From the outside, it's hard to dispute that Wallet didn't have enough "utility value", but Square didn't seem to do much to market Wallet to merchants.

Almost none of the local merchants I tried using Wallet with knew about the feature, and some merchants didn't show up in it at all (they were using Square to run simple cash transactions -- i.e., no product catalog entered into Square).

So this is an interesting case for animation, but turn off the javascript and try real-world (manual) scrolling -- both pngs and svg perform about the same for me in Chrome (osx).

I'm not sure there's much of a takeaway here unless you're trying to animate the page scrolling of a full page of sprites (i.e., the example proves itself, but not much else).

Just FYI, most, if not all, of this is built into javascript already, via the DOM. http://www.joezimjs.com/javascript/the-lazy-mans-url-parsing...

This was my initial reaction as well, but I appreciate the qs/hash sugaring:

    http://www.domain.com/path/index.html?query1=test&silly=willy#test=hash&chucky=cheese
    
    $.url('?');         // query1=test&silly=willy
    $.url('?silly');    // willy
    $.url('?poo');      // (an empty string)
    $.url('#');         // test=hash&chucky=cheese
    $.url('#chucky');   // cheese
    $.url('#poo');      // (an empty string)

I think that's a bit too much functionality to put down as "sugar".

Agreed, this is the way to do it. The only caveat is that IE has a bug where it omits the leading / on the pathname. You can normalize it with a simple one-liner: http://stackoverflow.com/a/6168370/172322

> Agreed, this is the way to do it.

This sounds like arguing that we should use getElementById&al, addEventListener, and array.length with for loops instead of $('selector').on 'foo' and .each(). While this lib's inner code leaves to be desired in a number of ways, I really appreciate the readability and the lack of need to instantiate a full-blown DOM element then read a property to obtain a simple single result or two.

Not the same thing. jQuery is worth it if you're doing lots of DOM element selection. If the entirety of your usage of jQuery is a single $("#foo").bind(...) call, then it's probably not worth loading the entire library for that.

URL parsing, for 90% of uses, tends to be a one-off need that doesn't really justify the addition of another library. Making decisions about what library to include is about trade-offs; this library is worth it if you need the query string sugaring or are doing lots of URL parsing. But "instantiating a full blown DOM element" to parse a single URL is over-stating the cost of the activity, especially when compared to adding an additional library to your application.

Forrst has a similar system for promoting user posts as an advertising alternative, though Kyle (founder) uses credits (called acorns) and there are several ways to earn credits, outside of simply purchasing them.

It's a great idea: it's hard to get more "targeted" with ads than content that would have been posted within the community anyway.

If anecdotal evidence is any guide, it seems to have been received really well within Forrst, and the backlog was huge the last time I looked (not enough pageviews to match demand).

The entire point of the lean startup is getting out of the building and validating your ideas with customers. Everything else is gravy.

Go out, talk to people, and they will define what you should be building, and what will constitute MVP or MVA.

You seem to not be spending enough time talking to customers. You cannot define these things on your own, that's the whole idea.

Research like this has implications far beyond the primary application. There's a significant amount of knowledge and technology developed in order to implement the primary application, and most of the value is likely there, in improved processes, small bits of applied tech, and the growth of the students themselves.

These applications generate news, but they're really just the tip of the iceberg.

I wonder if this shot across Netflix's bow (which it likely is, way too early to definitively walk away), combined with Netflix's lower (base) digital subscription, will open the door to premium Netflix packages -- Starz as a premium add-on for $5/mo.

That might create tons of new opportunities network content bundles or al a carte show seasons, and mute the furor over the digital-only switch. For $15/mo. you might be able to get Netflix Streaming + Starz + Breaking Bad.

I have been doing some interviewing lately, and only just received my first "prototyping" test, based off a short user scenario. It was almost scarily broad, given the 3 days I had to complete it, but I think that's the point -- show initiative, build something cool, be prepared to defend your decisions.

I was personally happy to spend my time doing it, because it was a direct reflection my abilities, and I controlled the result.

I also recently spent a short 2-day stint working with another startup team that was also very instructive. There's no substitute for seeing a team in action, how they approach decisions, collaborate, etc.

I contrast this with the full-day onsite interview I did at one of the old guard dotcoms, which was disorganized, confused, and muddled -- basically, a huge waste of everyone's time. And to cap it off, after I'd had numerous phone calls, in-person meetings, the onsite interview, and bought an SVP lunch (forgot his new bankcard PIN), I got a quick impersonal phone call from HR saying they weren't going to move forward. Needless to say, I agreed.

It's always "good enough", except when it isn't. :)

Seriously, though, startups -- and websites in general -- are continually moving targets. Your requirements are always changing, your user base and their needs are always changing.

You ever see the inside of a FedEx truck? Eeek. Focus on what your customers need, over-deliver on that, and keep the rest together as best you can.

You will learn how to manage your business properly with time, and you'll have time as long as your customers are happy.

Love it! I've been playing around with the same idea, using HTML5/CSS/JS and the Baker Framework. I'm inspired!