UPDATE 1: I was trying to be factual in the description of the code without getting too technical and without giving away too many details. What I was trying to say may have been open to misinterpretation as a result. I'm a practitioner (coder) with many years of experience. Writing research papers is just not something that I do. I.e., no interest and no time.
The design goal of the code was to provide good results quickly via a very user friendly API. The robustness and concept drift features were added to make the code easier to use, if that makes sense. Researchers tend to care about 0.0001% better accuracy at the cost of days of runtime on a GPU. I did not set out to compete with them in any way.
I do not work in a lab. I work in the real world. I wrote the code for a specific commercial application. But I can see uses in many other settings. I have not come across any open source libraries that are even close to what I wrote. They tend to be toolkits for machine learning experts.
Several have suggested testing the code against MNIST. Looking into it. I already know the results would be good but not great. I know I cannot compete with an expert using an existing toolkit. But I'll bet my code could easily beat a non-expert using another toolkit. Hope that clears things up.
I was in this type of situation once. I took the job and enjoyed being a contractor better than an employee. Just keep your eyes open and make the most of it.
Any programming test that takes over an hour to complete is highly suspect. If it took less than that to complete the code (you did not specify), then IMHO I can understand why they were expecting a more complete answer.
Regardless, my hunch is that your instincts are right about this one.
I took a serious look at it about a year ago. It felt like it still needed a lot of work before it could meet my needs. I put it aside and never looked back.
I suppose it depends on the application. Mine is in a compiled language. Hard to reverse engineer. If yours is in an interpreted language like Python, there might be a source code obfuscator that you can apply.
Do not underestimate the value of your expertise. Even if they had the source code, the chances of a paying customer becoming a competitor is low. Again, I suppose it depends on the application.
Mobile apps have the same chance of replacing websites as eBooks have of replacing printed books. At least in the near future. The reports of their demise are greatly exaggerated. In truth, eBooks and mobile apps are still a tiny fraction of the total markets, respectively. It is a lot easier for a new technology to exhibit rapid growth than it is to sustain it as it gains market share.
I did not see anything particularly funny in any of the photos in the home page, for starters. The quote on the right was cut-off for me. Don't expect more than 1280 pixel wide.
I agree that the wording appears to be lacking. It looks like a perfect case for A/B testing, too.
Here's an idea: show them one funny photo with a "Next" button. After they hit next three times or so, put up the email sign-up. All the text you need is "Funny Photos via email."
How do you sign up for the emails!? Did I miss something? If I did, almost all other folks will, too. Also, lose the link to classroom.ng - too confusing. Move it to the bottom of the page.
The database or the Docker file? Depends on the software, but locking down the database system is probably easy. I'll bet that is all you need. Locking down Docker is harder and makes less sense to me.
My application uses a secure HTTPS connection and does the decryption on its own. What this means is that the executable is useless to anybody else but that one enterprise customer.
I have had to think about the same issue. The best idea I got was to use a Docker image. The database can be created and maintained external to the Docker VM.
Not too long ago I read a story about independent sales consultants. I am pretty sure it was here on HN. The link was to an article. A national organization was also mentioned. I just did a quick search and found this article:
These are salesmen, not marketers. But there is no shortage of companies that will happily do your marketing for you, too.
Of course, these options are not inexpensive. My hunch is that they do not make financial sense for you. Your best bet might be to find a non-technical partner that wants to handle the sales/marketing side for you.
Sales is hard. Marketing is hard. Don't shortchange them.
The design goal of the code was to provide good results quickly via a very user friendly API. The robustness and concept drift features were added to make the code easier to use, if that makes sense. Researchers tend to care about 0.0001% better accuracy at the cost of days of runtime on a GPU. I did not set out to compete with them in any way.
I do not work in a lab. I work in the real world. I wrote the code for a specific commercial application. But I can see uses in many other settings. I have not come across any open source libraries that are even close to what I wrote. They tend to be toolkits for machine learning experts.
Several have suggested testing the code against MNIST. Looking into it. I already know the results would be good but not great. I know I cannot compete with an expert using an existing toolkit. But I'll bet my code could easily beat a non-expert using another toolkit. Hope that clears things up.