stevejalim

So: Hackers in the Shires (Editable Google Map)

It's easy to find fellow startup hackers in cities - less easy when you live out of town. Add a marker with your Twitter handle/HN username/something if you want others around you to know you're out there.

The goal is to help people outside of the dense networks to hook up, talk and maybe even help each other out sometime.

PS: The nature of the map is that it's zoomed in on me right now - am assuming that'll change when there are more points - let me know if there's an alternative way.

PPS: The map is publicly editable, so please, play nice, else I'll just have to zap it.

FWIW, I work out of a coworking space at http://wyche.in, out here in The Shire. Ping me an email (in profile) if you'd like me to intro you to the boss here, in case that's helpful.

More on-topic, have you contacted http://theskiff.org/ to see if they can help you fill any gaps?

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/a-big-challenge-running-a-50-m...

My accountant also has access and it makes that side of my business very very easy to manage.

They've recently dropped their prices (now £5/mth and up), but it should say something about KashFlow that I've been happy to pay the old price ( > £100/year) for it for the last three years.

The additional paperwork isn't actually that bad if you have a decent accountant who is used to working electronically (I can recommend a v good one, FWIW).

<shameless> You might find this handy: https://leanpub.com/freelancedeveloperbook/ </shameless>

     ./manage.py create_page_stubs path/to/your/list.csv

* If you share your home, make sure that your cohabitors understand you really are working when at home. While that may sound obvious, it will help you draw a line in the sand should they ask you to be in for a delivery or repair person, etc - those things can be a real flow killer.

* Make your home office a separate room, if at all possible. If the door locks, so much the better: there will be times when a locked door will help you (either keeping others out or giving you that extra subtle indicator that stuff needs to get done).

* Have a clock on the wall - it's a cheap, simple, subtle way to increase the 'work' feel of the room you're in, plus it's a change in the depth of focus after hours of screen-distance reading.

* Take breaks, get out of the house.

* Participate in some kind of community chat (IRC, HipChat, Campfire whatever) to prevent going insane. Consider rationing your time on that chat, rather than having it as an open channel.

Feeling smug that I'd be using spare, paid-for server cycles to make money, I looked up some expected earnings. (Warning: I'm an LTC noob, so may have plugged in bad assumptions), but even at 4khash/sec, I was looking at less than $3 a year

http://www.coinwarz.com/calculators/litecoin-mining-calculat...

I'd like to be proven wrong on this, of course. However, talking to a couple of people on IRC (hardly guaranteed 100% reliable info, but good enough for me) it seems that even LTC has moved to GPU mining being a lot more realistic than CPU mining)

Naveed's only just getting started out right now, but I bet he won't mind me saying that if you like what he's trying to do, and want to help, please do drop him a line.

   * Pixelmator
   * Sublime Text 2/3
   * Tower or SourceTree
   * Mailplane if you run multiple Gmail accounts
   * If you need to work on Illustrator files: iDraw (in App Store)
   * TotalFinder is pretty cool, too

""" The pressure of working full-out as a freelancer can lead to burnout quicker than you might imagine. You may find your conscience won't allow the kind of Friday-afternoon messing around/slack time that many enjoy as a staffer, for instance. (Although hopefully you still get [compiling time](http://xkcd.com/303/) or its equivalent.) Similarly, it's easy to end up over-subscribed, which is exhausting.

So, allow yourself time for vacations, holidays, anniversary celebrations and the like. Work is important in life, but it isn't life, after all. Also, it's unlikely that client projects will always fall into your lap with the perfect timing to allow for a proper summer/winter vacation, for instance. So make sure you set aside enough time for yourself, and don't (sometimes accidentally) promise all of your time to your clients - it's an easy mistake to make.

### Arranging time off * Give your clients a decent amount of notice (at least four weeks is good) and they'll generally be fine with that. * If possible, try to avoid taking time off when you know it'll cause a genuine headache for the client (and therefore you), such as launch deadline dates. But don't let any non-critical grumbling put you off your hard-earned R&R. * Let your clients know if and how you'll be contactable while away, and in what circumstances (unless you're going off on a honeymoon or something similarly significant, it's worth leaving some kind of channel open, even if it's simply "I'll be checking my email once every two days"). Whatever ground rules you set your client, respect them yourself, too. * Let your clients know when you'll be back. * Remember to set up an out-of-office (before you're on the airbridge at the airport).

### Holiday money It's worth bearing in mind the invisible cost of holiday time when working out your annual income (which is something you'll need or want to do quite often as a self-employed individual). If you conjure up your expected earnings based on billing a client for every one of the 250 or so working days a year, one of three things can happen:

1. You'll refuse to take holiday, because you'll be “earning less”. 2. You'll fall into the trap of negatively pricing your time off ("Sitting on this beach is costing me £X, dammit!"). 3. You'll take the holiday (well done!) but you'll be (falsely) annoyed with yourself for missing your targets.

So, remember to keep the cost of holiday time in your mindset from the start and treat it as a necessary dip in your potential earnings. It's not being slack, it's being human. """

The idea of OR on top is brilliant, too - seems like a great fit for a cockpit-based game.

Question: only the OR dev kits appear to be available at the moment. Is there a public roadmap for a consumer version?

Python/Django/JS development and architecture/tech lead duties for startups, whether you want to go from zero to MVP or MVP to something more. If more hands are needed, I can easily draw in trusted, experienced colleagues, all in the UK.

More at http://www.somefantastic.co.uk/