
Hacker Monthly #2 is out - pclark
http://hackermonthly.com/?=issue_2_hn
======
ekanes
Please add a way for me to subscribe rather than buy these one by one. I don't
want to "buy" monthly, I want to _receive_ monthly. ;)

Editing to add: Even if Magcloud doesn't have a way to do this, it might be
worth your while (especially for cash flow!) to use something else like
Paypal, buy them in bulk from Magcloud at a discount and send them out
yourself. You could require a 1-year subscription to make it more worth your
effort (and the bulk purchasing might mean you make more money on the sale of
the magazine itself)

2nd edit: Thinking about this some more, the magazine is 40 pages long (yay!)
but at $.20/page you're making only $1/sale in gross margins (boo!). If you
were able to accept yearly subscriptions and fulfill from the US (I know
you're in Malaysia) you could boost gross margins to $3/sale, in addition to
the cash flow benefits. You would be adding fulfillment costs, but it might be
worthwhile...

AND you could ship internationally if you wanted! :)

~~~
spydez
Sounds like you bought issue #1, so I'll ask:

How's the print quality?

~~~
ekanes
Pretty fantastic. The paper is thick and the ink doesn't come off on your
hands. It feels a little bit like a collectors item, at least for geeks like
me.

His simple design aesthetic is so good that my other magazines feel jarring
and cluttered. It feels like how a magazine should be.

------
pclark
I'd like to see:

* a few recurring columns (eg: get ceo of startup to write half a page about "day in life of startup" each month for 3 months

* spotlight on a "review my startup" submission to HN each month.

* a page of curated pithy/insightful/fun comments from hacker news.

* oh, most importantly, links to the most recent "who is hiring/who is looking for a job"

also, iPad/iPhone app.

~~~
johns
The iApp would be nice because you wouldn't have to download them and sync
manually. But in the mean time, you can get the PDFs and sync them to iBooks,
or go right to the PDF in your iOS browser and open them in iBooks. It looks
fantastic on the iPad.

~~~
macrael
How do you open the PDF in ibooks from safari?

~~~
johns
In iOS4, just browse to it. A button will pop up that says "Open in iBooks"
assuming iBooks 1.1 is installed.

~~~
macrael
After you did this on an iPhone or iPod touch, did it then sync over to your
iPad? Obviously, you can't do this on an iPad directly.

~~~
johns
Nope sadly. It's only for that session.

------
kmfrk
The Curator's Note has an apostrophe that horsekicks sensible typographers in
the face. The note itself also uses improper quotes (primes). The magazine
seems to have some inconsistent use of quotes in general, which seems odd when
it's been made in InDesign which should enforce a consistent rule.

Another typographical pet peeve are the widows and orphans going. I'm sure
they can be avoided.

Other than that, the magazine looks even more interesting than the last one,
and I can't wait to read it. It's a shame that MagCloud don't ship to Europe.
I'm also hoping you'll check out the perfect bound binding for the magazine
which MagCloud is testing out in beta at the moment.

~~~
bearwithclaws
My bad for letting that slipped thru. I'll fix it (and hopefully avoid it in
the upcoming issue).

------
jackowayed
This is cool: Thinkcode's ad has a puzzle/code. First person to solve it gets
their full catalog.

<http://skitch.com/jackowayed/dk1ws/thinkcode-puzzle>

~~~
johnswamps
As plain text:

    
    
      # The fastest person to solve this will win our entire catalog
      bThvW3JKYz16bXpUWDIufkl2OllseC4maV1gMjtVYXNtb2RyZ3czbkQzQDtn
      ZnRdMVZuZkIqVTJpIGlxa2xubkAoaTRueGdQaGN0YyRjTGN1WGlUbzF5VU5q
      cz50KmRwZXlncGN0dA==
    

I added whitespace as in the picture, you probably want to remove it. (I
transcribed this by hand, let me know if I messed anything up)

~~~
stereo
In case the rows play a role, I have it (OCR'd and manually corrected) as :

bThvW3JKYz16bXpUWDIufkl2OllseC4maV1gMjtVYXNtb2RyZ3czbkQzQDtn
ZnRdMVZuZkIqVTJpIGlxa2xubkAoaTRueGdQaGN0YyRjTGN1WGlUbzF5VU5q
cz50KmRwZXlncGN0dA==

The == at the end make it look suspiciously like some kind of base64, but no
luck.

Edit: updated for s/0/O/

Edit 2: it isn't a simple rotation of a base64 string either. Maybe the == is
a red herring.

~~~
logic
base64 decoding of the text results in:

    
    
      m8o[rJc=zmzTX2.~Iv:Ylx.&i]`2;Uasmodrgw3nD3@;gft]1VnfB*U2i iqklnn@(i4nxgPhctc$cLcuXiTo1yUNjs>t*dpeygpctt
    

That's all printable ASCII, which I don't suspect is a coincidence.

~~~
stereo
Hah, of course!

Well, ROTing that doesn't yield anything either, and it's too small to analyse
character frequency if it's a cipher. I tried using 'thinkcode' as a
substitution key, and the end looks a bit like 'thinkcode' itself!

~~~
KirinDave
Have you considered that it is probably valid perl? ;)

~~~
stereo
Is it? I can't get it to work, it complains about the backtick in column 27.

------
helwr
direct link to pdf: <http://hackermonthly.com/hackermonthly-issue2.pdf>

~~~
snissn
[http://www.scribd.com/vacuum?url=http://hackermonthly.com/ha...](http://www.scribd.com/vacuum?url=http://hackermonthly.com/hackermonthly-
issue2.pdf)

------
jrockway
Nice. I like the new comments section. I that printing the comments adds to
their impact, even without the other comments or original article. It also
enhances the sarcastic value -- although I didn't read Dave Winer's entry
about how online advertising is dead, I immediately knew what he had to say
when I read tptacek's "summary".

Anyway, pretty cool.

------
ihodes
I love reading these in print: can't wait ’till the next one comes.

I wish someone would publish a magazine on programming like this. I’d buy that
as well…

Keep up the good work! Can't wait to see number three.

One thing I'd like; to be able to subscribe to a year of it.

~~~
ekanes
Do you think there'd be a market for a "general entrepreneurship" one? More
like Inc or Fast Company, but using the "unpaid content with permission and
accreditation" model that Hacker Monthly is doing? I've been thinking of doing
that.

~~~
asnyder
I think Business 2.0 was pretty close to that. Personally I enjoyed it very
much, but sadly it was shuttered several years ago.

------
Concours
May I ask what tools you are using to create the eBook ?

~~~
bearwithclaws
Indesign CS4.

------
naner
Does this have original content or is this all select content from Hacker News
and reformatted for the magazine format?

Do you have to get permission from each author since you're charging for hard
copies?

~~~
pclark
bearwithclaws (the curator) reaches out to the authors [1]

1: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1261522>

------
bbhacker
I downloaded the PDF, also the First Edition and I thought it is time to
donate. It was my first PayPal donation and I spent it for something I am
passionate about (startups).

Keep up the good work, and check out Monocle - maybe you can get some
inspiration how you can build and extend this.

~~~
pclark
Monocle is the only dead tree content worth reading :)

------
someperson
The site is down for me. Anybody have a mirror?

~~~
bjelkeman-again
I have the same issue. Last time I had to wait for a couple of days to be able
to download the PDF.

------
vegashacker
Never received #1 in the mail.

~~~
ErrantX
Hmm, yeh good reminder mine never came either (must chase that up...)

~~~
vegashacker
I just found my receipt. Replied to the email saying I didn't get mine and the
auto-reply email opened up a case number and it said they'd look into it.

~~~
vegashacker
MagCloud said it was in fact shipped, but they are sending me a new one anyway
--expedited shipping, at their expense. So assuming I do receive the mag soon,
it was a well-handled issue.

~~~
ErrantX
Just to say; yes I had the same response.

They confirmed my address as well (which was right). Fingers crossed :)

------
jeb
How much do the ads in the magazine cost?

~~~
bearwithclaws
<http://hackermonthly.com/ratecard>

------
grep
No Kindle version?

~~~
bearwithclaws
Coming up.

------
levesque
I love the idea because I don't always have time to check HN daily and am sure
to miss out on some great stories. This is the opportunity to do some catch
up.

------
robryan
Is there no comparable service which does ship everywhere? I know people have
offered to repost it but just wondering why a company like magcloud would only
want to ship to such a limited set of countries if the user is paying
shipping?

------
joshbert
Outstanding issue. I've really enjoyed this zine of yours, it's really well
put together. I agree that maybe you should charge more and add a subscription
model, we want you to get something out of it as well :)

------
heresy
For those of us who want to support this, but live in countries other than the
US, UK or Canada, is there any alternative to MagCloud?

I know there's a _donate_ but I want a dead tree edition too.

~~~
almost
I'll be happy remail copies (of both issues if you want) to anyone who wants
to PayPal me the money for the mag plus shipping to their country (from the
UK). Email is in profile.

Just ordered my copy, last month's was great!

------
hobolobo
I really enjoyed the first edition, even the stuff that I'd already read on
HN. I think you may have found your niche, bearwithclaws. I've just bought the
second - hopefully many more will do the same.

------
melling
Version like Wired magazine on the iPad? Yes, it's a bit of form over function
but it was enjoyable, and more importantly, that's what I would gladly pay
for. A one year subscription would be ideal.

------
philwelch
Now including comments!

------
BrianAnderson
I just wanted to express my gratitude for putting this together. Hopefully I
can get my product out the door and buy some space in this sooner rather than
later!

------
grep
Such a good design...

------
Jun8
Minor quibble: I subscribed using the box at the top of the page but have not
received any notice in my inbox about the new issue.

~~~
AdamGibbins
Only got mine a few minutes ago, could be slightly delayed.

~~~
Jun8
Yep, it was the usual GMail delay. Thanks guys!

------
jedediah
I love this, thanks! I do miss the epub version that was available with issue
#1. I'm happy to even pay for it.

------
ekanes
Congrats on being the #1 (in terms of visibility) featured magazine on
MagCloud. Keep it up bearswithclaws!

------
elblanco
I have to admit, I was really down on this before #1 came out, now I love it.
Keep it up!

------
coffeejunk
only shipping to the us, ca and uk? arrr :(

~~~
almost
See my reply to heresy :)

~~~
coffeejunk
thx. i'll keep you in mind. ordered the issues to a friend in .ca :)

------
BirdWatcher
I read the cover and thought, wow, maybe some new methods of bootstraping I
haven't heard of yet. Then I am as always let down because it is stalking
about business.

------
morphir
one question, in the last page it says printed:

"Hacker Monthly is an independent project by Netizens Media and not affiliated
with Y Combinator in any way."

Why do you feel its necessary to be so explicit about your non-affiliation to
YC?

May it be perhaps that you have chosen to "borrow" HN's color scheme?

