4 ms·

I am also a Hungarian, and I think Hungary is a worse and worse place as you get older. I've attended one of the best high schools in Hungary which was very hig

by nadam 16y ago

I am also a Hungarian, and I think Hungary is a worse and worse place as you get older. I've attended one of the best high schools in Hungary which was very high quality. Universities on the other hand are not bad, but also by far not the best. And jobs are mostly the boring outsourced stuff. Attitude towards starting up is very poor. I am so different from the people surrounding me. I literally live physically in Hungary, but virtually in the Valley (reading HN, Techrunch, etc...)

dschobel 16y ago
It's perplexing to me how a country with a great primary education can have mediocre universities. And then you have the exact inverse phenomenon for the USA.
- Maro 16y ago
  Problem is your first Uni. degree is free for Hungarian citizens, so everybody wants to get in, after all it beats getting a job. And the gov't goes along with it, because it temporarily decreases unemployment. However, this decrease in quality of incoming students led to quality of education going down at most places, and completely bogus management/administration majors gaining popularity. As a result, now virtually everybody younger than 30 has a Uni. degree, but most degrees aren't worth the paper they're printed on, as the people holding have little real-world or even theoretical skills --- eventually they become secreteries or HR people. That's why many smart people, once they figure this out, pay and do a second degree at one of the few places that's not affected by this phenomenon, like me doing the Physics major. Fortunately Physics is scary to most people, so it's one of the last remaining oasis in our education system.
Maro 16y ago
I'm doing a startup, check my HN profile.
- nadam 16y ago
  I am also doing my startup in the field of databases, but on the other end of the spectrum than Keyspace: I am working on bringing databases to ordinary people. What I am working on is a web based, multi-user collaborative MS Access-competitor. (I am relying on an open-source database engine.)
  - Maro 16y ago
    Unreal. Dropped you an email to your gmail account.
  - eitally 16y ago
    Will you allow for uploads of data from Excel? As you probably know, Access is where non-technical people turn when their spreadsheets get too big. :) I am interested in learning more.
    - nadam 16y ago
      Yes, easy and intelligent import from Excel is strategically one of the most important things do right in this kind of application. I will release an alpha version in a couple of months, and I will submit an 'ASK HN: Please review' post on HN.
  - elviejo 16y ago
    I think this is a majoy app that needed to be done since many years ago. I'll venture to say that 80% of php apps could fit this category. Did you look at dabbledb ? they were in the right direction before being acquired by twitter. Look at their intro video.... it is really good. Made with smalltalk
    - nadam 16y ago
      Yeah, what I work on is quite similar to dabbledb. There are some differences of course. One of the most important differences is that my system will not only be available as a cloud service, but companies can run their own server if they want. The server software is extremely simple in this sense: it needs zero configuration, it embeds an open source db engine (Derby) and an open source web server (Jetty). Basically the server just needs to be copied an run and that's all. It is also operating-system independent (provided that a JVM is available).

by nadam 16y ago

dschobel 16y ago

It's perplexing to me how a country with a great primary education can have mediocre universities. And then you have the exact inverse phenomenon for the USA.

Maro 16y ago
Problem is your first Uni. degree is free for Hungarian citizens, so everybody wants to get in, after all it beats getting a job. And the gov't goes along with it, because it temporarily decreases unemployment. However, this decrease in quality of incoming students led to quality of education going down at most places, and completely bogus management/administration majors gaining popularity. As a result, now virtually everybody younger than 30 has a Uni. degree, but most degrees aren't worth the paper they're printed on, as the people holding have little real-world or even theoretical skills --- eventually they become secreteries or HR people. That's why many smart people, once they figure this out, pay and do a second degree at one of the few places that's not affected by this phenomenon, like me doing the Physics major. Fortunately Physics is scary to most people, so it's one of the last remaining oasis in our education system.

Maro 16y ago

I'm doing a startup, check my HN profile.

nadam 16y ago
I am also doing my startup in the field of databases, but on the other end of the spectrum than Keyspace: I am working on bringing databases to ordinary people. What I am working on is a web based, multi-user collaborative MS Access-competitor. (I am relying on an open-source database engine.)
- Maro 16y ago
  Unreal. Dropped you an email to your gmail account.
- eitally 16y ago
  Will you allow for uploads of data from Excel? As you probably know, Access is where non-technical people turn when their spreadsheets get too big. :) I am interested in learning more.
  - nadam 16y ago
    Yes, easy and intelligent import from Excel is strategically one of the most important things do right in this kind of application. I will release an alpha version in a couple of months, and I will submit an 'ASK HN: Please review' post on HN.
- elviejo 16y ago
  I think this is a majoy app that needed to be done since many years ago. I'll venture to say that 80% of php apps could fit this category. Did you look at dabbledb ? they were in the right direction before being acquired by twitter. Look at their intro video.... it is really good. Made with smalltalk
  - nadam 16y ago
    Yeah, what I work on is quite similar to dabbledb. There are some differences of course. One of the most important differences is that my system will not only be available as a cloud service, but companies can run their own server if they want. The server software is extremely simple in this sense: it needs zero configuration, it embeds an open source db engine (Derby) and an open source web server (Jetty). Basically the server just needs to be copied an run and that's all. It is also operating-system independent (provided that a JVM is available).