October 2013
Oct. 27, 2013
What are the most “New Yorkers” experiences you can do in London?
There’s a Shake Shack (legendary NY burger chain) in Covent Garden now.
[... 30 words]What exactly the error meaning client closed prematurely connection while sending to client from upstream in nginx?
I think it means that the connection to the user’s browser was lost before the request had been fully transferred—for example due to the user hitting the stop button in their browser or switching off their wifi connection.
[... 63 words]Why didn’t Apple release a gold (champagne) iPad?
According to John Gruber: http://daringfireball.net/2013/1...
[... 65 words]What are movie scenes where the hero hurtles from high-up to Earth and nearly dies, but is saved somehow?
You may find http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwik... relevant.
[... 31 words]Oct. 28, 2013
Which event gave you a real happiness?
The Maker Faire in California, and the Mini Maker Faire in Brighton, UK. The enthusiasm for making things for the sake of making things is delightful and infectious.
[... 41 words]What are some of the best offbeat attractions in London?
Camden Passage antiques market in Islington (near Angel tube) should be right up your street. It’s full of fascinating characters and intriguing shops, including bits and pieces of WWII memorabilia.
[... 46 words]Oct. 29, 2013
Why doesn’t Yelp require a login? Is there evidence that suggests that acquiring users at the engagement stage versus initial landing is effective in specific markets?
Unnecessarily requiring a login to browse is (in my opinion) dumb. It discourages people from sharing links to content on the surface and can prevent search engines from indexing content, both of which are terrible for SEO. It also puts a pointless barrier in front of people who are trying to figure out if your service is any use, and encourages fake signups which pointlessly pollute your user database.
[... 101 words]Do you need the feature in Dropbox mobile app that allows using the chosen files in offline mode? Why?
I use this all the time. It’s especially useful for travelling (when you’re abroad you often don’t have inexpensive cellular data or access to WiFi). I use it for:
[... 117 words]Are there more annual TED and TED-related conferences than there are days in the year?
According to http://www.ted.com/TEDx there were 245 community-run TEDx events in 61 countries in just the last month, so yes it’s safe to say there are considerably more annually than there are days in the year.
[... 57 words]What design techniques does Apple use in the introduction page of iPad Air?
Apple used the same technique on their Apple—Mac Pro page. I first saw this trick used on the BeerCamp at SXSW 2011 page.
[... 91 words]What are good topics for panel discussions?
Anything that’s controversial in your industry, especially if it’s a recent debate. Just make sure that your panelists disagree—there’s nothing more boring than a panel where everyone has exactly the same opinion.
[... 99 words]Will it ever be possible to know all the variables involving a specific chaotic event, like the lottery numbers?
IANAP (I Am Not A Physicist) but my understanding of Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle is that it is impossible to know both the exact position and the exact momentum of a particle at the same time. So no.
[... 62 words]Http://www.theacademyofbusinessstrategy.com? I’ve been contacted by this ABS to pursue some kind of degree leading to lots of money. It definitely looks like a scam, but is it? Has anyone actually done business with them? Are they legit?
When this exact same question was asked on Yahoo Answers a couple of months ago http://answers.yahoo.com/questio... someone showed up the same day with a very positive testimonial. I wonder if the same thing will happen here on Quora.
[... 82 words]Oct. 30, 2013
What are most important websites, online sources of knowledge and news for startups?
Hacker News is still the best starting point, which is pretty impressive considering how long the community has been around.
[... 41 words]Is it possible to run a successful company without being unethical or operating on the fringes of the law?
There is nothing inherently unethical about entrepreneurship. Find a problem people have. Figure out how much money solving it will save them (or help them make). Charge them less than that.
[... 108 words]What is the Hacker News technology stack?
It’s written in Arc, a Lisp variant created by Paul Graham. I believe it uses the file system for storage rather than a dedicated database.
[... 70 words]For a 2-day developer conference in SF, which two days of the week are best?
It depends on the topic and the audience.
[... 111 words]How was FriendFeed’s schema less db faster than pure MySQL?
The principle reason they switched to a schemaless DB was to work around the challenges of having to make schemes changes in MySQL, which can lock the table and take hours if bit days to complete in large tables.
[... 115 words]Should I ever use GIF image format for non animated elements?
These days probably not—anything non-animated that you would use a GIF for is generally better as a PNG.
[... 37 words]Can I promote an online/virtual/ webinar event through Meetup?
No. That’s specifically mentioned as something Meetup should not be used for in their community guidelines: Meetup’s Community Guidelines
[... 54 words]Oct. 31, 2013
Is it common a Silicon Valley startup give employee free shares, or just option to purchase shares?
The problem with giving people shares outright is that they have to pay tax on them. If the company later goes bust (as many do) and the shares hence prove to be worthless, the employee has paid tax on something that has no actual value.
[... 147 words]My contract with web developer says a) she will create a unique description for each page, AND b) that she is not responsible for writing or inputting any content. Now she wants me to compose the page descriptions, citing (b). What do you think? Edit...
You should write the copy. Copy is important—you don’t want it to be written by someone who believes it isn’t even their responsibility, and will hence probably do a poor job of it.
[... 93 words]