Shooter

I don't have time to look at the details of this particular incentive, but I know from personal experience that many R&D tax credits do not require earth-shaking research to qualify.

I own two SaaS companies that have received R&D credits and I'm also an investor in a few other businesses, including an injection molding company, that have received R&D tax credits. The injection molding company mostly makes cups for gas stations. Which is not exactly quantum computing.

I used the same company to get all of the credits. They had a staff of tax attorneys, accountants, engineers, etc. that worked with us to see what we could qualify to receive. They looked at about 30 different programs to get tax incentives or reduce expenses. And they worked entirely on a contingency basis, where we only paid them a percentage of what we saved. They were very accurate in their initial assessments, and we have not been audited since receiving the incentives (/knock on wood/)

At one point, they commented that the bane of their existence (as tax incentive specialists) was misinformed accountants that thought you had to have an army of lab coats or a clean room in order to qualify.

I would agree, however, that Gusto is trying to drum up business.

XLT or XXLT. Very few cool t-shirt vendors carry Talls :-(

Re: she/her

The article was written by Jon Morrow, not Penelope Trunk...

Jon is actually an amazing guy. Here's another sample of his writing:

http://www.copyblogger.com/fight-for-your-ideas/

I do it all the time.

- A single LLC is probably optimal for what you are suggesting, unless one or more of the projects you will be pursuing is something that invites litigation. You would definitely want to have a separate LLC for anything that is extremely risky or that is in a litigious industry (healthcare, etc.) If your first app is just "slightly profitable", I wouldn't worry about it that much. If you add other memmbers/managers in the future you can always restructure the ownership and compensation ratios, etc. - LLCs are amazingly flexible.

- I've used series LLCs several times (in IL and DE), and it was very helpful in a couple of cases and a complete clusterfuck in another. Find a great lawyer if you opt to go that route. You DEFINITELY have to use separate bank accounts and ledgers for every series if you want to get any of the advantages of the Series LLC structure. Just trying to open Series-specific bank accounts can be an issue, surprisingly. I would only use a Series LLC again for VERY specific purposes (mutual fund companies, etc.)

I hate St. Louis...I think I have bad memory associations with it because we had to go there to the Children's Hospital for my sister. It is also the only place I have ever been mugged - twice! - despite having frequently traveled to much more dangerous places. The second mugger even took my clothing at gunpoint. And the muggings occurred within 80 feet of the St. Louis Arch and several cops. Don't go near the Arch around dusk. The Arch seems like a safe place, but it is on the periphery of a more dangerous area.

Not working...leaving for my first vacation in 11 years. (The vacation is being shoehorned around a business trip my wife has to take. Otherwise, it would have been at least 12 years between our vacations...)

If you use a Mac, try:

http://flyingmeat.com/voodoopad/

I tried several of the open-source wiki apps, and then was very happy to pay for VoodooPad. I use it and mindmapping apps quite a bit. I bought a notebook app from Circus Ponies, but I don't open it very often. I use DevonThink Pro Office extensively, and it saves me enormous amounts of time. I also use Emacs orgmode and a few other Mac apps that are probably overkill for most people.

Assuming Evite got a registered trademark on their name, then they should be able to stop you from doing anything using your domain in their trademark class(s) in the US. Presumably, your project is related to event listings/invites? They can probably stop you from using that domain in the US...or any other countries they have registered it in, for that matter. (Even if they didn't register the trademark, which is unlikely, they have been using it in interstate commerce for quite some time while you have not, so they would almost surely win in court or in an ICANN dispute.)

I think it's a weak domain/name that is likely to be confused with them anyway...I'd find another name to save the headaches and let them have it. You might ask them to reimburse you for your actual domain registration and renewal fees. If it is <$1000 they might pay, because it takes about $1000-1200 to seize a domain anyway.

Don't buy it if your only reason for doing so is 'buzz.'

Have you considered trying out a "Hackintosh"-type setup first? If that doesn't work for you, you could still sell the PC easily and then buy a Mac. I make very good money in the US, and I still took several weeks to talk myself into buying a new Macbook Pro to replace an '05 Powerbook (in part because I already have a 27" iMac as my main computer.) Apples are expensive. To me, it is the software that makes them a great value, though. If you bought the MBP, would you still have the funds to spend on software and to complete your freelance/startup work without major sacrifices? I think it is ridiculous to ask a question like this on HN since we don't really know your financial circumstances. Are you really just wanting us to help rationalize a decision you've already made? ;-)

[And now...my first HN cross-post ever:]

RE: Fusion vs. Parallels

I just bought a new MB Pro and am getting ready to install Parallels on it for the first time. I've always used Fusion on my Macs (to triple-boot with Win and Linux) in the past. I thought Parallels was currently the leader in the shootouts regarding speed/features? Anyone keep up to date with their VM horse race or have a good reason to use one over the other? I already have licenses for both. Thanks.

RE: Fusion vs. Parallels

I just bought a new MB Pro and was getting ready to install Parallels on it for the first time...I've always used Fusion in the past. I thought Parallels was currently the leader in the shootouts regarding speed/features? Anyone keep up to date with their horse race or have a good reason to use one over the other? I already have licenses for both.

Is anyone on here <from> NearlyFreeSpeech? In their FAQs, it says they are not really interested in being a domain register and that their registration services are essentially just a convenience for their hosting customers.

I have thousands of domains, and was considering using them - but I would not be using their hosting services, so it seems moot now...

Have you experienced the "lock-up/freeze under load" issue that some have had with these models? I'm getting ready to buy a new MBP, but that scared me a bit. Some said the latest software update fixed it, but many others are still having problems.

I'm looking at the SSD kits from MacSales/OWC, but I don't want to give up the optical drive. And I know very little about SSDs...

We just lost a couple hundred of our esignature customers because FannieMae has stopped accepting esignatures on docs...

Not to be pedantic, but endocarditis is not a rare virus that sits on your heart, it's an inflammation of the endocardium - which can be caused by several things, including bacteria.

I've had one aneurysm and endocarditis, among other things (strokes, coma, paralysis, etc.), so I can sympathize with how difficult it is to move forward when you are ill. I wish you the best of luck in your endeavors. I don't know if it is actually true, but people keep telling me that old cliche about "what doesn't kill you (and keep you dead, in your case), just makes you stronger." Please feel free to shoot me an email if you want to talk...

It is most definitely NOT a valid method.

Then use Redis (perhaps via cl-redis), if that's what you're comfortable with and it meets your use requirements. Most of the major NoSQL databases have CL bindings. Most of them are also easy to use. It really depends on what your specific data persistence needs are...? All of the db engines have different strengths and weaknesses.

There's cl-mongo (MongoDB), cl-tc (Tokyo Cabinet), de.setf.cassandra (Cassandra), chillax and clouchdb (CouchDB), etc. etc. [Some are more complete and performant than others, but you can find a usable CL binding for almost any NoSQL db. Use a search engine and/or ask on IRC or comp.lang.lisp for pointers.]

Clickable: http://www.easycalapp.com

Well, I need help from AppSumo ;-)

I get emails about things I want to buy from AppSumo. I click through to your website on the same day I receive said emails. Your site confirms my email address. I'm then shown a DIFFERENT product/bundle than what I was emailed about. It has happened twice...and makes me less likely to click through in the future. I thought AppSumo usually only offered one bundle at a time, so I'm confused as to how this is happening...?

I believe http://www.w3schools.com should be avoided.

Try this instead: https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Web_Development

(The info on this Mozilla site is good and it also has many links to other sites that will help you. Every link I checked out was better quality than the W3Schools site, and there are also some video tutorials thrown in, if you're more of a visual learner.)

Repurpose your blog posts into a series of articles and submit them to other iOS and gaming blogs. Write more about the creation of the game, including tech tips for other developers, design choices, what you learned, etc. Try to actually be informative, and not just focus on pimping your specific game or your company. Try to generalize to a broad audience... [Game developers tend to buy lots of games, and they also often write/review for the more mainstream media. Ideally, you'll get some good PR and make more sales - and, at worst, your networking will pay off in the future.]

I'm not a gamer at all, but I do read a few blogs about the gaming market and iOS development. I've actually purchased games (that I never actually play) just based on interviews and wanting to support people that have taught me something. Just this week, for example, I bought three games from one publisher (Mika Mobile) based on a couple of blog entries I had read on an iOS games blog. I gave the games to my wife, but it was learning a new technique from one of the developers that prompted me to make the purchases.

I can second the nomination for NetNewsWire if you're on a Mac. It is one of my favorite apps. NNW syncs with Google Reader (which I also despise) if you're away from your own computer and need to look up something in your feeds. I haven't used FeedDemon, but am told it is similar to NetNewsWire in quality. [Protip: I use a script with NetNewsWire to automatically back up my flagged (saved) feeds into DevonThink (http://www.devon-technologies.com/products/devonthink/index....), and it has saved me a great deal of time on research. The DevonThink AI helps me find connections I might otherwise miss. I have a ridiculous number of feeds I follow, though.]

And I am sorry I called you a name that added nothing to the discussion. It is not a 'casual' word, but I have a very developed vocabulary of obscenities ;-) - so it was just the first thing that came to mind that I thought would make a point about offensiveness and your tone bugging me. In any case, it was flippant and I regret it.

Re: auto-censoring. I may be completely wrong about the lines...I thought they were mildy funny, just not worth losing sales over. It was just a suggestion. If it were the OP's actual stance/belief on something, then that's different. I just thought he could put in something funnier that wouldn't necessarily be creepy to anyone. I have a different perspective than most, maybe. My companies have (aggregate) revenues in the low billions, so a small tweak can be a big thing for me. I don't want to offend a customer unless I think there is a good reason. I started out with exactly this kind of small, opportunistic approach as the OP's t-shirt, so I thought I might have something to contribute. I was apparently wrong.

It didn't offend me personally at all, but I like to try to put myself in the shoes of potential customers when I view sites like this and my wife is one of the 'personas" I use. [Honestly, she probably wouldn't have been offended either, unless she saw it right after after she saw the news. It's a context/frame-of-mind thing, I think.] Many people are emulating that type of ThinkGeek/Groupon writing these days, and I think sometimes they fall a bit flat. I was just curious about your results with it...and I thank you for updating me. I wish you would do some A/B testing - not just with this, but everything - because lost customers don't usually speak up.

I know there are several HN members that have easy A/B testing services (http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/ is one that springs to mind, but I know there are others.)

I think most people on HN like case studies because they help them learn things that they can apply to their own businesses. If you have no interest in improving your business, or learning new techniques, or getting "fresh eyes" - then I'm sorry you are here. Part of hacking culture is testing and trying out things, not just making assumptions and saying fuck it. Little things on landing pages can make a big difference in sales. Why not test some of them? The OP himself said that this promotion was an "experiment." My point was that I think the OP could get "hundred other to laugh" without using the lines that may creep out a few. I'm not saying I'm offended by what he wrote...I'm saying "try to make more money." Testing some stuff like that would offer spice to his case study when he posts it on his blog. Controversy is a great sales tool. Humor is a great sales tool. I didn't think the sentences in question were enough of either to outweigh the potential downsides, and they seemed like throwaway lines anyway and not something he was attached to emotionally.

------ Re: my 'aggressiveness.'

I called you a dickhead about half in jest (we were talking about being offended), and half because you replied to me with a cliche that I had already addressed and an instruction to "get over it." Dickhead is one of the least offensive-offensive words I could think of - it's my grandmother's term of endearment for my grandfather ;-) HN guidelines say, "Be civil. Don't say things you wouldn't say in a face to face conversation." I wasn't exactly civil, but I would totally say that to you in a face to face conversation.

It didn't offend me, dickhead. I was just offering my opinion about something that might lower sales conversions. Why piss off a potential customer just for a weak joke...?

I don't think the idea is exploitive...just opportunistic, which is an awesome mindset to have in business if you stay on the right side of things. So, kudos on the idea.

That said, I do have a problem with the execution:

The section "Please don't buy this shirt if you died. That's just lying, and nobody likes a liar..." is obviously intended just for laughs, but it's not really that funny and you run the risk of offending someone that, say, knows someone who actually died in the "Snowpacalypse." My wife, for example, knew one of the seven people that are known to have died in Chicago as a result of the blizzard. I'm one of the least sensitive or "PC" people on earth, but I think you might rethink what you gain vs. what you lose with that particular sentence. Offending people can be fine (and inevitable), but there should usually be a reason for it. [BTW, "I survived X" is a common T-shirt meme and Snowpacalypse is a recent meme, so I didn't think anything of it until the one sentence made a more concrete connection between 'death' and the blizzard...which made me think of the news reports etc. - which might tip the creepy scale for some potential buyers. Maybe A/B test it?]

I enjoyed reading 'Concrete Abstractions', and it's usually very cheap if you buy it used on Amazon (I think I paid about $5.00 for a copy that was like new.)

I disagree with the recommendation for 'Simply Scheme', though. I didn't learn much from it, and I was disappointed with the amount of code in it that was non-standard stuff created by the authors purely for pedagogical purposes. I would personally recommend spending more time on HTDP or SICP instead of reading 'Simply Scheme.'

Marijn,

Re: "Master basic programming techniques"

Would you recommend your book as a first programming book for designers that want to learn to code? We have a few employees that come from a print design background that are wanting to learn JS to move into web work, and I'd buy a half a dozen copies if this is an appropriate intro for them. Otherwise, I'll just buy one copy and solicit recommendations for a book to teach programming using JS. [I normally recommend Python and Scheme books to learn programming, but that seems like a long way around for people that only want/need to learn JS.]

Love your CL work, BTW.

I've had success using HTDP with students, and can recommend it - especially for the type of student that has interest/potential but that might otherwise struggle with a more standardized teaching approach.

I've also used Picturing Programs (http://picturingprograms.com/philosophy.html) and "How to Design Worlds" (http://world.cs.brown.edu/) with a few students that had a great deal of math anxiety and wanted a more graphics-intensive approach. I myself had/have a great deal of math anxiety, so I appreciate all of their efforts on this front. All of these materials help student's get their feet wet before they get too scared of the waves.

BTW, Does anyone know if someone has worked out the kinks so that you can use SICP examples directly in DrScheme/Racket to make the transition from HTDP to SICP easier for students? The last time I tried it, there were too many little gotchas and I gave up due to (volunteer work) time constraints.

I thought "The Social Network" was decent, but I was actually expecting more from Fincher and Sorkin. It could have been a student film, in some ways. I thought many of the characters were fairly two-dimensional and the "two lawsuit" structure was a little forced. It made me think of the examples in a screenwriting class I took in college. (Oh, and it's not a world I live in or aspire to live in.) My expectations must have been too high after all of the great press it received. It had so many raving critics and fans that I had a long period of people telling me I "had to see it" - but I didn't see it until it came out on DVD and then was fairly disappointed. If it is THE film of 'this generation', as some claim, then I think we're in trouble.

I think "Inception" should have won. It was much more creative and thought-provoking, and I thought the acting was also better. Of course, I had no preconceived notions about it - other than a general idea that it was apparently a goldmine of meme material for sites like Reddit. I've only seen snippets of "Black Swan," but the acting looks better than both "The Social Network" and "Inception."