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

[mikegreenberg]

This last week has been absolutely ridiculous for me. I'd like to make it up to myself by doing something meaningful for some strangers. I like this community a lot and want to see if there's anything I can do to make you a little more successful. No strings. To give you an idea of what I might be able to help you with, let me tell you a few things I've done to help others...

- Last night, I volunteered at TEDxMIA's screening of TEDGlobal where I fulfilled their video stream management and multiplexing fantasies,

- I've built network operations center monitoring software for proprietary wireless protocols. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnleO8H4lyY)

- I regularly brainstorm with others in the SoFL entrepreneurial and tech circles as we look for ways to grow our community and attract talent to our market.

- I'm an early adopter, enjoy playing with new tech and can provide strong, constructive, specific feedback.

- I understand good design from bad design. Aesthetics are not lost on me.

- I have a family and juggle a mediocre work-life balance that's gradually improving.

So if there's something I can help you with, just ask here or @mikegreenberg on Twitter. Be specific about what you're trying to fix/solve/accomplish. The more details you provide, the better I can help you out. :)

Cheers!

PS: This is how it went last time I did this: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2649226 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2544886

PPS: I have a day job and other things going on today as well, so please keep your requests to things I could do for you inside 10-15 minutes so I can help more people.

[sophie_shoes]

Great idea! You may think my request a little odd, but believe me it will help me. I am not fortunate enough to have a family of my own, and since you mentioned the words 'mediocre work-life balance' please take my fifteen minutes of favour and go and spend them with your children. Have some real quality time together, do something really fun with them so that they get an extra quarter of an hour with their Dad, who would otherwise have been working. It'll make me feel good to know that I can make someone else's kids just a little bit happier by the magic of the internet.

[mikegreenberg]

Done and done. (And it won't be just 15 minutes.)

[mathiasben]

I've got a problem I'd love some help with - a very good friend of mine runs a high traffic niche community website. A week ago someone in china setup a look-alike site and has been scraping their content and redirecting their users, effectively hi-jacking the ad revenue. Would love to find some way to shut down the look-alike website. Any input would be appreciated. thanks!

[pero]

Google will delist them eventually. You can also speed up the process:

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/spamreport?hl=en&...

[mikegreenberg]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I really don't think there's much you can do. Sure, you can chase these fools all over the net, but (i'm sure you realize) it's inconsequential to move to another host faster than you can slap them with copyright infringement each time.

There are a ton of underhanded things you could try to do (like creating honeypot content that they'll scrape and hurt themselves with or you can drop their links all over other link farms hurting their position on search engines that care). But I think you're time is better spent elsewhere and wait for Google to handle it appropriately. Your friend is probably only losing revenue because their site can still be found on search engines. So getting them delisted will be your most productive steps.

I'm empathize.

[pspeter3]

Just as a side note, have you heard of sparked.com? It lets you do microvolunteering like this too.

[mikegreenberg]

Sparked.com looks beautifully designed and executed, but this directs helpers toward a cause. My interest here is directing my help toward an industry or specific group which I am actively involved. Would love something like this if you are aware of anything...

Bookmarked sparked.com for later, though! Thanks for heads up.

[pitdesi]

Thanks, I hadn't heard of http://sparked.com

Also look at http://catchafire.org/ (something similar)

[rishikhullar]

I'd love it if you liked us on facebook.com/utellit, followed us @getutellit and signed up for the beta at utell.it so we can send you the app via Test Flight (if you have an iPhone). We'd love for you to start sending a bunch of utellit messages and give us feedback on flow, design and what new features or changes you would like to see. Please send feedback to [email protected]. What you are doing is super cool and I deeply appreciate your time.

[mikegreenberg]

I hope you take this criticism constructively.

I'd be VERY happy to help you, but your approach is completely wrong. By asking me to "Like" your facebook page and follow you on Twitter, you end up losing more than you could have potentially gained. I'm very supportive of projects which I believe are interesting and helpful to my followers and will add them willingly to my incoming content. If you coerce me into it before deciding that on my own, individuals (like myself) will use other factors to decide if they will take your desired action (like your request = pushy; or our past relationship = n/a).

If you want people to take your desired action that will affect them long term (like including your project in my twitter feed), give them some incentive! ;)

I also do not have an iPhone to test your idea with, unfortunately. And your blog link at the bottom of the page doesn't work yet. Also, I think your homepage is somewhat misleading. Even if you're trying to be funny, your mentions of high profile blogs and quotes of yourself may be more harmful than humorous.

[photon_off]

I have a survey and brainstorm request which I feel you'd be able to answer helpfully and in under 15 minutes:

Suppose you're in the market to buy an item of type <x> (eg: blender, TV, energy bar). How do you go about finding the best <x>? Do you google "best <x>"? Do you go straight to Amazon? When/if you find a store, Do you sort by best rated, most reviews, most popular? How do you determine how much you're willing to spend? How do you determine which features exist, and which features are right to you? In fact, what things do you find necessary to determine? What's your process?

Ultimately, I'd like your thoughts on what the pain points of product search are, and how they could be improved.

[mikegreenberg]

I can't tell you how to make things better, but I'll describe my product search process. For the sake of example, we'll assume a few things:

- It's a high value item (I won't waste much time researching items less than $100 unless I'll be using it more than 10% of my waking moments).

- There's enough differentiation in my available options that my time invested in the research will significantly improve my chances that I'll be satisfied with my purchase (like comparing features on a TV, researching specific technology used by specific camera bodies, etc)

First, I'll check the available market and figure out what the range in prices is. (What's the most and least I can expect in the market now.) If this is in line with what I'm willing to pay, I'll continue. I'll figure out which features/specifications are the most important to my satisfaction. If I don't know enough about these specifications, I'll read up on the options and see what is better and why they're better. (Sometimes finding reliable resources tends to be difficult.) Getting an idea on what the cost is for one feature over again is important. Then, I'll narrow it down to two or three models that I'm interested in based on the best intersection between the features I want and the price I'm willing to pay. I research to see if the market is seasonal (will I get a better price during April vs December) or tends to offer discounts or sales on what I'm purchasing. This will help me decided if I should buy now (when buying now is as good as any other time, as it is with technology) or if I should wait for a more opportune time (when sales and discounts are worth waiting for). Then, if I have any ways to pay that give me added benefits with the purchase, I'll briefly consider those options (like paying with AmEx to get traveler's insurance or cash back for a plane ticket versus my bank card which gives me points on flights).

Not sure if you want more detail than that, but that's the gist.

[rdaniel1983]

Mike,

Writing in regards to my startup (www.bestvendor.com). We're a 3 month old startup in New York. Our vision is to create a platform where startups and tech companies can quickly research or discover products to use in their business.

One thing I'd love to do is to survey ~100-200 people from Hacker News so we could aggregate the data in an interesting way ("what do hackers use in their business?", etc), create some buzz while were in product development mode and provide the users on here a quick snapshot of useful tools and hacks.

My best idea right now is to create a survey and put it up on Ask HN. I would love your thoughts on a strategy to get it answered in mass as I have never done it before.

Rawson

[mikegreenberg]

There's no right/best way to do this. Find some way to give reader/participants some incentive for completing it. You could consider releasing the data publicly, making it into an interactive application that is unique and interesting to progress through, or even just guerrilla-marketing it (send a survey many times and modifying it each time to attract a different group). I have to say that market research is not my strong point, but if you can find a way to make it really interesting in some way you can easily hit your 100-200 data points.

You might also consider attending some meetups and asking to participate in them in return for asking the participants to take your survey. Not all will, but you could possibly get good bang for your buck that way.

[JohnnyBrown]

By SoFL I assume you mean South Florida?

Can you comment on the startup scene/general market for developers there? I grew up in West Palm and would like to try living there again.

[mikegreenberg]

West Palm is totally part of South Florida. (In my mind.) There are lots of great efforts happening and it's still young. Developers are in great need. I hear about possibilities for jobs frequently. (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2767949)

Why don't you take the hike down a few times and attend some of the events down here to get a good feel for yourself. There's no reason that you have to take the jump without being able to cheaply come down once or twice a month. I live near Sunrise and often drive down to Kendall or as far north as WPB for some events. This is a good site for events and covers much of SoFL: http://www.miamitechevents.com

I talked about this briefly last month and it still largely applies: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2545770

[raheemm]

Wow! Thanks for your generosity. I have a site called "IT Leaders Today" - its about leadership and management for geeks - http://itleaderstoday.com. Could you take a look and critique it? Pls. be brutally honest. I'd like your thoughts on the content. Does it seem useful, interesting, entertaining? What to do to make it engaging. Email me your thoughts at raheemm1 @ yahoo Thanks.

[mikegreenberg]

Check your inbox. ;)

[nico_h]

Hi!

"- I understand good design from bad design. Aesthetics are not lost on me."

If you have a few minutes and are willing to use your sense of aestethics, please have a look at http://www.displayator.com and give me your two cents about what sucks most about it. i.e.:

- is it clear what is it about?

- what's most ugly about it ?

Thank you very much,

Nicolas

[mikegreenberg]

There's a lot of explaining on your site where you should be doing a LOT more showing. Use some awesome HTML5 tech to put a "live" demo of your app on the landing page. Load a largish file and offer the user to "zoom in" and "zoom out" on the play device to imitate what your device does for them. A "live" demo would eliminate the need for portrait/landscape examples under the first demo phone. Put links under your "live" demo which will load your example Displayables (the Great Wave, Railway maps, etc) inside the demo. In just the suggestion alone, I've shorted your page to less than two screens of scrolling (on my display). I personally hate the long-form sell and think it should be as obvious as possible as quickly as possible.

The layout could be much improved. I'm guessing you know this already since you primed me to think it was ugly in your request. I'm viewing on a 1280x800 display and can't see the full demo iPhone on my screen. The nav at the top could be a little sleeker. Your call to action to "Start creating Displayables now!" shouldn't be buried. You could get a lot of mileage out of buying a pre-made theme and implementing that if you don't want to spend a lot of time of creating something.

Lower the friction to get your users support. Google Groups and email are not scalable ways to support your users. I'm not saying this should go away, but consider at least putting a form that emails you so they don't have to open their mail client, think up a subject and free form some thoughts in your direction. Ideally, make feedback simple, easy and fun.

[jawns]

I have a collection of 10 useful (to me, anyway) Facebook applications that I've bundled together and made available as a subscription:

FAB (http://www.fabappsbundle.com)

I'm looking for no-cost ways to get people to the site, and, more importantly, to have them actually buy a subscription after their free trial runs out.

Any advice?

[mikegreenberg]

As far as no-cost ways, your best bet is natural word of mouth. People will happily talk about things which genuinely solve a pain point in their life. (I realize this avenue of advertising will be difficult as Facebook apps are probably not something people are going to chat about unless they are a drop-dead necessity.

Facebook advertising (as mentioned) is a really good idea, actually. And if you look around carefully enough, Facebook has been offering free $75-100 to play around with their ads. (Look in Wired magazines, or do a few well intentioned searches for "Facebook ads" or the like.)

You might consider including screenshots (where appropriate) and explanations of how some of these "apps" work. Like with Unrestricted Status, will this work with the same exact flow my normal status updates work (or do I have to open an App to send my update)? I shouldn't have any questions about how something will work (or should have a dead simple way of asking and getting the fastest response possible). A potential buyer will quickly lose interest if it takes long to get questions answered.

You've got a LOT of text to parse through to decide if this is something I want to pay money for. (Let alone give you access to my data on Facebook to try it out.) Find a way to more quickly convey the value you're providing with this bundle.

Find sites which are in line with your value prop and marketing strategy. Lifehacker loves stuff like this and finding good bloggers and writers to cover your site is some of the best "free" advertising you can get. I say "free" because you still have to invest in the relationship with these writers.

That should be plenty to start with. :) (And sorry for the slow reply...)

[noahth]

Well, I'm not the OP and this almost sounds snarky, but after checking out your site (nice stuff, btw!) I just searched on FB and couldn't find anything for "fab apps bundle". have you considered marketing your product on Facebook? set up a Facebook Page. add a Like button to your homepage, or go all out with the little widget that links to said FB Page. Another possibility would be submitting your bundle for review by Mashable, SocialTimes, InsideFacebook, & other FB/social media blogs.

[abyssknight]

Anything you could do to promote the Greater Orlando Hackerspace, FamiLAB, would be awesome. :) We're building our reputation right now, but really need to expand our membership so we can move to a bigger location (to house our bigger machine shop equipment) with (working, adequate) air conditioning. A retweet here and there, or a mention to your social network would be greatly appreciated.

[mikegreenberg]

Get in touch with me on Twitter. I'll happily follow and retweet exciting stuff going on for you. I'd also get in touch with @TravisWebster on Twitter. He's local to you and currently working on something in the co-working/incubation/hackerspace arena that might be mutually beneficial. Worst case, a great person to know!

[edwardy20]

Hi, I have started a crowdsourced translation website: http://www.wikitranslation.org

I am seeing a lot of people willing to request translations, but not as much people are willing to translate. How can I encourage users to contribute? Also, any pointers on the design are appreciated. Thanks for your time.

[mikegreenberg]

First thing: Watch this video from Luis von Ahn http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQl6jUjFjp4

He is the creator of reCAPTCHA and working on a translation solution which answers your question (regarding how to get people to eagerly do work for your community) pretty eloquently.

Regarding your specific user engagement problem... I would venture to say that the problem you're solving here is not clear. You describe what your site can DO! But not what your site DOES for me. In other words, you're solving problems. Not providing solutions. This blog post from Dave McClure is pretty relevant here, too: http://500hats.typepad.com/500blogs/2009/08/your-solution-is...

Despite the aggressive tone of the article, I think there's a good insight on how you should be "pitching" on your website's landing page.

[cycojesus]

"I understand good design from bad design. Aesthetics are not lost on me." I might just have to steal this sentence from you...

EDIT: more seriously, have a look at my CV [ http://www.gwenhael.net/p/english-cv.html ] and tell me why it sucks and how to land a decent job in Vietnam or France ;)

[mikegreenberg]

Job markets vary greatly from place to place and I am certainly no expert on the formalities abroad. That said, as someone who might be reviewing your resume for the purposes of a job in the US, these are the things I would suggest improvement. (Hopefully, these may be relevant for use in your target markets. And as a sudden thought, why don't you use http://aytm.com to have people from those countries review your resume for you. AYTM doesn't have to be just for testing your business model.)

I've been using Stackoverflow Careers for my resume lately. Take a look at the format: http://bit.ly/muwOOl

- Resumes should be good for scanning. And I can't scan this to find the key items I'd be interested in. In my resume, the key skills are easy to see at a glance. What I prefer to work with and what I loathe. Each piece of experience indicates the tech that I worked with and what I did there. Your resume includes your overall skills at the bottom, but they should be first, IMO. I should be able to see a snapshot of your pedigree within 10 seconds of scanning your resume.

- I started all my supporting details in my resume with verbs. You take action and these details need to show that. Specific stats are helpful if you have them...but don't embellish. Expect to be asked how you achieved specific stats. Use stats that have a reference point. "Increased sales %10 year over year" vs "Grew sales 10% year over year, leaving the company with just over $30MM in gross sales per annum"

- What do you do for fun to further your professional goals? (Even just your casual activity could be an interesting data point which companies consider in the hiring process.) The fact that you organize events, regularly travel a few hundred miles to hit the slopes regularly, or even have a disciplined hobby shows unique character that companies look for to enrich their office culture.

- Constantly refine your resume. An update once every 6 months or year is good to make sure your accomplishments are well documented.

These are great places to start. And there are plenty of online resources. Check out http://brazencareerist.com as a personal favorite for professional development resources.

[adyus]

Do you know of any interesting startups or tech companies in SoFL that are looking for new hires?

The only things I could find are old web devel and design firms whose own websites look like 1999 and nobody who might do anything remotely new or interesting. I'd hate to have to move out of Miami just because there's nothing interesting to work at / for.

[mikegreenberg]

I know people who are actively looking for Rails and Python devs. And I occasionally get some requests for iOS and more recently Android devs. If you're looking for work, there's plenty to be found. If you let me know what you're looking for, I'll see who I can connect you with.

[JustTim]

"- I regularly brainstorm with others in the SoFL entrepreneurial and tech circles as we look for ways to grow our community and attract talent to our market."

Tell us more...

Thanks Tim - an entrepreneur/small biz owner who spend half his time in SoFL

[mikegreenberg]

First, welcome to HackerNews. ;)

There are individuals down here who are working on projects, initiatives, and events that will ultimately enrich our community down here. Co-working spaces are growing for entrepreneurs, programmers, and small business owners to get bootstrapped with resources easily. Organizers are creating engaging, educational and inspiring events that are attracting some great attention nationally. There is a need here and figuring out how to address the need is a constant discussion topic among these people.

Personally, I run the South Florida Hack and Tell (http://hackandtell.org) and we're looking to start quarterly workshops that teach a specific topic or technology. There are several who are organizing hack-a-thons and are getting the attention and support of larger companies in Silicon Valley. We have our own conference and tech week in March which has been getting bigger the past few years. Groups of us are involved in the government and city development circles and are working the bureaucratic routes.

If you're interested (I'm speaking to any South Floridian who's interested in growing this community), it's not hard to find out how to contribute to the scene down here and all it takes is getting involved. Feel free to come out to any of the events (http://miamitechevents.com) and start asking what you can do. See what other people are doing. Offer suggestions and insight on what could be done better. Be present.

[aorshan]

Hello, I have a small request. I go to the University of Miami and am finding it very hard to find people who are interested in tech, coding, and entrepreneurship in general. Any tips on places I can go to find people of a more "Hacker News" mindset?

[mikegreenberg]

Check out the Toppel Career Center (AKA "The Launch Pad") and get plugged in there ASAP. There are a TON of things going on right there on campus. Check out http://miamitechevents.com for nearby events and if you don't find something suitable, I know the university will give you plenty of cash to play with (and to do fun events with) if you can organize an group of people on campus.

Have you considered any of those yet?

[david927]

We have a site called Kongoroo (http://kongoroo.com). What is one thing we could we add, and one thing to take away, to make it better?

[mikegreenberg]

The interface is nice and big. Perfect for a younger crowd and something I don't think you should change.

- Your initial age/sex question should probably be on a landing page geared toward parents who are bringing their kids to the webpage. On this landing page, you should include information about what the site is for and why a parent might appreciate the content there.

- After selecting age/sex, it will direct parents to the portal their kids would interact with. This portal would be opened fullscreen (javascript) and not include the bottom nav or other distractions which kids wouldn't care able (like changing their sex or age at the top). Maybe make the page "bookmarkable" so they take the URL and always get back to the portal for Boys aged 0-3 instead of having to select that each time (allowing a way to bypass the parent's landing page mentioned above).

- If this isn't really intended for kids to interact with, maybe you should consider providing a "kid-friendly" version where they can navigate and explore the content on their own. There are few decent solutions which let kids "learn" to use the internet inside a sandbox.

Overall, I think this site is great! Sent a link to my better half to use with our toddlers. ;)

[revorad]

You didn't ask me, but the one thing any site can always take away to make it a gazillion times better is ads. Please remove those ugly things and think of a better way to make money of your otherwise quite innovative product.

[charlesju]

I feel like this would be a cool startup idea, a karma network where people post things they would like help with and people get karma points for helping.

[thewordpainter]

love it, mike. you in miami?

as for a simple request, our startup ( http://gorankem.com ) should be getting a nice mashable writeup soon enough tonight in their spark of genius feature.

if you could share that across your networks using the six buttons from the mashable article, i'd really appreciate it!

-adam

[mikegreenberg]

I'm in Coral Springs actually.

I checked out the write up and it's a pretty flattering piece. I'm happy to recommend something that I believe is worth recommending. Unfortunately, your site is down and I can't play with it myself. I'm assuming you're finding yourself with some unexpected success. When/if you'd like me to take a look at it again, just drop me an email. (my initals at nobulb.com)

[mikegreenberg]

Happened to check the site again and it was up! I think the idea is interesting, but wonder how you keep users sticky on your site. I'm very much into music could see myself checking this site if I'm checking out a new artist. I'll be sure to pass your site along to someone in need. Thanks for sharing.

[someone13]

What do you think are the biggest unsolved problems in the computer security field today? What kind of solutions would you like to see?

[mikegreenberg]

I think the biggest computer security problem today is not a technological problem. It's us (and the way we use the tools we already have). We have created some pretty fantastic solutions to protecting and obfuscating information from each other. (Language being the oldest one I'm currently aware of.)

A good example of my point: The recent problem with MtGox (a marketplace for trading cryptographically secure currency) tanking was a human problem. (FYI, a guy who had access to the MtGox databases allowed his personal equipment to become compromised with MtGox backups on it. These databases had a poorly designed security implementation.) Until we can create completely intuitive security (hard), create idiot proof technology which protects itself from the user (harder) or appropriately educate people on their actions at the time they are making them (overwhelmingly impossible to do well at scale); we will have problems which are arguably much more important than solving any other problem.

(This depends on your point of view and what your metrics are that describe something as a "problem".)