Whoops, looks like that hasn't been working for a year now. Which is probably the last time I used it.
926 karma · joined July 13, 2009
What I'm working on: http://jellly.com/
Googling brings it up too (turns out Google isn't all that bad).
Sometimes you'll find that a 3-6 line eisenscript gives you the most amazing structure. Recursive structures are often the best. You can find lots of great stuff on the flickr group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/structuresynth/
Even I can make cool/beautiful stuff, so can you: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ehsanul_g3/
Doing it manually for me just means (on the server):
mkdir project_name
cd project_name
git init --bare
I already have ssh keys set up from long back, so that's all I have to do really. Then I just add the remote repository on my local machine.
Thing is, the business MUST be in a field related to what you studied on your F1 visa, which is severely limiting.
As for the green card, DO NOT apply for it during your F1, as that's a non-immigrant single-intent visa. Your purpose is to study and leave. However, the H1-B has a well-established route to a green card (after you work for 6 years or something), as it is a dual-intent visa. I'm not sure about particulars, but I know many go through this route successfully. No reason to be suspicious about this if a lawyer mentions it.
And yet, all it does is motivates me to "kick ass", as you put it so well. Let it motivate you as well. Having competitors:
1. Validates the market for you
2. Makes you work harder and faster than you otherwise might have
3. Let's you see where they went wrong and avoid their mistakes and do what they did right, but better
But many people don't seem to care, and may even feel that all the toolbars are useful to them. And if they don't care either way, perhaps you shouldn't feel quite so bad for them. It's not difficult to remove toolbars, and if you're not computer-savvy enough to do that, ask your computer-savvy friend how to do it.
You can fill it to begin with using affiliate links to existing web apps. Once you get a decent number of people using it, you can allow people with new web apps to advertise there, or charge for subscriptions to be listed there, or take a cut out of every sale/signup. Many ways to skin this cat.
Yeah, I'm planning to have a bookmarklet, iframe and browser extension UIs all available. The final UI is in no way set, and probably won't look exactly like the demo. Lots of people don't know how bookmarklets work, but they'd know how to use the toolbar. And many people are wary of installing extensions still, so a web-only version is good to have. Only problem is the confusion having multiple interfaces may cause some people. Will have to A/B test and see.
BTW, do make sure you sign up, haven't gotten any more signups since a while back :-)
By "niche", I had really meant a group of like-minded people. There may be a more appropriate word. I don't want to stick to a particular niche forever, but expand to all possible topics eventually. The "niche" is just required to make sure there are network effects. People who try a new thing every other month are ok with me, as long as they help bring in others who are more likely to stay. Besides, some tools are rarely dropped by the tech crowd if they are truly useful, and I would hope that my application fell into that category.
I think your comments about hackers are on target mostly, but I don't mind the criticism. It's really better than having friends tell you how great what you made is.
The logo was not worked on too much, and I'm not exactly good with graphic design. I'm definitely going to get a professional to redo it in the future. I'm not sure it would make a huge difference to whether people sign up for beta, but I can see how it might.
There is probably going to be more than one way to use it, but the main way would be a browser extension. A web toolbar is also going to be there for people who don't like installing extensions, to get them started fast. You can see the demo of that (only shows you how you might browse through, had no functionality to add links): http://prettyobscure.jellly.com/
Let me know if it makes any more sense after trying the demo :)
I actually intentionally worded it backwards from the usual as a minor form of headline bait, which failed. The app really should have broad appeal among people who frequent the web in general. That group of people is just too varied and spread out to help each other find links through Jellly. Hence the need to focus on a smaller, more closely knit group.
Not all apps fit the "solve a pain point" model that paid web applications go through. While pain killers are great money makers for sure, sometimes you don't know you'd want to use an app till you've tried it and see why it would be useful. These apps have a lower chance to succeed I guess, but they can be great when they do.
I know there's nobody dying to have this service. But Twitter comes to mind as another application that people thought was mostly useless. That is, until some of them used it (I know most people still think it's useless, but many obviously don't).
Advertising fits perfectly here, since the service is there for relevant links. The advertising would consist of relevant text links, similar to search ads. Mass adoption would be necessary for large profits, but I believe it's possible to break even much earlier, using advertising networks to start advertising early on.
By that logic, Google and other search providers' services should be up for scrutiny.
That's partly what his software apparently fixes, by switching to the screen resolution to something close to the size of the game's screen.
But I do agree, I don't see a market for this myself. It looks like something that would appeal to "hardcore flash gamers", like the author presumably is. But from my limited observations, most people playing flash games don't seem to care that much and are just looking for some quick fun.