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dan_sim

1,878 karma · joined December 3, 2008

dsimard@gmail.com
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dan_sim··on Ask HN: How do you manage your sales leads?
A CRM is the memory of a business. You will never remember what you forget and it's amazing the number of opportunities we forget.

Import your contact list, put _each_ conversation and email in your CRM. Before calling a client, take a look at what happened recently. Your clients will be amazed of how much things you remember.

If someone is talking about a future project/dream, add it to your CRM with a low priority (I use % of probability of winning). Add a task (in the CRM) to call about the project in a couple of months.

When a conversation ends with the client saying "I'll get back to you", ask when you should follow up on the project and add a task at this date. When it is time, follow up! Clients don't call back and it's ok because it means they are busy with their business.

A CRM is not a task manager but it's essential to add tasks related to contacting your clients in there.

I use CapsuleCRM. Not because it's the best but because it was the easiest to use at that time. I tried the old version of ZohoCRM and it wasn't that good, but they changed it recently so you should take a look. Try them all, you'll find the one that fits you best.

dan_sim··on Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (January 2014)
SEEKING WORK - Quebec, Canada - Remote

Web developer : Rails, NodeJS and angular.

Mobile app for Android and iOS with Phonegap : https://github.com/dsimard/grunt-angular-phonegap

Email in profile.

dan_sim··on An HTML5 app turned native in 10 minutes with PhoneGap Build?
If you want to use angular and phonegap, I create grunt tasks that you can use with the angular generator for yeoman : https://github.com/dsimard/grunt-angular-phonegap
dan_sim··on AngularJS 1.2.0: timely-delivery
Here is a video showing how to bootstrap an angular-phonegap application in 6 commands : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXkLu7q4tq4
dan_sim··on AngularJS 1.2.0: timely-delivery
I just wrote a yeoman generator to bootstrap a phonegap application with angular 1.2.0 : https://github.com/dsimard/generator-angular-phonegap
dan_sim··on Ask HN: How do you manage passwords in teams?
Someone I know is working on that open-source project : http://sflvault.org/

It's from "Savoir Faire Linux", a consultant shop that implements Linux solutions in various enterprises.

dan_sim··on Stop asking users for their timezone – use per-device settings and JavaScript
I wrote a javascript library that detects the standard time, the daylight saving time for the current time zone : https://github.com/dsimard/timezonedetect

Garry Tan, cofounder of posterous, said of it : "Finally, timezones in javascript done right. The world has been made a better place via this fine javascript library."

dan_sim··on Lazarus Free Pascal RAD IDE 1.0.2 is released
I pretty much hate Pascal as a language but I recently used it on one of my project. I wanted a executable that would just WORK on any computer without any installation, dependency or a specific version of a .NET framework. I used Lazarus and it just worked.
dan_sim··on (Android) Developer Income Report #14
Really sorry for that. I can't edit my comment anymore but it am aware that is a mistake.
dan_sim··on (Android) Developer Income Report #14
That would be a bad idea. You make your living by selling those things, you share your numbers with us and then, you would remove some ads because of a jealous programmer. Please don't do it and feel free to sell your stuff as much as you want.

I was almost angry when I saw the <AUTOPROMOTION> tag in your post. Why writing it? You have to autopromote your products if you want to sell them. This <AUTOPROMOTION> tag makes me feel like you're not serious about your book.

dan_sim··on Need Help. Going through late 20 career crisis.
I understood it as "find yourself a woman with similar entrepreneurial goals so she can understand, be patient and support you". It is _really_ important to me, I just couldn't do it if I didn't have that support.
dan_sim··on Need Help. Going through late 20 career crisis.
My advice is no matter how good are your programming skills or your product, if you're not selling, it's useless to be that good.

Get some good selling skills and human skills. The only reason why that other crappy software that you're competing with sells for millions is because the guy is better than you at selling it.

Maybe you should study and invest in learning how to sell and then give another chance to your software (that should be a good one after 4 years).

Stop developing, start selling.

dan_sim··on Don't be a quiet professional
I didn't even read the article but I'm just tired of the titles. Yesterday it was "be a quiet pro", today is "don't be a quiet pro" and people arguing about it like it could be argued about.

That's what diversity is about. Be quiet if you're a quiet guy or don't be quiet if it is your type. Or just take the best out of the two.

I'm just fed up with those posts that tell you to act boldly without discernment.

dan_sim··on Ask HN: What kind of personal financial investment do you do?
I'm building a company and investing in it.

I may be crazy but I rather invest in myself that in a company I have no control over. When the time will come, I'll sell it and get most of my money out of it. Maybe reinvesting in another and make more out of a better initial investment.

I already created thousands of dollars from an initial 500$ investment and time.

Does someone else here thinks like that?

dan_sim··on My first 'successful' open-source project (js continuous integration) hits 1.0.0
ready.js won't overwrite your javascript, that would be stupid, it compiles your javascript in another folder. When you're in dev, you simply link to your uncompiled js. When in prod, you link to your compiled js.
dan_sim··on My first 'successful' open-source project (js continuous integration) hits 1.0.0
yes, it's available with `npm install ready`
dan_sim··on My first 'successful' open-source project (js continuous integration) hits 1.0.0
"first 'successful'" means that it's my first project used in production by other developers. For me, it's enough to consider it 'successful' (with the quotes).
dan_sim··on My first 'successful' open-source project (js continuous integration) hits 1.0.0
I added a micro-definition in the title. Here's the full description : continuous javascript integration using JSLint, Google Compiler and Node.js .
dan_sim··on ShowHN (weekend project) : Ready.js - prepare your js for production
clickable : http://github.com/dsimard/ready.js
dan_sim··on Ask HN: Show me your Half Baked project
when writing "select project" (shortcut : sp) or "select task" (shortcut : st), it lists them so you can choose a task already created.
dan_sim··on Ask HN: Show me your Half Baked project
http://timetracking.im : time-tracking and timesheets on IM
dan_sim··on After 4 years of self-funded coding marathons I feel "finished", care to talk?
col-de-sac should have been cul-de-sac

you see, I just made a HN-style comment. Draw your own conclusions.

dan_sim··on Auto-detect timezones, time zone offsets and daylight saving in javascript
thanks, I really appreciate you take the time of showing your appreciation!
dan_sim··on Auto-detect timezones, time zone offsets and daylight saving in javascript
In fact, I wanted to do a gem/plugin for ruby that would make the boring task of asking a user for a timezone easier.
dan_sim··on Today is Programmer's Day
I hope I'll get flowers...
dan_sim··on Western civilization runs on the mainframe
In fact, western civilization runs on the mainframe AND excel. As a consultant, I see a lot of both...
dan_sim··on You Can’t Take It With You
I had a conversation with a well-known entrepreneur in my city. He has created a chain of cafés (completely different from my field) but we talked a lot (in fact, he talked, I questioned and listened) and I learned a great deal.

At the end of the conversation, he said "it has been a long time since I talked that much". WHAT? It meant that I was probably one of the few lucky who had learned from his experience. I always thought that entrepreneur were sharing their knowledge to everyone once they were big enough.

I hope that he will write about this someday but for the moment, I'll just write it myself in a document and try to find a way to share it.

dan_sim··on Ask HN: What's your computer setup?
a fast-enough computer with ubuntu 10.04... that's all I need.
dan_sim··on Ask HN: Prgmr is unreliable. Please advise on VPS hosting.
We're on http://www.iweb.com
dan_sim··on Ask HN: Prgmr is unreliable. Please advise on VPS hosting.
I was about to write something similar about prgmr. They just don't care.

In our case, we just got bored of all VPS providers and took a dedicated server. Take the time to compare a VPS to a dedicated server and you may have a few surprises. My current server is 80$/month and a similar one on Slicehost would be 250$/month.

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