app
I self cut and fade at the edges, but I think the keys to doing this correctly are:

1. Good visibility of the back and sides of your head. Either a 3 way mirror, or some kind of video setup with your phone and a laptop.

2. Patience and practice. The muscle memory and hand eye coordination needed to handle the clippers correctly takes some time. If you cut your hair once every couple of weeks, that's approximately 25 reps per year, which really isn't that much considering the spacing between reps is so long.

Edit: I missed that you have been doing this for 12 years. That's longer than I've been at it ~3 years.

Another thing that helps is watching YouTube vids of legit barbers. There are a ton of different techniques that accomplish the same thing, you might find some new insights into ones that work for you.

csytan··on Bitcoin Spreads Like a Virus

  but there are also dozens of other cryptocurrencies which are drop-in replacements for Bitcoin.
I don't see any drop-in replacements. I can see your point if you meant sharing a codebase. However, if you look at it as if it were a business, brand & marketing count for a lot.
csytan··on Elements of Dance Etiquette (2005)
I'm curious. Could you elaborate?
csytan··on ASK HN: Has anyone adopted Chrome OS as their primary OS?
Are there any disadvantages to choosing developer mode?
csytan··on Strangler pattern, a powerful simple concept to do refactoring
This pattern was taught to be by a former mentor, except he phrased it "always be ready to ship". I used it to convert my app from rendered HTML + jQuery into a full fledged VueJS app + API. Much, much better than rewriting.

One more thing to add, is that a lot of software (e.g. SAAS) has users that depend on it. You want to make sure that your customers are happy through the transition.

csytan··on Drift's anonymous user tracking
Found it creepy that it correctly identified my business account after I had cleared my cookies.

This is becoming a standard feature in sales and customer support software.

csytan··on Notion – All-in-one workspace for notes, tasks, wikis, and databases
Also, it's easy to export your entire workspace as raw data. Markup files, images, etc.
csytan··on Using the iPad Pro as my main computer
Having investigated this possibility as someone in the Apple ecosystem, I think Android might be ahead of iOS for web development.

Reason? Browsers on iOS are crippled: no dev tools, no view as desktop, and no alternatives to Webkit. Another reason is no mouse support. Essentially you'd be using it as a very expensive thin client.

What is intriguing about using Android is that you can actually install Ubuntu on your Android device:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6eC-CH8UG4

csytan··on Bye Bye Mongo, Hello Postgres
I think you're asking the wrong question. The question should be: How did MongoDB become so successful?

IMO, the reason is that newer developers faced the choice of learning SQL or learning to use something with a Javascript API. MongoDB was the natural choice because they excelled at being accessible to devs who were already familiar with Javascript and JSON.

Not only that, their marketing/outreach efforts were also aimed at younger developers. When was the last time you saw a Postgres rep at a college tech event?

csytan··on How the 0.001% invest
Having more wealth gives you access to more efficient financial vehicles that generate (or maintain) wealth.

When you're poor, you are taxed:

- High interest loans

- Remittances with high fees e.g. with Western Union

- Using Cash (on average, you pay a tax on items which have the credit card fee priced in)

- Access to banking (low interest savings/checking accounts)

- Credit cards with high fees, low kickbacks

As you get wealthier:

- Credit cards with kickbacks (e.g. travel, cash back)

- Access to bank accounts with higher interest

- Access to international banking

- Access to international stock markets

As you get wealthier:

- Ownership of businesses which allow you to store your wealth without getting taxed

- Ownership of international businesses which allow you to find the best tax situation internationally

As you get wealthier:

- Access to private markets

- Ownership of businesses where you can directly partner with other businesses

- Running a financial institution

- Running a business so large that you can influence governments

- ...

csytan··on Five-Year Trends Available for Median Income, Poverty and Internet Use
Quickie visualization from the recently released census: Poverty rate vs election results https://twitter.com/csytan/status/1070800405125201920

Posted on Twitter because HN doesn't support images

csytan··on I Quit Google Over Its Censored Chinese Search Engine
The thing that drives profitability and decision making at Google is its business model. Even if they wanted to change their business model, it's not easy and not always an option.
csytan··on Centralization vs. Decentralization
Businesses where the network provides the value: Facebook, AirBnb, Uber, Apple's iOS store, Google search/adwords, Shopify's platform etc.

These businesses profit by being the middlemen in transactions between two users. Bitcoin, for example, competes with traditional banking by cutting out the intermediaries, and their margins.

Ledgers are the simplest application. Next up will be platforms. They often have rather large margins (~20-40%) that are very attractive targets for competition.

csytan··on Amazon FBA Experiment
The value prop is in getting the item much quicker via Prime. It's also a form of arbitrage.
csytan··on Tworoutines in Python
IPython has a pretty neat feature where you can await at the top level:

https://ipython.readthedocs.io/en/stable/whatsnew/version7.h...

csytan··on The Resistance Is Real – Why Side Projects Are So Hard
Reading this blog post, I see two skills in conflict:

1. Ship now, ship often

2. Strive for perfection

The first one is required for entrepreneurs. Your "work <--> reward" iteration cycle should be as short as possible, and should end with the customer handing you money.

The second one is a skill that rewards knowledge acquisition, and can be especially helpful for those looking to improve their skillset in order to move up the career ladder. It's also an iteration cycle, but the reward often doesn't end with directly delivering value to a customer.

Lastly, I think that startup media (Tech Crunch, YC, etc) has a lot to do with this. There are way fewer stories told about bootstrapping something long term, compared to stories about successful startups hitting home runs. The reality is that the bulk of the work will be after you launch, and will likely require continuing effort in the form of years rather than months.

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