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Re:Ask HN: How do you deal with the isolation of telecommuting? on Thursday December 01, 2011 @06:59PM (#3302040)
I think mzbridget and krsgoss make sensible suggestions elsehwere in the comments. On the topic of work/life balance, I'd add: try your hardest to "close the door" on your workspace when you've finished for the day. If you have a home office and can do this literally, then even better.

On the topic of having the same routine as if you worked in an office, I heard somebody once say that they left the house before work and walked round the block, rain or shine, to simulate a morning commute. They said it helped create the mindset mzbridget mentions (point 1).

Re:Tell HN: I work 3 hours a day and I am proud and productive on Tuesday November 15, 2011 @07:12PM (#3241029)
I think this might be the one you're talking about: http://calnewport.com/blog/2011/11/11/if-youre-busy-youre-do...

HN discussion from a few days ago here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3222725

That's a very good point well put. "Simple account" might even be a description of the level of account you have, causing further confusion.
Re:BankSimple invites first customers; rebrands itself as Simple on Tuesday November 08, 2011 @11:56AM (#3211524)
Many banks in the UK are referred to, and understood, in everyday language without the "bank": Barclays, Halifax, Natwest, Santander, Lloyds to name a few.
> Not sure if it is possible to share documents with non-GMail email addresses on GDocs, which would be a must.

This is possible. You can set a document to be visible to anyone with the link, so sign-in isn't requred. More info here:

https://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answ...

Re:Castle.so - Upload and share your files, beautifully on Wednesday November 02, 2011 @07:38PM (#3189441)
Clickable: http://castle.so
I imagine these is already on your radar, but it seems appropriate at this point to link to two of the 1000 True Fans essays from a few years ago.

Original -- http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/03/1000_true_fan...

Followup -- http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/04/the_case_agai...

This is the full Ofcom report (pdf): http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/research/telecoms-...

Another interesting nugget from the summary: "Mobile broadband data volumes are now significant, at an average of 240MB/month for each 3G connection." (p. 2)

Re:Whats the best way to track success of ad campaigns? on Wednesday November 02, 2011 @07:00AM (#3186120)
Why does Google Analytics not meet your needs? Rather than creating different landing pages, have you tried tagging the links in the ads using Google's URL builder [0] and then using Goals and Funnels in Analytics to track conversions?

[0] http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/bin/answer.py?...

Re:Gmail’s new look on Tuesday November 01, 2011 @02:29PM (#3183412)
Settings > Themes
Re:The Ruby Reading List on Tuesday November 01, 2011 @02:11PM (#3183318)
My first two steps: I started from nothing with Pine's Learn to Program, and then moved on to Learn Ruby the Hard Way.

http://ruby.learncodethehardway.org/

After you've got the basics, the best way to learn is to have a problem to solve or need to address. About halfway through LRTHW I started making notes on little programs I could try to build once I'd finished the course. None were very original: a custom contacts book, a script that scraped football scores and added them to a text file, a simple single-serving website that told me the weather for my area. My learning spiralled out from there.

Finally, this is an online version of the famous Pickaxe book, which I found to be a good reference. I wouldn't recommend it as a first port of call if you're new to programming, but once the terminology (object, class, method, variable etc) has sunk in it's useful for looking things up.

http://ruby-doc.org/docs/ProgrammingRuby/

Have fun!

Re:Show HN: I launched my first solo side project on Monday October 31, 2011 @11:52AM (#3177798)
Updating a spreadsheet with quantities of desk lamps and keyboards sounds painfully familiar.

I would target businesses. Here's something to consider. With a home user, you first have to convince the potential customer of the benefits of keeping an inventory. Then you have to persuade them to use your service over a competing one, or a spreadsheet, or pen and paper. Then you have to convince them to pay you for your service, presumably, at some point in the future.

Keeping an inventory is already an established practice for businesses, so that first home user hurdle is cleared. You just have the remaining two: explaining why iKeepm is better than struggling with a spreadsheet (photos and reports are two features that spring to mind for me straight away) and getting people to pay. My hunch is that businesses, already persuaded of the need to keep an inventory, would be more ready to pay than home users.

Re:Show HN: I launched my first solo side project on Monday October 31, 2011 @10:35AM (#3177473)
Congratulations. I think this is a neat little service. I could certainly see a market outside the domestic one, too. I've worked for small businesses and public sector organisations where maintaining an inventory of office equipment was necessary not just for insurance, but also for funding and auditing purposes.

Best of luck.

Re:Show HN: Walkbase, room-level context for your apps. on Wednesday October 19, 2011 @04:28PM (#3131912)
Re:Modern HTML Presentations with deck.js on Sunday October 16, 2011 @09:55AM (#3117321)
Previously on HN (54 days ago, 62 comments): http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2916352
Re:Ask HN: What do you wish had SMS alerts for? on Sunday October 16, 2011 @04:20AM (#3116851)
> Would be cool to have a basic SMS altert app that can connect to many web services.

Try http://ifttt.com

You might find this article, "Considerations on Exchange Rate Data Providers", useful: http://www.currencysystem.com/kb/13-143

It's from the website of the Cloanto system and has some ideas on publicly available FX feeds.

Re:Ask HN: critique my blog? on Wednesday October 12, 2011 @03:29PM (#3104150)
I like it. I am a big fan of simple, straightforward webdesign that focuses on content.

Without looking at your source code, my only quibble is: remove the underlining from "posts". Everything else on the page that's underlined is a link, and that isn't.

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