signal's comments

I have nothing against reading Huffington Post for entertainment or opinion pieces, but it's hardly a source for anything relevant to hacking(in the HN sense) or startups. I come here to see news that doesn't make the headlines of major media outlets. I probably shouldn't have commented on the article that I didn't want to see on HN, but I felt I should contribute if I was going to criticize.

Your options really depend on your current numbers, your estimated growth and your pain threshold for scale. Starting with a single box sounds like you either have nothing right now or you're on shared hosting, does 'dedicated box' mean a physical server or a virtual one? Virtual hosting nowadays with someone like Linode or Rackspace would be a good bet, but you can find cheap(and less reputable) options on Lowendtalk.

OS shouldn't be a dealbreaker, if you're comfortable with a distro and you see it go ahead, but if price is a consideration don't let rpm vs. deb concern you too much. You can run a stackscript to get off the ground without getting your hands dirty.

Can I ask why you wouldn't use a cloud provider? Are you already off the ground in the cloud and need to change to a single box? Or do you run a wonky stack? PHPfog runs Varnish in front of their stack, it would be plenty fast and save you tons of hassle setting up and maintaining a box. I'm on their free tier and could scale up any time.

I really dislike the way this has been handled. Yes, I'm sure the FBI is legally prohibited from notifying the victims of the problem directly or even fixing it remotely, but there are many other avenues available to address the issue than needlessly partnering with a single private contractor. Even the posts addressing the issue don't provide clear instructions to verify or clean the issue, and the external sites they reference are provided by DNS name rather than IP.

I think that at the very least the G20 need to agree to the creation of some form of unified body able to address these types of issues effectively. For that to happen the governments involved would need understanding and expertise in online security, which they are all sorely lacking. It's going to be a very rocky road.

Not to be a jerk, but I don't come to HN to see headlines from the Huffington Post. In restrospect I don't think I should have commented.

I like the idea and definitely agree with the premise, but I think this could gain more momentum as online events than off. Collaborative diagrams can be drawn up on a number of sites (Google apps being one - too bad diagram.ly is single user) and a regular event would eventually catch on. I'm no architect but I'd love to sit in and add value where I can.

I've been thinking about this lately too. I think it could be beneficial to have something like the co-founder wish list (spreadsheet) where people can post easy tasks they don't have time or skills to tackle (test this app on android, take inline CSS and consolidate it, add Ajax, document this etc). Maybe a twitter hashtag too. Put it together and link to Github through their API. Issues in Github can have labels, so maybe if you submit a repo to the site and have issues labelled (easy) they get pulled in and people can pick off issues they could help with.

Ultimately, of course, this doesn't solve your problem. However, it would address the issue nicely since this question is asked repeatedly in many places around the web.

OTRS? http://otrs.org

I think it has all these features but I only ran a quick search on the site, you may want to ask them for specifics.

Open source, free, you can even get it in vm appliance form: http://www.turnkeylinux.org/otrs

We use NewRelic to see everything from the bottom up: http://newrelic.com/

It's really easy to use, comprehensive and they have a 14day trial.

I also like yslow: http://developer.yahoo.com/yslow/

It's good for quick checks.

I think this is the natural reaction of the hacker news (intelligent and savvy) crowd, but I see more and more every day that the average human desperately wants to be seen by anyone. Hence the success of youtube, twitter and facebook.

It's both. You need to personally believe it's important for it to stick, and you have to train yourself to keep it in mind. It has to become like a demanding girlfriend you have to remember to txt or call. You can't dump her because she's loaded and you work for her dad.

The right system is totally secondary. It can be as simple as a note in your front pocket. In fact, a written note is good because you have to continually rewrite it, and that makes the tasks stick in your head. It also becomes a huge hassle to keep writing down the same things instead of getting them off the list. When I have to kill my list I do this.

Day to day I use google tasks (iphone-dock and firefox-sidebar) and it stays in my face all day between those two.

A long list is good. There's nothing that guarantees failure in todo world like having tasks like: "Profit". You have to break everything down to the smallest particle you can, then you knock off more things more often and you get used to using your system.

Determination is the most valuable skill in the world, stick with whatever you do and it will pay off in every aspect of your life.

You could sell it for $1200 on Flippa.

My point is that there are more positive ways to make two than by destroying one. If Google is just interested in getting publicity for the cr-48 they might as well join Cheerios on Days of Our Lives.

What was that Google mantra again?

Evil has many shades of grey but wasting a computer that could literally educate an entire schoolhouse in Africa and keeping this old, stupid joke going must be somewhere south of good.

Mine's from hostrail.com, you can use lowend60 to get 60% off for life.

The thing that makes me doubt this is that Tron Legacy isn't a reboot, it's a full blown sequel.

Ignoring all the social benefits of institutionalized learning, the structure really hasn't been challenged by any other offering. I think to make individual or even group learning explode online you need a new structure that doesn't exist yet. You need to be motivated to explore an avenue by being presented with goals, milestones, structure and community, mentorship, and rewards as well as compelling course material.

Online learning for the most part is akin to being left in a massive library, where formal education is largely supportive.

The software required to disrupt education needs to be more supportive than a campus full of staff, handing out scholarships and creating lifelong relationships. That's not simple by any means. It has to take you by the hand, ask you all those questions you have horrible, inconclusive or delusion-riddled answers to and then give you a package and point you towards a goal while lumping you in a group with others and placing frightening consequences on failing to complete the job.

This would have to be done by creating the system to automate the process and bring the people together, sprinkling mentors into the mix with rewards for their performance, having 'tuition' in the form of reasonable payment plus a premium that gets donated to charity if the student drops out, and excellent rewards for success, such as company placements at the best employers. It could work as a pilot project with a single class and expand from there.

I think the real problem is, helping people find and commit to their passions. Education is an easy step once that's accomplished. If students don't make the effort to really analyze their goals and passions they will be failed by their education regardless how cheap or accessible it is.

My VPS is $6 a month for great stats and limits, but I'd still hit Heroku on the free to get rolling and worry about scale later. If you build something successful, migration shouldn't be a huge pain.

I don't see it. Disney has never let embarassment get in the way of money before, unless...

Is it racist?

You could get a VPS and run a streaming app. There are lots of free apps and my VPS costs me $4 a month, with more storage, speed and bandwidth than you need for that.

1 for Firebug.

I learned by going to the most complex sites I could find and turning things off. Then I changed things, and finally added.

Once you've done that you're too far on your way to need further advice.

That's a great story and a good strategy, which you pulled off admirably. Reading that, I don't think you should pull a 180 once you get to Philly.

I hear what you're saying about your distaste for the 'lone wolf coder' role but you can use your skills and experience to hit the ground running instead of hunting for jobs until you catch one. The networking advice is all well and good but it doesn't pay the bills and it's not a quick fix. You network so that you can call on your contacts in times like this, starting now just delays the payoff and poisons your interactions with dread that you have to hit them up with your plea sooner or later - or worse, right off the bat. Networking is about building a rolodex, give and take, but mostly building relationships. If you need something right away it ruins the premise and people can smell it.

My advice is this: Philly must have coworking space. That will solve your 3 problems. You can be with people. You can help them, and receive help. You can advise, consult, contribute. Make money, join the community and networking will be a part of your life. You can hunt for a job for a few hours a day, but help people and they will help you. You'll become a part of your new home, and your new life. You may even like coding again.