skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
This is actually some good solid advice, for _anyone_ selling software.

But I look poorly on the use of link-bait titles. It's deceptive and ultimately annoying, particularly when it employs a generalisation.

After all, there are a myriad of different people involved in the development of a site. Many stake-holders and many opportunities for mistakes and misunderstandings. The basic point is this; there are many reasons why a site doesn't do as good a job of selling as it could. Blaming it on web-devs alone and their perceived inability to sell is horse-pucky. Frankly, most web-devs aren't employed to sell, they're employed to make things. Why should they cop it?
Hmm,

I'd like to have a dialect of Python that looks C.

Python is a generally cool and you can get used to meaningful whitespace easily BUT the meaningful white space thing becomes very problematic when you're on an arbitrary system using vi and without tools for dealing with Pythonism. When we had a serious bug that was removed by rewriting whitespace in a way we couldn't even determine by sight, I swore never to use the language again. I did a couple of years of python coding earlier. Kind of like project Mono's unexplained memory leaks.
Most people will answer with whichever language they know best. Both are well-supported and well-suited for building a scalable maintainable web app. Unless you're doing something truly earth-shattering that specifically requires features (or libraries) in one or the otheer, use whatever feels more intuitive for you.
Actually, I'm no longer self-employed. I am now the Director of Partner Marketing for the Rackspace Cloud. Sorry for not updating my "About Me" page but I've been pretty busy lately.

As a marketer, I always try to think of what's best for the customer. In terms of bounce rate, it's actually pretty annoying to THINK you are going to find the right page when you Google it, only to discover something useless to you. So I try to keep bounce rates low because it increases customer happiness.

Maybe it makes me a wuss to think that way, but I've honestly never had an issue producing ROI.
Yeah, I was talking more about the NXDOMAIN stuff. As for CDNs, his gripe is with implementing CDNs via DNS, not the CDN concept itself.
As long as we're clear that by "them", I mean "a broad cross section of the whole industry, from embedded infrastructure code to 'web 2.0'", and you mean "the fictitious QA team that works the way I say QA teams do", then I think we agree.

Because I'm telling you that you're wrong about the relationship between QA and security in the real world.
Yeah, and implementing CDN GTM with DNS doesn't threaten the Internet (the NXDOMAIN thing, again, clearly does).
The Story of Google's Closure: Advanced JavaScript Tools
Whereas in Open Source world I find people active even in their 50s :)
This article reads like a case story out of 'Winning Through Intimidation' by Robert J. Ringer (a book anyone who is thinking about starting a startup should read). "Tanner" sounds like a Type Number 2 Master Intimidator.

The author escaped with only getting the tips chopped off a couple of fingers rather than losing his whole hand (read the book and you'll understand what I mean).
Great point - Often times, even after launch, startups haven't reached product market fit, and having a technical co-founder that can iterate the product according to the evolving vision is key. I recommend reading Eric Ries' Lean Startup methodology for methods of finding product / market fit.
I second the Hillegass suggestion. Not only is it considered one of the best, you really don't need to read too much of it before you can be off and running on your own.
She's not "right", She's just coasting on a generalization. If I say "physicists can't surf", I can probably find twenty examples to prove it but it will still be a ridiculous generalization.
Objective C is mostly quite straightforward; the only tricky bit is memory management. (There is no garbage collection on the iPhone.) This is assuming you are familiar with OO programming.
This is probably true. Most likely comes from the Unix Greybeards presiding over the whole thing, like the Greek Titans before the dominion of the Gods.
You actually can get current data with Google Analytics by changing the date field to the current date in the dashboard page. See http://imgur.com/4Y8pO.png.
The money never came - the work continued after I left, and the guy is apparently in a lot of debt.
This post was actually directed in a passive aggressive way to a couple of developers who employed me, only to completely ignore the countless usability and best practices studies I cited. It was months of pure pain.

The simple truth is, I COMPLETELY VALUE web developers because the work they do keeps me employed. I don't code, but I also expect that they value the experience I bring to the table as a marketer as well. This post is essentially a way of saying, "I don't tell you how to code, so please trust me to do my job."
Something like this seems like it could learn something from fast food--keep the cost of dresses low to attract a broad audience and upsell on all the accessories. I know several of my friends who pick up those supermarket magazines to get their latest celebrity fashion (news?) and gossip whatever, and if there was an ad right next to those pictures "Rent this outfit right now on RTR"...that would be killer.
Yes, having to actively think about all of the implications all of the time often leads to analysis paralysis. Automated tests often can alleviate this burden.

It's often better to go quickly go down a path and see how it plays out, opposed to sitting there and thinking about something for a long time. When you move forward, problems and things you didn't think about become obvious.
I just worry that "extremely talented" dangers on being too charitable.
I've found these mixtapes by Moneypenny quite enjoyable:

http://www.urchicago.com/spandexxxmixtape
Startup Reframe It claims Google Sidewiki idea suspiciously close to theirs
Simple, Local Promotions for Your Small Business
Exactly, it expects you to provide the image. The coordinates are currently expected to be absolute and pixel-specific, where 55,11 is 55 pixels inward and 11 downward.

If there was sufficient interest, I could implement relative positioning as well, where they resolve to a percentage of the source image.
You've nailed it; they did it backwards :(
save cleverness for reddit please :)
The best physicists probably can't surf.

I'd be shocked if a professional surfer could tell me much about physics.

Just because you can, it doesn't mean you necessarily should. I'm a lot more effective as a marketer when I am selling someone else's code versus something I could scrap together.
Confusion Over Where Money Lent on Kiva Goes
In terms of bounce rate, it's actually pretty annoying to THINK you are going to find the right page when you Google it, only to discover something useless to you. So I try to keep bounce rates low because it increases customer happiness.

I see what you're saying in the first sentence but I do not think that the second sentence follows from it. For customers who are in goal-directed mode, often times a bounce is the positive outcome and multiple page views are the negative outcome.

As a trivial example: suppose someone Googles [Rackspace affiliate program phone number]. Their intent is crystal clear: they want to call you. http://www.rackspace.com/information/contactus.php achieves their task and will almost certainly result in a bounce. If you wanted to reduce your bounce rate, you could put the contact link four clicks down and do several millions in usability research devoted to discovering new, innovative ways to get people not to click on it, but that would be prioritizing a meaningless and arbitrary metric over your customer satisfaction.

P.S. If there is anyone reading this from Google please don't get any ideas about new research projects from the above paragraph.
No offence, but you're making more statements out of prejudice than she is.
I am the author and co-founder of this failed start up. And you guys say a lot of things that were definitely true. The comments here made me realize I left some important information out. I'll try to clear these things up here.

1. I never really thought that what we were doing was revolutionary. We were creating cool looking applications on a new device and that excited me. Once we had a reputable name that had the marketing acumen, I thought that we could push a lot of $0.99 units.

2. The poster about saying I stayed around for the loyalty of my friend was spot on. I probably stayed too long, and in the future I will definitely pick my friends a little more carefully. His arrogance didn't help.

3. My fascination with "The Secret" was true and simple naivety. Had I had walked around the block a couple more times I would have realized that this was complete snake oil wrapped in a snappy, marketable message.

4. "Tanner" hasn't been that successful since. His business relationship with Ryan rotted after the poor handling of their eventual contract and his Dojo's attendance has been suffering as it has apparently clearly affected his charismatic performance. I've been told he is in a mountain of personal debt as well as over $100,000 in the hole at his Dojo. This is merely what I was told by a source I trust but take from it what you will.

5. I made a lot of dumb mistakes and wanted to "play business" like it was some game and that if I sat in my room and wrote code all day the mail man would deliver a pile of money to my doorstep. I was an ass hat and I've learned a great deal of humility since then.

6. It was emotional, and maybe I played that up a bit here. Its a personal story and its taken a long time to get over it. Simply knowing I've had people read my story is enough. It was my first true business endeavor outside the safety of a large corporate structure and I got burned.

7. The company is still operating, but still haven't managed to get even one of their 12 applications onto the app store. They have since produced zero revenue, the seed money was probably a lie from Tanner, and there's so many cuts in the pie these days that I'd be surprised if anyone made their investment back.

Half of me had wished I had posted for advice here earlier on, I get the feeling I would have been served up a large slice of reality pie. I'm doing my best not to walk around with my head so far up my own ass this time around, seeking professional advice where needed.

Thanks for taking the interest and time to read and respond to my story. Hopefully someone avoids making the same mistakes I did from it.
http://www.woopra.com/ kicks ass for real time traffic watching
Why Must Mobile QuickTime for iPhone Suck?
I am a coder and I can sell and know plenty of others who can. Learning to sell is much easier than learning to code.
Specifically, at negative G-forces.
Thirded - after a quick run through this you'll grasp enough of the basics to figure anything else out from the apple docs on your own.
Any feedback on 'delete inactive subscribers' when you consider 'disable images [is] default' for many readers?

My understanding is that most email marketing systems track activity - including open rates - through systems built in to either viewing the image or clicking through the links. I might have many people reading my email without images, and therefore appearing inactive - removing them my improve my stats, but not my marketing outcomes!
If you know C or C++ I recommend Objective C for C++ Programmers: http://pierre.chachatelier.fr/programmation/fichiers/cpp-obj...

It maps out all the Objective-C-specific parts of Objective-C and tells you how they correspond to OO conventions in other languages (usually C++ or Java).

Very useful, especially if you find Objective-C's syntax the roadblock but have a good understanding of OO in general.
'Spoonful Of Sugar' Makes The Worms' Life Span Go Down
kudos for your honesty
I use Clicky. It's quite good for real-time data. http://getclicky.com
What is Twitter Good For?
If Michael Jackson Was a Tour Guide
Thanks for that. It's been my motivational poster for a while now.
I'd be interested to know how it compares to the current version of Dojo.
being able to say this is my real, live production site and demoing it is pretty valuable.
Hillegass' book has become the standard text for both learning and reference. If you're serious about Cocoa programming, you should grab a copy.
Garrett Lisi is a pretty good surfer/physicist: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antony_Garrett_Lisi
I actually saw the site on my wife's screen a couple days ago. A lot of her friends were commenting about it in facebook.

While it's a cool concept, I can't see it being more than a novelty long-term. Dresses like that aren't worn every day.
I don't get how they get around the fit issue.

Whenever I've been dragged dress shopping, I've never seen a girl try less than a dozen dresses before finding one that she thinks accentuates the right things, hangs right, etc.

I would never rent a suit online - I'd rather get a bad suit that was tailored/fit well than the best suit with a poor fit.
I think the price point is correct, because the goal is luxury within reach.

If you are going to agonize over what dress you are going to wear to a special event, under $50 is too little for the whole "experience".
Microsoft dynamics crm
microsoft dynamics crm
Most of the time, memory management with objc is easy; if you alloc, retain, copy or mutableCopy, you need to release (or autorelease). Combine that with Clang's Static Analyzer to give a warning on a leak, and you shouldn't have any problems with memory.
I am a salesman/marketer and know how to code. It isn't learning to do the other that is hard, learning to code wasn't hard. It is becoming highly skilled in one or the other that is what takes time and is difficult.
Student person- I need this. That is all. You need to look good for certain things in life. I would be renting like mad because after a while, you know your size range....
I wouldn't say your exactly their target customer. This may be a pet peeve but the vast majority of people buying their product see the specs as meaningless, they just want to hear the benefits in a language they can understand. Rule number one of marketing is to write so that a 5th grader can understand it.
There's also the (longer) Cocoa Fundamentals Guide that Apple has, http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/documentation/Cocoa/C....

Instead of focusing on the language, it goes over the basic frameworks you'll use, the design patterns that the frameworks use, delegation, target-action, bindings, and so on. Pretty much the basics of everything that you'd possibly need to know to make an app, either on the iPhone or OS X.
If Facebook had a concept of Followers in addition to Friends (there's no such relationship on Facebook as "I follow you but you don't follow me") and the ability to choose during posting whether the new post is for "Just Friends" or "Friends and Followers", I'd be super happy. Yeah, yeah, and if my aunt had balls she'd be my uncle...
If you like Reich, try "In C". Not sure that I could code to it though. Maybe. PS: It's Terry Riley.
A micro-Lisp compiler (to x86 executable) in about 100 lines of OMeta: http://www.vpri.org/pdf/m2009011_chns_mng.pdf

examples given which run about 70% of the speed of equivalent C code.
This is HN

Once you own a pair of jeans, a black T shirt and either Tevas or hiking boots (depending on which coast) you are pretty much set.
Enterprise Software Companies
Paul Graham wrote here (http://www.paulgraham.com/notnot.html):

"If you don't think you're smart enough to start a startup doing something technically difficult, just write enterprise software. Enterprise software companies aren't technology companies, they're sales companies, and sales depends mostly on effort."

I've been thinking about this a lot recently. Within a given team, say, sales does seem to depend mostly on effort. If you don't make a sale on Monday, and you do make a sale on Tuesday, then, assuming the sales are of equal difficulty, the largest reasons why you failed on Monday are probably effort and luck.

However, I think there is a critical factor here which pg is overlooking, which you wouldn't see just from lots of experience selling things yourself (or with the same team). Sales, I think, depends primarily on social skill.

Now, by "social skill", I don't mean being a good friend, or trying to help the other person. In sales, actually trying to help people is usually an optional extra. Is a jewelry store salesman really helping someone by selling them a useless $20,000 rock? Not really, but jewelry stores still do fine. It's nice to help people, certainly, but if you're just trying to make money, it's not necessary.

No, by "social skill", what I mean is the ability to manipulate your body in very precise ways, to create feelings of happiness, trust, loyalty, etc. in the other person. Most people don't primarily communicate through words. The real message is in things like their body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice; their words mostly don't mean anything important. And if you send the right nonverbal message, you'll have a much higher chance of making the sale.

I think most, say, car salesmen are familiar with this. It doesn't really matter what you tell the customer, which is why we call it "bullshit" as opposed to "lying". It's not that the salesman is trying to deceive or trick the customer, in most cases, so much as he just doesn't care. What he does want to do is create feelings of friendship, happiness, and so forth which are associated with him, the car, and the dealership, so it would seem like a terrible thing to do to not sign on the dotted line.

I'm not describing all people, certainly. If you're selling to, say, a car geek, who knows all about the eight dozen different features and the engine and the tires and the fuel usage profile and so on, it may be a better idea to focus on those. But most business people, as pg has pointed out, don't really care about the quality or the features of the software they're buying, since they're probably not the ones who're going to use it.
Cacographic Solecism Directive Encountered
I think most surfers have a more intuitive sense of physics than normal people. We are after all the only ones that actually ride waves - and waves, be they sound or light, are pretty important in physics :)

This doesn't excuse programmers from ignoring your advice. We're a stubborn lot, and we make a living diving into situations where we have no idea what the hell we're doing, figuring it out, and carrying the day that way. We try to apply that to marketing, which is why most of our companies fail - it doesn't work that way in other fields. The ability to learn on the fly is usually more costly than it is with building software.
I agree with mr_eel. Your message is good but it would have been much more effective if you have used a less condescending tone.

Good web developers DO VALUE the importance of marketing and sales. I think we have a lot to learn from you, but with this kind of post you are helping to alienate developers.

Please don't take me wrong, that's just my humble opinion on the matter.
6670 Keypad Ways Problem Jumpers
Haskell IO for Imperative Programmers
Great tip on the analyzer. Here is a link to the project: http://clang-analyzer.llvm.org/
The thing that's new is now the legal system isn't even involved. There isn't a lawsuit, just a letter to Apple making unverifiable claims.
Seth's Blog: Fabulous
I am genuinely interested in hearing which statement you believe is prejudiced. I think I was fairly thorough in the above post in supporting my contentions with logic and evidence from my own experiences, but if I missed something I will be happy to revise or elaborate.
>However, it is not the case that if you have a high bounce rate, you will inevitably have a low conversion rate

I would say the best way to calculate conversion rate is after you exclude bounced visitors. Bounce rate tells what percent of people found your website wasn't what they were looking for. Conversion rates should tell, how good job am I doing in convincing the visitor, if the visitor chooses to spend time on the website and hence showing interest.

These two metrics are related and but not as tightly. And of course website can (and should) be optimized separately for both of these metrics.

EDITED for clarification:

Just to summarize, following is a pretty good way of seeing things:

CONVERSION RATE = (Total # of non-bounced visitors who completed goal) / (Total # of non-bounced visitors)

For all practical purposes, we should exclude bounced visitors from analysis as it just creates noise. Bounced visitors are the ones who got to your site because of chance and you should separate them from the visitors who came to your site with full interest.
Well, I'm sorry. That was most certainly not what I wanted to do. I actually like developers a lot, and was just a bit frustrated because the developers I was working with at the time were incredibly arrogant. It's a total bummer when you spend your time reading up on marketing best practices and some jerk tells you that Forrester's or Nielsen studies on marketing don't mean anything.

I didn't intend for this post to get to the top of Hacker News. I should be more careful next time.
Mihai estimates that without Closure, Reader's JavaScript code would be a massive 2 megabytes

Wow. That just seems wrong to me.
As someone who made a run at learning Nihongo in the nineties, I bow to your awesomeness for your inductive reasoning.
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Goal setting is one of the best ways for me to get around the self-control/procrastination issue.
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It might be interesting if you could determine based on, e.g., the search term that lead them to your site whether or not they were a techie or not. If they were, serve them up the benefits with the tech specs prominent. If they weren't, serve 'em up the marketing speak.
http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/a29qx/japanese_...

And there's some lisp source code in the chapters.
Agreed: memory management is easy if you stop thinking about it as reference counting and instead follow exactly what Zev just said. When I first got into ObjC I kept getting hung up on this idea of a "reference count" until someone on #iphonedev beat it into my head that all you need to do is release the things you declared ownership over.
Design Axiom 7 from Yves Béhar – Master of Design
Valid point. If you are going to something that warrants a high-end dress, the fit is the most important part. I have been that woman who spent four hours at Neiman's Last Call.
Seems like a great idea, especially since a lot of higher-end dresses that are worn for special occasions are typically only worn a couple times.

Their average rental period is ~4 days for approximately 10% of retail price, and they send 2 sizes to you (which somewhat resolves the fit issue).

Small technical gripe: The images on their website are ~300kb and take way too long to load. They don't seem to have a technical person on the founding team, but I'm sure they will work such issues out as they get more popular.