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czstrong

Re:Why doesn't Apple make a standalone Touch ID? on Wednesday December 03, 2025 @09:25PM (#46143065)
I bought a used Magic Keyboard on eBay for about $50 to sit within reach of my mechanical keyboard. Considered mounting it under my desk but haven’t bothered yet.
Re:Is the World Really Running Out of Sand? on Tuesday October 01, 2024 @03:32PM (#41713134)
He's got a great book as well. I got it because my 4 yo is a Grady fan but I enjoy it and learn a lot as well. "Engineering in Plain Sight: An Illustrated Field Guide to the Constructed Environment"
Re:No-code founders are on the rise. Are they making money? on Thursday April 30, 2020 @08:28AM (#23030085)
For me, no-code tools were the gateway to learn to code.

Build a site with a WordPress theme and ultimately end up editing the HTML and CSS to get the desired result that's not possible out of the box.

Add a plugin that doesn't quite meet my needs and end up learning PHP to edit the source.

For people that learn by taking apart what's there, no-code tools are excellent learning tools.

Re:Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results on Tuesday January 31, 2017 @10:00PM (#13537815)
We don't know what percent of those units are 6S and SE. iPhone 7 could have worse adoption than previous whole-numer releases even with overall sales up.
Re:Amazon Sells Out of Echo Speakers in Midst of Holiday Rush on Wednesday December 21, 2016 @09:05AM (#13229141)
It's a $40 bedroom speaker to play music and news in a super convenient way. My friends and I love it. Timer, alarm, and weather are pleasant bonuses.
Re:A New Codecademy on Wednesday April 23, 2014 @03:01PM (#7636164)
Exactly. Each time I told myself "I'm going to learn to code!" it was because I had a specific project in mind I wanted to build. But each time I'd end up spending hours going through tutorials and exercises and not feel any closer to completing my project, so I gave up.

The first time I actually completed a project was when I built the website for my small business, cpustorage.com. I built it by starting with a Wordpress theme and continually tinkering with the HTML and CSS until I got the site where I wanted it to be, using Google to solve problems as I ran into them. This process resulted in more learning, it was more fulfilling and fun, and it actually led to the launch of a business.

Re:Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (July 2013) on Monday July 01, 2013 @09:32AM (#5970472)
SEEKING FREELANCER - remote - One-time Wordpress hosting provider switch and migration help needed.

I need help choosing a more appropriate WordPress host and migrating my three sites to the new host. I currently use WP Engine and pay $99/month for three sties with less than 1,000 visitors per month combined.

Two of the sites are very small and straightforward blogs. They are czstrong.com and theladude.com The other site is my businesses website - cpustorage.com. I don't think it's very complex either.

The Job:

* Recommend a new hosting solution that is less than $50/month. The cheaper the better, as long as it's reliable and easy to manage and deploy to.

* Migrate my three websites to the new provider.

* Setup SSL on the signup page of cpustorage.com

* Teach me how to manage the site. I currently use Git Push to Deploy, so if the new host had that that'd be nice. Or, feel free to teach me an even easier way to deploy!

I would like to pay a flat-fee for the whole project. I don't care if it just takes you a couple hours to do it. I'm not familiar with how much I should be paying for this, so please provide me with a quote.

If you'd like to help me with this project, please email me with your quote and telling me a bit about your relevant experience. I created these three sites myself and set them all up so I can help you get this done as efficiently as possible.

Thanks!

Chris

[email protected]

Re:Should we do more to incentivize open source? on Thursday June 20, 2013 @02:06PM (#5913732)
I don't think incentives should be created and awarded to developers of open source work. That will only attract more of the type of coder you don't want developing open source code, causing a reduction in quality.

People work on open source projects because they are driven and motivated by the challenge of creating great software that lasts, the mastery they develop while doing it, and the fulfillment and satisfaction of making a contribution to the community of fellow hackers.

I don't think there will be one clear winner in the crowd-design/manufacturing space, I think there is room for a site for each niche.

For example, http://www.unbrandeddesigns.com/ is gaining traction as "Quirky for furniture". I see many advantages. The submissions and participants are more focused and passionate since they're only dealing with the type of product they care about. And the team can source, build, sell, and distribute more effectively because they are only working within one industry.

Re:Lego Finds Discontinued Set For Boy Who Saved Up For 2 Years on Tuesday December 04, 2012 @11:14AM (#4871564)
Your experience sounds great and something I've been trying to replicate. Building something with your hands and watching it come together provides a different level of satisfaction and enjoyment than hacking on your computer. Recently, I've been trying to come up with ideas of "adult" things I could build in my spare time without taking up too much space in my apartment - such as model vehicles or aircraft. I hadn't even thought to just revert back to Lego, which I enjoyed a lot as a kid. I think I'll give it a try, thanks!
Re:Incredibox - Background music for programming. on Friday April 27, 2012 @09:53PM (#3901776)
I absolutely love upbeat electronic music and it's awesome to know I'm not the only one on Hacker News! For over six months I've been scouring the music blogs and accumulating a playlist on Spotify. I think you'll love everything I have in here - feel free to subscribe!

http://open.spotify.com/user/czstrong/playlist/2Vw6VBC3BDKGc...

Re:ShowHN: Generate your own MTV (Last.fm+Youtube) on Sunday October 24, 2010 @01:14PM (#1826569)
My friends and I always talk about how cool a site like this would be, awesome work! This is pretty much exactly what we were thinking of; we referred to it as "Pandora with music videos."
Re:The First Falcon 9 Launch on Friday June 04, 2010 @02:31PM (#1405143)
As of 2:30 Eastern the count resumed and is at 14 minutes.
I've never noticed a youtube video before that was offered in 1080p. Great picture and it loaded quickly too. Although there were a few hiccups in the video during quick pans.
Re:Taste test: Wal-Mart vs. Whole Foods produce on Monday February 22, 2010 @02:56PM (#1143558)
I recently went to Wal-Mart for the first time in Bloomington, IN, where I go to school. It's a bit of a drive but we decided to make the trip to save some money on household items. It was one of the bigger Wal-Marts I've seen and it looked fairly new. As we were leaving we decided to check out the supermarket section. Boy were we surprised.

The selection of fresh produce was about twice the size of what you could find at the local Kroger and even better than our local organic grocery store that gets its food from local farmers. They had a wide variety of fruits and vegetables and they were presented very nicely. We found pre-packaged chicken breasts with no additives, no antibiotics or hormones, and that were fed a purely vegetarian diet; they were quite tasty and pretty cheap. The store was very clean and bright and it was a fairly pleasant experience to shop there. I like to eat things that are good for me and I usually don't mind spending more for them, but after my experience in the store and now after knowing that some of that produce has come from local farms, I think I will be doing a lot more of my grocery shopping at Wal-Mart.

Re:Uncommon - Custom design your own iPhone case on Thursday December 17, 2009 @09:28AM (#1001053)
I think it would be great to deign your own case and be able to share it from your "saved designs" list in your account. For instance, I made a cool case with a picture of mine and I would like to post it to facebook or sent it in an email to share with my friends. This would let them see my cool case and be good marketing for you.
Re:Uncommon - Custom design your own iPhone case on Wednesday December 16, 2009 @04:54PM (#999838)
This is awesome. Price is right too, in my opinion.

The biggest value to me is to be able to upload and use my own photo; I don't care too much for the existing art, not that there is anything wrong with your selection.

Uploading the photo was easy and resizing and centering is easy and intuitive.

Couple things, though: When I submit my uploaded pic for approval, it just spins indefinitely.

Also, when I was centering my custom picture on the phone, the picture filled the entire area of the phone, but not the entire "print area." I don't really get this. If the pic covers the whole case, how does this not cover the whole print area? It wasn't originally clear to me that the blue dotted square is the entire print area.

Re:Smart People should do Stupid Stuff on Saturday December 12, 2009 @07:56PM (#992198)
Suitably, his business relies on people doing stupid stuff, like spending $170 on a mount you can get from monoprice for less than half the price.
Re:Infographic: Which Countries Own America’s Debt? on Thursday December 10, 2009 @07:51PM (#988958)
China has been buying the U.S.'s debt since the mid 90's, when they pegged their currency to the dollar, in order to maintain their peg and keep the yuan from appreciating. From 2005-2008 they abandoned their peg for a managed float and let their currency appreciate about 21% due to pressures from the U.S. because their currency was artificially undervalued which negatively affects the global trade balance and the global economy. In 2008, however, they went back to the peg to protect their export sector and to stabilize their economy and have remained with the peg since.

China has actually dug themselves into a large hole with their monetary policy. The yuan is grossly undervalued and needs to appreciate, however, if they let it appreciate, their U.S. denominated holdings, mostly U.S. Treasury Securities, currently valued at $2.4 trillion, will lose value. It is also in their interest to keep buying our debt because it allows us to keep interest rates down and consume more, and the U.S. is China's largest export market. But on the other hand, if China tries to sell their securities, this will lead to increased supply in the market which will drive down the price of the securities, which will in turn decrease the value of their holdings.

The financial crisis has led to the depreciation of the dollar, and the yuan along with it since it's pegged, compared to most other currencies. This has greatly impacted the emerging and developed countries' economies that rely on exports for growth because they simply cannot compete with China's artificially low export prices.

This is an interesting issue and it will be interesting to see how it plays out. To get a great summary of the current situation, this is a great, quick read that sums it up nicely: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RS21625.pdf

This reminds me of Joel Spolsky's take on UI. "A user interface is well-designed when the program behaves exactly how the user thought it would."

Never once while manipulating tabs in Chrome have I done something and then asked, "Now why did that happen?" The tabs do what I expect them to do so I don't have to think about them.

As a side note, I also find the "duplicate" feature in the right-click menu useful, something at least Safari lacks.

Re:Travel by cargo ship around the world on Wednesday December 09, 2009 @10:22AM (#985878)
Sounds like a nice way to spend my summer before I start work. Does anyone have any personal experience with this? Any resources or tips on how to go about this would be appreciated.

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