I guess for startup founders it's really all work and no play. At-least that's what happens to me. Most of my time is consumed towards work. Getting time for other stuffs is a luxury. I'd love to hear from other startup founders who are able to achieve a balance between work and play. What's their secret?
I've been there. Being older and having kids obviously forces the issue.
When I was single I could easily spend 18 straight hours coding and barely notice the passing of time. So, I do get it. Perhaps I was lucky in that I fell into a work environment early on where there were older people who did have other interests and some of them sucked me into other areas. That is, for example, how I got into sailing.
I think it's important to really make an effort not to look at a computer screen all day. This is particularly true for entrepreneurs. I know it's hard.
You could checkout http://appbodega.com. It's an App Store alternative and works as a standalone app that you need to install on your Mac. You can sell your apps via Bodega as a developer. Though you cannot "Buy and Sell" apps. I think most licenses for apps would normally limit resale of apps to another buyer. So something on the exact lines of flippa.com may not be possible due to license restrictions.
Though I am unable to answer your question of whether a legal and profitable SMS system can be built, I'd like to point out a hidden answer in your statement — "after sometime they shut the service down, something happens. I don't know why"
Most of these "ugly websites" are fly by night operators. They are spammers looking for in-use phone numbers to build a database. The database then could be used to send bulk spam SMSes or could be sold to tele-marketers for a profit. So essentially these websites never make any profit from actually sending the SMS but instead scam the users to share their phone numbers.
I am new to HN and this is my understanding based on modest time I have spent here. Keeping discussions to HN helps keep them centralized. Secondly, there's a community here. It's like discussing/debating a topic with your friends. People know each other and have rapport within the community. There's a trust factor when you are among friends and you know there's credibility in the advice that's given out.
Commenting directly on posts is somewhat like walking into another group. You are not part of that group. There's no trust factor.
First, I must say that this is some awesome tech. Though, I think people should not be sharing images that would require them to use a tech like this. Moreover, if this is applied to display sensitive information then the person who intends to steal it will not be dithered by something like this. They would certainly look at means to circumvent it. It's like limiting people to right click and save an image or copy some text. Those who want to do it, can always grab the source code and load images directly from their links or copy text from the source code.
I'd say you have the most accurate description of when they say "Gravity Powered". While lifting this thing, the energy gets stored and gravity is just a means by which the stored energy is released.
