Wouldn't the fact that the customer sends an SMS from their phone mean that you now have their phone number? How are you going to respond to the request without having their phone number?
Or is it not using SMS after all? Not sure that's clear from the presentation. The tag line says "Find and text any business in your area." The term "text" is generally synonymous with SMS. If that's not what this is you may want to change the wording.
There's a lot less stigma attached when it's a (relatively) anonymous forum, when you're not face-to-face with the people responding, when you have a large support group because people who understand and care find YOU (via your headline) rather than you having to find them, and when someone who responds in a negative way is likely to get downvoted and called an asshole.
There are probably still people on HN who respond negatively to an admission of depression, but they're (wisely) keeping quiet.
That only partially makes sense. For comments/suggestions found on HN that have potential side effects, absolutely take them with a grain of salt and consult a professional... i.e. medication, psychedelics, etc.
But for some of the suggestions, the advice is fantastic. Exercise more? Eat healthier foods at regular intervals? Practice positive thinking about the world and your life? Any one of them could help. ALL of them could help. And they can't hurt. Take every piece of "no-strings-attached" advice you can... and then ALSO consult a professional.
I'm assuming this is on the CR48? So this means there is a built-in terminal system? I was wondering about that, if they'd allow you past the browser front-end or not.
I applied yesterday (the day after the live launch event) from the Chrome OS page, and by that point they had a whole questionnaire to fill out about your internet habits and what software you typically use and stuff like that. Maybe the QR code mentioned earlier really was a shortcut of some sort.
Obviously things like the view out the window and the amenities in the neighborhood are not always the easiest to control, and have huge impact on the price and availability of an office. So I'll focus on the little things that make a huge difference for me at work.
- Coffee, tea, and good water available. I do like taking breaks at times to run out to the coffee shop, but sometimes I just don't have time or energy or money, and being able to step into the kitchen and get what I need is great.
- Full spectrum "natural" lighting. I'm lucky that my office has tons of windows and a view, but when it gets dark or when I'm working on something detailed at my desk, a good full spectrum light is really important both for accurate color and just to be nice to my eyes.
- Dual computer monitors. I suppose this is a bit subjective but I go insane if I don't have a second monitor (doesn't have to be anything special, mine's just a small square) to put things like email and music and reference documents on while I work.
- Refrigerator space. I try to bring lunch most of the week instead of eating out, and more often than not it's leftovers from dinner with other random things thrown in... being able to just toss it in the fridge in the morning is great.
- A comfortable desk chair. I don't know about the $1200 chair (I certainly couldn't afford one at this point) but make sure it won't hurt your back after sitting for a long time.
I've got a slightly different angle of approach to this than most others.
First, it sounds like a lot of people here are far more expert about alcoholism than I am, so I won't touch on that part, except to say it sounds like a legitimate concern that should be watched carefully.
To me it seems more important to look at what you're actually concerned about.
You're bothered that you want to relax (beer may not be the best method, but that's what you're using it for) and spend time with your wife.
It sounds like WORK is what you're more addicted to... or at least the idea of work. Now, I work a lot of hours myself between regular job and my own endeavors at home, and I won't ever try to say that's a bad thing in and of itself. But, assuming that your senior leadership role pays the bills comfortably (or at least your share of them, if your wife also works), what that means is that you're making a conscious choice that work and personal accomplishment is more important than comfort and relaxation and time with your family.
Be careful when you read that last sentence... I don't mean to suggest that you don't ACTUALLY spend enough time relaxing or being with your family; obviously I don't know enough of your life to judge that. But what I mean is that you BELIEVE you should be working rather than doing that, and so even when you are sitting on the couch with your wife and a beer, you're stressed out because you feel like you should be somewhere else. That stress leads to the need to drink, which leads to less ability to do the work, which leads to additional stress, which leads to additional need to drink, and so on.
I certainly understand the need to create something of your own outside of work, whether it's art or music or a business or a racecar or whatever. But maybe it would be better to take a vacation from that, and allow yourself some time where the only goal is to drink beer on the couch with your wife. If you set yourself a goal such as "For two weeks I don't WANT to do any entrepreneurial work at home", then you'll never feel like you're failing at something because this is designated time off. That in turn could take the edge off your stress level, which could reduce your need to drink, which could improve your productivity, and the cycle reverses itself.
I would highly recommend talking to a patent attorney or someone similar first. The fact that you built it on their time originally can throw all kinds of complications into the issue, especially if you didn't explicitly cover that in the contract.
There's a good chance you're fine to do that, but that's the kind of thing that can come back to bite you in the ass really quickly if you haven't looked into it.
I think the concept is a really good one... but I'm having a hard time understanding your implementation of it. Maybe you need an interactive example, or maybe you just need step-by-step usage models or something. But if I were going to add this as a service to my site I'd need to have a really clear grasp of what I would be doing on a daily basis to make use of it.
As others have said, the visual appearance of the site is very nice. If the content can match it for polish, I think you'd do well.
Obviously I don't know your personal situation, but in general I wouldn't assume that introversion = lack of social skills. If you are able to have quality relationships with the people you DO spend time with, then it's just a matter of being selective. If you find yourself completely unable to connect with the people you really like, then you may want to work on it. If it's just a matter of not feeling interested in spending time with tons of people, no big deal.
As long as the two operating systems aren't accessing the folder AT THE SAME TIME (which they won't be -- either you boot into Windows or into Linux), you shouldn't have any issues. Really, it would probably make life a lot easier to set up a third "data" partition that both access, and put all your stuff on that.
But anyway, back on topic: I'm using the free version (2GB) of Dropbox and, as others have said, it "just works." It's fast and easy and has been incredibly helpful for moving things between work and home, and for viewing files on my phone.
I took my 7-year-old son hiking a couple of weeks ago. He's very much a city kid, and has gotten far too used to constant technology and stimulation. I wanted to get him out in nature.
When we first started walking, he was annoyed and didn't want to be there. He shuffled along, staring at his feet, and kept whining "Can we go back yet?" (we'd gone maybe a quarter mile on flat grass when this started). I suggested he look up at the things around him instead of at his feet, because there's a lot of cool stuff to see. He glanced around, and nearly yelled, "No there ISN'T! There's just... this!"
A few minutes later an eagle flew by above us and I pointed it out, and suddenly he got excited. Then we saw a harmless snake in the path and chased it so he could see how it moved. Then we stopped and skipped rocks in the nearby river. By the time we made it back to the beginning of the trail an hour later, he was full of energy and running around, and yelling "Mom! Mom! Guess what? We saw an eagle, and a hawk, and three snakes, and there was a fish in the river..."
Walking down the street is very similar to that. There are all kinds of things to see around you that go unnoticed so much of the time. You could walk down that same street every day going to and from work, but chances are you're focused on what's at the end of it. Taking a walk with no specific purpose is a completely different animal. You have to find purpose along the way, so you start looking around you for interesting details. Maybe there's a cool bar tucked into the alley that you never saw. Maybe there's a crazy graffiti mural on the next block over that you can take pictures of. Maybe there's a hot girl at the bus stop with whom you can make friends. Maybe there's something as simple as a happy dog wagging his tail and smiling at you that could brighten your day.
You might find a fresh perspective on a small corner of your life... but once it starts it tends to spread quickly.
Or is it not using SMS after all? Not sure that's clear from the presentation. The tag line says "Find and text any business in your area." The term "text" is generally synonymous with SMS. If that's not what this is you may want to change the wording.