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mdolonon Show HN: Would love some feedback on my weekend project (built in 3 days)

It's very impressive that you were able to make this in 3 days! I signed up for an account and it was painless enough. My biggest gripe would be on the overall design, I like the layout but it severely lacks polish.

In terms of product, it's definitely something I've looked for in the past (Pivotal Tracker for simpler/non-programming projects). Nice work!

mdolonon Before Growth

Neat concept you have going! You come off as a genuinely nice person in your videos, which is great for building trust. My one small piece of feedback would be to consider changing the 'About' link to 'How it Works' instead. I went to your site and immediately started scanning for those words, because usually a sweepstakes site has a catch of some sort.

Good luck!

mdolonon We’re Probably Not Mostly Microbes

>Which gives a ratio that can best be expressed as ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

A bit unrelated but I found it amusing the author used an emoticon in a magazine article (a reputable magazine, at that). Even more interesting, if you search for "I don't know emoticon" the first result on Google is an article from The Atlantic on the subject: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/05/the-be...

And while facts like the cell to microbe ratio may be useless for most in terms of practicality (as someone else mentioned), for me they are not only interesting but instill the same sense of wonder as knowing that there are ~100 billion stars in the Milky Way. Definitely makes you think about the scale of numbers, if nothing else.

mdolonon Inside Faraday Future

They have this is in most major US cities too (Zipcar, Enterprise Car Share, Hertz 24/7, GetAround).

I tried it for a bit in NYC but found that while it was useful for things like grocery shopping, most of the times public transportation was sufficient for my needs. For longer trips spanning multiple days, it was almost always cheaper to rent from traditional vendors. I can see it being useful if you live on the outskirts of the city or in more suburban areas, though.

mdolonon Atlassian files for IPO

I used to be a Pivotal guy before looking into JIRA again recently. They've made a lot of changes to their platform that really make it a pleasure to use, at least for my needs (development work with small teams). There is a bit of setup work but once you do that, it's smooth sailing.

mdolonon Two years after LASIK eye surgery

As someone who had contacts and got LASIK later on, I would still highly recommend considering it. For me, the deciding factors included 1) hassle of putting on contacts, 2) ability to lose them when swimming and 3) lack of access to new contacts when traveling or outdoors.

I've since found that my contact prescriptions were, apparently, never that great, since after getting LASIK my vision feels noticeably better. The first few days it felt like switching from 1080p to 4k, it was that significant. I think it might have to do with how LASIK is done nowadays, where they make a topographical map of your eye and adjust the curvature with extreme precision. You just can't get that with contacts.

Anyways, it's been 2+ years for me too and I can truly say it was one of the better life-changing decisions I've made.

mdolonon Pure UI

Of which, 130kb is from Firebase :(

mdolonon Pure UI

If anyone else wants this on their blog/site (like I did), I created a quick JS plugin that does the same thing: http://hitsy.io/

mdolonon Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (July 2015)

SEEKING FREELANCERS - Remote, Contract/Part Time only

I have several web development clients at the moment and in need of high-quality freelancers to outsource work to. If you are interested in consistent pay and relatively simple projects, please get in touch.

Desired skills: HTML/HAML, CSS (SASS/LESS), JS (jQuery, Backbone.js), Ruby (Rails), Python, PHP, Photoshop, UX/UI design, Bootstrap, Foundation, Wordpress

Contact: mdolon [at] gmail

mdolonon Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

How easy/hard would it be to sell this service to companies like yours? Would love to chat more about it offline (mdolon at gmail)

mdolonon Show HN: HopOn – Simple and Social Way to Book Travel

Some feedback: the way you invite and share with others via the web interface does not feel that intuitive. For example, I'm having a hard time understanding when and how you split hotel costs with other users. Also, it would be really nice to get an idea of how much the trip will cost in total per person on the trip page.

I'd also echo the suggestion made by the other commenter about having a dedicated page for each trip rather than having to add an itinerary to your own list of trips each time. That page could be more easily shared and could break down costs for each section.

mdolonon Show HN: HopOn – Simple and Social Way to Book Travel

This is one of those rare occasions where the UI looks so good that I feel compelled to organize a trip for my family now. For personal and family trips, the only thing that might prevent me from using it would be the prices for flights. As long as they're comparable to Orbitz, Kayak, etc, I'd much rather book through your app. And as long as you provided clean itineraries and receipts, it seems like a no-brainer for corporate travel.

Are there plans for an Android app?

mdolonon Ask HN: I’m visiting Bay Area and I dislike the “hacker” culture. Please help

I felt exactly the same way while working in SF, and have noticed a huge difference in terms of culture and diversity here in NYC. That said, if your goal is to build a startup or company, then ideally you should be in whatever location is best for doing that (within certain boundaries, of course).

If you can afford to live in either city and both are valid options for what you do, definitely consider NYC. The startup scene here is blossoming and like rm999 said, the amount of culture and interesting people you run into on a daily basis is amazing.

mdolonon Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (October 2014)

SEEKING WORK - NYC, Remote or local, Contract/Part Time only

I'm a full-stack engineer who's done a lot of design/front-end work in the past. Currently playing lead tech/product role for a small startup based in NYC and have a lot of free time, especially over weekends. Excel at quickly building prototypes.

Tech: HTML/HAML, CSS (SASS/LESS), JS (jQuery, Backbone.js), Ruby (RoR), Python, PHP (Yii), Photoshop, UX/UI design, Bootstrap, Foundation, Wordpress

Resume: http://www.linkedin.com/in/mdolon/

Blog: http://devgrow.com/

Contact: mdolon [at] gmail

mdolonon Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (August 2014)

SEEKING WORK - NYC, Remote or local, Contract/Part Time

Tech: HTML/HAML, CSS (SASS/LESS), JS (jQuery, Backbone.js), Ruby (RoR), Python, PHP (Yii), Photoshop, UX/UI design, Bootstrap, Foundation, Wordpress

Resume: http://www.linkedin.com/in/mdolon/

Blog: http://devgrow.com/

Contact: mdolon [at] gmail

mdolonon Minimal Wikipedia redesign concept

In terms of readability, I actually much rather prefer this one.

mdolonon Ask HN: Who wants to be hired?

NYC, Remote or local, Contract/Part Time

Tech: HTML/HAML, CSS (SASS/LESS), JS (jQuery, Backbone.js), Ruby (RoR), Python, PHP (Yii), Photoshop, UX/UI design, Bootstrap, Foundation, Wordpress

Resume: http://www.linkedin.com/in/mdolon/

Contact: mdolon [at] gmail

Blog: http://devgrow.com/

I'm a full-stack engineer who's done a lot of design/front-end work in the past. Currently playing lead tech/product role for a small startup based in NYC and have a LOT of free time, especially over weekends. Excel at quickly building prototypes.

mdolonon How much money are you earning from your software products?

Great job with the site, it looks very clean!

mdolonon Ask HN: What would you work on, if money was of no concern?

It's a lofty goal but within the realm of possibility, given enough time, resources and effort.

mdolonon Ask HN: What would you work on, if money was of no concern?

Except that it wouldn't be a loan, rather it'd be a scholarship or fund. The student should not be expected to pay it back, so I guess it would be someone like 'ChipIn' in that regards. If the site were built similarly to KickStarter, where the student posted a video and could post their grades, they could more easily solicit donations from friends and family. The organization could send the money to the university as a grant rather than to the student directly to lower the chance of the system being used for fraud.

mdolonon Ask HN: What would you work on, if money was of no concern?

I've had two non-profit ideas I've wanted to work on for a couple of years now but haven't had the opportunity to because of financial obligations:

- Kickstarter for scholarships

- A cheaper, more effective means of transportation for third world countries (essentially creating a better bicycle)

mdolonon Buffer acquires sharing plugin Digg Digg

That's interesting, I wrote a similar plugin for WordPress (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/sharebar/) and have also received some interest from people wanting to acquire it. Is there a proper way to value these open source plugins/widgets?

mdolonon Tell HN: My experience with a "Resume 2.0" site.

lots of nice (IMHO) touches like embedded web fonts, shadows, text shadows gradients, media queries, transforms etc.

Using a ton of different effects is very risky if you can't get them to work in unison. The first thing I noticed on your site was the glow on the text, making it fuzzy and hard to read. Also, the columns feel like an expanded Kuler palette, which doesn't really work well when used as the entire background. Overall the site just doesn't feel very polished.

In terms of re-purposing your design, if the latter company (or companies) finds that out, I don't think they'd be very impressed at all, as it shows a lack of effort. If you want to save yourself from having to create multiple top-notch resume sites, just make a really slick looking portfolio site that's not targeted to a specific company and give that link to everyone.

mdolonon I moved to Singapore

That reminds me of the infamous Halal Guy's gyro cart located at 53rd and 6th in Manhattan. The food is sub-par at best but there is always a line of 30+ (I've seen nearly 100 before) people who, at least I think, are there for the experience more than anything.

There are literally dozens of other gyro carts scattered about the vicinity, some with much better food, yet that cart consistently has a huge line.

mdolonon Ask HN: Looking for a good platform for mobile web app

jQuery Mobile is very easy to pick up and pretty efficient for simple apps: http://jquerymobile.com/

mdolonon "My iOS app is being pirated. Over 90% haven't paid for it. What can I do?"

I'm not arguing for or against piracy but keep in mind that even at one dollar these apps can easily add up to a lot. My younger sister, for example, wants to download every cool looking app that she sees in the app store, be it useful or not. Add to that the huge influx of crappy $.99 apps that are not worth even a penny and you have enough incentive for people, especially teenagers with limited budgets, to pirate these cheap apps.

I think in order to solve the problem, it's important to see and understand all sides of the equation, even the ones we don't agree with.

mdolonon Ask HN: My Startup is Going to Die Because I Messed Up

Look on the positive side - $5,000 isn't a ton of money and people are failing at business every single day, usually losing a lot more too. If I were you I'd get a job to pay back the money borrowed from family and then bootstrap another startup again, building on the lessons you learned from this experience.

mdolonon I moved to Singapore

There's always a line when I go to McDonald's, especially in the city. Usually not out to the street but at least 10-15 people long. Think about Best Buy or Walmart on Black Friday - people are on the streets camping for days. Same with an Apple product launch, people get there many hours ahead (even though they usually have enough for everyone).

There's sick marketing and commercial brain-washing, if you call it that, going on all over the world.

mdolonon I will build your prototype

Would you be willing to share any numbers from this experiment sometime in the future? I'm curious as to how the response rate will be now that it's on the front page of HN and how the projects ended up working out (was it too much work? did clients ask you to make final product? etc).

mdolonon Office Hours With Paul Graham At TC Disrupt

Couldn't you just have the TV show or commercial flash a QR code on the screen, or on the corner of the screen? I've already seen subway ads using QR codes, though I'm not sure how effective they are. The business model sounds solid though - advertisers flash QR codes on screen, users scan it with their app and are entered into contest/sweepstakes. Once contest is over they get a message on the app stating if they've won or not, and informing them of new/upcoming giveaways.

The only hard part would be convincing shows and companies to participate. They have incentive but I imagine they'd want to see numbers in regards to cost vs viewer acquisition, or perhaps loyalty. Pretty interesting stuff..