HN user
Author here - as an adult I've found it increasingly more difficult to stay connected with friends I don't see frequently. I wanted to build a tool which reminds me when its been too long since I've contacted a particular friend.
The past couple months I've gotten some good feedback from friends/family using FriendSavvy so I decided to share it on HN.
I'd be curious to hear your feedback too.
Thanks, Chris
Looks like its using a `sync.Pool` to amortize allocations.
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This is my first Android app. I'm notoriously bad at responding to text messages if I don't respond immediately, so I decided to solve my own problem and make sure I never forget to respond again.
One of my early jobs (as I was teaching myself to program) was at a large consulting firm. The job didn't require any sort of programming. Many of the business processes at the company revolved around manual processes and data-entry/manipulation in Excel. After a month, I recognized a process that could easily be completed (more thoroughly and efficiently) by a script. I spent the next few weeks after work learning how to manipulate Excel, scrape data from websites, and package Python scripts as standalone EXEs. I showed my work to one of my colleagues who showed it to others. A few more iterations of this process resulted in my colleagues lining up to see what could be automated out of their processes. My job title hadn't changed, but I was then working full-time as a programmer.
After a while though, when I felt I was no longer learning as much as I'd want to -- I decided to look for a new job in the software industry. With my experience writing code at the consulting firm, I was able to find a decent job at a software company.
tldr: Programming is valuable for many jobs (not just software shops) and it is often easier to get your foot in the door and spend your days writing programs there.
But do you think you did so well early in the term as a result of the deadlines? Perhaps it had no impact, but I'd argue that a lot of people need that requirement to stay on track.
Although less obvious, there are other areas in sport where these issues currently exist.
One of the more recent controversies resulted in the ban of LZR Racer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LZR_Racer#FINA_rule_changes), a swimsuit which resulted in an abnormally high number of world records during the years it was available.
Whats to say that track shoes can't have similar performance aiding effects? It may be time for sporting officials to limit the equipment athletes can use. NASCAR does this successfully -- they have stringent specifications regarding the cars/parts that can be used to keep the races competitive.
I have chronic back problems (lumbar) and I've tried dozens of chairs over the past few years from periods between a few hours and a few weeks and I've only found 2 which haven't caused me problems:
Herman Miller Aeron (which I currently use) Steelcase Leap Char (which I used at my previous 2 jobs)
The price for these chairs are high. But given I'm relatively healthy and productive with them, its well worth it.
As someone who has chronic back problems, I cannot agree with this more. I've wanted to start a company for some time, but my increased risk for significant medical care/procedures has somewhat anchored me to working for others.
The last few days, gmail has been a pain for me to use specifically because I can no longer click on the logo to return to my inbox after viewing an email thread. Navigating my mouse to the "Inbox" link in the nav menu is difficult because I have to actively distinguish "Inbox" between all the other categories that look similar, whereas I can click on the logo without thinking.
Baseball is easier to predict from statistics when compared to most other sports. Most plays in baseball occur in isolation (relatively).
For example: pitcher vs. batter -- each pitch is essentially a new, repeatable experiment.
In basketball, I would guess that there are very few repeatable experiments. (Different players, strategies, locations, etc). It is a much more fluid game and therefore determining an indicator of success is much more difficult.
Knowing how hardware works, how languages are compiled/designed, how libraries are architected. It can only increase your knowledge of [insert technology here].
I think you're confusing "Levels" with A > B (A is better than B) when in reality the point is that: A comes after B. You must first understand B, then you can move on to the next level in your path of understanding programming.
If you increase your skill/knowledge that doesn't hinder your ability to use PeopleSoft/SharePoint. It certainly expands your options. While you can get a good salary using those technologies, eventually they will be obsolete. When that happens, we'll start to see news stories posted on some future-HN about how older IT workers are being passed up for younger, fresher IT workers and how it is a biased industry. When in fact, its just a group of people who decided that sitting in their comfort zone doing their day-to-day was good enough and when it was time to move on, they couldn't find any other jobs that fit their particular niche they'd had for the last decade(s).
That IS the problem. They can't do the business side, but they SHOULD be able to do the business side. Government contracts favor large mega-corps rather than small, efficient businesses because of the enormous amount of regulations involved.
If BigCo could create a pseudo-incubator where the evaluation process was similar to YC. The company could filter out applicants whose ideas didn't align with their business objectives.
Additionally, BigCo could own the rights to the product (or some portion) while the "founders" get salary/benefits for their time. Perhaps reduced salary but with large performance benefits. Really, the monetary issue wouldn't interest me as much as the ability to work on a project where I had autonomy and interest. (I wouldn't apply with project ideas that I had no interest in)
This resonates with me. Like you, I'm risk-averse but I still have hopes to create my own company one day. It'll start as a side project and then if I get enough traction, perhaps it'll be enough to convince me to take the leap.
Yes, you can boulder by yourself (I find bouldering more fun anyways). Most gyms have sign up sheets to connect solo climbers with others. Even better, when you sign up at a gym you'll probably receive guest passes, take a friend some time and they'll probably want to sign up themselves because its so fun. My group has increased from 2 to 4 over the last few months.
EDIT: For those who are unaware of the climbing terms, here are some brief descriptions:
Bouldering: Climbing solo, with no gear, usually up a wall ~8-12 ft (with mats below, in case you fall). These routes are usually tougher focus more on technique/strength rather than endurance.
Top-Roping: Climbing with a partner (one climber, one belayer), both partners must have the proper gear and tie in to the ropes in order to climb. These routes are usually 20-50ft and require a good deal of endurance to reach the top.
For those who are interested in exercise but haven't enjoyed it in the past (running, swimming, lifting weights can be boring), I'd recommend rock-climbing.
Four months ago I joined a rock-climbing gym and I've really enjoyed it. Its a good workout, but its also a mental challenge. Each route up the wall can be completed in different ways, so it takes a bit of problem solving to determine the best way to finish a route.
Some basic details below, maybe I'll write a blog post with more thorough descriptions...
App and scrapers are written in Python with MongoDB storage. I was pleasantly surprised with MongoDB's query speed given I only index keywords. There are a small number of products in the database, but its still very fast.
To get the data I've created scrapers for each site. Currently, only Target and Amazon are implemented (with Container Store soon to come). Target and Container Store provide a product feed when you sign up as an affiliate. They FTP their product info to your site and I use that to parse the links. Using each link, I then scrape the page to store the relevant information for various products in the database. Amazon provides a nice API and there is a Python wrapper which makes it easy to query (python-amazon-product-api).
No, this is not just furniture. It is everything in Storage & Organization categories from Target and Amazon. I'm not sure whether the art supply box fits that category, but I'd hope so. I do not have the dimensions for all products as they are not always formatted identically on product pages, and my parser is fairly dumb at the moment.
As people may notice, there are some issues with the dimensions search. For instance: how do you differentiate between width/height/depth when there is no real "front" of the product. The dimensions depend on the orientation the user expects, not necessarily what is stored in the DB.
These are both issues I hope to fix, but at the moment I still think it performs fairly well. (and will improve)
Many retailers aren't on the site. Target and Amazon are the first I added, but I felt it was good enough to release and get some feedback.
These are all good questions, of which I don't have answers for (yet). I created this in response to my cousin (a professional organizer) complaining about finding products within certain dimensions. If she had this problem, I figured others might to. Only time will tell if this will actually provide value, but its certainly not all dressers.
I've worked on elaborate projects with the goal of world domination over the past few years, and all have failed. Now, I'm working on building a portfolio of smaller apps to slowly build passive income (with the potential for a big win).
TidyFinder is the first step towards that goal. I'd appreciate any feedback/criticism/suggestions that you can offer. I value the HN community's thoughts. Thanks.
This process would be difficult if you had a full-time job already or if there are a relatively high number of potentially qualified candidates, how do you choose who should come work for a week? It may get expensive quickly, certainly for a small startup.