msquared

Buyer spends 1 BTC @ $800 USD/BTC. Value of BTC goes down to $400 USD/BTC. Seller left with 1 BTC worth $400 (if they don't cash out). Buyer requests refund of value @ $800. Seller has 1 BTC @ $400.

I guess this would be mitigated by immediate exchanges... Haven't used Coinbase enough to know how well this would work, specifically their merchant services, but what's the per-transaction cost to immediately exchange BTC on transactions? Also, I've seen buy/sell prices on CB - is that the same in their merchant accounts? I see daily cashouts as a merchant option, but that doesn't entirely remove the fear of a market crash. Or even smaller daily variations (morning price high, evening price low, etc).

I could see how there would be at least some potential for long-term concern.

This PDF is so far from reasonable. This is a group of people that seem to be angry about anything and everything tech related - from exploitative production labor all the way through to not paying enough attention to your family. The PDF reads like an anti-technology manifesto and anti-government war cry more than anything else to me.

Keeping in mind that there are exceptions, yes, this is a good mindset. Obviously, there may be things that wind up affecting annual reports if they aren't completed "tonight." It's important to remember that those are the exception, though.

> However, YouTube contains lots of uploaded songs and the US government could have seized their domain for a long time already, but didn't.

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but isn't this what the DMCA safe harbor protection is for? They can't just pull their domain if they are responding in a timely manner to reasonable DMCA takedown requests.

Or am I missing a point you're making? Entirely possible. It's 4:55. I'm burnt out.

I knew a girl that threw hers into the pool (then, foolishly, bought another).

Combining "Buy a portable computer instead" and "The only peripheral you absolutely need is a hard disk or network drive to put backups on" doesn't make sense. I don't know about you, but my productivity tanks the second I don't have a mouse.

Are you in North Jersey? Recognize the 201 in the screenshot :)

I surely was, but surely am no longer :) He resides in PA too, just like me, where our gun control laws favor freedom over oppression (all you Cali/NJ/NYers out there). But I digress.

Just have to say, before reading all of this, REALLY glad this many HN readers and posters are into this topic. Thought I was the only nut that loved technology and firearms, guess I was wrong.

happy sigh

I know this doesn't add anything in particular, but I'd like to reinforce your point.

Ditto.

Yeah, Chrome doesn't like this site. Which is a shame - when I opened it in Firefox I was impressed, but if I had not been prompted to check it out by the comments on this thread I would have moved on...

Uhh, wouldn't these things not have even caught the underwear bomber? Soo.. would you kill 20 people a year for the false sense of security and safety? If so.. well.. you're a douche nozzle, no offense.

Hmm. While this is definitely true, I think you stand to leave more to your children if you own, opposed to renting. If your rent is comparable to mortgage (assumption, I know) you will wind up paying less after the mortgage is over. If you die at 80, and start paying rent at 20, that's 60 years of rent, compared to, say, a 30-year mortgage. That's 30 more years of rent.

I know, I know, someone is going to say "well, what about upkeep and maintenance and killing rats and xyz?" The way I'm seeing this (which, by the by, is originating completely from a 3-beer-deep opinionated loudmouth) is that it's negligible compared to the fact that you are investing your money in something that is of material value.

nginx ftw

Thank. God. This was getting unbearable. Understood the generous nature behind all these offers but c'mon. Not the venue.

Agreed. I've been templating the site to maintain placement of information. This is the third iteration of this projects design, and it has been trimmed and slimmed in each version. I like the most recent one. It's not overwhelming, but it contains all the necessary information.

I do have to keep in mind browser back/forward links and how they will affect site usage. I know I'm part of my target demo, but I'm also more technically inclined. Plus, I'm close to the project so I need (and have) people with objective eyes to review it.

Haha yeah. Not entirely sure why I keep playing the contents of this site close to the vest. And interesting. I had not considered selling the Excel version of the product. That could be an interesting revenue generator, and definitely a way to get users involved.

My first attempt at getting a solid user base was going to be through word of mouth (seemingly, one of the best marketing practices in this niche) and getting the word out on my home forum. They have a built in audience of 20,000 or so, and I interact with a lot of them regularly, so I'm figuring I can easily jumpstart membership, assuming my product is easy enough to use.

There are also a few advertising venues I can use. There are magazines, but this is being built out of pocket and I don't have a large marketing budget. Matter of fact, I have no budget. My budget is: spend as little money as possible. This has been more of an exercise in flexing my coding skills primarily, so making money takes a back seat. I'm hoping I produce a better product that way.

People go to public and private ranges alike, and every chance I get I talk to other shooters about my project. Everyone seems enthusiastic (with the caveat of a little fear.. apparently this crowd is a little afraid of the word "tracking," no joke. I will have to consider that sometime soon).

I just joined a private range in Philly and when I get closer to completion I'm going to start pimping it out there, if they let me.

I will read that article you linked me to when I get some time today, I barely have enough to keep checking this page.

My biggest hurdle is getting these users to adapt to change. I also have to deal with the technical hurdle of making my site work in deprecated versions of browsers. It's going to be a fun challenge, no doubt.

It's a target score tracking tool, built around aggregating scores, ammunition makes/types, individual gun scores, etc to let individuals track how well they do (in general, with one of their guns, etc) and track performance metrics across the user base to determine which ammo works well, which guns perform best, etc.

So, a tracking tool mixed with a social network. I guess.

It started as something to help me track my scores and see how I progressed. I made a score calculating algorithm just using Excel that factored in ring size, distance, wind, and a whole load of other factors and it worked really well. I had one of those "this is madness" moments and started porting it into a CakePHP app.

There are a ton of AJAX page interactions, UI/UX elements, etc that are very different from what traditional message boards and forums use.

Thanks for the advice, will take it into consideration. Saw a similar post that made it into the top submissions, figured I'd add my own.

I've been doing just that, running each flashy new component by the panel of people with varying web skills.

And non tech savvy means just like what it sounds like. Imagine 35+ year olds running antiquated versions of IE. That's my target base.

It's not live, and it's for the gun owning community. You didn't really need to know that to answer the question though, the basics still remain: do you have any advice for dealing with a non-web-savvy audience?

Sorry I don't have anything to show right now, though. Wish I did.

Holy hell... I thought I was a scope creeper...

I completely agree - I see these kids walking through the halls with employees who were told specifically "OK, emphasize normalcy."

Wouldn't it be ironic if this whole this was a setup experiment (well, it sorta was).