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vblord

209 karma · joined July 30, 2012

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vblord··on Show HN: TinyGit – a simple macOS Git client
Awesome. Thanks, I used one of the codes. All the other git clients on mac are garbage. I would like to see a compare tool integrated in the future, but I do love how simple it is. Keep up the good work.
vblord··on Google Search – AI Mode
Google is testing an AI-powered search experience that blends generated answers into result.
vblord··on Open source, privacy-enabled smartphone operating systems
No
vblord··on Tesla in autopilot mode crashes into parked Laguna Beach police cruiser
In the car's defense... I think the police cruiser looked a lot like a highway median.
vblord··on Ask HN: Where can I work for free?
I know it's not free, but you could do something on Fiverr. If you offer a lot of value for a small price, i'm sure people would love to have you help out.
vblord··on Amazon Wants to Extend Its Dominance in Audiobooks
I used to use audible solely. Their incredibly high prices drove me away. Their subscription is stupid in my mind. To me it’s just a way to make users forget so they pay for another month. I’ve been using hoopla for the past 6 months and love it. It’s free with a library card.
vblord··on App Center: Build, Test, Distribute and Monitor Apps in the Cloud
Just curious, why is the testing so expensive? I've seen other products that provide this same testing service and they are all very expensive. Is it because of the hardware required, an ROI thing, a first to market thing, or something else?
vblord··on App Center: Build, Test, Distribute and Monitor Apps in the Cloud
Looks pretty good, but a lot depends on implementation. The testing on devices is cool, but $100 a month is a lot... especially since many developers don't make that much off their apps.
vblord··on What Happened to Threadless?
I thought tshirt hell was the internet's favorite tshirt company?!?!
vblord··on “Ancient Aliens”: The History Channel’s Assault on Truth
I can imagine many people take this seriously. Many people take different religious doctrines seriously and believe they are 100% truth. Every religion can't be right. Who is to say who is right and who is wrong.

The earlier episodes of this show were easier to handled then the latest. It seems they are running out of content and are stretching very far.

vblord··on Summer Reading List
I donate all my smile bucks to the Youth Competitive Programming Circle.
vblord··on Students Are Better Off Without a Laptop in the Classroom
During indoor recess at my kids school, kids don't eat their lunch and just throw it away because of the chromebooks. There are only have a few computers and they are first come first serve. Kids would rather go without lunch to be able to play on the internet for 20 minutes.
vblord··on Ask HN: What language-agnostic programming books should I read?
Best design pattern book i've read is "Head First Design Patterns: A Brain-Friendly Guide". It's fun and very informative.
vblord··on Don’t put all your eggs in one basket: Amazon terminated jeviz.com account
Sorry to see jeviz go. I used the search to find good prices on items. I've had a few amazon affiliate sites before and never had any problem with the TOS though. In my "glory days", I was only making $100 a month off of amazon affiliates... so it is probably hard to compare to how much you were making I'm sure.

Relying on one system for getting revenue from your site is always risky. In my case, the problem is that Amazon was the only affiliate that would convert. People trust buying from Amazon. So essentially in my case, I only relied on one affiliate to generate revenue also. Again, sorry to see it go. :-(

vblord··on Xamarin for All
I'm not saying Xamarin is the greatest tool, but it's definitely not unmarketable. There are always several jobs around me on the job boards. But if your comment was a generalization, then I guess you could make the same argument for being a Swift developer because ios devices are only 10% of the market. Telling people not to learn Xamarin is stupid. It maybe the right tool for some people. And besides, Xamarin Android is VERY similar to native Android Java code. If you learn Xamarin Android, it is a easy jump to native android.
vblord··on Xamarin for All
I don't even bother with the emulator any more. It's too slow anyways. It's pretty easy to do USB debugging and wifi debugging directly on the device. Of course this only works for the devices that you have at your house, but I've found it to be much better.
vblord··on Inspiring Young Writers with Minecraft
Wow, that's really awesome. If you don't mind me asking, how old is she? Do you have any clue where she got her imagination/love for story telling?
vblord··on Inspiring Young Writers with Minecraft
I'd love to see if the writers of these books made any money off of the books. I understand that probably wasn't the goal of the article, but I'd like to instill entrepreneurial values in my kids. Imagine if you were a kid that had no income (except for birthdays/holidays). You could write a book about something that you love and obsess over and get money for doing it. That would be magical for them.
vblord··on Brain implants allow paralysed monkeys to walk
haha. Great point.
vblord··on Ask HN: Is Xamarin worth learning?
I've been a life long Microsoft developer. So when I started down the mobile app path, I naturally gravitated to Xamarin. Xamarin allows you to build mobile apps in the best development IDE out there. This is true... but it has it's issues. I've created 3 andoid apps with Xamarin (and tried more), but each time i've run in to bugs or oddities that make life suck. I wish it was better, but if I could go back in time, I would have probably chosen a different language/tool. Maybe Unity if I still wanted to stay with the C#/VS IDE.

One nice thing about it is that all the methods/classes are named almost the same thing as native android. If you want to know how to do something, you can find the android solution and just change a few small things.

So my vote would be to not do Xamarin and to choose a different cross platform development environment. Cross platform is the key. If you do choose Xamarin, I would spend some time and do a little bit of training before jumping in. It's not like the ease of building windows applications in VS.

vblord··on Brain implants allow paralysed monkeys to walk
Just curious what you would think if they cloned a monkey and then did the operation to the cloned monkey? Would you still feel sad for the monkey if you knew that the only reason it existed was for this one purpose?
vblord··on Ask HN: What are the best personal project websites you've seen?
You may want to consider starting a technical blog. As long as you are okay with doing some work to get some good content on there. I would suggest finding a niche that you like and create an entire blog about it. If you put it right on your resume, they will see you as an expert in the topic. I have a blog just on the topic of SQL Server. Potential employers that use that technology always seem to see that as a good sign that I understand the technology. Furthermore, if you do a technical blog... you are learning more about the topic... which is an added benefit.
vblord··on Elephants without tusks are a response to the selective pressure of poaching
Ahh, makes sense. thanks
vblord··on Elephants without tusks are a response to the selective pressure of poaching
Is this considered evolution? Maybe more like natural selection?
vblord··on Ask HN: What to do with 3K visitors a month?
ttam, i hear Silicon Valley is supposed to be a really great show about that too. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2575988/
vblord··on Ask HN: What to do with 3K visitors a month?
That's a great dream and a great goal. Unfortunate there isn't a magic way to make 100k from a website without building a good product. I wish there was a way.

As for the 100 visitors saying "Hi, is anyone around here?" The chicken and the egg problem is a very common problem with social sites. The most common way I've seen this solved is by the owners of the site "faking" responses or filling in their site with fake content to look like it is active. They do this just until the site takes off. But it sounds like your project is not that large yet and needs to be built up larger. I'd say for you to keep at it or start another project that you can get more traction in.

For what it's worth... In my experience, only working a couple hours a week on a side project won't get you anywhere fast. I usually spend around 15 on my side projects a week. Otherwise, nothing will get done on them. You just need to make the time. As Gary Vaynerchuk puts it... go to work, go home, kiss the dog, and between 9PM and 1AM you need to crush it.

I wish you the best and hope you can make something happen.

Edit: Here's that keynote where Gary talks about having a side project and working 9-5. https://youtu.be/EhqZ0RU95d4?t=11m50s

vblord··on Ask HN: What to do with 3K visitors a month?
$30/month is pretty good for 3k in visitors i think. I get about 10k visitors and only make $25 off adsense. What's your website address? I'd love to see where your ad placement is at. Maybe it has to do with the amount of time the users are on the site.

In terms of getting more $, affiliate income makes lots of money. In the old days when we used to run sites with adsense and affiliates, the affiliate income accounted for about 70% of the revenue. If you had a good place on your site for it, I'd start by looking in to the amazon associates program. FYI. The amazon affiliate pays out from 4% - 10% of the sale of the product.

vblord··on Self-Driving Cars Must Meet 15 Benchmarks in U.S. Guidance
Interesting "Federal, State and Local Laws". So what happens when the self driving car violates a law and the police office pulls it over. Who gets the ticket? If there is no steering wheel... can it even get pulled over?
vblord··on Microsoft is using Minecraft to vie for kids’ brain space and schools’ dollars
He did it through a local company: http://www.gamestartschool.org

They also just started getting Tynker at school. I think it's optional at school though. https://www.tynker.com/minecraft/

vblord··on Microsoft is using Minecraft to vie for kids’ brain space and schools’ dollars
My son has done many Minecraft programming courses. He even did a Minecraft programming summer camp. If it wasn't with Minecraft, he wouldn't have done it. I think bringing Minecraft in to the schools to teach development is the right move. I wish all schools would embrace that. It would get the kids excited to learn... unlike... well... everything else besides gym, lunch, and recess.

From programming aspect, Minecraft makes perfect sense. From a math/geometry perspective, I'd have to see it to believe it. But one thing is for sure... the kids will line up to take that class.

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