"Basement way"

So many people like to say: "I went the basement way.  I gave up on the bells and whistles of corporate job, to start the startup.".  

There some other people who like to say: "You are either doing this or not.  Quit your day job, land in your basement, start building things.".

My question is simple: "What if I do not have even a basement?"

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Google Apps accounts are being transitioned into "full accounts"

I'm so pissed of to see how badly Google executed the transition of Google Apps accounts into the "full status". http://www.newsrealblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/google-dr-evil.jpg

The thing is that historically I've been using prokh...@gmail.com account exclusively for products & services from Google, that I couldn't authenticate with my Google Apps account(s). That was fine, why not. Such services include Reader, YouTube, Wave and probably something else. However, I discovered that now whenever I'm trying to access services like Reader I'm logging in as my Google Apps account. Which is, frankly speaking, annoying. I have no reading lists there, as well as I don't want to use Google Reader' Share button to share some interesting link through my *new* Reader account (and I never know where it goes to, as I don't remember whom I'm logged in right now). What the heck? And I don't want to start toying with import-export things, because I do have some stuff looking at my Reader account, like Twitterfeeds, people who read my Shared items, etc. This is just bad.

What I am forced to do now is to swear every single moment I'm opening something I wanted, but finding myself into one of those (pretty numerous) accounts. This definitely doesn't make me a happier person. What it makes me, though, is to start looking for at least new online RSS reader for myself.

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Yelp pushes new code live every day

At Yelp, we push new code live every day. Pushing daily allows us to quickly prototype new features and squash bugs in a proactive manner. Because we aim to deploy new code so often, we're always looking for ways to make the process efficient and painless.

There are four main stages to the Yelp push process: code review, integration, testing, and finally, live deployment. Each step is important, and there are ways to maximize the efficiency of all of them.

via engineeringblog.yelp.com

An interesting and detailed guide on how does Yelp do releases.

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How I got feedback from 200 people for just $17

Many entrepreneurs are familiar with Amazon Mechanical Turk, a service where real people perform small tasks for equally small pay. Being located in Canada, I’m unable to use the service directly (as it’s only open directly to US users). Thankfully there is a startup called PickFu, which enables startups worldwide to ask a simple A/B question through the Amazon Mechanical Turk API.

via blog.anynewbooks.com

While I keep seeing more and more feedback from entrepreneurs utilizing Mechanical Turk to get results for their customer research process I take it with a huge grain of salt. In my case I ended up with dummy and default replies which have little to do with real feedback.

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iPhone 4 battery drain. Solved.

A quick follow up to http://live.prokhorenko.us/iphone-4-jailbreak-battery-drain

What I tried. Restore to 4.0.1 (not 4.0.2 or you will loose a jailbreak). Jailbreak. Install only MyWi4 from Cydia with Rock, run MyWi4, get the first license, remove MyWi4, install Elpelle6's MyWi4 without Rock, remove Rock - now you've got pretty clean jailbroken iPhone4 with MyWi4 without Rock installed. Run MyWi4 - it will ask you to respring. I told it "Later" and probably that what helps. It does work anyways - I tried it.

The battery runs out a little bit (I still believe MyWi4 is sorta dirty), but it's acceptable - under 5% overnight. Hopefully, it will work for you, too.

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Peer reviews for self-improvement - PlusRated

We have recently started a new Web service. So I'm happy to invite all subscribers of my blog to it. To become one of the first our most valuable users, click at http://www.plusrated.com and register.

My team and I, we are huge believers that to be successful we need to know our weaknesses. It is just clueless to consider yourself to be a smart, efficient and pleasant person until somebody else does. And it doesn't matter that we often have people whom we don't care - there are always some whom we listen to and respect.
There are many ways to achieving this self-awaraness; however, the best way is simply just to ask politely. Ask our friends, colleagues, peers or managers a few simple questions: "Am I doing a good job managing my team? Am I a valuable asset to the company? How bad am I at organizing my time?". The more people we ask — the more objective the overall picture will be with respect to how we really are, how we behave, and how well we really do.

Intrigued yet? http://www.plusrated.com/

We realized that there are many of you who want to self-improve, learn and grow; both from a career and personal perspective. That is why we have built PlusRated — the Web service that allows us to gather ratings and reviews from people with whom we know and stay in touch. PlusRated allows peers, colleagues and even friends to make an evaluation of your individual professional and social skills.
Self-awareness and knowledge is a very powerful means to achieve ambition and attain a more satisfying life as a whole. An every improvement begins with defining the starting point. So I urge you to get PlusRated for free now, to make your first step in learning yourself.

Welcome to PlusRated! http://www.plusrated.com

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