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Showoff

showoff.io

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Re: Showoff

#191

Post by ChuckMcM »

HerraBRE wrote: post #184
ChuckMcM wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm, I also think you need a new name. 'Showoff' says exactly what it does, lets you 'showoff' your work. What's a pagekite? (reminds of the 'mint' vs that unpronouncablely named finance site naming issue). I'm an ops guy, lets say I want to give access to my next generation product to a usability lab for feedback. Can you imagine what that whole experience would feel like? I'll want some reporting of when the site w…

Regarding the name, I actually think PageKite is an excellent name and we are lucky to have it. It's googlable, we got the .com for cheap, it's a strong trademark. If I draw you a picture of your site flying like a kite in the clouds, connected by a string to your laptop, you'll find the name is a perfect fit... :-) Admittedly, I do need to get that picture drawn. Regarding the technical side, you do get all those th…

HerraBRE you need to internalize this:

"Some you get by collecting your own server logs, ..."

When I say 'internalize' I mean you need to shift your perspective mentally from 'techie' to 'customer.'

Anything you can do for the customer, by default, you should do for the customer. A successful product starts "click here", "use now". Leave the 'collect your own logs' as a thing you can do if you want to, but not you have to. And don't get hung up on this exact feature request, it is a mindset for every single feature.

You have no less than 10 comments in this single submission, and in seven of them you are explaining why someone who is a potential customer is wrong about what they are asking for. That is a pretty strong signal, and one you ignore at your peril.

Re: Showoff

#192

Post by 18pfsmt »

phlux wrote: post #171
maratd wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, like, the cheapo dd-wrt router is always on, always connected to the internet, at your home/office. You set up your domain to point to it. You VPN to it from your Java Jungle. On Windows/Mac it's a simple as clicking a few buttons. On Linux, a single command at the prompt. That's it. You're done. The router routes the traffic to your lappie via the VPN. On top of that, you're using your own domain, which is more…

This is all true, and I am sure a lot of us on HN do such things. But a fresh designer type prolly hasn't/won't. There is nothing wrong with your method, except that it is longer than "Step one."

Wow. I'm glad you said that. I've got experience with networks, but I can't design or code (I have utilized plenty of templates, libraries, and shell scripts written by others, but I'm not much of a creator). I simply looked over this segment of the populace. It's still a niche, and any criticism I've leveled in this thread is in the hope that they create better clients or an API for their service to make it more accessible, as it is too technocal still to make a difference outside of semi-technical people.

This could be a great step forward in helping peopole understand, and take responsibility for their online presence.

Re: Showoff

#193

Post by Jimmyjacobson »

phlux wrote: post #159
maratd wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Err... what? If you're even a half-serious developer, you're going to have a static IP or something like dyndns. You're also going to have your own domain, VPN, and port forwarding. Setting this up on your own network is trivial. You can use it no matter where you are, so long as you have internet. Just buy a cheapo router that supports DD-WRT, set up dyndns, and you're good to go. Seriously. I get it that some peopl…

>If you're even a half-serious developer, you're going to have a static IP or something like dyndns. You're also going to have your own domain, VPN, and port forwarding. Setting this up on your own network is trivial. You can use it no matter where you are, so long as you have internet. Just buy a cheapo router that supports DD-WRT, set up dyndns, and you're good to go. Um, Assume none of the above - and instead assu…

If it's a static site, copy it into your dropbox public directory and share the public link.

Re: Showoff

#194

Post by bobwaycott »

seats wrote: post #190

Here's the one question/problem I see- How often do you really want to show someone something badly enough that you are willing to block your local dev environment to do so? I could see it working if you are interactively talking to someone in chat, but over email, often times you could be waiting hours for someone to actually try out what you want them to see. You could certainly get around this by setting up a sepa…

The thought of helping a dev run my code in his/her environment, or moving it out via git push/pull to one of my dev servers (a process that takes but a minute or so when I'm being really slow) decreases in attractiveness the longer I have been working on feature/fix X is. Even within our organization, few devs work on the same project, but sometimes I want someone's thoughts/opinions/suggestions. Some of the devs are in the office, some aren't. Whether they are or not, the fact that I am the only one who has been working on feature/fix X for the last couple weeks means another dev is nowhere close to being able to just run my project as quickly as I can show it off.

Sometimes I want to be able to help a client see a quick implementation of something in a local clone of their live site to show them that their suggestion for feature/fix X isn't such a great idea (like I tried to tell them when they asked for it).

I want to block my development when needing to show something off for as short a period as possible. The time & friction of firing off `show` (or whatever local variant I might be using, like any of the others mentioned in these comments (e.g., localtunnel)), is close to zero. This is time & friction to me, not them. No matter what process I follow, all they have to do is click a URL. Showoff offers me the shortest path from A to B.

Re: Showoff

#195

Post by maratd »

bobwaycott wrote: post #175
maratd wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Err... what? If you're even a half-serious developer, you're going to have a static IP or something like dyndns. You're also going to have your own domain, VPN, and port forwarding. Setting this up on your own network is trivial. You can use it no matter where you are, so long as you have internet. Just buy a cheapo router that supports DD-WRT, set up dyndns, and you're good to go. Seriously. I get it that some peopl…

No way. Having your own static IP can get very expensive. Dyndns is a horrific pita. Fiddling with routers is annoying. No serious developer is judged by a client on any of these things. And none I have ever worked with as an indie developer (like an $8 billion/yr company who depends on software I built every day) would ever care or even ask about any of those things. One's professionalism is not determined by these…

I get a block of 8 static IPs included with my service. Then again, I have an office and it's a business class connection. I pay $75 per month and get 25 down / 5 up.

Re: Showoff

#196

Post by bobwaycott »

progrium wrote: post #185
bobwaycott wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think there was ever an intention to obscure work, maliciously or otherwise. This project started because developers started developing, not googling or searching github. To be fair, the "fancy website" is a byproduct of designers who like to make stuff look good, and the rest of Showoff's team caring very much about not just making stuff that works (of which they make a lot, much of which is hidden away in o…

I guess I can't blame you for philosophical differences. Personally, I do a lot of research before investing my time in building something. Not only do I try to avoid NIH, but I prefer investing my time in clever and useful things not done before -- I tend to think I'm good at producing novel things. I suppose others doing something similar a year later and getting more attention comes with the territory. Now... open…

NIH is a willful decision to create something that already exists and is fully known to all interested parties, but summarily rejected on the basis that it is ... wait for it ... Not Invented Here. Sometimes, an identical result issues from identical circumstances wholly independently and honestly--leaving the world with nearly identical objects that attempt to solve an identical problem in an identical way.

Casually suggesting NIH can be an insult to the intellectual & creative abilities of a team. Sometimes it is warranted. Other times, it is not. I believe most guys and gals in the developer community are astute enough to ferret out NIH and ignore it.

P.S. On the other hand, you have a very impressive set of github repos. Kudos. You have successfully made me both care and jealous that I never get around to open-sourcing anything because I never feel like any side project is perfect enough to let others see (and because most of what I work on is closed-source for clients). Sad.

Re: Showoff

#197

Post by bobwaycott »

maratd wrote: post #195
bobwaycott wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No way. Having your own static IP can get very expensive. Dyndns is a horrific pita. Fiddling with routers is annoying. No serious developer is judged by a client on any of these things. And none I have ever worked with as an indie developer (like an $8 billion/yr company who depends on software I built every day) would ever care or even ask about any of those things. One's professionalism is not determined by these…

I get a block of 8 static IPs included with my service. Then again, I have an office and it's a business class connection. I pay $75 per month and get 25 down / 5 up.

I have 0 static IPs (that I am aware of) included with my service. Then again, I have a residential line and it's a fiber optic connection. I'm a bit cheap, so I pay $70 per month and get 50 down / 50 up.

:)

Re: Showoff

#198

Post by jethroalias97 »

arturadib wrote: post #142
pstack wrote: post #39

When I see new projects and ideas that take off, my response is usually a curmudgeonly observation about how stupid and pointless it is or how it's so obvious and trivial that I can't believe anyone would waste their time making it. This is not one of those. This is one of those cases where I'm not a bit jealous because something so obvious or inane or dumb took off and became Twitter, but because it's just so damn f…

Sorry, I don't quite get this. Why can't I just grab my public IP address from Whatismyip.com, and check the Web Sharing option under System Preferences on my Mac? (For Linux, simply fire up Apache; my guess is that most Linux users know how to do that).

I'm inclined to agree, currently I have ssh setup on my home machine and use dyndns which is free and pretty simple. Setting up a server would be equally simple for the technically inclined.

Re: Showoff

#199

Post by manveru »

senex wrote: post #149
ionfish wrote: post #41

The usability of the payments form is poor. It doesn't state which fields are required (if it's all of them, it should say so at the top). I understand not remembering the credit card number or CVN between requests, but it also forgets the expiry date, and the country. I had to resubmit several times because of this. Fortunately in my case I had the patience to go through it regardless, but given the amount of resear…

Thanks for the feedback! We'll tweak the payment form to make it more usable.

Is there any chance we'll be able to pay using Bitcoins or PayPal (preferably both)?

I don't have a credit card, so can't try it.

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