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Ask HN: Can I help you be more awesome today? (No strings.)
19 points by mikegreenberg on Feb 10, 2012 | hide | past | favorite | 26 comments
Hello HN!

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)

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. :)

Cheers!! Mike

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




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!


I don't have a good grasp on image libraries, but this might be a fun project to attempt:

Build a script that imports ZIP files full of JPEGs or a single JPEG. After import, display each photo in succession. Prompt the user to select the contiguous space that is unwanted (either the space around the single photo or the space between the multiple photos). This would work similarly to the Photoshop Magic Wand (with a slider to manage tolerance). The script could then pull out the positives (the areas to keep) and rotate them so the bottom is parallel to the x-axis.

Here's a StackOverflow link for Python image libraries: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/94875/image-processing-in...

And i'm pretty sure a magic wand tool could be implemented in javascript to give you a responsive front-end. Import image into a canvas element. Capture the canvas element in a bitmap array object. Iterate through object (which are pixels) and flagging the ones within the tolerance of the clicked color.

Find a way to serialize your mask selection (output from the magic wand javascript function) and send the request back to the script for processing with the image lib. Make it spit out the resulting image or ZIP of images.

I looked for an existing implementation of the magic wand javascript function, but a cursory search wasn't yielding much. I don't want to trivialize the task, but I think it's doable over a full weekend for someone with basic programming chops.


Have you tried Mechanical Turk?


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.


Try paying per 100 images or something like that.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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


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... for starter information.


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


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?


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


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

Thanks again!


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!


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 (@).


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!


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


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...


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.)


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! :)


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.)


Thanks so much!


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


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.




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