
44.25 Hours & Counting « 48-Hour Launch - melvinram
http://48hrlaunch.wordpress.com/2008/06/14/4425-hours-counting/
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tom
Presently on my fifth startup. Next time I think I might give this a try -
though maybe not 48 hours - maybe a hundred. I am looking forward to checking
out the live site whenever those 225 minutes are finally up. Crazy to think of
launch time in minutes ...

Anyway, the only change I'd make is to immediately send out the first lesson.
By tomorrow, I'll have forgotten what it was I wanted to learn.

Also, I know this is nit picking, but brainbankhq.com is a not a great domain
IMHO. Head Quarters? Is that a pun? How about brainbanklearning.com or
brainbankcourses.com ... something that's a bit more about what it is. What it
isn't is a Head Quarters.

Great job so far though.

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melvinram
Tom, I just spent 0.25 hrs and got the first email to deliver immediately.
Thanks for the idea!

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tom
Don't real users rock? Ok, here's a bit more feedback.

1\. Please don't send plain text passwords. This might just be me, but man,
that bums me out to EVER see my password.

2\. Ok, so I just activated. Tell me better what to do here.

3\. You can register for a class twice.

4\. Remind me that once I enroll, the stuff is coming via email.

What's your plan going forward time wise? Still four hour chunks? Will you be
keeping the blog up to date with that sort of info? I personally find it
interesting.

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melvinram
* Yep, they are indeed rockstars in my world... especially users like you who offer feedback

* Gotcha... I'll change that soon

* Gotcha

* Yep, needs tweaking.

* Good idea

* Yep, I can't really do more than 4-hr chunks. With the blog, I've intended on keeping it updated daily but that hasn't happened. I will very much be keeping it updated with info as much as I can.

I'm planning on making a key change tomorrow based on the usage I've seen
today i.e. if someone is not logged in, instead of telling them "Hey, log in
or register", it will create a temporary user for them with the enrollment...
and send them an email saying "Hey, you enrolled into this course. Click here
to activate your account and confirm your enrollment."

After that change is made, I'll write another blog saying "I lost XXXX number
of people who tried to enroll but couldn't because they were not logged in and
they didn't register. Here's how I solved the problem..."

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sah
Don't just avoid sending plaintext passwords, also avoid storing them! Storing
plaintext passwords makes all of your users vulnerable if someone gets their
hands on your database.

Instead, store the salted hash of the password, something like sha1(password +
'this string is a secret!'). When a user tries to log in, compute the hash
again, and compare it to the one you stored.

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melvinram
It's not stored as plaintext. It is salted as per the restful authentication
plugin with some tweaks for additional security.

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truebosko
Really cool idea. You've inspired me to do a similar thing for a project idea
I've had for about a month now. Going to start early July once I move into my
new place.

Thanks for sharing this!

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nazgulnarsil
his description gave me an idea. how about an app that turns _any_ list of
links into a subscription where you get emailed 1 per/x days.

for example, you could highlight some of MITs open courses, click a button and
then get emailed a link every x days.

I would find this highly useful as I'm the kind of person who never gets
around to things.

Does this already exist?

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melvinram
I'm planning on getting MIT open courses involved with BrainBank once it's
slightly more mature.

