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Edit - A couple of unofficial but useful links:

http://wiki.beyondunreal.com/Introduction_to_replication

http://wiki.beyondunreal.com/Legacy:Replication_De-Obfuscati...

By "outdated", I was referring to the product description(s).

Nice idea for the Google Calendar! Is that a fairly common thing? I can't recall seeing it anywhere else, but it could just be the bubble I'm in.

And I should point out that coding will never fully become unnecessary. Of course many of the repetitive parts of coding can be automated, but with all kinds of new ideas and unknown technologies that the future has in store for us, custom code will almost certainly always be required.

My first few memories are of the fight my parents had the defining night of their separation; then of my grandfather carrying me away from the courthouse as I wondered why I couldn't see my father (he wouldn't pay child support); and then my mother pushing a couch against our apartment door to prevent someone from breaking in, as we couldn't afford to live in a decent neighborhood. These are my first few memories, and while they might sound pretty terrible, they've easily shaped me into the person I am today, for the better. Nearly every one of my actions is driven by my determination to live freely financially and to procreate only when I'm certain I'll be able to provide a good life for my wife and children.

I have a feeling most people here have the same outlook, and may have possibly been led to it by similar events and memories of their own.

Having a photographic memory (to any extent) can have it's drawbacks, sure, but when put to the right use, the drawbacks become incredibly insignificant, as most people would imagine. For example, if I didn't have the memory that I do, I wouldn't be able to instantly know exactly which line of code needs to be changed (and to what) to fix an obscure bug described to me by a user.

And honestly, the same could be said about any situation that isn't completely debilitating. For instance, I'm also fairly OCD with occasional Tourette's (depending on my level of anxiety), and if I wasn't, it's pretty unlikely that I'd have accomplished as many things as I have. I've accepted my obsessive nature and use it to get things done. It's how you look at things that determines their usefulness.

I will say though that taking a look at it for just a few minutes is incredibly inspiring. It's a reminder that with enough passion and determination to push the boundaries of current technologies, anyone can become an innovator who sets in motion a wave of changes that effects the lives of everyone on this planet.

Even though I do walk him multiple times each day, I feel bad for sitting at this machine working 70+ hours a week trying to build a business. It's taking longer than expected and it's gotten to where I can't tell if he's just getting old or possibly depressed from lack of stimulation, so I tell him (probably more so myself ;) that we're going to move on soon and have all kinds of fun. That's the main thing that keeps me going. I just hope that by the time I do get back on my feet, there's still time to give him the life he deserves.

I beg to differ about your claim that delaying its release by a few months is a recipe for disaster. If you saw what I had written prior to the rewrite... that was a recipe for disaster. First impressions are huge. And this project isn't your typical easy come, easy go type of startup. There's a lot to it, and if one piece of the puzzle is missing, it stands no chance in the real world, so it has to be done right from the very beginning. I do have a list of things that would be okay to do after its initial release, of course.

I have plenty of runway time, so the reality of it is that releasing it months ago instead of months from now would not have been beneficial at all. If anything, I'd have gotten discouraged because of complaints of massive amounts of bugs and complaints about lack of features/functionality, and I'd have ended up rushing to write code and it would be ugly. But since I have plenty of runway to spare, I can do it right and release everything (mostly) as advertised, save a few gray hairs, and maybe even have better timing on its release. Timing is everything. And if you asked me a year ago, I would have said the world is not yet ready for Loggur.

I'm noticing a trend on HN that quite a few people seem to think there's one path to take for a successful startup. Repeating the "release early, release often" mantra is evidence of this fact. Yes, that mindset might work for the majority of startups, but certainly not all of them.

If you take a look at the trends of the web over the past decade, I really think this (or something like it) is the future of web application development. Long story short, you can (mostly) point-and-click to build flexible/reusable JS widgets that can either be laid out on a single page or embedded elsewhere. (Side note: I developed a system on top of jQuery similar to backbone that should eventually allow the widgets' HTML to be cached and loaded instantly, as opposed to regenerating each widget's components from its JSON representation every time. This is where "Server-side HTML vs. JS Widgets vs. Single-Page Web Apps" all come together.)

I've already posted a description in a comment before, so I apologize if you've happened to have already read it. Here's a more detailed description:

It was originally designed to appeal to non-programmers; and I would have released it months ago but decided to rewrite nearly everything to make the code as modular/flexible/easy-to-learn as possible for developers (both newbie and seasoned).

Before I link to it, I'd like to apologize for overly generic descriptions currently on the site. I whipped together the entire site in a few days not knowing the exact direction I wanted to take the software, so I left everything pretty vague; I really just wanted some content that at least somewhat described my ideas. I'll put the link at the bottom of this comment so you read all this first. From a technical standpoint, this is currently where I'm at with it:

- Users create a myriad of widgets that can "interact" with each other; the fullscreen version of Loggur consists of "layouts" of widgets, while the mobile version of Loggur lets you access widgets individually in typical mobile app fashion

- Databases are incredibly easy to create; just add fields to a widget and specify their relationships to one another

- All kinds of special extensions included by default, like automatic importing of various data sources, scraping of websites, cron jobs, PDF report generation, emails, sms notifications, triggers, and graphing

- Everything is taggable for reuse, from the apps themselves to widgets to components to elements to lists and to the data associated with all of the above; you can either "mirror" or "clone" any one of these parts in another app/widget/component by doing a quick search for tags (or if you know the exact path to the part, just enter that); so for example, if you really liked what someone else has made and wanted to reuse parts of it in your own app, you'd do a quick search for it, clone it, and modify it to suit your needs, saving a lot of time

- Data associated with apps can be any combination of public/private, singular (your individual profile), and/or group-specific; you can quickly/immediately switch between views of each

- Permissions on everything; specify who can view and/or edit apps, widgets, components, elements, lists, and/or data

- Appearances are somewhat customizeable and will become much more so at some point; customization currently consists of the basics like colors, backgrounds, and sizes; apps are designed to be scalable to any screen resolution (think large dashboards ;)

- Each one of the pieces outlined above (widgets, components, etc.) can be embedded on your own site(s) through small snippets of code

- Data associated with apps is easily accessible, currently only available in JSON but if for some reason other formats are requested in high numbers, I might do that

- Users can toggle the ability to view app/data updates as they happen in realtime; they can also invite each other (or a Loggur dev if they need help) to take turns using/building an app

- Regarding the mention above about rewriting the project to be more modular/flexible for developers, I felt doing this was 100% necessary/worth it because it occurred to me a few months ago that the best approach to make this succeed in the long term is to make this a legitimate platform (buzzword, sorry!) where developers can quickly/easily make and share awesome extensions and be rewarded (paid) for their work

Check it out (sign up for it ;) here and remember to ignore the bad, vague descriptions currently on the site: http://loggur.com

This kind of struck a chord with me. I've grown up in a relatively "unprivileged" (lower-middle class) family, and I think one of the main ideas I'm struggling to grasp as I build my business is that if I work hard to provide something people want, then I'm entitled to wealth in return.

Having lived a life where all I know is that everyone in my family has nearly always had financial difficulties, almost as if we're all undeserving of wealth for some unknown reason, it's hard for me to get into a mindset where I'm able to ask clients/customers for large amounts of money, amounts that might not even put a dent in most people's wallets.

I'm actually just realizing now that if I want to succeed, I'm going to have to break through this mental barrier.

I wouldn't be able to play a fast paced shooter like this, but I could see it being more than tolerable for playing a slow paced role playing game or something in the browser, with the added ease of connecting with other players, possibly MMORPG-style.

On a side note, it'd be nice to make it capture the mouse instead of having to drag it.

And I chose the word abnormal because it sometimes has negative connotations and probably best represents the way most people think, i.e., afraid of what they're unfamiliar with. But imagine if the Asperger brain was actually the norm. Would that mean we should label people whose brains focus more on social interaction and reproduction than rules and solving problems?

Maybe I'm just uneducated and the label already exists, but sometimes I feel like we should put some specific label on "normal brained" people (other than the word normal or "neurotypical") to kind of even out the stigma. Perhaps my point of view is distorted but when I see people categorized like they are with Asperger Syndrome, I always get the sense that "normal" people look and treat them like they're aliens or like they're retarded or it's almost as if they're lab rats in some scientific study, all because of the "Asperger Syndrome" label... or even worse now, "Autistic Spectrum Disorder".

As much as it's a very humanly thing to do, I think it's ridiculous to try to lump people into categories, especially when the differences are so minute that it's almost as if there's one way that people should be, and if someone doesn't fit that mold exactly, they must be classified as different. This leads to unnecessary (and unintentional) segregation and gives common folk more reason to disproportionately view and treat certain individuals differently.

At any rate, hit me up on irc.globalgamers.net #iPug and #uPug (#tdmpickups and #mlut are dead).

Rest in peace, brother. Your efforts will not have been in vain.