HN user

shail

148 karma

CoFounder at Hmpgr, http://hmpgr.com, Invite Code: HN shail2@live.com

Posts33
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news.ycombinator.com 12y ago

Ask HN : Expectations from a designer in a tech startup?

shail
2pts0
news.ycombinator.com 12y ago

Show HN: Running, an extremely simple exercise tracking app.

shail
5pts22
news.ycombinator.com 12y ago

Ask HN: Best Blogging experience...markup vs toolbar?

shail
1pts0
news.ycombinator.com 12y ago

Ask HN: Movies...friends or reviews?

shail
1pts3
news.ycombinator.com 12y ago

Ask HN: Interview as a Service – Any interest?

shail
43pts49
news.ycombinator.com 13y ago

Ask HN: Is Twitter being a useful tool to anyone here?

shail
3pts7
news.ycombinator.com 13y ago

Ask HN: Do you use RSS feeds to read your news?

shail
3pts2
news.ycombinator.com 13y ago

Ask HN: Why should you ship fast?

shail
9pts15
news.ycombinator.com 13y ago

Ask HN: $20 per month dedicated server?

shail
7pts9
news.ycombinator.com 13y ago

Ask HN: iPhone design change, if you were Jony Ivy?

shail
1pts0
news.ycombinator.com 13y ago

Ask HN: {Startup} Do you feel that you are doing exactly whats not recommended?

shail
4pts5
news.ycombinator.com 13y ago

Ask HN: Need help...Rails app seems to take 300ms+ for everything.

shail
4pts7
news.ycombinator.com 13y ago

Ask HN: Why is it so difficult to be SIMPLE?

shail
1pts3
ycombinator.com 13y ago

Announcing News.YCombinator.com, 2007, 6 years ago.

shail
3pts0
news.ycombinator.com 13y ago

Ask HN: When is $20 VPS not enough?

shail
1pts2
news.ycombinator.com 13y ago

Ask HN: When to scale out of VPS?

shail
3pts0
news.ycombinator.com 13y ago

Ask HN: During startup phase, what lead managment software you use?

shail
3pts5
news.ycombinator.com 13y ago

Linode Boost?

shail
6pts5
news.ycombinator.com 13y ago

Ask HN: Do you CODE and watch MOVIE at the same time?

shail
2pts5
news.ycombinator.com 13y ago

Ask HN: Do you love what you are doing right now?

shail
3pts3
news.ycombinator.com 13y ago

Ask HN: Python vs Ruby, syntactic sugar?

shail
3pts4
news.ycombinator.com 13y ago

Ask HN: Hardware leasing for startups, idea review.

shail
1pts0
news.ycombinator.com 13y ago

Ask HN: Financial Data (stocks) API for commercial app?

shail
2pts2
news.ycombinator.com 13y ago

Ask HN: How do you shift focus among applications on a Laptop?

shail
1pts1
news.ycombinator.com 13y ago

Ask HN: Does anyone find Google "search API" rate limiting annoying?

shail
8pts15
news.ycombinator.com 13y ago

Ask HN: Is there a place where I can sell an MVP?

shail
3pts1
news.ycombinator.com 13y ago

Ask HN: WILL ANYONE GET PUNISHED FOR THIS HIDEOUS CRIME?

shail
1pts1
news.ycombinator.com 13y ago

Ask HN: are there any more Aaron Swartzs in trouble because of such things?

shail
13pts2
news.ycombinator.com 13y ago

Ask HN: What do you guys think about Nokia now?

shail
1pts4
news.ycombinator.com 13y ago

Ask HN: Who created Metro theme?

shail
10pts1

@bradleyjoyce

I am trying to create a service in this space. Basically I help you sort/search through all the resumes, obviously after knowing your requirements well enough.

If you are interested, send me an email at shail2@live.com. I can provide you with details.

Building an app store for ruby on rails apps. Just like any other app store, we will define some design guidelines and we will have apps submission and acceptance process. We will provide hosting and take between 15% to 30% from app revenues.

Obviously there are details which need to be ironed out.

Technology: RoR

Currently we are two guys, one purely technical and one purely business.

We have a MVP out. Checkout at http://hmpgr.com, Invite Code: HN

We are looking for 1 or 2 co-founders (mostly tech and partly business).

Current location: India (but we do not want to feel restricted by location)

Comments and suggestions are most welcome.

hi,

I am following the approach of putting minimal yet useful version out and then tailor according to early adopters. That way I will not end up cluttering it with things not needed. Like for instance 3 exercises are ok, but if its goes more than that, I will have to develop a feature where you could hide an exercise you are not interested it (and may be add it later if needed).

But I will do it very soon. Best would be if you sign up and you would some to know immediately. Or follow us on twitter for updates @hmpgr.

BTW thanks for showing the interest. Would love to get more feedback if you find anything interesting to share about the app experience.

Thanks a lot for the thoughts and insights.

About going back to computer...

This app is mobile ready and can be "Added to Homescreen" for easy access.

My quest currently is to understand that do we really need all that details about the running (like paths, comparison with other runs etc.) because more data brings more complexity. I feel, in many cases, being simple is a feature in itself. Just my thought.

I am actually targeting that section of the users who want really simple apps.

For full-fledged requirement, I agree, MapMyRun, Runkeeper apps do the justice.

Thanks again for all the inputs. I really appreciate.

Hi,

The uniqueness is in terms of its simplicity and minimalistic nature. The apps which you mentioned are all great.

Running app is just an execution for the same requirements in the minimalistic sense. I agree it will not appeal to everyone, but I am trying to find out if there are any of us who likes such minimalistic apps.

Hi Icasela

I will be releasing a developers kit very soon which will allow you to make such small apps for the Hmpgr platform. I will definitely let you know once I release that.

If you wish to contribute specifically to Running app, then let me know and I will send you required details as soon as I am done with developers kit.

Hey Jemaclus

I agree with what you said. Its what anyone would expect from an app like this.

Warning: what comes next is very opinionated :) Let me put my perspective and I am aware its a bit different. And its a bit difficult to explain, so hear me out totally.

The point about exercising is all about staying healthy. Its about consistency with which you exercise. Now let me give you an example where an automatic tracking was not helping me. An expense tracking app. Now I am talking about actually improving my expensing habits and start saving for rainy day. There are lots of app which connect to your credit card and automatically know when you spent what and gives you pretty graphs. The problem with that most of the time it happens so automatically that it does not change your behavior. Changing spending habits requires those restrains which you put on yourself everytime you put your hands in the pocket for fetching your card. Thats when I found that really tracking it myself (and not automatically by some third party) is the only way be aware of your expenses.

Same goes with exercising. Thats why this app only supports "yesterday" and "today" button. So its forces to record as soon as you ran. This forces a habit. And I believe in habits.

I know its counter-intuitive and may be its just me. But thats what I am trying to verify :) Thanks for the reply though. Loved it.

I am suggesting an approach rather than a source. Sources, as someone already said it, are far from rare.

I would say pick up a single system, say database (relational or document) or routing, OS, DNS, Web server, A compiler, Filesystem, NFS, etc. and study the hell out of it.

Once you know how to understand a particular system in depth, everything else will start falling in place.

Actually, its going to be like developing the app from scratch in RoR but obviously you can reuse the code if you built a separate app already.

So no layering. But since the concept is all about very simple apps, I guess that should not be too much of a hassle. I am open to suggestions.

Edit: Thanks for liking the notes app :)

I am working on http://hmpgr.com (checkout the pronunciation in the "what is hmpgr?" link)

edit: use Invite Code: HN

Click on each app to see more details about it.

Back story: As a hacker, when you build a small application, its either web-based, iOS or android. All alone you cannot build for all the platform. So the first idea which came to me that why not build only web-apps which are responsive and hence can run smoothly on all platforms. But the problem was having a great experience on a web app is difficult. But if you think about it, its not true for all cases, you can have great experience and utility if the app itself is extremely simple and minimal.

And this is true in many many apps. In fact its true for Hacker News itself. So I thought of building a store for apps which are extremely minimal yet useful. The four apps (Running, Pins, Movies and Notes) are all my creation. Some of them you might find useful on a daily basis and some are useful only on specific occasions. The technology used is Ruby on Rails and we will be releasing a developers kit for folks interested in building apps on hmpgr.

Why would you build apps on hmpgr? Because you are guaranteed atleast one user (that's me :). Just kidding. Hopefully its going to be much more than that. The idea is to easily get attention of fellow users who are already on hmpgr platform. The system gives you the option to install/uninstall apps on your choice basis.

Obviously, the system has bugs and am still working on them so use them and give me feedback.

Great idea @cjbarber. I was thinking of doing a separate Show HN but this seems like a great idea. Thanks for building it.

Companies already do that through external recruiters. Just that they are not technical hence you do not get any tech questions from them. They only do filtering by grepping for technologies and experience in your resume. I would do a little bit more than that. Go into tech questions. I don't think it's very much different than that.

Correct me if I am missing something. Sorry it's a 3 day old thread but somehow every time I think about any downsides for the candidate I am still trying to find one really good one. It's not that I am trying to run this idea and hence I am biased. I am thinking in unbiased terms if you believe me.

I think you said it correctly. And I should write a blog post explaining it better. The reason many companies screw up on hiring is because its difficult.

But to be honest, even after hearing lots of negative feedback from candidate's perspective, if I can smoothen out the interview process for a company, candidates will benefit too. Also, as I said in another comment, through experience (over a period of time) and technical knowledge I will be able to spot talent much faster. And I might end up helping candidate as well if I feel that he is actually the right candidate for a particular job.

I agree. If I rename myself as recruiter, I fit in well in the system. In fact candidates will be happy to talk to me because I am much more technical than non-tech recruiters. I think my positioning is biting me :).