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300 karma · joined February 10, 2011

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us··on Poll: Hacker News User Age
Sorry, was meant to be 31-35. Typo. You voted in the right bin =]
us··on Ask HN: Advice on sharing articles with programmers
I prefer the old adage of focus on what you're doing and ignore what others (including competitors) are doing. It takes away from your focus and spreads yourself thin. It is just as important to focus on a select few things you want to do well as it is to remove all other things that may come up. The more things you introduce may become more noise you have to deal with. In any given startup environment, there is already a LOT of stuff to do, probably more than you can keep up with much less add to that pie. That said, I'm sure your teammates keep up to date on a bunch of tech sites as well here and there.
us··on Ask HN: How does Spotify do it?
They are currently not available in the US probably because of that reason but have seemingly have approval in the UK
us··on The Future of Apple.
Steve Jobs does have kids. I'm sure they're groomed from birth (kidding). All jokes aside, only time will tell if someone else has the chops and vision Steve Jobs does will step up to lead Apple on the same path or if it'll become stagnant. Speculating at this point doesn't really do anything or change anything.
us··on Ask HN: 2010 CS graduate here, where are the jobs?
1. There isn't a shortage of companies including startups looking for programming talent. They are everywhere.

2. Just because the above fact is true does not mean they will hire just anyone, degree or not. Having a CS degree is great, but that doesn't make you or anyone else a great programmer. People have graduated from CS with a high GPA no less and still can't program worth squat.

3. Not talking about large companies, startups in particular, look for more than just raw programming skills. They look for culture fit, are you a passionate hacker, fast learner with great potential for more than just writing code, etc... At the end of the day, there are TOO MANY FACTORS to consider beyond just the simple fact that you have a CS degree to determine whether or not you fit the position in which these companies are hiring for.

My best advice here is find out what you may not be seeing and keep trying. You will eventually find that programming position but you first must understand what it is you may not be seeing that's preventing you from landing that job.

Where are you located and what type of position you are looking for?

us··on New Startup Now Pulling In Over $100k in Monthly Revenues
I assume current monetization is by in-app ads? I came to this assumption base on the fact that the app is free and I have yet to download it. Either that or you charge people to be in your app.
us··on Ask HN: Good places to live/work in SoMA?
It's going to be difficult to find many places that have four bedrooms in that area much less affordable. Most in that area are two bedrooms with some three bedrooms. If you guys don't mind doing like a two two-bedrooms, the Avalon isn't too bad. They got like three buildings and all are in a row, across the street from the Caltrain for easy access to the Valley.
us··on Ask HN: Would you attend a Hacker News Conference?
Should have been a poll. Short answer, interested if it's local to the Bay Area (where YC is located)
us··on Ask HN: First impressions on website - do they help?
I don't have direct examples but as a long time marketer, I can tell you the elements on a page is more important than if the site looks pleasing. Ugly designs can convert extremely well as any good looking design. It's more a matter of the details in button shapes, color choices, etc etc that matters in my experience
us··on Ask HN: Please review my startup: OpenNow
Where are you guys pulling the business open hour data from? (I hope not Yelp since they're hours and filtering are all wrong in my experience).

This is something I've been trying to look for, for awhile now, especially late nights (not so much during the day for more obvious reasons but it does have some use during the day in some cases).

Few things to note. Since you have location and neighborhood set already, I would probably get rid of the request for location upon arriving. This will annoy a lot of people and you're only serving up SF to begin with, that doesn't seem like there is a need for that even if it maybe useful later.

The second is if you're planning to expand to other cities, why choose opennowSF (emphasis on the SF) in the domain name. Why not go with a more generic name to begin with rather than rebrand later?

The design isn't bad but I would maybe rethink the blue font for the results and have alternating background color for each result so its not blended so badly. I like that it displays how long before the business closes but I'd also like the business hours for the entire week listed so I can get a quick overview.

Also if the website has an online menu or website, include that. Not exactly sure if I'd use the share feature which btw I didn't even know was meant for sharing X restaurant was open till I clicked on it. First impression was I thought it was the twitter or facebook page for the restaurant. Also maybe have a simple sorting system such as sort by name (alphabetically) or by remaining business hours, etc.

Hope these help.

us··on Ask HN: Offer to join a startup. Is this deal good?
The part you left out for joining a startup that is also important is the learning experience. Besides getting rich and changing the world, the experience itself is valuable. You can go on to find riches and change the world later. I wouldn't come into a startup expecting either/or.
us··on Ask HN: Users vs PageViews - What's more important
Depends on your business/product and the business model
us··on Ask HN: Best place for a startup to hire quality coders
LOL I don't think you could get Steve Jobs to leave Apple even if you offered $10T much less $10B but I kid.

On a more serious note, I agree a large part is due to how much you're willing to pay. But even then, and don't get me wrong, there are lots of applicants. The problem isn't finding people willing to go for the job or paying out market rate. It's finding people that are a fit. As they say, good talent almost never look for a job. And that's where the issue comes in...

us··on Free Coding - Recent Grauduate
Open source is fine but internships (free), for example in the state of California, are restricted to work that does not get added to an employer's profits. If it does, it violates the law.

Paid internships of course are treated differently. Again, depends on the area.

us··on Ask HN: What do I include on a portfolio site if I'm not a designer?
1. A Web Base Resume that doubles with a link to download a clean PDF version.

2. A list of projects you've worked on in the past. Interactive and ones people can play around with are better.

3. Definitely link to Github.

us··on Free Coding - Recent Grauduate
To that note, I want to add there are legal implications to using someone's free help in a for profit business in certain states.
us··on How do you define a entrepreneur?
I looked at your original question than the one you ended up asking about (which I think differs slightly from just the general idea of the title itself), so I'll try to answer this in two ways...

I am not sure I would call Steve Jobs a social entrepreneur the way most people define the words "social entrepreneur". He certainly doesn't make huge donations or contributions to many non-profits, but does his work impact millions of people and drive innovation greatly? Yes. Even if its not the kind of work that solves problems relating to global warming or poverty, it has it's own kind of impact. Does all that work vastly help improve technology as well as the quality of life in some way? I think most would agree that the answer is a definite hell yes regardless of what they think the definition of the word social entrepreneur is.

I may not be doing something like Sal Khan with the Khan Academy or anything like Bill Gates with his foundation, so in that sense I'm not a social entrepreneur, but I'd like to believe that what I am doing (or trying to do) does have impact in people's lives and help make some people's lives better albeit not to the extent of Steve Jobs or the greater social good. I don't believe I'm just aiming at some profit number and blindly ignoring my fellow man either. I think that solving a problem and making someone's life better is still a social impact, albeit not in the way people would think of a social entrepreneur, but that's fine by me.

That said, I view the definition of what constitutes an "entrepreneur" does not matter whether they are doing something noble or not. An entrepreneur to me is anyone taking the risk to run their own business. That is the general definition in the vaguest (is that even a word?) sense. A startup entrepreneur or a social entrepreneur are specific types of entrepreneurs. Nothing more, nothing less. Of course this is all personal opinion.

us··on Ask HN: Where have you found your startup colleagues (friends)?
I met my previous cofounder for our last startup through a mutual friend long before founding the company together. We were introduced to each other base on the fact that we were both so business oriented and our friend just wanted us to meet. A few years later, an opportunity for a business idea came up and we decided to partner up. The company was later acquired and we decided to pursue different interests after but still keep in touch practically every day .

In hindsight, natural settings of meeting someone who have similar interests to you either through friends, work, college, etc... is much easier to find compatibility as cofounders than actively hunting down strangers at meetups hoping to find a cofounder that will work well with you. I believe PG or someone else mentioned something about how if the only reason you guys are together is to work on this startup idea and nothing else, there's really nothing holding you together and there is a higher risk of failure (not in those exact words).

The other problem you'll be facing too is that you're trying to sell your dream to someone else which is harder than joining someone else on their dream. Most people from what I've seen wants to work on their ideas rather than the ideas of others. Of course there are those that do join on with someone else's idea but for the most part, people you run into at cofounder type events are mostly biz guys looking for a technical guy to execute on their idea. It's really hard to find a compatible "friend" you can call a cofounder outside of just your startup dreams.

us··on [dead]
I don't use the actual rental service. If I ever have any time at all, I'd generally browse the streaming service to see if there is anything good on. It's more of a luxury service than one I actively got to use.
us··on Ask HN: Mobile Application Developer Salary
This varies greatly by location among several other factors. The range can be quite large. It's like not answering the question at all. Would be helpful if you provided more details.
us··on Ask HN: Question about salary expectations, raises, and bonuses
Every employer look at performance differently. Beyond the ability to code as a software developer, what other personality and characteristics do you display that meet other requirements that make you invaluable beyond your ability to write code. Writing code is one thing. Writing great code is another. Then add onto that the ability to contribute beyond just writing code is something entirely different. When you add all those factors together, raises and how much they increase vary a LOT even with known ranges within a given company much less comparison within an entire industry in any given city.
us··on Would/Do you use Cloud-based IDEs?
VIM. Previously Coda
us··on HN, please help... My host just screwed me over
1. I don't have a problem with my host and while I get the lesson part, why would that change anything in terms of me knowing who the host is.

2. I'm still curious regardless of what the point is, who's the host?

us··on HN, please help... My host just screwed me over
Who is the host?
us··on Would/Do you use Cloud-based IDEs?
I personally love what I'm using now so it'd be extremely difficult to switch to anything else much less work with an online base IDE (which I'm not fond of; translated as I don't really care for an online IDE).
us··on If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys
1. Skills are subjective to whomever is interviewing and just because they got the coding chops does not mean they're a good fit for you or your company. This is something you must do in person. Online chats can only take you so far. People here have a hard enough time finding solid coders in person, if you think you'll luck out by finding someone you can work well after a few online chats, you're walking a thin line.

2. The best source for recruiting people are face to face interactions and personal recommendations from people you actually know. Outside of this, you're taking a wild stab in the dark.

3. I don't see any solid value proposition that you're providing that any other given person seeking a cofounder hasn't already provided aka low wage + equity. What's new?! Worse, you're not even a US Citizen and the Startup VISA movement hasn't actually happened so in order for you to get your green card status, you may need to come here to work on a sponsorship first. That leaves a lot of iffy rooms for anyone wanting to jump on board.

I'm sure I left out a bunch of other stuff I could be ranting about but if you want to find talented people, get your butt overhere and do it in person.

us··on There are no ideas
What a bunch of pseudo-philosophical BS. There are such things as ideas. They are the basis on which the products you mention are built out of.
us··on Ask HN: Is it even possible for NZ developers to get a US work visa?
Take what I'm about to say with a grain of salt as I'm not 100% sure on this and you should consult an immigration attorney for all the details.

The only background information I do have is from talking to an immigration attorney myself for when I tried to hire someone from NZ two years ago. Things may have changed since. That said, each case may also differ greatly.

As far as I'm aware, you can try to apply for a HB-1 VISA which will allow you to work in the US if a company sponsors you for that VISA and the requirement is you must have a degree that applies to the position in which you were hired for until you can apply for and receive your Green Card status (separately), which can take up to 5 years. I didn't hear anything about a PhD requirement. I believe a bachelors is sufficient but you might want to double check on that.

Your toughest challenge will be finding a job relating to your degree and a company willing to sponsor you for the whole nine yards.

us··on Ask HN: Bill Gates or Steve Jobs? Who do you hire first for your start-up?
This should have been a poll. I prefer Jobs style.
us··on Ask HN: What programming language should I learn for the web?
Try RoR, PHP, and Python and see which fits YOU personally. Everyone is different and to be honest, unless you try it, you're not going to be able to find what works best for you and what you like. Try to find something small to code with all three and see which you prefer.
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