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Showoff

showoff.io

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Re: Showoff

#31

Post by bobwaycott »

senex wrote: post #16
mtogo wrote: post #5

Why would i use this over a VPS? A VPS is a similar price and has similar functionality, but doesn't pose a security risk to my home workstation and comes with a slew of other benefits. The tech looks reasonably cool, but what is the use case? EDIT: Your site also makes it sound like it is HTTP(S) only. If it's not, you might want to clarify that.

Thanks for bringing HTTPS up, that's another good use-case for Showoff. If you're developing a web app that needs to be tested with HTTPS and don't want to mess with creating a self-signed cert, Showoff can help you out. It's also really nice for testing web hooks or API callback URLs against a local web server (e.g. ecommerce sites with IPN, &c). If you sign up for an unlimited account, you can choose a permanent UR…

The latter feature is a pretty big deal, imo.

Working independently on a project or projects with distinct clients who either need or want to give input/feedback on feature development can be greatly alleviated: work up a quick prototype, show off from my local dev machine (never have to touch a server), call/IM my-name.showoff.io, and they get to see it right away, in the same medium they will eventually be using it. This is so much nicer than sending a wireframe or design of a feature.

The long-term benefit is that the my-name.showoff.io URL can be pretty easy to recall & reuse for any number of clients & features.

Re: Showoff

#32

Post by thomasdavis »

Man, the whole site was a pleasant experience to browse. I was browsing it because it was just fun to.

The idea is perfect and I encounter this problem daily and always too lazy to bother setting up a dynamic dns.

Signing up for an unlimited plan right now.

Well done.

Re: Showoff

#33

Post by chapel »

PanosJee wrote: post #30
chapel wrote: post #26

At first I thought this was Ruby based since it was installed via gem, but at the footer it says it is built using Node.js. This is a fine example of the power of Node.js as well as the versatility. On a side note, this reminds me that isaacs (creator of npm) has pushed npm to be for development and not for deploying to end users. Hence using gem instead of npm.

Node is a network library and you can easily create a TCP server. That s all. On the other hand ruby is great for writing scripts and nice DSLs so the whole concept is implemented very nicely.

Node.js is more than a network library, but you are right it is easy to create a TCP server. I have created many scripts using Node.js and I am not the only one.

Re: Showoff

#34

Post by gregschlom »

jsdalton wrote: post #23

Awesome. I'm definitely a potential paying customer. Two suggestions and a question: * How about a free trial for unlimited access or some other kind of cancellation guarantee? * Minor one, but the dark contrast on your website UI is about equivalent to the background on a typical lightbox...i.e. it reads "disabled" to me on first glance. One question: I assume I could map a CNAME record to the showoff URL? (So cooki…

I second the dark contrast point. My first reaction on the site was "omg, what can I do to put some color and some life here".

I even tried playing with the bookmarks on the top right corner to see if they would light up the site.

Re: Showoff

#35

Post by chapel »

senex wrote: post #29
chapel wrote: post #26

At first I thought this was Ruby based since it was installed via gem, but at the footer it says it is built using Node.js. This is a fine example of the power of Node.js as well as the versatility. On a side note, this reminds me that isaacs (creator of npm) has pushed npm to be for development and not for deploying to end users. Hence using gem instead of npm.

We're planning to make more "normal" installation scenarios if we see good interest. Using gem was a quick way for us to get the idea out.

I like the idea, and had you not have used Node.js I was going to spend a few hours and create a clone using Node.js since it would be that easy. Mind you not that easy if I were to match your level of service and the site. Hope it has a lot of success.

Re: Showoff

#36

Post by dholowiski »

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.

Re: Showoff

#38

Post by pixeloution »

I've got MAMP Pro running on my notebook and have a half-dozen "local" urls ( only valid URLS for me ) - is there a way to point this service at those URLS in addition to localhost?

Re: Showoff

#39

Post by pstack »

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 fantastic. This is one of those things that is so elegant and smart that it makes me feel like a complete idiot.

This is going to do very well.

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