apowell

12 ms·

61.
by apowell 16y ago
I believe it depends on the terms of your employment and your jurisdiction. For instance, California specifically forbids employers from claiming ownership of inventions which are unrelated to the employer's line of business created by emp
62.
by apowell 16y ago
It's even worse. I started an entertainment website in 1998, when the Internet had a competitive search and advertising landscape. I didn't rely on a single source for traffic or revenue. Today, Google Search sends the vast majority of th
63.
by apowell 16y ago
Perhaps you could work with some of the classified sites themselves (start with smaller ones) to add an "Organize My Search" widget. Pitch it as a way for them to increase engagement and drive more return visits. Also, many car enthusiast
64.
by apowell 16y ago
I think it's important to make a distinction between "doing consulting work" and "selling consulting work". I'm bootstrapping, and I'll do consulting work for clients I've worked with in the past, or with people who seek me out specificall
65.
by apowell 16y ago
First, I hope you're receiving these comments in the spirit I intend them. They're meant to be constructive, and I'll be rooting for your success. You'll have eventually have significant costs because to be viable you need generate 20M+ pa
66.
by apowell 16y ago
You have a cool concept, and I "get it" a little more now that I've read your recent comments on this page. However, it still seems like a longshot. Perhaps you're okay with that. It's either going to catch on and you'll have to monetize ve
67.
by apowell 16y ago
How do you plan to make a living on this website? (And if the answer is "we'll generate revenue with x after we get traction", then how do you plan to make a living in the meantime?) Why would I use this instead of just sharing links on Fa
68.
by apowell 16y ago
No, no, no. I don't, and you shouldn't. A significant fraction of my income comes from Google Adsense, so this behavior would benefit me. However, I'm far more interested in the long-term health of the online advertising ecosystem, and I
69.
by apowell 16y ago
Here's my stream-of-consciousness: --- I saw a huge "scroll down to learn more" arrow and thought "why don't you just put what I'm supposed to learn right here?". Why do I have to scroll for it? And what's this stuff underneath? Reluctantl
70.
by apowell 16y ago
You can choose both. The AP courses were nice, and 11 years later I'm making my living running the business.
71.
by apowell 16y ago
Have you experimented with 2 x 24" (1920x1200, not 1920x1080) running in portrait mode?
72.
by apowell 16y ago
I recommend The Millionaire Next Door .
73.
by apowell 17y ago
Go sit in everything before you make up your mind. You may have to drive to several office furniture stores to do this -- one store may not carry all the major brands. In the end, I purchased a Steelcase Leap, and I've been very pleased wi
74.
by apowell 17y ago
Set up recurring billing, don't chase checks every month. Send invoices if it makes you and/or the client happy, but collect the payment automatically. I use Authorize.net for billing and Blinksale for invoicing. This will save major head
75.
by apowell 17y ago
I'm not sure if it's "web 2.0", but it's nice looking and has an iPhone app to accompany it -- I've been using Things for a year now. I have definitely become more reliable and efficient since I began using it seriously.
76.
by apowell 17y ago
Have you tried Alltop.com?
77.
by apowell 17y ago
Agreed, but again, what's changed? This problem has always existed, and it's getting some airtime now because someone made a little blue box to that makes it a bit easier to configure.
78.
by apowell 17y ago
If I'm missing something, please tell me -- but the whole scheme relies on obtaining a fake SSL certificate. This type of attack has always been possible with a fake SSL cert. I don't see how this little blue box changes anything.
79.
by apowell 17y ago
Until recently, I worked for a major retailer of online legal forms. You can get in touch with me if you'd like to learn more about the landscape. To answer the questions: 1) I'd expect my attorney to react like my doctor would if I brought
80.
by apowell 17y ago
There is absolutely nothing dishonest about clearly communicating to the customer what you're going to do, then doing it. You may run your business differently and wish others did the same, but that doesn't make intro pricing dishonest. Th
81.
by apowell 17y ago
I've done exactly this in my MBP and been very pleased. 80GB X25-M as the primary drive, and a larger disk as the secondary drive. As an aside -- for whatever reason, I couldn't get my optical drive to work in the enclosure provided with th
82.
by apowell 17y ago
I'm very interested in reading about the accomplishments of others, especially when they're particularly unique -- and I was happy to share my own. I don't want my contribution to this interesting discussion to be read as "me me me", so I'v
83.
by apowell 17y ago
I'm self-taught -- bought Frontpage in 1998 and a PHP/MySQL book from Sitepoint a couple years later and did all the examples. Building a successful web business has very little to do with how well you know the newest languages, fanciest de
84.
by apowell 17y ago
I'm curious to see what the HN community thinks of this. I've used 99designs in the past with moderate success, and this looks like a natural next step for their logo market. For a while, the participating designers have submitted the same
85.
99designs Launches $99 Logo Store(99designs.com)
87 points by apowell 17y ago|83 comments
86.
by apowell 17y ago
To follow up with some potentially helpful feedback: Why not allow people to create "regular" accounts, and then they can associate their Facebook account with the account later? I'm not opposed to associating my Facebook account with serv
87.
by apowell 17y ago
This is a valid concern. I'm not too keen on connecting my Facebook account to things either. This may be an incredibly cool product...but I wouldn't know. I'm not clicking that blue button to find out.
88.
by apowell 17y ago
The fact that Comedy Central is your first example of an ideal advertiser means that you're probably not in a high-CPM niche. That's okay, but it means you probably ought to be running a couple million impressions each month to make direct
89.
by apowell 17y ago
Just initiating a page turn by tapping the right half of the screen would be a dramatic improvement over paper.
90.
by apowell 17y ago
I lend on Kiva, and I don't have a problem with it. There's a lot that has to happen between my Paypal transfer to Kiva and the money being distributed to the local entrepreneur...and even more that has to happen to collect the payments. I'

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