skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
For a more thorough treatment of this topic, read Alan Cooper's classic book _The Inmates are Running the Asylum_
http://www.amazon.com/Inmates-Are-Running-Asylum-Products/dp...

Cooper first writes something we all like to hear: programmers actually control the fate of most high tech businesses. But then he makes a compelling argument that we're really horrible at what we do.

The ideas in this book are difficult to swallow, but once I got past my own ego I learned a lot from it. Not every programmer is a design idiot, but most of us are. Good design requires study and training. Intuition alone only gets you halfway there (unless you're Steve Jobs, and he's not a developer).
I've also been using eLance for work on a project I've started, and expect that I will continue doing so.

My criteria to decide what work to outsource is "will having someone else do this task make a significant positive impact on the project". Generally, I've been doing the coding and outsourcing things that I don't do well (e.g., graphics and certain content). However, I'll probably hire some coders since that should let me add features significantly faster than I currently am able to do.

I'd strongly suggest starting out with outsourcing small tasks at first. Not only to protect you from paying a lot for work you may not be happy with, but also for you to decide if the results produced by someone else are so much better than what you could have done. My artistic skills are bad enough that paying an artist made sense. However, paying an editor to go through the site is probably something that I won't do again (since the gains weren't that noticeable).
Nobody bought the IBM PC because it was called a "PC". They bought it because it was IBM, and in the 1980s there was a saying: "Nobody ever lost their job buying IBM".
Here's how this post should have read:

"Hi everyone, my name is Real Name and I'm a graphic designer looking for new clients. I'm currently based in X country but am able to coordinate your project via IM/email and telephone if needed.

See my work here http://someurl.com
My resume is here http://someurl.com

Thank you and have a nice day.

- My Real Name

---

All I heard from your post is "I'm some kid with no experience who's broke and thinks he better than everyone else, hire me"
People downvoted your post because it seemed like an ad.
Delinquents 'misinterpret anger'
He mentioned that llvm-py documentation was lacking... I was going through it, seems pretty darn good to me (relatively). http://mdevan.nfshost.com/llvm-py/userguide.html
Portfolios can be easily bogus too.

I used a freelance site and all the screenshots were from sites that didn't exist. I'd be weary.

"can only contact clients through email or IM"

I would never contact this person.

"I am proud to say that I can design better websites and user interfaces than most of them (both in terms of aesthetics and usability)."

"urgently need a steady source of income"

Why are you in financial trouble?

Halfway round the world?

flagged.
IBM PCs were also more powerful than Apple IIs.
The Human Animal - The Language of the Body (1994, Part One)
The problem with this argument is that modern technology has vastly increased the rate with which ideas spread, greatly decreased the amount of time it takes to test a new idea for "stickiness", and made dramatic changes in the "selection pressure" for ideas.

Back before printing it would take a minimum of weeks for an idea to work itself across, say, Europe. (And that would have to be a big idea, one worth hiring the Pony Express to promulgate.) Now it takes a minimum of milliseconds. Before the web you had to publish a paper or convene a major international meeting to place an issue in front of most of the world's experts on a subject; now you can do that in the morning and have everyone's first response on your desk by the afternoon. I work in near-real time with colleagues twelve times zones away.

Meanwhile, while we're engaged in potentially bogus extrapolation from biology, I'd note that human "mimetic" copying has vastly less fidelity than genetic copying, even in the age of web-based copy-and-paste. Yet that hasn't stopped the descendants of bacteria from turning into dolphins. Indeed, it probably helps: If you're going to tinker with the genetics to see if something better happens, it's best to tinker with one gene at a time, not start flipping every switch at once.
More than six people on here are able to comprehend this? I'm not one of them. Never cared much for "Algebraic Geometry" nor "Metric Geometry". An introduction to the theory behind Boltzmann machines would be much more relevant here, imo. Maybe something like this: http://learning.cs.toronto.edu/~hinton/absps/pdp7.pdf
I would also add that historically he's the one (or Free should I say) who kicked the progression of internet in France.

Back in the days of the 56k and lower you had to pay a subscription to the providers (usually more than $20 a month) and a surcharged number. They introduced their service "Free" which meant you only paid a local communication to France Telecom with the latest technology available at the time (V.92...).

Many of the competitors of course had no choice but to align themself, then came the DSL...
Less important, but not unimportant. In particular, not having any real work experience is a bit of a red flag. Things could go fine. But you may have trouble communicating with clients, or meeting deadlines, or organizing your work, or responding to feedback. These are all fears that are mitigated by seeing you've had happy clients in the past, and ideally by talking to some of them. Something to be aware of when selling yourself.
Actually I wanted to say "I'm some kid with no experience who's broke and thinks he as good as many other designers, Tell me how to get hired."
Of course it's true that authors make wildly different royalty rates. Does anyone here really believe Stephen King makes the same royalty rates per book as someone like Uwem Akpan?

It's simple market economics. Stephen King will sell far more copies which means publishers will make far more money off his books. So he gets a significantly higher cut of the per book profit (aka royalties) because publishers will still end up making more money off his book than they will of a Uwem Akpan book.

Put it this way, if Mr. King's publisher didn't pay him a higher royalty fee don't you think another publisher would be willing to based on the large amount of money at stake? So again we're back to basic economics.
Oops. OK thanks for the feedback! Didn't mean to come across like that...
Yes, that's right. What I'm saying is that IBM successfully sold the term "IBM PC" because it contained the magic letters I-B-M. But then the magic slowly spread to the other half of the phrase IBM PC, to the point where PC eventually became synonymous with IBM.
I selected the option "boring" yet the results still show 0 votes.
This is answered in the comments: http://lionet.livejournal.com/42016.html?thread=774688#t7746...
These are pigs that feed on garbage, who is going to slaughter them for export and what health regulations can they pass? They were mostly pets, and sometimes food for the poor. The Egyptian government is putting on this charade just to annoy the Christian community and appease the Muslim extremists for a bit.

The government plays the two religious groups against each other and has a habit of leaning against one to get favors from the extremists of the other. Recently, they prosecuted a Christian woman who converted to Islam and they handed her back to the church, who in turn revoked her conversion and punished her. Previously, they released a Muslim man who stabbed a Christian man, etc. etc.

As you, Gobbles, know (I know you just signed up, but why the trollish handle?) fascism works best when the public is kept in fear, hateful of each other, and divided.
Vanadium: Declarative client-side validation
" "I'm some kid with no experience who .. thinks he as good as many other designers"

Prove this (by building something and providing a url to your creation) and you will have no problems getting clients.
I live halfway around the world from most of my freelancers (and customers, for that matter), so that doesn't need to be point of difficulty for you.

Unjustified confidence might be, however. Frequently here we have a bunch of programmers who make the mistake of thinking that their code is 90% of their business, rather than 10%. You appear to be making the mistake thinking that your ability to design websites is 90% of what makes you a designer. You are overestimating that and underestimating, e.g., the amount of work you'll have to put into cultivating clients, acting in a professional manner, etc.

That is assuming that your self-analysis of your design skill ("better than most professionals") is accurate. 90% of the programmers I know of think they're above average, too.

I am however in financial trouble and urgently need a steady source of income.

Pro-tip: Never, ever tell a client this. It compromises your negotiating position, because it means that your best alternative to taking their terrible lowball offer is "starvation". Your position with regards to clients should always be that you are enthusiastic about working with them if a mutually satisfactory deal can be arranged. (This dynamic also works for standard employment and dating, I hear.)

Another tip: If you're as good as you think you are, underpricing to get clients is just going to result in you getting a lot of pathological bottom-feeders who a) do not appreciate what you bring to the table and b) will break you because you have not the foggiest idea of how to deal with clients yet. (See: the 90% of freelance designing which is not actually design.)

The best way to get a job doing X is to do X. If you want to make a cutting-edge Web 2.0 site and don't have a client, pick a recognizable name or just make one up -- Acme Widget Company, there, go to town. You can use that as the first of many things in your portfolio. Then start pressing the virtual flesh to meet people, for example via a blog (another opportunity to show off design chops).
Ok, so here is some straight up advice:

- put up a couple of links with stuff that you have done on a page somewhere (the start of a portfolio), if you have not done it for customers then show your own work. After all, if you say you can do it better show you can do it better.

- state who you are and where you can be reached. You're looking at entering in to a business relationship, that works best if everybody knows who they are dealing with.

- find small jobs. If you're really that hard up you have no interest in finding major redesigns simply because the turnaround time (and hence the time when you can send a bill) is long, smaller work is also easier to estimate, which is part art and part science, you need experience first to be able to estimate larger jobs.

- don't advertise that you are hard up, if you do you hollow out your own negotiation position, you are basically asking to be exploited (it also makes you seem weak and unprofessional), I take your word for it, please take mine that this is not the best way to present yourself.

- get yourself - with your portfolio - listed on all the designer job sites out there and make a competitive offer whenever someone approaches you

- spend time that you don't have work - yet - on honing your skills

I hope this helps you to get a foot on the ground somehow.

edit: a while ago somebody here posted a link to a bunch of job boards for freelancers and designers:

http://acrisdesign.com/2009/08/hello-world/
Have you tried sites like 99designs.com? They have contests where you can submit designs and earn money if your design is chosen. If it's not chosen, at least you'll have some more design samples for your portfolio. Also if your design is chosen you might be able to get some recurring work from the client. Good luck and I wish you the best.

(I am not affiliated with 99designs.com and this is not an ad.)
I did create a site for a friend of mine. Its at mediarosh.com
Its not my best work but I think its a decent design that achieves its goal.
Second that. It would have come across as a professional person that is immediately available for work and whose status can be verified.

In fact, if such a posting came by on HN I would probably forward it to a couple of people on the off-chance that they would be in the need of such a person and I would bookmark the posting.
So what are you doing now?

I also got tired of all this corporate bullshit and decided to go to school again...
There is really no excuse for not having a portfolio. Go design some wordpress themes, or even better go re-design a site and just post what you did. For instance re-design HN and post it somewhere for people to see.

Working with a designer is alot of work from our side as well and I don't want to waste my time if I can't at least see some of your work.
A $5 App That Justifies Your iPhone Purchase: Instapaper
I've known really great programmers to commit all of these sins. There are different abilities and types of mental focus at work here.

I don't think it's unfair to say a good app will have programmers separate from writers and interface designers, much as a rock band has a different dude on drums and guitar.

The real culprit, if you get an application like this, is management. Your manager did not put together a team but farmed the project out to a single programmer and probably underpaid him. I avoid such jobs and the code they produce whenever possible!
While we're on the free advice tour anyway, ask your friend if it is ok to put a link on your creation to your own page.

Just a simple text link at the bottom that reads 'pages designed by yourname'. That should go a long way to making sure that people can verify your claims.

In return, from your portfolio you will link to their site, a small screenshot for each customer that you've served will do. Seeing the backlink on those pages is the proof that you are really the designer of those pages.
Dead on. I run a web design shop, and we might have some work for you, but I need to see a portfolio and prices.

My email is in my profile. Can't promise you anything, but if your work is good and well priced I'll certainly keep you in mind.
Run as Fast as You Can, Push Yourself
After reading many of the comments from HN, I decided it was time to explore the counter of Procrastinate until you're ready ( http://www.victusspiritus.com/2009/09/14/procrastinate-until... )

Here's a link to the original HN discussion ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=821462 )
Personally I think this is spam, if its not then its simple - post a link to a portfolio - even half way around the world (which today means nothing, since there is no part of the world that is outside of the internet).

Same in the photography world, unless you have a portfolio, everything else is BS.

But I still think it's spam.
Best Buy's Geek Squad might be the worst thing to ever be
Requires an email to vote and comment. Then I have to confirm my email to comment? Seems a little strange for a single question survey.
From the article.

For more than half a century, those collectors were the zabaleen, a community of Egyptian Christians who live on the cliffs on the eastern edge of the city. They collected the trash, sold the recyclables and fed the organic waste to their pigs — which they then slaughtered and ate.
Probably just easier to display, it's going to be displayed as 2D anyway. You can be sure that the original space is many, many dimensions.
he wouldnt want that because he runs a graphic design business and it would look bad if his own site says its designed by someone else.

btw, if anyone actually needs proof that i did in fact design it, just contact him through his site. I'll let him know that I posted on HN as anonymous512
A commercial for returnpath?
When the government obstructs the market in egregious ways, it is called corruption.
When the people circumvent it, it is called the black market and it is often the most important market when the government is corrupt or incompetent.
Is color somehow representative of depth?
On the same note, queen's guitar player, Brian May, is also an astrophysicist:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_May#As_an_astrophysicist
If it is all right, I'll contact those of you who requested my portfolio in a week or so. I'll spend this time building a portfolio and populating it with some designs. I will take the advice of a lot of people hear and just make some redesigns for websites to show my skills.

Thanks for all the advice.
Yes, I'm sure if this were an article on the symptoms of a python-programmer-designed UI it would be different. I had to learn VB.NET in school, it almost encourages bad design.
mediarosh? are you sure it's a friend? http://winky.net was one of their clients?
I upvoted you. Although it was self promoting are we not seeing the forest for the trees? HN is run by a startup promoter and it all about startups and promoting startups and monitizing startups.

To me your idea is perfectly legit. Although I see dailybooth as another site that pollutes the internet with more "pay attention to me" content, I think a partnership with a site like your might be the only way to make money off this rubbish.
Very much related: http://yudkowsky.net/rational/bayes
Diabetes 2 Diet
> BTW, one could also argue that modern healthcare greatly slows down natural evolution in humans.

Yes. But we have `unnatural' selection, now. Those genes than make on better placed to profit from modern healthcare have a better chance of staying in the gene pool.
Using flash was so overkill for this. It could have easily been just an image or html.
Interestingly,

An executive vice-president at SAS, Sall remains JMP's chief architect, running a team of 100, including 20 developers

What are the other 80 people on the team doing if not writing code!?
thanks Kevin. I was specifically answering the question about monetization... The ratings system on here is tough but I must say it's fun reading the stories and comments. You guys have a lot of interesting things to say.
Google Ruby Guide
> Also, the entire pig population in Egypt was 300k[1], how many people did that actually feed in a population of 25 Million[2]?

Why are you assuming they only eat pork?
Hm. Ok, so your friend is probably a good reason to take to heart the rest of the comments here, that is exactly why people want to see proof. Too many people out there claim they can do stuff when in fact all they do is outsource it to the lowest bidder at a ridiculous markup.

Still, you will need to make a page that lists your accomplishments, in this particular case you won't be able to put up a link, but if you've been doing this for a while you should be able to go through your harddisk to find a couple of examples of what it is that you can do.

I understand that you are in Bangladesh, that should give you an excellent position from a competitive point of view, people from the 'third world' can undercut people from the west in ways that there simply is no competing with.

At the same time, there is a - healthy - amount of skepticism with respect to the originality of designs from people that there is no face to face contact with, it is all too easy to misdirect potential customers by showing them the work of somebody else.
Steal this Film II - Movie about Copyright and filesharing
Religion is something that seems to be diminishing as technology and science becomes more prominent. Just look at Digg.com. Do we really need these "stories retold/copied from one person to another"? To me, it looks like civilization is finally growing up.

As to the healthcare statement, I wonder if that's an argument that the conservative right would try against Obama's reform... that would be quite funny to see, really.
> You can also supposedly send packages from them.

In Germany too. Did not try it yet, though.
But were they funny when you were doing it? I mean they're funny, but they're so negative I don't like to read them. At one point another PhD student printed out and put up one of them (it was the one which had a time plot about how you get more and more demotivated over time), and I actually took it down.
Did you know that Wal-Mart left the German market, because it was too competitive for them?
Yeah, the parallel to biology does kind of break down in your 3rd paragraph, since the mapping from genotypes to phenotypes tends to magnify small changes in the former to become large changes in the latter. Is there something in the world of memes that's isomorphic to that mapping? I can't think of one.

On the whole, though, I had a similar response to the original question: technology has increased the rate of copying, and the reach of any given meme. I grew up in Podunk, Nebraska as the lone atheist in a town of 180 Lutherans and Methodists and I recall being frightened of holding beliefs that were so different that they didn't even appear on television at the time.

Today any belief is at your fingertips. I'm still shocked that we've come so far that Bill Maher's "Religulous" was in general release! The environment in which memes compete today is far more interesting. It's as if millions of little disconnected lakes have suddenly become one, connected ocean.

Edit: I honestly don't understand how amichail could think that creativity has slowed down. More people than ever are using technology right now to create & share videos, songs, podcasts, programs, essays, fiction, art, and conversation online. I'd love to see the color of the sky in your world. ;-)

While you're right that technology has increased the fidelity of replication, that leaves out the process of how a human accepts/rejects/morphs the information. Have you never encountered the word "meh" online?
Unlimited Free HTML to PDF Converter
Here's your assignment:

design a portfolio for yourself. Sorry I can't pay you anything, but I want it done by next week.
I hope he succeeds because the prices for mobile service is atrocious compared to internet and landlines. I fail to see how the 3 operators are never brought up on charges of market collusion. But Sarkozy is best friends with two (Bouygues/Vivendi) and Orange/FT has it's unbreakable union. I can see why it's happening, but they just busted Apple/Orange exclusive contract, the same courts should be going after the big 3 operators.

The freebox is quite nice. I might have gone with them if the customer support wasn't so horrible. A friend dropped them for Wanadoo/Orange because they own the lines and are quicker on the support problems. But they do cost more. I ended up with Neuf, who was bought up by SFR. If they don't get their act together and put fibre in my building I will drop them for free. I just received a letter from free stating that fibre is now available in my neighborhood.

If their phones are as flexible as the freebox then this will be very interesting.
Mass-generating fake Twitter accounts for profit