dustin

30% might work in software, but it's is a very deep discount for most physical retailers.

If the product has a 50% margin (sells for $100, costs $50 to source) then your retailer makes $100 for 5 orders instead of $50 for 1 order.

Except they're probably keeping their own inventory, so they now have to keep $250 of inventory for that $100 in profit, rather than $100. This is problematic because a lot of online retailers are limited by their working capital.

This is a drastically simplified example, but the bottom line is that physical retailers think very differently than software sellers.

Great idea for an app either way. I wish you the best of luck with it as you learn the territory. For something similar in the Amazon space (a platform that lends itself much less to split testing) check out splitly.com

Get yourself into a mastermind group with 2-5 others in a similar situation - solo founders, bootstrappers, etc. You can start with just 1 other person then add more.

Have a regular 1 hour video call every week or two. Everyone gives updates, support, and keeps each other accountable on goals.

Keep a Slack/Skype channel open in between to say hi, help each other, share wins, etc. Bonus points for meeting locally, but online is fine.

Why? Masterminds are the biggest thing I did going from wantreprenur to actually shipping & earning from products. They're also one of the best things you can do to beat entrepreneurial loneliness. Every week you meet other people who share your struggles and are invested in your success.

Here's a good resource for running one: https://taylorpearson.me/mastermind/

If you find at least 1 other person willing to do this (a few candidates on this thread already, or make a FB / LinkedIn post) I'll happily join the first one to facilitate & show how. Email in profile.

P.S. A coworking space + online communities like founder cafe, product people, complice, wip.chat (h/t other posters) can also be super helpful.

This! +1 for not letting yourself be pressured by the queue.

Republicans?

The front page is also broken on Safari (7.1.5). The video won't run and when I right click it my browser crashes.

Also - read the "War of Art" by Steven Pressfield. Excellent book about resistance to hitting our goals. Indecision is simply resistance against what you know you should be doing - flipping is easier than persevering. Get a routine, make a habit of it (eg: commit to study at least 20 mins at the start of each day and continue if you get in a flow), etc.

Create a study group or get yourself an accountability buddy or coach who you check in with on a weekly basis. Could even be a friend who's not involved but whom you commit to emailing every week with an update and a goal for next week (maybe give him $100 that he'll only return if you follow through emailing every week). You can also do this via a public study log - blog, forum, etc that you update weekly or daily. Nothing is as useful as a little external social pressure and support. This seems particularly relevant in your case since you say you've tried doing this on your own before. Then, I'd combine that with actually having your schedule for those 4 months worked out, know what has to be done by when. Best of luck.

To be fair, monkeys eating a bunch of processed lab grade crap is probably a better approximation for the modern human than an optimal diet.

Agreed. This is just empty PR.

If the guy was that concerned about privacy he wouldn't sell to the company with one of the worst reputations for privacy.

He made the choice and that's fine, but this communication is effectively meaningless. Actions speak louder than words.

This!

Not exactly political, but the man has a point.

Better explanation here linked from Slashdot here (the actual mailing list site is down.) http://www.muktware.com/5276/linus-torvalds-secure-boot-supp...

Is ebay one of those companies? http://www.ebay.com/new

Or are they maybe close but not close enough to call out considering the size of their legal department?

To be honest, not being much of a designer, I've seen this scrolling with background switching 'style' become popular on a few sites recently.

I have no reason to doubt that OP developed it from scratch and clearly some of the linked sites blatantly ripped off the entire design, but the question of where inspiration ends and what constitutes 'independently developed' gets murky really quickly.

"...given the contract’s length and its role in the film... a lesser studio or artist might have been tempted to go with several pages of lorum ipsum"

So he's basically praising pointless lawyering! :)

Or a more charitable reading: he's geeking out as we might about the terminal commands in a 'hacker' movie.

Lol - had to read it out loud.

For all the posts saying Linus is wrong, which he may well be technically, consider this from a layman's perspective.

Ortiz recently: "At no time did this office ever seek ... maximum penalties under the law."

Justice.gov previously: "SWARTZ faces up to 35 years in prison..."

At a minimum it's a bad PR screw-up on their part and they're backpedaling because their "make us look tough" press releases have backfired.

Most people vaguely familiar with the case would think there is a threat of a 35 year sentence, as many recent posts on HN indicate. Would Aaron & his legal team think so too? Probably not.

I live in London and I have my location set to Recife, Brazil. That way I get 'sunset' around 9pm in the winter - late enough to let me continue working on a bright screen, but early enough to not blast blue light before going to bed.

The point for me is not so much matching the environment but not staring at a blue screen right before bed.

As with most departments, legal works on a continuum.

Some coders push buggy code and some coders polish their bits endlessly. The good ones write code that meet the requirements in a reasonable amount of time and move on to the next task.

Some lawyers are strict letter-of-the-law types and some will approve anything to make the profit centers happy. The good ones balance the legal risks with the commercial reality.

Under the circumstances I'd be curious to know what the cost-benefit analysis of this change might look like. Given how seldom employment contracts are negotiated and how rarely these IP clauses are enforced, my guess is the biggest cost might be something even more intangible, such as stifled employee creativity.

Thanks for posting this. Standard documents are great. Even if you don't get to use them they provide a point of reference for negotiating terms.

Very interesting stuff. Got interested in permaculture a couple years ago, and this seems a great complement in many ways.

Obviously much more sustainable than how most people get their food. I wonder what the energy & water requirements for this sort of system are.

I saw a talk about node.js by Mike Amundsen the other day - he did all his work using http://c9.io/ etc The IDE seemed a bit flaky, but quite powerful - the concept certainly seems promising. http://www.amundsen.com

Having said that, for me personally I still prefer a very responsive UI, lots of keyboard shortcuts, and the kind of workspace / UI customization you can only get from desktops nowadays.

Or better yet, tap out your Bump login and password with the phone!

Yup

1) I don't get it, so I'm unlikely to think it's brilliant without trying. (So now I need a laptop to upload photos from my mobile?...)

2) I wouldn't download this to try Bump without some better explanation, especially given implicit data protection reputation of just about every big consumer-facing company these days (especially one that trades in contact details.)

3) The title is full of gratuitous editorialization, which is against HN guidelines.

I like it. Looks slick and as a native iOs dev I'd strongly consider it when I want to work with more complex web views for rapid iteration.

A lot of PhoneGap/Web View apps are second rate on the UI front, so if you can help developers improve that experience without a lot of work I'd say you're onto a winner.

I also think you're on the right track with your A/B testing plans - doing this from scratch can be a huge chunk of work!

I once interviewed a project manager.. asked how he came up with deadlines. He said "ask the programmers and subtract 20%". Talk about a red flag in an interview!

I've seen the 3% number mentioned a few times, and seem to remember hearing that this has stayed consistent for some time (so more applications but still 3% -> bigger batch size) but I can't find the original source just now.

Wonder what this means for a Steam console, particularly if PC games get more love as a result of consoles being x86. I suppose it's good news in the end, with less time wasted on cross-platform shenanigans and more time spent on making games.

Pair is interesting, especially for long distance relationships and the like. I predict:

1) By the end of summer their servers will be hacked and a new celebrity startlet's nudie pics will hit the tabloids.

2) Drama and heartache ensue when people find out they can't pair with their wife AND their mistress. This will create a niche market for a Pair client with multiple partners.

Well done and looks quite useful - bookmarked for the future. However, I have a really hard time reading some of the copy (contrast) on my laptop: http://i.imgur.com/fRzAe.png

Quite the shock to have the whole studio laid off like that, but I dare say that sort of thing isn't unusual in the games industry at large.

I worked at a big publisher studio for quite some time. They laid off people nearly every year, yet it felt relatively 'safe' compared to the rest of the industry.

Totally agree on the life hacks. In fact, consider them essential, not optional.

It can be hard to overcome the inertia if you haven't exercised in a while, but it's ALWAYS worth the time.

Get enough sleep. This should be #1 really - it's more important than exercise, but exercising helps you sleep. Find a way to get 8 hours a day for the foreseeable future and make it a priority. There are lots of ways to deal with insomnia, feel free to email me (see profile).

Eat right - good food, fruit & vegetables, nuts, the usual. Don't overeat, go hungry, or stuff yourself on junk food & stimulants.

Finally, make regular plans to do social/physical activities and commit to having the REST OF THE DAY off, whether it's on a weekend or a weekday evening. Your worries (and gadgets, emails, etc) should be shut off and locked away until you wake up the next morning.