I think that the approach is great given the fact that so many people go to chatroulette and end up looking at pervs. The filtering system can definitely give you the edge.
One thing I did not like was that upon visiting it immediately asked me to share my camera and mic. Perhaps a better front page with a lot more explanation (graphics can help) that would lead you to the 'chat' screen?
I can see the simplicity and I am up for it but a lot of people will think twice to click accept (for camera and mic) if this is the first thing that they are asked to do on a website.
Won't people understand the system doesn't connect you to anyone unless you click 'search'? Because if they do understand, why wouldn't they want to share their camera and mic?
Strangely enough this was the sentiment at Google. I was talking to a Googler in a recent GTUG meeting and they told me exactly that: Some people won't change browsers but they are OK with installing a plugin.
Perhaps I am old school but I cannot understand what your application does.
A brief description other than "Post your content on the web" would be nice. Additionally when you want people to send an email to you, you might want to have a Privacy Policy link to state what you will do with the email addresses that you will collect.
There are ample examples on the Internet on how hackers manage to exploit one vulnerability, obtain a password, and then cause all sorts of damage since people tend to use the same password almost everywhere.
Getting someone's information and exploiting it has become so easy with social networking, it is frightening. This article http://l.niden.net/identitytheft demonstrates how someone can use your social circle to steal your identity. It is definitely not a far fetched story - it is reality and most people seem to ignore it.
Let us not forget the debacle of Rock You (http://l.niden.net/rockyou-cleartextpasswords) where they were storing passwords in clear text. Once the hacker got in, he had everyone's password for that service and for many others I'm sure.
I would be very interested to see what is the percentage of Facebook users that use passwords like: 'password', '123456', 'letmein' etc. I know my brother in law was one of them....
I wonder if any people from that 75% have heard of services like LastPass? (http://lastpass.com).
I have been using the Encrypted search ever since they announced it and have not seen any delay whatsoever. I have also used it in numerous locations over wifi and wired networks - still no delay.
If you do not ask you will never get. That is what you should be thinking all the time.
Your boss will not give you money just because you are a good guy (or girl). They will always try to maximize their fortune and not yours. Sure you will get a raise at some point to address inflation but that will come as late as possible.
What I have done in the past was a long term one and not a 30 minute conversation. I would throughout the course of the year, send emails to my boss outlining my achievements of that period. So for instance if I managed to upgrade X servers to save the company money, I would send an email at the end of the task outlining that. This would be ammunition for me later on to ensure that my request is not seen as unreasonable.
When the time comes to ask for the raise I was printing the emails and started discussing the matter with my boss. 9 out of 10 the boss would not remember half of the things that I had done throughout the year. I would let him/her tell me first what they thought regarding a raise. I would approach it as "What do you think I am worth here - what is my value to this company". To this day it has worked wonders since only once I got an offer less than what I wanted.
Finally you will need to have an accurate picture of the company's financial position before you do that. You cannot ask for a raise when the company is in trouble. If that is the case then you should be looking for another job.
A very good piece of advice is from yummyfajitas also as far as assessing your value.
Yeah. Most tech companies are facing an "uncertain economy" yet the execs are still paying themselves $300k/yr cash and as-much-as-possible w/ options/RSUs. If you are talented, you can negotiate. Many people in senior management are insecure, they know they are overpaid, and need people that can actually produce, to help them hold their position.
I don't want to sound like a financial advisor because I am not. Your financials are different than mine but I hope that the below can allow you to relate so as to choose the best strategy for you.
My approach is a bit more traditional. I take each salary as the static factor (i.e. I will not get a raise in the future). This way if I get more money later on that would be a good surprise, otherwise I have my plan set.
The key factor for you at the moment is to get out of debt - all debt. I sat down and wrote my income. Then from that I subtracted the necessary expenses i.e. rent, utilities, transportation etc. I also subtracted a relatively small amount for food allowing a bare minimum of eating out and socializing. I cut all unecessary expenses and then paid the bare minimum on all of my loans and whatever was left was the money that I could spend on anything. Let's assume for a moment that this amount was $500.
I then opened a savings account and put that $500 there. I did the same thing for the next 3 months until I ended up with $1500. That money served as the immediate emergency fund. The number is arbitrary and I have since increased it to $2000. Your interpretation will depend on your own situation.
Say you had a problem with the car, unexpected expenses etc. - that is the fund that would help you get out of a very unpleasant situation later on. So if you needed say $200 for a car repair you could get it from there but you would replenish that amount as soon as you can. The emergency fund would need to have $1500 at all times. This gives you also a sense of accomplishment and security.
Once I had that done, I started attacking all the credit cards and loans. I started with the first one, the one that had the lowest amount. Once I paid that off, I went to the next one, the next one etc. Once everything was gone, I made sure that whatever I would spend I would be able to pay it off the next month. This way I would never pay any APR and would use my money for myself.
The next step would be to set up a 401K. A Roth IRA would be a nice place to start and you can choose a conservative strategy to minimize your risk. After this is set up, you will need to start setting a long term emergency fund. This would help you in the chance you lose your job and have nothing. Some people set aside 3-6 months of pay to help with any layoff. If this is set up, you will be able to pay your bills for 3-6 months and have a bit of time to find another job.
My point is that you cannot rely on the future since you do not know what will happen. Work with what you have today and you will be better off in the future.
I am better versed in the investment area than in the personal debt area, so I will let others speak to that. But a couple of thoughts on the investments front:
1. In many ways it is about time horizon. If you are sure that you will not need access to the funds in the short term (conservatively, in the next 10 years) then you can invest in high risk vehicles. But remember, this is not necessarily because the funds are in a 401(k) or IRA account where there is a large early withdrawal penalty, but also because high risk instruments could have fallen greatly in value at the time you need the funds, and if you have to withdraw them at that time you’re forced to take a large loss.
2. If you think you have a long time horizon make sure to do the math to actually be sure - ndimopoulos’s advice above about having an emergency fund is good.
3. If you have a long time horizon, there is no need to discount 401 K plans and IRA plans. Tax-free growth, or tax deferred growth as depending on which flavor you choose, is an amazing thing.
4. If you’re really interested in extremely risky investments in an effort to expose yourself to the largest upside, there’s been some recent work around lifecycle investing where some relatively well respected academics are proposing a model that includes some small amount of leverage for folks who have a long time horizon and a large amount of risk tolerance. This will road, if you choose it, bears quite a bit of research before you start. Take a look (as a start) at http://www.amazon.com/Lifecycle-Investing-Audacious-Performa...
5. Remember that being rational with money is a lot easier when its not yours and when it’s not decreasing rapidly. It probably bears some effort on your behalf before jumping into any high risk investments to project yourself into the future and understand how you would feel if your life savings drop by 50% or even 80%. Make sure that you’re OK with this.
Just a couple of thoughts, hope this helps.
P.S. I am the cofounder of the recently launched YC Summer 2010 company FutureAdvisor. Our current product targets specifically optimizing an existing portfolio, so not much help in this situation, though this is definitely a scenario we hope to support in the future. Thanks for sharing your story, it helps us understand what folks might need out of a investing product.
(written with the aid of speech recognition, please excuse the occasional bewildering error)
Interesting article. I must admit that I was really disappointed when I read the news that Wave was going to be killed.
We have been used to Google's fast paced innovation. They do push the limit on what the browser can do (for instance in Wave) but as far as they are concerned that technology would not help their business model which like any other business is to make money.
As the article states, I would not be surprised if Wave technology is introduced in other Google products.
I am however disappointed that Wave was killed. I really loved that product :/
svnsync would synchronize the whole repository to the target location. That is OK if you want to keep a copy elsewhere. One of the solutions that I provided allows you to dump each version in turn which svnsync does not do.
Having written that, svnsync would definitely be another option to consider.
I think that the approach is great given the fact that so many people go to chatroulette and end up looking at pervs. The filtering system can definitely give you the edge.
One thing I did not like was that upon visiting it immediately asked me to share my camera and mic. Perhaps a better front page with a lot more explanation (graphics can help) that would lead you to the 'chat' screen?
I can see the simplicity and I am up for it but a lot of people will think twice to click accept (for camera and mic) if this is the first thing that they are asked to do on a website.
Good luck!