

Ask HN: Can I help you be more awesome today? (No strings.) - mikegreenberg

Hello HN!<p>It's that time again! Every once in a while, I like to offer my time to help other passionate people be a little more successful with their goals. If there's anything I can help you with, just ask here. No strings whatsoever. I've done this before a few times now, and it's worked out well for everyone. Check out some of the previous "No strings" sessions I've done to get an idea of how I can help. (http://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=mikegreenberg)<p>A few requests: Be specific about what you're trying to fix/solve/accomplish. The more details you provide, the better I can help you out. I will try to help all requests made before the end of today and will attempt to complete by the end of Sunday. Be patient and check back. Please keep requests to tasks I can do in ~15 minutes. I'll spend more time willingly, but smaller requests lets me help more people! Thanks. :)<p>Cheers!! Mike<p>PS: I'm organizing my first workshop in South Florida at the end of the month (topic: Arduino for Newbies). If you know anyone who might be interested in participating, PLEASE pass this along! I'm investing a lot of time to make sure it rocks! Details at http://hackthisarduino.com
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matdwyer
I've got a question that I don't really know where to go with, and my research
so far is giving me nothing.

I regularly get large jpeg files that have either multiple pictures inside
them (think like multiple photos in a scan) or have black space around them
(and only one picture inside). I want to crop those to create individual JPGs
out of each photo. Photoshop's command doesn't work well in my experience, and
I can't find anything. I'm willing to get it developed somehow to save me the
time of doing it by hand, but I don't know where to start language /
requirement wise.

So, what would suggest for this? Any easy options I'm not thinking of?

If I can figure something out, dinner's on me in south Florida!

Thanks!

~~~
revorad
Have you tried Mechanical Turk?

~~~
matdwyer
I haven't, but margins arent exactly high enough to be paying a per image fee.
I looked into ftping everything to India, but I was looking at somewhere in
the range of 10-11 cents just for a crop and basic enhancement.

~~~
revorad
Try paying per 100 images or something like that.

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padwiki
Ok, here's a specific question I've been mulling over for a little while.
We're launching our college in about 10 days and have been discussing the best
way for prospective students to try out the system.

We have limited server resources (limited as in we probably shouldn't let in
more than 1000 guests at once until we know our true capacity) but want to
show the system off to as many people as possible. Questions we need to
answer:

Should we require any personal information in order to try the system? If so,
should we verify that information before signing in.

If we don't collect personal information up front, is it worth bugging them
when their session is over to be put on a mailing list?

How should we handle limiting simultaneous users? Options:

1\. Allow unlimited user signups but only allow logon if total active sessions
less than our max.

2\. Only allow signups if there is space in the system, logon is immediate.

3\. No signup at all, just rotate through a fixed number of guest accounts for
preview. If full, no entry allowed, but can be put on mailing list when slot
opens up.

4\. ?????

5\. Profit?

Our target audience is proficient programmers and our primary system focus is
speed, simplicity and usability.

Any input is very appreciated.

~~~
mikegreenberg
Your top priority should be to be available for as many people as possible. If
you can get more than 1000 people on your server at once then you need to take
advantage of that momentum to build a buzz about your product. Putting
artificial roadblocks in the way is fine, but at least create the CORRECT
roadblock.

Instead of a "Server unavailable" when the user attempts to try things out,
maybe have a separate server running a static version of your product which
can be served quickly from cache that a user can play around with while they
wait for availability. Or find a way to improve the caching on the website so
support a higher number of individuals.

You could offer them access to the live application if they leave their email
address with you. And then you could stagger the invitations for live accounts
over a longer period of time without losing any potential leads.

Do you collect personal information upfront? I personally think you should let
the customer play with as much of the application as possible without forcing
them to commit personal information. The fewer barriers there are, the more
time the user will have to explore your value proposition.

If you have limited server resources, it might be worth it to invest a few
bucks for a couple of days on a beefier server just for your launch. You
probably won't need it longer than that and you can probably afford an AWS
instance for a few days.

------
gsg001
I have two questions: 1) Is it possible to do literate programming in Python /
Numpy, something like MathCAD. Where I can either convert python expressions
to latex equations or vice versa.

I am trying to convert my supervisor to open source and he has used MathCAD
for 20 years and he really likes the functionality that you can directly print
out a sheet with all the formulas and solutions in one equation. I have all
the capability of the calculations in Python/Numpy just not the pretty
printing part without actually having to write out the equations/expressions
twice. I have tried to ask on StackOverflow but the answers didn't work.

2) Can the arduino + accelerometer be used for calculating position given the
initial position by integrating to velocity and further integrating to time.
Will it work with 4-6 accelerometers and output the data to a PC in realtime
or will it save the data to an SD card and post-process it later.

Thanks in advance.

~~~
mikegreenberg
1) I've found this library (<http://pylit.berlios.de/literate-
programming/index.html>) which might help with your objective, but I'm not
sure if it will solve your specific application. I'm certain you could create
some sort of shell or wrapper script that will handle the pretty printing. If
I understand you right, you could feed the MathCAD input into the wrapper
which prints the appropriate source expressions, and then translates and runs
your MathCAD into Python for evaluation. Does that help?

2) Short answer, yes. However, you should expect a certain amount of error in
your readings and then you'd need some way to resolve the constants in your
double integration. If you had some initial bearing, that might suffice if you
have two simultaneously captured samples to feed in for the two constants.

I assume you want only accelerometers and want to avoid an external source for
capturing your bearing. It would take a clever solution to decipher your
bearing without some external source, but I'm not willing to say it can't be
done. If you can't find a way and end up with some sort of external
source/reference for bearing, you might as well use dead-reckoning to
determine your position.

4-6 accelerometers in realtime? If you just processing raw data, I think you
could find a way to do it onboard in quasi-realtime (important to note that
the arduino is not a realtime device and this could skew your results as
well). However, you'll probably want to do some processing on the data to get
a normalized sample for integration.

Yes, you could easily transmit the data to a PC OR save it to some external
storage for realtime processing. Lots of modules available which provides that
functionality (bluetooth, xbee, x10, wifi).

Hope this helps.

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joubee
Hi I've set up a shopify site. I decided to give shopify a go as I'm getting
requests from clients for ecommerce and already do wordpress and custom carts
but wanted to try and find a low cost offering for small businesses. The url
for my concept test is (it's live and all setup)

<http://nzsunglasses.co.nz>

It redirects to

nzsunglasses.myshopify.com

It has good products but I csn't seem to get any traffic (like 5 visits in 3
weeks). Adwords hasn't delivered any impressions, posibbly because it's a very
competitive category. Maybe it's the redirect but I've but I've a/b tested
urls and even used.

Any suggestions much appreciated

~~~
mikegreenberg
I'm not clear on what you want help on here. Are you looking for a custom
shopping cart solution or improve on driving traffic to your site?

I'm going to assume you're trying to improve your traffic, but it's not clear
on what you've tested or tried. There's a wealth of knowledge on the web, but
from your initial request it doesn't sound like you've done your homework and
you want me to point you in the right direction. So start with this:
[http://blog.appsumo.com/getting-the-most-from-setting-up-
a-n...](http://blog.appsumo.com/getting-the-most-from-setting-up-a-new-site/)
for starter information.

~~~
joubee
Thank you so much for the reply. I should be more concise.

1-I am a developer.

2-I have tested shopify as a concept as it would be a good fit for small
retailors to dip their toe in the water

3-I have done sccessful ad campaigns in the past for clients (one client has
contributed over 750k in adword related sales for a campaign although they
were a decent sized company with good market share already :) )

4-I am testing how adwords works with shopify. All adwords ads are approved
and active

5-My 'test' shopify site has not generated a single adwords impression in 2
weeks

6-This is really odd.

7-I have tried to contact google and to read everything I can to see if this
problem has come up for others and can't get any traction

8-I just need a fresh perspective as I'm at my wits end

Main question: Have I missed anything obvious that is causing me to be ignored
by adwords. I get the horrible feeling that I've overlooked something obvious.
I'm not trying to get you to generate me more traffic I just wanted you to
have a quick look and say whether you can see a probelm

I've tried

-A/B testing of ads

-Using both redirect url and shopify domains in ads

-Targeted really non competitive key words and searched for them directly in Google to see if I can get adwords to acknoledge my ads

-My campaign has hundreds of keyword recommendations from the adwords keyword generator.

-Would it have been better to use Exact match domains and targeted a 'selling' word(s) for the sites name?

Occam's Razor suggests that this is a average site in a competitive market
that is a hard(ish) sell to customers?

I really don't want to waste your time so sorry. I just need a fresh pair of
eyes pls

tyvm

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aorshan
Hey Mike! Glad to see you are doing this again.

My question for you is a relatively simple one. I am working on applications
for internships at a few tech companies for this summer (business side, I
can't code well enough yet to apply for technical stuff yet) and am having
trouble reconciling the general advice I've received from people about how to
write a cover letter/resume and the nontraditional nature of the tech
industry.

Essentially I am having trouble making sure my cover letter sounds
professional without sounding like a "business type"

Any advice?

~~~
mikegreenberg
I usually try to add my personality to the letter while still observing the
typical business etiquette. Even though this is subjective, I find this helps
guide me toward a cover letter which is personal, friendly, and urges the
reader to want to work with me. (Or at least find out more about me.)

I've tried the full gamut, from way-out-there to the-status-quo. Of the more
unusual ones I've written and published can be found here:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2545033> (No response with that one.) But
there is a trick to it that doesn't improve without some practice.

If you'd like a critique, send it via email to <my initials> (at) nobulb.com

~~~
aorshan
Just sent you an email from <my username> AT me.com

Thanks again!

------
leslyn
Hi Mike,

As always, thanks for the offer again! My question is this: We have had a ton
of great feedback suggesting that we redesign the creating new acct UI, which
is in process. What we are really stuck with is where to add SOCIAL options.
We offer FB connect on the create new acct screen (TW coming) but where to add
'like'/follow and invite your friends in the flow is not popping out at us.
Any suggestions? <http://www.uencounter.me>

Thanks!

~~~
mikegreenberg
If it's not jumping out at you with any reasonable locations, consider that it
doesn't belong in your "New Acct" workflow. Besides, if they are new to your
service, you might not want to bombard their friends until you establish the
relationship first.

You could offer new FB account users to "Like" you as a final (optional) step
(maybe in the Welcome modal) and that might not be too pushy. But maybe you
should remind them in a few weeks of active use to invite friends and "Like"
you again (if they didn't already) at that time. They'll be more familiar with
your brand and service and can share their appreciation more confidently.

PS: plus signs (+) are a valid email address character when before the at sign
(@).

~~~
leslyn
Mike, thanks for spending so much time on the site looking around. I agree
that perhaps it was a problem to fit it in because it would be a problem to
fit it in!! (Staring us in the face)I'll assume you'd like that test account
deleted?(!) If you saw anything else that needs immediate attention - we're
always open for that kind of feedback. Thanks!

~~~
mikegreenberg
Of course. I'm happy it helped. Yes, you can delete it. I don't recall
anything standing out as painfully bad. Good luck with the site! :D

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davyjones
I have an open source admin client for PostgreSQL, pgXplorer, here:
github.com/davyjones/pgXplorer. I believe it is a tad better than the default
admin tool bundled with Postgres.

Is there any way I can build a business out of it? I am not asking out of
greed. I am so enamoured with this that I find myself constantly working on
this. I would like to do it full-time. Now, only if I can make it make
money...

~~~
mikegreenberg
Test it! Make a landing page which identifies the key improvements. Make a
demo instance people can try out. Make it easy to install. Offer licenses for
business use, free for personal use. Build a community. See what happens from
there. :D

You'll either become too overwhelmed without cash to support it and you'll
scale back your efforts. Or it'll start generating some real income. (You
don't have to use my suggested business model, but it's worked for many open
source projects.)

------
kyle_martin1
Hello! All I ask is for your opinion: If you were developing an iPhone running
(fitness) app, what kind of neat or untraditional features would want to
implement? Thanks! :)

~~~
mikegreenberg
Quick idea: Perhaps some functionality which pays attention to which music you
play during your run. At the end of the run, let the runner "grade" how they
feel after their run. Help the user generate playlists for future runs based
on this data. (Although, after typing this, it sounds gimmicky and probably
doesn't work well for the hardcore runner audience which probably want a clean
and simple app with a small set of strong features than a bunch of weak one. I
guess it depends on what your app does.)

~~~
kyle_martin1
Thanks so much!

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AznHisoka
What is your opinion on Foursquare, as a business? Do you think it's doomed to
fail?

~~~
mikegreenberg
I personally don't use Foursquare (or any other geo-location app or feature)
primarily for privacy reasons. I'm pretty open about most things on the web,
but my location is not something I want people know about.

That being said, I think socialized geo-location is a feature. Not an app.
Clearly, there are a lot of people who disagree with that position and
Foursquare is using it to create great value for people and businesses. Aside
from mass adoption, Foursquare doesn't have a lot of market advantages that
justify their continued success with their current business model. All it
would take is some "Me-too" to provide a better experience in a stand-alone
app (I can't think of any that have gotten adopted in the mainstream) or even
bundle it with some other value proposition (ahem, Facebook and Path). There's
nothing particularly compelling about what Foursquare is doing anymore (as far
as I can see, though I'm open to enlightenment) that can't be recreated more
easily or better.

I think they were in the right place at the right time and unless they shift
their business model in the near future, I'll bet that during their market
decline (within 3 years) they will be absorbed by some other company to
include Foursquare as a feature in their own app.

Whether this is "failure" or not, that's a religious question that I'm not
prepared to answer. It's certainly not the word I'd use.

