kolya3

Spore (2008) had a soundtrack that evolved based on your actions and your creature's evolution.

Here is an interesting experiment - create a "nice" looking rectangle of one solid color. See how long you can go before someone "maliciously" puts a red dot in the middle of your perfectly OCD constructed rectangle. Human nature + anonymity...

I think you are right when it comes to a product like Google docs - it's complicated enough that a consumer would look to the early adopters. However, this Helpouts product is simple enough for a consumer to understand that they dont need to ask their technically minded friends whether they should use it. All Google has to do to bring the users in is include a link to it on the search results page. "Were you looking advice on yoga? Click here to talk to a real person."

You and I are both in the HN bubble. We expect Google to kill products and Google doesn't expect us to "become part of the community." We are not the market. However, the general consumer, the one this is aimed at, loves Google. Their experience is with the search box and maybe Gmail both of which serve consumer needs perfectly. Consumers don't remember or know Reader and every other app Google killed so their reaction to this product will be different.

Both Ableton and Reason are over $400 and tons of musicians still choose those over Logic. For many, price is not the only consideration when picking a DAW and there are plenty of developers selling mere VSTs, not even DAWs, at $200/pop.

I would rather lose a few users through a faulty regexp than lose double digit percentage through an email activation step.

DivvyShot, acquired by Facebook, had a very similar product.

I'm starting to think this is a pretty good strategy - recreate apps that have been recently acquired and sell them to a competitor of the original acquirer.

Pretty sure most email services support this as the syntax is part of RFC 822. The problem is when certain websites ignorant of this standard, choosing not to validate email addresses with a "+" character.

When giving out your email to a website, change the email slightly using a + sign like this: "<youremail>+<website>@domain.com". The email will still get to you but when they share it with affiliates you'll at least know who shared it.

If an employer is smart they'll calculate the hours wasted interviewing candidates * avg hourly pay and likely realize that this cost is far greater than the $15K fee they'd pay a recruiter. Not to mention the delays in your projects as a result of your best engineers being distracted with interviewing candidates.

The Red Herring magazine and brand was bought years ago. The brand was whored out to promote Dasar conferences. If you want some sad entertainment, read through any Valleywag/Gawker articles about working at Red Herring. Sad thing is all the stories are easily verifiable - just talk to any ex-employee.

It's a clean sentence but doesn't make more sense. The screenshots fill in the blanks for me, as in it looks like you rebuilt Google Alerts with additional features for finding that content again later (tagging, notes).

If we were talking face to face and you said "This is the easiest way to find quality content" I'd follow it up with "what kind of content?" and "what problems do I have now in finding content?". I'd say "What problem of mine are you solving?" And the answer to that last question should be your tagline.

After a 10 second glance it looks like Google Alerts wrapped in a pretty UI.

Sure, though when you start a project often times the goal you set out to reach turns out to be the wrong one. Enjoy the journey and be flexible on the goal. The mere act of trying, produces fruits that you didn't expect.

I always loved this quote from Jobs: "...you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future." And they very often do. So be sure to start that project, whatever it may be, just take the next smallest manageable step instead of just thinking about it. Go west and whatever fruits that produces might turn out to be very successful, just not in the way you originally planned.

Rescuetime, not sure about keystrokes though.

Most people hate their jobs. Give those people a safe way to waste time at work and they will. The Reddit spartan UI (blue links/white background) looks like you are being productive even when you are not.

This looks promising!

Two ux issues: 1. If I switch into another tab while listening to the music there is a notification sound every time someone says something new in the chat room. This sound is overlayed over the music which is somewhat annoying. The only way to turn the notification sound off and still listen to the music is by closing the chat room. 2. Once you close the chat room there is no obvious way to re-open it until you refresh the page and click on "More chats" in the lower left corner - a part of the screen I'm least likely to look at. Expected behavior is that the chat should just reappear where it was in the first place.

I received user feedback from a woman who said our submit button was "vile" and "sexist" because the label on it said "Submit". It took me a second to process. I can't imagine the emotions bubbling up inside her every day that she browses the web.

But regardless, we'll be changing the "Submit" button to "Sign In".

There is a great link buried in the comments of that blog about UI design and providing feedback to user: http://www.danlockton.com/dwi/Lenses

Maybe you got lucky? Went there on a "good" day? No idea. Either way, I like to learn from others' mistakes :)

I have met a seasoned cop who refuses to go into Hunter's point as hired security.

This seems like a useful synopsis of the seminar: http://sourcesofinsight.com/2009/01/14/precision-questions-a...

I dont know why you're getting downvoted. Hallucinogens make many people question their environment. When someone starts asking questions they are harder to control.

For example, if everyone started asking themselves why they are chasing the American dream or what it really is then our economic landscape would look very different.

Maybe he meant that he got into the bathtub and then screamed underwater?

Great description of burnout: "What I learned is that burning out isn’t just about work load, it’s about work load being greater than the motivation to do work."

How about this: http://highrisehq.com/signup

If most of their customers fall into the $24/month "basic plan" category, then the highlighted plan of $49/month makes the $24/month plan look like a steal.

It's surprisingly easy to opt out of a big portion of that spam.

-Stop credit card offers: https://www.optoutprescreen.com

-Stop supermarket coupon packages: Redplum (aka Valassis) by calling 888.241.6760

-Stop PennySaver: 1.714.996.8900, press 3, leave a voicemail message with your name & address, be sure to tell them you're trying to "stop".

Most of those coupon packages come from the same place. Hunt down the fine print phone number and you'll be off the list in no time.

I did this a few years ago and have been enjoying a relatively empty mailbox. I still get junk mail but very seldom.

Isn't this the original idea that got Paypal's founders their initial VC investment - transferring cash from one Palm Pilot to another? If memory serves me right they scrapped it early on because the tangential website transaction feature was becoming popular.

It's a mental closure to the transaction like a handshake.

A gimmick that makes the customer feel like he just did something and gives him something to talk about when describing the transaction to a friend.

Bring a laptop that you don't care about. Drunk people spill.