pchickey
pchickey on Hacker News
You should try having approximate location based on IP address already filled in. Something like, "We can get you started in New York, New York. Or give us your zip code:"
Sure - the editor in chief, or whoever on staff wrote that description, doesn't really know ASP from LAMP. But they do know the current programmers use ASP.net and MT, and will need to continue using ASP.net and MT for the time being.
In the past three years, the collegian website has added a lot of great features, and the design has improved considerably. It looks like they're still stuck on an old ASP backend, but the students responsible for the front page have been moving in the right direction. Unfortunately, its a pretty huge undertaking for unpaid (or close) full time students to replace a decent working site with a decade of archives with with a Rails app.
In many ways, the Collegian is a representative good college daily - there are many in much deeper trouble for failing to grasp the basics of good journalism, not the basics of web 2.0. (Disclosure: Former Collegian photo staff)
The app looks good, and you've made a lot of great design decisions. However, it took me a little too long to figure out what the idea was. Three suggestions:
'shop. save. share' doesn't tell me enough right off the bat. Maybe users who aren't logged in should get a 15-word blurb ("Postabon allows you to find and share deals. Check out the (link)introduction video.(/link)")
I didn't notice the introduction video side-tab until my third glance back at your site- most new users are going to totally miss that.
The 'about' page had more words than my eyes were comfortable with. Cut the word count in order to space the text out more. And some hyphens show up as em-dashes in firefox, not sure what the deal is there.
It just might be more difficult to design and bring a successful product to market than to write articles about something that sounds like a good product.
Part of "get stuff done" is that you manage yourself and communicate with your manager well enough to ensure you accomplish something of use to the team.
Interviewers should understand your contribution to the company isn't in your control, but your contribution to the team was.
The submitted headline editorializes, the Times article is neutral.
Following White's rules will do a good deal for those whose writing is not yet enjoyable to read.
Really, it's all about confidence in the delivery. When people ask "what do you do?" they're looking for a stereotype to fit you into. Take the opportunity to show them how they might be wrong.
Is the description 'Rails-like' used accurately here? Based on this article, it sounds like Quickly generates boilerplate code and a makefile. Rails is playing on a much higher level, allowing you to describe how the actual interface and data behaves.
This story looks like another attempt by Arrington to cast himself as an important person in tech.