patd

I would call it a profitable side-project rather than a startup but I've built a price comparison browser extension : http://www.shoptimate.com

I'm currently busy launching a SaaS tool http://blockedby.com but having two small children, a full time job and Shoptimate.com limits the time I can spend on this.

Why is there only 3 providers there ? This should probably include others like OVH, Scaleway, Vultr,

My suggestion is to make something you would find useful but that don't already abundantly exist (don't make a todo app or a calendar). This way you won't feel frustrated if nobody uses it but you. Keep it simple, keep only the core and polish it.

For ideas, I try to look into where I spend time during a typical day/week/month and see if I can find a way to simplify it or automate part of it. Then see if that's an issue other people have too by discussing with your friends, colleagues or making online searches on the topic.

Don't get hung up on your idea if it's not useful to you. Try another one and write down your ideas when they come to you so you can revisit them later. The best ideas are usually the ones that keep coming back.

I'm currently using a headless Chrome for my latest project www.blockedby.com (still in alpha stage, looking for feedback)

I've been looking at a non-local solution. I'm using Python and this article hints that Puppeteer is not the only way to invoke this. But I don't see any documentation on the DevTools protocol.

Anyone knows if it's supported ? Or any providers that do ?

I'd say they were in a position of being strategic investors. There are only a handful of major labels and Spotify is slowly killing legal downloads which itself killed physical copies.

They owned a piece of the future of music distribution. And as shareholders and content providers they could squeeze every bit of profit their way.

They've redistributed the profit of the sale so they're not going to reinvest it.

My guess is that they plan on squeezing Spotify even more and know that this will kill the valuation. As there are more strong competitors now (Apple Music is said to soon overtake Spotify in the US), killing Spotify doesn't matter much.

Probably not in the short term. But I always felt that Spotify having the labels as shareholders was the main guarantee that they would keep their content on the platform.

Maybe they'll need to start producing their own original content like Netflix did.

And now all of those reviews seem to have disappeared ... Maybe it's more effective to complain on HN.

The link explains that it’s due to the atmospheric air used in the process.

I think the main difference is kids. Daycare, healthcare and education is much cheaper in most of Europe (due to high taxes).

You can earn more in the US as a top earner, but you can have a more relaxed and care-free life in Europe while still making a good living and retire early if you're one of those top earners.

Not GP, but some critics say that it's unclear if Amazon makes money on free shipping or if it's a loss-leader that Amazon can afford due to its valuation.

For the government, some are saying that the USPS isn't charging enough. And the USPS makes a loss. But other say otherwise : https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/04/technology/amazon-postal-...

It only makes sense if there is already demand for those units which is what the article seem to suggest. If there are more than 100 families looking to live in the city, the price will not go down.

> It would also reduce existing home values

I'm not an american so I probably don't get the real estate market in the US. But wouldn't rezoning actually increase the value ? Not of the home itself but of the land on which it is built.

If your $1M home can be turned into a 10-flat building at $300K each, wouldn't real-estate developers buy your home (even at a premium) to destroy it and rebuild on it ?

For some context on why it might have seemed like a good idea at the time (April 2009):

* Zappos hadn't been acquired yet by Amazon (July 2009)

* Amazon failed to compete with Endless (launched in 2007)

* Shoes seemed like a great vertical at the time : Zappos did 1B in revenue in 2008 (vs 19B for Amazon) and competitors were popping up all over the world (Zalando launched in 2008)

The 600k have probably been sold already.

From a European point of view, checks are just a thing of the past. The solution to expensive bank transfers is not using checks (which has its own issues) but just make it cheaper (free) and real-time like in the rest of the world.

Here is one where they use bread, dough and cheese to mean money: https://genius.com/105625

You could see it as a share with no voting rights but that entitles you to dividends based on the fees they make on the trading platform.

A lot of stocks are trading on multiple exchanges. Unilever and Shell trade on the NY, London and Amsterdam stock exchanges. People typically use the one closer to them geographically or from a currency point of view.

And things like gold or oil barrels also have multiple exchanges.

Congrats.

I had also started trying to decode the QR but as I was starting to look into the ECC I noticed someone had moved half of the coins and gave up.

Glad you explained your technique. I initially used a Picross editor to map the screenshot before moving to a full Python script.

It depends on what the goal is. Is it to identify the song à la Shazam or to display lyrics, concert tickets info, ... ?

I'm long Bitcoin but those numbers should be taken with a grain of salt before using them to make a case for remittance and Bitcoin.

Some of the top receiving countries include France, Germany or Belgium (over $1000 per inhabitant) and the top sending countries include Luxembourg ($12B for a population of 575K).

So the numbers probably include cross-border workers. People living in France/Germany/Belgium but working in Luxembourg. Transferring euros within the SEPA region (for free) for at least $50B out of the $560B mentioned.

Most of my side projects have been about automating the little things that end up taking me a lot of time.

At my first job, part of my work (next to junior dev) was to deploy EARs on Websphere. I automated it so that people just had to drop it on a shared folder and I'd just take a look if it failed to install automatically.

I wrote a command-line tool to search and download subtitles https://github.com/patrickdessalle/periscope

I made a browser plugin to compare the price of the European Amazon and a few other websites (it grew to more countries and websites) http://www.shoptimate.com

And now I'm working on a tool that regularly checks if some of my content is getting adblocked because it's something I periodically do by hand http://www.blockedby.com

In the end, automating things can take more time than actually doing it. But if it's used by others and saves them time as well, it's gratifying.

My VW's onboard GPS (same group as Audi) actually says "you have reached your destination" when passing in front of the destination.

But I suppose it will probably start scanning the road for parking spots like in the auto park feature that exists for years like in this demo from a few years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt20UnkmkLI

Had the exact same issue so I've recently started working on http://blockedby.com to check regularly if my content didn't get blocked.

It's still very early but any feedback is welcome

Never used them but wordery.com might be an option

I got a similar offer. I've sent you a mail to GMail listed on your GitHub profile if you want to chat.

I've had an issue with Airbnb this summer. I contacted them within the first 24 hours (as it's the rule to get a refund) and contacted the host exclusively through Airbnb so there would be a trace.

They told me that I should have left more chance to the host to fix the issue (I left the place after 20 hours and tried to get ahold of the host multiple times). They never fully refunded me even after countless mails and calls where I quoted their own terms and conditions to prove that they needed to refund me. In the end, the customer service told me that "refund" does not mean "a total refund" but whatever they're willing to give.

The customer service lady was very nice but it seemed like her hands were tied and she was not allowed to just fully refund me. I'll never use them in the future.

International fee must be the same as national ones in SEPA.

This means that if your bank charges 0€ for national transfers, it cannot charge for SEPA ones (the ones with IBAN). But it could in theory charge for national and SEPA wires.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Euro_Payments_Area#Misco...

This changed last year. It now says: "Except as agreed between you and us in a separate written agreement (...) you will not use any Content or Special Link (...) on or in connection with: a. any client-side software application" https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/help/oper...

But it used to say: "You will not include on your site, display, or otherwise use Special Links or Content in connection with any spyware, malware, virus, worm, Trojan horse, or other malicious or harmful code, or any software application not expressly and knowingly authorized by users prior to being downloaded or installed on their computer or other electronic device." https://web.archive.org/web/20130401033525/https://affiliate...