Ask HN: Can I help you be more awesome today? (No strings.)

Every once in a while, I like to offer my time to help other passionate people be a little more successful with their goals. If there's anything I can help you with, just ask here. No strings whatsoever. I've done this before a few times now, and it's worked out well for everyone. Check out some of the previous "No strings" sessions I've done to get an idea of how I can help. (http://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=mikegreenberg)

A few requests: Be specific about what you're trying to fix/solve/accomplish. The more details you provide, the better I can help you out. I will try to help all requests made before the end of today and will attempt to complete by the end of Sunday. Be patient and check back. Please keep requests to tasks I can do in ~15 minutes. I'll spend more time willingly, but smaller requests lets me help more people! Thanks. :)

An idea of some of the things I've helped others with recently:

- Led an interview for a non-technical entrepreneur looking for a tech co-founder

- Advising two startups-to-be who currently have no technical lead (pro bono)

- Helping my dad how to use the internet to teach his skills to others

- Regular feedback on projects that people are working on in my local community

I feel like I should do something a little special for this one since its the holidays. So the person (other than me) who helps "most generously" in this thread will get a copy of Eric Ries "The Lean Startup" shipped to them from Amazon. (If you already own the book, I'm happy to substitute it.) This will be subjectively chosen by me, but I think you all know how to be generous. I'll use any information in your profile I can find to contact you for delivery info. If I can't contact you, I'll broadcast on Twitter (@mikegreenberg) to try to reach you there. If you're not listening and I can't reach you, I pick someone else.

Cheers!! (And happy holidays!)

PS: If you'd rather give than receive: Go find someone else to do something nice for...like give them a back rub. Or leave your $0.02 for someone in this thread.

PPS: If this sounds too good to be true, here are some of my thoughts on why I do this: http://nobulb.com/2011/10/on-manufacturing-your-own-serendipity/

I have a product that will be completed soon. I do not plan on selling this product through my site, but I do want to drive traffic there before and after release. I have kept myself socially detached on the Internet in the past and I do not have a Facebook and only recently embraced Twitter and G+. I am slowly trying to build a brand around my name so that I might have traffic for future products.

Since launching my site, I have been working on learning HTML/CSS and it has slowly come together between work, school and children. Now I am venturing into the world of PHP. I built a little script that I use for people to register for my newsletter. It is driven by a form with one text box and a submit button. It takes whatever is in that box, throws it in a flat file, then redirects to a thanks page.

I like working with flat files, I always have, but I am currently up against a wall where I either need to dive deeper into PHP or look into a service like MailChimp. What I need to know:

I'd like for there to be more feedback to both the user and myself that their submission was okay. I'd like to generate a subscription email that is sent after the completion of the form which would also CC me. I am really not interested in a service that convolutes this process if it is something I can manage myself. What do you recommend? If you say PHP is the answer, are there any resources out there that you suggest that would put me on the right path?

I need an idea for an Individual Project Proposal.

Details: Studying Business Information Systems -- this is Database oriented at the moment but also includes Decision Support Systems and Artificial Intelligence next year. I'm also becoming interested in programming and web scripting although the idea of a web site was not approved by my tutor. I want to do something with gaming or an app; something that I can easily learn. The project should be original or an improvement of a system/ combines existing technology to create something useful.

Thanks a lot!!

I really appreciate what you are doing here Mike. I need some guidance from you and others who might read this.

I run a small consulting start-up in India. We are just 2 full time developers (includes me).

We make web apps (all in PHP, I know many hate PHP but it works for us so far) for clients based on their requirements. But growth and earnings are slow.

I am considering getting into making products and focus more on them.

Problem 1) I am not a tech wizard or genius. btw how important it is for a tech founder to be a kick-ass ninja techie ? Problem 2) we would have to take up a little consulting work on the side to at least feed/sustain ourselves. I have no idea how this would affect our product development work. Problem 3) I read how products fail because of bad UX/design. Well, you might have guessed it, I am no godsend designer as well.

Thanks to the consulting work, I know some pain points in a couple of industries and I believe I can come up with some good products.

I know I have shortcomings. I am willing to work. Problem is that there are so many things to do and choice is overwhelming. And I do not want to just keep learning and not doing anything.

I would like some pointers from you like what are the things I need to consider, learn, unlearn, ignore etc. How can we make ourselves reasonably better poised to be successful at what we wish to do?