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Well, thanks, I was just about to take Okasaki's paper and see what an implementation in Scala would look like.
I find it particularly interesting that he breaks down the number of neccessary cases to only 4 compared to the standard explanation found everywhere else.
Ha, yes. That market is large, the gay male market is large, and the lesbian market is large (not trying to stereotype, but each of those demographics require different approaches in this sort of product).

We are developing sites under the same style and philosophies for each of those markets (hope my competitors aren't hanging out here...) but we believe a "one size" approach simply wouldn't work - the customers are simply too different.

Women and couples was what we understood most, so we began there.
Do you offer English copywriting services or are you talking about programming, technical stuff?
The only real development I know of going on in the porn industry right now is 3D. They're all on it. I'm not sure who's doing what with what technology, but I'd look out for some very Idiocracy style pornography in the near future.

[note: I'm in the adult industry, as many of you found out tonight here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1193169 ]
Not to mention the obvious question... is there really a point to breaking everything down seven ways from Sunday?

At that point it becomes a video game, and loses any semblance of meaning anything whatsoever.
I've used Elance twice as a buyer of services (not a provider). What it did was get me past mental barriers preventing me sitting down and learning. The expert I'd ask would clear the cobwebs and then I could do the rest. I also pay them as if my time were valuable and they're saving it...
My old code is fine, so let me put in there a new number 1. "How long will it take?" - there's nothing I fear and hate more than having to do time estimates. And yes, I know that they also help me ...
The real trick is to figure out a way to both charge $350 to the people who are willing to pay $350 for it, while also collecting 99 cents from the people who won't pay more than that. I wonder if a viral $349 off coupon would do the job...
Hmm... can you elaborate more on this?
Are you mostly working on content or software works?

What do you think of the assignment that seems to offer peanuts for complex task?

I ask because I see lots of iPhone stuff that seems to require a lot of work and paying around $150-$300 in oDesk.
These charts are a thinly veiled ad for the publications for the Economist Intelligence Unit, which publish the full figures for quite a lot more money than you buy the Economist for. They are interesting, but if you really need the beef, well then you pay.
If you haven't read Okasaki's dissertation:

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~rwh/theses/okasaki.pdf

I'd highly recommend it. It's hard to find a dissertation that reads like a novel, but he somehow managed to accomplish such a feat.
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I agree, I found it very uncomfortable. And only 2 minutes!
I used elance years ago. Bid on 10 projects, of those only one of them was awarded and we got it. I felt it was a lot of work to find projects. Seemed many people just posted projects to get bids, but didn't follow through after that. I didn't bid on any weekend projects. Most were quite detailed and would easily take an average coder 1 or 2 weeks of work and the off shore firms were bidding $1,000 or so for that much work, so it's not easy. Plus, you have to pay to bid on projects and when 90% of them aren't even awarded, costs start to add up.

I also posted a few projects at elance and got some real bids from locals, but the off shore firms almost always sent in form letter type bids. They weren't appealing at all.

If you are going to do it, I suggest finding something you do want done and are willing to pay $100-300 for. Post it and see who your competition is going to be and how much work you'll have to do.

If you are good with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, I have work I'll pay you $100-300 to do. Do you have a portfolio? It may be good to post it just so we get an idea of where you fit skill wise. Maybe you could peruse craiglist once in a while. I've posted links to sites there and off shore people email me and are like, "Hey, I could redesign your website!" So I said ok and they did a good job.

No experience using the other sites. I did look at a couple sites like that back then, but the projects weren't a good fit and the values were too low to justify the customer acquisition costs in terms of time. If it takes 5 hours to find a project and it's only paying $300, $60/hr is the most you'll make if it takes you zero hours to complete the task. If it takes ten, you're down to $20/hr. It'll be hard to keep that ball rolling unless you work your way up to bigger and more valuable projects.
In general, this conversation has left technology and gone into philosophy and ethics and some things I think I discussed in that Sociology 110 class I took in college. That's pretty much how all conversations about adult technology go for me too, though, so I understand.

I'm in the adult industry, and it happens. We've approached several VC's, angels, and some other investor folks, and we get a lot of "You want to do what?" or "Did you say 'adult'?"

We get slapped around, yelled at, and cursed, but honestly, we run a clean business. We've never had a chargeback in our 6 months with nearly 4,000 transactions. We receive a letter of praise on amazing customer service regularly, and with the exception of an eBay sale to Brazil, we've never had a complaint.

No matter, there's no explaining it. Most VC's and angels run away, for they have some vision of lawsuits and chargebacks, but that aint the way it works these days. Sure, we're shunned, but honestly, its a hell of a lot of fun, and we're not doing too bad.

So in my opinion, bootstrap it, e-mail me, or that guy who has unlimited risk allowance, and run with it. But be prepared for the fury of porn customers who will try to pretend they don't even know what exactly porn is.
I do design mainly, HTML/CSS/JS. Some Wordpress work. No highly technical programming.
It's not like the current history books are any more accurate. The old books were also designed and voted on by some committee just as ideological as this one. History is a fascinating subject but I sure as hell didn't learn any of the fascinating stuff in my middle school or high school history classes.
Congrats, you deserve it with all the hard work you put into Redis.
The investors I've heard speak on the subject have pointed out the unlikelihood of an exit, though that has very recently (as in the last five years) begun to change, though very slowly. Since VCs and angels in the valley need an exit to make money, they don't invest in porn. Given that we can count the number of really good exits for porn companies on one hand, and have fingers left over, I think it'll be a while before current tech investors start falling over themselves to get in on the trend.

I don't think ethics, brand damage, or any other factor would keep investors out of the field if they thought they'd make a lot of money on a porn investment. Thus, I think investors still doubt the ability of most porn companies to have an exit. It doesn't mean porn companies aren't or won't make money, possibly even a lot of money, just that they probably won't do it in a way that leads to the investors making a lot of money.
HTML/CSS Primarily.

I'm not sure I understand your second sentence, but part of making some decent money on oDesk is quickly weeding through and finding the jobs that want a skilled worker and are willing to pay for him. There's plenty of information given with each listing and I careful select what to apply to so I'm given the majority of jobs I apply for.

There's iPhone work available for $x,xxx if you really know your stuff. There's always buyers trying to "clone facebook for $10" etc.
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I've found most people posting they need a website on Craigslist to be terribly unrealistic and just not worth my time. Just my experience.
Maybe subsequently rinsing the price as this guy did is also viable (although non obvious) strategy. Especially for macarena like products.
I don't agree with that at all. In fact, I think the opposite is true: as parents we should trust our intuition with our kids much more, instead of what "experts" and other people say is best for them.

A great book about parenthood (if you have older children too) is "Hold on to your Kids" by Gordon Neufeld. Highly recommended.
Edit: Let's just call it investing in customer development rather than idea development.

Ask your target market. I used to brush this same advice off each of the millionth times I read it, but do this at your own peril.

Nobody is going to give you better advice than your customers, especially if they speak with their money.

Is the market viable? Ask the market.
Will customers pay for this service. Ask the damned customers!

As someone who has shy'd away from asking people in real life, I must say it's quite a revelation.
Lots of stuff is available on the internet. And I'm sure by the time they graduate college they (some of them atleast) will be deprogrammed by more liberal professors. But this is discomforting stuff. Curriculum is reviewed every ten years, thats an entire generation of school being taught one way. It doesn't matter what the truth is, if you tell someone something long enough (10 years is plenty) it becomes the truth.

One very large state has decided there is no seperation between church and state, Thomas Jefferson wasn't an important component in the design of this country, and democracy is something practiced in North Korea.
> "My conclusion to all of this," Refenes said, "is that the people who you're selling to on the App Store are not necessarily gamers."

That's a clever and funny insult. Gamers as in game players but also gamers as people who have any wit at all.
Luxury and perceived value are powerful things.

I can cut the price on a set of products for several days and boost the sales of products that are not on sale - while not even selling any of the items that are discounted.

Just the increased awareness combined with the desire to be more luxurious (with a hint of the awesomeness of a $150 vibrator) sells it.
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Anecdotally this seems true to me—when moving to London 4 years ago I was taken aback by the cost, but recent visits to my hometown of Sydney has also surprised me at how much it's "caught up" with London.

Bit surprised Moscow is lower than London—it cost the earth when I was there a couple of years ago.
I think it's like this. There are people rich enough that there is not much difference for them between 3$ and 300$.

Some of this people own iPhone. They don't really care what the price is.

Apart from their richness they are normal people who like to buy dumb toys.

By pricing your fart app at 300$ you tap exactly into this market.

What's interesting that despite rarity of rich dumb people you may be well off with targeting them.
It's a nitpicky argument; competent people understand the meaning.

Languages have relative speeds on the same hardware if similar algorithms are developed by experienced programmers. E.g. ML is hundreds of times faster than script languages on 4MHz CPUs.

Of course when you get into 'nearly as fast' territory then all bets are off. And skilled optimizers can usually tip the scales.
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people in eastern block were many times less wealthy than people in the west

Less wealthy, yes, but not many times less wealthy, provided that all basic (and many not so basic) living needs were covered virtually for free, including guaranteed employment, free medicine, free education and so on. Also, it's easy to be wealthy with a 14-digit national debt.

...were less free, couldn't even choose the gov

That's propaganda. Soviet Union was a pretty democratic state at all levels, and anyyone could choose to go with a party career if he liked to.

It was not sustainable, without Gorbachev it would have ended the same, only later and probably more violent.

How do you know?
Both Winston-Salem and Greensboro NC are going for it. Google already has a facility in the area (a major data center, I believe) and Apple is building a major data center near by.
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In many cultures around the world children waking up during the night is the norm. Those babies are not cranky during the day. I wonder why in western countries people often say that waking up makes the child cranky (I totally understand it can make parents cranky). Did you have to get up early to bring the child to daycare so that they did not get enough sleep? Did you not sleep in the same room as your child, so you had to get up and walk there, so that they were disturbed before you were there? I am totally not judging, just wondering where the differences come from.
Sure, but it depends on what you are applying for. The more niche, the less competition and higher pay. Some people just aren't willing to pay much for anything, so avoid them.

The best way to land jobs is to be the best person for the job. Some buyers are able to cut through the fluff and identify the quality. These buyers aren't nearly as concerned about price.

The way to be the best man for the job is to have a strong profile in the area you are bidding for. For example, if you are bidding for Drupal jobs, then be a contributor and /or have some useful add-ons under your belt. Express confidence that you are the right person in your proposal and back that up with your credentials.

Speaking of building add-ons, while using this method to build up your profile, consider selling something if it gets a lot of interest. You might make as much from selling add-ons as your target for extra monthly income.

In certain jobs you may even outline how you would do the job and what tools you would use. This works great for smaller jobs because it educates buyer on what you will be doing before you even get started. This really sets yourself apart from the generic proposals.

There are certain jobs which might look decent but you can clearly see the buyer is going for cheap in an area that lower cost providers should be able to easily handle. If you get this vibe and your rate needs to be higher then move on. Usually these types have a low hourly rate posted.

Look for jobs with a fixed cost. You can often beat your target hourly rate if you find something you can do fast.

Done right, all that competition won't matter much.
I've used a few of these sites as a Buyer, and I have to say I actually really like oDesk. Yes, there's plenty of questionable offshore code factories on there, but occasionally I find some really talented, professional folks, and they rise to the top (and get booked) really quick.

If you take as many tests as you can and completely fill out your profile, it makes a world of difference in selling yourself. I'd also suggest pricing yourself a bit higher if you think you're good. I imagine you shouldn't have any problems making $300+/mo off it
A couple of years ago, Asuncion, Paraguay won in a "cheapest city" survey. I wonder what their Internet connectivity is like.
> There are people rich enough that there is not much difference for them between 3$ and 300$.

I used to know someone who sold beds for a while. He had a couple come into the shop and after about an hour they were still having trouble deciding between two beds. He said "Would it help if I told you that one cost UKP300 while that one costs UKP800?" "No," said the customer. "No, it wouldn't." This is why you hire marketing people.
About a year ago I twittered about building something like this and tons of people freaked. They couldn't believe I would consider sharing my ideas with them and more importantly would expect people to share their ideas.

I was simply knocked over and gave up.

I'd be very much down for working on a project that developed a platform for discussing markets and startup ideas. I don't think its really ideas that make money so much as execution - but ideas are fun!
I'll text, call, facebook or send them an old fashioned card.
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Sorry, I don't believe anyone would intentionally buy this game for $299. Sure, a high price can cause a perception of value, but that is ridiculous. I think it's more likely that these people thought it was $2.99.
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Yeah, but the usual case is still to throw stuff like that on a spare "random odds and ends go here" server, not a production one whose performance/responsiveness you care about.
It's "legal" in Nevada in the sense that the state allows it, but only in the particular counties which have chosen to legalize it. While the county Los Vegas is in hasn't legalized it, others have. Also, there are lots of regulations.
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I think this list is only partial. Here's a different list I found today: http://www.citymayors.com/features/cost_survey.html

I think Wikipedia uses this one too. Apparently all these lists are flawed because they rate them against the dollar.
Looks great, we've been using Jive (getjive.com) and found them to be super great. The cost is a little higher than this and certainly not tailored to startups.

I'll be considering a switch. :D
no, not on hand. it's my impression as a user, from blog posts by developers and the comments here on hacker news.
Sorry but I don't think this is a good case-study about perceived value -- more likely user error and a deceiving app description that states the app costs "a friggin' dollar?"

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that a lot of people will be demanding (and getting) refunds.
Which is funny - just because you can work without being led doesn't mean you can lead others. One would hope you've gained some insight into how to work without being led and can apply this to others, but that's far easier said than done.
I do hate that Amazon seems to remove negative reviews so easily (I think the same goes for book reviews as well) but I also wish that people would only leave a negative review after they unsuccesfully tried everything with the seller. It seems like this person order the wrong product (though the description was accurate, so this was not the seller's fault), waited a few weeks for a refund, but never communicated the not-arrival of the refund and his frustrations with the seller.

The seller sounds really unprofessional, but many of us here have businesses that sometimes screw things up and I am glad when people let me know when I do, instead of shouting on the internet that I suck.
Is DDG profitable?
I had a little college but never graduated. Everything I do as a developer has been self taught. I would do the school thing to get the grades but spend as much time as possible outside of school.

Work on projects which will get people to take notice of what you are doing. Participate in open source projects. Perhaps start a business you can do on the side.

One of the things I found most interesting about my school were the projects that the schools researchers were working on which they could spin off as businesses. These researchers were willing to take students as interns and even eventual hires.

Many (most?) of this work is an interesting mix of tech and medical / natural / whatever sciences which went beyond my imagination. You might look for these sorts of opportunities at your prospective schools and start networking early. Offer to do grunt work (somebody has to do it) as a volunteer and work your way up from there.
... which, of course, creates another emotional effect, and thus is actually working!

I agree it can become a bit silly when lots of different singers start sounding alike, but when done well it can really work and have definite effect.
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"...deprogrammed by more liberal professors."

Counter one bias with another? I find that just as discomforting.
> Rather, we were pointing out that the cancellation of this contest was rather needless, because if they had acknowledged the privacy risks back when we published the paper, they would have had more than enough time to deploy an opt-in system for this contest.

And get 0.1% participation.
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In my mind, HN is intentionally built to be minimally social. It is also what makes this site consistently have higher quality content. This may be of some debate but I feel HN is slanted toward doers. HN is almost featureless but one of those features is "noprocrast" - a function that actually promotes NOT coming to the website. If pg wanted to slant toward information consumers he'd add rss and retweeting and auto post-to-my-thousand-social-media-services features. So it is in this way that any type of social media extravaganza would actually be counterproductive.

HN is wonderful the way it is imo and the fact that it actually takes effort to find things or get into to touch with other members is the reason why it is wonderful. Take your example. If you felt the need to add your opinion the the conversation or felt that a comment was so incredibly beneficial, take some effort to reach out to that individual via an email or his company blog, etc.
This is one of my favorite talks - I wish it got a more points; it's truly superb.
I have been doing side jobs since college - around 2003/2004 until now. All of my clients are not from Elance/Rent-a-coder/etc. Most of them however sent me an email from a "local" community site of web developers.

I always tell me clients that I have a 8/9-hour day job. I update the client every few days through email. Sometimes I work at night and sometimes I don't. When I work at night, I spend around 4 hours maximum -- average is 2 hours. On the weekends, 6 hours. I was still able to go out with friends and have fun. Mostly TV time and video games were cut-off - except for a brief 2 month re-play of Diablo II :P

I do mainly web development / web design.

Right now, I am trying out a new career that doesn't involve the internet. But still though, on my free time I work on pet projects I have listed down a few years back.
In my opinion Google results used to be great before they did all the personalizing, and now they are often really bad. I get infuriated sometimes how hard it is to search for a specific term. I have to use all kinds of + and - signs in my search terms to get anything near a meaningful result and it is not straightforward at all to simply go to an English version of a Google site because Google insists that I must be Dutch and therefore only want localized information.

Of course they did not get worse because of the personalizing (though the location-based stuff absolutely has to go away - we have browser language strings for that, don't try to guess what I want if I have a way to tell you what I want), but I do think they did pretty well before they did all that, so I see no reason why DuckDuckGo can't as well and wish them the best.
You're not convinced of what, exactly?

One of the points the video was making is that the facial response is a very powerful form of interaction, and that very young infants respond to this.
How quaint. Meanwhile the rest of the civilized world will continue to use EFT as they've done for the last decade.