HN user

akshayagarwal

246 karma

Enterprise Web & Mobile Applications Consultant, Consulting CTO, Represented by 10x Management, NYC https://linkedin.com/in/akshayagr

Posts18
Comments12
View on HN
Scroll This 13 years ago

Disclaimer: I didn't build this. Its something cute that I found and shared.

So once you have got a good portfolio, make sure that you do build your personal website. It took me a weekend to develop my own ( http://akshayagarwal.in ) and the rewards have been excellent because any potential client would want to have a look at what you have done already and when he sees that you have a proven record of awesomeness, the deal is yours! Also, make sure to maintain a decent and updated LinkedIn profile because thats where I get a good amount of leads. You should also have some cool sideprojects open sourced on Github, they dont need to be big, they can be just some minor hack that you did over a weekend but it helps you demonstrate your love for programming and technology. Lastly, network, network, network, its the biggest investment you will ever make in your business.

So I was sitting all alone in my large office at night, browsed Hacker News and as usual opened this in a new tab but did not really look at it becuase I was browsing some other article. Now suddenly I start hearing a slow coding sound coming out of nowhere, I looked around but there was none. The sounds still kept coming , I even went to look under the desks!! Thoughts of an office ghost started trembling in my mind but then I suddenly realised that those pesky sounds were originating from my Mac and I said W!!! Ghost inside my Mac! Holy Sh! With some courage I bothered to look around my tabs and then nailed on this monster. Great work guys! Would be hard to forget about those horrifying 10 mins!

I had a client of mine in UK who wanted to send out a crazy 100,000 SMS everyday for marketing to opt-in subscribers. Of course, due to low margins he could not afford a web based SMS service. The successful solution I provided him was using Kannel to set up a SMS server which used to operate around 120 3G modems to send out those many messages in around an hour. Now of course, this method has flaws of its own in the sense that it requires your SMS server to be connected to the internet 24x7 something which can be hard but you could use some local datacenters to do that for you. In India, typically web based SMS services cost around 0.1 cent for a single message so most developers use that but if you are targeting a global audience then the choice can be really difficult. Anyways if you do need some consulting or development on SMS applications feel free to reach out to me on info [at] akshayagarwal [dot] in

ICANN is wrong 14 years ago

The internet can be made a much better & safer place if the new registries enforce proper regulations. Of course, there will be exceptions but there are many major players in this race who will work towards this objective. If you look at it in another way, it opens up a whole new world of opportunities not just for ICANN or the registry but for us, developers! Lets say I made a super awesome Iphone App and want a website for it, how much is the probability of me finding a relevant .com domain name for it? On the other hand, I have higher chances of getting a very relevant name with a .app extension & if this extension is popular amongst app users (which the .app registry would definitely ensure) then I have just multiplied chances of my app being discovered easily! Now some would argue that apps are to be found in app markets but then this was just a simple example, the possibilities are endless. I believe we are in a historic moment of the evolution of internet, something which would make the internet better, easier & safer for all of us.