I'm learning to program for a few months now (I'm 16) I did quite a bit of research into what language to learn first.

In the end I chose Python, it's easy to use, simple to understand and with IDLE you can get instant results.

Plus there are tons of resources if your girls get really interested.

Python gets my vote but dependant on how young they start then something using GUIs might be more interactive, ColinWright mentioned a few good ones.

Only continue if you are doing something different or better than your competitors. Obviously if you are just mimicking what they gave already created, that's no good but if you can improve on it, then their presence in the market may be helpful in terms of warming the market for you before launch.

Great, thanks for your advice, it looks like a great book with lots of top exercises.

Personally I would really focus the ability to know when your email has been read, there are many analytics software providers that give you far more detailed statistics than your package will.

While I know there are email trackers and from a commercial point of view you would be using an email marketing provider.

But from a consumer's point of view tracking when a really important email has been sent could be a great idea. I would use it if I was sending an email to someone I hadn't contacted before but respected a lot and placed a high value on being in contact with them.

As a result if I was running the site, I would focus the branding and marketing on the consumer level, simple to use email tracking versus commercially focussed stuff.

Also tip: maybe don't use so much tech mumble on the homepage, tell the user about the results of your technology on the homepage and the details of the technology on a sub-page, otherwise you are just confused if you are coming from a search engine or social media site.

So something like: "copy and paste this one line into your emails and know whether the recipient has read your message".

Looks like a cool idea so keep going.

Thanks for your advice, yes I have asked questions on Stack Overflow and found the response to be excellent, and I plan to use it in the future.

But with a mentor you can ask more general questions, whereas with SO it tends to be more code/error specific.

Thanks, mark@theopenalgorithm.com, send your profile links.

From what I know about Stripe they are purely making it easier for developers to accept payments and as far as I know they aren't looking at developing technology aiding the sending on money.

* Unless they have some underground project that their website doesn't mention.

I have a section on my desk for all my scraps of paper, I prefer paper, because it is physically in front of you reminding you of your ideas and to take action on them.

Plus writing seems to be less mechanical and more creative, which helps me get the juices flowing when I come up with a new idea.

I know from experience that most people don't know the key combos to open in their chosen windows.

I always use Ctrl + T, but when I'm demonstrating something or somebody is watching me browse they almost always ask what I have done when I use the combo.

It's dangerous to assume that your readers are as technically proficient as yourself. But I can see in certain citations why it might be applicable, e.g. on Hacker News the majority of their readers are going to know the keyword shotcuts because that's their target market.

I do think that the blog choosing for you can be a pain, but the combos still work on the majority of links and for those who don't know them you can keep them on your site by using the target= in the link HTML, probably the best of both worlds.

Stick with your niche, social networks and the ability to sell on them should be your unique selling point.

There are many other service providers for selling digital goods via your blog or website.

Having it as an option or integrating with one of these providers might be a good idea.

Other than that, maybe for Facebook/new social networks I would recommend partnering with a landing page software provider.

Great idea, keep up the good work.

thanks for the great feedback!