doublesprout

Why hasn't Dropbox extended its main service with something like this yet?

Incredibly simple apps like puu.sh and Skitch have taken off as separate apps and there has been a scattering of Dropbox-integrated third party tools, which I typically have to give away my Dropbox key to use. There's so much data on the web that is difficult to pull out of the cloud, and Dropbox is in the unique position of bridging these two realms.

Dropbox has a lock on the position of market leader in file storage, but they haven't built a platform. There was an article a few days ago which described how Dropbox is a feature, not a product, and the whole company would be put out of business if Apple/Microsoft/Google just rebuilt the functionality (a bit hyperbolic, but worth a thought). But I don't think there have been more than a few features since I started using Dropbox a few years ago, and it's not for a shortage of engineers.

Also to build up credibility as a developer. My concern as a student is that there isn't a huge community of other open source developers around - so by working on these projects, I'm missing out on the chance to build something with a fellow student, work on my own startup, etc. (consider that substantial programming takes a lot of time)

And tech meetups are great, but it seems a waste of these few years to be going to them instead of meeting the people around college.

So I don't know. You tell me?

I understand why they wouldn't want to serve ads on Wikipedia, but isn't it a bit hypocritical to say the choice is so they can maintain editorial independence? Because for someone who wanted to influence the foundation, donations are probably just as good a way to do so - it just forces them to be more straightforward about it.

It's not immediately obvious from the label what the button does, but it is from experimentation. And unlike the multistep 'cut' or 'paste' buttons or 'move to' (which pops up a dialog, I think?), the discovery process for a user is one click.

Or maybe two. One to go from selected file to all other files, and another click to get back.

Summaries are not necessarily crap and people need some way to tell if what they're going to read is worth their time.

In reality, all this script does is make it easier for people to filter for what they want to read.

There really isn't a way to learn hotkeys other than searching for them and practicing, and people expect computers to be intuitive so much that they never do that. I wonder how many people aren't consciously aware of how much faster they could get at using their computer if they spent an hour learning.

Every time someone makes a 'society thinks' post, I mentally replace those words with 'you think'. And then I make mental self-corrections.

I didn't find much to correct for, though. You can't look for the opposite of narcissism to recognize leaders. And the startup community does a good job of encouraging alternative measures of skill.

I'm guessing you're still in Nepal. Focus on a market you know well and look for provable business models - it'll be easy to narrow down your ideas. Also, I wouldn't be ashamed of cloning something from somewhere else and bringing it to your community. There are going to be opportunities in a place like Nepal that aren't in the tech hubs.

Dreamweaver required you to know quite a bit about HTML. Muse is like InDesign/Photoshop, which people use to do mockups of designs (not UIs/wireframes) today. It cuts translation to code from the workflow. That's a meaningful shortening of the feedback loop for a designer.

As for the rest of us, we don't have to be concerned till Muse starts learning the quirks and features of CSS faster than ourselves.

"don't know how to start putting them together to make something that works"...try a Github search?

Design patterns is a great next step, but it sounds like you're not quite there yet. Something intermediate-level like Dive Into Python will give you more ideas.

I made apps with WxWidgets and Django after learning the basics, but there are a million directions to go in. They just all involve building things and learning as you go.

Not to hijack the post, but this sounds like something I'm interested in. If OP is swamped, would you mind dropping a line? dblsprout@gmail.com

Why not commit yourself to a project instead?

It might be possible to learn work ethic from, say, the military, but college is unstructured enough that you have to push yourself through it, unless your peers are working as hard as you are.

It sounds like you're weighing your intellectual interests in college against your interest in startups. If you're sure you want to do tech, it sounds like you live in a town where talent is sparse enough that once you have a project to pitch around, you could get paid a good amount.