I have to disagree with you regarding waiting for confirmation from NOAA, NMFS and Green Peace. From strictly personal experience, growing up in the mediterranean and being the 2nd generation of spear fishers, sailors and divers, living in resort/tourist destinations for the majority of my life; waiting for confirmation from resource-strapped government agencies is sticking your head in the sand. I've seen the decline of fish first hand since I was a teenager.
Focussing on the Pacific Ocean, and this specific article would be to forego the magnitude of the problem. We removed smoking areas in restaurants because, as one wise man said it "its like having a pissing area in a pool", I believe the same can be applied to the ocean.
Green Peace have already reported on similar problems [1]
So have the NOAA & NMFS [2]
In countries like Mexico, economic stimulus is prioritised as most mayors/local governments live on a 4 year stint to make an impact, resorting to populistic moves that the unfortunately ignorant populace will follow. Prioritising development of real estate, hospitality, touristic developments that are by no means sustainable. Making sure everyone has a job. I'm by no means arguing that these are bad things, I've made my career in the field but these are again, by no means sustainable. Long term investments into education are left secondary, effects of which are already felt [3]. I'm talking about the destruction of sea turtle nesting grounds, the destructions of mangroves that nourish the reefs, water sewage directly in the ocean[4], the killing of sharks[5] and much more.
Italy, where most older fishermen can barely read nor understand what their daily labour actually does to the ocean is facing a crisis across all coasts. There's just no fish left to sustain its industry. [6]
Its hardly new any of this. Jacques Yves Cousteau reported on this long ago. [7]
Know that everything around you will eventually turn into waste, we are at a point in history were we have enough alternatives to not damage. I agree with you that all we really could do is reduce the rate at which we harm the ocean. Its time to make educated choices.
I believe the key lies in the second sentence, 'Nobody cares why your site is down, and for most sites 99% of your users will have no clue what is meant by "This site is hosted by Heroku"'. My mother wouldn't care whom the hosting provider is nor understand what it is.
Just speaking from Mexico... Telmex soon announcing - "Banda Ancha Internacional". Mr Slim already charges insane fees for any form of communication through his company, having an opportunity like this, he'd seize it immediately.
I'm a huge fan of Pixelmator. Read Fabio Sasso's tutorials if you're having doubts, might not necessarily be much on web mockups, inspiring nonetheless. http://abduzeedo.com/tags/pixelmator?page=1
The product we're launching is pretty easily monetized, money isn't really the issue for us. Professional resources and experience was the main reason we chose to apply. We can reach ramen profitability with the first 5-7 clients. The main reason for applying to YC was the awesome amount of exposure the startups get, both to press and to VC's. I contemplated long before submitting the application, and giving up a small share of the company for a kickstart seemed reasonable, not to mention having access to office hours. Best of luck to everyone.
I agreee, refreshing design! I'd focus as well on trying to develop a sharing segment, similar to the newsfeed of the entire community, where people can browse whats being shared. Also, just a thought, the awesome background in the beginning could be switched to an image rotator of pics uploaded by users with a public setting.. And a bottom part with most active public discussions or shares.. Sort of whats trending in the community? It would help the users visitings knowing why they should sign up, or at least me:) Did you do this just for fun or is there a specific issue you want to solve? Suerte.
This smells like admitting failure and running for money rather than going through the pain of improving their business model. The novelty is wearing off.
First, a tourist visa. I still have freelance work from here that I can continue over there, though I'm sure some kind of obscure illegal immigrant job could be found. Was it hard for you to get workpermit etc? Any recommendations on internships if you want to get in touch with a good programmer community/learn? I'm no programmer myself, just frustrated by the fact that most of my ideas are currently sitting in static psd's. I'd love to be in the middle of a bustling community.. Mexico has gotten too frustrating, half the people i work with don't even know how to unzip a file.
I've worked with dictators (kitchen chefs in very high end restaurants) since I was 13.. First I hated it then it got to me.. If you're truly passionate about something, and its your life mission, not much else matters.
This is brilliant. People playing games for rewards they can redeem (duh). More in-depth. People making an actual effort for their reward, and having fun doing it. The effort made (playing the game) is something I feel strongly about, especially as companies freely customize the deal offered. This amongst others means that the company is able to track what people are prepared to do for what. I know this is sweetened by the fact that they're playing games, and different games have different effort levels. I feel this will be much more effective than low-ball dealsites like groupon. I have my feelings regarding groupon, which almost anonymizes the actual vendor, leaving them feeling raped by the scavanger-like clientele, only looking for the cheapest possible, I am talking from personal experience having launched a few campaigns.
As the the businesses in article state;
"We prefer Dobango over other sites like Groupon, LivingSocial, because Dobango has helped bring in higher quality customers that are more likely to come back rather than clients looking for one time low-ball deals, who are not likely to become repeat customers."
This is where the money's at.
User adoption is incredibly important. However, having a community with a large userbase, you have a responsability to keep them happy. To do so, having an inventory/product/service to offer your users is what will keep them coming back, ergo, keeping your suppliers happy is equally important.
Groupon is great, but me in my expertise as a marketing manager/consultant, the cost of marketing was far too great, and the clientele produced wouldn´t really come back again to our hotel. I'm sure groupon works for businesses that can support that high level of discount, such as established franchises and larger corporations, but our hotel, with 15 in staff and 30 rooms, could never run more than one promotion every quarter. It creates a scavangerlike mentality, which is great for groupon but useless for the businesses. Its appealing to the most basic of their animal instincts cheap=awesome. It´s a cheap form of marketing that I highly dissapprove of. I could make a lot more money just telling every single client I've worked with to slash prices and simply undercut the competition, but this is no way of driving innovation forward. You want to create more business, innovate and sell at higher price. Perpetually pricing yourself lower than your competition will eventually leave you like one of the now many defunct, outdated and out-right shitty hotels populating the Cancun beaches. (I'm a hotel marketing consultant in Mexico and the Riviera Maya).
And now i'm done unleashing my frustration over shortsighted marketers.
I have to disagree with you regarding waiting for confirmation from NOAA, NMFS and Green Peace. From strictly personal experience, growing up in the mediterranean and being the 2nd generation of spear fishers, sailors and divers, living in resort/tourist destinations for the majority of my life; waiting for confirmation from resource-strapped government agencies is sticking your head in the sand. I've seen the decline of fish first hand since I was a teenager.
Focussing on the Pacific Ocean, and this specific article would be to forego the magnitude of the problem. We removed smoking areas in restaurants because, as one wise man said it "its like having a pissing area in a pool", I believe the same can be applied to the ocean.
Green Peace have already reported on similar problems [1] So have the NOAA & NMFS [2]
In countries like Mexico, economic stimulus is prioritised as most mayors/local governments live on a 4 year stint to make an impact, resorting to populistic moves that the unfortunately ignorant populace will follow. Prioritising development of real estate, hospitality, touristic developments that are by no means sustainable. Making sure everyone has a job. I'm by no means arguing that these are bad things, I've made my career in the field but these are again, by no means sustainable. Long term investments into education are left secondary, effects of which are already felt [3]. I'm talking about the destruction of sea turtle nesting grounds, the destructions of mangroves that nourish the reefs, water sewage directly in the ocean[4], the killing of sharks[5] and much more.
Italy, where most older fishermen can barely read nor understand what their daily labour actually does to the ocean is facing a crisis across all coasts. There's just no fish left to sustain its industry. [6]
Its hardly new any of this. Jacques Yves Cousteau reported on this long ago. [7]
Know that everything around you will eventually turn into waste, we are at a point in history were we have enough alternatives to not damage. I agree with you that all we really could do is reduce the rate at which we harm the ocean. Its time to make educated choices.
[1] http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/campaigns/oceans/fish-in-cr...
[2] http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/mediacenter/2012/09/13_secretary_of...
[3] http://noticaribe.com.mx/2013/10/18/sacude-magisterio-a-play...
[4] http://www.quequi.com.mx/2107_solidaridad/1759374_hay-aguas-...
[5] http://forums.locogringo.com/forums/tm.asp?m=1292457
[6] http://www.lastampa.it/2013/10/12/scienza/ambiente/il-caso/c...
[7] http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article.html?isPreview=&id=309...