Hacker News Reader

mw67on 10M events a month, free

Has anyone tried both Mixpanel and Amplitude? What are your recommendations? We are deciding which one to use for our startup. We are specifically interested in measuring: 1/ retention (as per Amplitude's video), 2/ usage patterns on mobile, and 3/ user flows. Thanks

mw67on HN Office Hours with Kevin and Sam

I think that would depend on the type of merchants. what kind of merchants are you talking about? how would you manage their inventory?

it's positive that customers like the product, is it an app or website? if you have enough users you can convince merchants that you'll bring them more business by showing them the numbers you currently have

mw67on HN Office Hours with Kevin and Sam

i know of a company doing something similar in hong kong. their niche is to get people in various locations aggregate data from brands by going to retail stores and take photos of their products. each user gets 3-10usd for doing this and the brands save on sending expensive people to each location.

mw67on Postmates Raises $80M in Push Toward $1 Deliveries

please elaborate on how being so late is a feature please? i don't get it

mw67on Show HN: DIY-DRY Password System

I started doing that a while ago, although by mixing the name of the service. What I do now is also use some letters from my login email, to make the password unique for the domain and for the login I'm using.

mw67on Nobody's Going to Steal Your Idea

And the 0.01% of them that succeeded big time (I don't know about the other 99.9%, but don't assume it's really different)

mw67on Ask HN: Quotes that made a difference in your life?

This one had an impact on me, it kind of explains why we're here:

- "I was an unknown treasure and I desired to be known so I created the universe and the creatures to know Me." - God

I repeat myself these two often:

- A man who wants something will find a way a man who doesn t will find an excuse quote.

- Nothing is ever gained, nothing is ever lost.

mw67on The Mind of Marc Andreessen

Copy the text into a text reader (such as Voice Dream), and listen to it

mw67on Why we are leaving Dropbox

I see only 3 alternatives anyway:

1/ Google Drive

2/ Box

3/ USB keys

mw67on Ask HN: What startups were refused from YC but became successful?

Do users have to install the browser extension to see the image with link? Or can anyone use it (even without the extension)? This seems like a strong barrier.

mw67on Ask HN: What startups were refused from YC but became successful?

what would be even better is to know why they got rejected. as a founder it's always very interesting to hear rationals from smart people (whether they end up being right or wrong).

mw67on Ask HN: What startups were refused from YC but became successful?

Can I ask what was the advice that you turned down? it's very interesting that after all this time you still consider that the interview was fantastically useful. I'll consider applying for mine just to hear their thoughts.

mw67on Ask HN: What startups were refused from YC but became successful?

interesting comment re founders. probably the reason why drew from dropbox applied a second time with a different idea.

mw67on Ask HN: How did you meet your co-founder(s)?

online, through a job listing website, to start making a prototype. that was 2.5yrs ago!

mw67on A Town That Runs on Social Media

and it's public -- even non twitter user can see what's happening

mw67on x*sin(y)

How can one come up with the exact equation to match such an exact drawing? i'm impressed. is it just tons of trial and errors?

mw67on Ask HN: How to get mentors for a remote startup?

thanks for the advice, we'll start making this list and networking.

mw67on What a graph of 8,000 fake Twitter accounts looks like

selling twitter followers to companies, or people that need a boost

mw67on Hubble captures the sharpest ever view of Andromeda Galaxy

We represented both galaxies in 3D crystal cubes in case that's of interest: http://cosmic3d.com/

mw67on Ask HN: What do you need that you'd pay a lot for?

Thanks, tried those but only work if you have an android phone (for your first link); and for your second like it works either on desktop (through the android emulator), or on mobile, but not on both. :(

mw67on Ask HN: What do you need that you'd pay a lot for?

I'd pay a lot for a desktop version of whatsapp. I live in Asia (Hong Kong) and 90% of my communications with clients, staff, partners go through whatsapp because its instant, free and everyone has it. But I'm really tired of having to pull my phone to reply to people when I'm on my computer. It's a $19bn company, someone should work on this, ideally something multi-platform a la Slack would be fantastic.

mw67on How I Rewired My Brain to Become Fluent in Math

For those interested in this learning approach, I recommend the book "The Talent Code" by Daniel Coyle [1] which covers 3 areas for mastering new skills.

Here the author only mentions about the importance of repetition (which she refers to as fluency). In the Talent code book Repetition is the first step, but we can learn that the brain is wired to master new skills by taking advantage of 2 others areas as well: A/ Ignition (or passion and motivation), and B/ Discipline and long term commitment.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/The-Talent-Code-Greatness-Grown/dp/055...

mw67on Ask HN: What's your best startup idea that you're not going to pursue?

True that more populated areas are imaged more frequently. I dont know the price for recent imagery, I know that mapbox has gone that road recently you should check how old their images are. Otherwise I agree that drones can be very cost effective if you cannot make it work with satellites.

mw67on Ask HN: What's your best startup idea that you're not going to pursue?

But satellite imagery can be several years old.

mw67on Ask HN: How can I improve the design of my side project, TakeItApart.com?

Check what type of audience Khan Academy's Reverse Engineering section has (https://www.khanacademy.org/science/discoveries-projects/Rev...). I believe you have the same audience. But I also believe that videos are much more effective to learn how things work than photos. Maybe you should explore that road. Good luck.

mw67on Ask HN: Back end engineer trying to build a mobile app, would love some guidance

To get to a mvp and prove that you're concept work, you don't have to (and maybe shouldn't) build a native app for every platform. The goal of the mvp is to get the product in front of people as fast as possible, to see if they would spend a few minutes using your products, or if it's not useful for them. Once you validate this, you can think of expanding to other platforms.

I would suggest to only go for the platform where you're most comfortable developing with. Web app can be good indeed, but if you already know objective c or java then you'll be probably better off going for native iOS or Android first. Good luck!

mw67on Show HN: Cosmic 3D

How much would you pay for it?

mw67on The Myth of the Non-Technical Startup Employee

Unfortunately, when it comes to the tech industry at large, it can also mean a constant battle to justify your intelligence, your value, and your very existence.

If your role isn’t technical, you don’t actually understand the product.

We should remember that some great founders like Steve Jobs were also not writing any code and still added lots of value. IMHO understanding the product mostly mean understanding how users interact with it, not understanding how to code it.

mw67on Things that cost more than Space Exploration: WhatsApp.

You're absolutely right on both points :)

mw67on Things that cost more than Space Exploration: WhatsApp.

No, I truly believe that having a way for everyone to communicate for free, privately, and anywhere is just so great. This level of communication enables so many possibilities for people that couldn't been done so simply oterhwise. I live in Hong Kong and do not know a single person not using whatsapp. It helps everyone. Although I'm a huge fan of space exploration as well, I still think letting people to communicate easily is more valuable for our day to day lives.