Hacker News: ahmed_ds

New comment by ahmed_ds in "Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (September 2024)"

ahmed_ds — Tue, 03 Sep 2024 13:45:48 +0000

  Location: Malaysia (Available: 8am to 1PM EST)
  Remote: Yes
  Willing to relocate: No
  Technologies: CRM (Hubspot, and real estate related CRMs like Topproducer), Microsoft Office Suite, Google Workspace, Research work, Canva, ChatGPT etc.
  Resume/CV: https://www.itnadigital.netlify.app
  Availability: Maintain EST Work hours. Available 6 Days a week. 8am to 1PM EST.
  Rate: USD $10 / Hour

If you have a side project that is gaining traction, I can help with maintaining the momentum by posting on social media, sharing product updates, handling emails, interacting with users, and dealing with overall customer/user support issues. Let me handle the boring tasks while you focus on the product side and big picture things!

Choose between a permanent weekly contract or task-based work with specific deliverable times.

USD: $10 / Hour. Payment via PayPal or Wise (TransferWise).

Email me at itnadigital@gmail.com

Partial portfolio is available here: https://www.itnadigital.netlify.app

<< please do not ask me what you can do for me, tell me what you need. >>

New comment by ahmed_ds in "Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (September 2024)"

ahmed_ds — Tue, 03 Sep 2024 13:45:12 +0000

SEEKING WORK | Malaysia (Timezone Agnostic / EST Timezone) | Remote

Virtual Assistance / Customer Support / Sales Assistance / Social Media Management

For more than 5 years, I have been doing virtual assistance work primarily:

- Virtual office management (Email management, Office application, data entry, etc.)

- Social Media Management (Content calendar, Basic graphics design, etc.)

- Customer/User support (Hand me a knowledgebase, I will take care of the rest.)

- Sales assistance work (CRM management, lead nudging, customer relations)

Choose between a permanent weekly contract or task-based work with specific deliverable times.

USD: $10 / Hour. Payment via PayPal or Wise (TransferWise).

Email me at itnadigital@gmail.com

Partial portfolio is available here: https://www.itnadigital.netlify.app

<< please do not ask me what you can do for me, tell me what you need. >>

New comment by ahmed_ds in "Google's new pipe syntax in SQL"

ahmed_ds — Sat, 31 Aug 2024 13:33:02 +0000

Wow, that is really cool. One of my theses is that DuckDB will be bought by GCP (BigQuery), and polars will be bought by Databricks (or AWS). The thesis is based on the idea that Snowflake bought the Modin platform. The movement in DE seems to be towards data warehouse platforms streaming data (views/results) down to dataframe (Modin, Polars, DuckDB) platforms, which then stream down to their BI platforms. Because these database platforms are designed as OLAP platforms so, this approach makes sense.

New comment by ahmed_ds in "Google's new pipe syntax in SQL"

ahmed_ds — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 09:13:07 +0000

This is why I like tools like datastation and hex.tech. You write the initial query using SQL than process the results as a dataframe using Python/pandas. Surely, mixing Pandas and SQL like that is not good for data pipelines but for exploration and analytics, I have found this approach to be enjoyable.

New comment by ahmed_ds in "Ask HN: What are you working on (August 2024)?"

ahmed_ds — Sun, 25 Aug 2024 05:35:06 +0000

I am trying rebuild my virtual assistance business. For the longest time I have worked with realtors but the market has gone down and finding new contracts are hard.

Trying to move into doing virtual assistance for micropreneurs and sideprojects from now on exclusively. Task by task basis or regular contracts. Essentially the pitch is assign everything that is not sales and product. I think it is a good pitch targetted to folks who enjoy building stuff and considers making money out of it as a bonus. The moment they start answering support emails, and posting product updates they start to get burnt out. Trying to specialize in "burn out prevention" tasks mainly.

I am trying to figure out a way to get clients. Virtual Assistance is cheap and the competition is huge. The services are identical which essentially says, I will do what you will need me to do.

New comment by ahmed_ds in "Migrating from DokuWiki to Obsidian"

ahmed_ds — Thu, 22 Aug 2024 17:27:51 +0000

I honestly think if Pandoc had a GUI, it could genuinely be the fourth most popular word processing software out there. Just a simple GUI and a rich text editor—that's it.

New comment by ahmed_ds in "Price increase for .COM, .XYZ, and more domains"

ahmed_ds — Thu, 22 Aug 2024 17:25:19 +0000

This is just annoying. I maintain an XYZ domain because it cost me pennies to buy. But geez, the renewal fees. That is how they get you. Now, I will go back to using github.io, netlify.app, or whatever Cloudflare Pages have. It just isn't worth it to maintain a domain for a personal page.

New comment by ahmed_ds in "I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it"

ahmed_ds — Thu, 22 Aug 2024 12:43:27 +0000

The issue with sales in particular is that, if you can't figure out sales, don't expect a miracle by partnering up with someone. The sales-technical partnerships I have seen usually start with a great pre-business relationship. And those who have profitable bootstrapped business actually do hire salespeople like they hire me.... as disposable. You give them the initial pitch of what is the product, and you have them on commission-based pay. After the onboarding period ends, you make binary decisions of keeping and firing. Sounds unhealthy from the employees' side but that is side projects and bootstraps work.

New comment by ahmed_ds in "I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it"

ahmed_ds — Thu, 22 Aug 2024 06:06:19 +0000

It is "virtual assistant". Essentially, I as a VA do office work, data entry, design, social media, support, sales stuff etc.

You assign a task to me, and you pay hourly for that task. Or you can just get a weekly contract.

New comment by ahmed_ds in "I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it"

ahmed_ds — Thu, 22 Aug 2024 06:02:05 +0000

I think the difference between a VA and conventional employee is the idea of specialization and frequency. Doing VA work I have to do all things ranging from graphics design to support to crm stuff. Now, I am not the best guy out there to be great at one thing but I will try to be adaquete. The lack of specialization is made up by the fact that VAs are cheap, and you do not have to have that commitment to keep paying for them. If it is a 5 hour work week that will do.

These days, I just have my clients on whatsapp. They give me a random task, I give a deliverable time.

New comment by ahmed_ds in "I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it"

ahmed_ds — Thu, 22 Aug 2024 05:18:25 +0000

I will try my best to not make this sound like a veiled promotion.

Short answer is you need a VA. What I do mostly act as a filter. I have seen this happen with my clients. People often think that it is just too much hassle to running a small sideproject and not worth the time. But geez man, do you have to do everything?? Why bother with the grunt work. You have caught the lightening in the bottle, but for the rest do not invest any more in terms of emotional commitment.

These are grunt work, you need a task monkey essentially. What I do is just translate this communication in binary response or options to pick. After you made your first dime from a sideproject, you need to outsource support. Everyone complains about bad support on everything they use, but the reality is that you can not afford to commit yourself to do support work. Being entrepreneur means you have to create barrier between things that require emotional investment. You may think hiring a 7 dollar an hour dude from a random country is a risk, but it is worth the gamble if you have a business that is profitable. And the risk is not a big risk. I am not self depracating myself but the reality is VAs like me are "disposable". You try out a VA for a week, see if that person solves your problem, if not try another one.

New comment by ahmed_ds in "Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (August 2024)"

ahmed_ds — Mon, 05 Aug 2024 04:15:57 +0000

Seeking Work | Malaysia (US Timezone) | Remote

  Location: Malaysia (Available: 8am to 1PM EST)
  Remote: Yes
  Willing to relocate: No
  Technologies: CRM (Hubspot, and real estate related CRMs like Topproducer), Microsoft Office Suite, Google Workspace, Research work.
  Resume/CV: https://www.itnadigital.netlify.app
  Availability: Maintain EST Work hours. Available 6 Days a week. 8am to 1PM EST.
  Rate: $6 / Hour

I have been working as a virtual assistant for multiple realtors and small business owners across the United States. I am well-equipped to handle various virtual assistant tasks and understand the importance of being super efficient.

My experience includes

  - Customer relationship management
  - Customer support
  - Social media management
  - General random tasks that involve a computer (data entry, email management, content moderation, etc.)

Email: itnadigital@gmail.com

New comment by ahmed_ds in "Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (April 2023)"

ahmed_ds — Mon, 03 Apr 2023 17:45:13 +0000

SEEKING WORK

  Location: Malaysia (Available: 8am to 1PM EST) 
  Remote: Yes
  Willing to relocate: Yes
  Technologies: CRM (Hubspot, and real estate related CRMs like Topproducer), Microsoft office suite, Google docs, Sendgrid, Research and strategy
  Résumé/CV: Available par request || https://www.itnadigital.com
  Email: itnadigital@gmail.com

Customer support / technical support role. Maintain EST Workhours. Available 6 Days a week. 8am to 1PM EST. I have been working as a virtual assistant for multiple realtors across the United States for more than 2 years. With a degree in Computer Science (and a minor in Data Science) and having lived in the states for a while, I am well-equipped to handle various customer support tasks and understand the importance of providing excellent customer service.

My experience includes customer relationship management, customer support, and assisting my clients with various tasks. I am confident in my ability to handle any customer inquiries or concerns in a timely and professional manner, and I am dedicated to ensuring that all customers have a positive experience with your company. I am hoping to move to tech, data or SAAS customer support roles.

New comment by ahmed_ds in "Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (April 2023)"

ahmed_ds — Mon, 03 Apr 2023 17:32:45 +0000

  Location: Malaysia (Available: 8am to 1PM EST) 
  Remote: Yes
  Willing to relocate: Yes
  Technologies: CRM (Hubspot, and real estate related CRMs like Topproducer), Microsoft office suite, Google docs, Sendgrid, Research and strategy
  Résumé/CV: Available par request || https://www.itnadigital.com
  Email: itnadigital@gmail.com

Customer support / technical support role. Maintain EST Workhours. Available 6 Days a week. 8am to 1PM EST.

I have been working as a virtual assistant for multiple realtors across the United States for more than 2 years. With a degree in Computer Science (and a minor in Data Science) and having lived in the states for a while, I am well-equipped to handle various customer support tasks and understand the importance of providing excellent customer service.

New comment by ahmed_ds in "Show HN: Zapier's first API"

ahmed_ds — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 23:01:57 +0000

I would really love to hear a bit about Zapier's pursuit towards innovation.

There are quite a few workflows automation platform out there. It is now an entire industry. With nocode being more and more popular, there is a lot of "Alternative to Zapier platforms".

This makes me wonder, is innovation in no code workflow automation platform limited to just new API services? Or is there possibility to innovate in a new way? Some of Zapier's competitors have integrated programming language interface, spreadsheet element etc.

As the OG workflow automation platform, what does innovation mean to Zapier beyond hosting an API service?

New comment by ahmed_ds in "Striking portraits, claimed to be original, were generated on Midjourney"

ahmed_ds — Sat, 04 Mar 2023 10:12:13 +0000

I wonder when they invented paintbrush, did all the people using fingers to draw called the brush-painters, posers.

Cave painters said "You can't capture the beauty of fingerpaint as you drag our fingers against a chunk of rock. The virgin rock was porous, your paint smooths it and creating impression that lasts for centuries. You leave your mark, your identity, your fingerprint with the art. That is what makes it authentic." He added, "Painting with brushes creates a barrier with the art and the human. It can never be true art. It will never capture the painters mark and your soul in it."

---

That was a poor attempt at making a joke. I think, over the years, most people just stopped caring about the origin and process of scrollable things. You just don't have the time or energy to validate everything's source or process. You take nano-dopamine hit by seeing something, and move past that. Trying to label things to be "pure" and "authenticate" and asking the merit to be determined based on this "purity" is a thing of the past.

New comment by ahmed_ds in "Austrian ISPs Block Cloudflare IP addresses after apparent court order"

ahmed_ds — Sun, 28 Aug 2022 20:52:52 +0000

Yandex is a pretty good search engine. Yandex is essentially what people think DuckDuckGo is, on the other hand DuckDuckGo is essentially is just Bing.

New comment by ahmed_ds in "Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (August 2022)"

ahmed_ds — Sat, 06 Aug 2022 13:22:25 +0000

  Location: Malaysia (Remote, EST Timezone) 
  Remote: Yes
  Willing to relocate: Yes
  Technologies: CRM (Hubspot, and real estate related CRMs like Topproducer), Microsoft office suite, Google docs, Sendgrid, Research and strategy
  Résumé/CV: Available par request || https://www.itnadigital.com
  Email: itnadigital@gmail.com
  Salary/Pay: USD $15/Hour (Minimum 7 Hours/Week)

The Remote Sales Assistant or the Virtual Assistant you need!

I have been helping real estate firms all over the United States with their virtual assistance needs, now I want to move into SAAS or Proptech sales.

I have been assisting realtors generate sales leads from social media platforms, helping them execute deals and managing their social media and communication platform for the last 2 years now.

I am hoping to shift towards more to sales preferably entry level remote SDR, BDR or Sales Assistant roles.

New comment by ahmed_ds in "Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (August 2022)"

ahmed_ds — Sat, 06 Aug 2022 13:22:19 +0000

  Location: Malaysia (Remote, EST Timezone) 
  Remote: Yes
  Willing to relocate: Yes
  Technologies: CRM (Hubspot, and real estate related CRMs like Topproducer), Microsoft office suite, Google docs, Sendgrid, Research and strategy
  Résumé/CV: Available par request || https://www.itnadigital.com
  Email: itnadigital@gmail.com
  Salary/Pay: USD $15/Hour (Minimum 7 Hours/Week)

The Remote Sales Assistant or the Virtual Assistant you need!

I have been helping real estate firms all over the United States with their virtual assistance needs, now I want to move into SAAS or Proptech sales.

I have been assisting realtors generate sales leads from social media platforms, helping them execute deals and managing their social media and communication platform for the last 2 years now.

I am hoping to shift towards more to sales preferably entry level remote SDR, BDR or Sales Assistant roles.

New comment by ahmed_ds in "Tabler: Free and open source dashboard HTML/CSS framework"

ahmed_ds — Sat, 30 Jul 2022 01:46:14 +0000

How do you approach building on top of a dashboard template?

> Any change in /src directory will build the application and refresh the page.

Do you start from the demo page and start ripping off components that you don't need? Or do you pick specific parts from the template and build it from scratch from bottom up?

Even though templates seem to be an easy way to build stuff, I never understood the approach building from templates.