272 karma · joined March 17, 2008
If the product has a 50% margin (sells for $100, costs $50 to source) then your retailer makes $100 for 5 orders instead of $50 for 1 order.
Except they're probably keeping their own inventory, so they now have to keep $250 of inventory for that $100 in profit, rather than $100. This is problematic because a lot of online retailers are limited by their working capital.
This is a drastically simplified example, but the bottom line is that physical retailers think very differently than software sellers.
Great idea for an app either way. I wish you the best of luck with it as you learn the territory. For something similar in the Amazon space (a platform that lends itself much less to split testing) check out splitly.com
Have a regular 1 hour video call every week or two. Everyone gives updates, support, and keeps each other accountable on goals.
Keep a Slack/Skype channel open in between to say hi, help each other, share wins, etc. Bonus points for meeting locally, but online is fine.
Why? Masterminds are the biggest thing I did going from wantreprenur to actually shipping & earning from products. They're also one of the best things you can do to beat entrepreneurial loneliness. Every week you meet other people who share your struggles and are invested in your success.
Here's a good resource for running one: https://taylorpearson.me/mastermind/
If you find at least 1 other person willing to do this (a few candidates on this thread already, or make a FB / LinkedIn post) I'll happily join the first one to facilitate & show how. Email in profile.
P.S. A coworking space + online communities like founder cafe, product people, complice, wip.chat (h/t other posters) can also be super helpful.
If the guy was that concerned about privacy he wouldn't sell to the company with one of the worst reputations for privacy.
He made the choice and that's fine, but this communication is effectively meaningless. Actions speak louder than words.
Better explanation here linked from Slashdot here (the actual mailing list site is down.) http://www.muktware.com/5276/linus-torvalds-secure-boot-supp...
Or are they maybe close but not close enough to call out considering the size of their legal department?
To be honest, not being much of a designer, I've seen this scrolling with background switching 'style' become popular on a few sites recently.
I have no reason to doubt that OP developed it from scratch and clearly some of the linked sites blatantly ripped off the entire design, but the question of where inspiration ends and what constitutes 'independently developed' gets murky really quickly.
So he's basically praising pointless lawyering! :)
Or a more charitable reading: he's geeking out as we might about the terminal commands in a 'hacker' movie.
Ortiz recently: "At no time did this office ever seek ... maximum penalties under the law."
Justice.gov previously: "SWARTZ faces up to 35 years in prison..."
At a minimum it's a bad PR screw-up on their part and they're backpedaling because their "make us look tough" press releases have backfired.
Most people vaguely familiar with the case would think there is a threat of a 35 year sentence, as many recent posts on HN indicate. Would Aaron & his legal team think so too? Probably not.
The point for me is not so much matching the environment but not staring at a blue screen right before bed.
Some coders push buggy code and some coders polish their bits endlessly. The good ones write code that meet the requirements in a reasonable amount of time and move on to the next task.
Some lawyers are strict letter-of-the-law types and some will approve anything to make the profit centers happy. The good ones balance the legal risks with the commercial reality.
Under the circumstances I'd be curious to know what the cost-benefit analysis of this change might look like. Given how seldom employment contracts are negotiated and how rarely these IP clauses are enforced, my guess is the biggest cost might be something even more intangible, such as stifled employee creativity.
Obviously much more sustainable than how most people get their food. I wonder what the energy & water requirements for this sort of system are.
Having said that, for me personally I still prefer a very responsive UI, lots of keyboard shortcuts, and the kind of workspace / UI customization you can only get from desktops nowadays.
1) I don't get it, so I'm unlikely to think it's brilliant without trying. (So now I need a laptop to upload photos from my mobile?...)
2) I wouldn't download this to try Bump without some better explanation, especially given implicit data protection reputation of just about every big consumer-facing company these days (especially one that trades in contact details.)
3) The title is full of gratuitous editorialization, which is against HN guidelines.
A lot of PhoneGap/Web View apps are second rate on the UI front, so if you can help developers improve that experience without a lot of work I'd say you're onto a winner.
I also think you're on the right track with your A/B testing plans - doing this from scratch can be a huge chunk of work!
1) By the end of summer their servers will be hacked and a new celebrity startlet's nudie pics will hit the tabloids.
2) Drama and heartache ensue when people find out they can't pair with their wife AND their mistress. This will create a niche market for a Pair client with multiple partners.
I worked at a big publisher studio for quite some time. They laid off people nearly every year, yet it felt relatively 'safe' compared to the rest of the industry.