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Showoff

showoff.io

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Re: Showoff

#171

Post by phlux »

maratd wrote: post #167
phlux wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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…

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."

Re: Showoff

#172

Post by bobwaycott »

dools wrote: post #166

I'd much rather be able to do this over an SSH port forward than having to install a Ruby gem. I think the http://browserling.com/ guys are working on a solution where you can proxy your local web server over an SSH tunnel for previewing your website in multiple browsers without deploying it.

That is exactly what this is. Ruby is merely an elegant wrapper. Installing a gem is quite lower in frictional value than setting up the proper tunnels (especially if you don't already know how).

To each his own. :)

Re: Showoff

#173

Post by dedward »

182446 wrote: post #158
lukeschlather wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can still just use an SSH tunnel on your VPS... no committing/pushing required.

Can you explain how? I am a newbie to web development. I have been making sites locally on my machine and using heroku to deploy online. I am thinking of getting VPS hosting.

In the simplest case, something like:

ssh -R8000:127.0.0.1:80 my.vps.com

This will forward all connections to http://my.vps.com:8000/ to port 80 on your local machine.

Adjust ports as necessary.

Then you also have the VPS where you can actually host a copy of your app - but that's off-topic.

Re: Showoff

#174

Post by nfm »

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).

You'll often have NAT to deal with as well, and have to set up explicit port forwards to your local device (and give it a static IP address) in your routers.

Re: Showoff

#175

Post by bobwaycott »

maratd wrote: post #150
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…

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 things. I made a lot of money as a serious developer without any client caring or knowing if I had a domain, static IP, etc. But I made stuff work, and that's all that ever matters.

Re: Showoff

#176

Post by HerraBRE »

bobwaycott wrote: post #168
progrium wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I care about my work and it being used and contributed to if people are interested in it. I don't care about money, which is why it's open source and run as a free service. My code is MIT and I would love it if people took my code and made a pay-for service like this with it... but instead, they (to be fair, probably unknowingly) duplicate effort and obscure my work. If a fancy website is all I need, I guess that's w…

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 totally agree, this thread is probably the best exposure any of our projects (I'm the PageKite guy) could ask for.

The idea is clearly communicated, pros and cons and alternatives discussed... and now it's a tiny bit easier to explain to people what we are doing.

Hats off to the Showoff team for a job well done! :-)

Re: Showoff

#177

Post by bobwaycott »

gridspy wrote: post #161
dholowiski wrote: post #36

Wow that's brilliant. I'm definetley a potential paying customer. That's cheaper than spinning up an Amazon EC2 micro instance to develop on at $5 a month. I'm not a big fan of dark gray background with darker gray text though.

The advantage of Amazon EC2 is that it doesn't go down when your laptop turns off.

Conversely, the advantage of Showoff and its kind is that it does go down when my laptop turns off.

Re: Showoff

#179

Post by bobwaycott »

sarenji wrote: post #106

Genuinely curious: Could anyone tell me what the difference is between showoff and localtunnel[1], aside from a payment plan? Great looking site, by the way, but I keep bracing for a JavaScript popup with the page so dark. [1]: https://github.com/progrium/localtunnel/

The payment plan provides easy named URLs at showoff.io currently. This is the first minimally viable version. More features are forthcoming.

Re: Showoff

#180

Post by ChuckMcM »

HerraBRE wrote: post #103
andrewheins wrote: post #56

I was looking for exactly this service a few weeks ago and would be a paying customer, but I develop on Windows. A future market, if you're interested.

Check out http://pagekite.net/ , it's Python and it runs on Windows just fine. We are working on a user-friendly installer and GUI, but if you're a developer you don't need that. :-)

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 was used and what was done.

I'll want full cookie transparency so that the user experience will be 'real' but not require the developers to do anything special to get there.

I'll want to know that I can turn it off pretty much instantly if I think there is a problem.

That is perhaps a product that is orthogonal to the 'put a demo page up' kind of thing though.

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