violentvinyl

There is another video on his YouTube channel where he talks about design considerations to make the Slinky slink more reliably.

Also, Hi Matthias! I'm a big fan of your YouTube videos, it's really great to see one make it to HN (even if it wasn't linked directly to you).

Browsing the site was confusing. I'm in the market for a new Entertainment Center for my living room, and when I went to find them, there was a filter for "Entertainment Center" and "Entertainment Centers" and one for "TV Stands" down at the bottom. I could only pick one. I should be ablke to pick multiple filter options, and you should group similiar ones under a single filter.

FWIW, most sites get this wrong, and that's why thumbnails and a drop down to show all items are so important. It allows you to choose a broad filter and then visually parse the page rather than relying on crummy filters to show you what you're looking for.

If by "We", they're refferring to the 99% or non-business travellers, then the answer is no (not any time soon). I'm interested in the idea that eventually all transatlantic flights might be on these planes, but I'm curious as to whether or not the the fuel and maintenance costs will mean these flights are still cost prohibitive to most people (assuming the cost to build the planes eventually comes down to the point where there could be many in service).

I think most savvy internet shoppers think this when they see things on store shelves, and in some retail stores, its a much larger markup than just a few pennies.

I thought the same thing after reading this article, but then wondered how much a posted policy in the store might help? Something clever about doing our best to match internet prices if you come over and have a chat at the counter (giving you the catalyst for a relationship that could lead to a loyal customer), and/or politely extolling the work that the bookshop does to curate it's collection, and that you may never have found it if it wasn't for your thoughtful local bookseller! I find it hard to sypathize with local businesses that I have no connection to, but the ones I do frequent, I feel at home in. I go to retail locations to browse, or because I know I'll get a level of service (and personal interaction) that can't be matched online (being able to try things on, asking for reccomendations, ordering off the menu, chitchat on similiar topics, etc.)

As an American, I prefer the extremely unsettling response of just taking a few moments to stare into their eyes, attempting to catch a glimpse of their soul and trying to determine if the asker is sincere in their enquiry or not... then saying "Fine, thanks, and you?".

Off to be the Wizard by Scott Meyer is a very funny fiction book that is based on the concept of reality being a computer program that hackers can manually manipulate to do cool stuff. It mostly occurs in King Arthur's Court, which happens to be the chosen time and place all these hackers wind up.

My own experience (sameple size of one) tells me that the greatest advantage to a classic double edged razor is in learning the technique. You WILL cut your face when you first start with it, but if you persist, you learn the right amount of pressure, the right stroke length for your face, the right angle, how to clean it, etc. The handle on my double edged razor broke, and I couldn't be bothered to replace it (lifetime warranty though). For about 6 months now I've been using cheap double blade dispoasble razors (and only replacing them about once a month) and I'm having a hard time convincing myself to go back. I used to swear by the badger hair brush, nice shaving cream and Merkur blades, but now I just use the hot water in the shower and a cheap plastic razor (that is rarely super sharp because it's usually weeks old) and my shave is just as close. I reckon I could dry shave if required, but the burn would be unbearable.

The problem I have with this logic, is that I suspect with legalization/regulation, supply increases to meet or exceed demand, and drives prices down. This isn't a tremendous economic problem with drugs, because it should be relatively straightforward to ramp up production (and employment and tax revenue increases with it). With prostitution however, trying to increase the supply and driving down costs creates problems. Willing prostitues no longer earn as much, making the job much less appealing, and trafficing potentially increases in order to meet new demand or a decreasing supply of willing prostitutes.

It sounds like you've produced a solid, stable piece of software that's been actively used by 55,000 people. That's a comendable thing, and I don't think anyone can rightly fault you if you decide you'd like to be compensated to improve on it further.

My suggestion would be to have a premium version, but charge a minimal amount for it (especially considering your demographic). Your goal should be a high conversion rate of your existing user base at a very low price. I would suggest waiting to launch until you have a more expanded feature set though (image upload probably isn't enough, but if it supported multiple new features and multiple social networks, that should be an easy sell).

Coming from the other side, the reason the POC is so important is because the reality is that we need to get the tech into the hands of the engineers so they can implement it, break it, and then run it for 6 months and troubleshoot it before they know if it's A) any good to begin with and B) a good fit for the problem they want to solve, and they have to do that with your product and whatever competitors are nearby in the Gartner MQ.

I know the sales guys work for their money, but I don't think the above is alot to ask for what could potentially be a quarter of a million dollars in recurring annual revenue.

> I'm not trying to be overly negative, but I think these dreamy, sometimes delusional posts can lead people astray, thinking that they're missing out on some great riches that everyone else is claiming to be achieving.

I'm not a psychologist, and I don't know you personally, but is it possible that maybe you feel a bit misled because you think you might be missing out on some great riches that everyone else is claiming to be achieving?

I think that, at the end of the day, everyone has a bullshit detector, but everyone's bullshit threshold is going to be determined by how close they are to greatness (whether they themsleves are achieving it, or the people around them are achieving it). For me, HN represents a rare intersection of do'ers and dreamers. Are all the people who claim to be "doing" actually doing it? Of course not, but there are still valuable lessons here. There are enough lessons in Patio11's posts that even if he were exaggeratting his claims to promote his brand (and I don't perosnally think that he is), I'd still consider his contributions to be worthwhile reading.

Skepticism is a healthy thing in moderation, but I for one, would rather be surrounded by a lot of people who are optimistic (if a bit boastful), then a lot of people who are pessimistic and critical, but I'd trade them both for genuine friends with efficacy and cogency.

> Interesting, yet somehow it diminishes the piece a little in my mind, as obviously they composited the final image, whereas I imagined standing over the piece as if it were on display.

This. There is something akin to cheating, when each block can be carefully cut, arranged and photographed (potentially multiple times to get a perfect image) and then photoshopped into a final image, as oppossed to getting them all cut and arrangd and taking a photo before the inevitable drooping and leaking.

It is still an incredible image and a brilliant idea.

That would be really cool to play around with. Do you know if it does interiors as well? It doesn't look like it from the website.

A variation on this theme occurs in most major cities I've visited though, whether it's fake designer sunglasses, candy, demo CDs, or bootleg DVDs. I suspect this has less to do with decriminalization and more to do with earning some quick cash.

WSJ will get a better Google ranking by allowing the Google spider to crawl the whole article. If they allow the spider to crawl the whole article, then they have to allow users coming in from the Google results to see the full article as well.

I've had good experiences with HostGator since moving there from a smaller company that basically stopped responding to support requests. They seem to update software regularly, and it's cost effective.

I've heard bad things about GoDaddy from various sources, and that's why I opted not to go with them. Not that I'm putting up any content that is infringing or even remotely in a grey area, but I've heard their policy as a company is to take down your site at the smallest complaint and then they only look into the complaint after you ask why your site is down.

All that said, I'm still on the lookout for a hosting stack (hosting provider, OS, and application) that allows me to rapidly prototype new ideas (Drupal looks awful without a lot of customization and I'm not clued up enough for Docker).

I genuinely hope this works out well.

I purchased an iPhone 3G because it was among the first phones to support fast internet connectivity and there was nothing like the App Store at the time. I'm not sure I could afford or would even want an iCar, but if it's successful, it paves the way for a revolution in the auto industry (bring on rooted ECUs with a marketplace of modules, and 3D printed replacement parts and after market upgrades!)

I would have quite enjoyed the opportunity to try a recommended interview tactic here: "Mimicing the interviewers body language".