rickd

I wouldn't say there's anything resembling a "war" out here (I'm in Denver). But I will say that my employer hasn't been able to find ANY quality devs locally.

While the job scene here is tiny, there's still a lot of demand. Our last 2 hires have been from out of state.

Also, you get to live in the mountains...

Hi Prof,

Thanks for the ideas! There are so many forums/discussion boards out there, I thought a forum or a review area would be a bit redundant but it is certainly worth another look.

I definitely plan to get all the calculators out there so that people can do one-off calculations or maybe even include them as widgets/etc on other sites.

The current next step is to create an html5 friendly version of the site (probably in jquery mobile) so that it's more easily accessible via phone, this was the major spark that got me working on the site in the first place, so it's definitely my next move. Perhaps native apps after that, or not if the mobile version feels native enough.

Rick

Thanks pbj! I highly recommend it as a hobby for anyone that appreciates a decent beer ;) Papazian's book "The Joy of Home Brewing" can usually be found for under 15 bucks and it really has everything you need to know to brew in a quick and easy read.

Hi Rev, thanks for the feedback.

I actually have the BJCP style info for meads and ciders loaded, but I've never done either so I still need to do some research to make sure the site calculates everything correctly. But it's definitely on the list of things to do... which reminds me, I need to post that list up on the blog.

I also plan to enable entering custom info for all of the ingredient types, I just wanted to start as simple as possible- but it will be something that gets added eventually!

Thanks again, rick

I use emacs in a terminal window for probably 75% of my editing, and textmate for the other 25- I have Aquamacs but couldn't get into the flow with it for some reason. I keep all the default keys for ctrl/etc, and it does help a bit that they newest macs have changed the enter key that used to be to the right of spacebar to alt.

While it's not really emacs, I generally do most of my development in Eclipse- but I change the keybindings to Emacs mode (window\preferences\general\keys). Makes eclipse almost nice to use.

I'm generally opposed to the bailout in its current (and previous) form- but if you look at the facts, this MIGHT actually end up saving the company some money...

Sure, they get a new jet out of it and that leaves a bitter taste in everyone's mouth- and sure, it might not be "right" or "fair" in everyone's minds - but it's simple math.

Buy one jet for 50mil, sell 2 older jets for 27mil - make a small profit of 4 million and only carry the maintenance/fuel/crew costs of one jet instead of two.

Personally, I think they could probably do without ANY corporate jets, or probably COULD just sell one old jet and keep the other...

I want to echo this as well, because I feel exactly the same - and because I left a comment on Matt's site saying i thought planbook could be MUCH more profitable, but I didn't go into elaborating on HOW it could be. gcheong nailed it.

This came through a while back: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=282841

"I am not we" was just my playful way of saying: overgeneralizing gets this article nowhere.

The idea that 57% of us should (or even CAN) bail out the rest of "us" is distasteful, not to mention unfair. Those of you that buy things you can't afford should lose the things. You aren't entitled to a house, you BUY it. You aren't entitled to a wage, you EARN it.

However, I completely agree with you about the deficit, "we" can't keep it up. I am personally exercising my abilities through votes/calls/etc.

No kidding.

And just who exactly is he calling WE? I've worked like crazy to pay off my credit cards/loans and keep them paid off. I bought a house I could afford (<1/3 of income) with a large down payment (> 20%). I've saved on my own as well as in my partially matched 401k. I have a 6 month emergency fund. Sure, this all means that I don't have a car and take public transportation- and my computer/stereo/tv/etc aren't brand new. But have those TINY sacrifices been worth it? Absolutely!

I am not we.

So explain to me why I should bail them out? Whey you've got things you can't afford, or you're a bank leveraged at 30 or 50 to 1, you are risking it all! When you lose it all, it's not exactly a shock to those of us that have been extra conservative with our money.

consumer: xbox live, netflix (if you consider that "online") for business: skype, pingdom.com (lets me know my clients' sites are up!)

This is "neat" - and squarespace actually looks like a great service, especially for someone who needs more than a simple blogger site, but less than custom hosting/etc.

BUT! what I'd love to see is what a "regular" user could do in 20 minutes. Learning the context of the app, where things are, what menu items do exactly which function you need- that's the learning curve people need to know about.

I mean, I could probably re-implement SvN in 20 minutes by skinning Wordpress- but that's because i use Wordpress all the time, and have done more skins for the thing than I care to recall.

My response has simply been: don't buy DRM'd content. Works 100% of the time ;)

I use Connect360 (http://www.nullriver.com/products/connect360) for OSX->360 and I couldn't be happier. The only annoyance is that it won't stream drm'd content from the itunes store. I think that SUCKS. Otherwise, it couldn't be easier to use and it's quick and clean.

No connection to them other than I'm a happy customer ;)

"Something an english speaking hacker anywhere in the world would be interested in"

This is exactly what got me hooked on HN in the beginning, and this is exactly what I want to keep seeing! Excellent way of phrasing it.

Well, I couldn't find that link... but I did discover something equally interesting along the way: check out http://www.centerforintegrativedentistry.com/gum_disease/ind... and scroll down to the "oxygenation" section.

It seems that the more exercise you get, the more oxygenated your gums are, and (gum disease) germs survive better the less oxygen there is- so marathon runners have an extremely low incidence rate of gum disease! wow.

This is a very good point. It reminds me of a study I saw years ago that said runners generally also had better dental health. The point illustrated is that runners were more likely to floss! So it wasn't running that directly caused their better dental health, but you could say that it running and flossing have some correlation.

I'll try to dig up a link.

The apple store HAS a confirmation. If you had read the "review" in the attached image, you'd see that the purchaser "forgot" that he disabled the option to prompt before buying.

Why is no one paying attention to this?

I, too, think this app sucks... but "caveat emptor" doesn't still apply?

Check out Kottke (who I also am not especially fond of) for a reality check on why it's not apple's place to remove the app...

http://www.kottke.org/08/08/the-1000-iphone-app

Please, read the article, examine the photo, do something before you comment. It clearly says in the review referenced that the guy in this case forgot that the buy confirmation was disabled (this is a preference).

The app store has one more level of confirmation- this guy just "forgot" that he had it turned off.

This is exactly what I planned when I left school. Cool! My plan was to work for 5 years at a job I at least LIKED- put away enough to live for 1-2 years without doing anything at all- and then work on whatever startup idea I figured would be best at the time. Why did I choose 5 years? Honestly, it was because most companies vest employees in their retirement plan of choice after 5 years.

Fast forward to 5 years later (last June 15th) and I'm ready! Money saved, credit card balances at 0, no debt, no obligations! I've even started to work on some of the code for my idea. The only thing I didn't count on was the housing market... so now I just have to hang around my current job until my place sells. anybody want to buy a condo in Chicago?

Seriously though- from where I'm sitting, it's a great plan. Give yourself the opportunity and ability to do something amazing, and chances are you will! Not to mention, if you are at least managing your money successfully, and not going in to debt- you're doing vastly better than many Americans already.

Good Luck!! :cross posted from comments:

I like it a lot, nice job. Definitely reminds me of TiddlyWiki.

My main criticism is that there should be an explicit "save" button or link for notes. Perhaps it could be similar to the gmail "save draft" button, in that autosaves would disable or "gray out" the save button (nothing more to save). I think not having a specific Save button will confuse "average" users who have been trained to "Save Often!"

Other than that, I think it would also be good to be able to hide or "minimize" the vertical menu on the left (+,link,<paperclip>...) because I actually find it quite distracting. I feel like it breaks the flow from menu item to note- maybe moving it to the right might be good as another option.

Overall, quick to set up and easy to use- so those are winners! Nice work :)

I thought everyone here at HN was ....well, to put it simply, less negative. I mean, YC is all about doing new things, revolutionary or even just evolutionary changes to existing products or markets. Thinking outside the box. Changing! (etc etc ad nauseum).

Why did this thread devolve into "it can't be done" or "it can't be done that cheaply" or "it's just product x" or, finally, "its just revision n+y of product x"

I mean, ok, you think it's a crap idea: fine. You don't like it: fine. You have another product that fits this niche for you: fine. But I don't get why everyone is dumping on this.

Let's keep the conversation constructive at least. Saying "it can't be done for x$" and laying out the prices of the components you assume is furthering the conversation. Saying "it can't be done"- and leaving it at that- is useless.

I absolutely agree with this. The article title seems like little more than something mildly controversial to lure clicks. The author using this title and then stating that two of Graham's ideas are something she needs only proves it: no.

Thanks Steve! Like I said before, I've gone fixed return and/or cash where I can. And I'm working on the planning constantly.

Unfortunately I have a ton of money in 401k type investments where the selection of investment vehicles is limited (and all are performing poorly). It's hard to know whether to cash out and take the tax hit assuming the portfolio loss will be higher- roll over to funds/management that offers more choices/etc. Or one of the other myriad of options.

I'm a programmer, not a financier- so it's hard to find good objective advice with limited exposure to the field. It's hard to figure out who is trying to make a quick buck with their advice on offer, or to actually help "regular" investors like me.

True- so I'm not personally insulted or anything ;)

It's just somewhat... amazing? I guess would be the word. Amazing (although, truthfully, not that shocking) that there really are many wall-street types that would behave this way.

There's a grain of truth even in dedpan/satire/etc.

Absolutely. I have to say I was disappointed by the article though.

This wasn't "how to keep your shirt" - this was "how to keep your shirt if you have the resources to start your own fund. oh, and you'll basically be screwing your investors- so just don't tell them."

I would really like to see some useful investment advice. For the time being I've dumped all my various investments into a fixed return fund (3.3%). But there's got to be something else I can do...

I have to disagree with you somewhat here. Until businesses stop seeing IT departments only as "cost centers" you'll be able to try to "convince" them of what's in their interest until you're blue in the face. And I don't believe it's only IT's job to convince the business what is needed. Many businesses need to take a more active role in analyzing and understanding what IT departments do for them- they're the ones footing the bill, after all. You wouldn't make a new investment or buy a new (insert item her) without first UNDERSTANDING what you're getting, would you?

Furthermore, my company views all IT department spending as a cost and only a cost. But think about this: in the last several years, we developed a sophisticated (insurance) Simulated Rating Engine that actually performs rating of policies for underwriters. This rating information directly makes our company money- either by raising the amount of premium we charge, or lowering the exposure for claims against the company. But I can guarantee you won't get the company to consider this IT "making" them money. They paid a fixed cost for some magical technology black box. Now, the results of USING the black box are counted toward the underwriters, not IT.

This is just one concrete example of why I believe CA attitudes about IT contributions to the business need to change. Without that type of shift, IT will always be just another cost on the balance sheet- only able to take orders from the business (even if we are actively changing things and/or doing what's in the company's interest).

I'm also going to echo this- I've done only a bit of playing around with Ubuntu, but with mediatemple downtime issues I was having (grid service is not quite what they advertise) I decided to jump in and get a slice about 2 months ago.

I couldn't be happier. The tutorials (especially the ones for Ubuntu) are fantastic, and setting up your server and security with shorewall/etc couldn't be more painless. I probably took only an hour and had apache/php/mysql and rails up and running securely.

Major points to slicehost for the high quality walkthroughs- and for 20 bucks a month, it's more than worth it to just get a slice and jump in. That's something I'd highly recommend (No, i don't work for them, I'm just very happy!)

I completely agree. The front page is too busy, with too much "stuff" in the images. Instead of having images of the 3 step creation, just put the three steps right there. I think that would make all the difference in the world.

I don't know if asdf was suggesting they "crush dissent" - but I do think "WOULD they?" is a good question to ask!

I have always wanted to do a startup that has more mid to long term success as a goal- "37signals-like" if you want to call it that- but I've always felt that there is a HUGE amount of pressure to grow grow grow and sell.

And btw- I really do get the feeling reading news.yc and other venture related sites, that many who are into the startup scene right now look down on anyone who doesn't build-to-flip... but that doesn't jive with all the positive feedback given to companies that buck the trend and hold on longer. anyway that's enough rambling for now.