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jameszhang

48 karma · joined December 4, 2013

{ name: "James Zhang", location: "Cambridge, MA, USA", url: "http://jzhang.io", twitter: "https://twitter.com/jamesfzhang" }
submissionscomments
jameszhang··on Oyster, a Start-Up for E-Reading, Raises $14 Million
Subscriber here. I think paying the $10 a month provides another incentive for me to read. I don't know if I am getting $10 worth of material to read each month, i.e. finishing about half a book every month, but it sure has increased the amount of reading I do since I started using the service.
jameszhang··on Ask HN: What is the best language/framework for rapid prototyping of web apps
If you feel uncomfortable with Rails, check out Sinatra[1]. It's my favorite way for prototyping an app and pushing it on Heroku.

http://sinatrarb.com

jameszhang··on The Saddest SaaS Pricing Pages of the Year
I work at Wistia. Glad that we made it to the list of good pricing pages!
jameszhang··on Rap Genius Traffic Has Dropped By Over 80%
Have you explicitly entered http://www.facebook.com into the address bar in the past by any chance?
jameszhang··on Rap Genius Traffic Has Dropped By Over 80%
My browser (Chrome) shares screen real estate between its search functionality and address bar. Therefore, if I have searched "facebook" on Google but have not explicitly typed "http://facebook.com" into the address bar, Chrome remembers the "facebook" search as I start to type it out. As a user, the next most obvious action to take is to tab-complete + enter, and voila, there goes the Google search for "facebook".
jameszhang··on Information Architects promises to drop patents pending for Syntax Control
With just two tweets, DHH single-handedly convinced iA to drop the patents for Syntax Control.

Well done.

https://twitter.com/dhh/status/416273904299040768

https://twitter.com/dhh/status/416274154682216448

jameszhang··on Don't Support Information Architects
iA has decided to not pursue the patent on Syntax Control, and attributes decision to DHH.

https://twitter.com/iA/status/416393539182796800

jameszhang··on Show HN: I mapped 30k+ paintings around the world
Nice work. I wonder how this art map compares with what the guys over at http://artsy.net/.
jameszhang··on Your First Hire Should be a Sysadmin
I really disagree with this. For your first hire, a full time sysadmin who cannot work on developing the product itself is just as useless as hiring a developer who cannot ship the code.

I think what this article is trying to get at is that your fire hire should be a full-stack engineer who can also play the DevOps role when needed.

jameszhang··on Availability.is
Neat idea. I would expect there to be a link to each freelancer's portfolio/personal website before ever considering clicking on "Hire Me".
jameszhang··on Add search to your Jekyll blog
That's awesome, especially for a help site. My company does the same thing with our documentations.
jameszhang··on Add search to your Jekyll blog
That's neat, but is something wrong? I get this error on your site: https://cloudup.com/cti8Egu8fQS
jameszhang··on Show HN: My girlfriend needed a Secret Santa web app, so I built her one
Great job, this seems pretty fun. Plus, I'm sure your girlfriend really appreciates it, which is always awesome :)

Just one slight thing I noticed is that the "winsdom_scriptregular" font is quite hard to read.

jameszhang··on Big Data, Big Bucks: Palantir Valued at $9 Billion
Great for them; Palantir is definitely a company I respect. I went to their office for an interview about 10 months ago for a job I didn't really want. I didn't get the job and I'm in a better position today, but I have nothing except great things to say about their people and office. During the visit, I learned a decent chunk about how big agencies use software like their's just in a 1-hour demo. They also use their own software to do a lot of humanitarian work.
jameszhang··on Build an algorithm to predict friendships, then actually use it to meet people
Honestly, I think this is a very cool challenge. As someone who just went on a Grouper last night in Boston and had a great time, I think I just might participate and submit something. Do you have any limitations on how many people can form a team? Personally, I would pair on this with my roommate. He's the big data guy, and I'm the coder.
jameszhang··on Homejoy (YC S10) Raises $38M as It Looks to Expand Beyond Home Cleaning
This is exciting, congratulations! I just booked my first Homejoy appointment for tomorrow morning--super excited to see the results :)
jameszhang··on Show HN: RosterMonitor - Real-time injury/news updates for NFL/NBA/MLB/NHL
I agree that this would be really cool, although as a hardcore fantasy player, I use twitter as my number 1 source for game-time decisions. It has the most up-to-date information, which is crucial for making roster changes on gameday.

May I ask what the source of the injury news is for this app? I'm guessing it's ESPN.