This looks really cool and I've definitely been feeling this pain. I've been building out a solution for myself on top of docker. What are the advantages of using coasts over docker?
Thanks for the kind words! We're collecting feedback over the next 1-2 weeks to prioritize the road map.
Is there anything that you would like to see?
A few things that are on our radar though:
- Support for more APIs out of the box. We've implemented a number of APIs that we've submitted for approval (including a bunch of google APIs). They should be added in the next few weeks.
- The ability to add your own API integrations via a simple form if we don't support them (both token based and OAuth APIs).
Long answer: As you may know, Samsung Health doesn't provide a public REST API. We are looking at different ways that we might be able to make that information available through the Google Fit API though (Samsung does allow their app to share data with Google Fit).
Everyone has trouble accepting criticism to some degree or another. I've found that with younger engineers this is some amount of imposter syndrome that can express itself in different ways. One way I've found to break through is to highlight all of the positive things I notice in a PR. Even if it's something that should be expected (eg. "Thanks for writing this test!") the positive re-enforcement helps with confidence and softens the blow when you do point out some areas for improvement.
Could you speak to security of information that I allow Slapdash to access? I'd be very interested in using this, but how do I know the sensitive information that I give you access to is secure?
I'm building a fitness tracker specifically for rock climbers using RFID in addition to the regular fitness tracker sensors (accelerometer, altimeter, etc). It started as a project to teach me lower level embedded programming (I do web dev for my day job). Since then it's expanded and we're actually testing it at a local rock climbing gym. If you're curious you can see a demo video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gnEAeMDKt8
I wish we could use NFC on an Apple watch. It would have saved a lot of trouble. Unfortunately the read range of NFC is too short to work on a climbing wall. The climbers wrist will sometimes be up 12+ inches away from the closest point on the wall. This was the challenge that I ran into with our first prototype.
As for moat, I think we have some patentable IP (another potential large cost to file for that patent) and because our model hinges on a relationship with the climbing gym, the big guys would have to establish a salesforce to sell into these gyms, which I think for the size of the market would not be worth it for them. If we can solidify a decent market share it would probably be more likely that they'd try to buy us out rather than fighting for those relationships, but I'm not certain about that.
I use a Trello board for my 10 year goals. Lists are:
1. Primary Goals
2. Secondary Goals
3. Immediate Goals
5. To-do this week
6. Daily
I started it at the end of 2015 so there's a card in primary goals list for each major thing that I would like to have accomplished (or just continued to do) by the end of 2025. Each primary goal gets its own label and a checklist of what specifically accomplishing that goal means to me.
Secondary and immediate goals are how I broke down the bigger goals into smaller, more manageable parts. For example, one of my primary goals is "Health." So a secondary goal might be "rock climb twice per week" or "research ways to improve my memory". Every card in every list has a label/labels that relate them back to a primary goal.
The weekly and daily todos further break everything down into things that I can focus on in the next day or week.
Here's what I learned:
- For all of 2016 (the first year) I would update this Trello board religiously every day with my weekly and daily todos. I found that I actually didn't enjoy doing this. While things were getting done, they didn't seem to be things that were that important or impactful. I stopped doing this so I could completely cut out those last two lists. Now I re-visit the board every so often when I feel like I need a reminder or what past-me thought was important. Sometimes I update the primary goals (I've only added to this once and never removed from it) and more frequently I'll decide that a secondary or immediate goal didn't make sense so I'll get rid of it or add a new one. The whole process is much more free form and I think that works better for me.
- One of my mantras that has come out of this exercise has been "don't do something for just one reason." The things that I tend to enjoy and accomplish successfully are ones that have multiple primary goal labels on them. Sometimes they only have a loose relation or benefit but it's still more compelling to me because if it turns out one of the benefits doesn't work out the way I planned then there's still a reason to be doing this thing for another reason.
Still an ongoing experiment but I'm generally happy that I'm doing it.
I think many of these problems are general start-up problems. I've tried to start several companies as a solo founder and the unique challenge to going it alone that I've found is dealing with the ups and downs. When you have another partner you get some natural balance. Someone to pump you up when things aren't going well and someone to set realistic expectations when you think nothing could go wrong.
I always go for the product specific subreddits. Right now I'm working on a fitness tracker for rock climbers, so I picked r/climbing and r/bouldering. So I think it depends on what you're trying to share.
I used to work for a coding bootcamp (not Flatiron) and made good money with a month off in between each of the three classes I taught each year. I eventually left because it felt like I was complicit in selling a lie. I totally agree with the article. Students graduating from a bootcamp are definitely not "job ready" without additional training / mentorship. Three months is just not a lot of time to acquire all of the good instincts that you naturally learn over years of doing development. Also the number of junior developers coming out of these bootcamps, combined with graduates from traditional CS programs is way more than the Bureau of Labor statistics suggests that the job market can bear and I saw these effects in action. Each class I taught had a harder time finding jobs than the one before, despite being more qualified on average.
That's not to say bootcamps are not worth it for anyone. There are some really good ones out there that honestly want to help improve peoples lives. The catch is that the students that have the most success are not the ones who come in knowing nothing. The most successful students have spent months (if not years) of dedicated self study. The bootcamp acts as a way to fill in some gaps and provide confidence in the job hunt.