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Can you be more specific about how FB is lax with your data? I mean, first and foremost, they don't sell data, which is more than you can say for a lot of other companies. Secondly they provide extensive control over the privacy of various parts of your profile. Facebook is way more privacy conscious than other companies, so I just don't see the foundation for your criticism.

FWIW, i used to work at Spock, which was a "people search engine". Spock harvested a lot of data from social networks and FB was a nut we never cracked.

really? it doesn't scale and is not amenable to online updates. unless... wait... are YOU being facetious?

everyone loves to reference the SVD because the concepts are principled and intuitive. but i've found that, as often as it is brought up in conversation, its rarely used in practice. anyone here used SVD in a production setting?

i second this. know basic data structures and algorithms. they are not going to ask you to implement red-black trees but they'll probably ask questions that require you to use hash tables or priority queues. know how to implement these and their running times.

and definitely practice solving problems on the whiteboard. its completely different. if its within the realm of comfort also get used to thinking out loud in the interview. some people really can't do this but i've found, both as an interviewer and interviewee, its really helpful.

your resume will basically get you a phone screen, beyond that i suspect its irrelevant.

(for the record, i've interviewed with the GOOG and was offered a job)

A lot of the Mackay book is on information/coding theory and while it will deepen an existing understanding of ML, its probably a roundabout introduction. ESL is a much better intro, especially for someone looking to apply ML.

That said, it is meant for people who are comfortable with math/stats; its much more statistics oriented than, say, Mitchell's book. But they do a good job of explaining things in non-math language. This book does a good job of exposing high level ML concepts (e.g. bias-variance tradeoff) but still teaches a lot of the standard methods & tools.

These are actually two of my favorite books on the subject and I can't recommend them both enough.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: this book is great. This books provides a really great foundational understanding of ML, not the toolbox approach of other textbooks. I think the exposition of coding theory is especially nice compared to, say, Cover and Thomas.

i second the David MacKay recommendation. its a real pleasure to read. for me personally, his coverage of the fundamentals of information theory was amazing. the proofs are easy to follow and explained well so you can match the intuition to formula.

i'd also like to recommend Boyd & Vanderberghe's book on Convex Optimization (available here http://www.stanford.edu/~boyd/cvxbook/). This is maybe a little less fun but very deep and still well written and 'illustrated'.

My background is in ML and I came to realize over time that a lot of ML is just statistics and optimization theory rehashed by computer scientist.

i think the point is that he's been lucky and that its very unpredictable. so its worth it as a hobby, but not as a career

perl

Is there any oversight & regulation in these secondary markets? What's the catch here? If this is allowed, then what's the incentive to go public. My guess is the overhead in these private transactions will be high enough to keep out most individual investors. I wonder if that's a plus or a minus for the VC & equity firms this seems to cater to.

do you have access to the social graph underlying these services? with a graph structure you could let "social authority" get passed around between users and essentially just copy the math behind page rank.

assume, though, you don't have this graph then you are going to be estimating the score based on various features (# tweets, # followers, # friends, # comments on posts, etc)

you could probably roll these up into an adhoc formula, but i think the better thing to do is label some data and learn the model. something as simple as linear/logistic regression might be all you need.

i would recommend a dog over a girlfriend. dogs seem a lot less demanding. although girl/boyfriends can at least let themselves out into the yard to pee.

yay! i like seeing math posts on HN, even though the prob method usually leaves you feeling less than satisfied. the proofs, at least the ones i've seen, don't usually elicit that AHA moment. but that's just me. i think i still have the copy of the Spencer book i checked out of the library years ago.

its joe!

i agree, understanding the market is pretty important in deciding which apps to pursue. i am surprised on some of the dumb sh!t people buy.

i think one big issue for folks like us actually trying to make a living off the app store is how sustainable the income is. we've both made our respectable apps that have held their rankings for 6+ months. we've also both made gumball apps that get downloaded/bought a bunch initially and then just disappear.

i heard a talk by one of the guys from AdMob and based on their data he claimed you could buy your way to the top paid list with $10k in ads. this is based on their hypothesis about how the ranking works (greg yardley from pinch media hypothesized a 7 day rolling average)

its an interesting gamble. next time i have $10k to spare i might see if i can test it

the more popular categories are even more competitive and thus harder to rank on. i had an app that just fell off the top 100 entertainment category and i was still getting 60+ downloads a day. it'll be interested to see how many sales i get now that its not listed.

Good article and its nice to see people acknowledging the hype around the app store. I have been doing iphone development almost exclusively since november. This includes writing 3 of my own apps and contracting on two others.

I was encouraged by the success of my first app to write others. I spent a month or two working on my next app and it barely made a dent. I think I've finally made the money back i paid the graphic designer.

Another app I made in two days pulled in a couple thousand bucks over the course of a couple weeks. Go figure.

I think the take home point is that its really hit or miss and that success doesn't correlate with quality. I would be reluctant to recommend working on iphone apps full time to anyone unless you're prolific enough to overcome the poor odds of success.

I think a lot of this has to do with the way the app store is set up. The author hit the nail on the head pointing out the importance of being on the top 100 lists. Really, if you aren't on there you are invisible to buyers.

OTOH, selling iphone apps is a lot easier than selling desktop software. And its pretty fun. I definitely recommend it as a hobby and if/when i decide to get a 'real job' I'll probably keep making apps.

I recommend the Kleinberg/Tardos textbook: http://www.amazon.com/Algorithm-Design-Jon-Kleinberg/dp/0321...

It is a really enjoyable read and has a nice narrative that I think other algorithm books are lacking. CLR, for instance, just reads like a handbook to me. The goal Kleinberg/Tardos book, OTOH, is to teach you how to design and analyze algorithms. They will actually follow false starts on certain problems and uncover where they break.

Kleinberg is the rebel king!

I think you can charge more for iPhone development versus web development just because there are fewer folks with those skills. I've only done a few contract jobs but no one has every argued my rate ($100/hour). I always charge by the hour and I would suggest doing this, especially if they don't have a detailed spec. Most of jobs are with folks who don't have a background designing software (since now everyone thinks they can get rich off of a dumb iPhone app) and so its inevitable that the project will change. This way, if they want to tweak some feature, they have to pay.

You can also discuss taking a cut of the app revenue in exchange for a discount, but i would be wary of this. I am doing it for one project because the project was smaller in scale, so its less of a gamble. I had another that I almost offered a 50% discount in exchange for 50% equity... and that app has made about $10 in the month or so its been in the store. So, my experience tells me avoid royalty arrangements....

For more info check out "Business Law for Entrepreneurs"

I don't believe so. If you file in person you have to pay an extra handling fee. If you want expedited filing i think it costs an extra few hundred dollars.

First, I'll echo other people's advice: just file the forms yourself. Yes, its annoying having to handle physical paper and envelopes.

However, since you have a partner in this LLC, the really important thing is to set up your "operating agreement". This will decide how the company is controlled, revenue shared, what happens when someone leaves... etc. Don't wait until someone wants to leave or you're making decent $ before trying to figure this out. You can file the agreement with the state, too.

If I were you I would write down in your own words what you want in the operating agreement and then take the money you saved from NOT using legalzoom and have a lawyer codify what you have into legalese.

Living on $1k in the city sounds rough. You'll probably be so stressed for money and busy that you won't even be able to enjoy it. If you're focus right now is building your website, don't distract yourself with contract work and city life. I would recommend just staying with your folks and getting down to it. Being in the city won't make your website any more successful.

But if you're dead set on coming out here, I would recommend looking in the east bay or the peninsula. Stay close to a BART or caltrain station so you can get into the city easily for networking events & to meet with clients.

If you really want to live in SF proper i would recommend looking for a room in the Tenderloin (despite its rep, its a great place to live, i loved it... lots of cheap food and close to everything) or in the southern or eastern part of the mission.

they used to do the same thing in santa cruz around the lagoon. it was pretty wonderful. one saturday morning walking through i saw a goat give birth. it was at once the most disgusting and cutest thing i had ever seen. LIFE!

Hi, i posted a response to the same link about my experience developing iphone apps.

I've published two of my own apps. One of them fulfilled a specific niche and was picked up right away. Its not a blockbuster but sales have been significant (i.e. living wage) and steady.

My other app disappeared very quickly and i was pretty discouraged. I made a light version and it wasn't much help. Then it miraculously appeared on the "what's hot" list and sales are ok now.

I'll also add that at least one of my other ex-coworkers from said "hot, young internet startup" is also making a living off of iPhone apps. I think he's actually close to matching his previous salary.

There's been a lot of press about these blockbuster iphone apps that rescue poor developers from poverty and change their lives. That's all well and good, but I think there is a more realistic middle ground that people should be aware of.

I agree. I don't even have an iphone, i just picked up an iPod touch (although it makes me want an iphone even more). Before that I would swipe my roommates iPhone to test things out but that got old fast :) If you want to develop an idea around the GPS or the camera, you might need an actual iPhone.

Mac mini's are great, or pick up an old model macbook. I would also highly recommend the book "Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X".

Yes, that's what I meant.

I know its a bit trendy, but I am making a living off of iPhone apps. I don't have any smash hits but have been maintaining a fairly consistent income since I published my first app last December. Right now I am trying to ramp up the number of apps I have and my goal is to match my previous salary at a "hot, young internet startup" in the valley (which is in the throws of death, i think)

This was my first experience selling software, I was always a research oriented, backend sort of guy... usually a few abstractions away from the actual product. So I had to think about a lot of new things, but it was really fun. I wasn't used to thinking about where buttons should go or how the UI flow for creating a new game. And I certainly wasn't used to responding to user feedback. The first version of my first game was pretty buggy and people complained and there was my name next to it in the app store. Not something I was used to. But now I most of the emails I get tell me how much they like the program and as much as I like to say I hate people, it feels pretty good.

So maybe that's inspiring.

Or maybe the fact that its noon and I'm typing this from bed with my dogs asleep next to me will inspire you. Although, the freedom to work on my own terms is a blessing and a curse. This has been covered before on HN, but I would say if you have the self discipline, then its more of a blessing.

I have mixed feelings about writing apps because it can be a crapshoot. I don't think you can go into it expecting to write a huge hit, but I also think its one of the best places for an independent software developer. Apple takes care of a lot of the non-development details for you and you can get your app in front of a lot of eyes very quickly.

PS: I will probably go back to work at another startup someday. As much as fun as I'm having, I do miss working with a good team of folks on something that requires EVERYONE's effort. But for now, I am very happy doing what I'm doing.

skyline chili! if i moved back to the 'nati i'd get a job there. i miss it so... (the canned stuff doesn't come close)