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Designing Fast and Programmable Routers [pdf] - lainon
http://web.mit.edu/anirudh/www/anirudh_dissertation.pdf
======
cottonseed
Free association: Good talk by Sonja Keserovic (Facebook) from Strange Loop on
their programmable network switch infrastructure:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDfWd-
Utcgo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDfWd-Utcgo)
edit: I thought this was exciting stuff. Where else can you find teams
straddling the hardware/software boundary?
------
agnivade
This is great stuff. Are there any currently available programmable routers in
the market ?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Chris Lattner to Lead SiFive Platform Engineering Team - gok
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200127005141/en/Google-Tesla-Engineer-Chris-Lattner-Lead-SiFive
======
dang
Comments moved to
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22159963](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22159963),
which is currently on the front page and was posted a bit earlier.
------
nochance
Related: [https://www.sifive.com/blog/with-sifive-we-can-change-the-
wo...](https://www.sifive.com/blog/with-sifive-we-can-change-the-world)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Start a business with Kickstarter donors as angel group - tantalor
Wondering whether anyone had heard this idea, or thought about it?<p>Basic idea is, you pitch on Kickstarter and offer equity as prizes.<p>Any reason why this might be illegal, or too inherently risky for investors?
======
TwiztidK
I actually thought about this long ago and, if I recall correctly, it was
illegal at the time. It appears as though the Jumpstart Our Business Startups
(Jobs) Act may have removed those restrictions, so a crowd funding investment
operation may now be possible [1]. Something like that could probably be very
successful. For example, had the Light Table Kickstarter offered equity as an
option I can guarantee it would've gained quite a few investments.
[1] - [http://money.cnn.com/2012/04/05/smallbusiness/ipo-
bill/index...](http://money.cnn.com/2012/04/05/smallbusiness/ipo-
bill/index.htm)
------
tarekayna
It's very interesting whether this would be possible. I thought the first
guideline on kickstarter prohibits this:
"A project has a clear goal, like making an album, a book, or a work of art. A
project will eventually be completed, and something will be produced by it. A
project is not open-ended. Starting a business, for example, does not qualify
as a project."
~~~
tantalor
I don't see why a company can't be started with one project in mind, e.g.,
Light Table.
The exit might be to sell the product to a buyer once the business case is
made, at which point the investors realize the capital gains.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Flappy48 by Broxxar - asharpe
http://broxxar.itch.io/flappy48
======
a_c
The gravity is a bit weird yet the idea is awesome. Blending the most played
games together. Nice.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Make any language “typed”, by changing your project structure - harryvederci
https://github.com/harryvederci/nothing-to-see-here/blob/master/content/idea_make_any_language_typed.md
======
necovek
It's very ugly, but not crazy. Unfortunately, it misses the point: typing is
about having an automated tool report on type incompatibilities. No convention
can fix that because you can easily not follow it (accidentally or otherwise).
I would guess that in JavaScript you can get to a point similar to Python of
old with Zope3 Interfaces, without needing to resort to a precompiler (though
Python's decorator syntax makes thing nicer).
------
harryvederci
I couldn't sleep. Let me know if this is crazy or beautiful.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How to set up a local API for Home IoT Devices in your office using WiFi - oliver-thamm
https://xapix.io/post/how-to-set-up-a-local-api-for-home-iot-devices-in-your-office-using-wifi
======
umbelisco
taking home office to the next level ^^
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Metadata is the biggest little problem plaguing the music industry - cpeterso
https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/29/18531476/music-industry-song-royalties-metadata-credit-problems
======
wrs
This is the problem right here:
>The musician who was owed $40,000 missed out because a glitch between two
databases removed many of his credits. It wasn’t the musician’s fault, but too
much time had gone by before anyone noticed. The companies involved declined
to pay him.
If the people who owe the money overtly don’t care about doing the right
thing, which seems to have been the typical attitude since the recorded-
entertainment business was invented, who’s going to be able to fix it? Seems
like this is working exactly as designed.
~~~
sonnyblarney
Even if they cared, it might be very hard. The people in that industry are
surprisingly not tech savvy, moreover, often, there's very little they can do
about it, or worse, very little access to detailed information themselves.
~~~
falcor84
>The people in that industry are surprisingly not tech savvy
As the quote goes, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when
his salary depends upon his not understanding it" \- I'm confident that things
would be entirely if the industry suddenly found it in its best interest to
become tech savvy.
------
aston
This is like when you walk into a super complicated legacy code base and
immediately have the one magic architectural change that will simplify
everything...once you rewrite it from the ground up.
The music metadata situation is pretty bad, but the source of the problem is
not really carelessness or greed or avoidance of responsibility (although
those are all true). The true source of music metadata complication is the
insanely complex copyright regime that music operates under. It's a legacy
codebase about a century in the making that is constantly being patched up by
congress, mostly by trying to change who is being protected from whom. (Among
the folks favored at different times: labels, publishing companies, performing
artists, song writing artists, radio stations, streaming music services, live
venues, ...).
Perfect compliance with these laws is effectively impossible, so everyone is
just doing the best they can. And any attempts congress makes to change how
things work end up being gigantic legal battles because it's a zero-sum game
and the more money in the "right" hands (e.g. these artists being ripped off)
is less money in the other "right" hands (e.g. the unprofitable streaming
service we all love).
~~~
tialaramex
"Old Town Road" is a useful modern reference for what we could have in a world
without Copyright. That sample behind everything is from 34 Ghosts IV, one of
the tracks in Nine Inch Nails' Ghosts I-IV album.
Strictly just pasting it into a song and selling it wasn't legal (presumably
after this went viral somebody paid Trent Reznor a bunch of money and put his
name in the metadata to avoid nasty legal consequences) but everything up
until selling it was legal, all the raw PCM data you'd want to take the
samples apart without painfully cutting it out of the entire Ghosts recording
was uploaded with the Ghosts I-IV album as CC-NC-BY. This is how our culture
was _supposed_ to work if we weren't still trying to find ways to put more
money in The Man's pocket.
~~~
SomeOldThrow
Meanwhile, Lou Reed owned 100% of “Can I Kick It?” royalties. So much good art
doesn’t get put out because of greed.
~~~
kasey_junk
Wait are you using the “Can I Kick It” analogy to argue in favor or against
greed stopping art?
Because that example is a really weird grey area. The label didn’t clear one
of the most obvious samples of all time. The original artist did _not_ prevent
them from releasing the derived work, but Tribe didn’t get paid for one of
their classics.
I’m not sure what to think of that story.
~~~
SomeOldThrow
Honestly I'm rather against needing to clear samples at all. I think the art
should come before any concern that it would put someone into debt via a
lawsuit—it should never result in making no money off it when the value is
clearly in the product of the sample + performance.
------
Mbaqanga
I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that the label’s metadata is always
present and accurate. Labels have been screwing artists for over a century.
~~~
tmd83
Ohh it's accurate in the sense that it records who is the owner, the record
label. On the other hand fixing the artists and others metadata is only needed
to pay off others which only reduces their profit. If they needed the
correctness for getting paid themselves you can bet anything that the metadata
would have been correct.
~~~
zimpenfish
> Ohh it's accurate in the sense that it records who is the owner, the record
> label.
Oh, you'd be amazed...
------
alexchamberlain
I think [MusicBrainz][1] deserves a shout out on this topic.
[1]: [https://musicbrainz.org/](https://musicbrainz.org/)
~~~
zimpenfish
Different kind of metadata, I think; the Verge article seems to be talking
about the data that goes to PROs[1] and CMOs[2] which is then used to
calculate splits and payments based on data from people like Spotify, Apple
Music, etc. ("they had missed out on payments for 70 songs, going back at
least six years" is stuff I've seen before w.r.t data just not being sent to
the PRO/CMOs from a label.)
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performance_rights_organisatio...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performance_rights_organisation)
[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_rights_management](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_rights_management)
~~~
33degrees
Indeed, MusicBrainz contains the names of songwriters, but not the
organisations they belong to
------
imglorp
This seems like a good application for a publicly auditable, immutable data
store. Artist can birth a hash of the work into store along with their
metadata. Post production steps would build on that record, creating a
derivative work with new metadata. Labels, ditto. Distribution contracts go on
top of that. When it finally gets a performance, that could be a transaction
on top of that. Anyone can follow a performance back to its creators.
~~~
naniwaduni
Immutability is quite nearly the opposite of useful here. The most common way
for data to be wrong is at the interface boundary: it was entered wrong in the
first place.
~~~
drpyser
Immutability, the way I think the author means it, doesn't mean data can't be
changed ever, in any way. It just means that modifications(e.g. corrections)
cannot completely overwrite previous values without leaving any trace, but
instead have to appear as amendments, visible alongside the previous versions
of the data.
If it was entered wrong, you can issue a correction, but a trace of the first,
wrong value will stay available.
That means nobody can just say something was never what it was, just that it
changed(and then have to justify why).
------
herodotus
I wrote a very niche App for people who like Opera. It's most important
purpose is to display Opera track listing meta-data correctly. (You can see
comparison screen shots at [https://ariascribe.com](https://ariascribe.com)).
Along the way, I discovered that, even though the genre "opera" has long been
recognized, and even has an official ID3v1 tag (103), I have never ever seen
the tag used in CDs or downloads. My App has to figure out whether or not an
album in a users collection is an Opera. Should have been trivial. Was in fact
hard. Very hard.
------
throwaway77384
Hearing lots of people mention blockchain technologies as a solution here.
Enter Passport by Mycelia[0]
\---
[0][http://myceliaformusic.org/](http://myceliaformusic.org/)
------
macspoofing
Is this one of the very (very) few cases where blockchain could actually make
sense? It sounds like you just need some central store to get
(cryptographically verifiable, with revision history) metadata.
~~~
dentemple
Blockchain can't fix bad data entry.
~~~
zimpenfish
We need a template like the spam one for the obvious "this is why
blockchain(s) won't help here" suggestions.
~~~
macspoofing
I'm actually very negative on blockchain - as it is clearly a interesting
technology but one that is desperately looking for a problem to solve.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Tesla raises $1.8B - rising-sky
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-bonds-tesla-idUSKBN1AR28M
======
11thEarlOfMar
Let's talk about Solar City.
Their product is intended to be a solar roof, indistinguishable from a typical
roof from street level. Costs look to be in the $50,000+ range. The marketing
is that homeowners will not only drive electric vehicles, but go completely
off grid by storing the energy collected into Tesla batteries.
In order for this to make financial sense, there needs to be an ROI for the
homeowner. So... how long will it take the homeowner to recoup that, say,
$75,000 investment?
I am currently spending about $125/month on electricity. That's $1,500 per
year. Two Tesla's would run through about $1,000 [0] of electricity in the
same year. That's $2,500 per year I'd spend on electricity to my grid
operator.
That's 30 years to break even.
I could probably buy an equivalent roof-mounted system for half that, and the
batteries, and see a return in 15 years. Is the aesthetic worth the longer
term payoff?
Or would Tesla see more uptake in new home construction where the cost of the
roof can be amortized into the construction cost?
I understand that Solar City has a different financing biz model, are they
going to continue with that.
[0] [http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1090685_life-with-
tesla-...](http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1090685_life-with-tesla-model-
s-one-year-and-15000-miles-later)
~~~
jerkstate
How much would it cost for a roof-mounted device that makes gasoline for you?
Add your local transportation bill to your electricity bill and now tell me
how many years it is.
~~~
scott_karana
You can use a Tesla on the grid, and potentially see quicker ROI, depending on
your local per-kW rate.
------
dopamean
It's interesting to me that in May of last year Snap, Inc raised about the
same amount of money. I've never understood how some companies need so much
money. To me it makes sense for Tesla. They are building actual cars and that
is expensive. What on earth did Snap need a 1.8 billion for?
~~~
mej10
Did you see how much Snap was/is paying on infrastructure? It is _insane_. $2
billion over 5 years.
The amount of waste that is obviously happening there is maddening.
~~~
angstrom
That's more than maddening. One company is working on the forefront of an
entire ecosystem transformation in a 100 year old entrenched customer base the
other...well, let's just say in another 100 years you'll be lucky to find
anyone that knows what snap was.
~~~
kuschku
Depends. If Snap fails, and Facebook gets a monopoly for centuries due to
network lock-in, we'll know Snap as the last competitor to Facebook.
~~~
toomuchtodo
"Competitor". Externally funded R&D for Facebook.
~~~
samstave
True - but can you ELI5 for everyone - even though we can infer based on being
in tech and can see this - but spell it out for others...
------
d_t_w
Is there a difference between 'raises' and 'borrows'?
I read this as Tesla took investment of $1.8B (presumably in return for
shares), but in this case they have issued $1.8B of bonds, so they've
effectively taken out a loan.
~~~
Aron
Yeah this was just a loan. The first time for them that it wasn't attached in
some way to shares.
~~~
lancewiggs
Not only that it is unsecured "junk" debt, and the interest rate is incredibly
low at 5.3%.
~~~
calafrax
5.3% is not incredibly low for a corporation borrowing 1.8 billion. it is
pretty high which is why investors are jumping on it.
This adds $95 million in interest expense per year which is pretty
substantial.
~~~
howinator
It is incredibly low for bonds in the "junk" trough. For companies with
Tesla's credit rating, you're typically looking at 6.5-7.8%. If you're GE,
you're of course going to pay a lot less, but GE has a much more robust credit
history.
------
Animats
_Tesla sold $1.8 billion of eight-year unsecured bonds at a yield of 5.30
percent._
That's considered junk bond level today. Historically, it's not a bad interest
rate. It's an OK deal for Tesla.
~~~
moxious
Yes, it's a testament to how strange the financial environment is that people
would lend such money speculatively at low interest.
Those are the prevailing rates but I think the bond holders are getting a
lousy deal considering tesla's actual risks
~~~
gozur88
It's hard to quantify those risks when you have a rock star CEO. As long as
Musk can keep the hype train going he'll be able to borrow money cheaply,
which will make _today 's_ investment less risky.
------
vit05
"Tesla aims to boost production to 500,000 cars next year, about six times its
2016 output."
What is the new goal to 2020? 2 years[0] ago they were expecting delivery
500,000 cars in 2020. If they will do that this year, maybe their new goal is
to finally put a foot in the top 20 group of world manufacturers[1]?
[0][http://www.businessinsider.com/everything-tesla-promises-
to-...](http://www.businessinsider.com/everything-tesla-promises-to-
accomplish-by-2020-2015-12/#create-500000-cars-per-year-by-2020-5)
[1][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_manufacturers_by_motor...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_manufacturers_by_motor_vehicle_production)
~~~
gozur88
I wonder if they mean Tesla is going to actually produce a half million cars
next year, or if they're going to ramp up production to a half million cars
per year by the end of the year.
~~~
marvin
The latter.
------
mattnewton
It's heartening to see financial markets helping a company with such potential
for positive externalities. Sometimes maybe the system does work!
~~~
ams6110
Positive externalities like 8-year-olds mining cobalt to make the batteries?
~~~
KGIII
Do you have any examples of eight year olds habitually employed mining cobalt?
Tougher, can you tie that in to Tesla with confidence?
Disclosure: I own quite a few shares in Tesla. They were only ~24.00 USD when
I bought them. I admit my bias.
~~~
Inconel
There was a discussion on HN a few days ago dealing with this issue.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14964857](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14964857)
~~~
KGIII
Thank you. I missed that one. I do notice it is specifically about cell
phones, though I suspect it is difficult to tell where else it is used.
I don't own enough shares to pressure them into ethical sourcing and,
honestly, hadn't even given it much thought until just now. I only have ~850
shares. Which, while a bunch, isn't going to influence much.
It does make me curious.
~~~
Inconel
Yes, that article isn't specifically about automotive batteries but I figured
it was still fresh in reader's minds. It wouldn't surprise me if ICE cars had
similar problems with conflict minerals, particularly in the catalytic
converters.
I'd love to see a really exhaustive study comparing the environmental effects
of ICE and EV cars when taking into account the entire product lifecycle from
mining, transport, manufacturing, power generation and distribution, refining,
etc. I've seen studies comparing a few of these things but nothing that goes
from the time some alloy is mined or oil is taken from the ground through the
entire life of an automobile.
~~~
KGIII
There are a lot of externalities but here's a recent one with a bunch of
information.
[http://www.adlittle.com/fileadmin/editorial_us/downloads/ADL...](http://www.adlittle.com/fileadmin/editorial_us/downloads/ADL_BEVs_vs_ICEVs_January_24_2017_USA.pdf)
This is a bit older and more about energy consumption.
[http://publications.lib.chalmers.se/records/fulltext/218621/...](http://publications.lib.chalmers.se/records/fulltext/218621/218621.pdf)
------
simonebrunozzi
A little imprecision in the article: "The company, founded by Musk in 2003" is
untrue. Musk joined the company after it was funded.
~~~
totalZero
[https://www.cnet.com/news/tesla-motors-founders-now-there-
ar...](https://www.cnet.com/news/tesla-motors-founders-now-there-are-five/)
'....a Tesla representative said that Eberhard and other principals in the
dispute have come to an agreement. The company did not reveal any details of
the resolution, except to say that there are now five, rather than two,
agreed-upon "founders" of Tesla.'
~~~
sandstrom
Just because he pays them to say he is a founder doesn't make him one (in the
technical sense of the word).
But also, it doesn't matter that much, few would disagree that JB and Elon has
done a tremendous amount for Tesla and that it wouldn't exist without them).
~~~
Tade0
Precisely. Tesla today is today's Tesla because of these two gentlemen.
I remember that there were quite a few EV startups back in the day - aside
from Tesla next none of them exist today.
------
ChuckMcM
5.3% counts as junk these days? Wow, I miss the 13 - 22% days :-). Certainly
shows a lot of confidence in Teslas ability to produce Model 3's. It also is
going to squeeze the short sellers a bit harder as the capital is going to
push out their 'dead by' dates. I feel no pity for them.
------
rmason
If there are any college student hackers interested in pushing boundaries
MHacks is going to allow you to hack a Tesla this September in Ann Arbor.
~~~
lawrenceyan
Are applications open?
~~~
rmason
Go to mhacks.org and create an account. According to the FAQ that will let you
then apply.
------
legulere
Maybe they can use it to pay their workers fair wages [0] or to improve work
conditions to be not twice as bad as in the rest of the industry [1]
[0]
[https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2017/02/09/unionizi...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2017/02/09/unionizing-
tesla-worker-says-uaw-help-sought-for-factory-pay-and-conditions/amp/) [1]
[https://amp.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/24/tesla-
fac...](https://amp.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/24/tesla-factory-
workers-injuries-higher-than-industry-average)
~~~
golergka
Do they have incentive to do that?
~~~
posguy
Not really, Tesla is very much like Apple in the sense that they expect their
employees to be 100% compliant and not "overshare", with overbearing corporate
security that'll handle you if you step out of line one iota. I don't see why
Tesla would change, apparently working conditions are terrible at their
factories: [http://www.thedailybeast.com/workers-say-tesla-is-trying-
to-...](http://www.thedailybeast.com/workers-say-tesla-is-trying-to-scare-
them-out-of-a-union)
On a vaguely related tangent, the sheer duplication of work I saw at Apple was
impressive, their corporate culture has secrecy so ingrained that large chunks
of the company are duplicating eachother's work needlessly, out of fear of
communicating effectively.
~~~
jacobush
Funny you should say that about Apple. I think about the saying about software
reflecting the organization in structure. Apples effectively static binaries
are a bit the same thing. (The ".app" folders.) They contain everything needed
to run the application, no libraries are shared between apps. Massive waste,
but at the same time, the system is more robust this way. Apps can be upgraded
and redone without caring about potential sharing and conflicts with other
applications.
This has benefits. I think it's the same with organisations. The secrecy and
keeping to yourself, also means you are free to do your thing and there is
less need to communicate, "build a shared view" and so on.
~~~
ghaff
That's the general direction that things are headed more broadly with
containers. It's sort of amusing how this came about because containers are
really an outgrowth of OS virtualization work while app virtualization never
really went anywhere in a mainstream way--but os virt (containers) has really
developed into a way of encapsulating apps.
Storage is cheap. It's much more efficient overall to bundle apps with
essentially everything they need to run--modulo the kernel although there's
some debate about that last point.
------
mathattack
So much for their running out of money. Impressive that they can get it from
the bond markets. Highlights maturity as a company.
~~~
akvadrako
More likely it suggests they would have trouble selling that many new shares.
Even Musk has said their share price is higher than they deserve, so selling
shares makes more economic sense.
But this amount will only cover their loses for a few months and they probably
want to demonstrate their ability to make future profits before diluting their
stock significantly. If they sell equity too quickly, it'll look like the
stock is crashing and encourage even more selling.
This is how Solar City floundered at the end - under crushing debt from junk
bonds.
~~~
mathattack
Isn't debt harder to raise than equity? My impression is that the risk
tolerance for junk bond buyers is somewhere between high grade credit and
equity, perhaps closer to equity. Certainly more conservative than growth or
venture equity.
I'm the first to admit that I don't follow their specific financials to know
how much runway they need to be profitable.
~~~
akvadrako
Normally, I would say that's the case, but Tesla stock isn't normal. When they
sell debt, their stock price goes up.
Debt has one big advantage over equity too, which is that if the company goes
under, bond holders are repaid if possible. Equity holders only own whatever
is leftover.
------
ryanwaggoner
The "junk bond" rating and high debt load makes me a little nervous, but maybe
that's irrelevant and this is just them raising money as an accelerant because
they can get it at a good price?
~~~
skybrian
They need the money. From a few days ago:
"The company burned through $1.16 billion in cash in the second quarter [...]
a little more than $3 billion in cash on hand"
[https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-02/tesla-
bur...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-02/tesla-burns-
through-record-cash-as-musk-brings-model-3-to-market)
------
chisleu
Looking at the stock price, people seemed to know 5 days ago.
------
doener
"Tesla (TSLA) bonds were oversubscribed by $300 million, $1.8 billion raised
for Model 3 production"
[https://electrek.co/2017/08/11/tesla-tsla-bonds-
oversubscrib...](https://electrek.co/2017/08/11/tesla-tsla-bonds-
oversubscribed-model-3-production/)
------
nyxtom
I hope this works, otherwise we are all screwed when earth continues to catch
fire
------
erdle
How much of this is actually being used to pay down SolarCity debt?
~~~
JSONwebtoken
You can't pay debt with debt. They may be getting better interest rates on the
bond market to refinance their existing loans but total liabilities are going
up, not down.
~~~
koolba
Sure you can. That's the exact definition of "refinancing".
~~~
JSONwebtoken
You may be paying off the note and it shows up as a different line item on the
balance sheet, but it's not paying the debt.
~~~
0xffff2
I think I'm going to need a scanning electron microscope to see the hair
you're splitting.
------
throwaway81122
Tesla should just mint their own crypto. IF filecoin gets 200M for a white
paper, Tesla can get 20B.
~~~
ThrustVectoring
I would _not_ recommend committing securities fraud.
~~~
SubiculumCode
I'm curious. How is what was flippantly suggested related to securities fraud?
~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
Crytocurrencies serve one purpose very well: they're presently not being
prosecuted as Ponzi schemes.
Which they argueably _are_.
~~~
wavefunction
Ponzi?
~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
Yes, thank you. Fixed. Auto-incorrect strikes again.
------
mack1001
If tesla can get 500,000 cars out there, ICE cars are toast. Enough of legacy
cars and makers.
~~~
scott_karana
The Camry alone sells 400,000 a year in the US, where the market for new cars
was _17.55 million units_ last year.
If Tesla can pump out 500K globally, that's respectable, but hardly a death
knell to the 80 million unit industry.
[http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-auto-
sales-20...](http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-auto-
sales-20170104-story.html)
[https://www.statista.com/statistics/200002/international-
car...](https://www.statista.com/statistics/200002/international-car-sales-
since-1990/)
~~~
sxates
Watch the trends, not the current year.
------
Aron
The tension is building! They've got all this money, they've shown a few of
the cars, they've got half a million deposits, but the cars are just dribbling
out of the factory right now like pre-ejaculate.
~~~
sxates
They're coming soon.
~~~
Aron
I guess I'll just have to face it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
10 years of gog.com - dsego
https://www.gog.com/10years
======
manfredo
Wow, GoG is a decade old - it's hard to believe. GoG has always had the image
in my mind of a scrappy new startup competing against the big likes of Steam,
Microsoft Store, Origin, etc. I was probably a bit too young for the crowd
that it's games were initially aimed at. My earliest gaming memories stretch
back to the N64 era, but really only start in earnest with the Xbox and I only
really got into PC gaming in the mid-2000s. A of classics like the old
Infinity Engine games (Baldur's gate, Planescape Torment), Stronghold
Crusaders, Heroes of Might and Magic, and others were largely unknown to me
until I bought them through GoG. Despite their age I thoroughly enjoyed many
of these games, and experiencing playing these games gave me a better
appreciation and enjoyment of more modern games that draw on these older
titles.
I think the tendency for the availability of games to quickly decay is one
barrier that prevents video games from having the same prestige as a lot of
other works of art, like film, books, or visual art. In movies or books it's
not uncommon for works to become recognized for excellence and remain widely
explored decades after their release. With video games, it's often becomes
increasingly difficult to legally acquire old games and as time goes on
eventually getting them to run in a modern machine becomes a challenge. It's
great to see that GoG has created a market for old games and created an
incentive to maintain the ability to easily play them on modern machines - CD
Projekt's efforts go a long way of reducing the "media decay" of video games.
------
georgespencer
Congratulations for ten great years!
If you've never used it, Gog is a really nicely thought out experience from an
ecom perspective. I'm not wild about the app store they've built, but it's
worth creating an account and tooling around a little on the website. It's
terrific.
Tonnes of the games from my childhood are on their platform. The only
annoyance is having to boot into Windows for many of them. I know it's easier
said than done, but it'd be great if they could crack a way of wrapping a
WINE-like emulator around each game so I can play on macOS.
~~~
zinckiwi
That would be great; in the meantime PortingKit [1] has a decent hit rate on
select titles, and the GOG installables are always recommended over the Steam
alternatives for obvious (DRM) reasons.
1: [http://portingkit.com/en/](http://portingkit.com/en/)
~~~
georgespencer
Yippee thanks! Comparing the Steam Store experience on Mac to the GOG
experience is an exercise in itself :-)
------
Tsubasachan
Love these guys. Gaming like it was when I was a kid in 1998. No community, no
achievements, no always online license account DRM crap, no overlay.
My Adventurer Mart is the finest shopping in all Faerûn: widest selection,
lowest prices, and nary a fancy illustration. Just the goods, bare and plain.
------
TimGremalm
Noclip did an interesting documentary about GOG. "GOG: Preserving Gaming's
Past & Future"
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffngZOB1U2A](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffngZOB1U2A)
------
kolderman
Please don't shut down, please don't stop providing the DOS compatible
original game files, ever.
~~~
Nition
You might like Archive.org's collection of DOS games if you haven't seen it:
[https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos_games](https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos_games)
------
everyone
I hate steam, and love gog. But there is one issue that makes me buy certain
games on steam.
Games that get released full of bugs and that then get fixed with frequent
updates.. This tends to happen with ambitious indie games from small teams
(the best games!).. I fully trust the team to fix the game, but when it
releases usually there are a lot of bugs they didnt find as they have no QA.
Eg. I just bought ' Frozen Synapse 2'
Steam seems to get updates earlier and more frequently. Why is that? Is it cus
the devs dont bother updating gog? That doesnt seem likely from these teams.
GOG should definitely do everything they can to have update/patch parity with
steam, if that means making it part of the contract when u release a game
there, so be it. Then I would never buy anything on steam.
ps. Why do I hate steam? 1\. Its an unnecessary program on ure system, that
wants to always be on, always be updating, have all kinds of access it doesnt
need jusr for u to play games. 2\. It has a lot of social features and whatnot
(that I dont care about cus I only play single player games) but at its core
it is simply a DRM system and DRM is terrible. 3\. It obfuscates the game
files, putting them all in a 'steam' folder. So you cant easily manage / back
them up. 4\. Double click game icon .. loading steam.. updating steam..
~~~
manfredo
Do you use GoG Galaxy? It's GoG's desktop client that automatically updates
games. I usually find that games are updated more or less simultaneously
between Steam and GoG. After all, it's the developers or studio that dedicates
resources towards producing bug-fixes, the same version is usually uploaded to
all the online distributors so there's no real reason not to push updates to
all the distribution services. Maybe GoG gets different builds because it's
DRM-free, and that adds time to release updates?
~~~
ratiolat
There's no Linux version of GoG galaxy.
~~~
ThatPlayer
I think this has prevented some games from being released on Linux at all on
GoG. Tooth and Tail has a Linux/Mac/Windows release on Steam, but is missing
the Linux release on GoG. It uses Galaxy or Steam for multiplayer.
------
qwerty456127
GoG and HumbleBundle are the only ways I buy games ever. I don't want to pay
for DRM-ed stuff I can't just download and use at any computer I want.
~~~
eksemplar
Humble bundle is the reason I have 250 steam games that I’ll never play.
Honestly I wish I could delete most of them, to easy my ocd.
GoG in the other hand is pure magic. I really love that store.
~~~
ThePadawan
You can tag them in a special category and IIRC also hide that category.
------
yread
Congrats! It would be cool to read about the technical challenges that go with
making good old games work on new operating systems.
------
ognarb
Still waiting for a linux client.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Diagnosing Yahoo’s Ills: Ugly Math in Marissa Mayer’s Reign - NearAP
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/15/business/dealbook/diagnosing-yahoos-ills-ugly-math-in-mayers-reign.html
======
steven2012
You don't get paid $360M over 5 years and get to defend yourself from failure.
She was paid specifically to fix things, and if she can't do it, she should
get 90% of that money clawed back.
That said, I think everyone associated with Yahoo has to come to grips with
the fact it will never again reach it's high status as before. It has a lot of
money, and it just goes to show you that money won't produce innovation. They
need to take that money, break Yahoo up into pieces, sell it, and then
whatever money they have they should fund 100,000 startups and see what rises
from the ashes.
The only other thing that Yahoo has besides it's pile of money is it's brand
name. People know and trust Yahoo. I would probably take that and then expand
horizontally, into things like banking, insurance, etc. Really boring things
that aren't high growth like Uber, but things everyone needs and might be
enticed to join because of the Yahoo name.
Buying things like Tumblr, Polyvore, etc are a waste of time because every
startup in the Valley is hoping to score an oversized buyout from Yahoo, and
then GTFO once their holding period is over. There is zero incentive to
continue innovating after Yahoo touches them, so don't bother buying companies
anymore.
~~~
strayptr
_They need to take that money, break Yahoo up into pieces, sell it, and then
whatever money they have they should fund 100,000 startups and see what rises
from the ashes._
We're a little crazy. Think of the families of the people who work at Yahoo.
We're also a little overbearing. Who are we to say what others should do with
what they own?
~~~
deelowe
Well, if they are a voting share holder, they kind of do get to say what
happens.
> Think of the families of the people who work at Yahoo.
Hope isn't a strategy.
------
GuiA
I can't believe how every time this topic comes up, cutting free food for the
employees is a talking point. Providing basic necessities (food,
transportation, non crowded offices, sick days, etc.) to make sure your
employees are happy and productive seems to me like step 0 of any successful
business venture. Of course don't serve them caviar and foie gras, but I
really don't get why everyone seems to think that cutting a basic cafeteria is
a vital piece of any "let's put the company back in the green" plan.
Well I do get why so many finance people think that way, it just makes me sad
that they're the ones calling the shots.
~~~
ars
It's because the article says they spent $108 million on food per year.
That works out to $38 per person per day. That's a LOT. It should be maybe
1/10 that considering that not everyone will eat the food every day.
~~~
1123581321
Google supposedly spends between $20 and $30 a day.*
Those numbers are from several years ago, so it's plausible that Yahoo needs
to pay more per employee now.
There are certainly ways to do cheaper foodservice, but probably not many ways
to do Google/SV-quality free employee food for much less.
* [http://www.businessinsider.com/yahoos-free-food-budget-5000-...](http://www.businessinsider.com/yahoos-free-food-budget-5000-per-employee-20-million-per-year-2012-7) * [http://www.businessinsider.com/2008/4/googles-ginormous-food...](http://www.businessinsider.com/2008/4/googles-ginormous-food-budget-7530-per-googler)
~~~
trhway
>not many ways to do Google/SV-quality free employee food for much less
may be they brought me into a wrong cafeteria :) - when i went for an
interview at Google, the food was so-so, and in no way beating a $10 lunch at
a typical commercial place (and even less so a $20 lunch at a restaurant). A
colleague of mine went there recently for some business meeting - the same
impression about the food.
~~~
asb
Sure, but that doesn't tell you anything about the cost to Google of providing
that food, including at unpopular times etc.
------
chollida1
Here is the funds presentation about yahoo if you are interested. For what its
worth, I think the fund significantly overplays their hand as to how effective
their turn around plan would be. [https://regmedia.co.uk/2015/12/14/yahoo-
springowl-presentati...](https://regmedia.co.uk/2015/12/14/yahoo-springowl-
presentation.pdf)
The one thing that I do think the report gets right is yahoo's head count is
way too high. They should have a head count of around 4000/people to be in
line with their Peers wrt revenue/employee.
I think the biggest issue Yahoo faces is that their competitors are Facebook,
Google and Microsoft. And Yahoo is trying to run itself like those companies.
When you have huge piles of money coming in every quarter then you can spend
freely on acquisitions to try and buy talent teams and products to jump start
your company. Or put another way, making huge sums of money hides alot of bad
decisions.
Yahoo, unfortunately isn't making piles of money and this makes it very hard
to compete when your closest competitors each have large near monopolies to
generate money. Yahoo just has no margin for error, and its not really clear
that even if they did everything right, that they could turn the company
around.
It would be like Canada trying to fight a war with the US, no matter how well
you execute, you'll loose in the long run as your enemy has almost unlimited
funds compared to yourself.
Unfortunately during Mayer has destroyed alot of value during her tenure.
Without Alibaba and Yahoo Japan, Yahoo is down almost 40% since she started.
Bring in a new CEO, cut head count very deeply so you don't have to do it
again.
------
staunch
> _" Marissa Mayer is a hero for taking on the challenge at Yahoo."_ -Marc
> Andreessen
Only in the confused world of Silicon Valley is accepting $100M+ to fail
considered heroic. Giving the money back would be kind of heroic.
Steve Jobs took a nearly bankrupt company and turned it into the richest
company in history. And he didn't care about making money off it at all, or
he'd have been the richest person in the world too. That's heroic.
Elon Musk put 100% of his personal fortune into risky world-changing startups.
That's heroic.
~~~
gramakri
> Elon Musk put 100% of his personal fortune into risky world-changing
> startups. That's heroic.
I wasn't aware that Elon Musk put in 100% of this personal fortune in his
ventures. Source?
~~~
trhway
[http://www.businessinsider.com/how-elon-musk-overcomes-
chall...](http://www.businessinsider.com/how-elon-musk-overcomes-
challenges-2013-3)
"In 2008, struggling Tesla nearly collapsed during the financial crisis. When
Tesla needed cash to fund the Model S, Musk chose to bankrupt himself — giving
up the money he earned from his success with PayPal — rather than let it die.
He sunk his last $35 million into the company, the New York Times reported."
------
grandalf
I hope Yahoo! succeeds. My $0.02 on how to fix it:
\- fix the navigation across all Yahoo! properties. Google does a solid job of
this. It's clear what is google, what is gmail, what is google analytics, app-
engine, etc. Yahoo has no such clarity.
\- apply SEO to the Yahoo! site. If I search for "yahoo domains management",
Google (or Yahoo) should take me to the correct landing page.
\- Yahoo for "business" services are very opaque and it's not clear where to
go to see a unified list of things one has access to, particularly domains.
Google also does a solid job of this (though worse over time, oddly).
\- When I see the Yahoo logo I sort of cringe. Make it smaller and less
obtrusive. Purple means "visited link" on the internet.
\- Don't let scammers use your affiliate program. The BitTorrent installer
installs malware that makes Yahoo the default search in all browsers on the
user's computer. This is a horrible representation of your brand.
\- The smart TV developer portal has been down for a few days (at least). I
wanted to make an app for my new TV but can't read the documentation.
\- People inside the company probably know all these things. If they are not
incentivized or rewarded for doing something about them, that is probably the
root of whatever cultural problems exist there. Everyone should feel some
pride and ownership, and want to fix obvious glaring issues. Someone should
probably have presented you with plans to fix all these things. Promote that
person.
~~~
jpadkins
those are all tiny product details that won't fix the company. I am not saying
you are wrong, I am saying there is a bigger reason why all those product
defects exist. It's the culture. It's the talent.
~~~
rezashirazian
I don't know, I think what he is saying are small steps toward the overall
goal of fixing the company.
There isn't a magic bullet with Yahoo. They gradually lost their dominance and
succumbed to irrelevance. The fix will also be gradual and with small steps
------
karmacondon
The media's Mayer pile on is getting old. Every article is focused on her
personally, as opposed to the company as a whole. I understand how echo
chamber effects and memes work, but this seems a bit extreme even for the
internet.
It's like blaming someone who dropped a last second touchdown pass for losing
the game. Yes, it would have been nice if that player could have done a better
job. But it would also have been nice if everyone else on the team hadn't made
any mistakes either, making a last second play unnecessary.
She was very well compensated for failing, but that doesn't mean that she
acted in bad faith. Many executives have compensation packages that are
heavily based on performance. Apparently hers wasn't. Ultimately there is a
lot of blame to go around for the demise of Yahoo!, not the least to other
half dozen CEOs they've had in the last decade or so. You win the fight today
based on the preparations and positioning you did years ago. For all her
mistakes, that's not on Mayer.
------
WalterBright
I've tried several finance portals, and Yahoo's is far and away the best. With
a single url, I can get a snapshot of the stocks I'm interested in, thumbnails
of the day's performance, links for more detail, etc.:
[https://finance.yahoo.com/quotes/GSC,AAPL,EBAY,JPM,NOK,LLY,S...](https://finance.yahoo.com/quotes/GSC,AAPL,EBAY,JPM,NOK,LLY,SPY,XLK,YHOO/view/v1)
~~~
PhantomGremlin
Finance is still usable, but has been getting worse.
For example, they used to have "basic charts" that were clear and easy to
comprehend. Then they removed that feature (but kept the link in the sidebar
for many months). The remaining "interactive charts" are IMO not as easy to
comprehend. Also they are missing features. E.g. with the old charts it was
easy to quickly see when historical stock splits had occurred. With the new
charts you have to hover over each big "S" icon.
It all smacks of 2nd rate people putting in a 3rd rate effort, just to show
they're doing something. But what they're doing is by no means an improvement
to what was there previously.
Edit: forgot to mention that, compared to Yahoo, Google Finance is a pathetic
joke. It's a night and day difference. It's like Google is actively trying to
be bad.
Surely there must be a finance portal that's better. I wouldn't mind paying
for something good.
~~~
WalterBright
I am a little surprised, since the people who code those sites are likely to
be investors, so wouldn't they notice immediately if they aren't good?
------
tlogan
I wonder why people think Yahoo! was not fixable.
I have been using Yahoo! Email (from time when it was sbcglobal), Flickr,
reading Yahoo! Finance, and having Yahoo! News as my home page. I do not use
any of these any more.
Here is my list how to fix Yahoo!:
1) fix Yahoo! Email (MS did it with outlook.com - Yahoo! could do the same)
2) fix Flickr (i.e., API should work, iPhone upload, some IA, etc.)
3) fix Yahoo! Finance (I remember that they disabled Yahoo! groups for stocks
at one point of time - after that flop they never recovered)
4) fix Yahoo! News
I'm not really sure what needs to be "fixed" but something so I can start
using the above service again.
Or maybe to build something new.
------
vessenes
In 2007, Jobs famously told Yahoo it had to choose a path
Yahoo needed to decide whether it would focus foremost on media or technology,
Jobs told the small group of assembled executives, according to one
executive who attended the meeting. -- BusinessWeek, 2009
I can't find the quote now, but one exec said they knew he was right, but they
just couldn't decide. I think this conundrum continues to be at the heart of
the Yahoo! problem -- they just can't decide.
The SpringOwl proposal essentially says Yahoo should just get with the program
and be a Media company. And, I like that pitch. The playbook is essentially:
1) Massively cut staff, and some other one-time things like real estate
2) Stop trying to compete on hard tech like search, because they can't beat
Google or Facebook
3) re-monetize the home page and create a more walled garden by creating apps
that kick ass over competitors (note these are now media competitors) and are
directly fed by the media channels that are working: they like finance and
sports to start.
To me, this plan reads well, although I don't buy the austerity on top of
layoffs angle -- who would continue to work there? One way or the other,
you're going to have to provide a competitive comp, upside and lifestyle story
unless they move to Kansas.
I don't know if it really gets the value creation they say it will, but if
well executed, I think this is a believable way for Yahoo! to carve out its
best shot at a niche and audience. If I imagine a Yahoo Finance app made by
truly great devs up against any number of competitors, I think it could be a
win. Same with say fantasy sports apps, team-oriented apps, all those could
tie together very well.
------
interesting_att
The article brings up the important point on Yahoo's acquisitions. For the
billions it spent, it got barely anything in return. The real canary in the
coal mine was Summly. Mayer paid 30M for an app that licensed its core machine
learning (which is why she bought the app in the first place). Unsure how
anyone could have expected Tumblr to be a smart acquisition at that price.
------
rdlecler1
Yahoo is the MySpace of search. She raised it's profile but ultimately there's
very little Marisa could have done to change that. If NetFlix was clearly such
a great investment at the time it would have been worth what it is today.
------
aj7
Mayer was given garbage. She realized this very quickly. The aim then shifted
to maximal extraction of money from the corpse. This is best accomplished with
a a lot of smiles and earnest window dressing.
------
sremani
I am genuinely curious, Tencent (of China) looks very similar to Yahoo! esp.
being portal business, why are they flourishing and why the heck can Yahoo!
not copy Tencent's strategy. It looks very obvious to me, that Yahoo should be
more like Tencent and probably have Hulu/Vimeo, Whatsapp/Telegraph or whole
slew of mobile apps and games etc.
~~~
azurezyq
Tencent is one of the most successful social network company ever, which Yahoo
is nowhere close. The social as of Tencent as a business has been good for
years. If Yahoo just copies the product and the strategy to launching more
social + mobile apps, it still needs more years until successful (if it can).
Think about G+.
------
webdevb
Not surprising, considering her policy on banning telecommuting :
[http://www.pcworld.com/article/2038639/why-yahoos-
telecommut...](http://www.pcworld.com/article/2038639/why-yahoos-
telecommuting-ban-is-still-bad-for-business.html)
------
martin1975
Perhaps it's time for Icahn to 'save' Yahoo?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Chinese rocket Long March-5 carrier launch fails after liftoff - yadongwen
http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/02/asia/china-rocket-launch/index.html
======
amiralul
It's not a blow, it's natural for a rocket's first flights. Check out Ariane 5
performance in its first 14 flights and remember that last week we had Ariane
5 80 consecutive flight without an issue. It takes time to iron out rocket
problems.
------
mc32
That's a blow to their space program... but I thought Twitter was blocked in
China, how come Xinhua gets to use it? And why, it's not like other middle
country people can access Twitter.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
On finally learning to program at the age of 40 - nfrankel
https://github.com/Dhghomon/programming_at_40/
======
susam
The Logo screenshot used in this article was created by me for my own blog
post here: [https://susam.in/blog/good-quality-dosbox-video-
capture/](https://susam.in/blog/good-quality-dosbox-video-capture/)
I contributed this image to Wikipedia at
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:IBM_LCSI_Logo_Circles.png](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:IBM_LCSI_Logo_Circles.png),
so that it could be added to the Wikipedia article on Logo at
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logo_(programming_language)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logo_\(programming_language\)).
It is fun to see this image being reused in this article!
By the way, the article mentions that Logo did not provide a very good
experience to the author. However, in my life, Logo has had a significant
impact on me. I have written a detailed comment about it here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21374341](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21374341).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Is Stripe going to ban Onlyfans for processing adult content payments? - solaarphunk
Seems like onlyfans is primarily in the adult content business, however, they appear to use stripe to process payments. Most card processors have clauses against supporting this type of activity, but it appears that Stripe is probably making a ton of money, given the growth of Onlyfans.
======
RickS
This was asked recently:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24291790](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24291790)
Relevant answer:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24294801](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24294801)
TLDR: onlyfans uses multiple payment processors, and presumably shuffles
customers to different ones based on risk. The adult payments likely don't go
through stripe.
~~~
leerob
OnlyFans might have just gotten bit by this. A popular celebrity joined
OnlyFans [1], created a bunch of turnover (chargebacks), and some policies
changed.
[1]: [https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/celebrity/sex-workers-
bl...](https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/celebrity/sex-workers-blame-bella-
thorne-changes-onlyfans-harm-their-income-n1238810)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Launch HN: Tress (YC W17) – Online community for black women's hairstyles - priscahazel
Tress (<a href="https://www.tressapp.co" rel="nofollow">https://www.tressapp.co</a>) is an online community for black women to discover and share hairstyle inspiration, information and tips.
Women upload photos of their hairstyles and share information about their style. Users can discuss how to replicate the look, which products were used and where to get similar hairstyles.<p>We are 3 software engineers who have built health social networks, mobile apps for farmers in Africa, and worked on marketing consumer
brands like Nike. We started Tress because this is a challenge that personally affects us and because it's a big market that is still relatively untapped by technology.<p>Hair is a big deal for black women. We are constantly changing our hairstyles and spend 9 times more on our hair than any other
demographic. We don't just get a regular cut or color our hair. We get drastic! We go from braids to weaves to cornrows and then to our own
hair and then back again. Size, length, style, color, volume of hair, weaves and extensions all differ each time we change our hairstyle.
And we do that often because of the nature of our hair. To give you an idea, these photos are all of the same woman - <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/52ew0d8hsxwx0k4/JodianHairstyles.png?dl=0" rel="nofollow">https://www.dropbox.com/s/52ew0d8hsxwx0k4/JodianHairstyles.p...</a> - It's an image from our YC demo day slides.<p>The process of figuring all this out to actually getting a style done is long and broken. Many women spend a ton of time searching for their next hairstyle, then more time figuring out how to replicate the style via tutorial articles/videos or search for a stylist and so on. Tress aims to be the dedicated platform to fix all of this and connect a community of women who often socialize around their unique hair needs.<p>One thing that excites us as software engineers is exploring how to use computer vision to tell if a user has 4a, 4b or 4c natural hair curl pattern or if a hairstyle is a Senegalese twists or Havana mambo twists. We are equally excited to be gathering hair products data and usage patterns around our hairstyles in such an informal sector that technology has barely gotten started in yet. We dream of things like an API that has all the data about the hair products black women have used in the past 5 years.<p>We're looking forward to answering your questions about Tress and discussing startups, software, and of course hair!
======
michaelbuckbee
This seems like a tremendously clever idea. To me the most relevant phrase
from the text posted above is: "...and worked on marketing consumer brands
like Nike"
Because I think that's what this really is: the launch of a new premium
consumer brand. Tress is capturing consumers at _exactly_ the right time, they
all have purchase intent and it seems targeted really really well.
They can make serious money recommending local stylists, products, etc. and
then turn around and also sell their own branded products.
This is really far outside of what I'm familiar with, but I look at past
things I scoffed at and that are now worth billions [1] and think this might
have a real shot at getting huge.
It all comes down to execution and work, but a really interesting idea even
now.
1 -
[http://investor.lululemon.com/releasedetail.cfm?releaseid=96...](http://investor.lululemon.com/releasedetail.cfm?releaseid=962616)
~~~
priscahazel
Thanks for the feedback. You have captured the essence of Tress and what we
are working towards.
------
rockmeamedee
Cool!
Sounds like you have many interesting problems, on top of the usual fun
challenges of running a social network+cross platform app. Computer vision,
recommenders for hairstyles, products, stylists, and probably many more. Then
you have usage information about all of those you could use in a bunch of
ways.
And you can monetise with simple, relevant, products ads, or get a commission
off booking a stylist, or collaborate with a booking platform like TresseNoire
(although that's NYC only for now I guess). So that's a lot more options than
many YC backed startups.
A few questions. Feel free to ignore them if there are too many.
It says you're hiring engineers and designers on your website. Care to go to
into more specifics about what kind of positions you're hiring for?
Semi-OT in the "only care about users" YC world, but just curious, what's your
stack?
It says on your website that you're based in Ghana. Do you plan on going back
there after YC, or staying in SV to make it easier to find tech workers+VC
money, or have a foot in both places?
~~~
mseolatunde
Hi, I'm the Engineering Lead at Tress and we're a lean team of 3. Right now,
we're looking to hire 1 Front End Engineer as we want to launch our web
version for SEO (we realised that Google App Indexing is not enough and we're
missing a lot of SEO opportunities on the web), 1 iOS engineer and 1 UI/UX
designer.
Our top level stack is Ruby on Rails, Postgresql, Redis, AWS, Heroku, Java,
Objective C & Swift.
We initially tested our product in Ghana. But our user base has grown since
and our users are from all over the world with a significant majority from
Africa and the US. We are and will be based in Silicon Valley going forward.
It's a global app and our goal is to have our foot placed globally
------
cperciva
_Hair is a big deal for black women. We are constantly changing our hairstyles
and spend 9 times more on our hair than any other demographic. We don 't just
get a regular cut or color our hair. We get drastic! We go from braids to
weaves to cornrows and then to our own hair and then back again. Size, length,
style, color, volume of hair, weaves and extensions all differ each time we
change our hairstyle. And we do that often because of the nature of our hair._
As a white guy whose approach to hair basically amounts to "I want to be able
to ignore it as much as possible", I'd love to understand this better. What is
it about black (womens'?) hair which lends itself to a wide range of hair
styles?
~~~
whatok
Recommend this:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Hair](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Hair)
~~~
phoboslab
Interesting clip from Good Hair:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCEX34-1o6M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCEX34-1o6M)
------
notlisted
Great idea. You mention how much time is spent on looking at/for styles (incl.
members of my family) but I'm not sure everyone here is aware of the average
spend on hair and hair-related products: Mintel estimates the 2016 spend on
black haircare products is about $2.5BB.
Not included in this number (and typically underreported because many services
are rendered in non-official salons) hairstyling services. When family members
go to the 'salon' it often involves many hours and hundred(s) of dollars for a
single visit. Haircare expenditures are a significant budget item - no matter
how wealthy.
I'll pass the app on to my family. Let's see what they say.
~~~
priscahazel
Thanks, apart from the amount of time we spend on our hair, we spend a lot of
money as well just to get our desired hairstyle. Hair is definitely huge part
of the monthly family /individual budget. We'll love to hear their feedback on
Tress. Our email is [email protected]
------
exolymph
I'm a little skeptical in terms of whether this will be a scaleable business,
but I love that you're targeting a demographic that SV doesn't usually pay
attention to.
You should totally work with black beauty YouTubers like Jackie Aina and
Alissa Ashley!
~~~
priscahazel
Thanks for the feedback. We didn't go into detail about our business model.
For us, we see the social community as the first step to driving social
commerce. We intend to leverage on the community to drive product sales for
brands/products that target black women's hair. It's definitely scalable.
Jackie Aina and Alissa Ashley are great suggestions, definitely intend to work
with them.
------
40acres
Excellent job, this has the potential to be huge. I told my girlfriend about
you guys last week and she seemed impressed. The first self made female
millionaire in the US was in the hair buisness [1], I think it's a market that
is underserved by traditional companies because it requires such a specialized
touch. Good luck.
[1]
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madam_C._J._Walker](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madam_C._J._Walker)
------
gcav
This is brilliant - your target market is passionate and spends serious money
on a pain point you are solving. And while I'm sure you are well connected in
Accra, I can't help but mention Ashesi University. Super talented engineers
coming out of that school
~~~
priscahazel
Thanks for the feedback. Yes we do know of Ashesi University and yes they do
have talented engineers coming out of there.
------
purple-dragon
Congrats and good luck!
One minor issue I noticed with your website: most users will expect that
clicking on the page indicator in your carousel (where you feature
testimonials) will trigger the appropriate content change. Nothing happens
when I click on these indicators and there's no obvious way for me to flip
through the testimonials other than to wait with my mouse hovering over an
adjacent section (since it seems the carousel is paused when the mouse hovers
in that section).
~~~
mseolatunde
Good catch! Thanks for the feedback. Will be fixed shortly.
------
claytonjy
The computerized detection of hair type and style sounds really interesting.
How far down this path are you now, are you planning on a deep-neural-net
(e.g. CNN's) or something simpler?
Would certainly make for a unique image-classification problem, with its own
interesting challenges; a collection of images of black women with different
hairstyles will be a lot more visually similar than a collection of
dogs/cars/mountains.
~~~
mseolatunde
Yup, it's interesting! We're in the early stage of this, currently
experimenting with [Keras]([https://keras.io/](https://keras.io/)) and
focusing on the inception pre-trained network. Our goal is to retrain the top
layer of the network using the tags/hair types/categories we're collecting on
the app as labels.
------
pryelluw
Why are you launching here and not on a facebook group dedicated to such
market? There are also instagram micro influencers (less than 10k followers)
you could also leverage...
Not being a hater but launching here seems silly from the POV of marketing.
This seems like something that would get traction rather quickly if pushed in
the right context.
Trust me. Put ads on facebook with your target demographics and search IG for
women of color with a good amount of followers. That stuff works like magic.
Edit:
If you email me I can introduce you to one such group that has a lot of active
users and is led by a black lady. You can pivot from there.
\---
Just realized my comment makes me sound like a huge dick. Not my intention. Im
excited about the product and wish you the best of luck. I do feel strongly
about marketing it (even if not my own project) and that made te words come
out too strong.
~~~
dang
YC startups are launching as "Launch HN" these days, which is a new mechanism
that we intend eventually to replace some of the job ads that appear on the
front page. It's all a work in progress. But we would have invited Tress to
post even apart from that, because it's so off-the-beaten-track for HN, and
that's what keeps things interesting.
You're right that HN isn't the best place to launch consumer products for
customer acquisition, but there are other reasons to launch on HN, such as
discussing ideas, product feedback, and getting on users' radar for future
hiring. No reason not to do all the launches!
p.s. As a local professional in the 'omg that's bad' department I can assure
you that it's always the good users who worry about sounding like a dick :)
Your comment shows how an excess of enthusiasm can sometimes come out the
wrong way temporarily, but explaining it as nicely as you did makes it all ok.
~~~
pryelluw
Thank you, dang. Last thing I want to do is rain on someones parade. Startups
are hard enough already.
------
wehadfun
The "Address" you listed on your website is very interesting how does it work?
Their address by the way:
Banana Street, Off American House, East Legon, Accra, Ghana
~~~
frydrik
I used to live in Ghana. Addresses are landmark-based as nobody knows street
names. In this case the landmark is "American house". So it is a proper
address in Ghanaian terms.
~~~
yannyu
India is another place where this is fairly common. Addresses in the US are
ridiculously simple and easy compared to many other countries.
------
ericzawo
This is an awesome idea — forwarded to a few friends.
~~~
priscahazel
Thanks, we'll love to hear their feedback. Our email is [email protected]
------
koolba
Interesting topic and I can see how this is a daily issue for some, but I
don't get the startup angle. What's the eventual monetization angle? Referrals
for hair stylists? Paid membership to get new lists of or customized styles?
Which of the pictures of the girl (linked to the dropbox share) is closest to
her natural hair? The styles are so varied it's impossible to tell! On the
aesthetic front (obviously IMHO) it's a toss up between Oct 2016 and Dec 2016
for best (though all look very nice!).
~~~
priscahazel
We will monetize through product sales, stylists booking/referrals like you
mentioned and native ads targeted at specific hair types within the black
hair-care community.
With regards to your second question, the closest to her natural hair is the
1st pic (Nov 2016). Hers will be much shorter and will have to be straightened
to look like this. It's surprising that none of the styles show her own hair.
~~~
wehadfun
I would avoid trying to charge for bookings. You will be the victim of
Disintermediation because the stylist will tell give the client their number
and say to not use trees to book.
I would suggest charging stylist to attached their searchable location and
phone numbers to picture of hair styles. In other words charge them for
advertising.
~~~
priscahazel
Thanks for the feedback and suggestion. Will look into that option as well.
------
wehadfun
A way for hairstylist to market their work and a way for black women to find
hairstylist is a problem. Especially when "sistas" relocate to a new area.
~~~
uncletaco
Funny story: Rachel Dolezal is apparently one of the few women in Spokane, WA
who knows how to style black hair, and she's been able to keep herself afloat
by doing black girls' hair.
------
andkon
This is so cool. Also what convinced you to go Android-first? Any discoveries
that were especially surprising there?
~~~
priscahazel
We initially tested Tress in Ghana and Nigeria and android devices are more
predominant because they are more affordable and not as restrictive.
------
RangerScience
This feels relevant, although only somewhat:
[https://www.google.com/?q=Amasunzu+hairstyle](https://www.google.com/?q=Amasunzu+hairstyle)
"Amasunzu is an elaborate hairstyle traditionally worn by Rwandan worn by men
and unmarried women."
------
sbardle
Couldn't someone just do a hashtag search on Instagram?
Why not just go big and do a social network for hairstyling in general?
I think the social commerce angle could be great for revenue, esp now
Instagram are starting to launch it.
~~~
priscahazel
Could you download and check out the app? There are a lot of nuances and
specificity that can not be achieved via a hashtag on Instagram. On why not a
social network for hair styling in general; same reason - nuances and
specificity of our hair textures.
~~~
sbardle
Just taken a look. I see what you mean, lots of nuances. Nice product!
------
kkt262
For other companies looking to get into YC, what do you think were the main
factors that helped you get into the accelerator?
------
gscott
I had a black girlfriend once and she he told me to watch the movie Good Hair.
It was eye opening and I recommend the movie for everyone to watch.
------
erik14th
Is there a plan to expand to a larger/more heterogeneous demographic?
~~~
ksenzee
There's way less of a market in other demographics. For example, white women:
we have less interesting hair. There simply aren't as many things we can do
with it, because the structure of the individual hairs is less complex. Plus
we have every women's magazine in the US and Europe assuming our hair is the
"default." I'd say they know exactly what they're doing aiming at their own
demographic.
------
anothercomment
It sounds trivial, but it could actually be an important stepping stone
towards ending poverty and world hunger. Less time wasted on hair == more time
for earning money. Well played.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Get-shit-done - Easy way to stop distractions - leftnode
https://github.com/leftnode/get-shit-done
======
adnam
I once wrote a similar script which was configurable and it installed as a
service. It would periodically scan /etc/hosts to check I wasn't cheating.
$ sudo /etc/inid.d/procrastination-ctl start
OK.
$ sudo /etc/inid.d/procrastination-ctl stop
You need to wait 59 minutes before you can stop.
Managed to waste a whole day on that one.
~~~
tgandrews
> Managed to waste a whole day on that one
I love the irony.
~~~
adnam
I always wanted to rename the script to "/etc/init.d/procrastination" whereby
the command "stop" would start the service and vice-versa.
------
JacobAldridge
Nowhere near as broad-ranging, but I'll make the note for HN users not aware
of it - if HN is your sole (main?) distraction, you can use the noprocrast
feature on your user page. Change to Yes, add a max time you allow yourself to
visit HN and then the min time you want to be forced to be away.
As I say, nowhere near as broadly applicable or useful as the OP, but worth
noting especially if (like me) HN is your distraction of choice and you have
minimal technical skills.
~~~
lionhearted
After playing with noprocrast, I found very good settings for me are
maxvisit: 20
minaway: 1
That means, every 20 minutes HN kicks me off for one minute. I leave it like
that constantly - it means if I'm spending time on here nonstop for an hour or
two, I get a couple little reminders to ask myself if I really want to be on
here. If I do, it's not a big deal to get up and make myself a tea or whatever
until 1 minute passes, if not I close the tab and get to business, and it's
low enough that I don't cheat by logging in with another browser or Chrome
Incognito Mode.
------
bajsejohannes
I do this, although only by saying
sudo cp hosts.play /etc/hosts
or
sudo cp hosts.work /etc/hosts
It's simple, and surprisingly efficient.
~~~
ianl
The only problem with this method is that if you modify your hosts file, you
have to modify both.
~~~
pyre
Just create a Makefile or something that cats together hosts.common and
hosts.work or hosts.play.
all:
cat hosts.common hosts.work.in > hosts.work
cat hosts.common hosts.play.in > hosts.play
Make common changes to hosts.common and easily build your final hosts files.
play:
cat hosts.play | sudo tee /etc/hosts > /dev/null
work:
cat hosts.work | sudo tee /etc/hosts > /dev/null
------
ericmoritz
I used StayFocusd for a day or two and realized I was a lost cause when I
found myself opening its sqlite database in my Chrome profile to add time to
the clock.
~~~
aniket_ray
Unfortunately you can just right click and disable extensions on chrome. Since
the exit barrier is so low, I was always able to exit even when I shouldn't
have.
------
agj
Why such interest in this script? Besides being written in php, it's also a
fairly kludgey approach to managing /etc/hosts. Is it the vulgarities?
#!/bin/sh
[ $UID -eq 0 ] || { echo "You're not root, asshole."; exit 1; }
[ -f "/etc/hosts.$1" ] || { echo "/etc/hosts.$1 doesn't exist, asshole."; exit 1; }
cat /etc/hosts.{$1,tail} > /etc/hosts
...
sudo ~/bin/stopfuckingoff play
~~~
thyrsus
It was a sad day when Red Hat removed the insults from sudo.
------
thurn
For Mac users, SelfControl is a GUI approach to this idea:
<http://visitsteve.com/made/selfcontrol/>
~~~
guywithabike
One of the best features is that it runs on a timer and you can't cancel it
prematurely. Even if you restart.
~~~
rimantas
You can. It uses ipfw, and I think you can reset the rules. At least I managed
when I tried it, but this was some 3 years ago.
------
rbxbx
Sorry to be the guy decrying PHP, but the only arguments I've found in it's
favor are it's ubiquity and being sometimes "the right tool for the job" if
you're quickly hacking together a dynamic webpage.
Surely a simple cli app isn't the right job for this tool.
Now, all that said, it _does_ work, and blahblahblah.
~~~
yogsototh
Yep, beware I didn't even tested it:
#!/usr/bin/env zsh
(($#<1)) && {
print -- "usage: $0:t (play|work)"
exit 1
}>&2
blacklist=(
reddit.com
ycombinator.com
slashdot.com
)
hostfile=/etc/host
if [[ $1 = "play" ]]; then
if [[ ! -e $hostfile.orig ]]; then
cp $hostfile{,.orig}
else
print -- "You're already playin" >&2
exit 1
fi
cp $hostfile{.orig,}
for elem in $blacklist; do
print -- "127.0.0.1\t$elem" >> /etc/host
print -- "127.0.0.1\twww.$elem" >> /etc/host
done
fi
if [[ $1 = "work" ]]; then
cp $hostfile{.orig,}
\rm $hostfile.orig
fi
/etc/init.d/networking restart
------
robinduckett
Thank god! Let me just waste some time getting this installed and then I'll
waste some more time testing it, then I'll waste some more time posting this
comment to hacker news.
------
pfarrell
<https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/leechblock/>
does windows of access, allows for x minutes, has grouping. Course, it's FF
only where hosts file gets your whole connection.
~~~
rodh257
StayFocusd for Chrome Users -
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/laankejkbhbdhmipfm...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/laankejkbhbdhmipfmgcngdelahlfoji)
latest version has a neat feature which tracks links from blocked pages. Ie if
I give myself 15 mins of HN a day, but end up wasting 2 hours because I only
spend 10 secs on HN opening up tabs to read, it now tracks that. Any links you
click from HN will count towards your time limit.
------
skid
Isn't the point of this approach to be _difficult_ to switch back and forth?
Next thing you know there will be a chrome extension that swaps your hosts
file and you will be separated from procrastination by a single click.
~~~
georgieporgie
I found it useful to force myself to manually comment/uncomment lines in my
hosts file. It gives a critical few moments for a bit of humiliation to set
in, as you realize how desperate you are for diversion. On the other end, it
gives a moment to mentally pat yourself on the back for eliminating the
distractions.
------
chriswoodford
i'm actually surprised at the amount of time people spend procrastinating on
something to help them stop procrastinating...
or even more surprising might be the amount of time i've spent procrastinating
by reading about people who've procrastinated by making tools to aid their
procrastination...
...I'm going to get back to work :)
------
keeganpoppen
Instead of doing work, I got stuck modding this to get better behavior for
Mac. First I tried to figure out what the $restartNetworkingCommand mac
equivalent was (dscacheutil -flushcache for those who are curious). This works
pretty well for non-Chrome browsers (i.e. browsers that don't have absurd
caching behavior). Then, given that Chrome (which maintains its own DNS
cache-- a decidedly not absurd caching behavior, I acknowledge) is my browser
of choice, I also set out to fix it so I didn't need to restart Chrome. This
endeavor I have accomplished using one of my favorite jank-tastic tactics:
running applescript from the command line.
So here is my (Mac OS X 10.6+?) change:
$restartNetworkingCommand = 'dscacheutil -flushcache; osascript <<EOF tell
application "Google Chrome" make new tab at end of tabs of window 1 with
properties {URL:"chrome://net-internals/#dns"} activate delay .5 set URL of
active tab of window 1 to
"javascript:document.getElementById(\'clearHostResolverCache\').click()" end
tell delay .5 tell application "System Events" to keystroke "w" using {command
down} EOF';
This, of course is made even more jank-tastic by manually sending command-w to
close the window-- googling the proper command was more difficult than just
doing it live :).
So yeah-- clearly I needed this script before reading this post, but if I had
it probably would have done some terrible things to the space-time
continuum... I guess I'll just amortize the one-time cost by actually using
the script. Starting now.
~~~
keeganpoppen
yikes-- that formatting got butchered... anyone know if there's a better way
to put code in comments?
------
datasink
<https://github.com/killsaw/Timeguard>
A similar script, but with an 'addsite whatever.com' command.
------
neurolysis
For anyone interested, I rewrote this entirely in bash.
<https://github.com/cdown/ncrast/blob/master/ncrast>
<http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=48731>
------
ivankirigin
I do this, and my scripts have actually gotten kind of complicated.
To start, it's a command line utility. I need to answer the question "Do you
want to waste your time?" with "yes" to turn off the filters.
Then I didn't bother running in a way that the script had permissions to edit
/etc/hosts so I need to enter my system password every time I want to make a
change.
I also automatically turn the filters on every hour.
I also log both the number of times I turn the filters off and whether the
filter is on at about 1pm.
I'm running a test right now to not turn on the filters automatically every
hour and there is already a noticeable decrease in productivity in my
rescuetime.
I'm about to update the logger to use the google charts API to save a historic
graph of performance to a directory that is used as my desktop background.
------
radu_floricica
Use to use cumbersome hacks with block lists in routers, but I discovered the
SiteBlock extension for Chrome: make a list of "dangerous" sites, and give
yourself a fixed time per day to visit them. In my casa, one hour works fine
(although I'd probably prefer 2 :p)
Address:
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pfglnpdpgmecffbejl...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pfglnpdpgmecffbejlfgpnebopinlclj)
Website Blocker seems to be similar, but without a time limit:
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hclgegipaehbigmbhd...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hclgegipaehbigmbhdpfapmjadbaldib)
------
jcromartie
I've ported this to a Bash script which is simpler and more extensible. It
uses env variables to facilitate customization.
<https://gist.github.com/955437>
------
dananjaya86
A crude implementation of Get-shit-done in Python.
<https://github.com/dananjayavr/get-shit-done>
------
rebelidealist
For mac users, the Self Control app works really well.
<http://visitsteve.com/made/selfcontrol/>
------
yeag123
A Chrome extension that I use pretty regularly for this sort of thing is Stay
Focused: <http://goo.gl/gHWFQ>
------
mrtron
I permanently blocked all from my laptop and only surf from my iPad now. Works
great for me.
~~~
john2x
Curious, how do you permanently block the sites?
~~~
georgieporgie
I think it just means that the sites stay redirected in his hosts file.
~~~
mrtron
Correct. If I ever catch myself surfing to a website from my laptop, it gets
bookmarked for my iPad and blocked in my /etc/hosts.
------
jarin
I took a really simple approach: removing HN, Facebook, Clicky, and Google
Reader from my bookmarks bar. Having to type them in manually instead of
compulsively clicking is enough to limit me to an hour or two of dicking
around per day.
~~~
FaceKicker
I don't even use bookmarks because it would take longer to click a bookmark
than typing "n" for HN (or "r" for reddit or "f" for facebook) and letting
Chrome auto-complete and pressing enter, so this wouldn't help me that much.
~~~
jarin
Oh, I guess I would call myself a "burst typer", so I usually find it faster
to just type all or most of the domain than to type one letter and check to
see if Chrome got the right thing. But of course that requires a little bit of
effort, so it's still just enough to make me consider whether to go there or
get some work done.
I just subconsciously don't trust one-letter autocomplete I guess.
~~~
kami8845
in firefox i have 'red' <down> <enter> already ingrained for reddit, same with
'new' for HN ... it's automatic and you can't tell me typing it all out is
faster :P
------
patrickk
Thankfully this was the first link on the HN homepage. Just reading the
articles and comments made me feel sufficiently guilty to stop reading any
more :)
------
bearwithclaws
Throw in some ASCII art to make things sweeter:
figlet -f univers time to work! | boxes
figlet -f starwars game time! | boxes -d dog
------
swah
How does this compare to Programming, Motherfucker?
------
chriswoodford
this comment thread is turning into quite the social experiment. is ADD a
prerequisite for being a good programmer/hacker/etc...?
------
huherto
Just a quick hack. I added timer-applet in ubuntu. I work on 30 mins intervals
and then rest 5 mins. It is pretty handy.
~~~
MauriceFlanagan
Similar to this, I use eternity time tracker on my iphone to work in 30 minute
intervals. During the interval, no email, news sites etc. It has worked really
well for me.
------
rbarooah
Safari users might like <http://www.mindfulbrowsing.com>
------
keefe
treating the symptoms rather than the disease is only a good choice for short
term or for incurable diseases
~~~
eswat
You may be right. But repeating an action forms a habit, or in this case
learning to not repeatedly open up HN or Reddit can become a long-term habit
for anyone with the right mindset.
~~~
keefe
my main point being that if they stop with HN/Reddit something else will fill
that gap. Not working is the issue.
------
lani
oh no !! i checked the list of sites being blocked, now have more of them to
check up on ....
------
djbriane
Does it block Outlook because thats the real reason I can't get anything done
these days.
------
JoeAltmaier
Does it have a timer to keep me from modifying it every 2 minutes?
~~~
calloc
Use FreeBSD, set the kernlevel to something above the minimum, and add the
flags to the file so it can't be changed, then until you reboot you won't be
able to modify the hosts file =)
------
sriram_sun
I'd call it git-er-done
------
sbkirk
So distracted by this.
------
rch
I might as well plug tasktop - it's great.
------
ajarmoniuk
Block reddit in /etc/hosts.
Memorize reddit's IP.
------
m0wfo
This will obviously leave me continuously trying to access hacker news while
preventing me from doing so. My continued attempts will block all other
operations [i.e. work] hence creating a race condition.
Far preferable is the event-driven technique whereby I make a cursory attempt
at doing some real stuff until the HN bot tweets something of fleeting
interest, at which point I defer said real stuff to a background thread to be
completed in an asynchronous fashion.
------
idonthack
Is this really worthy of HN frontpage? Seriously, who among us couldn't write
something similar in 5 minutes or less?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Let your customers do the selling - acoyfellow
http://sendgrowth.com/blog/let-your-customers-tell-the-story-of-your-brand/
======
jmzbond
This reminds me of the tips and tricks I've read about when you have customer
complaints.
Especially in the early stages, really engage the customer. Get the customer
involved in solving their own problem by telling them what the situation looks
like from your perspective and if they have other ideas. Then over-deliver.
Zappo's once delivered a pizza to a customer that misdialed them.
Those experiences are what convert detractors to promoter-evangelists.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Donald Trump's voicemails hacked by Anonymous - dineshp2
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-elections/donald-trumps-voicemails-hacked-by-anonymous-a6913861.html
======
leereeves
What they found matches what Trump himself said:
_“I gave to many people before this -- before two months ago I was a
businessman. I give to everybody. When they call, I give. And you know what,
when I need something from them two years later, three years later, I call
them. They are there for me. That 's a broken system.”_
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Steve Wozniak's First Dance on "Dancing with the Stars" - zeedotme
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoiGJMZjs0o&eurl=http://thenextweb.com/#
======
coglethorpe
OK, I'll admit to watching The Woz dance. I think he moved pretty well for a
big guy, but the judges didn't agree with me.
It was great to hear him go on about how he's used to digital things and how
dance is analog, all while his dance partner's eyes glazed over. He's lost 30
pounds while practicing for the competition, so even if he loses the
competition right away, he's got that going for him.
It's also great to see Woz, who apparently doesn't need the money, doing it
just for fun. He stands out from some of the other "celebrities" who really
are just desperate for a paycheck. It was obvious he was having a blast and
his dance partner said he was the nicest man she's ever met.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Women in Science (Science as a career) - philf
http://philip.greenspun.com/careers/women-in-science
======
araneae
Nice story, but how do you then explain the massive numbers of women in
sociology/anthropology/English lit? The pay is even worse in those fields.
I totally buy that guys are more willing to sacrifice pay for prestige, but it
doesn't wholly explain why science in particular is missing women; just
academia.
~~~
geebee
That's a good observation. Much of Greenspun's theory is based on male
irrationality (men are more likely to pursue science Ph.D's because they are
less likely to make sensible decisions than women). However, the legions of
women in lit PhD programs proves that they, too, can be incredibly irrational
by this standard.
A few possible differences... Greenspun does include "quantitative ability" in
his agument that "Adjusted for IQ, quantitative skills, and working hours,
jobs in science are the lowest paid in the United States." This wouldn't
include lit students. However, women who purse lit Ph.D's could still do law
school, and perhaps B-school.
Another factor is that nobody is trying to trick women into lit PhD's by
claiming that there's a shortage, whereas many people in high positions in the
US government and corporations do promote the notion that there's a critical
shortage of Americans pursuing PhDs in math, physical science, and
engineering... though still, this doesn't really address the "irrationality"
of lit PhDs - it just means that there isn't an industry of pushing people
into degrees that don't pay in the humanities.
Anyway, this is a good observation, definitely a potential weakness in
Greenspun's argument.
~~~
nostrademons
Men who pursue science Ph.Ds can also still do law school, or B-school. And a
physics Ph.D who _also_ has a J.D in intellectual property or an MBA in
finance is _incredibly_ valuable.
~~~
geebee
I agree that a physics PhD + JD or MBA degree is very valuable, probably more
valuable than the JD or MBA alone, but does it overcome the opportunity cost?
We're talking 7+ years of lost income, plus the possibility of extra student
debt.
~~~
nostrademons
In pure monetary terms, probably not, unless you start your own hedge fund.
But it'll let you work in areas that just a JD or MBA would not, and for a lot
of people that's valuable. And you're not nearly as financially _behind_ as if
you'd gotten the straight Ph.D and played the tenure/academia game.
------
Dilpil
It has been posted many times, but it is a classic- and highly relevant to
many of us here on HN.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Who's downloading pirated papers? Everyone - nkurz
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/04/whos-downloading-pirated-papers-everyone
======
leot
Elsevier and others can go something themselves.
Their behavior over the last two decades has been little more than
reprehensible rent-seeking. Whatever goodwill they had disappeared as they
sapped with increasing ruthlessness the dollars of students and non-profits.
See, e.g., one of many such figures:
[http://www.lib.washington.edu/scholpub/images/economics_grap...](http://www.lib.washington.edu/scholpub/images/economics_graph.png)
It is absurd and dishonest to call Sci-Hub "piracy", given that all of its
contents were originally created and given away with the express goal of wide
dissemination.
~~~
nailer
I don't understand academia (genuinely):
Couldn't the researchers simply publish their own papers? Make torrents etc?
Or are they prevented from doing that somehow?
~~~
dalke
Journals are used as a proxy for quality. A publication in "Science" or
"Nature" is generally regarded as being better than a publication in, say, the
"Proceedings of the National Academy of Science".
Bibliographic metrics, like the number of publications and where they are
published, are use as a proxy for the quality of someone's research. It can
affect grant funding and career advancement.
Researchers can publish their own papers. But researchers also tend to want
that work to be disseminated, both to spread knowledge and get recognition for
the work. Journals help simplify that process. A field typically has one or
two main journals, which most people in the field track. It's more likely that
a publication will be noticed if it's published in one of those papers.
~~~
nailer
> A publication in "Science" or "Nature"
What excludes the academic from also publishing elsewhere?
~~~
return0
Even if they could (and they can publish their preprints), scientists rarely
bother. That's because they want to communicate their science to people who
matter to them (e.g. grant giving bodies), not to the general public.
~~~
DarkContinent
Which raises the question of why we the taxpayers should be funding this
research if it's not easily available for the public good.
~~~
dalke
Copyright, according to the US Constitution, exists for the public good:
> To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited
> Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective
> Writings and Discoveries.
You may disagree with that conclusion, but there's 200+ years of belief that
it's possible to be "for the public good" _and_ be covered under copyright
which restricts redistribution. The short term loss is outweighed by the long
term gain, or so the belief holds.
Bear in mind that the copyright term back then was decades shorter than it is
now.
That said, grant organizations are turning towards requiring publication
either in an open access journal, or by having papers restricted for only a
short time, rather than the full length of copyright.
~~~
chris_wot
The Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, and even the Act before it (the
Copyright Act of 1976) seems to rather violate the constitution then:
1\. It doesn't promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts
2\. 120 years since creation or 95 years since publication for corporations,
or the life of the author plus 70 years is not what I would call particularly
"limited Times".
There may be 200+ years of belief in copyright, but things have significantly
changed in the last several thirty years. Copyright doesn't make as much sense
as it used to, and though openness and transparency has always been supported
in theory (and in practice by a minority) movements that support Open Source
over a range of disciplines far greater than just software are now quite
significant. Whilst it predates the Internet in it's current form, the current
web and other global distribution mechanisms powered by the Internet have
radically changed a lot of people's views about freedom of expression and
ideas.
~~~
dalke
Your objections were presented to the Supreme Court, who decided they were not
actually un-Constitutional in Eldred v. Ashcroft.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eldred_v._Ashcroft](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eldred_v._Ashcroft)
. You won't be the first to disagree with a Supreme Court decision. But the
only recourse you have is get the courts change their mind in the future, or
amend the Constitution.
I have a hard time empathizing with an argument which, with the change of a
few ephemeral names, Mad Libs style, could have been said at any time in the
last 200 years.
The statement "thing have significantly changed in the last several thirty
years" has been true for centuries. People in the the 1950s, or 1910s, or
1870s, could and likely did say the same thing.
Nor is your rhetoric about "openness and transparency" unique to these last
two decades. Look to the populists and muckrakers from around 1900s as
effective proponents of that. Look to the newspapers of the late 1800s, when
the Linotype made it possible to have cheap newspapers, and look to the growth
of wire services and the telephone, radio, and television, as recent examples
of other technologies which have "radically changed a lot of people's views
about freedom of expression and ideas."
~~~
chris_wot
"My" objections? Alrighty then.
~~~
dalke
Are our wires crossed again? I don't understand the point behind your reply.
~~~
chris_wot
Your comment seemed a bit... personal. Whilst you had some decent points, it
seemed like you were more arguing against my character.
~~~
dalke
I had no intention to argue against your character, nor upon rereading do I
see myself doing that.
I do argue against the meaningfulness of your comments, given the judgement in
Eldred, and given the last 250 years of incessant technological change. I also
think you, like many, see the near history with a much better focus than the
further past. But that is not a character flaw.
~~~
chris_wot
Well, I'm glad to see I was wrong :-) thank you. It's just you seemed to
compare my, uh, rhetoric to what the "populists and muckrackers" of the 1900s
were saying. Though in certain company I guess that could be considered high
praise, I'm not sure I was too fond of the comparison...
~~~
dalke
My intent was to say that 100 years ago people would have said that the
muckrakers and populists pushed for a level of "openness and transparency"
which had never before been seen. I don't see how that is coupled to your
character.
In the 1970s, after the Watergate hearings and the new FOIA and Sunshine laws,
people again could have, and likely did, say that it was also a level of
openness and transparency which had never before been seen.
Your essential argument seems to be "things are different now so throw out the
old". But things _always_ change, so that argument is always true, and can be
therefore be used to justify anything.
~~~
chris_wot
Not all things always change. Like change, for instance. Change that doesn't
change remains the same. Just sayin' :-)
~~~
dalke
Or, as I pointed out, the existence of copyright, which brings us full circle.
------
daveguy
If anyone is having trouble accessing [https://scihub.io](https://scihub.io)
(the site providing the papers) you can find the site directly at the ip
address: [https://31.184.194.81/](https://31.184.194.81/) ... Apparently the
domain name was seized. The certificate is for sci-hub.io (safe to accept). Or
you can just connect to [http://31.184.194.81/](http://31.184.194.81/) if you
don't want to bother with the warnings (and are ok with DOIs and papers being
transmitted without encryption).
EDIT:
Their other domains:
[https://sci-hub.cc](https://sci-hub.cc) (uses sci-hub.io certificate)
[https://sci-hub.bz](https://sci-hub.bz) (uses a separate certificate and ip
address -- 104.28.20.155)
And a tor site: scihub22266oqcxt.onion
~~~
alco
Have there been attempts at dispersing the whole collection of papers through
torrents or IPFS? The goal here is not to have a central location with a
pretty web page but to make the content freely accessibly everywhere by
anyone. Distributing it over thousands of nodes would achieve that goal.
~~~
petra
Torrents are pretty bad at the archiving problem , i.e. maintaining copies of
things with no readership over a long time. Not a great fit for this stuff.
~~~
alco
I agree. Setting up mirrors would probably be a better fit for this kind of
content, but mirrors would be susceptible to the same dangers that the primary
website may face: forced take-down by the hosting provider, domain blocking,
etc.
The fundamental difference of content-addressed networks is their resiliency
in the face a single authority trying to track down all of the sources that
have copies of the content.
Even though IPFS is still in its infancy, one of its primary goals is to solve
the problem of content suddenly disappearing from the Internet.
------
taneq
> “I’m all for universal access, but not theft!” tweeted Elsevier’s director
> of universal access, Alicia Wise
You want everybody to have access, but you don't want them to get it for free.
Wow, so you want the entire world to all pay for the material you were given
for free. Hmmmm.
~~~
userbinator
That reminds me of the whole talk around "open standards" that you have to pay
for to legally acquire (ANSI, ISO, IEEE, etc.), although in that case the
situation is slightly different. Also, the "free software" vs "open source"
distinction.
~~~
throwaway7767
Ugh, yes. I recently wrote a parser for an ISO standard file format. I had to
base it on the draft submission because they wanted me to pay them a bunch of
money for the actual end standard.
I really hope the final standard didn't have any substantive changes, so that
my implementation is correct. But all I can really do is cross my fingers
since it at least seems to work with available data.
Charging for standards has a direct negative effect on the proliferation of
those standards, especially today when a lot of code is written as open source
hobby projects, which are left out in the cold.
~~~
userbinator
You can find some standards at the usual places for books etc. (LibGen has
some), but if you are not in a hurry then scouring the Internet _very_
thoroughly will usually yield results. Google won't as easily show you as it
used to, but careful queries and following leads through forums and such can
bear fruit. You know you're getting close when Google starts showing "results
removed due to DMCA" messages and requiring you to enter a CAPTCHA "because
your search queries look unusual" \--- the latter may even be intended
purposely as a form of discouragement, but persevere and eventually you will
find what you're looking for.
Then, once you've found a source, always remember to bookmark it and save a
copy. They disappear from search indices quickly, despite the site still being
around. It also helps to repeat your search periodically as sometimes the
"shifting sands can uncover treasure momentarily" ;-)
------
hyperion2010
> “Graduate students who want to access an article from the Elsevier system
> should work with their department chair, professor of the class, or their
> faculty thesis adviser for assistance.”
Now THAT is chuckle worthy.
~~~
Jerry2
Imagine wasting some researcher's valuable time on tracking papers for you!
The gall of these publishing companies never ceases to amaze.
~~~
chris_wot
Not very helpful for Wikipedia researchers. Or people who are outside the
walled garden of academia!
~~~
kqr
To be fair, I haven't set a foot in my university for 3 years (planning to
return soon!) but since I still send them the occasional email asking to be
registered for a course I'm considered active there and get access to a lot of
publications as long as I'm logged in to their systems.
~~~
majewsky
Do any universities offer something like "passive studentship"? i.e. you pay
only a small fraction of the tuition, it does not include any courses, but you
may attend the facilities and specifically the library and get access to the
university network. If that existed, hobby researchers and the like could get
access to all these journals for a probably smaller amount of money.
~~~
NoGravitas
The state university library here has a [membership program][0] that gives you
access to the library and its various subscriptions -- so effectively library
donors get access. Individual membership is under $50/year, so it's definitely
an affordable option. Not sure if it gives remote access to their network
(they used to have a web proxy server for off campus students, don't know if
they still do); you may have to go to the library and use the computers there.
[0]:
[http://library.sc.edu/p/Develop/Society/ThomasCooperSociety](http://library.sc.edu/p/Develop/Society/ThomasCooperSociety)
------
jimrandomh
Elsevier believes they have United States law on their side. And they're
right; they _do_ have US law on their side. That just doesn't mean much
anymore; it's been worn away by decades of conspicuous corruption, and lost
most of its respect. In principle, this should be addressed by the US
legislature. In practice, academia has effectively voted no-confidence and
bypassed the legal system entirely.
~~~
studentrob
> In practice, academia has effectively voted no-confidence and bypassed the
> legal system entirely.
Yup. Seems like civil disobedience from the research community. Pretty
interesting to see a civil rights movement happening online. Who says you
can't sit at home and be an activist? ;-)
------
bendykstra
I recently wanted to read a five page paper on graph theory from 1977. The
company entrusted with it 40 years ago is charging $38 for it. It is just
absurd. I can't imagine that the author, now long dead, would have wanted his
work to be so difficult to read.
~~~
sigjuice
Just out of curiosity, what paper is this?
~~~
jonathankoren
All of them.
~~~
drewm1980
70's graph theory papers FTW! I bet if you actually pay that $40, the pdf you
get will still be typeset with a typewriter.
------
Artoemius
I'm sad Aaron Swartz did not live to see this unfolding. He might have been in
prison now, but he would still be a world-class hero.
~~~
ryanlol
> He might have been in prison now
For hypothetical crimes he could've committed had he lived? Because he
certainly wouldn't be in prison for things he actually did.
~~~
ryanlol
For whatever reason lots of people here seem to disagree.
Could any of the 4 downvoters clarify in what conceivable scenario would Aaron
still be in prison if he was alive?
Had he pled guilty, he would undoubtedly be out by now. And going to trial
obviously wasn't a realistic option considering the plea deals he was offered
(BTW If someone here disagrees about that, I'd _really_ like to know why.).
Read:
[http://volokh.com/2013/01/14/aaron-swartz-
charges/](http://volokh.com/2013/01/14/aaron-swartz-charges/)
[http://volokh.com/2013/01/16/the-criminal-charges-against-
aa...](http://volokh.com/2013/01/16/the-criminal-charges-against-aaron-swartz-
part-2-prosecutorial-discretion/)
~~~
ryanlol
This blanket downvoting is somewhat odd, what is it I'm saying that's so
disagreeable? For afaik I've only presented _facts_ about the time Swartz
would probably have spent incarcerated.
~~~
maxerickson
Your first comment is open to interpretation (it doesn't say would not _still_
or in and out of or something like that) so people are reacting pretty much
entirely based on their existing emotions. They don't care about analyzing the
likely outcome of the case had he lived, it's brought up to share anger and
outrage over the injustice.
~~~
throwanem
> They don't care about analyzing the likely outcome of the case had he lived,
> it's brought up to share anger and outrage over the injustice.
Precisely. He didn't have to kill himself, and if he'd put a bit more
forethought into what he was doing, we'd probably be discussing this in a
thread around an interview with him rather than with Ms. Elbakyan. But nobody
wants to hear that, because it detracts from the story of this generation's
Bobby Fischer.
------
kken
It looks like this is EXACTLY what is needed to distrupt this abusive
industry. There have been numerous attempts of enforcing a change in positive
ways - open access journals, campaigns by researchers and so on. But none of
these had any effect.
Let Elsevier go down in flames. I have published more than 50 academic papers
and have actively avoided Elsevier. To be honest, this was not too difficult,
as they have a lot of journals addressing specialized subtopics that rather
seem to appeal to manuscripts that were rejected in first tier journals.
------
sachkris
The first three paragraphs of the article clearly tells what is wrong with the
system - "Publishers are overcharging for content". Basically, they just
continued their business model from the printed-book era to the e-book era
without much change. The publishers should think of allowing individuals to
subscribe to the content and charge them (nominally) for what they use, rather
than putting the load on the Universities and making them subscribe the entire
spectrum of journals. The Pay-per-view model of Elsevier currently charges an
individual researcher (a staggering) "$31.50 per article or chapter for most
Elsevier content. Select titles are priced between $19.95 and $41.95 (subject
to change)." [0]
[0]
-[https://www.elsevier.com/solutions/sciencedirect/content/pay...](https://www.elsevier.com/solutions/sciencedirect/content/pay-
per-view)
~~~
chris_wot
The median wage in Afghanistan is 50,000 AHD per year. Currently the exchange
rate for USD to AHD is about 68.3 AHD to 1 USD. So basically, for one article
it is about 2,150 AHD, or half the monthly wage of someone with s median
income.
That's for one midrange article.
------
abhi3
While pirating music or movies, one may try justify ones actions, but deep
down it feels wrong.
_This_ doesn't even feel wrong. These parasites had it coming.
~~~
skoczymroczny
I don't feel wrong pirating music or movies (especially considering it's legal
in my country). I think trying to apply laws of limited amounts of goods
(physical objects) to unlimited amount of goods (digital files) is silly.
~~~
kqr
The laws are silly, I think we all agree on that. The big record labels are
silly, most of us probably agree on that too.
It still feels wrong when popular artists do not get paid for their work
because it's more convenient for people to pirate it.
I mean, creative/artistic efforts take a lot of time, regardless of how easy
reproducible the results are. By paying for their previous songs, you're
basically funding their next songs, something you should be interested in as a
fan.
~~~
marknutter
> It still feels wrong when popular artists do not get paid for their work
> because it's more convenient for people to pirate it.
Popular artists _barely_ get paid for the sale of their music. They earn the
bulk of their money from touring and merchandise sales (see: finite things).
Given that, piracy is actually far more detrimental to the publisher/label
than it is to the artist because it could mean an additional fan to purchase
another ticket at a show or buy another t-shirt at a merch table.
In fact, by charging money for the music, it actively discourages people from
listening to it because they can't afford it or already spent their budget on
artists they already know and like. In an industry where gaining fans is the
most important thing you can do, this seems counterproductive.
------
blaze33
So one commenter said that "Journals are used as a proxy for quality", another
that they loose so much time browsing through low-quality papers. Isn't the
root issue that we need an open and standard way to review, sort and rate all
those academics papers ?
Developing voting, flagging, moderating mechanisms, that's what many
developers have done for years now on the web. Obviously you wouldn't rate
papers like reddit comments but plug arxiv/sci-hub to a system allowing
researchers to say what papers they reviewed, what their degree of approval
is, eventually where it's been published, who references this paper etc. Seems
like Arxiv has an endorsement system but as they say "The endorsement process
is not peer review", just a way to reduce spam. Isn't there anything done on
this subject ?
~~~
bryanrasmussen
well there is one way to rate academic papers that has proven pretty
successful, and that is citing the paper in other papers - however sometimes
that can take a long time to find the quality.
~~~
fsloth
"however sometimes that can take a long time to find the quality."
As a non-academic but with some insight there - this matches with most
research, I think. Upvoting at a heat of the moment is kinda worthless as it
comes to rating academic output. You need quite a lot of time to draw valid
conclusions about a paper. If everyone voted for every paper this would mean
that a huge chunk of the competent population would spend an inordinate amount
of time on a single paper.
That's why it's far more efficient that only a few people of more-or-less
guaranteed competence spend considerable effort in reviewing results. One
high-quality vote is much better than thousand low-quality ones.
This efficiency mechanism and validating the qualifications of the reviewers
is the only added-value the established publication systems brings in to the
table as discoverability has become cheap commodity.
~~~
blaze33
I'm not advocating for anonymous instant votes like we can do it here.
Researcher already do peer-review for free, allow them to do it on an open
platform with free publication afterwards, I don't see why it couldn't work.
------
dredmorbius
I was interviewed for this article though not mentioned in it. My use case
isn't mentioned: unaffiliated researchers with limited access to journals
doing our own exploration of areas. I've compiled a library of several
thousand articles (and via other sources, books) which for both access and
portability I prefer electronic versions. My 10" tablet is almost perfect for
reading printed material, and functions as a small research library on its
own. (Organising this content is another headache -- Android and apps are
sadly lacking in this area, one of the few options being Mendalay, owned by,
you guessed it, Elsevier. Burn it with fire.)
While I can and do access materials from libraries, including online access,
Sci-Hub is both more complete and _far_ more reliable and convenient. Find a
resource, plug in the URL or DOI, and I've got it. Versus locating the same
reference _independently_ through one of several distinct libraries, each with
their own multiple subsystems, authenticating, and sometimes, sometimes not,
securing the material.
Another point Bohannon failed to address, which is covered in the discussion
here, is the role of journal publishers as gatekeepers not only to _content_
but to _careers_. Academics, increasingly squeezed by budget retrenchments and
awful working conditions[1], _must_ publish through prestige journals in order
to establish and advance their careers.
Journal publishers are rent-seeking at both ends of this channel.
Sci-Hub, or as I like to call it, the Library of Alexandra, hs a tour de force
demonstration that information is a public good, and that information _access_
wants, and _needs_ to be free. Sci-Hub isn't a complete answer to the problems
of current academic publishing (again: publish or perish), but it's a relief
valve for many, and an absolute and irrefutable proof of the pressing demands
for access.
________________________________
Notes:
1\. See the amazingly awful story of a young newlywed biology postdoc who lost
her arm in a lab explosion involving an improperly instrumented gas cylinder
in which oxygen and hydrogen were being mixed under pressure. This after
repeatedly reporting short circuits and electric shocks from the equipment.
[http://chemjobber.blogspot.com/2016/03/postdoc-loses-arm-
in-...](http://chemjobber.blogspot.com/2016/03/postdoc-loses-arm-in-lab-
explosion-in.html)
~~~
sghi
Just as an aside, you could try Zotero - I use it on my laptop and phone and
it works pretty well for me. There is a dedicated app as well.
[https://www.zotero.org/](https://www.zotero.org/)
~~~
dredmorbius
I'm not sure there's any one tool that fits my needs, and I've looked at a
few, Zotero among them.
My understanding is that it's more a _bibliographic management_ tool.
There's also Calibre, which seems like it's a close solution, though that too
is problematic, particularly at scale.
Another problem is that my laptop (as opposed to tablet) isn't particularly
useful for reading formatted documents -- PDFs can't really be viewed _either_
one-up or two-up, and FBReader, which I like on mobile, formats ePub and
similar eBook formats poorly (too wide, insufficient paragraph separation,
unfamiliar controls), which is frustrating as well.
The tablet's much superior for _reading_ but even worse for _organising_
material.
~~~
dalke
I use Zotero to store the PDFs, movies, text files, and other things related
to my research. It has an option to either link to an existing file or to copy
the file into its own archive.
It can also extract text from those files, for use in a text search.
I use it on a laptop, not a tablet. I see there are Zotero apps for a tablet.
I have no experience with them.
------
yagyu
What can you do as a researcher without violating your contract? I decided to
not referee papers to be paywalled. You can, too!
[http://www.jonaseinarsson.se/2016/only-open-access-peer-
revi...](http://www.jonaseinarsson.se/2016/only-open-access-peer-review.html)
------
cameldrv
One of the reasons the deep learning field is moving so fast is that
everything is open access. Generally, it's considered prestigious to present
at a conference, and not much gets published in journals. The major
conferences have been adopting a model of posting first on arxiv and then
submitting to the conference, so the reviewers see the paper at the same time
as the general public.
The amazing thing is that weeks after the paper hits arxiv, new papers are
coming out, improving on the previous one. By the time the paper is accepted
and the conference rolls around, it's actually almost old-hat.
~~~
woodson
The quality of reviews of conference papers is mostly terrible, though. I've
been on both sides of it, here are some major complaints:
* There is only one round of reviews, with a binary accept/reject outcome. In case of rejection, feedback cannot be incorporated. In case of acceptance, there is basically no incentive for incorporating feedback, as the paper is already "through" and putting in any more time is considered a waste.
* Assigning papers to reviewers is very arbitrary and often the reviewers are not at all familiar with the field. Getting a paper reassigned to another reviewer is often so complicated and time-consuming that reviewers just do the bare minimum (if asked to rate novelty/originality etc., on a scale 1-5 they give it a "3", which given the usual acceptance rate of <50% means the paper will get rejected).
* Reviewers usually get a lot of papers to review. They don't have time (who does?) but have to finish by a two-week deadline. If one of the papers is relevant to the research of the reviewer or has been written by colleagues they know (double-blind does not help, you recognize who wrote it..), that paper will receive attention; the other papers are seen as distraction and are dealt with as outlined above.
Peer-review is important, though. Some fields of research, particularly those
where a lot of research is done by actual practitioners and not just pure
research scientists, are mostly driven by conferences with short (one page or
less) abstracts without full papers. There are often very few citeable sources
that have been peer reviewed; conference websites and abstract books vanish
over the years. An arxiv-like repository can help with that, but it does not
solve the problem of peer review. Community-run open-access journals seem to
provide a solution, but rarely take off.
~~~
cLeEOGPw
So that sounds like the review system is broken, but not the concept itself. I
always had the impression that anyone could review the paper, as in anyone can
read a book and write a review about it, and then they all publicly could ask
questions about parts of paper that are incorrect, science paper "bugs" if you
will, that the author would have to clarify/fix and when there are no more of
these "bugs" it is considered as peer reviewed. Although it wouldn't mean
there are no more incorrect things, just that nobody asked about them. Also
that would mean that mostly people interested in field are involved in review.
What you described sounds really detrimental to the whole process. Is peer
reviewing so hated between researchers that they need to be assigned and
forced a deadline to get papers reviewed?
------
jnsaff2
"The numbers for Ashburn, Virginia, the top U.S. city with nearly 100,000 Sci-
Hub requests, are harder to interpret."
Am I the only one who thinks this is just the location of AWS us-east-1?
People might be using proxies located there or have bulk download jobs.
~~~
TheCoelacanth
Undoubtedly. Ashburn has a population of less than 50,000 people. There's no
way it could have almost 50% more use than New York City with millions of
people.
------
jmcgough
Researchers have been (illegally) helping each other out with paper access for
years. I used to hang out in the neuroscience group on livejournal years ago,
and about half the posts were people asking "Does anyone have access to Foo et
al 2012?" and then having it passed along to them by email.
~~~
maccard
I've had a 100% success rate contacting an author and asking for a copy.
------
eggy
They may have started servicing a need in the beginning as simply setting up
some servers, and serving as a central repository, which I do not understand
why this wasn't just setup by some other part like a university or research
foundation for public use, but Elsevier have turned that into holding
publicly-funded research hostage. You know when you are debating with
somebody, and their logic runs out, they start floundering and emoting? That's
what the comments from Elsevier are starting to sound like. I have no problem
with them making some money from Ads to help their monthly server hosting and
maintenance costs, but they have a weird, self-strangulating business model
that is headed nowhere real fast.
~~~
gh02t
The major thing publishers facilitated beyond simple distribution was
organizing and vetting peer review. I appreciate that they have to make ends
meet and that they are contributing something valuable, but it is at a point
that the exorbitant price they charge people to read my work makes it
basically inaccessible to many people, defeating the point of publishing it in
the first place. And lets not even talk about publishers who require exclusive
rights, so that technically I can't distribute copies of my own work...
~~~
mirimir
Yes, publishers historically did that. And they printed journals and books,
and reprints. But prices were modestly above cost, back in the day. As
recently as the 80s. Now, expenses are much lower, and it's all about
profiteering.
~~~
chris_wot
Is there a source for that? I believe you, I'm just interested in the degree!
~~~
mirimir
I based my comment on memory.
As I recall, reprints cost on the order of $0.50 each in the early 80s. Based
on
[http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/](http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/)
that's about $1.20 in present dollars. That's a lot less than $30.
~~~
chris_wot
Bloody hell. So we are looking at a 2,000% increasing since the 80s?
~~~
mirimir
Well, what I don't know is what publishers charged third parties for reprints.
Or what license fees were for universities etc. As an author, I paid $0.50 per
reprint, and I was allowed to give them away. Anyway, I'm confident that
there's been huge price inflation.
------
thirdsun
I don't get it - some commenters are suggesting that the authors of those
papers aren't paid, but the publisher is. Why would the author want to limit
the spread and accessibility of his work in such a way?
As an outsider who doesn't have any experience with scientific papers and how
to get them, it seems very obvious to me that there should be a huge demand
for an open platform to publish and read those papers - from authors and
readers alike. Why does this role need to be filled by an at best semi-legal
party like SciHub?
The fact that users with legitimate access to those papers actually opt for
SciHub to get them confirms that the current solutions just aren't working for
their users. So why would authors rely on them?
~~~
Laforet
I've just had a paper accepted last week in a traditional journal (peer-
reviewed and paywalled) and I'd share a few things I know and feel about
scientific publishing from an anthor's perspective.
The publisher provide a valuable service to authors. Their online submission
protal was a joy to use and their staff very friendly and responsive. Once a
panel has decided that my submission was at least fit for further
consideration it was forwarded to three peer-reviewers who may and may not be
reimbursed for their time. After several rounds of comments and changes, the
accepted draft was sent to a publishing house in India for typesetting and
proofreading (They've done a very thorough and professional job with it)
before it was ready for print. There are a lot of man-hours spent of making
this happen and if the hours were billed individually it will add up to a
pretty hefty sum. Earlier versions of this paper had been submitted to other
journals and were eventually rejected - more hours of work done without
output.
Open access journal such as PLOS ONE charges a non-trivial sum ($1500 and up)
to cover these costs and all I could say is that you get what you paid for:
How much does a good lawyer/consultant charge per hour? Most people only
submit to OA journals if they are ideologically compelled or have ran out of
other avenues.
The quibbles between Elsevier and librarians is actually an old one (the
article linked below dates from 2003) because they own a number of high impact
journals and can bundle less popular titles with high impact ones to increase
their margins. While this is a pretty underhanded tactic to use, these less
circulated journals would probably have gone out of print without the
practice.
[http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v426/n6964/full/426217a...](http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v426/n6964/full/426217a.html)
Piracy has been around as early as universities had been around. There were
more than one usenet groups dedicated to these activities and reddit's
/r/scholar remains as its latest iteration. I was quite active on a medical
forum where doctors and academics help each other out with paywalled papers on
a quid pro quo basis. (Doctors are probably the most affected since their job
requires access to latest research articles yet few hospitals have the budget
for it unless they are affiliated with a university) All because there will
always be a few odd journals that are not covered by my university's
subscription but others might do. Publishers mostly turned a blind eye because
their use are limited to a small group of people who cannot be persuaded to
pay anyway. Sci-hub is something different since it is much more accessible
and comprehensive, which threatens the current business model of publications.
P.S. This thread from another HN front page submission offers an interesting
parallel on paywalls and access to journalism.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11592293](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11592293)
~~~
chris_wot
Oh, so if doctors weren't to pirate they wouldn't remain abreast? That sounds
like yet another disservice from the publishing industry. They are indirectly
decreasing people's health. Fantastic.
~~~
jrapdx3
Many years ago hospital systems employed librarians who acquired articles for
medical staff. Costs associated with maintaining a library were at least
partially offset by fees physicians paid to be "on staff" at a hospital (or
group of them). BTW those fees were typically on the order of several hundred
dollars/year.
Of course, among small-medium size hospital systems the libraries are long
gone. Some of the largest or those affiliated with universities may still have
access in some form. It's an ironic development that so much more research is
going on, yet less available to practitioners on the front lines.
~~~
hanklazard
And that's not even taking into account the thousands of docs in the US who
work out of private practices and community health centers.
~~~
jrapdx3
Many (most?) primary care docs work for large clinics which are often owned by
hospital systems. IOW practice environments that tend to be driven by
"productivity" stats, and refined clinical knowledge is not the highest
priority. Don't know about public/community clinics, but given the chronic
underfunding of these agencies amenities like library services are unlikely.
------
Dolores12
Papers that meant to be free are now pirated. Nice paradigm shift.
------
Hondor
If the business model of Elsevier/etc somehow collapses, I wonder how
universities will make hiring decisions? They high fees of their journals are
effectively a recruitment or candidate selection service paid by university
libraries and serving departments when they hire faculty. Perhaps they'll have
to revert to assessing applicants on their merits instead of such arbitrary
metrics as the impact factor of a journal that they published their work in.
~~~
return0
How do they do it in CS? People there communicate with arxiv links, not dois.
~~~
ufo
One thing that helps a lot in CS is that most authors upload their papers to
their personal websites.
------
EvgeniyZh
The system is broken. Rich universities are ready to pay money, so publishers
can raise price, basically making papers unavailable for poor universities who
can't handle subscriptions or individuals.
At the same time publishers hardly spend any money - most of people access
publications online, not printed, and tons of journals don't have minimal
review. So publisher does nothing and wants much money for that.
Scientist at the same time are stuck - if you want people to read your paper,
you need good journal or conference, else you might be not heard. Leave alone
prestige and fame.
So, something has to be done. Maybe Sci-Hub is that something.
------
davesque
It's just so funny how blatantly parasitic some of these publishing companies
are.
~~~
tmalsburg2
Let's not forget that this whole business would not exist if researchers
weren't so addicted to the prestige offered by glamorous journals. Most of the
people complaining about scientific publishers are actually complicit in their
success and dominance.
~~~
chrismonsanto
The "prestige," as you call it, is necessary to get a job in academia. Where
you publish your research is considered a trustworthy approximation to the
quality of your research, and requires a lot less time & expertise to vet.
~~~
sgift
Basically, the same reason why it's easier to get a job offer if you already
have a job at a great company: "Someone vetted him for us, he is probably
good" \- so much easier for those hiring this way than if they'd actually had
to check your previous work.
------
musha68k
Wow <3 Alexandra Elbakyan is my new favorite super hero:
[http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/04/alexandra-elbakyan-
fo...](http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/04/alexandra-elbakyan-founded-sci-
hub-thwart-journal-paywalls)
~~~
SXX
This doesn't really affect the project, but keep in mind she is very
controversion person. For instance she support government censorship of
political opposition and generally don't support freedom of speech. And likely
half of people commented there would be banned on any sci-hub related resource
since she usually ban anyone who don't fully agree with what project doing.
~~~
pencilcode
She's the one who's putting herself at risk. Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. And
every time you slander someone you really should link to independent sources
so others can at least verify and judge for themselves.
~~~
SXX
I'm not telling you that you shouldn't like the project, but likely you don't
want to have "heroes" like that. At least comparing her to Aaron Swartz is
really bad idea in my opinion.
If you want source there is her comments on Russian website:
[https://geektimes.ru/users/sci-hub/comments/](https://geektimes.ru/users/sci-
hub/comments/) (most importantly latest one)
She's heavily downvoted there since most of IT-related audience in Russsia
don't support autocratic regimes. She call that community downvoted her is
"fifth column" (which in CIS is term for political opposition used by
dictators fans) and censorship of internet resources that support political
opposition is good thing.
There was other case when sci-hub community made some poll on their social
network page about supporing what they doing and then banned everyone who
voted against. Sadly it's harder to find source on this one since everything
related to incedent is deleted and everyone posted about that is removed from
their group.
------
darawk
These journals contribute precisely nothing to the world. They don't pay the
authors, and they pay the reviewers a trivial amount (if at all). They provide
exactly nothing, and they extract tremendous amounts of capital from what
would have been some of its most productive uses.
There are only a few things that I can truly say I will watch wither and die
with unconditional, unreserved glee, and the academic publishing industry is
one of them.
------
nxzero
Access to pubs is just a symptom of a huge issue, calling science science;
science as it is at best a "soft" science and at worst, in many cases, whack
quackery that preys on the weak.
As an example of what I mean, as of 2010, 91% of published pubs for the field
of psychology supported their original hypothesis; if this isn't an obvious
red flag, not sure what would be.
Intellectual fraud needs to be criminalized and claims based on science must
require not only reproducibility, but solid means of denying the authors of
any form of plausible deniability from escaping responsibility for what in
many cases is fraud, or worse, blindly seeding their own bias as reality.
_______
[1] Quackery
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quackery](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quackery)
[2] Positive Results Increase Down the Hierarchy of the Sciences
[http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal....](http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0010068)
[3] Why Most Published Research Findings Are False.
[http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/jou...](http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124)
------
fferen
As a grad student at a university with ample access to journals, I still use
sci-hub occasionally, as many journal sites are surprisingly unreliable (cough
IEEE, cough Nature).
------
lottin
This isn't just about the academia. As soon as you want to write about any
technical subject, even if it's only for your own personal use, you need to
study the relevant literature. Often this means reading dozens of papers.
There's no way a normal person who isn't working at a university or research
institution can afford that.
------
ujjwalg
I wrote about horrors of scientific publishing not just from the viewership
side, but also from publishing side a few years ago. tl;dr - Publishers have
just too much control on publishing process and distribution process when they
bring almost nothing to the table in the digital world we are living today.
The very fact that as a scientist you can only submit a paper to one journal
at a time and wait for months and sometimes a year to get a response is insane
and completely unacceptable. Imagine if you have to do it when you are
applying for a job.
If someone wants to read it, here is a link:
[http://ujjwalg.com/blog/2013/5/3/the-problem-with-the-
scient...](http://ujjwalg.com/blog/2013/5/3/the-problem-with-the-scientific-
publishing-process)
------
throwaway3523
Just as a note about who gets denied access.... I work in a US research lab
but my department got spun off into a company. With the loss of my university
credentials came my loss of library access.... I still need to read papers in
random journals to do my job though.
EDIT: A cash poor company.
------
wsfull
If the cost to students attending universities that have adequate
subscriptions is small -- previously, commenters suggested this portion of
their tuition amounted to only a small annual fee -- then what would be the
reasons the publishers would not offer individual subscriptions at similar
cost to the public? As any serious student knows, the "a la carte" prices are
absurd -- how successful have they been with this idea?
One silly idea deserves another:
Generally, journals manage their subscriptions through filtering on IP address
ranges.
Imagine a customer-ISP agreement that had an option whereby a subscriber could
"opt in" to academic journals for a few extra dollars per month.
These subscribers might then be assigned addresses in certain designated
ranges by their ISP.
------
kriro
I'm ideologically primed to favor free access to information (especially if
any tax money was involved which is true for pretty much all research) but I
think a middle ground of moving scientific publishing to a
nextflix/itunes/kindle model would solve a lot of issues. Access a paper ->
(micro) payment to the journal (who could in return set up another (micro)
payment to the actual author). The biggest issue is the pricing model
(35$/paper when a researcher typically needs to read 100+ papers per papers
he/she writes) and the lack of a single point of access.
Like iTunes for science. Go do it someone. I won't envy you, I'll expect you
to fail but if you pull it off I'll be forever grateful.
~~~
Jonathanks
I read "Internet Book Piracy" recently about this issue and the author, Gini
Graham, has valid points and suggestions for reducing piracy; this was one of
her suggestions. I have no problem with Elsevier crying wolf when there's
none. They had it coming. I'm concerned about the actual cost to authors. We
need a new model that puts the authors and their readers as first priorities
and facilitates the movement of information, not hoarding it. Publishing
companies did that for a while, then they declared themselves custodians of
our common knowledge and hoarded it from us. I'm thinking of ways publishing
can be made what it should be. Gini Graham has good suggestions that I'd like
to see tried out.
------
guelo
As in so many other endeavors the law works to protect the true criminals
against humanity.
------
erwinbierens
[http://sci-hub.bz/](http://sci-hub.bz/) and [http://sci-hub.cc/](http://sci-
hub.cc/)
------
tibbon
20 years ago, most people assumed that MP3 file sharing would _never_ take us
to a place where you can pay a company $9.99/month for unlimited streaming of
a huge portion of published music. Surely, the Industry would never allow that
to happen!
Yet, it did. I'm told that the journals will never allow themselves to become
antiquated and that they play a vital role in the review process. I'm seeing
this being chipped away at slowly, and have to wonder if soon that small
movement will accelerate greatly.
~~~
Hondor
You could say it also took us to a place where there are no more Elvis's,
Michael Jacksons, Beatles or Queens. This might just be my perspective failure
due to growing old but maybe the quality of music has degenerated into singers
shouting insults at each other for the past 10 years?
Academia is already plagued with too much research. Useless methodologically
faulty research because every man and his dog wants to publish sometime,
anything.
------
foobarbecue
The author refers to Napster as a "pirate site." I stopped reading at that
point because I realized the technical info in the document is likely to be
incorrect.
~~~
KMag
Napster was famously run by a group that would board container ships full of
music CDs as they rounded the Horn of Africa, kill the crews, rip the CDs to
MP3, the burn and sink the ships. At least that's my impression from reading
press releases at the time.
------
onetimePete
The economy of disrupting ruptured by it shear forces - aka by itself? AIs
crawling over the knowledge base? Good thing they cant publish papers with
meaningful recombined results yet. Or can they. The irony is that the church
of singularity is not relevant to the process - its like declaring evolution
some godlike principle or cataclysmic event- while it just is a glider gun
going forth, not knowing, not wanting to know. Still interesting times. I
guess in the end, the science journals just where roadblocks in Alphabets way.
So they have to go- so they will die, the usual way- with there resource
supply systems stripped from them by a not "attackable" third party, condemned
by those who benefit, as a barbaric, lawless act.
If they would have foresight, they would release all the papers they have into
the public domain, and have there true opponents wrestle with the GPL and thus
the allmende that produced the wealth. Instead they are having a nap at the
ste ering wheel moment. In the end it will help mankind. So can we drop the
charade and get on with it?
------
topstriker515
I'm not familiar with the procedure of publishing a paper, so please excuse my
ignorance. What's preventing someone from submitting their work to publishers
AND uploading it to an open access platform? They can rely on the journal for
quality-review/validation/etc. while still allowing for wide dissemination.
~~~
alceufc
Most journals require that the authors sign an agreement in which the
publisher retains the copyright of the paper (e.g. [1]).
Although a few publishers allow the authors to provide a pdf of the paper in
their personal home-page, they do allow it to be uploaded to an open access
platform.
[1] [https://www.elsevier.com/about/company-
information/policies/...](https://www.elsevier.com/about/company-
information/policies/copyright)
------
gambiting
I guess that soon governments will start forcing ISPs to ban access to Sci-
Hub, just like they did with Pirate Bay and Kickass Torrents. It's still
trivial to type into google "pirate bay proxy" and access it quickly, but I
can see some legislation happening against it soon.
~~~
pahool
It's fully mirrored and available on a .onion site accessible through tor:
scihub22266oqcxt.onion
------
rdl
Journals becoming free would probably vastly more to the economy than the
rents extracted by the journal publishing industry. Sci-Hub is one way, but
perhaps another way would be either a philanthropist or government buying the
companies out, or applying eminent domain to the research.
------
kcole16
What exactly is the benefit of Elsevier for researchers? Is there no free way
to publish papers?
~~~
hyperbovine
Elsevier own some really high profile journals, including The Lancet and Cell.
Refusing to publish in these journals, or similar ones in terms of impact
factor, is simply not an option for junior faculty in most departments. I have
friends for whom "publishing in Nature, Science and/or Cell" is literally a
precondition for getting tenure.
~~~
Chinjut
Why does academia put up with this stupid system? Academics are already the
ones doing all the peer review on their own, free of payment, right? So why
not say "Hey, we'll set up our own servers, host papers free for all to
access, and then note which ones pass the same levels of scrutiny we'd apply
as reviewers were we reviewing them for Nature, Science, Cell, The Lancet,
whatever"?
Doesn't seem like the journals actually provide much beyond asking professors
to do stuff for free, both in terms of writing papers and reviewing them. Is
inertia really worth letting them leech so much money and lock down access
(antithetical to the whole idea of public-ation...) while they're at it?
~~~
jccalhoun
It reminds me of the electoral college system: people complain about it and
realize it is outmoded system but it will never get replaced because the
people with the power to actually change it won't since the system got them
the power in the first place. Academic publishing isn't quite that bad since
it is slowly changing but I think it is similar.
Established faculty largely don't care because they are established (there are
exceptions of course). Some new faculty would like to change it but if they do
set up their own system it won't be taken seriously by the administration or
senior faculty in charge of tenure review. There are also new faculty who
don't know or care about these things so they just do what they know which is
traditional publishing.
I was at a faculty development session a couple months ago. There were 20
faculty members there from various departments and the topic turned to open
access journals. Some people were arguing that they weren't worth publishing
in because tenure review boards haven't heard of them so they don't take them
seriously. Then one guy - remember, this is a college professor - asked "where
are these papers stored?" He wanted to know where the actual servers were
physically located. And then he said, "This whole online thing seems like Big
Brother."
That being said, things are changing and in some fields open access journals
are seen as reputable and accepted but they are still new and in some fields
(non-stem mostly) they are seen much more skeptically. So if you are in those
fields and you want tenure you are going to try to get published in the old
journals first.
~~~
KMag
The Electoral College still offers a modicum of protection against the tyranny
of the masses. In a pure popular vote system, presidential candidates wouldn't
have to educate themselves enough to pretend to care about the lives outside
the US's 10 largest cities.
------
gregw134
Have any of the mirror sites uploaded all 50M papers as a torrent yet? They
really should...
~~~
polarix
Yeah, I guess we're at the point where 50tb arrays are not infeasible. Not
sure where I'd get 50tb of bandwidth though without someone gnawing off my
left foot.
~~~
goodplay
They should categorize papers into specific fields (and sub-fields). Each
party would torrent what interests them.
Also, this might make a great use case for IPFS as apposed to torrents.
Torrents are not designed to be mutable.
------
cant_kant
If the paper is retracted, do the publishers give a refund ? See
[http://retractionwatch.com/](http://retractionwatch.com/) to see the massive
number of retractions that happen.
------
biehl
Nice comment here [https://storify.com/KyleSiler/dupuis-on-sciencemagazine-
sci-...](https://storify.com/KyleSiler/dupuis-on-sciencemagazine-sci-hub-
artcle)
------
santialbo
Before sci-hub, whenever I needed a paper I would email the author kindly
asking for a copy. Almost everytime I would have the PDF by the end of the
day. Researchers are happy to share their knowledge.
------
sumanthvepa
I may be naive here, but why not search and download the article's preprint
from arXiv? Would it be that much different from the final paper? Why would
you need to pirate at all?
~~~
jboynyc
Not all disciplines use arXiv -- far from it. Especially in the humanities and
social sciences, there isn't really anything comparable to arXiv.
But you are right, preprints are not all that different from published papers,
as this recent analysis confirmed:
[http://arxiv.org/abs/1604.05363](http://arxiv.org/abs/1604.05363)
[edited to add:] I suppose you could look at the data
([https://blog.datadryad.org/2016/04/28/sci-hub-
stories/](https://blog.datadryad.org/2016/04/28/sci-hub-stories/)) and see
what proportion of requested DOIs have a preprint version in the arXiv. I
suspect it's rather small.
------
amelius
Sci-hub is nice, but it would be nicer if these papers were available in
torrent form, so we wouldn't have to depend on a single source (which can fail
at some point).
------
ylem
Just curious--where does ResearchGate fit into all of this? I see constant
requests where people ask for papers, but is it actually legal to give them
out? There is an interesting discussion here:
[https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_is_ResearchGate_dealin...](https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_is_ResearchGate_dealing_with_copyright_issues_when_posting_our_papers)
------
Fiahil
One of the many problems we have as humans and citizens of the world, is our
dependence on US laws. It's not like it's cataclysmic-bad but there are some
issues that would greatly benefit, to the rest of the world, from a little
push by US citizens on US law makers (It's not like we can do something about
it, we're not invited to the conversation).
This is one of them.
------
chris_wot
They compare SciHub to Napster. I have news for U.S. Corporate giants - this
is no Napster. For one, this isn't downloading what is essentially
entertainment. This is downloading serious content without which researchers
and students couldn't help the world progress in positive and vital ways.
Secondly, a lot of this content wasn't funded by the ones publishing it, and
it shows in the comments every time this gets broached because almost every
writer whose work is published tells the same story - they didn't get paid by
the publisher and all they are doing is preventing their work from being
distributed to the widest audience possible.
Thirdly, this time the bullies can't touch those who are distributing the
work. One of the consequences of the pervasive reach of the Internet is that
if pirated material falls outside of the jurisdiction of a nation that
strictly endorses its copyright law then there is virtually nothing that
nation can do about it.
When Carmen Ortiz and Stephen Heymann prosecuted Aaron Swartz they thought
they had struck a blow for copyright holders everywhere. And they did for a
few years. Under three years later, however, the rules of the game changed and
this time there is no one they could easily prosecute, because they are
outside of their grasp and there is no way to persecute them, or make an
example of them.
The established order has changed. Those who should have known better, who
should have put conditions on publicly financed research to be open to all
instead allowed greedy and amoral companies like Elsevier to take the hard
work of others and sell it for a profit, giving almost nothing back to the
system they are pillaging. Too late they choose to open the door slightly ajar
to make those on the outside think they will be granted access, only to slam
that door shut before they can get inside. Too late do they realise that a
gentleman thief has broken in and distributed their ill-gotten gains to the
ones they stole from.
Those who ruthlessly pursued the Aaron Swartz's of the world have finally been
undone. Their arrogance and rapacity blinded them to the reality that they
cannot deny information to the world. They did not heed the words of those who
enabled the digital revolution. This struggle was predicted by Stewart Brand
in 1984, who said to Steve Wozniak at the first Hackers Conference in Marin
County, San Francisco:
"On the one hand, information wants to be expensive because it's so valuable.
The right information in the right place just changes your life. On the other
hand, information wants to be free, because the cost of getting it out is
lower and lower all the time. So you have these two things fighting against
each other." [1]
That tension continues, but the old guard is now fighting a rear guard action.
They will fight back, but they will remain in retreat until one day they give
up, or are forced to and information becomes free. On that day be thankful,
because the bindings of the ones who wish to shackle your mind and creativity
will have lost the power to do so, to the incalculable good of humanity.
1\.
[https://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge338.html](https://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge338.html)
------
KKKKkkkk1
This discussion thread feels like a deja vu from the Napster and Kazaa days.
The wheels of the US legal system have been set in motion, and even if we
think that information wants to be free, the days of sci-hub are numbered.
------
ericjang
Does this suggest that publishing companies like Reed Elsevier plc (RELX
group) will eventually be starved of revenue from papers? Or have they figured
out an alternative business model to adapt to the changing times?
~~~
isido
Publishers probably cannot keep up with the current revenue levels, especially
since the university library funding is constantly decreasing.
And besides Scihub, there are emerging institutional solutions to this
problem, like research funders demanding that research paid with public funds
must be publicly available, and universities setting up academic repositories
where papers published elsewhere are available in open access form.
------
jerryhuang100
some papers on that top 10 list are even free on the original publisher sites
or ncbi (eg. nejm). so why getting them on sci-hub rather than from the
original? ppl don't read supplements any more?
------
dewiz
Is sci hub dead then? DNS doesn't resolve the host anymore
~~~
youngbullind
See the other post in this thread with other URLs and the IP address.
------
vbezhenar
There's an easy way for Elsevier to find compromised accounts used to download
articles. I wonder if they will pursue account owners some day.
------
mrkgnao
Can someone explain the regular (weekly?) dips in the graph of Sci-Hub usage?
Is it people not working on Sundays?
------
jcoffland
I find a login at my alma matter and an HTTP proxy over SSH quite useful for
accessing research papers.
------
Zelmor
It is in the interest of the general public to mirror these services as many
time as we should. Paywalls for scientific articles are holding back the whole
species. Fusion reactor when? Maybe when the patents for technological advance
will not be held by oil companies around the world, whose short term interests
cap the our technological progress to make the world a more livable place.
I have a couple PhD student friends, who give me first hand account of biology
articles being inaccessible in 2nd world countries due to paywalls and
financial limitations of research facilities. It is holding back research in
just about every field, I suppose.
~~~
return0
Primarily in life sciences. In other disciplines, you have arxiv, or simply
publishing in commercial journals doesnt matter that much.
------
dschiptsov
Knowledge shall be free and unbiased by authority. Free access for everyone to
knowledge and healthy scepticism produces miracles. In India, for example,
lack of restrictions and tolerance to every opinion produced, besides
thousands of sects and cults, the best philosophy this world have seen so far.
The site, it seems, is a part of natural social movement, similar to FOSS,
rather than paid content piracy. It is against restrictions.
When some parasites are trying to construct a paywall then society sooner or
later would find the way around it, be it knowledge or any other form of
digital content - selling an output of the sendfile syscall by those who
haven't produced anything would never been tolerated, it violates the
hardwired notion of fairness. Especially when one assumes that these papers
has been written to spread knowledge and contribute to scientific community
(a-la contrubution to open source), not to make money by selling copies - it
isn't a paperback.
------
tmptmp
From the article:
>>Among the few things she would not disclose is her current location, because
she is at risk of financial ruin, extradition, and imprisonment because of a
lawsuit launched by Elsevier last year.
Elsevier should be condemned for its greedy acts. People should send them
letters of condemnation for their greedy acts, including for this lawsuit.
We can send them e-mails and therein can state, something on the following
lines:
>>>
Publisher,
I, a member of academia, am concerned about the hurdles you have put in the
path of the progress of science and education. I condemn your behavior and
also condemn your decision to file a lawsuit against a person named "Alexandra
Elbakyan" to throttle her efforts to spread the publicly funded research
knowledge to the public without any "middlemen" like you. I applaud her
efforts behind the sci-hub project that was far long due. You might have
forgotten by now, but due to, and/or by, the middlemen like you, a noble
person named Aaron Swartz was harassed to no end and it must be due to the
pain and stress inflicted in that harassment he committed suicide. Please wake
up and get rid of your mean tactics and save whatever little goodwill you
might have managed to retain. No thanks, as I cannot thank you.
<<<
Personally I have sent them a mail to this effect. Haven't got any response,
it seems obvious.
Are there any legal repercussions that these mean, greedy publishers can
pursue to harass the email senders, especially in USA? I am not from USA.
Legal experts there can advise.
No need to mention, I am a huge fan of Alexandra Elbakyan and Aaron Swartz.
They are great heroes of modern times. The thoughts of Aaron bring tears to my
eyes. They are legendary and remind me of (may be fictional) Robin Hood [1].
I also thank all the academics who are actively helping the sci-hub project
and all the people who are helping in their own capacity.
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Hood](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Hood)
edit: added thanks to all academics and people.
------
jbmorgado
It baffles me how a publisher that doesn't create the content neither pays for
it, was deemed by the law as the copyright holder of the works they didn't
create neither did they pay for.
------
tacos
The least secure format on the web (PDF) + sketchy (ex-)Soviet servers + high-
end researchers in aerospace and materials science. What could possibly go
wrong?
------
wutf
Torrent the papers. Why hasn't this been done?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Predict the Output Challenge in C#, part 3 - bursurk
http://www.volatileread.com/Wiki/Index?id=2092
======
koyote
These are quite good and definitely result in quite surprising output in some
cases.
I would have liked the descriptions/answers to be a bit more detailed though.
For example, why is the static constructor called only after the instance
constructor (in part 2)? As far as I can see in the docs, this should not be
the case?
~~~
bursurk
static constructor does get called first. The problem is in this line: static
readonly Singleton _instance = new Singleton();
The static variable depends on the instance. So static gets called first and
starts running, but before it could call the Console.WriteLine, instance of
Singleton gets created due to the above line and hence the instance
constructor.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask PG: Could YC admissions be replaced with a very small shell script? - dfranke
If you train CRM114 (or some other classifier) on all but the most recent batch of YC applications, how does it fare at distinguishing interview vs. no-interview applications in the most recent batch? How well would it have to do in order to be alarming? :-)<p>There's no particular reason that I'm asking this other than that I just finished retraining CRM to take advantage of the version upgrade and was pretty impressed with the training results.
======
pg
We did try this once on startup school applications (after the fact) and it
was a pretty bad predictor.
If we ran code like this on YC applications, I suspect the most useful way to
use it would be to find groups we hadn't been planning to invite to interviews
that deserved a second look.
~~~
dfranke
Huh. For startup school applications that's actually a surprising result. I
was under the impression that the admissions process on that was basically
just to weed out the hackers from the business people, and with an application
that brief I'm surprised that can't be accomplished with a keyword search.
~~~
Alex3917
You mean I changed my name to Lisp MacErlang for nothing??
But seriously, the Startup School application is basically just a list of
keywords, at least the way I understood it. Are there really people writing
essays in there?
~~~
javert
That's not the way I understood it. You can't sell your idea, or your team,
with a list of keywords.
(Anybody who actually got accepted want to back me up? :-) )
~~~
dfranke
We're talking about startup school, not funding.
~~~
javert
Oh... sorry, good point. :-)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Microsoft’s Phil Spencer Says Amazon and Google Are Xbox’s Real Competition - adrian_mrd
https://www.polygon.com/2020/2/5/21124148/phil-spencer-microsoft-xbox-xcloud-amazon-google-competition
======
dixintri
I hope not. What we've seen so far with Google Stadia is not exciting to say
the least. Sony has the right idea with focusing on home consoles, the market
is just not mature yet. There is after all a world outside of the US, where
not everyone has fast internet connections and unlimited bandwidth. It is
disappointing to see Phil more or less announcing the Xbox's defeat over the
console "wars".
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
2BRØ2B by Kurt Vonnegut [pdf] - evo_9
http://mrbockholt.weebly.com/uploads/2/2/4/8/22487060/vonnegut_2br02b.pdf
======
carter_harwood
A create short story. Read it back in high school
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
High Performance Networking On The JVM - diggerLogger
http://normanmaurer.me/presentations/2013-jax-networking-on-jvm/#/1
======
brokenparser
AFAIK, section headers should be used sequentially, e.g. <section><h1>First
level</h1><h2>Second level</h2>
< p>Foobar</p><h2>Another second level header</h2>
< p>Quux</p></section> (the space prevents HN from eating those tags).
It also uses paragraphs and breaks to create white space. On line 284 it even
wraps a break in a bold tag.
Nice article, though.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Agtech has become a data play,how can farmers commoditize/monetize it? - jelliclesfarm
======
jelliclesfarm
1\. Farmers are bearing the cost of implementing tech. 2\. They own field data
but in fragmented data sets. 3\. Data is valuable when it’s collected over
contiguous fields and when in large datasets.(think 100k acres) 4\. We can’t
pass it on to the food/consumer because farmers are at bottom of supply chain
and have thin margins. 5\. How can farmers..big and small..make money from the
tech we pay for...afterall, we already know how to grow, but we need ROI and
not something that ..net net..eats into margins. 6\. Tech is too expensive
now. Investors make money. Farmers don’t. It might be right to say that Agtech
is a sector that is newly birthed and has nothing to do with agriculture.
Because returns go to tech sector and investors in it. How is it helping
farmers in $$ terms..in any meaningful sense. 7\. Tech should be easy as and
as cost effective as a pencil. Because we can make most of our
decisions..especially small farmers..with a pencil and paper.
Our problem is labour..we need physics and mechanical tech..not AI and ML and
data driven tech that first dumps our field data in silos and then give it
away to someone else to profit. It’s like Bizzaro World!
8\. Big tractor and equipment companies (yes, I am looking at you, John Deere)
won’t create affordable field because it would cannibalise their existing
product line.
Ok. What now? Perhaps this is why Ag bots and practical Agtech comes from the
EU/outside USA. I don’t know if I am right in surmising that. Thoughts?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Horrible Things I Found Out When I Made A Video Game - smacktoward
http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-things-you-learn-when-making-modern-video-game/
======
jondubois
The media keeps telling us over and over again that to be successful
financially, you have to be passionate about what you do. This is he biggest
lie ever.
The reality is that to make money, you have to want money above all else. It's
extremely rare to make a lot of money from doing something that you enjoy
doing.
The vast majority of people are not fortunate enough - Passion is rarely
aligned with consumer needs.
~~~
Pica_soO
I found the best cure of this believe in capitalism is to talk to advertising
folks. The pure cynism and hatred for the consumers these "professional"
explain and show, when among themselves and what they think about the
producers and their employers (both sides who they usually manipulate very
skillfully too)and the completely disregard for the product, this is the heart
of what capitalism is all about.
Its about swinging frozen dogshit-elexiers and be gone from the fair, before
the first customer unpacks, and be not found related to yourself, the next
time you do it on the same fair.
~~~
otakucode
Once upon a time, when you bought something, you had to buy it from the guy
who made it. It was mostly unique and personalization was the default. You
didn't have many options, and he didn't have many customers. Both of these
were problems of distribution. And distribution was a Hard Problem.
Then we built factories and distribution chains. This provided a solution to
the problem. It offered more choice, and more customers. There were drawbacks,
as with anything. It centralized wealth, which was worrisome. It decoupled the
value created from the value the creator received. It made producing identical
products easy, and custom products intractable. It built cities, and long
commutes. But it was worth it.
A couple hundred years passed, and we built computers. We built the Internet.
We made solving the Hard Problem so easy children could do it. But we forgot
that there were drawbacks we took on. And instead of shrugging them off, we
used the tools that could remove those drawbacks to expand those drawbacks.
------
unoti
There is a thing that engineers do in all disciplines, not just game
programming, where they wallow in how complex and difficult everything is.
Yes, it's complex and difficult, but you need to look for ways to simplify and
succeed.
The author should remember his insightful caption under Phil Collins' picture:
> Step One is a positive attitude. You have to believe you can escape!
I'm not denying that making games is complex. The things I've written for
games are indeed complex and challenging. But once you start writing essays
about how difficult and impossible everything is, you're not headed to a happy
place.
Boiling things down to their essence, and eliminating the fancy alien hats in
the articles example is crucial. Developing a mastery for how to succeed takes
time and experience, but it can happen.
If you're interested in game design, here is something that will inspire you
and fill you with ideas of how you can succeed. The book below took me forever
to read the first time. That's because every few pages I couldn't resist
putting it down and working on my designs because I was so overwhelmed with
inspiration from its amazing wisdom. The book is the Art of Game Design, and
it's one of my most prized books.
[https://www.amazon.com/Art-Game-Design-Lenses-
Second/dp/1466...](https://www.amazon.com/Art-Game-Design-Lenses-
Second/dp/1466598646/)
Another vitally important book about chasing your dream without getting bogged
down in complexity and unhappy places is The Alchemist. It's a short parable,
full of life changing wisdom, a little like The Old Man and the Sea.
[https://www.amazon.com/Alchemist-Paulo-
Coelho/dp/0061122416](https://www.amazon.com/Alchemist-Paulo-
Coelho/dp/0061122416)
The alchemist is available on audible too, but you'll want it in text as well.
~~~
fenomas
> But once you start writing essays about how difficult and impossible
> everything is, you're not headed to a happy place.
The author is a moderately well-known cynical internet humorist; I think
essays like this are his main line of work.
~~~
unoti
> The author is a moderately well-known cynical internet humorist; I think
> essays like this are his main line of work.
Ah, fantastic! Over the years I've worked with an astonishing number of
engineers whose apparent main line of work is writing cynical essays!
~~~
jldugger
And this guy is their role model!
------
Eric_WVGG
I assume this is an older article because it makes no mention of the recent
kickstarter for a sequel. Looks good.
[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/611279740/calculords-2-...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/611279740/calculords-2-rise-
of-the-shadow-nerd)
------
orasis
"Still, it taught me that being a man making video games is like a woman doing
anything -- you can give the world nothing but a free supply of objective
awesomeness, and you'll still have crusaders hellbent on destroying you."
------
its_the_future
Couple of interesting points, slightly ruined by the guy excessively
mentioning that he's writing hilarity while actually not making you laugh at
all.
~~~
TillE
Yes, the try-hard comedy practiced by some people is really grating (looking
at you, Rock Paper Shotgun).
Most successful humor doesn't contain a joke in every sentence or two. Or if
it does, it's an elaboration of the same joke, not random shit thrown at a
wall.
------
based2
[http://www.calculords.com/](http://www.calculords.com/)
------
pfarnsworth
I know people that work at small Bay Area gaming company, and their M.O. was
to rip off every popular game that came online in the App Store. They have a
few million steady users for their games, and they use that as an ad network
to advertise their new ripoffs. They said that by 2016, they couldn't find any
new games to rip off so they started to try to make their own. Gaming is a
terrible business to be in because of how the App Store allows these ripoffs
to drown out any innovation.
~~~
clarry
I fear gaming is a terrible business to be in (and I might find out sometime
in the coming times..), but I'd at least get out of the App Stores and steer
clear of cheaply produced mobile dirt. Blatant, obvious ripoffs aren't quite
so common in the PC & console market and the players do a little more research
than pull their phones to check what's popular before purchasing a game. I
think that market is much more lucrative for people who want to innovate and
try a new formula.
~~~
namlem
IMO Steam needs to launch an Android store. If anyone can convince consumers
that mobile games have the potential to be high quality and valuable, it's
Valve. People who balk at the idea of paying 99 cents for a mobile app happily
drop $20 on a game on Steam.
~~~
otakucode
It wouldn't be any better. Valve has had a strict policy of 'let the publisher
do whatever it wants' since the inception of Steam. There have been one-off
exceptions, but their general policy is to be a platform that facilitates
publishers doing their thing, regardless of what that is. There are growing
numbers of asset-swap games, and games slapped together in a minute with cheap
asset packs. It's not like how Apple approached the music industry with
iTunes, laying down ultimatums like '99 cents a song, individual purchases
allowed, audio CD burning permitted' which forced music publishers to choose
between their retail distribution agreements and iTunes.
This would actually be OK if Steam provided any rudimentary
filtering/personalization system at all. If they would just take a users
activity and feed it into a Bayesian system with 'disliked' games considered
'spam' and purchased or 'wishlisted' items considered 'ham', then put that
content on top for that user, it would be much less of a problem. But as it
is, they provide nothing like this and don't seem to ever intend to.
------
hmahncke
Calculords is a truly great game. All the fun of learning arithmetic on your
new TI, plus grumpy aliens.
------
georgeecollins
For " The Industry Doesn't Really Encourage Innovation" please replace the
word "Industry" with "Audience". There are a vocal group of people who want
something new, but a larger, less vocal group of people who want something
familiar, or don't know what they want so they pick something familiar.
This is true of all media and true of consumer tastes in general. People like
TV shows and movies that are like ones that have been done before. There is
certainly an audience for things that are original, but a much a larger
audience for things that are familiar. And in movies and TV, like games, your
chances of achieving a viable product are better if you tweak an existing
formula rather than innovate.
Lots of people make games because they love them, and then are disappointed
that they don't make money. But in almost all other media there is an
understanding that the "best" (most smart, most original) will not be the most
popular because of the tastes of the audience.
I know this, the first game I designed was very innovative and I took my lumps
for it.
~~~
otakucode
You are definitely in the right ballpark. The audience bears at least even
responsibility, if not the majority. This is a widespread problem in the
gaming community, not just in mobile. Remember that Simcity 2012 version? The
always-online one (that could never get online at launch) that spawned dozens
of boycotts and petitions before it came out? Best-selling game on the Origin
platform in history. This sends a crystal clear message. 'Ignore our
protestations, we're just salty. Hurt us and we will pay you.'
However, we're facing an interesting time. Research suggests that the public
response to media is actually random. Copycat movies and TV don't get churned
out because they are successful or have a better chance of success, they get
made because the people in charge of deciding what to create are executives
who want to 'make their mark' and been seen as 'a tastemaker' in an
environment where the only pattern is that there is no pattern. 'I know what
people want' makes careers, and 'I got lucky' gets you nowhere.
The 'interesting' part is that this copycat system only works when there are a
small number of players controlling the creation and distribution of the
media. Once things open up and niche markets become viable, things get
interesting.
(The book 'A Drunkard's Walk' runs the numbers if you're curious.)
------
pascalxus
The author is correct: Advertising on Mobile is extremely untargeted. You
basically spray and pray, throwing vast amounts of advertisement dollars out
the door. Hoping to make a decent ROI. But, to do so, you need to get to the
top, the very top. This is why the long tail of mobile development doesn't
work anymore and why only mainstream games can be successful.
The vast majority of casual gamers don't truely appreciate the depth in games
these days. Just read the app store user reviews, they are replete with
reviews such as: "Uhhh, Great way to kill time...", "Good time killer...".
That's all these games are to them, just a great way to kill time in an
utterly boring life. How sad.
I'm sure there's still a tiny audience out there, who enjoys games of depth,
indie games and non-mainstream games, but you'll never be able reach them with
the current app store setup.
------
ajeet_dhaliwal
Great post, been there myself. Twice. Won't be returning.
------
tgb
Can we all take a moment to consider that not a single one of the percentages
in the screenshot of the Kardashian game's purchase screen is accurate?
------
jwatte
Also, while the presentation is funny, the "leanings" are something that
anyone in the industry will tell you for free while waiting in the free beer
line at GDC.
Ideas are worth very little; ability to draw and code and execute is where
it's at, and modern business is hyper optimized to exploit money out of
suckers by strip mining the society we all have to live in.
------
forgottenpass
Thought 1: This is Cracked, so it will probably suck, but I'll scroll through
the headings real quick and ignore everything else.
Thought 2: I'm reading more than the numbered items? A Cracked article hasn't
won me over like this in ages.
Thought 3: That was weird return to form.
Thought 4: Oh, it's seanbaby. That explains everything.
------
BoorishBears
I'd say almost all of these are mobile specific aside from the effort one, and
are also things the author could have, and should have, known before entering
the mobile space.
------
edem
So how big a success your game is after all? You did not elaborate in your
article. Nice observations though! Thanks for sharing.
------
vhogemann
Cool article, awesome game!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Michael Pollan reluctantly embraces the 'new science' of psychedelics - atomical
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/05/15/611225541/reluctant-psychonaut-michael-pollan-embraces-the-new-science-of-psychedelics
======
Jedi72
Im a stable, sane, not depressed or anything person. I once took LSD (mixed
with other things aswell...) and had a trip during which I spoke to God, Satan
and various other imaginary beings. It was not a fun experience - I'm a man of
science, but the feeling/perception was so real, my entire world view was
shattered. It stuck with me for months after. I've gone from someone who 100%
believed in evolution and a material universe, to someone who deep down thinks
there may be a God, and I may actually have to face some kind of hell for some
kind of sins I may unknowingly commit in this life. I don't consider this a
spiritual awakening or something profound - it's more like I put a crack in my
sanity that I can never completely fix.
These drugs are extremely powerful. They can potentially destroy healthy
minds. I support more research and even, in time, legalisation - but I am
sharing the story so others may take away the point that when you start
hacking with your brains firmware, you should be EXTREMELY careful you dont
accidentally brick it.
EDIT: For clarity purposes, this wasn't my first time doing LSD and it wasn't
a huge dose. Nobody understands exactly how these drugs work, maybe this was a
1/1000 event. But it happened - and I don't do drugs any more.
~~~
taneq
I find this very interesting because I had precisely the opposite reaction
once when I tried psylocibin. Despite being pretty solidly materialist and
agnostic, I'd always held a bit of a soft spot for Cartesian duelism and a bit
of a "but it'd be cool if..."
What I didn't expect was that the effects wouldn't just "feel real" or "be
convincing", they _were_ real. Subjectively, it wasn't inside my head, it was
the actual world that changed. The fact that a small amount of psychoactive
substance could fundamentally alter my perceived reality put the final nail in
the coffin for any possibility that my mind was generated by something outside
my own skull.
~~~
Lewton
LSD made me go from your run of the mill nihilist to being convinced that even
consciousness is a complete illusion and all philosophy is built on this
ridiculous lie.
It's like solipsism taken one step further, no I'm not the only thing that
exists because -I- don't really exist in any meaningful way either.
We're all just P-zombies.
Qualia is nonsense
If you thought relating to normal people as a nihilist was hard.....
~~~
alexmat
Post-solopsism? Fck me dude, I mean say want you will about nihilism, at least
it doesn't attempt to invalidate the experience of qualia.
~~~
Lewton
It's just materialism taken to its logical conclusion. We're just a bunch of
atoms bumping into each other in a way that fools ourselves into believing
that we're a cohesive entity.
Ever been tired and run on autopilot? Our experience of ourselves vary in
strength all the time. If I'm really really honest with myself, I don't
actually have the experience of qualia all the time
~~~
sireat
What's your solution to finding medium term (5-10 years) motivation?
The more I read on cognitive science (Strange Loop was the first and then you
understand what was behind GEB) the more I concur with your view. It is
depressing though.
For short term daily tasks, one can depend on routines.
For longer planning the implications are horrifying if there is no qualia in
the sense that we think of it.
It's just like with nihilism, it might be "true" but it is not very
productive.
At best it leads to Vito Corleone type of ethics, ie tribalism, I'll take care
of my family/village, but woe to the outside world.
At worst it leads to Michael Corleone actions, ie screw everyone besides
yourself.
Where do you get joy in life if Dennett turns out to be right?
~~~
alexmat
I can only speak for myself, but I find joy in living vicariously through
others who don't contemplate existential issues. Sometimes I can spend a day
just hanging out with my cat watching him do random things with sincerity.
Sometimes I envy him.
As far as medium term motivation, guilt, fear and debt seems to work for most
people regardless of philosophical disposition.
------
toomanybeersies
Aldous Huxley, dying of terminal cancer, took LSD on his deathbed, and died
while on his final trip (it was planned that way), although a relatively low
dose of 100ug.
It seems to me like it would be a good way to go, a good way to conquer the
fear of the unknown after you die.
In a related experience, once when I was on a bender, I took 3 tabs of lsd,
along with a whole plethora of other substances. I actually thought I was dead
for a while, and strangely enough, I felt OK about it. I saw some pretty weird
shit on that trip, it was the most mindblowing experience of my life, and not
one I'm about to repeat in a hurry, it honestly wasn't that fun. Fear and
Loathing in Las Vegas is not an instruction manual.
But then I sobered up. I really think that Hunter S Thompson was right: it's
all bullshit. You're not connecting to another plane of existence or getting
in touch with your ancestors. You're just fucked on drugs. Nothing wrong with
that, but it's not spiritual.
He really nailed it in Fear and Loathing:
> All those pathetically eager acid freaks who thought they could buy Peace
> and Understanding for three bucks a hit. But their loss and failure is ours,
> too. What Leary took down with him was the central illusion of a whole life-
> style that he helped to create...a generation of permanent cripples, failed
> seekers, who never understood the essential old mystic fallacy of the Acid
> Culture: the desperate assumption that somebody-or at least some force-is
> tending the Light at the end of the tunnel.
~~~
KozmoNau7
In short, you're not experiencing the universe. You're experiencing your own
mind.
~~~
toomanybeersies
Absolutely. I do think that everyone should try psychedelics at least once, in
a comfortable, controlled environment with friends.
You may not unlock the secrets to the universe, but I do think it teaches you
an important lesson that your reality and experiences are subjective. I don't
mean that reality itself is subjective, but our perceptions of it are. LSD
will mess with your perceptions in really weird ways that can't really be
described with words. Things like your perception of depth and age get thrown
off completely.
~~~
KozmoNau7
I was offered some shrooms a couple of years ago at a metal festival. I was
actually a little bit tempted, but I figured the combination of drunkenness
and the presence of thousands of strangers meant it would not be a good time
nor place to give it a go for the first time.
------
empath75
When he talks about the default mode network that sort of matches with my
intuitive understanding of what the experience of taking psychedelics is like.
People do things in loops— they go to work every day, come back home every
day, hang out with the same people, engage in the same hobbies, think the same
thoughts.
It’s just our natural mode of being to repeat ourselves, and psychedelics seem
to just shut all of that down. You’re no longer a person who does these things
or has those habits. You’re barely a person at all— just purely living in the
moment, without any feeling of separation from the rest of the world.
And as you come back from that, you engage in the reconstruction of your
personality— and if you’re careful about how you do it, you can change it — in
both positive and negative ways.
~~~
oceanghost
I have used drugs extensively-- good ones and bad. I'd be happy to answer any
questions, but you're on the right track here except for the ineffable.
Drugs distort the pattern matching systems in your brain. You see patterns
that are there, patterns that aren't, patterns of patterns, patterns of
patterns of patterns. You make connections that you should and shouldn't. If I
could describe my phsycelidc experinces--of which I've had dozens--It would
be--"psychadelics break your brain intro a thousand pieces, hand you thebroken
shard and say, "have fun putting this back together."
Genericaly, amphetmainish things tie you to the real world. Disscocitiaves the
spiritual world. Psychadelics-- the self reflective at moderate doses and at
high doses the "other side" (if that makes any sense at all).
I would not trade my expereinces for ANYTHING, but I wouldn't recommend it
either. The spiritual experiences I've had on drugs have been profound enough
to change me from an stone cold atheist to, well a guy who believes in what
he's seen himself. I've floated through space and time, I've received
vissions, advice, knowledge of the future. I've been shown some of the secrets
of the universe... but the most improtant message of all was simply "learn as
much as you can and be as kind as you can to others."
There are some things that are indescribable-- ineffiable. Any description of
the religious experneices ive had would be, inadequate. You've either had one,
or they're complete fucking nonsense.
What im saying is--the world of faith is beyond that of experience. It may, or
may not be real, but it sure as hell feels like it is.
~~~
fsloth
"Any description of the religious experneices ive had would be, inadequate.
You've either had one, or they're complete fucking nonsense."
I've never used drugs, but based on my experience I totally understand the
statement that the purely analytic mode of thought does not encompass the
whole of human experience.
I had a deeply profound sense of being one with the universe as a teenager
after a regular session of meditation.
I would not say it did anything for my atheism. I believe humans are complex
and deep creatures with enormous hidden potential, and these mystical
experiences just bring it to the surface.
Drugs are not the only way to access mystical experiences, but I certainly
don't begrudge their use.
~~~
gerbilly
>I've never used drugs, but based on my experience I totally understand the
statement that the purely analytic mode of thought does not encompass the
whole of human experience.
That's for sure.
It's impossible to explain to someone something as mundane how you know how to
ride a bike using analytical thought.[1]
[1] Witness the endless counter-steering threads on HN.
~~~
chillwaves
I want to understand counter steering so badly... I think I do on an intuitive
level, as I have ridden a motorcycle for years but I just can't wrap my head
around the concept.
------
orasis
This is the playlist from Johns Hopkins for a blindfold + headphones session.
[https://open.spotify.com/user/phillysblunt/playlist/5KWf8H2p...](https://open.spotify.com/user/phillysblunt/playlist/5KWf8H2pM0tlVd7niMtqeU)
An experienced sitter is required.
~~~
ethagnawl
Compiled by _phillysblunt_? Seems legit.
------
tiisetso
Podcast: Pollan's interview on the Tim Ferriss show for additional thoughts.
Ferriss is committing a million USD over the next few years to support the
scientific study of psychedelic compounds.
Audio link just a slight scroll in. [https://tim.blog/2018/05/06/michael-
pollan-how-to-change-you...](https://tim.blog/2018/05/06/michael-pollan-how-
to-change-your-mind/)
~~~
motdiem
I found the conversation very interesting- made me want to read the book.
As an aside, I liked how when they weee discussing mental health, pollan put
forward that the classifications that we use today (say differentiating
between depression and anxiety) are more rooted in legacy and institutions and
less in what the current science sees of what’s happening in the brain.
Thought this was an interesting way to frame things.
------
sev
Psychedelics should be treated with respect. I often speak to people who have
no clue what dosage they take or took. Due to the potency, it’s not as easy as
other substances to know whether you’ve had too much, and that’s why they
require extra care.
You could die if you drink too much water, or if it is contaminated; that
doesn’t mean water isn’t good for you.
------
eip
"When I said we may be our programs, nothing more, nothing less, I meant the
substrate, the basic substratum under all else, of our metaprograms is our
programs. All we are as humans is what is builtin and what has been acquired,
and what we make of both of these. So we are one more result of the program
substrate-the selfmetaprogrammer.
As out of several hundreds of thousands of the substrate programs comes an
adaptable changing set of thousands of metaprograms, so out of the
metaprograms as substrate comes something else-the controller, the steersman,
the programmer in the biocomputer, the selfmetaprogrammer. In a well organized
biocomputer, there is at least one such critical control metaprogram labeled I
for acting on other metaprograms and labeled me when acted upon by other
metaprograms. I say at least one advisedly. Most of us have several
controllers, selves, selfmetaprograms which divide control among them, either
in time parallel or in time series in sequences of control. As I will give in
detail later, one path for selfdevelopment is to centralize control of one's
biocomputer in one selfmetaprogrammer, making the others into conscious
executives subordinate to the single administrator, the single superconscient
selfmetaprogrammer. With appropriate methods, this centralizing of control,
the elementary unification operation, is a realizable state for many, if not
all biocomputers."
\--John C Lilly
[https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9780015308735-es.jpg](https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9780015308735-es.jpg)
------
giarc
Great podcast this week on Recode/Decode.
[https://www.recode.net/2018/5/16/17358484/michael-pollan-
how...](https://www.recode.net/2018/5/16/17358484/michael-pollan-how-to-
change-your-mind-book-drugs-engelbart-kara-swisher-podcast)
------
tgamba
DMT trip reports point to a use of psychedelics beyond therapy. Since so many
users describe the same thing -- points of contact with other beings-- we can
hypothesize that DMT gives us access to other dimensions or aspects of space
and time. But how we move from subjective reporting to a scientific theory on
this, I have no idea. (I have never tried DMT, it sounds terrifying)
------
mathattack
He is making the rounds. He appeared with Kara Swisher on Recode, which may be
accessible to this audience.
[https://www.recode.net/2018/5/16/17358484/michael-pollan-
how...](https://www.recode.net/2018/5/16/17358484/michael-pollan-how-to-
change-your-mind-book-drugs-engelbart-kara-swisher-podcast)
------
newnewpdro
The world would be a better place if everyone ate magic mushrooms in the
wilderness on a camping trip as part of outdoor ed. in school.
If you've never experienced it, you probably won't understand.
~~~
gepi79
I wish people would stop the unhealthy and irresponsible and dangerous life-
destroying hype and promotion of psychedelics including cannabis.
All medical experts warn against the use of drugs and psychedelics except as
medical tools of medical experts.
Drugs and psychedelics can trigger all kinds of long term mental disorders
that even the best experts might not be able to heal.
Medical science and psychology are still very limited and primitive with
regard to addictions and mental disorders and understanding and (healthy)
manipulation of the (unhealthy) brain.
If "you" do not believe me, check the internet for reports of people suffering
from addiction or mental disorders and their sad quest for help.
Even bad diets and lack of sports and lack of dental care are unsolved health
problems in societies in 2018.
~~~
lobster_johnson
It's pretty clear from your comment that you don't know anything about magic
mushrooms.
I could understand your response if the parent were speaking about LSD or bath
salts or something else that have been known to give people bad, destructive
trips. But shrooms?
Psilocybin is known as the gentlest and most enjoyable psychedelic there is.
Adverse reactions are rare, and as far as I know nobody has ever come out of a
shroom trip with their brains scrambled. Personally, I find that the
experience isn't so much a "trip", but rather a gentle, beautiful and
interesting set of visual effects. I don't hallucinate people or supernatural
beings, but I do see colours around the edges of things, and repeating fractal
patterns everywhere, and enjoy a strangely improved acuity of vision.
Shrooms are also a type of drug where you can derive a psychological benefit
from very small doses (or microdoses) that essentially provides no "trip" at
all. There's promising research showing benefits for depression and PTSD. Not
to mention that psilocybin is not addictive.
~~~
bfuller
>as I know nobody has ever come out of a shroom trip with their brains
scrambled.
you would be wrong. if you are predisposed to psychosis shrooms can trigger
that.
I get it that you prefer mushrooms. But most people actually handle LSD better
than mushrooms. So the fact you trashed LSD is a little silly.
~~~
lobster_johnson
"Brains scrambled" implies permanent negative effects. I have never
encountered any evidence that psilocybin has contributed to psychological
damage, unlike LSD and its famed/apparent tendency to provoke flashbacks years
later.
On the other hand, there are increasing numbers of recent studies that refute
the idea that psilocybin is as dangerous as some people have claimed in the
past [1] [2]:
> We failed to find any associations between lifetime use of psychedelics and
> past year serious psychological distress, receiving or needing mental health
> treatment, depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts or behavior in the past
> year. Rather, lifetime use of psychedelics was associated with decreased
> inpatient psychiatric treatment.
I'm unable to find any studies showing a link between psilocybin and the
triggering of latent mental illness. There's some debate about whether age is
possibly not coincidental, in the sense that the heaviest users of "hard"
psychedelics like LSD tend to start at an age which coincides with the
emergence of latent disorders such as schizophrenia, implying that there isn't
necessarily a cause and effect.
Nobody is obviously promoting _irresponsible_ use of psychedelics. That said,
everything in life has risk. The risks involved with psilocybin seem
infinitesimally small compared to those of, say, alcohol or smoking.
[1] [http://www.emmasofia.org/wp-
content/uploads/2015/02/Psychede...](http://www.emmasofia.org/wp-
content/uploads/2015/02/Psychedelics-not-linked-to-mental-health-problems-or-
suicidal-behavior.pdf?115a76)
[2]
[https://cogumelosmagicos.org/comunidade/attachments/j-psycho...](https://cogumelosmagicos.org/comunidade/attachments/j-psychopharmacol-2015-hendricks-0269881114565653-pdf.76931/)
~~~
bfuller
You talk about evidence when it concerns your beloved shrooms, and then in the
exact same sentence repeat an asinine wives tale like the lsd flashbacks
bullshit,which has no evidence behind it at all. Your bias is clear.
And I've seen people have psychosis manifest on mushrooms that was life
altering, lasted for months, and they were never the same.
------
asciimo
Ha. I had this open in another tab all day but I didn't realize it was Michael
Pollan. Time to read.
------
40acres
Okay, but where can I get it?
~~~
jes5199
darknet markets
------
koverstreet
> The way [psilocybin is] being used is in a very controlled or guided
> setting. ... They don't just give you a pill and send you home; you're in a
> room. You're with two guides, one male, one female. You're lying down on a
> comfortable couch. You're wearing headphones listening to a really carefully
> curated playlist of music — instrumental compositions for the most part —
> and you're wearing eyeshades, all of which is to encourage a very inward
> journey.
Erg, having people trip this way who are already are struggling with
depression strikes me as downright dangerous. Bad trips are a real thing, and
leaving someone alone with their thoughts, without a lot of sensory input, is
a good way to do it. I hope they know what they're doing...
It's really much, much better and safer to be outside, in nature.
~~~
stryk
Laying around on a couch sounds like a waste of a good shroom buzz. Shrooms
are much more fun if you're with a medium-to-large sized group of people who
all know and are comfortable around each other, all of whom are on around the
same dose. They're so much more of a body buzz and less of a mindfuck than
LSD/DMT. Then there's PCP... which is less of a mindfuck and more of a
fuckyou.
~~~
ozzmotik
i personally think arylcyclohexamines and really just NMDA antagonists in
general have a large amount of untapped therapeutic benefit, especially for
individuals suffering from depression otherwise resistant to other forms of
treatment. perhaps it's slightly anecdotal but in my experience, a daily to
semidaily 150mg dose of memantine combined with cannabis prn as an anxiolytic
is pretty much the most effective dosing strategy I have found to control my
depression, anxiety, and lapses in attention. however i certainly don't
recommend it for others, at least with that high of a memantine dosage because
with its insane metabolic half life (60+ hours) it really conpojnds heavily.
not to mention a therapeutic dose of memantine for what it's prescribed for
(controlling dementia symptoms) is generally like 5-10mg. but I will say if
you have the fortitude for it, it's a wonderful experience. you just have to
be willing to essentially exist in a 24/7 state of moderate to heavy
dissociation and not be too predisposed to panic because ive certainly seen
heavy dissociative experiences to be quite anxiogenic for those who don't
really get down with that. but I'd certainly suggest regular memantine usage
over my old practice of constant high doses of dxm :V
~~~
stryk
Have you tried ketamine? Not just for recreation, but as a possible treatment.
It definitely is not going to last 60+ hours, more like .75-1.25hr, but it may
be useful for acute symptoms. But if you approach an anesthetic dose it is
quite enjoyable and calming, especially if you're already accustomed to
psychedelic/narcotic experiences and the like.
~~~
ozzmotik
i have tried it intranasally and it was certainly not the worst experience I
ever had but I believe what I had to be of not the best quality as I went
through 500mg in about 3-4 hours and didn't feel much other than a minor
alteration. i think if it were still possible to find the original formulation
of it, methoxetamine would be highly preferable, that was a very powerful
experience when I got to try that out.
~~~
igravious
Translation: I snorted a very large amount over a very short space of time but
didn't get much of a buzz out of it.
[https://erowid.org/chemicals/ketamine/ketamine_dose.shtml](https://erowid.org/chemicals/ketamine/ketamine_dose.shtml)
says that 100-250mg produces "the K hole" (depends on body weight) so 500mg
over a fairly short period sounds like quite the dosage. That you felt only a
mild alteration suggests that either you have quite the tolerance for
substances or that what you tried was not in fact ketamine. Also, it appears
to me that you're deploying clinical language to mask recreational drug use
which could be for our benefit or yours, I can't tell which.
~~~
ozzmotik
i wouldn't be inclined to say that my choice of verbiage is to have any intent
of masking the action or the nature of it. that's just how I generally talk
about things. i feel like it leaves less up to interpretation and sort of
solidifies the message I'm trying to communicate. which it did as your summary
of what I had to say confirms.
also: i can't confirm if it was or wasn't actually ketamine. but i know that I
experienced something, just nothing significant. I believe many dissociatives
present a cross tolerance with each other and I was heavily tolerant to dxm at
the time from heavy usage, so that may possibly have contributed to my
tolerance, along with a certain level of inherent tolerance that my mind and
physiology express when it comes to mind altering substances. which, and
forgive me for sort of changing the topic, but that just sucks
------
jammi95
Be n
------
senatorobama
Someone identify what Soma was.
------
ilackarms
ibogaine: the only psychedelic people need to know about. and they need to
know.
~~~
ozzmotik
i highly agree that more people should know about ibogaine but at the same
time it is important to note that unless you really know what you're doing or
you have an experienced professional administering it, you really shouldn't
mess around with it. stuff is serious business and not unknown to be fatal.
also, i really wouldn't classify it as a psychedelic, as to my understanding
it's more of a dissociative, which while quite similar in concept, any
experienced psychonaut can confirm that dissos and psys are extremely
different in practice and in mechanism of action.
personaly I'd say that ayahuasca would be better for the lay person since a
traditional brew isn't as dangerous as ibogaine, but certainly as powerful in
terms of self growth and discovery. however, they both address different
aspects of the self; I would say that in general, psys are very internally
directed whereas dissociatives tend to invert that and pierce the outward
veil, as it were
~~~
fapjacks
Your post is great and I agree with everything in it, except for suggesting
ayahuasca to regular people. Over perhaps the last ten or twelve years I have
made ayahuasca for people and sat with them during their trip. I _strongly_
recommend people have experience with another psychedelic before trying DMT
(or a brew in which DMT is a component, like ayahuasca). I actually generally
won't let someone drink ayahuasca unless they've experienced other
psychedelics beforehand. I will usually take them on a mushroom trip first.
Only one time did I let someone drink ayahuasca without any experience with
psychedelics first, and it was the wife of an experienced tripper friend and
who also had experience with other substances. That went totally fine, but it
is just such an intense hallucinogen (and/or dissociative depending) and it
lasts for so long, I just couldn't do that to someone that didn't have a taste
of what to expect beforehand.
~~~
ssijak
On every ceremony that I went, at least 1/3 of participants never tried
psychedelic before, and there are at least 1-2 persons which never tried
anything before, not even marijuana. For some reason, people get drawn to
ayahuasca and don't look at it like they look at other substances. Maybe
because of the stigma that governments produced against other substances and
maybe because ayahuasca ceremony involves shamans.
Anyhow, I have never witnessed problems after the ceremony ended. Yes, it can
be really hard and heavy during the ceremony, but after the ceremony ends,
everybody feels like they are new and like they never felt that good before.
And in after effects of the next several weeks, everybody reports positive and
lasting effects.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Eight months to Brexit: what happens next? - okket
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/jul/26/eight-months-to-brexit-what-happens-next
======
Cypher
I can't wait for the Americans to come in and privatise the NHS. I'm really
enjoying the small chocolate bars after they took over Cadburys.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Introduction to MCollective slides - ibotty
http://www.slideshare.net/PuppetLabs/mcollectiveintroductionsf
======
ibotty
[http://www.devco.net/archives/2013/06/14/introduction-to-
mco...](http://www.devco.net/archives/2013/06/14/introduction-to-mcollective-
deck.php) announces the slide deck.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
WebGL water simulation with raytracing and caustics - wgx
http://madebyevan.com/webgl-water/
======
mtgx
Looks awesome. The OpenGL ES 3.0 standard should be announced this summer.
WebGL will be upgraded to that, right? (It's now using OpenGL ES 2.0).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Comics - marvindanig
https://bubbl.in/book/intro-by-wenqing-yan/1
======
marvindanig
Heya HN!
We started a webcomics on our modern day cyberpunk situation. Hope you like
it!
If you do, subscribe! :-)
Aaaaaaaaaand... it's also open source! :
[https://github.com/marvindanig/fisheye-placebo-
intro](https://github.com/marvindanig/fisheye-placebo-intro)
------
johanvts
I just see a black canvas and a bunch of speech bubbles with the word "no".
Using Edge.
~~~
marvindanig
That's odd... it's working _normally_ at the moment.
> I just see a black canvas and a bunch of speech bubbles
FWIS, images aren't loading properly on your machine edge/browser. Can you
share a little more detail?
I sense that the browser is somehow preventing cross-origin images from being
loaded -- we host it over Github. That seems the most likely explanation but
this needs more investigation.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: EteSync – Secure, E2E sync for your contacts, calendars and tasks - groovybits
https://www.etesync.com/
======
groovybits
A quick search has shown this has not been submitted since 2017.
EteSync now supports iOS, making it officially available on all popular
platforms. Self-hosted option is also available.
I'm not affiliated with the project. I just think it works well, and is a good
alternative to NextCloud, for those who do not need self-hosted file storage.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Lonelygirl15 team gets $5 million in venture capital - alex_c
http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/04/17/lonelygirl15-team-gets-5-million-venture-capital
======
aupajo
Read the tooltip of the second image in that article :)
I laughed.
~~~
asmosoinio
This one?
[http://venturebeat.com/wp-
content/uploads/2008/04/lonelygirl...](http://venturebeat.com/wp-
content/uploads/2008/04/lonelygirl2-249x300.jpg)
My FireFox says: "Alternative Text: Missing". Am I missing out on something
great?
~~~
Goladus
'lonelygirl2'
It's potentially humorous.
------
jcromartie
Yet another hilarious Bubble 2.0 investment mistake. Didn't we just see a
whole slew of articles about how Google can't even make money on YouTube? Do
they really think lonelygirl will be the next Hannah Montana or something?
Maybe they're shooting for a web-to-TV move like Quarterlife made (which by
most indications is a pathetic flop).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What to do during “wait” time at work? - gustanas
What do you usually do at work when you are waiting for example on a project to build? Or when you are in an unnecessary meeting? I'd like to find something useful besides reading articles on the internet
======
steviee
We have a rule for attending meetings: If the meeting is useless, you can
leave (after telling so).
Slack time usually is spent chatting, working on other stuff, getting coffee,
browsing the internet/reading. Most of the time it's work related so it's also
useful in the end.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Trimensional: 3D Scanner for iPhone - GrantS
http://www.trimensional.com/
======
motters
This is a shape from shading approach, which will only work if you're in the
dark, with the phone as the only illumination source. If white dots are shown
in different places on the screen, and assuming the phone and subject don't
move during the process, surface normals can be computed from the resulting
images, and once you have the normals then the shape can be approximated.
Normals can be found by calculating the angle of maximum reflectance for each
pixel for a series of images under different illuminations.
See this Google video for a similar technique.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxNg-tXPPWc>
~~~
dy
What are good resources for looking into converting photos into 3d object
models? I'm really impressed by Shapeways but would like to take current real-
world objects as a base rather than building them in a 3D tool etc.
I've seen the laser scanners but they're relatively expensive. Is there
anything like a mount that takes two iphones, and software that can take those
two photos to create atleast a projection?
~~~
greendestiny
There are a lot of approaches. Yes there is software that takes two photos and
let you reconstruct 3d. If you have a man-made object you probably don't want
a generic point-cloud building approach (like say
<http://www.photosculpt.net/> ) - but rather something like Photomodeler that
lets you select vertices and build up surfaces.
There is also software that builds models from silhouette methods, that
usually require you printing out targets which you place the model, so of like
a manual turntable approach. I can't remember the name of software that does
this at the moment, but its out there.
Or you could work from video (just from a single camera) that you move around.
That can be effective, not sure of the best software for doing this - it's
called structure from motion, a quick google shows some source at this project
site: <http://phototour.cs.washington.edu/>
There some code out there for a do it yourself laser scanner - this isn't what
I was thinking of but it seems kind of cool:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xK5eYhpBtQc>
I've also seen some do it yourself structured light software (ie bring your
own projector and camera), that seems to work ok.
It kind of depends on what size and type of objects you want to scan - things
like the surface properties could be important - also how long you can keep it
still.
~~~
dy
Thanks for the information, it was very helpful.
------
antirez
Very cool and very uncool.
Cool: that it works in a decent way, and uses a neat trick.
Uncool: You can't export the image into a 3D file, making it 99% less useful
that it would be otherwise.
Suggestion: export it as VRML, it's trivial format that you can generate
starting from your points. Use this format (from my own code, so use it as you
wish):
fprintf(fp,
"#VRML V2.0 utf8\n"
"Shape {\n"
" appearance Appearance {\n"
" material Material {\n"
" diffuseColor .5 .5 .5\n"
" }\n"
" }\n"
" geometry ElevationGrid {\n"
" xDimension %d\n"
" zDimension %d\n"
" xSpacing 0.01\n"
" zSpacing 0.01\n"
" solid FALSE\n"
" creaseAngle 6.28\n"
" height [\n", hgt->width, hgt->height
);
for (y = 0; y < hgt->height ; y++) {
for (x = 0; x < hgt->width; x++) {
height = getheight(x,y);
h *= YOUR_3D_MULT_FACTOR;
fprintf(fp, "%f", h);
if (y != hgt->height-1 && x != hgt->width-1) fprintf(fp,",");
if (x == hgt->width) fprintf(fp,"\n");
}
}
fprintf(fp,
" ]\n"
" }\n"
"}\n"
3d studio and other programs will happily import this stuff.
~~~
zach
Wow, there's been a VRML sighting! As an old dude, VRML reminds me of the
worst of 90s web hype. Trying to leave that aside, I also don't think it has a
lot going for it to keep it around as a format.
I prefer the even simpler Wavefront OBJ format as a scratch format. It's about
as printf-compatible as it gets and is supported in many more places than
VRML.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wavefront_.obj_file>
~~~
antirez
Good point, but unfortunately in wavefront .obj there is no "elevation mesh"
alike object, so it's a bit more complex than this, but still not too hard.
Btw while VRML as a plugin and the idea of a 3D web sounds now 90s, the data
format itself is too bad.
------
tobtoh
Cool app. But I have a pet peeve with information pages that only provide
video as a description. Whilst I understand that especially for an app like
this, the best 'information' is to demonstrate how it works via a video, it
doesn't help people a. just want to get a quick one line explanation of what
your app does and/or b. can't watch the video at the time (slow connection,
work restriction etc).
If I hadn't been at home, I would have just left the page and moved onto to
something else - missed sale.
~~~
GrantS
Thanks for the feedback. I was expecting to have this weekend to pull
everything together but Apple approved the app in 2 days (which is great, but
5x faster than for my previous submissions).
~~~
closure
The first question that comes to mind for me is: Is it possible to export the
generated mesh that is shown in the stills?
~~~
GrantS
Good question. Version 1.0 only saves/emails images, but trading 3D scans and
exporting the raw mesh is certainly on the feature list for future versions.
~~~
magicseth
Might I suggest using the Bump API to share scans?
------
magicseth
I tried it this morning in the pitch black. It worked pretty well. The effect
was mostly comical with some distortion. The most interesting aspect is how
people are taking all these things that at first pass would be considered
"impossible," applying some ingenuity and hard work to them, and pushing the
limits of this technology.
------
lliiffee
Looks like it just uses the reflected intensity to estimate the depth, then
pastes the original colormap on top of that? Incredibly clever and simple
hack.
~~~
iwwr
Can the iphone modulate the intensity of its light via software?
~~~
lliiffee
It looks like it is just sending a total blank white screen while it takes a
picture. Sure you can change the intensity-- use a gray pixel instead of a
white one.
~~~
anoved
Actually, it briefly displays a sequence of four illumination conditions - a
white semicircle at the top, right, bottom, and left edges of the screen.
------
ericb
The fact that this only works in the dark made me wonder, how much of what the
Kinect does could be possible on an iPhone, and what would be needed to get
there? 2 Cameras? What else?
~~~
sbierwagen
If your subject doesn't move, two cameras can be approximated by taking two
pictures a set distance apart.[1]
Also note that the method used by this app is very short ranged, and uses the
LCD's backlight while it's imaging, so there's zero feedback, making any kind
of interactive application impossible.
1: There are third party accessories to make this easy and repeatable, built
with varying levels of quality. Here's a fairly cheap one, circa 2003:
<http://www.dansdata.com/photo3d.htm>
~~~
anoved
Or what about using built-in motion sensors to record the relative camera
location and orientation of a series of frames captured with an e.g. iPhone
camera? I don't know exactly how the accelerometers and gyros work, or what
sort of data they provide (linear distance vs just orientation changes?), but
imagine holding down a "scan" button as you simply swing the phone around a
subject to capture a series of images. I would think it would be possible to
reconstruct 3d surfaces (at least under suitable illumination conditions, I
guess) given known camera location/orientation for each frame. Pushbroom
stereo, in remote sensing parlance...
~~~
m_eiman
Tracking movement in 3D using dead reckoning is apparently very inaccurate,
with the iPhone sensors I wouldn't expect it to be accurate for more than a
few seconds at best. I visited a startup working on the problem a few years
ago, and they had problems even with dedicated hardware.
------
Samuel_Michon
HTTP Error 503. Video can be found here:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEZtiDrxh-E>
------
jfeldstein2
Can't wait until someone pipes this into a reprap.
------
nickpinkston
Is this related to the webcam 3D scanner video that was in the news about s
year ago? I'd be interesting to check out.
------
kirpekar
What can one use this for?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Säkkijärven polkka - luu
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A4kkij%C3%A4rven_polkka#Military_use
======
Ndymium
The English Wikipedia page, to me, seems to suggest that the record was played
to explode the mines in a controlled fashion. In fact, according to Finnish
Wikipedia, it was used to scramble the Soviet radio signals to prevent the
mines from exploding, and there was a sort of radio war going on for a while.
This is the specific record that apparently was used:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZx1zl_sVTI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZx1zl_sVTI)
~~~
ashtonkem
The English page does say “jamming”, but I too originally read it as if they
were trying to detonate them prematurely.
------
tgsovlerkhgsel
When I read "mine", I thought of anti-personnel landmines and was confused why
you'd want to radio-trigger those.
These were demolition charges designed to destroy objects like bridges.
According to [https://www.quora.com/Is-it-true-that-the-Finnish-army-
used-...](https://www.quora.com/Is-it-true-that-the-Finnish-army-used-the-
song-S%C3%A4kkij%C3%A4rven-Polkka-to-prevent-the-detonation-of-Soviet-radio-
controlled-mines-during-the-recapture-of-Viipuri-in-the-Continuation-
War/answer/Alexander-Denisov-9), there were a total of 25 such mines hidden,
with each containing hundreds to thousands of kilograms of explosives.
[https://www.standingwellback.com/russian-ww2-radio-
controlle...](https://www.standingwellback.com/russian-ww2-radio-controlled-
explosive-device/) is also worth a read.
------
Legogris
Another Finnish polka more known through Internet culture[0] is Ievan polka:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yh9i0PAjck](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yh9i0PAjck)
I remember having the original Flash clip on loop on for entire days back
when.
[0]: Leekspin:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-N1yJyrQRY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-N1yJyrQRY)
~~~
krebs_liebhaber
The Finns contributed more to early Internet culture than we give them credit
for. They invented IRC, and about half of the weirder memes on 4chan.
~~~
saq
And Linux
~~~
vsipuli
And Git (kind of, although that happened after Linus moved away from Finland)
~~~
Eyght
MySQL in the same vein.
~~~
welfare
MySQL is actually of Swedish origin.
~~~
cfinnberg
Well, at least Michael Widenius, the most visible head of MySQL and one of two
cofounders, is finnish. He also created the MySQL's fork MariaDB. Both names
came from Michael's daughters My and Maria.
------
Pandabob
As a finn, I did not expect to see this on the front page of HN. Ever.
But did not know about the military use of the song. Very interesting.
~~~
stevekemp
As somebody who moved to Finland, and hasn't learned too much Finnish, I was
just pleased I recognized the language and the words themselves!
Interesting read though, regardless.
------
9nGQluzmnq3M
Sakkijarven polkka is (well, was) also famous as one of standard Nokia
ringtones:
[https://youtu.be/UYSdiQl8BQY?t=54](https://youtu.be/UYSdiQl8BQY?t=54)
------
alkonaut
Interesting. This is basically an early version of the phone bomb where you
get a burner phone and just call the number of the sim card to blow it up.
Being able to pull that off in the 40's was impressive.
Hard to say what use it has though? Normally a "mine" is something that is
triggered by an event such as a person or vehicle passing. Setting one off
remotely or on a timer isn't useful.
If the mines were used to rig specific infastructure such as railways or
bridges then I can see the use (blow specific bridges at specific points in
time, without having to send saboteurs). I remember practicing bridge
destruction in the army using dozens of tank mines, simply because they were
readily available and easily handled explosives.
~~~
doikor
These were "mines" used to blow up bridges, roads and railroads. The bigger
ones had thousands of kg of explosives. So more like remote demolition over
radio. Idea being that you could destroy the critical infrastructure after
retreating from the area and if you had vision on it when someone was on it
like the first one that killed a couple officers (killed a major who was the
chief lawyer for the Finnish General Staff)
Modern equivalent would be cellphone bombs in roads in Afghanistan/Iraq.
------
elgfare
Wikipedia articles are quickly becoming my favorite type of HN link.
------
leo150
Eurobeat remix:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxx5p8KnZ3w](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxx5p8KnZ3w)
------
tryauuum
> These mines were set off when a three-note chord was played on the frequency
> the radio was tuned to, causing three tuning forks (of which each mine had a
> unique combination) to vibrate at once.
so, ehm, what was the soviets' plan? to blow them all at once when the city
would be taken by finns?
russian wikipedia page says the plan was to blow them periodically. But it
doesn't make much sense, how would the soviets control which mines to blow?
hard to imagine they would be aiming radio signal somehow
~~~
tgsovlerkhgsel
Each mine could be set to a different combination of three trigger
frequencies. There weren't many of them in place (I'll write another top-level
comment about this - edit:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23089418](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23089418)).
~~~
kmill
Adding to that, even just six frequencies to choose from would let you have
twenty distinct targets. (Six choose three.)
------
swebs
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMszu_VgMfY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMszu_VgMfY)
~~~
michalu
Nice song. Finnish language is part of the Uralic group of languages Finno-
Ugric spoken by Hungarians and Estonians too.
These languages don't belong to Indo-Iranian group like every other language
in Europe.
I like to speculate the language came to northern Europe with Huns who,
according to Procopius (I believe it was him) controlled Scandinavia too and
there are many sagas of Norsemen fighting Huns there, such as Hlöðskviða.
The modern Finns show Nordic genetic, yet the language is Uralic and perhaps
the first Finns were only the ruling class as it was often the case with Huns.
Obviously, there are other more widely accepted theories.
~~~
vesinisa
Sorry but that is quack. Replace "Finnish" with "Aryan" and it's almost
directly from the 1930s Nazi occultism book.
~~~
swebs
>Aryan language is part of the Uralic group of languages Finno-Ugric spoken by
Hungarians and Estonians too.
???
~~~
vesinisa
No, I mean more generally terms like "Nordic genetics" and proposing fringe
linguistic and ethnic theories about modern nationalities.
~~~
michalu
I'm sorry to ruin your imaginations but genetics, linguistics and history are
real sciences concerned with tangible facts. Unlike some political theories
with no right to claim credibility other than calling themselves "modern."
Aryan (term I didn't use) simply means Iranian, regardless of whether nazis
abused the term or not. You may find it useful to know that.
~~~
philangist
I do agree with your more general point but I think we shouldn't dismiss
changes in usages of words over time. Aryan doesn't simply mean Iranian in a
modern western context, just like the swastika isn't just a sign from Buddhism
or Hinduism. Both have strong associations with one of the most defining wars
of the 20th century and the genocidal regime that started said war. That can't
be easily ignored.
~~~
ganzuul
The Black Death killed a hundred million.
Blood flows like a river.
------
afandian
If you're unfamiliar with Finnish traditional music, they have some great
polkas. Frigg are good fun.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77lw3hp9q7M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77lw3hp9q7M)
~~~
drran
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yh9i0PAjck](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yh9i0PAjck)
~~~
afandian
THAT polka.
------
bjowen
... hey! [https://youtu.be/q98Y86jfXaY](https://youtu.be/q98Y86jfXaY)
------
paweladamczuk
This reminded me about the Ride of the Valkyries scene in Apocalypse Now.
~~~
CHB0403085482
I guess you haven't heard the action-scene version of Sakkijarven polkka on a
kantele;
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1PAy4JZfrE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1PAy4JZfrE)
Bonus violin edition by Linda Lampenius;
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-Skam8GUUU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-Skam8GUUU)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why Tech Companies Design Products with Their Destruction in Mind - mpbm
http://www.wsj.com/articles/why-tech-companies-design-products-with-their-destruction-in-mind-1465351202
======
mpbm
Just make everything as recyclable as possible so we can repair and repurpose
it in addition to recycling.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Apple threatens Palm Pre owners. In a support note. - technologizer
http://technologizer.com/2009/06/16/bye-bye-palm-pre-media-sync/
======
stevejohnson
This article jumps to some pretty ridiculous conclusions. The support note
just says that since Apple never promised to support the Pre (for very good
reasons I might add), it might break, and in that scenario, it will be up to
Palm to fix it.
They won't support your jailbroken iPhone for that same reason. Jailbroken
iPhones can run background processes which can cause apps to crash due to
reduced memory availability. In the case of the Pre, if Apple decides to make
some technical change to its syncing protocol that the Pre doesn't support,
then you really can't blame them.
Remember that if Apple were to implement such a protocol change, they would
probably have to update a lot of iPod firmware, resulting in a lot of
temporary syncing problems for a lot of users, resulting in an even bigger
support nightmare.
------
mattmaroon
The only thing dumb is this article. It's a pretty big stretch to say Apple is
"threatening" anybody or that Palm is engaging in risky behavior. At the worst
we'll have a cat and mouse game that Palm will spend most of its time winning.
I'm not sure why any sane person would want to that bloated monstrosity anyway
when they could just drag and drop.
------
ryanwaggoner
Sorry, but this article is bullshit. Apple is rightly covering their ass by
reminding people that if they're dumb enough to buy non-Apple-supported
products because they sync with iTunes, they should be prepared for the very
real eventuality that Apple's changes may break that capability in the future.
In no way is it threatening Palm Pre owners, just letting them know that Apple
won't be responsible when things go south for them.
And aside from that, even if Apple is deliberately telling Palm Pre owners
that they're going to break support in iTunes, so what? It's their product,
they support whatever they want. The tone of this article seems to imply that
Apple is doing something wrong here.
------
GHFigs
In what bizarro world is _not supporting your competitor's products_
considered threatening behavior?
~~~
ars
You misread it.
They threatened to deliberately break support.
Yes, on the surface they said "we won't support", but what they actually meant
was "we'll break it next version".
If all they wanted was just no support they would just ignore the issue. By
mentioning it, it's an implied threat.
~~~
rictic
You say that with a lot of confidence but I can't see how you can possibly be
so sure.
Furthermore, Apple has already released one update to iTunes since details
about the Pre's USB signifiers were known. Breaking support for the Pre as it
is would be trivial, it reports itself as a subtly different device over USB,
close enough that the current version of iTunes treats it like an iPod but
different enough that it should be very simple indeed to block it.
------
lurkinggrue
Techcrunch seems to have this gleeful hate of the palm pre.
No shock that they are not going to support it but I don't read that as they
are going to block it.
------
jodrellblank
It's odd that Palm would risk this, since desktop sync is typically so poor
that I imagine it would be easy for them to do a pretty good job of it. Easy
considering things on the scale of creating a new phone and phone operating
system and application store, anyway.
Have you seen some of the tirades of hatred against ActiveSync there are out
there? Nokia PC Suite isn't exactly known as a shining example of a great
program and Windows Vista's Mobile Device Center is a typically charmless
Microsoft offering.
~~~
duskwuff
From what I understand, the Pre is just using iTunes for media sync.
Everything else (contacts, etc.) is handled OTA.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Stop building client-side forms - tvararu
https://blog.vararu.org/stop-building-client-side-forms
======
postpawl
It’s probably worth adding a sentence or two to describe when client side
forms are useful?
Once your form becomes very dynamic (“add another”, conditional
fields/choices, 15+ change events), a server side form will end up needing to
duplicate a lot of form rendering logic on both the front-end and the back-
end. The server side template will need to be able to re-render the form on
initial load, when fields are changed, and when the form is submitted with
errors. The front-end will need all the logic to render form fields to avoid
reloading the page constantly.
A mostly client side form doesn’t need to duplicate the form rendering logic
in server side templates or make a request to the server side to re-render the
form based on a choice you selected. I think this can be simpler and provide a
better user experience for really complicated dynamic forms.
It’s a complicated decision that should be based on how dynamic your form is
and how acceptable page refreshes are. Like a lot of things in our industry...
I wish this post showed more nuance rather than bashing a solution that may be
better in some scenarios.
------
nicbou
There's one important detail you forgot: server-side forms make caching more
difficult. It can be a performance bottleneck.
As already pointed out, dynamic parts require client-side logic.
There's also quite a bit of FUD going on in that article. You can write a
client-side form without loading 200kb of libraries. I write mine in vanilla
JS. It really isn't that hard.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Instant pages with HTML5 Visibility API & Page Pre-Rendering - igrigorik
http://www.igvita.com/2011/06/25/html5-visibility-api-page-pre-rendering/
======
sbirch
"With the visibility API, you can gracefully pause or degrade the timer to a
much longer poll when the tab is in the background."
Note that this is already enforced for setInterval in some browsers -- I think
Chrome changes the minimum interval to 1000ms from 4ms when the tab is in the
background.
~~~
igrigorik
Ah, interesting -- is this documented anywhere? I did see mentions of Chrome
downgrading background tabs, but did not find any specific numbers.
~~~
paulirish
I mentioned it quickly on twitter:
<https://twitter.com/#!/ChromiumDev/status/76634744607096832>
And updated the MDC docs on it:
[https://developer.mozilla.org/en/DOM/window.setTimeout#Minim...](https://developer.mozilla.org/en/DOM/window.setTimeout#Minimum_delay_and_timeout_nesting)
I'll get it added to www.chromestatus.com now.
------
ams6110
How about just making pages without a ton of crap on them?
------
repos
What will be the impact of this on mobile web apps? I'm assuming though that
is still a rather long way off.
~~~
mmahemoff
When it lands on mobiles (not really _if_ , as past trends indicate it's just
a matter of time with HTML5 standards), it will certainly be a good thing for
optimising battery consumption in a standard way.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: FAS – C distributed Real-Time graphical audio synthesizer server - onirom
https://github.com/grz0zrg/fas
======
person_of_color
<3 for C
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Developer banned from Andriod's open marketplace. "Open" platform? - pistoriusp
http://www.falsedichotomies.org/node/73
======
BenFeldman
These questions should (rightly) be raised about the Market.
But calling into question the openness of the platform itself may not be the
right approach, because anyone can distribute any APK just like anyone can
distribute an EXE or DMG (or, for that matter, a Windows Mobile or BlackBerry
application binary). It seems that with the proliferation of the App Store and
its exclusivity, people have forgotten that on every other major platform,
there -are- ways to avoid carrier limitations through other distribution
channels.
And if I remember the clause in question correctly, the Android 'kill-switch'
only applies to applications downloaded through the Market (as it is only
found in the Market TOS and specifically applies only to the Market Developer
Distribution Agreement).
I really wish more people would speak to the ability to distribute your app as
you wish on other platforms, and not talk about the BlackBerry App World,
Windows Marketplace for Mobile or Android Market as if they were the only
possible way to distribute an application.
------
TomOfTTB
This, to me, seems like a case of people having unrealistic expectations.
I think my generation (under 30) has forgotten that sometimes you have to work
within the system to beat it. Android is a huge step in the right direction
and the fact that carriers are letting it on their network at all is a big
win.
But, for now, the carriers still run the show. And while I hate that fact I
realize it’s the reality and forgive Google for not wanting to get in a war
with providers over tethering. A war that would risk getting them booted off
the network entirely.
Right now Android needs to be given time to grow and get some market share
(and with it some leverage). Once it gets that it can start to dictate terms
(look at Apple and AT&T)
------
paulgb
Has google actually claimed the marketplace to be open? I haven't heard them
do so, but I may well have missed something where they did.
But if not, I don't see what the issue is. Unlike Apple's app store, the
Android app store is not the only distribution channel. It is still an open
platform, IMHO.
EDIT: While I was writing this comment, BenFeldman and TomOfTTB made my point
better than I did.
------
ruslan
We develop mobile voip software. In this regard, I tried to approach Android
developers for a number of times (through their dev forum, as well as through
some guys close to Google) to publish API for adding audio codecs and full-
duplex audio (to let us develop these missing parts). Although my requests
were seconded by many other ppl, no any response followed. Android is closed
proprietary stuff. Dixi.
~~~
jamesbritt
Isn't the complete Android source code freely available?
<http://source.android.com/download>
------
michaelneale
"Open" doesn't mean anything goes - if you have an "open" marketplace in a
town where anyone can sell, if someone is antisocial then they could be banned
(not of course referring to what happened here, but banning does not cancel
out open-ness automatically).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Biases Against the Creation of Wealth - dstowell
http://www.reason.com/news/show/122019.html
======
thomasp
I am a libertarian capitalist, who has made a reasonable amount of wealth.
This article is good, but it ignores several _institutional_ sources of
"unfairness" in common parlance. The most obvious ones through history were
slavery, government-sanctioned racism, widespread sexism and so on.
Leaving those things aside, today active government policy promotes borrowing
vs saving (through Federal Reserve credit policy), and actively bails out Wall
Street speculators - who made a mint during credit bubbles.
Common people aren't stupid if they feel at times "the system is stacked
against me". It often _is_ stacked against them. I am no socialist, but
libertarians recognize that the fastest way to push people into socialism is
to institutionalize unfairness this way.
~~~
fauigerzigerk
Unfortunately capitalism doesn't help much in establishing what is fair and
what is not.
~~~
eru
Depends on your definition of capitalism.
------
davidw
I'll take a contrarian point of view, just for fun:
> But economists who debate certain issues about the perfection of markets are
> not debating, say, whether prices give incentives. Almost all economists
> recognize the core benefits of the market mechanism; they disagree only at
> the margin.
Sometimes, though, you wonder how marginal the 'margins' are. For instance,
information asymmetry (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_asymmetry>).
In a modern, advanced economy with complex products and services, who can
really judge a product just by picking it up and looking at it? Even something
so simple as the food we eat might be grown with toxic weedkillers, and we
can't tell that just by picking it up and looking at it.
Not that I'm actually anti-market or free trade... far from it. I just like to
push back, at times, it's healthy to question things.
~~~
jimbokun
I'll bite.
We likely have more information about product quality than at any time in
history through the Internet. This is also an argument for allowing legal
action like the class action lawsuit to discourage faulty and negligent
craftsmanship. Although, if that is an argument for or against market forces
I'm not sure.
~~~
davidw
Sure, but having that information is not the same as being able to utilize it.
I can't look up everything I buy every day, nor would I really want to. It
makes things easier if I can basically trust that people aren't trying to rip
me off. I think in _most_ markets, it's in the interests of the vendors to not
attempt that, but still, it's an interesting question, and I'm suspicious of
all-or-nothing answers on any side (the market/government should take care of
everything).
------
trekker7
One thing I have wondered is if enterprise software (like CRM and ERP
packages; process automation stuff) is actually helping the common man. The
theory is that all this enterprise software makes large companies more
efficient by cutting their costs. Then since these large companies are so
competitive, they will pass on the savings to the consumer by cutting the
prices of goods/services. Thus consumers can more easily afford higher quality
lives.
But it seems like in the past 20 years, prices have stayed the same or gone
up, employee salaries have stayed the same or gone down, but executive pay
packages have sky rocketed. Does this mean that all the innovation and
"wealth" created by enterprise software is just making the rich more money?
~~~
Xichekolas
How can you say prices have stayed the same or gone up? In 1996 I paid $2300
for a 486 with 16mb of RAM. A month ago I paid only $1700 for a Core 2 Quad
with 4gb of RAM. Seven years ago a 50 inch plasma cost $10k.
Even outside electronics, which experiences persistent price deflation (and
hence rising volume), prices are not rising as fast as wages. In constant 1990
dollars, gasoline cost $1.10/gal in SF in 1987. This rose to $1.66 (1990
dollars) in 2007.
([http://www.mtc.ca.gov/maps_and_data/datamart/stats/gasprice....](http://www.mtc.ca.gov/maps_and_data/datamart/stats/gasprice.htm))
Median wages in the same period rose from $14,498.74 to $23.962.20.
(<http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/COLA/central.html>) $1.66/$1.10 = ~1.51 ...
$23,962.20/$14.498.74 = ~1.65. Even gas is getting cheaper.
As random anecdotal evidence on food. My dad told me he started his career 33
years ago at $4.10/hr, and finished it in 2006 at closer to $40/hr, at the
same company, without climbing into upper management. When he started, a
week's worth of groceries cost him about $25-30. Now, they cost around
$75-100. A threefold increase in the cost of food, but a tenfold increase in
his income.
Sure, the sticker price may go up, but over the long run in a growing economy,
wages increase just as fast, if not faster.
------
fauigerzigerk
The trouble with these ideologic arguments is that the hard questions are
never debated.
For instance, my own opinion is that it is good that you can get rich by
creating things that others need. On the other hand we know that inequality of
income creates inequality of opportunity in the next generation. Which means
that not everyone has the same opportunity to get rich by creating something
that others need.
~~~
rms
Capitalism isn't perfect but it's the best income redistribution method we've
come up with combined with a small government tax. What scares me is that
capitalism is probably still going to be around once scarcity of energy is
eliminated on Earth -- it seems like copyright is keeping a market around for
information when there is no reason for one to exist anymore.
------
Xichekolas
All I can say is wow, I wish someone would print 300 million copies of that
and mail it to every man, woman, and child in the country.
~~~
inklesspen
Nobody would read it. (For approximate values of nobody.)
------
jimbokun
Here are some contrarian positions (to go with those already presented):
The article currently refers to "a society's wealth" but not the distribution
thereof. The American economy has grown significantly since 2000, for example,
but the median wage has not. Is there any point to a growing economy when the
median citizen is not benefiting from it?
There is a brief mention of the irrationality of voters who do not trust
increasing market forces as a means of solving health care problems. However,
one can argue that we have a more market based health care system than the
systems of Western Europe, for example, but worse health outcomes. How can we
be sure, then, that increasing market forces even more will improve the
situation?
~~~
mynameishere
_we have a more market based health care system_
Health care, whether anyone likes it or not, can never be a free market. A
free market requires willing buyers and sellers. Health-care consumers are
uniformly unwilling. This prevents the occurrence of something you see in
penny stock markets: The formation of a spread, in which buyers and sellers
are _unwilling_ to trade. In health care, the sellers can force a sale in such
situations.
~~~
eru
Sorry, I do not know if I really get your argument. Could you please
elaborate?
~~~
mynameishere
It's simply that economists often assume that _all_ markets are (or
potentially are) free, when that isn't the case. Some markets come close
(items on eBay, stocks, commodities, currencies, etc) while others don't. If
you start with a naturally "unfree" market, the same set of rules don't apply.
It's just economists' long-standing physics-envy coming through. They want to
think their field has "laws of gravity" that are always true.
------
karzeem
I've always found religious prohibitions on "usury" to be particularly
disturbing. My parents are from Lebanon and are familiar with people who've
gone through life with only cash transactions. The tight-knit communities
there make things easier for people who won't pay interest, but even so, it
must cool growth. Saving up to buy a car or a house in cash is no small order,
and forget about entrepreneurship. (I wonder if applying to YC would be
verboten...)
~~~
eru
Yes. Luckily, often enough there are lots of loopholes in the religious laws.
Just think of Islamic Banking.
------
mynameishere
Immigration shouldn't be debated in the same way as other sorts of trade. It's
90 percent externalities, good or bad.
------
awt
This is the kind of story that I used to love seeing on reddit. More please!!
:)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Reddit Enhancement Suite - rayascott
https://redditenhancementsuite.com/
======
sidkhanooja
Reddit w/o RES is like McDonalds without the Big Mac. Been using it for years.
Shame that most of its features are broken with the pathetic new redesign
though[1].
[1] -
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Enhancement/comments/7urcrp/res_des...](https://www.reddit.com/r/Enhancement/comments/7urcrp/res_desktop_redesign_status/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Pirate Bay Takes Over Distribution of Censored 3D Printable Gun - mnazim
https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-takes-over-distribution-of-censored-3d-printable-gun-130510/
======
ColinWright
<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5686403>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Lazy and Smarter Web - terpua
http://avc.blogs.com/a_vc/2008/08/the-lazy-and-sm.html
======
demandred
problem is, this only works for guys like Fred. How many hackers on here have
thousands reading your blog, twitter, etc.?
~~~
d0mine
Popular blogs have a good page rank, therefore googling will bring better
results next time an answered question is asked.
Isn't "Ask HN: .." is the same thing?
~~~
d0mine
s/is //
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Learning a single-variable polynomial, or the power of adaptive queries - signa11
http://jeremykun.com/2014/11/18/learning-a-single-variable-polynomial-or-the-power-of-adaptive-queries/
======
diego898
great read, surprising result! Id be interested to see what happens when
coefficients are in the reals
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Internet 'is not working for women and girls', says Berners-Lee - Tomte
https://www.theguardian.com/global/2020/mar/12/internet-not-working-women-girls-tim-berners-lee
======
belval
While I do think that this is a very real problem that should be addressed
somehow, I think Tim Berners-Lee should stop making useless statements to
capitalize on being "the inventor of the Internet". It just feels more and
more like a celebrity chiming in an issue to get public appraisal and I think
it just adds noise for the people actually working on the problem.
------
bronipstid
By unambiguously taking this side of a highly partisan political issue, I fear
TBL has lost a lot of credibility in the eyes of many of the people he needs
to fix the actual problems that have befallen the web.
~~~
krapp
I don't read anything in the article which I would consider political, or
taking a "side" other than admitting the issues mentioned exist. Nowhere is
any specific political party or ideology mentioned or blamed.
I don't know why TBL would lose credibility, or what he would lose credibility
in, specifically.
------
DoreenMichele
Public spheres of all sorts have long not worked that well for women and
girls.
I don't think this is the way to remedy that.
------
rasz
He, being older white man, knows this best.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
This typeface could help dyslexics read - jonathanehrlich
http://www.dezeen.com/2014/11/09/christian-boer-dyslexie-typeface-dyslexia-easier-reading-istanbul-design-biennial-2014/
======
davelnewton
Oh like
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5671568](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5671568)?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Startups that demoed at Y Combinator W16 Demo Day 2 - cjbarber
http://techcrunch.com/2016/03/23/y-combinator-winter-2016/
======
mkohlmyr
Looks like a much stronger batch to me, I take back some of what I said
yesterday. I would be hard pressed to choose between some of these!
I love that we are seeing less fad apps and more healthcare / farming / energy
/ third world tech. It's encouraging.
Personally farming tech and third world mobile payment are areas that I've
been thinking about reading up on for a while. Perhaps the time is now!
As a side note it seems like there are a lot of teams right now working on
chat / chat bots / chat ai in a very overlapping way. It makes me wonder what
the root of this bot/ai/virtual assistant trend is and if they would be
attacking the problem the same way without slack-colored glasses.
~~~
wsinks
Probably slack and ryver and facebook for work - there's a lot of companies
out there. And other companies are throwing money into it too.
Cisco just put out a $150mil fund to fund similar things for their chat &
video platform as well:
[https://developer.ciscospark.com/fund/](https://developer.ciscospark.com/fund/)
Disclaimer: I do work for Cisco
------
serkanunsal
Here is the clean list of YCW16:
[https://startups.watch/yc-w16-startups/](https://startups.watch/yc-w16-startups/)
------
danieltillett
Lots of biotech/medical device companies in this class. Historically this has
not been a good category to invest in (unless you like to lose money), nor one
that is easy to get right. The FDA is a real pain to deal with and trying to
"do things that don’t scale" has you end up like Theranos. I do give YC kudos
for trying.
~~~
StephenSmith
The FDA also provides a HUGE barrier to entry. Once a company makes it through
the approval processes (if they make it), they will have a monopoly on that
corner of the medical market for many years. I agree its difficult, but the
rewards are higher.
~~~
danieltillett
You can still fail at the marketing level even if you make it all the way
through the approval process (Affezza comes to mind as a good example of this
[1]). My background is in biotech and I feel the risk/reward ratio is too
great in this area. Still a gutsy move from YC.
1\. [http://www.fiercepharma.com/story/sanofi-tried-and-failed-
af...](http://www.fiercepharma.com/story/sanofi-tried-and-failed-afrezza-why-
does-mannkind-still-think-it-can-win/2016-02-10)
~~~
lisper
My very first angel investment was in a medical device company. They had FDA
approval, patent protection, all the manufacturing in place, rave reviews from
users, clear benefits over the competition... and they still failed because
they couldn't get distribution.
Ten years later I made another medical device investment. Again, good IP
protection, FDA approved, clear data showing life-saving benefits. This one
failed because the technical founders decided to go off the ranch and have a
turf battle with the CEO.
The Murphy factor in this sector seems pretty high to me.
~~~
danieltillett
Yes the bar in this area is very high as there are so many things that can go
wrong.
I think the difference is with pure software you are just dealing with human
created complexity - with biotech you also have nature’s complexity to deal
with too. Mix the two together and spice it up with some unbelievably
stringent regulations and you have a recipe for a lot of heartburn.
------
kelukelugames
Since number 1 is a catheter, I want to repeat a long time complaint. Why
can't technology help urinals stay clean? There are puddles in literally every
male bathroom. Some one please solve this.
Edit: At my age, the last sputters go in every which way. So missing is
unavoidable and we need some kind of self cleaning floor.
~~~
danieltillett
It is a user error not a technology problem :)
If you did want a technology solution I would suggest electrifying a zone area
around the urinal - 5000V should get even the most haphazard user on the
straight and narrow.
~~~
ant6n
Except the stream is not continuous, as the the liquid speeds up it tends to
separate into droplets.
~~~
danieltillett
I suggest you try urinating on an electric fence - I have seen it done and the
result is both horrifying and very amusing.
~~~
ant6n
An electric fence is much closer than the floor, the stream may not have
broken yet. It does depend on the distance -- for example you could pee from a
subway platform onto the third rail and live to tell the story.
~~~
simonebrunozzi
I have a better solution: just don't drink. Ever.
------
sb8244
A lot of these links are broken. For example,
[http://www.getaccept.com/%E2%80%9C](http://www.getaccept.com/%E2%80%9C)
Luckily, it's easy to parse this out but it's a bit jarring.
~~~
autopov
Well it _is_ TechCrunch (where it's and its are seemingly interchangeable).
~~~
DonHopkins
"Spinal Singularity wants to tap into the $2 billion urinary catheter market
..."
Well played, TechCrunch. Credit where due.
------
kriro
I can't help but wonder how DeepGram is impacted by Google opening their
speech API.
~~~
chejazi
Google's API translates a sound sample to text. DeepGram's API uses the sound
sample to search other audio.
------
bpchaps
NSFW warning.. there's a catheter/penis combo.
~~~
iLoch
I feel bad for anyone who can't view an animated medical diagram of a penis at
work for fear of it being NSFW.
~~~
bpchaps
Tell that to my boss. I personally don't give a shit.
------
ssharp
PaveIQ looks pretty interesting. There has to be a big market of customers
willing to hand over money to learn how their website is performing but aren't
currently investing the time to learn GA's more advanced features or to learn
how to mine insights from all that clickstream data.
~~~
ryanSrich
I'm not so sure. There's a lot you get can from simply running basic analytics
and an NPS survey. You should also be constantly talking with customers.
Ideally you'd already know where the site/app is failing purely based on those
interactions.
If they can pull in data from various sources (Stripe, SFIQ, etc), that's
where this product could be really exciting.
------
neuromancer2701
So what is up with all the Chatbots? Between the two days there was at least
three companies that seemed to be pushing some sort of generic chatbot. Is
this really lucrative? I guess it could replace call centers with online
automated help.
~~~
visarga
It's just that voice is going to become more and more prevalent as an user
interface.
------
debacle
I'm amazed at how big the batch is. It seems like there are some clear front-
runners, but the batch itself seems quite deep.
Disclaimer: Haven't payed a lot of attention to YC batches since '13.
------
greenspot
Boom wants to build the next Concorde—how can YC help?
------
illicium
Physio Health: "Time for a nice strecth!"
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Dead Man Fund - chollida1
https://longreads.com/2017/11/09/ameritor-dead-mans-fund-charles-steadman/
======
Mitchhhs
This is quite sad.
One thing i've been shocked by over the years is how often even well educated,
highly intelligent individuals have a very poor education in personal finance
and make terrible decisions. Theres just so much noise out there and its still
crazy how much of the investment management industry exists despite showing
negative value. If I had to sum up personal finance advice for the average
person in a few bullets it would be this.
1\. Invest in a well diversified portfolio that pays very low fees (vanguard
funds for instance) 2\. Do not try to time the market 3\. Save as much as you
can as early as you can - maximize your 401k/ROTH contributions 4\. Never
carry a balance on your credit card from month to month
And yet so much goes wrong...
~~~
3pt14159
Disclosure: I'm probably exposed to every stock in this comment.
Eh. If you're smart and in technology you can beat index funds pretty easily.
I'm not even counting Bitcoin. I time the market too.
Your advice works for the median person, but if you're in the intellectual 1%
or 0.1% beating the market is pretty easy.
1\. You should have a really good reason for buying a high P/E or negative EPS
stock. It should be grounded in unit economics and entrenchment, not
marketing. Tesla is a good example, I knew it was just a matter of unit
economics. The technology was solid. Made over 10x sans options. Apple is
another good example: They had a low P/E and I thought they were well situated
to make money from services if they could just figure out how to design better
software. They did it.
2\. When the cover of Time magazine is this:
[http://img.timeinc.net/time/images/covers/pacific/2005/20050...](http://img.timeinc.net/time/images/covers/pacific/2005/20050613_400.jpg)
And The Economist is this:
[https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/qcYAAOxyGwNTFJSE/s-l300.jpg](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/qcYAAOxyGwNTFJSE/s-l300.jpg)
Put two and two together and put everything in cash. Sure I missed out on two
years of growth, but after the recession hit I bought back at half. Bought
back in when things had stabalized and recently sold 85% of the portfolio
because fundamentals look wacky. It might take a month it might take two
years, but another recession is coming.
3\. Research the damn thing. If you don't understand it well enough don't buy
it. You're not losing money by failing to buy the next hot thing. I read the
entire Bitcoin paper before buying to make sure it could handle different
stresses. My only regret was not leaning harder into it when I bought it at $4
CAD / BTC. I was too sheepish about "internet monopoly money" even though I
knew it could hit $10k or $50k a coin if it took off.
4\. Don't necessarily max out your 401k / RRSP. Tax rates are going way, way,
way up once the baby boomers hit the social safety net. If you aren't at the
top marginal rate you're using up tax deferment that will be better once you
are. Plus having money outside of these vehicles makes investing in your
friends startup easier. The only exception is if you're buying a house and you
can loan yourself money from it (since it's like buying the house tax free).
5\. Bubbles can go on for way longer than you think. Just be fucking patient.
Do I wish I mortgaged a house in Toronto in 2009? Sure. But the stock market
has gone up too and housing at these levels is unsustainable. At the very
least housing price _growth_ will subside.
~~~
mikestew
I'm sure you're being downvoted for going against orthodoxy by suggesting that
one can "beat the market". I agree with you in that it can be done, and should
not be attempted by most people (I personally would not put intelligence
constraints on it; I think it's a factor of one's tolerance for looking at
financial data, and an ability to keep emotion out of trading decisions). I
don't try to time the market, however. My prime directive is to preserve
capital, which I implement mostly through stops. I'm happy to leave money on
the table, but I don't want to lose money.
But let's look at the fund in question: how did they stay funded? The same way
a lot of bad funds stay funded: people put money in and never look at it
again. And those people are _not_ the ones updating stop limits, looking at
charts, and basically making a hobby of their finances. _Those_ people should
be buying index funds. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. With
the time I've spend reading books, tracking markets, etc., I could have
learned a language, started a business, build my own house, whatever. Because
after looking at returns over the last twenty years, yeah, I have demonstrated
I can consistently beat the market (or more likely, can leverage opportunities
of sheer luck), but not by enough to make the opportunity cost worth it if I
didn't actually like doing it as a hobby.
And folks should completely ignore your point #4, especially the part about
buying a house "tax-free". Eh, not quite.
~~~
3pt14159
I agree that it isn't really tax free since you got to pay it back eventually,
but because mortgages generally require some minimum amount down (at least
here in Canada) it's a real consideration for many people, though it does come
at a cost later if you're going up tax brackets.
I also agree that it isn't just intelligence, but I do think you can't do much
if you aren't at least in the top 5%, even with a whole hell of a lot of
training. Much of investing is a zero sum game, and it's extremely
competitive.
I also agree that most people should do broad basket, diversified ETFs and I
also think your stop-loss strategy is above average, but I think you could
probably do better if you were willing to take more risks on individual
companies / technologies.
As for returns, I agree that it doesn't look good on paper for the first 20
years, but the difference compounds and building experience matters. I'm now
at the point where I'm both better at it _and_ I have more at my disposal to
grow. Last time I checked, not counting crytpo-currencies, I'm averaging
around 18% per year pre-inflation across a mix of bonds, stocks, and funds.
Now, much of that has been a combination of timing / luck on currencies. So
let's call it 15% to be safe. Doubling every 5 years, I'm 32 and I started
this at around 15. I put maybe 200 hours into it a year and the family
portfolio not counting housing or shares in hard-to-sell startups is almost
$1m. Another 40 years of this is going to really make all this effort worth
it, provided we don't have something catastrophic like a world war / economic
collapse.
On getting downvoted:
I don't let it bother me. I try to remember that sometimes I see things I know
are factually wrong get upvoted and that sometimes I'm getting upvoted despite
being wrong. The votes aren't the truth, even if they do correlate.
Maybe we need more webs-of-trust on social networks that should influence how
votes are counted. Because if you just judge thing by the words on their own,
somethings can sound wrong or crazy at first blush even if they are right. For
example, Facebook's Instagram acquisition was seen as dumb, but it was genius.
Although maybe this idea is wrong. Maybe we already overweigh the opinions of
the connected and powerful.
------
JackFr
1\. Market the heck out of your fund to get it real big.
2\. Run it straight for a few years, but then really hammer the fund with
crazy bad expenses (and possible self dealing -- but keep it legal) Do so
poorly that any account with a pulse will withdraw all their funds.
3\. What's left over is free money for you draw down as 'expenses' for as long
as it lasts.
~~~
wnissen
That's a remarkably accurate description of events. It's the "Springtime for
Hitler" of funds. Because the fund is so bad there is no one left to hold you
to account. The incredible thing is that they could have kept it going
indefinitely if they hadn't been so greedy. Just stick all the money in a
basket of stocks to replicate an index fund, set annual "expenses" at right
around replacement rate (3-4%), and go live in St. Barts.
~~~
eru
Not only greedy, but also incompetent.
------
dmix
> The rate of loss only accelerated, and the recession of 2008 dealt this
> frail fund a killing blow.
Recessions aren't all bad. They have a cleaning effect, sweeping up the cruft
and inefficient operations, while exposing the outright frauds in the process.
It's amazing the fund lasted as long as they did...
Interesting read regardless, too bad it wasn't longer as the usual articles
typically are on this site.
~~~
brandnewlow
Also gives employers air cover to let go of the non-workers hiding on the
payroll.
~~~
snotrockets
idk, last recession, most financial management kept to their chairs: it was
the low ranking employees that got the boot.
------
madengr
I have been reading A Random Walk Down Wall Street.
The premise seems to be that these actively managed funds, on average, don’t
do any better than the market index. So just put your money in an index fund
and avoid all the fees from the so called experts.
~~~
arielweisberg
It's a good book and one of my favorites, but I prefer "The Four Pillars of
Investing" by William Bernstein. [1]
Even the recommendations there are more complicated than I prefer. Vanguard
has some wrapper funds (Life Strategy, Target Retirement) you can pick from
that mean even more simplicity and less room for error. Tax efficiency is the
only reason I would get more involved.
[1] [https://www.amazon.com/Four-Pillars-Investing-Building-
Portf...](https://www.amazon.com/Four-Pillars-Investing-Building-
Portfolio/dp/0071385290/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1510595025&sr=8-2&keywords=four+pillars+of+investing&dpID=5106QPDYQFL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch)
------
bhhaskin
Thanks for this. It's a nice breath of fresh air from the usual marketing
pieces.
------
Simulacra
Very interesting article. One tangent note: The author appears to have
committed a felony by opening someone else's mail. Even if they're dead. A
random quirk of the law.
~~~
Overtonwindow
Technically. 18 U.S.C. § 1701 Says if you accidentally open it it's not a
crime, but then not notifying the post office and returning it to them is when
it becomes a crime. By a) opening the letter (apparently deliberately as he
doesn't say accidentally) and then b) NOT returning it to the postal service,
the author has committed a crime.
~~~
goialoq
It's a crime to not go out of way to do someone else's job for them?
I see nothing about that here:
[https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1701](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1701)
"Whoever knowingly and willfully obstructs or retards the passage of the mail,
or any carrier or conveyance carrying the mail, shall be fined under this
title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both."
Reading/trashing mail in my box isn't obstructing or retarding anything in
passage or conveyance.
------
hayksaakian
What amazes me is how the fund continued to exist for so long despite a track
record of failure.
~~~
walshemj
Is there no oversight for mutual funds in the USA one of the reasons why I
prefer IT (Investment trusts) where the board acts in the interests of the
share holders and not the managers.
------
pnutjam
This should be required reading for high school economics.
------
bearbearbear
> An envelope had landed in our mailbox containing a check in the amount of
> $10.32 made out to one Anna Mae Heilman.
The whole debacle of solving this mystery could've been avoided by not
stealing mail from someone you don't know and instead marking it return to
sender.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
US forbids any device larger than cellphone on flights from 13 countries - prawn
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/mar/20/us-forbids-devices-larger-cell-phones-flights-13-countries
======
LordWinstanley
Deliberately (?) misleading headline. The devices are not banned from flights.
They are banned from being carried as hand luggage
~~~
glandium
Would you put your tablet or laptop in the checked luggage, though? When you
know how they're handled...
~~~
LordWinstanley
Whether I would trust baggage handling or not isn't really the point.
Almost every news outlet is headlining this story that these devices are being
'banned' from flights, which is simply not true. They're being 'banned' from
being carried on as hand luggage. You might as well say that "changes of
clothes" are banned from flights, seeing as most people's suitcases are not
allowed to be carried on as hand luggage either.
I know the truth doesn't make for as interesting a headline. But it's
irritating to see the [allegedly] quality press increasingly adopting the
tactics of the click-bait trash pedlars.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why Alien Life Will Be Robotic - ernesto95
http://nautil.us/issue/29/scaling/why-alien-life-will-be-robotic
======
tfandango
This seems obvious to me. Humans are not very durable. Most of the complexity
of space travel is derived from trying to keep squishy fragile humans alive,
and even then they die of old age before they can get anywhere outside the
local system anyway. We already know sending robots is much easier, cheaper,
and sustainable. A sufficiently advanced machine and software could
repair/improve have no concerns about an 1000 year trip.
------
swagv
I'm easily convinced by the premise
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Browser Wars: Is Internet Explorer 10 a Relevant Browser? - carusen
http://www.7tutorials.com/browser-wars-internet-explorer-10-relevant-browser
======
Piskvorrr
Browser Wars: Does it matter any more? To my pleasure, I can say that it
mostly doesn't - modern pages will work in any modern browser. Hip hip hooray!
~~~
carusen
That's because everybody agreed to support open standards but, if a major
player stops doing so, then we are back to the dark ages. :)
~~~
Piskvorrr
Alas, then it has started again. But it says "Upgrade to Chrome" instead of
"...to IE 4"; worst of all, the Chrome-pushing sites work equally well in
recent Opera, or Firefox, or Safari (yes, I know that uses the same core),
once you get past the browser-sniffer - but noooo, damn any capability
checking, there's gotta be "CHROME" in the User-Agent string.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How Ning made me a chump and how you can avoid it - skorks
http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2010/01/15/the-problem-with-software-as-a-service-is-you-dont-own-shit/
======
Mc_Big_G
The sad fact is that most users don't care about vendor lock-in and it is not
in the interest of these companies to make it easy to export your data for use
with another service.
I based my first startup around the fact that my users could pack up and take
their site anywhere at any time and made it a one-click affair to do so.
Unfortunately, this really wasn't enough of a pain point to have a significant
affect on sales.
Major kudos to the dataliberation.org Google engineers for addressing this
issue.
~~~
MicahWedemeyer
I'd like to make the data a little more portable on my site
(<http://www.obsidianportal.com>), but it's one of those edge cases that
always gets pushed to the bottom of the TODO list.
It's not that I'm sitting here twirling my moustache about vendor lock-in,
just that there are so many other more-pressing user-facing things to work on.
If my users made a concerted effort to pressure me on this front, I'd probably
do something, but so far it's just been a couple of stray "hey, can i get a
data dump?" requests.
------
radu_floricica
The article starts and ends with a dataliberation.org link, so after a bit of
hesitation I decided to check it out. Lo and behold:
> The Data Liberation Front is an engineering team at Google whose singular
> goal is to make it easier for users to move their data in and out of Google
> products.
That was NOT what I expected. With things like this Google really goes a long
way towards proving its "do not evil" mission statement. Not just the thing in
itself, but the fact that it was a few engineer's initiative which nobody
supressed, and doesn't even have "marketing" written all over it.
------
c3o
To understand this you need to know that back in 2005, Ning wasn't as
restrictive a your-own-customized-social-network service as it is now, it
allowed you to build several kinds of social, "web 2.0"-ish pages like hot-or-
not type rating sites, restaurant review sites and social bookmarking sites.
You could "clone" the sites others had created and you even had some level of
access to the underlying PHP code.
You can find references to that in old blog posts:
<http://blog.ning.com/2005/10/rate_my_anything.html>
It's these applications that according to the article Ning later turned off,
after they had moved to a new model.
------
keefe
I think the interesting thing is summarized in this
[http://getsatisfaction.com/ning/topics/ning_tos_its_our_resp...](http://getsatisfaction.com/ning/topics/ning_tos_its_our_responsibility_to_backup_sites_ummm_ok_how)
Unless I've missed it, they say backups are your responsibility and they don't
provide a method to backup the data. I do believe data security is the
responsibility of whoever is setting up the service. I think it's just one of
those things you have to check when you're exposing something to the public,
to avoid showing your ass basically.
edit : also I think a scrape of only the salient pieces of data on his site,
the settings files, would have been the 80/20 on backing up without a policy
from ning
------
DTrejo
Coding horror still links to the ning site that was erased, which is now
parked by spammers.
------
brown9-2
_Say I offer to hold your wallet for you while you swim. When you get out of
the pool some of the pictures are missing. Is it ok that I wasn’t charging you
to hold your wallet?_
Is it smart of you to entrust things which you value to a complete stranger
whom has made no guarantees to you as to the safety of your items?
This sounds to me like the issue with GoDaddy yesterday, if you don't trust
your host, then maybe you shouldn't be using them.
------
ryanelkins
How do you guys feel about this? (taken from the Data Liberation Front's
website which was linked at the beginning of the article)
"...we always encourage people to ask these three questions before starting to
use a product that will store their data:
Can I get my data out at all? How much is it going to cost to get my data out?
How much of my time is it going to take to get my data out?
The ideal answers to these questions are: Yes. Nothing more than I'm already
paying. As little as possible."
My problem with it is that there IS a cost to exporting this data. That cost
has to be paid by someone. Is it fair to work that into your price when it's a
feature that perhaps very few users might actually use? How often should you
allow users to back up their data?This is mostly in the context of SAAS
products that are not free.
------
edw519
_I’m not kidding, this is important in a job where most of what you do is sip
coffee and type._
Don't forget "sprays coffee onto keyboard when you read that most of what you
do is sip coffee and type".
------
netcan
Is there a non hosted Ning alternative?
~~~
pchristensen
Wordpress has packaged some things together into BuddyPress, a modified
Wordpress MU solution.
~~~
KWD
Also, Wordpress MU is being merged into the core Wordpress, I believe in the
3.0 release, and the most recent release of BuddyPress is no longer limited to
MU.
<http://buddypress.org/>
<http://mu.wordpress.org/>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A Better Way to Share Links in Email - bengross
http://www.messagingnews.com/onmessage/ben-gross/better-way-share-links-email
======
frossie
In case people have an unsolved problem in this area, you can also check the
"Email This" Firefox add-on. It's an easy way of getting non-techie family
members to send you links.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Email transparency - xal
https://stripe.com/blog/email-transparency
======
greggman
I've known companies that had pretty good email policies....until they got
sued and every email debate was turned into the evidence that they knew X or
considered Y or thought about Z and were therefore guilty. :-(
~~~
jzieger2
Hi (I'm Stripe's lawyer). Litigation discovery is something that any company
needs to think about when crafting its email policy. But whether an email goes
to a few individual recipients or to a broader list won't impact whether it
needs to be disclosed in discovery. The seemingly private email between two or
three co-workers will almost always persist in someone's inbox for a very long
time, and ultimately be discovered.
In most cases, the kinds of emails you are talking about -- where someone says
something that can be mischaracterized or otherwise damaging to the company in
the future -- are a result of poor judgment. And that's where I think Stripe's
policy has a distinct advantage. When people know they're sending things to a
broader group of recipients they tend to be more thoughtful in how they
communicate and just avoid saying many of the imprudent things that would be
troublesome in future discovery.
~~~
UnoriginalGuy
Random question relating to both e-mail and the law...
So everyone puts these signatures/disclaimers on their e-mail now which say
(paraphrasing):
> This message is confidential. It may also be privileged or otherwise
> protected by work product immunity or other legal rules. If you have
> received it by mistake, please let us know by e-mail reply and delete it
> from your system; you may not copy this message or disclose its contents to
> anyone. Please send us by fax any message containing deadlines as incoming
> e-mails are not screened for response deadlines. The integrity and security
> of this message cannot be guaranteed on the Internet.
Or similar. Do these things actually have a legal purpose/meaning? I mean can
you really enforce a contract the other person hasn't agreed to? Can you
really demand what THEY do with an e-mail YOU sent them?
A few years ago I thought this stuff was silly but now a lot of big companies
are doing it and I can only assume these companies have a legal department...
PS - If you were to reply I wouldn't assume it was legal advice, I am asking
you as a person who just happens to be a lawyer, not as a lawyer. :)
~~~
jzieger2
I think people do these things mainly to deal with inadvertent disclosure
(e.g., an incorrectly addressed email) or further downstream distribution of
an email. The idea is to have some indicator that the original sender meant
the communication to remain in confidence (which may be required to maintain,
for example, attorney client privilege, or to preserve trade secret
protection). When they are affixed automatically to every email (as they are
by many firms), I really doubt they work. I'm not aware of any case where the
existence of this kind of disclaimer has been a factor, and I suspect most
people put this in the "it couldn't hurt" category, rather than really
thinking it'll be effective. Would be interested to hear if anyone is aware of
evidence to the contrary.
~~~
yajoe
They are effectively worthless if it can be shown they are added automatically
to every mail. Privileged communication requires something explicit or genuine
intent, i.e. the sender writing 'privileged' at the top. It actually can be
quite bad if it's shown that the privileged communication was abused (either
in terms of piercing all veils or censure).
My experience is people add these signatures because they see other people
doing it and they assume it's a good practice or seemingly professional. It
may be some inexperienced lawyers recommend it so they have something to say
about email policy. It's not hurting anyone beyond eating up mail quotas,
right?
------
jsaxton86
"We use Gmail for email and Google Groups for lists."
"What we have today works pretty well for our current size—around 45 people."
So if I can manage to get the Google authentication credentials for just one
of Stripe's 45 employees, I can get access to the vast majority of Stripe's
email? I hope they require two factor authentication.
~~~
cristinacordova
Yes, we do require two factor auth, and we're very stringent about laptop
security generally. We're pretty cognizant that, even at a less open company,
compromising any employee can generally be used to obtain a surprising amount
of sensitive company information.
~~~
jessaustin
In light of this issue, what have you done to restrict the amount of harm that
even a trusted employee can do? I'd be happy to learn that after a suitable
time period for disputes, literally _no employee_ would be able to provide any
demographic info related to a particular charge. You can't harm my customers
if you don't have access to their data.
------
shykes
Very cool experiment. How do you deal with less technical people in the team
who don't find it fun to tweak email filters all day long? Is your tooling to
the point of polish where that's no longer an issue? Or are you simply at a
stage where you don't (yet) need to hire non technical people? We've found
this to be the main obstacle in getting full adoption for things like this.
~~~
pc
We help them create their filters when they join. We'll hopefully make this
part more streamlined over time.
~~~
collision
The Google Groups webface is also getting good enough that you can keep up
with some lists without having to actually subscribe to them via email.
~~~
cristinacordova
Speaking as a non-technical person at Stripe, the google groups web interface
good, but not great. Andreas on our team built a filter manager, which makes
it much easier: <https://github.com/antifuchs/gmail-britta>
I was all set up with filters on my first day and then made tweaks over my
first couple of weeks to improve efficiency.
------
pbiggar
This is cool. We had cargo-culted the idea of open email and CCing the entire
company at CircleCi, so its great to see the details exposed. Looks like that
structure will be really useful once we get a few more people.
------
nands
Lists work well to a certain extent but would not be suitable for a number of
cases. Say a team member decides to add an existing email conversation to the
list at a later point in time. This would break the original email thread
structure when added to list. What happens to an email in a conversation which
came from someone outside the company. Someone forwards it to list again? Say
someone forgets to do a "reply all" in an ongoing conversation, this email
never lands up in the list.
We like using email for most of our tasks too. We use our own product GrexIt's
(<http://grexit.com>) Shared Labels to share information and even collaborate
right from our email inbox. Shared labels allow you to share particular Gmail
label among a group of people in your company. Every email conversation on
which a shared label is applied gets pushed to the user's inbox who were part
of the shared label. All followup emails that arrive in an ongoing
conversation also keep getting shared automatically. This approach requires
minimal effort to share information and works better than lists. Most
importantly users continue to access information from their inbox itself.
We use the shared labels approach for a variety of use cases like support and
development. As soon as support email arrives to the support@ email-id it get
shared with everyone. We have shared labels with every team member's name, say
Task:John. To assign an email to someone, we simply apply the user's shared
label on that email. This allows us to collaborate easily without needing any
3rd party tools
------
silverlake
Why not use Yammer or similar? We are trying G+ for business apps. It's ok.
~~~
gdb
We've tried Yammer, and it's never really taken off. The nice thing about just
copying an email to a list is the barrier to entry is so low -- the sender
doesn't have to open a new tab, or create any additional content.
~~~
nands
Exactly. The idea of copying email from one inbox to another "shared inbox" is
painful.
------
codenerdz
Nearly all of these use cases are covered by a number of social enterprise
platforms such as Yammer or Socialcast without the need for new employees to
setup filters.
In Socialcast activity streams can be filtered by groups which could be
public, private or externally facing(meaning you can invite people outside
your company to participate in them). People can be notified directly by
@-mentioning them in your posts and so forth. And of course all the content is
searchable and filterable.
The usefulness of these social enterprise tools was not clear to me until I
saw it being used in both a 40-people company and a 13,000-people company. It
brings about collaboration, transparency, a way for people to discuss their
issues and to often vent about things they dont like.
Maybe its time for Stripe to check it out too :)
Disclaimer: I work for Socialcast, the VMWare company
------
Maascamp
This is an interesting tactic. I think it can work well for companies up to a
certain size, at which point new hires start getting auto added to certain
lists and you start to have enterprise email issues (I think Stripe will
manage to avoid this fate though) ;)
This is a timely article for me though. We actually did a Show HN earlier
today for a product (lightermail.com) whose ideal use is exactly this
scenario. It allows people to control the flow of email from specific senders
or domains. We see it being ideal for companies who have these sort of mailing
lists, because it allows employees to subscribe to all the relevant lists
without getting distracted by all the associated email throughout the day.
Good luck with your experiment! It will be interesting to see how it goes.
------
noahl
I'm curious about your thoughts on mailing lists vs. private newsgroups. I
think of email and news as just two different ways of sharing MIME messages,
with the difference that email is sent to specific people and newsgroups are
stored on a server and can be archived and made (semi-)public.
I realize that newsgroups have received much, much less attention than email
recently, and it may just be that there isn't enough software support for news
to make it worth bothering with, but it does seem like a mailing list with
archives is a lot like what news was trying to accomplish. (The only other big
difference I can think of is push vs. pull notifications. But newsgroup
readers can fetch all new messages, so I don't think that's a big deal.)
~~~
mkopinsky
Can you send an email and cc a newsgroup?
~~~
ams6110
Assuming you're talking about an nntp newsgroup then yes, if you're running a
mail-to-news gateway.
------
ngoel36
When I was an engineer at Google, most Googlers tended to handle the email the
same way. And of course, all 50k+ employees used the same Gmail and Google
Groups as you and me.
I absolutely loved the system, and I've convinced my startups and
organizations use solely Google Groups to communicate as well. Especially as
an engineer in a company with thousands of simultaneous projects, it was
extremely helpful to have a searchable archive of every conversation or set of
meeting notes that was relevant to something I was working on.
The legal liabilities, however, that this system could obviously bring up, as
greggman mentioned, are an entirely different conversation.
------
d0m
How do you handle customers' emails? Is support@stripe going to a "support"
mailing list? How do you make sure every email is answered only once? I.e.
that all the team can see the conversation and can opt-in optionally. Thanks!
~~~
zt
Support emails do not go to the support@ mailing list, they're handled through
a helpdesk management tool that allows us to see full contact history, etc.
------
Terretta
Part of the issue around transparency is that email inbox silos may be the
wrong tool for a collaborative and productive tech company.
In general, email is now being seen (as often remarked by ShowHN MVPs) as To
Do lists, and in a tech shop, multiple people have an interest in that
process. This results in unenforceable policies about To: vs Cc: and unwieldy
threads you're never sure if you should delete the tail nested indent history
from. As the ShowHN projects assert, email's a poor To Do list tracker.
To refine that slightly, emails tend to be _requests_.
You don't create a new email thread to give yourself a To Do item. You create
a new email thread to ask someone for something. The recipient doesn't care
about your agenda. You're the interested party asking, and you need to track
your requests.
Employees and clients email requesting action from someone: do this for me,
let me do this for you, give me a resource, read this, take action on this,
file this, and of course, receive a copy of this to cover my ass. Your To Do
items (emails) are now in their lists (inboxes), and once there, you've lost
control over the prioritization and handling of them. You'll probably lose
visibility too, the moment you stop getting CC'd on your own email thread.
So, we quit using email.
Instead, we use Request Tracker, tracking all those requests. Instead of the
Inbox, we have the RT dashboard, backed by automation with full extensibility:
http://bestpractical.com/rt/screenshots.html
http://bestpractical.com/rt/features.html
http://bestpractical.com/rt/extensions.html
We all use it, and clients are trained (by sales, by contract, and by firm
account managment and support response) to use tickets for anything as well.
If there's no ticket, you didn't really request it. RT makes this easy,
because the client can still just use email -- there's no web interface (well,
there is, but they don't have to use it) for them to have to learn. They can
just email a team (internally, an RT "ticket queue") and be sure the team will
sort out who's handling it with an SLA promise.
If someone on a team has a family emergency, it's no issue, as anyone else on
the team can take over that person's tickets till they're back, and
immediately see the whole history.
All this is public within the company and fully searchable, going back about a
decade.
When I said above we quit using email, I lied!
We actually all use email, but what we're emailing are RT tickets. So
throughout the day, we can use any email capable device in the world to
interact with this shared request handling history. RT automates the history
and the cc lists. You can search your own requests using your email client, or
hit the web interface to search everything. Through the web interface we enjoy
the benefits of the dashboard summary, automatic response SLA monitoring,
cross linked issue tracking, and visibility/searchability by everyone.
Note that RT can pick apart email addresses and subject lines, so you can
route all your RT queues through a single Gmail account if you want, spam
protecting your system and giving you a master archive searchable using
Google's search tools as well.
Stripe is essentially slowly reinventing Best Practical's Request Tracker.
Might be worth giving RT a try.
~~~
buu700
_You don't create a new email thread to give yourself a To Do item_
Maybe I'm just weird, but I do this pretty frequently (fire off quick
instructions/reminders with "TODO:" prepended); after all, there's very little
besides email that I care enough about to check frequently enough for any
action items I assign to myself to matter.
I understand and agree with the idea behind the "Show HN" projects you
mention, but as a potential user, at the end of the day all I really care
about is that my personal system/workflow works and helps me get stuff done,
not how structured or semantically beautiful my data is. The last thing I need
is yet another application/service to demand time/attention from my day.
(On a similar note, I've never been able to commit myself to a well-organised
file structure with meaningful nested directories, an indexing system, and so
forth, when a flat directory holding tens of thousands of files + ls and
whatever regexes has Just Worked for me for years, despite not being pretty.)
~~~
jeremysmyth
_Maybe I'm just weird, but I do this [send emails as todo items] pretty
frequently (fire off quick instructions/reminders with "TODO:" prepended);_
It's also something that I do indirectly via Google Now or Samsung Voice -
launch it, say "Note to self - Fix a time with Patricia" or "Remind me to book
train tickets". It sends an email to me with that content.
------
redmattred
That sounds like a lot of email to keep up with.
~~~
alan_cx
And then, too often, you need to speak to the sender to find out what the
email actually meant in the first place, only to find out that it had no
relevance to you.
I like the info sharing and should lead to increased efficiency, but its
something that IMHO needs very careful scrutiny.
------
jorangreef
I have been working on this use case of private/shared email and have been
testing in private beta for a year with a firm of 40 staff. If you are
interested, please send me an email ([email protected]).
------
buro9
What software do you use to run the lists? Just some majordomo, or mailman
software?
~~~
spicyj
Sounds like they use Google Groups.
------
us3rn4m3
ahem. what you have described, is Yammer...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: I coded the division algorithm on bit arrays - 19eightyfour
https://github.com/dosaygo-coder-0/bitmath/blob/master/index.js#L222
======
19eightyfour
Happy 4th of July, people of USA!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Let’s Remember Exxon’s Extremely Wrong Response to Its Catastrophic Oil Spill - dsr12
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/lets-remember-exxons-extremely-fucked-up-response-to-its-catastrophic-oil-spill
======
hdhzy
I don't know why but I'm thinking about Symantec right now...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Robinhood (backed by a16z) started offering free equity trading platform - ivom2gi
https://www.robinhood.io/
======
salient
Will this work only for Americans? Is there a minimum deposit amount?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Colorffy – Resources and tools for designers and developers - giancarlosgza
https://www.colorffy.com/
======
giancarlosgza
Hi Hacker News! Here are some features from Colorffy:
1\. It's a design website, where you can search for color gradients and
palettes, get color codes like hex, rgb, hsl and cmyk
2\. Preview UI elements (buttons, badges, navbars, cards), with differents
gradients, css codes and images downloads
3\. We have some cool generators like for color gradients, random colors and
get colors from images
I'd like to monetize this by selling a pro version with additional features
like color blindness filter for colors, icon previews with differents
palettes, saving of unlimited gradients from the generators and liking of
color gradients and palettes that we post.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A Teenager’s View on Social Media - dpflan
https://medium.com/backchannel/a-teenagers-view-on-social-media-1df945c09ac6#.tgc3a48px
======
greenyoda
Note: This article is from a year ago.
Original discussion on HN:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8851902](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8851902)
A response to the article:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8874411](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8874411)
~~~
dpflan
Thanks, didn't do enough due diligence; searching for the URL yielded no
results as it appears to do an exact match.
The URL after the # appears to change on each GET of the article:
[https://medium.com/backchannel/a-teenagers-view-on-social-
me...](https://medium.com/backchannel/a-teenagers-view-on-social-
media-1df945c09ac6#.xbnp9xwza)
~~~
greenyoda
It's actually OK to repost an article after a year if it hasn't had
significant discussion in the last year. However, it's customary to put the
year in parentheses after the title if it's an old article so that people know
it's something they may have read before.
I was mainly pointing out the earlier discussions because they could be of
interest to someone reading the article.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Something Important Is On The Horizon In The Music Business - prakash
http://avc.blogs.com/a_vc/2008/04/something-impor.html
======
henning
I'm really getting tired of all these pundits who have a magic crystal ball.
Services can stay irrationally bad for a very long time. He's making
ridiculous speculations about the spread of broadband over the entirety of the
United States without even considering why the USA doesn't _already_ have the
kind of bandwidth Europe and Japan have.
Just because there's a potential for something to occur doesn't mean it will
happen. Do you remember microformats? People like Jakob Nielsen had chubbies
for that crap for years. It never materialized even though it kind of seems
like a good idea.
Just because you throw money at people for a living doesn't mean you know what
the fuck you're doing.
------
lg
A grad student I know said he might work at his friends' very secret startup
this summer. All he said is that it'll revolutionize the music business, it
has the full support of several record companies, they got half a million from
vc's just for the idea, and apparently radiohead is tangentially involved. I
don't know if it's good or bad to have so many cooks in the kitchen before
they've written a single line of code... but anyway, maybe it's something like
fred's talking about.
------
as
"Everyone of my generation has had their favorite radio stations. Everyone of
my kid’s generation will have their favorite web music services. There will be
hundreds of them."
Why would there be hundreds of them? Unlike radio stations, web streaming
services aren't limited to one song at a time. With network effects it seems a
few services would dominate.
(Otherwise a good article. I'm typing this while listening to thefeelgood.com)
~~~
ardit33
There can be many successful online radio sites, catering to different tastes.
I never use one and only one. Sometimes I use pandora, sometimes musicovery,
sometimes somafm, sometimes imported digital. Depends on my mood, and what I
am looking for.
~~~
omouse
But that's an artificial distinction. There's no stopping somafm or imported
digital from hosting other types of music (other than servers).
------
a-priori
What's to stop Apple from adopting this business model? They already have the
music database, and the streaming capability (for song previews).
I'm not commenting on the value of this business model, just that the article
seems to imply that Apple will be left in the dust when the music industry
goes this way.
------
ardit33
"These services are coming to mobile phones, probably in the next year we’ll
all be listening to pandora or last.fm in the gym on our phone instead of our
limited library on our iPod."
This is already here. You can get XM Radio, MobiRadio on ATT and Sprint
phones, and Pandora (on Sprint only so far), and there are many services
(verizon has it's own streaming music).
------
willz
The article amounts to saying one thing, streaming is getting popular.
But so what? People will still buy a house even if they can also rent it.
Renting and owning will always coexist.
Also, if streaming gets popular, then a million people will be doing it. So,
instead of putting up a mp3 for download, now people will use some streaming
service to stream it. What do the label companies get? They have the same
piracy and control issue like before.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: A message board with anonymous, open moderation - sqifb
http://www.qxczv.pw
======
sqifb
Notably, delete is not broken, but you have to refresh the page first, as an
anti-spam measure
------
sova
Please change the colors oh lord
~~~
clishem
Maybe change the rest of the CSS while you're at it.
This is not good UX
[http://i.imgur.com/en3lBF5.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/en3lBF5.jpg)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Making Sense of Complexity - robg
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/weekinreview/02segal.html?ref=weekinreview
======
Gibbon
Is it just me or do others get peeved when the words complex and complicated
are used interchangeably?
To me they mean very different things:
A complicated problem is one that is difficult to understand. A complex
problem is one composed of many distinct parts.
A complex problem could also be very complicated, but a complicated problem
may not or may not be complex at all depending on the situation.
~~~
johnm
Indeed. Most people use "complex" when they really mean "complicated".
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Hottbox – Higher-Order Tensors Toolbox - IlyaKisil
https://github.com/hottbox/hottbox
======
ktpsns
Being a physicist in computational (general) relativity, when I read about a
"tensor toolbox" I would think about a code implementing some kind of tensor
algebra, such as a syntax to do tensor contractions.
~~~
IlyaKisil
Sorry for misleading. I am aware that the term "tensor" was originally
introduced within physics. But then it was adopted in chemometrics, signal
processing and machine learning in a context of N-dimensional arrays of data.
As such, this toolbox is focused on multi-way analysis and tensor
decompositions of N-dimensional data arrays (tensors). However, fundamental
operations include folding/unfolding of the data, tensor-matrix product and
contration with a vector or another tensor. The latter is not implemented at
the moment, but will be in future releases. Not sure whether these opertations
carry the same meaning as in physics though.
~~~
laingc
I don’t want to jump on top of a pedant pile, because I think it’s really cool
that you’re out there making useful stuff.
The group where I did my PhD was a Numerical Relativity group and I now work
in Machine Learning, so I can appreciate where you’re coming from.
However, a Tensor has a very precise mathematical meaning, and has done for
centuries (dating back to at least Voigt, and arguably as far as Gauss). Even
in machine learning, people recognise that they are abusing the term tensor by
restricting its use to Tensors expressed in the canonical orthogonal basis of
E^n.
I really think we should be discouraging this debasement of our mathematical
terminology. It’s just not helpful at all.
~~~
IlyaKisil
I do agree that tensors are much more then just an array of data with
N-indices and that numerical methods are oftentime forget about that.
~~~
philipov
I am looking for a python library that handles tensors, in the precise
mathematical sense. Can you recommend one please?
~~~
yorwba
Maybe [https://cadabra.science/](https://cadabra.science/) ? I haven't used it
myself, but it's linked from the main page of
[http://www.sympy.org/](http://www.sympy.org/) , which would also allow you to
define tensor operations yourself if necessary.
------
riku_iki
What "higher-order" part means here? What is the difference to regular
tensors?..
~~~
IlyaKisil
Basically, order of a tensor is the number of dimensions of an array of data.
Vector - one dimensional array or a tensor of order 1 Matrix - two dimensional
array of data or a tensor of order 2 Three and more dimensional arrays of data
are tensors of higher order.
~~~
ska
This isn't quite right, but it's a common misconception. Any rank-2 tensor can
be represented in matrix form, but not all matrices are tensors, similarly
with rank-1 tensors and vectors.
The distinction is important because thinking about the way you have presented
leads to confusion about what tensors are...
~~~
dbranes
Sorry this is just wrong. Maybe you’re trying to get at the “co/contravariant”
properties of tensors, in which case your statement can be more clearly stated
as, e.g., the space rank (2, 0), and rank (1,1) vectors, admit different
interpretations as internal hom spaces of vector spaces. But in any
interpretation of your statement the distinction is never important because
all spaces distinguished by this distinction are isomorphic via cononical
isomorphisms.
~~~
ska
You might want to think that through a bit more, leaving aside the issue of
needing the underlying vector space, are you sure you are comfortable with the
statement that all matrices are tensors?
~~~
dbranes
Yes absolutely. Given a matrix as an array of numbers there's a number of
natural ways to interpret it as a tensor. What are you uncomfortable about?
------
mhh__
Interesting choice of name? ;)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why I'm leaving Linux - JeanCarloM
http://jeancarlomachado.net/blog/why-i-left-linux.html
======
JepZ
During the years since I use Linux I experienced some of those issues too. But
many times when I came in contact with mainstream operating systems like
Windows and MacOS I saw similar problems and thought many times: "Good to know
that it isn't any better outside of the Linux world"
Two extreme examples:
\- A Windows which takes 4 hours to upgrade itself, after it did a forced
reboot on the day the bachelor thesis had to be submitted
\- A MacOS which brought itself to an unbootable state during a major upgrade
At least with Linux I have complete control over when updates happen (unlike
on Windows). That way I can test the functionality of my system before it will
be required.
~~~
towb
And on linux you can always boot a live usb and mount your file system to it
and try to figure out whats wrong. I had to do that only a few days ago to
repair the bootloader that had fried itself somehow. Of course you have to
know what to look for, maybe this is possible with windows and macos too, but
the way I always went with those was to do a fresh install.
------
icyflame
Used all three major OSes. HDMI not working is an extremely common problem on
MacOS. every event I go to has either only VGA or HDMI that doesn't work after
three adapters between thunderbolt and HDMI/VGA/etc. Networking can become a
problem in MacOS and Windows and when it stops working on these OSes, the only
thing to do is restart your computer.
MacOS also freezes a lot if your computer is about 3 years old. Won't even
consider using macbooks older than that. Used Android studio and Robomongo on
a couple year old Macbook and it would keep freezing now and then. The most
painful 3 months on the job. So, problems exist on all OSes. The grass isn't
lush green anywhere, it's a pale green everywhere.
I have been using Ubuntu on the desktop and laptop for 5 years and it has been
stable. There have been problems, but I haven't run into anything show
stopping yet. I haven't been doing this long but I believe that the key is to
think about all the different ways things could go wrong and ensuring you
handle a reasonable amount of them, without going too crazy about it.
eg: set up your demo on a digital ocean droplet (I do this when the demo
doesn't have any GUI). create a throwaway SSH key and keep the private key
handy (say email) and add the pub key to the droplet. if your laptop
completely crashes, you still have your demo. slides backup is completely
standard no matter what OS you have. so you have handled one of the worst
possible cases :)
~~~
hollerith
>MacOS also freezes a lot if your computer is about 3 years old.
On my 2011 Mac mini, I've experienced less than one event that deserves the
description "freeze" per 1000 hours of use.
------
MrLeftHand
I can understand his reasoning in some way.
I liked to play around with compiling kernel and install stuff from source to
get a very personalised experience.
Now I just want to be an end user and have an OS which I install and majority
of things work right out of the box, or at least they are easy to configure.
So I can concentrate on other things.
A lot of times there is something that is missing from the UI and you have to
dive deep just to have it fixed. Editing config files etc... Even just simple
things as a touchpad sensitivity.
Not to mention some special stuff like handling a discrete GPU in a gaming
laptop.
I want a distro that works well and has most of the configuration accessible
in the UI so I don't have to hunt the internet for information about how to
fix something on a particular distro with a particular version.
Ubuntu comes close to this dream, but not close enough.
~~~
Toast_25
IMHO debian comes closer. I like to install the server version and then
install gnome-core on top of that, sort out the dependencies of what I need
and I'm golden.
apt is way better than apt-get anyways.
------
codemusings
After reading these gems:
For long my opinion is that to be a real Linux user one should use as few GUI as possible
and
the Linux kernel is optimized for servers, not for desktops
I can't tell if this is satire or not.
~~~
vidoc
The author appears to be serious. His desire of being a 'True Kernel
Developer' probably led him to google something like "best distribution for
Linux Hacker", perhaps the first result was Arch. At some point our "Linux
Hacker" probably started to feel confortable running pacman -Syu twice a day
to be on the cutting edge.
~~~
drivingmenuts
Why don’t you ask him instead of just making shit up?
------
frabcus
I've been using Gnome on a Dell XPS 13 for a few years, and it's fine. In many
ways the user interface is considerably better than the Macbook Air I had
before.
In particular, connecting external video always works really well. And
connecting printers always works really well. And it always goes to sleep and
wakes up. Those weren't the case 10/15 years ago with Linux desktops.
So yes - buy hardware by a company which actually ships it with Ubuntu, and
use Ubuntu... Linux isn't the problem here, compiling kernels and not using a
desktop distribution are.
------
ivoras
Even Windows was split into desktop and server variants. IIRC, OS X was
briefly offered as a server product before being discontinued, in large part
because it was awful on server-like loads. Android's UI smoothness is still
lagging behind iStuff, and that has Google money behind it. Seems natural that
systems optimised for one thing would be bad at others.
And unless there appears a compelling and profitable business case for Linux
on the desktop/laptops, it's likely better to let the "Year of Linux on the
desktop" meme die.
------
uka
So if you use a distribution that requires you to set up everything yourself -
you have to setup everything yourself ? No way ...
------
dimitar
In my experience the distributions with longer release cycles like RHEL are
really stable and don't have as many issues like this or you experience them
only during the initial setup and then run normally for years. I had a very
good experience running a CentOS desktop for two years, even considering the
initial hassle I had with sound, installing Skype and video-card drivers.
However I actually don't install them because I want the latest toys and so do
most users. Honestly my desktop experience has decreased on both Windows and
Linux in the past 10 years. Windows 10 also has begun to have the same
stability issues for a lot of users - so rolling release seems to be the wrong
approach for desktop users.
~~~
em3rgent0rdr
> "I want the latest toys"
Fortunately now a lot of linux software is being released as distro-
independent packages like AppImage, Flatpak, or Snap. And they contain the
particular library versions. So that allows you to have your base OS be
something stable while still being able to use the latest version of a
particular program.
------
wiz21c
>> all Linux interfaces sucks
I use KDE everyday, works fine. Sometimes a bit rough but "sucks" sounds far
fetched to me.
>>> Twice I was going to the podium and the remote display connection failed.
Why not check before ?
>>> The answer is simpler than that: the Linux kernel is optimized for
servers, not for desktops.
Really ? I'm sure the Ubuntu team might say something else.
And to add to the "this is my own opinion" stuff : I use linux because it
allows me to escape the grips of Windows and Apple (a bit). I do it because
I'm a dev therefore I can technically do it. If I don't, who will ?
------
cdancette
Then use a dual boot with Windows. It's quite simple to set up.
Linux is the best os for programming imo (especially if you develop software
for Linux servers), so why not keep both?
~~~
gant
Very few cases can't be covered by either WSL or a VM, and having dual-booted
for years I can tell you that after a few days you get into the habit of only
booting the more convenient OS most of the time. It's twice the maintenance
and 5-15 minutes of context switching every time you need to do something
else.
~~~
Yetanfou
Ah, WSL... which gives you the best of both worlds: unpredictable and
unreliable Windows updates combined with whatever grievances you have about
Linux applications.
If by 'booting to the most convenient OS' you mean 'booting to the OS which
does not usurp your machine for internal housekeeping purposes (plus a little
side of snooping here and there 'to enhance your experience') the moment you
switch it on that would surely mean booting to some variant of Linux? Windows
seems to think it is more important to try to install the _1709_ or _1803_
update pack for the umpteenth time, try to stuff the 'Windows 10 update
assistant' down unwilling users' throats, ignoring all those 'do not update'
flags and settings they were told to hack into the registry. Where the OS can
suddenly decide that you obviously are not using that _FileHistory_ backup so
let's remove it altogether. In other words, the OS which isn't at the whim of
a supplier with an agenda different from yours.
~~~
gant
I didn't specify which operating systems, which makes it ironic that Windows
was not involved at all in that process. I've used WSL, but on my Windows-only
desktop that mostly runs games. See, my work machine never ran Windows. Good
job going on a rant about it though.
------
tmikaeld
I think the many complexities with running Linux (Especially Android) on many
different devices is why Google is creating Fuchsia
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Fuchsia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Fuchsia)
------
hugg
to sum it up: if you use a distro where you have to configure everything
yourself it will be hard and things will break
~~~
timrichard
I think that's fair. My take was that the person chose a bleeding edge rolling
release to feel 133t but had an unrealistic expectation about stability.
I love ArchLinux, and used it on my primary dev laptop a while back. But you
have to expect breaking changes that take some manual maintenance from time to
time, and choose your update window accordingly. Maybe not really close to a
conference presentation.
There isn't a shortage of distros, and the person could have chosen elsewhere
on the spectrum according to needs.
~~~
urlwolf
You can try Manjaro, it's a tamed arch. It's what I use. Very happy with it...
~~~
timrichard
More than happy with Arch itself on various machines :) Was just pointing out
that it's good to factor in a little time in case troubleshooting is needed.
Although that's mitigated by keeping up to date with their news feed...
------
benbristow
Okay then, bye.
P.S. Looks like you want a Mac instead.
------
flexiondotorg
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGcHNnI2mh4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGcHNnI2mh4)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Simple, safe, and fund anonymous chat - adamlieb
http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/18/reveal-chat-for-ios-helps-you-build-real-social-connections-via-anonymous-chat/?ncid=twittersocialshare
======
schars1
awesome app
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The cult of design dictatorship (2012) - tapp
https://alexcabal.com/the-cult-of-design-dictatorship/
======
knowtheory
This post is unfortunate. This post is so extremely unfortunate because first,
it is wrong, and second, it highlights the wrong problem (and the post's
author even admits it in the post).
The problem is not the cult of design dictatorship, the problem is _bad
design_ and _bad designers_.
Apple and 37signals are two examples of design oriented thinking (and I don't
mean visual design), but there are many others, even from within the world of
Free & Open Source Software.
After all, why else would a term like "Benevolent Dictator For Life" exist if
it weren't for design dictatorships in programming language development?
The real claim that this post is making is that " _You are not Steve Jobs and
you are not 37 Signals_ ". And... well that may be true, but it also may not.
And if you can't have frank discussions about the utility of the things you
make, and whether or not you have evidence to back up why/how you are doing
the right thing, then yeah, you may be a bad designer.
That doesn't mean that being a designer or a dictator is a bad thing
inherently, and arguing against central organizing authority in creative works
is highly problematic, especially in the absence of any concrete alternatives
to suggest.
As an aside, I wouldn't describe _either_ Steve Jobs or the 37signals as
"nice". Smart, pretty determined, resolutely sure of themselves, but nice is
not the first adjective that springs to mind.
~~~
acabal
I don't disagree that dictators can make great software. My point, perhaps
poorly communicated, was that using these exceptional success edge-cases as an
excuse to uncompromisingly drive your own design vision will probably do more
harm than good--precisely because they were successful as _edge cases_.
The Gnome 3 discussion from last year sparked this post because Gnome 3 was
becoming an example of that: designers creating a product that many vocally
disliked, and insisting on sticking to their original vision, torpedoes be
damned. The result, many argue, is a deeply flawed product.
The thrust of the post is, "be humble and open-minded as a product leader,
because chances are you're probably not the genius that these exceptional
success stories were/are."
~~~
knowtheory
Right, but you're targeting the wrong problem still.
DHH is (and I use this term unironically) a visionary. And on top of that he
had a keen enough political sense (and arrogance) to be able to deflect or
mute criticism of Rails's early flaws.
Ruby is a slow, memory hog? Doesn't matter, developer time is worth more than
machine time. Buy bigger machines.
Rails concurrency model sucks? Doesn't matter, fire up more processes!
These were real problems, which have been subsequently addressed in Rails (by
and large, by other people in the community who cared about those subjects).
But what was important about what DHH did was define a vision and aesthetic
for what web development should look like (and please note i'm no DHH fanboy.
I jumped ship during the Merb/Datamapper split), and kept on pushing on his
priorities even in the face of legitimate criticisms of things he thought were
less important.
So, Rails succeeded because DHH has sensible enough taste in terms of
prioritizing concerns, and a strong enough user base to fix Rails's
shortcomings.
I'm not as familiar with the specific battles over Gnome (partially because
i'm on OSX, and also because i find the interlocutors in the Gnome discussion
to be so furiously inarticulate), but the conflict really only comes down to
two possibilities. Either the leaders of Gnome genuinely are shit designers
and aren't meeting the needs of their community, or they're really terrible at
politics.
That's a really important distinction to be mindful of. I'm not amongst their
target userbase, so frankly I can't say one way or the other, but all of the
complaints I've heard against Gnome's leadership are things that I as a user
have never ever cared about (granted I haven't used Gnome in a while, but all
the times i've used systems w/ Gnome installed by default in the past, i've
been satisfied).
And really, if Gnome's leadership is so inadequate, i'm puzzled why a critical
mass hasn't risen up and forked the community. That's really the ultimate vote
of dissatisfaction.
~~~
PommeDeTerre
I'm not convinced that Ruby on Rail's popularity has to do with the factors
you describe.
I think it comes down to two other factors: community and hype.
Technologically, it wasn't anything special, and still isn't. Many of us who'd
been doing web development for years at that time had either used or created
similar or better frameworks in languages like Perl, Tcl, Python and even
Java. These frameworks were usually kept internal to the organization that
developed them, however, so they were obviously nowhere near as widely used.
DHH was of minimal importance, too. Yes, he was somewhat of a visible figure
head and spokesman for the project, but that was about it. For the average
Ruby on Rails user, DHH didn't have much of an impact.
In my opinion, Ruby on Rails brought together several distinct groups of young
men (women are still very rare in the Ruby on Rails community) who'd typically
been outcasts within the computing industry. They included:
1) Less-talented UI, web and graphic designers. These people, unable to find
work in more traditional software development, print media, and other fields,
ended up moving toward web development, where the bar to entry was set much
lower.
2) Less-talented software developers. These people, either due to age, a lack
of experience, a lack of education, or a lack of natural ability, were
inherently drawn to Rails. It provided the rigid structure ("convention over
configuration") that they needed in order to get anything done. It also
allowed them to continue to avoid learning SQL and proper database design
techniques, while creating something that partially worked (even if the result
lacked severely in terms of performance and reliability).
3) Attention-seeking youth. We all know who these people are. They're the ones
who repeatedly wrote loud, profanity-ridden "articles" full of anger. Or they
created absurd, cryptic writings and art, and then spontaneously vanished,
creating much unnecessary drama. Many of them were also self-styled
"hipsters", who just went out of their way to be different merely for the sake
of being different.
Ruby on Rails provided something these people could all rally around. It gave
them a common cause, if you will. And they rallied around this cause quite
loudly, which generated an immense amount of hype relative to what they were
able to accomplish, or what their software provided. This helped draw in more
and more of these outcasts, making the community larger and larger.
I think that GNOME 3, for instance, is a result of spillover from this newly-
formed community into existing, established open source communities. Members
of a community formed solely around a lack of merit forced their way en masse
into what was once a near-total meritocracy, and as would be expected,
disaster was the result.
------
noir_lord
Whilst I broadly agree with the thrust of the article I do wince when I see
statements like "once-in-a-century genius." applied to Steve Jobs.
I also cringe when I see "You are not Steve Jobs" etc. indeed I'm not nor
would I want to be, I disliked many things about the man intensely when he was
alive and that hasn't changed one iota since his death.
It fascinates me how we continue to set the bar of leadership based on a man
who judged by his actions was a borderline sociopath, I guess success by
whatever measure truly does forgive all sins.
<http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-jerk-2011-10?op=1>
The only thing that amazes me about his career is that he didn't get punched
in the face more often.
~~~
acabal
OP here, I agree totally. Steve Jobs was by all accounts a jerk and I think
it's unfortunate so many people idolize him instead of people doing more human
good like Bill Gates. But it's undeniable that he had a once-in-a-century eye
for picking and tweaking good design, and he was a once-in-a-century
businessman too. Was he a good human? All signs point to "not really". But his
uncompromising vision and massive business success are stories that are hard
to match in modern times.
~~~
noir_lord
I'm sorry but I simply disagree with you on his "once-in-a-century" eye for
good design.
Take (for example one of my favorite) industrial designers - Raymond Loewy -
This is a man who created the Shell and BP Logos, designed the Scenicruiser
greyhound bus (iconic), coca cola vending machines, the GG1 (in my opinion one
of the most beautiful trains of it's generation and they ran for just shy of
50 years) and the PRR S1 (which I think is the single most beautiful train
I've ever seen) and just to finish it off he designed the livery for Air Force
One.
~~~
coldtea
Yes, so Jobs only had "two-in-a-century". Or "twenty-in-a-century".
That's kind of a pedantic distinction, isn't it?
------
Sevores
Steve Jobs was highly opinionated, but he also had a reputation for being able
to change his opinion radically. “He would flip on something so fast that you
would forget that he was the one taking the 180 degree polar [opposite]
position the day before. I saw it daily. This is a gift, because things do
change, and it takes courage to change. It takes courage to say, ‘I was
wrong.’ I think he had that.” — [http://allthingsd.com/20120529/steve-jobs-
was-an-awesome-fli...](http://allthingsd.com/20120529/steve-jobs-was-an-
awesome-flip-flopper-says-tim-cook/)
It seems odd to copy one without the other.
------
hcarvalhoalves
The author somehow manages to conflate Apple, 37signals and Gnome 3 all
together, then makes a case about design being a bad thing, being the latter
the only unremarkable one in this aspect?
Let me tell the obvious: Gnome 3 doesn't suck because it focus on design, it
sucks because it has horrible design process. If it's not fulfilling user
requirements, that's bad design _by definition_.
The problem with Gnome is management. Last time I tried improving the font
selector (which I think still is utterly broken for selecting weights), nobody
cared. They though the only weights people need are "bold" and "italic". Now
compare to the font selector on Mac and say Apple is "design dictatorship"
with no regards to user requirements...
------
jeswin
The post is mostly an opinion. And where it tries to bring analysis, it fails.
According to the author, gnome3 and unity are flawed. Well, many people like
unity now. It's not that different from the other operating systems. And sure,
there'll be people who won't like it too.
But if these are examples of design dictators screwing up things, what about
the interfaces that existed before unity? They had a ton of issues too. And
while I may not have had issues with them, unity is certainly easier for the
non-technical crowd. And the rest of us know how it needs to be tweaked to our
liking.
Nothing's wrong really.
~~~
PommeDeTerre
When it comes to things like GNOME 3 and Ubuntu (i.e., Unity), I think you're
neglecting to look at the big picture.
Yes, there are a small number of people who like the changes that have taken
place. But their numbers are indeed quite small compared to the much larger
number of people who have been driven away completely by these changes.
I don't think that you appreciate how many GNOME 2 users (including former
developers and other contributors) are either still using GNOME 2, or have
moved on to KDE, Xfce, or other non-GNOME desktops.
The same goes for Ubuntu. With Unity and their other recent changes, many
users have instead moved to Linux Mint, Debian, and other distributions.
These are the worst users to lose, especially the contributors, because
they're the ones who did do things correctly, leading to the initial success
of the project. Once they start to leave, we end up with GNOME 3-style
debacles where it's one bad design or decision after another.
~~~
takluyver
Do you have any evidence to support either claim (that more people dislike it
than like it, and that substantial proportions of users have been driven
away)? Certainly there has been plenty of criticism, and some people leaving
in a very public fashion, but whenever something changes, we know that the
people who don't like the change are far more vocal about it than people who
do. Witness the storm of outrage accompanying every Facebook UI change, after
which everyone carries on using it.
There's probably no good evidence available about how many people like Gnome 3
or Unity. For abandonment rates, have a look at the graph on
popcon.ubuntu.com. Those numbers come with caveats, like the fact that not
every installation sends data, but none of the lines have any discernible
downturn.
------
georgespencer
So wide of the mark that I almost feel faint. Selected highlights:
> This cult is insidious. Its two main tenant are: 1. The designer is always
> right. 2. If you don’t like what the designer is doing, you’re wrong, and
> you should go somewhere else. Doesn’t sound very friendly, does it?
1\. Couple of fallacies here: you've set up a scenario in which your
conclusion is supported (gosh, that doesn't sound friendly! This guy's a
genius!), but it's also ignoratio elenchi: it doesn't fucking matter whether
it's friendly or not, because who gives a shit whether the philosophy by which
you design a product is friendly or not? It's like asking whether the
philosophy is crunchy or gooey.
2\. I would argue that if the designer is doing their job properly and working
with and for users, then they will be usually right, and if you don't like it,
you're wrong, and you should go somewhere else (because you're probably a
neckbearded engineer trying to design something with zero user empathy).
> Steve Jobs made a zillion bucks cramming his design decisions down peoples’
> throats.
1\. In the same way as any designer, living or dead, who has shipped something
to consumers, was "cramming [their] design decisions down peoples' throats."
2\. In addition to the hugely biased language used, it's a gross
oversimplification of design at Apple. A good example of Steve Jobs designing
something is the iDVD anecdote. The iDVD team spend weeks working on a user
interface that they think works. Jobs comes into the meeting, stops them
halfway through, ignores their complicated workflows, and draws a simple
rectangle which has a single "BURN" button on it. His great skill wasn't
design, but editing and empathy.
> and now one of its founders spends his days custom-building and racing F1
> cars.
Just another casual misrepresentation. DHH has not retired and is still
working hard at 37signals.
> They did all this by being design dictators.
Yes. Forget the brilliant engineering, marketing, thought leadership,
branding, etc. It was this cult thing you've conjured out of nowhere.
> Steve Jobs had a vision, and if you didn’t like his vision, you could go
> home.
Yes. But a vision is nothing to do with design. Example: Steve Jobs had the
vision for MobileMe/iCloud. The vision was a cloud-based software product that
allowed you to synchronise your devices and keep data across all of them. The
design is terrible. Design being architecture and the implementation. Vision
!= design.
And what do you mean by "go home"? Isn't the same true of any product? If you
don't like Android you can "go home". If you don't like Ferrari you can "go
home". With "go home" you're implying that the consumer loses out. In reality
because there IS ONLY ONE WAY A PRODUCT CAN POSSIBLY WORK, you're criticising
them for not disrupting the space time continuum in order to offer two
different products so you can not like Steve Jobs' vision and still like Steve
Jobs' vision. Fuck me.
> 37 Signals made its products like it wanted to, and if you didn’t like it,
> you could suck it.
WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? I'm giving up on the rest.
~~~
acabal
> The iDVD team spend weeks working on a user interface that they think works.
> Jobs comes into the meeting, stops them halfway through, ignores their
> complicated workflows, and draws a simple rectangle which has a single
> "BURN" button on it. His great skill wasn't design, but editing and empathy.
That's not editing, that's literally throwing everything away and forcing his
vision on them. Precisely what I'm talking about. And "empathy" is not a word
I'd use to describe Steve Jobs, who by all accounts was a terrible jerk.
> Design being architecture and the implementation. Vision != design.
Maybe a better title for this post would have been, "The cult of product
leader dictatorship." When I wrote design, I didn't mean industrial design or
UI design, but product design and leadership. My fault for being unclear.
> WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?
On reading this post again 6 months after I wrote it, those are indeed strong
words that don't really reflect 37 Signal's attitude. My words, not theirs.
~~~
georgespencer
> That's not editing, that's literally throwing everything away
Throwing stuff away is editing. Sigh.
> and forcing his vision on them. Precisely what I'm talking about.
1\. His vision was "a simple experience for the user". iDVD didn't end up with
a simple rectangle and a single button marked "Burn". He refocused his teams
around simplicity and ease of use.
2\. I note that you've avoided responding to the other parts of my response in
which I inquire as to whether you believe all designers in history are
"forcing" their "vision" on others.
> And "empathy" is not a word I'd use to describe Steve Jobs, who by all
> accounts was a terrible jerk.
Product design is all about empathy with users. Steve Jobs was blessed with
that in abundance. If you attribute Apple's success to his vision and design,
then you have to acknowledge that users love their hardware and software. Jobs
was great at cutting through bullshit and getting himself, his team, his
engineers and designers -- who are all highly technical 'power users' -- to be
humble and remove themselves from the equation and build something for mass
consumption.
------
alan_cx
The thing that amazed me in that piece, was the throw away fact about Apple at
one point holding more cash that the US treasury. OK, Im no economist, but,
well, wow.
And after the nearly sensible point, my imagination wished Jobs had decided to
become an Evil Super Villain, and set up a volcano base, with a moon based
super weapon, preferably a "LASER"....
------
dasil003
The author is attacking the mythology of Jobs and 37s, not the reality. I'm
fairly certain neither of them ever just sat around dictating from on high
without ever accepting any criticism or user input.
"Strong opinions held loosely." That's the key, not being a virtuosic genius;
no one has infallible vision.
------
mrxd
If you've ever been in the position of a "design dictator", you know that it's
no picnic. You live and die on every piece of qualitative user feedback, every
usability test and every A-B test result. Sure, you get to make decisions, but
if you fail, you fail publicly. Great designers are accountable, but design-
by-committee is a much more popular model because it diffuses responsibility.
You can always find the bad designers hiding behind the committee.
A lot of people think they have good ideas and want to moonlight as designers.
But when the data comes in evaluating their ideas, too often those people have
moved on to other things. That's because they're idea guys - when their idea
fails, they lose interest in the problem. Real designers stick with it, learn,
iterate and find better solutions.
------
nnq
37signal's 2nd paragraph of that book chapter
([http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch04_Make_Opinionated_Softw...](http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch04_Make_Opinionated_Software.php))
still says it the best:
> The best software has a vision.
...now just make sure the vision is _not too narrow_ and that _it's a vision
and not an edict_ (now about Linux DEs, the Gnome 3 and Unity teams OP is
referring to just keep turning a narrow copy-cat vision into a bunch of
edicts... while the KDE vision tends to be so freaking all-encompassing that
you get lost in it and so full of corner use-cases for bugs to hide that no
developers can keep up with the bug hunt... sigh, and thanks god for xfce)
------
cuillevel3
Author probably never led any big project, and never experienced the amount of
criticism one gets for doing anything. Furthermore the critics are the real
dictators, having done nothing besides using (probably for free) your product
they are the know-it-alls. Sure it's good to be humble, but you shouldn't
listen to everybody. As for the designers, more often than not it isn't
hybris, but miscommunication. Or maybe they're just lacking in public
relations.
And then there is this huge community of interface-conservatives, they are
against change per se...
------
seivan
I'm usually pro having the "implementor(s)" be the dictators. If you code it,
you have a say.
~~~
sambeau
"Having a say" is very different to being a dictator.
A good designer understands that design is a discussion and that there will
always be pragmatic compromises to be made.
However, having the implementer make the important design decisions about a
user interface is nearly always the wrong thing to do. The implementor knows
too much about the implementation to see it the problem like a user would. It
is this which causes UI's that look like database tables when they should
resemble faces and buckets and controls that mould to engines rather than
fingers.
It is not the implementors' fault. They are just to close to the metal and too
far from the users.
~~~
seivan
"They are just to close to the metal and too far from the users." That is
bull. How far they are depends on company policies. Some sweatshops keep their
developers away from their clients.
~~~
jamesdelaneyie
It's a sweeping statement, yes surely, but it has basis. Ellen Ullman's
writing on early programming culture, while now dated, reveal there is a
significant gap between the developers and the rest of the company - and that
it works for development.
------
EarthLaunch
Love these titles. This one is only a sample. Here's a creation of my own:
"Terrorists in the murder of design: Why you're wrong and failure is
beneficial."
It's sure to encourage a good discussion.
------
wittysense
I've been argued that some parts of the design have been tested against users,
and other parts of the design come from the authority of the designer, in the
midst of "agile-based" decision making that drops huge, unspec'd components on
yr lap mid-day at 3PM.
At the same time, no one is going to argue with yr Hypermedia hubris or API
spec. =P
Or namespacings. Or syntax preferences. Or hacks.
Look, no One Person (or role) wins (or loses -- and none of this
"dictatorship" sensationalism is really needful, methinks). It's all sausage
factory at the end of the day. Just try to create enough black boxes before
lunch so you have some dignity at dinner and can sleep after the midnight
snack.
A CEO gently reminded me one day, "No one lives or dies by this." It's
frustrating, not a "dictatorship." In just the same way that no one "killed
the coffee"; and no your computer did not just "die." This sensationalist
writing makes it difficult for us chill developers who just want to make a
simple critique without having to be pigeon-holed with all the hyperbolic-
complaint-machine because all of our critiques have the same content (this
modal or that button) but the hyperbolic-complaint-machine suggests what's
beyond frustration.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Outraged eBay sellers plan boycott - dcurtis
http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/07/smbusiness/ebay_boycott.fsb/index.htm?postversion=2008021009
======
iamelgringo
When, oh, when will someone develop a decent competitor to Ebay? The site is
awful and is ripe for a startup to carve away market share. They've already
proven the business model. We know it makes money. I know the boys at
auctomatic are doing their best to help out, but what's needed is a full on
competitor.
I mean, really. How hard is it to offer a couple of decent looking templates
for people to make their own site, to that it isn't such an eyesore? How hard
is it to implement a better form of search and categorization? How hard is it
to develop a form of authentication to cut down on all the fraud that takes
place on Ebay?
The last time I used Ebay or thought it was decent was back in 97-98. The site
hasn't changed much since.
We should have a challenge to see who can develop the best Ebay competitor.
~~~
gruseom
_The last time I used Ebay or thought it was decent was back in 97-98. The
site hasn't changed much since._
Someone who consulted there told me that eBay's codebase was a mess (even by
the usual standards) and that they had some strange processes that made it
worse. If I recall correctly, programmers weren't allowed to work in teams and
were frequently 'rotated' through completely unrelated projects. He told me
some other weird things that I don't remember, but that combined to form an
impression that eBay's culture is really inimical to hackers. That would
explain their technical stagnation. But overwhelming market share gives them
powerful inertia.
~~~
pg
Back in the 1998 at Yahoo we used to hear shocking things about how bad eBay's
systems were. One of the externally visible signs was their policy of having
several hours a week of scheduled downtime. That seemed just inexcusable. Do
they still do that?
I think the reason eBay is so inept is that they were a monopoly almost from
the beginning. So at a stage when other startups (Google for example) had to
work hard to succeed, they were already coasting, at least technically.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
7 YC startups find success in the heartland - kochb
https://venturebeat.com/2017/07/09/7-yc-startups-find-success-in-the-heartland/
======
sharemywin
A lot of products I think find initial traction and then flop because SV is a
shitty test city.
[http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1137953...](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113795356)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Positive review of Disqus on Uncov - gabrielleydon
http://www.uncov.com/2007/11/8/disqus-ok-now-we-re-getting-somewhere
======
brlewis
When I saw the title I thought it had to be fake, but it's true. This may be
the first time I've seen "positive" and "uncov" used together.
~~~
tlrobinson
Yeah I thought the two were mutually exclusive...
Perhaps this comment on the Uncov article explains it:
"subtext: persai is going to launch soon...crap, better start making some
friends"
~~~
uuilly
I haven't been in SF long but I find it fascinating how much people care about
the valley popularity contest. Nobody, including Ted needs to be friends with
the whole bay area to make a great company. Startups are about great products
and customers who somehow pay for them. In the end VC's and customers don't
care if everyone likes you or not. I understand the need to create a buzz but
too much stock is given to what amounts to glad-handing, over-networking,
pseudo-friends.
~~~
natrius
Friends are useful. You might want to go back and read the story of iLike's
scaling issues when the Facebook API came out. If everyone hated them, no one
would've lent them servers, and they wouldn't have benefited from all the free
exposure that got them.
------
uuilly
He treated scribd alright too: <http://www.uncov.com/2007/4/26/scribd-you-re-
alright>
------
Zak
I didn't know Uncov did positive. I'm kind of tempted to bring back
doomedstartup.com.
------
ivankirigin
why do people read uncov?
~~~
cellis
Man. Uncov makes me laugh extremely hard _every_ time there is a new post. Its
funny, and thats why I read it (laff=goodforthesoul). Ted has a sense of humor
that makes you think. After his beatdown of Zoho, I was hooked.
~~~
jamesbritt
Quite true. Lots of people try the angry rant schickt, but most come off as
merely vulgar and cranky/whiny.
uncov makes it work. It's funny and true.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Police Force Suspect to Unlock Phone with Face ID - kposehn
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/10/face-recognition-iphone-unlock-police-force/572353/?single_page=true
======
jshevek
Since the FBI got a warrant and were responding to allegations of a sexual
assault, I can respect the argument for doing this in these circumstances.
Though I don't like that the difference in the way the law treats passcodes vs
biometrics may weaken privacy rights.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Why nobody cares about good engineering rather than how to reduce costs? - svett
For the last 6 months, I have been running consulting business with not so much great success. My initial goal was to build small 5+ boutique company and that's it. However, the expectations met the reality. Right I just have one permanent project and just lost one more because of lack of motivation to contribute to some of the worst code bases I have ever seen. However, it's been more like a contractor than software consulting business. It does not scale.<p>I assume working 12-14h per day for 5-6 months does not work. I was doing cold emails or approaching people and everybody says NO NO NO. Event I bought a formal suit for a meeting. The person don't event respond after the meeting. I sent a follow up email and no response. Very professional? I have more 12+ years experience working for well know companies in cloud and dev tools field. And What? It looks like that the engineer skills and knowledge are commodity for everybody.<p>Being one man show is hard. Any suggestions what I am doing wrong?
======
FullMtlAlcoholc
Your whole mindset is wrong. Think of it from the perspective of people you
are cold calling. They arent engineers, all they see is the finished app or
website. They just want somwthing that works. When you buy laundry detergent,
do you care about the active ingredient or how it was produced? All you care
about is does it clean your clothes. These are small companies not looking to
scale, so good engineering doesnt lead to greater sales. It doesnt add value
Also I'm going to assume English isn't your first language. If you are to
English speakers you really need to work on your language skills
I'm also going to be brutally honest if you have 12 plus years experience and
you don't understand the nature of business then perhaps you should have
someone help you on that end because understanding why people don't need great
engineering
~~~
toexitthedonut
>These are small companies not looking to scale
And this also separates what people call "startups" from small companies. All
startups start out as small companies, but they don't comprise all small
companies. They look and follow the value that will require them to grow.
I think, indeed, that a company must value engineering if they want to grow
really big. If they don't, then engineering/tech is not made a priority.
~~~
fredophile
Even if you want to grow really big engineering isn't always a factor.
Startups shouldn't be wasting resources worrying about scaling until they have
a decent product. Early on quick iteration times are much more important. As
long as things aren't so bad that the code base prevents changes fast and
cheap are a reasonable approach for a brand new startup.
------
teovall
I don't mean this to be harsh, I mean it constructively. You need to work on
your writing skills. Your three paragraph post has quite a few errors and some
clumsy wording. You may be coming off as unprofessional and this could be
hurting your prospects.
------
soneca
I believe you should accept that you are doing sales and practice for that.
What you are perceiving as lack of regard for your good engineering skills
might be only your own lack of regard for acquiring sales skills.
And if you are selling at anexo English speaking market, I also agree a lot
with teovall's comment that you must improve your writing skills. I am not a
native english speaker and Grammarly helps me a lot. I highly recommend this
software for improving your writing in english.
------
wayn3
if you cold call me just to tell me that my codebase is not good enough for
you to even touch, im not going to be interested.
your english isnt exactly stellar either.
if you want to make my code better, that doesnt add value. the bad code
clearly works. or else I wouldnt be in business. "good code" is irrelevant. if
that makes your heart bleed, welcome to the real world.
every tech ipo ever has bad code. twilio has bad code. dropbox has bad code,
uber has bad fucking code. maybe google doesnt. mighty google has no bad code.
you bet facebook is a load of shitcode. maybe not anymore, but for the first
decade? easily.
do you think mark "3 week mvp" zuckerberg gave a shit about code quality? the
guy was studying liberal arts.
ask any YC partner. code quality doesnt matter.
if you can get shit done, however, youre going to be the shit.
------
alaskamiller
Welcome to the indie game.
The first realization is that despite you have 12+ yrs of experience it's only
functioning as a tiny cog in a larger operation whereby most of the work was
out of sight and out of mind for you.
Everything from advertising to marketing to sales to business management to
account management to billing, to project management, to development to
deployment to support now falls on your shoulder.
And guess what, engineering for most businesses are the least expensive line
item.
You probably want to match your last salary, so say you were making $150k/yr
then really you have to find $200k for 2000 billable hours. That's $100/hr.
In terms of contractor rates that's pushing towards the top end of the market
when most devs are hovering around the $25 to $60/hr range.
So really, to make that $100/hr billable rate you will have chase a lot to
deliver that kind of value.
Most small-medium sized business aren't interested in nursing an
engineer/developer/consultant for $16k/mo. They'll only be interested in maybe
a half-day or day rate.
Even then the only value add you can bring to the table is to reduce costs for
them. No one cares about how much effort or work you put in. You're not an
employee to them. You are the consultant. They're purchasing an end product.
You either get real quick at being efficient or you're gonna wash out.
Large sized business would rather hire unless you possess some specialization
they lack or is under market. So you have to punch above your weight class.
Are your skills really worth $200/hr? If so, then you have the means to get
those jobs by offering $100/hr. But, then again, if you were able to get that
type of pay you would have just gotten a job.
To be independent, cashflow management is now the most important thing.
Followed by your sales management. To then lastly your engineering skills.
All in all, it's likely your first 1 to 2 year you'll be making far under
market until you've established a roster of clients.
The inevitability is that you'll have to turn to an agency model and hire
others to scale. Which presents another series of problems to your plate. At
that point you might as well just be another business manager hiring out
technologists contractors who are trying to convince you that they're worth
$100/hr that you then have to flip and sell for more than that.
Good luck.
------
AznHisoka
Have you ever thought that thse companies need you because their code bases
are absolute messes?
If their code were 100% intuitive and elegant they probably wouldn't need you.
------
taway_1212
From my POV, the problem with consulting is that large companies either
recognize how important software is for their success and develop it in-house
or are foolish enough to outsource it to large consulting players (IBM,
Accenture, some Indian firms). They mostly have no interest in a tiny
consulting shop, which is a shame for you, because they have tons of money to
spend. Unfortunately, this leaves you mostly serving all remaining parts of
economy (mid and small companies, software startups etc.), which is far less
juicy. Interestingly, in my country (Poland) some large corps (a large telecom
for example) are open to throwing a smaller and less important projects
towards a newcomer - but for an unattractive, fixed price (they want to see if
you can deliver on the same level as the big players, but for much less). So
again, you're being squeezed.
Of course, all of this is true assuming you're doing commodity software
development. I imagine it's very different if you have an expert niche
knowledge that is in demand (like security perhaps?).
------
rdiddly
Good engineering does reduce costs. Or it increases revenue. Those are the
only two things that make engineering "good" in the eyes of those who pay for
engineering services.
------
jetti
> Right I just have one permanent project and just lost one more because of
> lack of motivation to contribute to some of the worst code bases I have ever
> seen.
That is going to be a big problem. There are a lot of shitty code bases and as
a consultant you are going to have to clean up the mess. If you don't think
you can stay motivated perhaps you should try and pivot to another idea,
perhaps taking into account your experience you could create dev tools to
sell.
------
lovelearning
I guess it's because we the engineering community have done a bad job of
explaining to outsiders how good engineering can reduce costs.
------
odonnellryan
> because of lack of motivation to contribute to some of the worst code bases
> I have ever seen.
Your job as a consultant, if you're working on existing projects, is to fix
this. This is where you'll be making your money. By fixing their crap
codebase.
You wouldn't have much work without products like this.
------
raarts
Unless lives or money is at stake nobody cares about code quality.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Jeff Dean Endorses New AI Powered Healthcare Platform - jmarty
https://plus.google.com/+JeffDean/posts/V1LeP3Pnhrt?sfc=true
======
dbdriscoll
Mike Ng is excelllent
------
kevin_lin0
jeff dean + healthcare + AI....makes sense
------
talliehuang
WHAT
------
r_allen023
god has spoken
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
iOS App Store now allows legacy downloads to support older OSes - cleverjake
http://9to5mac.com/2013/09/17/ios-app-store-now-allows-legacy-app-downloads-to-support-older-hardware-and-software/
======
jaysonelliot
It's a wonderful half-measure, but also serves to highlight a problem with
cloud-based installs that I'm not optimistic will ever go away.
When software was distributed physically, the consumer always had the freedom
to use any version of an application they liked. Want to run a lightweight
version of Word because you don't need all the latest features, or maybe you
just hate the new UI? No problem. Did you like some video game better before
they "improved" it? Just get the old disk out and play it.
Some people will argue that software developers should be able to require that
their customers always have the latest versions of their product. I personally
believe that decision should be in the hands of the user.
I'd love to see Apple allow side-loading for consumers, at the very least. The
best solution, in my opinion, would be to also allow users to access some kind
of "advanced" menu that would let them choose whichever older version of an
app they choose.
~~~
arn
This is actually an advantage of cloud distribution. What if you want to run
an older version of Word but haven't bought it yet? It can be a pain to find
an old copy to buy. Whereas Apple has all the old versions on their servers
and can deliver the exact one that will run on your system.
~~~
pdpi
Provided Apple (or whatever other provider) actually distributes the old
versions. Somehow, that never seems to be the case.
~~~
iwasakabukiman
What do you mean? The whole purpose of this new feature is that Apple is
giving users older versions when they need them...
~~~
pdpi
Which is novel enough to be a news article.
~~~
melange
That's why we're discussing the news.
------
erickhill
No offense to anyone but I have a serious question: why are we hearing about
this from a Mac blog rather than from Apple directly? This is quite an
important change and to learn of it by scanning HN et al seems a tad
ridiculous.
~~~
iwasakabukiman
Apple will just add new features without press releases all the time.
------
jcampbell1
The next step is allow us to do maintenance upgrades to legacy versions. In
many situations it is easier to maintain a legacy app, with a separate iOS7
code base. Unfortunately there is no way to do this without creating duplicate
apps in the store. The alternative is a single code base that is very
difficult to reason about the behavior due to tons of feature/version
checking.
~~~
gcb0
For that the only solution is what already happens in android. You see lots of
apps that have 20 versions for each device/OS version.
Just to highlight the problem... i can't download a game on an iphone from
[Adult Swim] because it requires a front facing camera!
I've been playing the same game on the new ipad with the front facing camera
for 2 months. Never found anything that use the camera. go figure.
~~~
kalleboo
I don't know if things have changed, but we used to add random "requirements"
like that to our app when we needed to remove support for hardware that was
too old and slow. Our app ran terribly on the original iPhone (largely due to
the nature of the app) so we added some requirement that only the iPhone 3G
had.
~~~
gcb0
oh, didn't see that as a 'feature' for the developers... my bad. and i really
wasn't expecting something like that.
------
bengotow
I think this will help out consumers overall, but I don't want customers
posting negative reviews of my app because the old version they downloaded
crashes due to a Facebook or Twitter API change that I patched the app for
months ago. Considering that folks post reviews from to-be-released versions
of the OS, I assume Apple will let these folks post reviews as well?
------
escoz
Apple could have told developers about this during WWDC, but didn't.
My guess is Apple decided to do this last minute, after they saw the number of
iOS7-only apps that developers were submitting.
~~~
jimsilverman
looks like they're fearing slow/low iOS7 adoption, considering how boldly they
emphasize how few legacy iOS users are out there.
~~~
melange
No. It's looks like they are telling developers the state of affairs, so that
_they_ don't fear slow adoption.
~~~
escoz
Agree. Knowing that users of old devices will continue to be able to use your
app makes me a lot more excited about releasing for iOS7 only.
------
chucknelson
A good thing for consumers, but I wonder how developers feel about this. If
they fix some bug that may have been causing big problems on a server-side
component, won't they now have to worry about these older versions being used?
~~~
div
That's something you've always had to worry about though. You can't force a
user to upgrade, so your best bet is to handle those issues server-side.
~~~
jedberg
> You can't force a user to upgrade
Sure you can. Netflix will sometimes have to do this. The old software just
isn't allowed to talk to the server anymore.
~~~
iwasakabukiman
Which would be handling thins server side.
~~~
ianstallings
You can do this app-side by checking the version versus what's in the app
store via itunes webservice. For example:
[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2221436/can-i-force-an-
ip...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2221436/can-i-force-an-iphone-user-
to-upgrade-an-application)
I don't recommend that unless you have a mission critical bug, and even then
I'd discourage it. A user is in charge of his/her device. I version APIs on
the backend and then simply push out updates like any other software. If they
choose not to use it then not much I can do. Eventually I'll turn the older
API versions off and they'll either have to upgrade or stop using the app.
------
donretag
I wonder if this applies to the Mac App Store, but I doubt it.
I want to purchase Logic for an older Macbook, but the OS doesn't support
Logic X. Apple won't sell a compatible version and there is no shrink-wrapped
version.
~~~
jasomill
Sure there is; while Apple no longer produces it or sells it directly, it's
still in the channel, _e.g.,_ from Amazon[1].
[1] [http://www.amazon.com/Apple-Logic-Studio-Old-
Version/dp/B002...](http://www.amazon.com/Apple-Logic-Studio-Old-
Version/dp/B002ISDD1K)
------
kbutler
Is this an acknowledgement by Apple that there will be tens of millions of iOS
users who cannot upgrade their devices to iOS7?
I'm personally in this camp, with iPhone 3GS and iPad 1. I'm hoping to be able
to get an iPad Mini Retina soon, but the older devices remain in use. (The
original iPhone doesn't get much use anymore, though...)
------
300bps
This is likely an attempt to head off the jailbreaking and app copying that
many people resort to after discovering their otherwise fully functioning
device is basically a paperweight in that it can't install any apps.
Unfortunately from real world tests it doesn't appear to be available for many
truly older iOS versions.
~~~
melange
What truly older iOS versions?
~~~
oleyb
I see it available on 4.2.1 but not 3.1.3.
------
untog
Happy to see this being codified - Spotify currently has an old version for <=
iOS4 as a separate app, which is fantastic for my old iPod I have lying
around. I was concerned that at some point Apple would forbid them from doing
this, glad they went in the opposite direction.
~~~
neon_electro
Can you tell us if you were able to successfully download the old version?
Just curious if it definitely works for your use case.
------
methodin
Do they have the experience with this "fragmentation" to pull this off
effectively? What will it do from a developer's perspective?
------
div
This is great for customers.
I wonder if and how having that popup appear will affect people upgrading to
the latest and greatest.
~~~
AlisdairSH
Presumably, you'd only see the pop-up if you're running a non-current version
of iOS (and need the previous version of the app)?
~~~
div
Correct, what I'm wondering about is how this popup will drive people to
realize that "hey, I can upgrade to a new version of iOS".
iOS already has a pretty fast adoption rate for new versions, I wonder if this
will make it even better.
------
kalleboo
Does this apply to new purchases as well, or just redownloading something you
already bought before?
~~~
kbutler
I expect you'll buy the app [the new version] and this will allow you to
download the old version from an older device logged in to your account.
------
hcarvalhoalves
This is basically Apple themselves showing they don't trust everybody will
like iOS7.
~~~
bonaldi
It's less that and more that there is now a significant-enough installed base
that can't upgrade to the latest OS. There's now a lot of older iPhones and
iPods Touch out there that will never get 7.
Knowing that, developers will become increasingly reluctant to leave those
customers behind -- and so will keep building for 6 and earlier, and won't use
the new 7-only stuff.
This way, devs can immediately go to 7, knowing that customers stuck on older
versions will not suddenly be unable to buy or (re)install their apps.
~~~
hcarvalhoalves
I'm one myself, since my 3GS still works.
If iOS7 were any good in my opinion, I would feel compelled to upgrade to a 4
or 5 though, as already happened before for users of 3 and prior.
This App Store change makes people like me even less compelled to upgrade, so
this move is kinda unexpected coming from Apple, since it keeps the inertia.
~~~
melange
Have you tried iOS7 on an iPhone 5?
------
dshep
Good move Apple!
------
oscargrouch
year-2024 Banana statement to its customers: "As a sign of the commitment of
the Banana Inc. to its customers freedom in a uOS App Store near you, the uOS
no longer controls where are you going, and gives you complete permission to
go to the grocery store or to play with your kids.. talk badly or curse Banana
Inc. is expressely forbiden of course, as usual, and you will receive an
instant eletro-shock (from the spy app you can never remove). Therefore you
are completely free. only in the next versions of the uOS in a store near you"
its in times like these that i miss shows like Monty Python..
Those guys could show with a good dose of intelligent humor, how stupid people
behaviour are sometimes..
~~~
oscargrouch
Im very happy my comment its the last one on this particular post.. :)
this news to be on the front page of HN like if it was a good thing, its just
ludicrous..
if you have a pocket relation with apple thats understandable and forgivable..
but the ones that accept this kind of policies by only one company, because
they are attached to the "brand" in somehow? its beyond sanity
There are bad implications to us all, if this model make its way into others
companies and take over our culture, you could even say bye-bye to your
beloved startup culture or the ability to launch the technologies that
eventually will make a good thing to us all, and have people using it..
oh, they put money on your pocket? but whats is the real price that everybody
else will have to pay for it?
you consume it? then its like that thing you like and make you happy, lets say
a chocolate.. but or do employ slave labours, or have bad environment
implications.. if you have conscious, you will always fell bad to feel good
about it..
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Atul Gawande: University of Chicago Medical School Commencement Address - absconditus
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2009/06/atul-gawande-university-of-chicago-medical-school-commencement-address.html
======
timf
Fighting this problem from the doctor's side is noble (this is an uplifting
speech) but it seems like it would only ever be drops in the bucket,
impossible to get the majority of people to voluntarily act like the speaker's
"positive deviants."
Most things I read say that the private insurance market can be disrupted by
the introduction of a big enough non-profit offering insurance (be it
government backed or not). It looks like it might even happen given the signs
from Washington recently. And I have no moral problem with the government
offering an insurance plan as long as it is voluntary to participate and the
lion's share is paid for by its participants.
Sounds like there is a chance of something good happening but I fear the
perversions. Like a lot of the government's food and health policies, this is
going to get severely messed up, yet again bowing to powerful lobbies etc.
instead of focusing on real public health goals like... health.
~~~
hugs
Regarding the "drops in the bucket" -- Yes, you're right, but that's besides
the point. Social change has to start somewhere. This reminds me of the "Day
the Pain Died" article posted here the other day.
(<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=647058>) The last line in that article
is key: "The real milestone witnessed in Boston that day was the moment when
culture had finally caught up with chemistry."
Independent of what Obama decides to do about health care, the American
medical community needs a cultural "attitude adjustment" to start thinking
about the macro-economic effects of their behavior.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Komodo IDE adds collaboration a-la-gdocs. Good for remote pair programming - urlwolf
http://www.activestate.com/blog/2011/04/komodo-7-alpha-code-collaboration
======
rbanffy
I have used Emacs this way - you just open another window (frame, in Emacs
parlance) on the other guy's X server.
I works even if both of you are using Windows (shrugs) or OSX (which still
comes with X).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Companies valued at $1B or more by venture-capital firms - onderkalaci
http://graphics.wsj.com/billion-dollar-club/
======
Chmouel
There is so many of them there i had no idea they existed
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Gunsmith Uses 3D Printer To Make A Rifle - jessicaSFNY
http://www.webpronews.com/gunsmith-uses-3d-printer-to-make-a-rifle-2012-07
======
ef4
Any competent machinist can make functional semiautomatic weapons. This is
just the next step in making it even easier.
If the United States ever got serious about banning firearms, a massive
homebrew industry would grow up overnight. Gunpowder is not fundamentally
harder to make than methamphetamine.
People who quite rightly see our drug laws as pointless and ineffective
somehow often miss that a gun ban would be no more effective in the United
States. If you want there to be less drugs or guns, you have to attack the
demand side, not the supply side. Suppressing supply while keeping demand
steady just ensures higher margins for the suppliers.
~~~
grecy
> If the United States ever got serious about banning firearms, a massive
> homebrew industry would grow up overnight.
Do you have any stats or experience to back that up? It might happen, but you
are stating as fact something that's not been tested.
Anecdotally, in Australia where gun laws are very strict, it's difficult to
get firearms. Yes, serious hardened criminals still get their hands on them,
which certainly is a problem. The average angry Joe can not simply legally
purchase a semi automatic or handgun to walk around to his antagonists house
and shoot them.
With a murder rate twice any other developed country[1], the United States
clearly has a serious violence problem, and taking guns out of the hands of
the average Joe would surely help reduce it.
[1][http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentiona...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate)
Using the argument of "Hardened criminals will still get them anyway" is like
saying we shouldn't have a law against murder because some people will do it
anyway, so it's a waste of time. The point is to deter or make it extremely
difficult for as many people as possible.
~~~
nitrogen
_With a murder rate twice any other developed country[1], the United States
clearly has a serious violence problem, and taking guns out of the hands of
the average Joe would surely help reduce it._
The second clause does not follow from the first. Murder in the US is heavily
demographically biased, and most gun owners are not murderers. Furthermore,
will you be the one going door to door to collect everyone's firearms? It
sounds like you are saying, "Surely, we must do something. This is something;
therefore, we must do this."
_Using the argument of "Hardened criminals will still get them anyway" is
like saying we shouldn't have a law against murder because some people will do
it anyway, so it's a waste of time. The point is to deter or make it extremely
difficult for as many people as possible._
No, no it's not. You are conflating possession of a tool with misuse of the
tool to commit a crime. The US has been trying to make it "extremely difficult
for as many people as possible" to do a lot of things, and failed
spectacularly. Now imagine that same level of failure applied to something
protected in the US constitution.
~~~
drhayes9
To be fair, this tool has only one use: it kills things.
Whenever I see arguments about how we should ban cars because they kill more
people than guns per year, I always think about that. Cars are good for all
kinds of things, and they happen to incidentally cause death. Guns are pretty
much only good for killing things.
I live in the U.S. I'm not saying we should uniformly ban all weapons, period;
I think the issue is more nuanced than that. But it seems hard to defend the
fact that introducing guns into a dangerous situation would do anything other
than make it more deadly.
~~~
lgbr
> To be fair, this tool has only one use: it kills things.
I disagree. A gun's primary use for law abiding citizens is that it
intimidates things. The most effective way to use a gun is simply to deter
crime.
You wouldn't say that the reason the United States and the Soviet Union
stockpiled nuclear weapons was because they wanted to level each others'
cities. It was simply deterrence.
~~~
jarek
> A gun's primary use for law abiding citizens is that it intimidates things.
> The most effective way to use a gun is simply to deter crime.
A purpose they are quite clearly failing at. So the question is what, if
anything, citizens of the U.S.A. wish to do about the fact that, empirically,
legality and availability of guns has not resulted in crime rates comparable
to comparable states.
~~~
learc83
That doesn't follow. There are no comparable states with a comparable history,
demography, economy, and culture.
It's possible that gun ownership deters crime, but that something else unique
to the U.S. is causing more crime than gun ownership is countering.
The only thing you could possibly do is to compare parts of the US to each
other, and in that case you'll find that locations with stricter gun laws have
_more_ gun violence.
You could conclude that gun laws cause gun violence, but that would be stupid
because many times gun laws exist because of gun violence. What's the
difference between my conclusion and yours?
Concluding that guns cause violence without real hard evidence and
subsequently banning them is like using the unproven gateway drug theory to
justify locking up people for smoking pot.
~~~
jarek
Ah, yes, the U.S. exceptionalism. No other country like it! No one else could
have an invasive dominant culture, a disadvantaged minority group, large
prosperity divides, and a God-given fear of groups of other people (you call
it "government").
Oh well. It's no water off my back if you guys are fine with answering my
original question with "nothing" and continuing shooting each other up as
price of freedom.
~~~
learc83
>There are no comparable states with a comparable history, demography,
economy, and culture.
American exceptionalism refers to the primarily used meaning of exceptional as
"unusually good." I never remotely said that.
America is different, not better. I'd also argue that you can't compare
Germany to Spain. Does that mean I think Germany is better?
You also didn't answer my argument. Can you point to another country with
comparable history, demography, economy, and culture that has passed a gun
ban. Or should I just go ahead and hand over my gun, based on your unsupported
fears?
~~~
jarek
> American exceptionalism refers to the primarily used meaning of exceptional
> as "unusually good."
I am aware. It's fun to use terms outside of their usual meanings sometimes.
I am not supporting a gun ban in the U.S. I'm asking what y'all wish to do
about your crime rate.
~~~
learc83
>I'm asking what y'all wish to do about your crime rate.
End drug prohibition.
~~~
jarek
Would be a start!
------
ChuckMcM
Doesn't pass the sniff test.
Chamber pressure in a .22 cal pistol is on the order of 20,000 PSI [1] The
tensile strength of thermoplastic at standard temperatures is 1/2 that [2] and
it goes down as the temperature goes up (its a _thermo_ plastic for a reason).
Firing a .22 caliber round using gunpowder would destroy the barrel on the
first firing.
Now I could believe you built the receiver and triggering mechanism on a
thermoplastic printer, but not the actual firing chamber.
[1] <http://www.lasc.us/SAAMIMaxPressure.htm> [2]
[http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/physical-properties-
thermo...](http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/physical-properties-
thermoplastics-d_808.html)
~~~
kwantam
The part that's 3d printed is the lower receiver. In an AR-15 style design,
the lower receiver doesn't handle any pressure at all, it just houses the
magazine and hammer/trigger/sear/safety, and connects to the upper
receiver/barrel assembly and the buttstock/buffer tube assembly.
People have made lower receivers out of aluminum basically forever. Aluminum
could maybe be made to handle .22lr type pressures, but certainly not .223rem
or bigger. A plastic lower is completely believable.
EDIT: to clarify, I meant if you wanted to make the _whole gun_ out of
aluminum you might be able to get away with it for a .22lr. Aluminum for a
lower receiver is absolutely no problem at all. Apologies for not being clear.
~~~
blangblang
If I recall correctly, the lower is also the only part of the assembled weapon
that requires registration.
~~~
mgarfias
Incorrect. The lower is the only part of the assembled weapon upon which a
serial # is applied and a tax is paid. It is also the # that is recorded on
the Form 4473 at the dealer when you purchase the weapon.
There is no federal level firearms registration (excepting NFA items), and
only a few states that do so as well.
~~~
mgarfias
Oh, and if you build it yourself (as this person has done), no tax need be
paid, no serial # need be applied, and all perfectly legal provided you have
not been restricted from purchasing a weapon through normal channels. That is,
a felon making a weapon is now a felon-in-possession, where a citizen with
full rights making one has not committed a crime.
~~~
jevinskie
It is recommended that you do apply a serial number because LEO may
incorrectly conclude that the firearm is illegal if they don't see one.
~~~
mgarfias
Yes, but there is no requirement to do so. Nor is that serial # available
anywhere to look up.
------
jff
I might be reading it wrong, but it looks to me like he printed a receiver and
placed all the moving parts and the barrel etc. in it. See "I printed a
modified version of the lower from cncguns.com"
~~~
Kallikrates
The receiver is the only part of the rifle that is controlled. Everything
other than the receiver can be bought on the internet without background
checks or registering of serial numbers.
~~~
jff
Yes, I know that part, I was simply pointing out that he did not necessarily
print out a barrel or trigger pin or any of the other many parts needed to
make a whole pistol.
------
tjic
A long post on the topic of CNC, printing firearms, and more from a few months
back:
[http://www.popehat.com/2011/10/06/the-third-wave-cnc-
stereol...](http://www.popehat.com/2011/10/06/the-third-wave-cnc-
stereolithography-and-the-end-of-gun-control/)
------
sneak
To be clear: he made a lower receiver, a very simple part and the one that has
the serial number stamped onto it, it is the "gun" part as far as the legal
authorities are concerned.
Every other part (upper receiver, barrel, magazine, trigger, hammer, etc) are
just "parts" that one can order untracked.
Making an entire functional weapon is still beyond the scope of most
inexpensive printers.
[http://www.quora.com/3D-Printing/How-much-does-it-cost-
today...](http://www.quora.com/3D-Printing/How-much-does-it-cost-today-
June-2012-to-purchase-a-3D-printer-that-can-print-all-of-the-parts-to-
assemble-a-functional-AK-47) (my question about this on Quora.)
------
ryanmarsh
I love how HN jumps immediately into a gun control debate and almost
completely misses the fact that what he printed is a long way from an AR-15.
It's just a piece of metal called the lower receiver. When I say lower
receiver, I believe he built just the shell not the trigger assembly or
bushings. In addition, the bolt and barrel (the upper) weren't manufactured.
But lets assume for a minute that he printed the entire thing from scratch,
how is this any different than the fact that anybody with a good machine shop
can produce a full AR-15 by hand?
------
jakeonthemove
Well, it's definitely possible to print a silencer, a pistol shouldn't be that
much harder. I'm afraid that this would make the governments impose stricter
laws on 3D printers, which is not a good thing...
~~~
duaneb
I'd be more scared if they could successfully manufacture lethal ammunition.
~~~
aidenn0
Then you don't understand the current market. Most ammunition is amazingly
easy to come by and the trade of it is fairly unregulated.
~~~
duaneb
Wow, in that case this is very scary.
------
Strallus
Seriously, what happened to real journalism?
Articles are now being written based on a handful of unverified forum posts.
Really?
~~~
jessriedel
1) Betabeat isn't the NY Times.
2) Betabeat only reported that this forum existed and that someone had made
these claim, which is indisputably correct. You may think it's not
particularly news worthy, but online journalism is a big places and there's
plenty of room for everything.
3) Would you rather this article _not_ be written?
------
sp332
Man, they didn't show you _that_ in Star Trek...
edit: to be specific, they glossed over it instead of confronting a scenario
where an enemy hijacked a replicator to make whatever physical or chemical
weapons they wanted at a moment's notice.
~~~
simcop2387
Actually it was touched on in a number of episodes (which i don't feel like
digging up) but in more than once instance they mentioned that the replicators
had safety systems that prevented unauthorized creation of at least some
dangerous materials, (from what i recall, poisons were mentioned in one,
weapons themselves i'm not sure).
~~~
pyre
True, but what could be poisonous to one species, could be nutritious to
another. The idea that 'poisons' are easily identifiable is pure fantasy.
~~~
angrow
Everyone on the Enterprise can breath the same air and eaet the same food.
And if something is poison to even just a few of your crew, you forbid it and
tell everyone else to eat almonds instead of peanuts. :nerdingout:
~~~
sp332
A lot of things were "forbidden" by social pressures. Alcohol was freely
available (or maybe a simple security override, I can't remember) but no one
drank real alcohol.
------
cubicle
1.) Blogspam. OP is [http://www.webpronews.com/gunsmith-uses-3d-printer-to-
make-a...](http://www.webpronews.com/gunsmith-uses-3d-printer-to-make-a-
rifle-2012-07)
Does HN have any mods?
2.) Have blue has a blog, he's written two posts about this:
<http://haveblue.org/?p=1041> <http://haveblue.org/?p=1321> It appears to be
down right now, though. Cache links:
[https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:DlBe32...](https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:DlBe32HJ0UsJ:haveblue.org/%3Fp%3D1041+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a)
[https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Z_5bOF...](https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Z_5bOFtsttMJ:haveblue.org/%3Fp%3D1321+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a)
3.) He printed a AR-15 lower receiver, which is the part, under US law,
considered a "firearm". The high pressure components (barrel, bolt) are all
made from conventional manufacturing processes, using steel.
Lowers are typically made out of aluminum, but they don't really experience
any great stresses, so it's perfectly possible to make them out of plastic.
(There's a number of commercial lowers made out of fiberglass:
<http://www.mdshooters.com/showthread.php?t=65134> (I'd link directly to the
manufacturer's site, but it seems they're better at making guns than they are
at securing web servers)) As he notes, people have even carved them from wood.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How to transition from academic programming to software engineering? - fdsvnsmvas
I taught myself how to code and ended up doing a PhD in a computational discipline. Programming has been a big part of my life for at least the last decade, during which I've written code almost every day, but always by myself. After graduating I joined a medium-sized company (~10^2 developers) as a machine learning engineer and realized how much I don't know about software engineering. I feel very comfortable with programming in the small, but programming in the large still feels mostly opaque to me. Issues like testing / mocking, code review, management of dev / stage / prod workflows and, most importantly, the judgment / taste required to make maintainable changes to a million LOC repository, are areas where I can tell I need to improve.<p>Former academics who moved into software engineering, which resources did you find most useful as you made the transition? Python-specific or language-agnostic books would be most helpful, but all advice would be welcome.
======
ChuckMcM
I have hired some PhDs in your situation and worked with others, I personally
just went to work after I got my BSEE.
My observation is that you're halfway there when you realize that you need to
improve, of the folks I saw who did poorly it was because they didn't realize
that you could be both the smartest person in the room and the least capable
at the same time.
Right now, on your first job experience, even a kid who never went to college
is better at programming than you are because they've been experiencing all
the pitfalls that can happen and have built up a knowledge from that which is
perhaps more intuitive than formal but serves them well. What you have over
that person is that you've trained yourself to consume, classify, organize,
and distill massive amounts of information in a short amount of time.
Use that training to consume everything you can on the art of writing
programs. Read "Test Driven Development" read "Code Complete", read "Design
Patterns", read "The Design of the UNIX Operating System", read "TCP/IP
Illustrated Volume 1", and a book or two on databases. With your training you
should be able to skim through those to identify the various "tricky bits" and
get a feel for what is and what is not important in this new field of yours.
Soak in as much as you can and ask a lot of questions. Pretty soon no one will
know you haven't been doing this your whole life.
~~~
stedalus
This is pretty good advice overall. One small change I suggest is to take it
easy on Design Patterns and the like. I’ve seen people in OPs position
(general smarts but limited production experience) turn into architecture
astronauts and start overengineering everything. It can be useful if you’re
working on a legacy codebase and need to understand the jargon that can appear
in [possibly overengineered] existing codebases.
~~~
fsloth
I've written software over a decade and I _loath_ the design patterns book.
I would not give it to a beginner as it would corrupt their mind with useless
drivel .
It's authors exhibit themselves as morons who celebrate renaming existing
computer science concepts while occasionally mixing and matching them.
I would not be this uncharitable towards it if it was not such a famous (and
hence harmfull) book.
It's harmfull because software engineering is really hard, and they just add
up to the load by trying to have the reader memoize their junk instead of
doing something that would actually make them a better programmer. And, if you
try to use their concepts _while_ programming - shudders, oh god help you.
I'm not going to iterate over every pattern. Here's an example:
_Flywheight_? You assholes, just tell memoization for what it is. Why don't
you rename existing data structures as well? Good thing those come out of the
box, otherwise you would have began the book by renaming array, linked list
and dictionary. Maybe you would have called linked list "the chaingang" or
something.
You don't simplify things by giving things cuddlier names. You stunt peoples
growth that way.
Gang of four book is a malignant offshoot of the practice of attempting to
make software engineering better by legalizing and dogmatizing it by
decomposition into trivial details that hurt your brain. It's a branch of
'consultancy driven software development' where people attempt to aquire a
halo of professionalism by calling things by fancy names and over-complex
descriptions (while skipping the practical things with equally complex names
but at least those weren't made up by a bunch of idiots).
~~~
voltooid
Your comment is very interesting. I recently took a course on Design Patterns.
I sat squirming during the lectures because I didn't like what was being said,
but couldn't put my finger on what exactly I disliked.
What I understand from your comment is that you dislike the Gang of four book
because it renames concepts that don't need the cutesy names that they give
them. Do you have a problem with the _concept_ of design patterns? Or just the
names they are given? Are the concepts themselves sound and worth paying
attention to?
~~~
fsloth
I wrote a long rant as a response to another comment above. To quote myself:
"It reads like it was written by a clever, verbose, and 'over-eager novice."
Design patterns are a really usefull concept. The GoF book just totally
botches up that concept by dwelving deep in trivial language details while
missing the big picture.
Christopher Alexander's "A timeless way of building", and "Notes on the
Synthesis of Form" are the books in architecture that prompted a lot of
dicussion in software design circles, and from which I presume GoF got their
idea of software design patterns.
What are good design patterns in software? IMO they are composed from the
programming models exposed in a basic CS book like Aho and Ullman's
"Foundations of Computer Science" and further developed in a books like
Structure And Intrepretation of Computer Programs.
GoF is an ok anecdotal reference after those, but it really is not suitable as
a didactic resource.
Peter Norvig wryly commented that 16 of the 23 pattern are either invisible or
non-existent in lisp Lisp[0].
[0] [http://www.norvig.com/design-patterns/design-
patterns.pdf](http://www.norvig.com/design-patterns/design-patterns.pdf)
------
crackerjackmack
Some general advice I've given multiple junior developers over the years, you
probably aren't a junior but most likely applicable to the advice you are
seeking. These were passed down to me by other developers. Other HN folk will
have links to literature but hopefully my advice will give you a precursor.
* testing - write your functions small enough to be readable, but not so small their abstractions are meaningless (because you have to test them all)
* testing - don't reach into your code's modules and mock. Instead use dependency injection with non-testing defaults
* code review - It shouldn't be personal, if it is are you reading it wrong or are they attacking you personally?
* code review - when referencing style complaints ask for reference material. Don't get caught in cyclic-pedantic style war between lead devs.
* code - your code should be environment agnostic, if you have environment/context specific things to do, pass along a environment/configuration dict or make a global config singleton. As long as your code depends on that you can write code more discretely.
* code - personal preference but try to not nest your loops too deeply, when you can use itertools.
* code - if you can help it, try not to mutate dicts/objects in place while in a loop. Makes testing a difficult.
* code - exit early if possible, test for failures instead of nesting your entire function inside a single `if`. Helps identify the bad inputs faster as well.
Above all, remember code isn't perfect. It's a tool to get to an end goal. If
you aren't solving for the end goal you aren't solving the right problem. At
the end of the day, you are employed to build a product and that product needs
to perform it's job. (that isn't a pass to write super shitty code)
edit: formatting
~~~
fraudsyndrome
> testing - don't reach into your code's modules and mock. Instead use
> dependency injection with non-testing defaults
Could you please go into more depth with this?
~~~
crackerjackmack
In an example. NoopTelemetry would be some type of empty class not dependent
on mock (I've used a meta class a singleton in this case, but whichever, could
be a module just the same). To test, you'd pass in a mock object to telemetry
and check that a both timer_start and timer_stop are both called with the
correct function name.
In your main or context, you setup your application with the needed pieces.
def main():
context = {'telemetry': StatsClient(....)}
start(context)
def start(context):
algo_5(1, 4, context['telemetry'])
def algo_5(param1, param2, telemetry=NoopTelemetry):
telemetry.timer_start('algo_5')
ret = param1 / param2 ** param2 # whatever
telemetry.timer_stop('algo_5)
return ret
def test_start():
context = {'telemetry': MagicMock()}
start(context)
# more testing.
def test_algo5_math():
ret = algo5(4, 5)
assert 78 # maybe?
def test_algo5_telemetry():
mm = MagicMock()
algo5(1, 1, mm)
assert mm.timer_start.called_with_args(['algo5'])
assert mm.timer_stop.called_with_args(['algo5'])
------
fdsvnsmvas
Thanks everyone, the comments are much appreciated. Here's a list of books and
other media resources recommended so far in the thread:
Robert C. Martin, Clean code: [https://www.amazon.com/Clean-Code-Handbook-
Software-Craftsma...](https://www.amazon.com/Clean-Code-Handbook-Software-
Craftsmanship/dp/0132350882)
Vaughn Vernon, various:
[https://vaughnvernon.co/?page_id=168](https://vaughnvernon.co/?page_id=168)
Steve McConnell, Code Complete: [https://www.amazon.com/Code-Complete-
Practical-Handbook-Cons...](https://www.amazon.com/Code-Complete-Practical-
Handbook-Construction/dp/0735619670) 2
Clean coder: [https://cleancoders.com/](https://cleancoders.com/) videos
Hunt and Thomas, The Pragmatic Programmer: [https://www.amazon.com/Pragmatic-
Programmer-Journeyman-Maste...](https://www.amazon.com/Pragmatic-Programmer-
Journeyman-Master/dp/020161622X)
Hitchhiker's Guide to Python: [https://docs.python-
guide.org/](https://docs.python-guide.org/)
Dustin Boswell The Art of Readable Code: [https://www.amazon.com/Art-Readable-
Code-Practical-Technique...](https://www.amazon.com/Art-Readable-Code-
Practical-Techniques/dp/0596802293)
John Ousterhout, A Philosophy of Software Design:
[https://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Software-Design-John-
Ouste...](https://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Software-Design-John-
Ousterhout/dp/1732102201) This one looks particularly interesting, thanks
AlexCoventry!
Kent Beck, Test Driven Development: [https://www.amazon.com/Test-Driven-
Development-Kent-Beck/dp/...](https://www.amazon.com/Test-Driven-Development-
Kent-Beck/dp/0321146530)
Dan Bader, Python Tricks: The Book: [https://dbader.org/](https://dbader.org/)
Ian Sommerville, Software Engineering: [https://www.amazon.com/Software-
Engineering-10th-Ian-Sommerv...](https://www.amazon.com/Software-
Engineering-10th-Ian-Sommerville/dp/9332582696)
Svilen Dobrev, various:
[http://www.svilendobrev.com/rabota/](http://www.svilendobrev.com/rabota/)
~~~
sanderjd
There are a lot of good recommendations here, and I certainly relate to the
instinct to go to books when you're looking to level up a skill set, but I
really think what you need is not a bunch of books to read, but a few _people_
to watch do the work. The only real way to do that is to get a job alongside
them. You can read the books at the same time; you can ask your new coworkers
which recommendations they agree with and read those ones first.
~~~
fsloth
Yeah, software engineering is a craft, and generally the only way to learn
those fast is to learn from others.
~~~
blub
It's not a craft, in its purest form it's an engineering discipline with
specific rules, procedures and standards.
The crucial point is that most of us a doing programming, and not software
engineering. Learning from others is hit or miss. One can certainly learn to
program from others, but that's not enough to be able to do software
engineering.
~~~
fsloth
"It's not a craft, in its purest form it's an engineering discipline with
specific rules, procedures and standards."
Sorry, but I have to strongly disagree. In it's purest form the core of
software engineering - i.e. programming is a craft. The other parts are mostly
about creating processes so that craftsmen can create something together
without stumbling into eachother.
The difference between a craft and engineering are numerous.
\- engineers generally need a license
\- engineering is about repeatability and creating dependable cost estimates
\- engineers are required to study for years for a very good reason. You can
be a rockstar programmer out of highschool.
Just having a bunch of cargo cult gibberish bound into a book does not make a
craft into an engineering discipline.
It's harmfull to call programming engineering. Engineers have curriculums that
can teach them pretty well what is expected of them once employed.
Not for programmers - or, well, software engineers. If there was even one
curriculum that could churn out good programmers dependably, don't you think
this model wouldn't be copied instantly elsewhere? If such a curruculum
existed, do you think think software interviews would be filled with
whiteboarding just to check out that the candidates understand even the
basics?
I think this incapability to create a curriculum for actually creating good
programmers is the best evidence that programming is a craft. It's such a
complex topic that you can't create a mass curriculum that would serve all
equally. Not with our current understanding, anyway. Maybe if we could teach
everyone assembly, and Haskell , and have them implement compilers and
languages as a standard things would be different.
The second best way to learn programming without being born a programmer
savant is to learn from others while doing. Apprenticeship is the traditional
way to train craftsmen.
Programming is so much more like a craft than engineering that it's best to
call it a craft.
Craft is not a deragatory term. It just means we don't understand it
theoretically well enough to teach it properly.
~~~
blub
Software development as practiced now by a huge number of individuals and
companies is closer to a craft, but it can be and must be more than that if we
want to be able to tackle the growing complexity of software and improve its
overall barely adequate quality.
Crafts don't scale and are a poor fit for highly complex domains.
The curse of software development is its huge financial success, anemic
legislative specification and the observed reality that customers will still
buy poor quality software.
These are preventing the craft-like programming from turning into software
engineering, but the craft is already failing to reach expectations: countless
security disasters, unethical programmers enabling spying on millions,
software literally killing users. This stuff will only get worse.
And finally, we do understand software engineering well enough to teach it
properly. It's just not done, because it's not considered necessary when one
can get by with a computer science degree, no degree or a bootcamp
certificate.
~~~
fsloth
"And finally, we do understand software engineering well enough to teach it
properly."
This is news to me. I would very much like a citation, please. Or do you mean
applying formal proof verification to everything?
~~~
blub
Engineering doesn't mean using formal methods or specific fancy proofs, it's a
systematic, disciplined quantifiable approach to software. It's described in
an ISO standard and the more approachable IEEE SWEBOK.
The above is neither widely known (I only found out about it after many years
of doing professional programming), nor is it necessary in order to be
successful in the profession and/or make a lot of money.
Commercial software development is mostly a wild west and we're calling that
craftsmanship.
------
tensor
In my experience, it's easy to just learn on the job. Some basic points
though:
* Follow whatever formatting and style rules your workplace uses. It's religion and not worth getting into, as long as everyone uses the same style its a win.
* Dev/stage/prod is also workplace specific. Just go with the flow and avoid time wasting arguments on these topics, it's not usually worth it.
* Try to break your work into small commits. This is both easier to review and easier to estimate time on.
* Architect your code so that you can add unit tests. Make sure all your commits have this.
* Prefer longer simpler code to clever code, you're optimizing for newcomers to your code reading it.
* When a one line comment explains it to you, you'll probably need a paragraph at least for someone outside the field to get started understanding it.
* Think about how you'll respond to someone coming to you and saying "something something prod something something your code is buggy." How will you get enough information to determine if this is true, and to debug it when it is? Logging is one good tool here, so consider what you log carefully.
Finally, don't be too surprised if you find people talk down to you. Unless
you are in a FAANG company, which it sounds like you are not, developers can
be very condescending towards academics (and people from other fields).
~~~
khitchdee
That is a wonderful point. There is no replacement for an on-the-job
experience as the understudy of a more experienced professional. I have
experienced this first hand and can vouch for it.
------
sbussard
\- Most of your job is to make people happy. Communicate well. Coming from
pure research, it might feel a little uncomfortable at first. Remember, you're
there to consult, and that happens to involve writing code.
\- Go to hackathons to learn to ship code fast and get used to building
"skateboards". Learn how to make tradeoffs that optimize for development
speed. It's not about writing crappy code, it's about optimizing for the right
variables at the right time. There are now a lot of real world variables to
consider.
\- Practice Kanban. Divide and conquer your projects. Make small and focused
pull requests. You will naturally start strategizing on how to do things right
while you're doing things quickly.
\- Using category theory and functional programming in your code, but being
practical about it so others can read it, will really help when it comes to
writing unit tests. Unguided polymorphism is from the devil.
------
pjmorris
I'd suggest "The Pragmatic Programmer" by Hunt and Thomas. It's a compendium
of advice on being an effective programmer compiled from experience. Also,
take look at "The Practice of Programming" by Kernighan and Pike. It's a bit
more narrowly-focused, but Kernighan and Pike are models for clarity in
programming and in writing.
------
navinsylvester
It is critical for a company to have a concrete on-boarding process. If your
present company doesn't have a good one take this as an opportunity to design
one. You will learn a lot and also help others in the process.
Here are some of the guidelines:
# Code style/guidelines
# Git/version control workflow
# Testing methodologies & tools used
# Agile/project management tools used and best practices
# Read the wiki about infra/services used in production/dev/staging and its workflow
# Release guidelines & workflow
# Mentoring process
# Engineering style/culture
------
cnees
Your coworkers are your best resource.
\- Ask them to review your code and suggest changes
\- Look for questions of taste and ask more. It may feel intuitive to them,
but if you dig in you can often find a good reason/principle behind it.
\- Read your coworkers' code
\- Read the comments people leave on others' code
~~~
mitchellst
This is the best answer here. You've come to the conclusion that you're good
at coding alone, but you don't know how to do it well in a team or company—
your team and company. Other answers frame this as a technology problem
(patterns and practices) but you'll hack it faster as an acculturation task.
Get mentors. Plural. Grab one person in each department where you feel shaky—
QA's, solutions architects, operations, maybe product, etc. Tell them you're
new at this and you want to ask them questions and work closely with them to
get better. (This will not offend them and it will not make them look down on
you. If it does, you don't want what they're selling anyway.) Two months into
asking them for code reviews and just taking them to lunch and asking about
things you know they care about in their areas of responsibility, you'll
notice results in terms of your own thinking and output. 1 year in, you'll be
very, very good at this.
~~~
mertd
I was in the same boat as the op. Dove in head first into a software
engineering role. Ended up working with the only true 10x'er I have known to
this day. Nothing improves you faster than getting feedback from someone like
that.
------
currymj
I have made the jump from writing academic code to working on a product where
actual software engineering was encouraged. Although I did jump back to
academia pretty quickly.
Hitchhiker's Guide to Python is a very good book (freely available online, or
get a copy from O'Reilly); some of it may be obvious but some might not be.
It is true IMO that making your code testable will also make it better
designed. It might even be worthwhile to do completely dogmatic test-driven
development (i.e. always write tests first, then stub out everything with
NotImplementedError, then write actual code until all tests pass) for a while
to get used to it, and force yourself to become familiar with tools for
dependency injection/mocks/etc.
This is complicated by the fact that unit-testing machine learning code can be
unusually tricky; normal unit-testing practices and metrics (e.g. code
coverage) may not be very effective.
~~~
currymj
Oh and I don't think you'll be as hopeless a coder as some other posters might
think, because you did your PhD in a computational discipline and know Python
and have heard of unit testing.
There are, say, physics PhDs who only write numerical Fortran or C++ routines
(in one big file, sometimes even in one big function), who really might want
to attend a boot camp or something but it doesn't sound like you're in that
boat.
------
blt
I went back for a PhD after a few years in industry.
As a PhD student, my code and habits do not meet the standard of industry.
This is because I'm constantly changing the whole architecture to try new
ideas, so I I optimize for small and simple code at the expense of
testability, modularization, robustness, etc.
It's important to recognize this. You will need to change your style.
I can't recommend any one book. I feel like I mostly learned these lessons
through random articles, lecture videos, conversations, and personal
experience.
IMO, some of the most important principles:
* Implement as much as possible with pure functions (but don't contort the code to achieve this).
* Make your commits as small as possible. Well structured version control history is valuable.
* Spend lots of time time thinking about how data flows through your program, more than how the code is organized.
* Strongly prefer DAG dependency structure. Write a set of libraries and then a top level program that uses them.
------
svilen_dobrev
Read "Software engineering" by Ian Sommerville. Any edition (maybe from 6
onwards, though they are slighty different.. pick latest u can get). Maybe
skim/skip the (technical) parts u think u know, and read the rest. Most will
not make sense initialy.. does not matter, keep reading. u need to get all
that "uploaded" in brain in order to be able to grasp it one day.
It took me 10 years to be able to skip all the technicals. And another 10+
years to understand why u may ever need the rest..
for judgment etc... Maybe pick some big-enough open-source project in a domain
u know well and follow it - how and when they do change what. Dont worry, it
does take years to really form your own judgment.
btw u will need some philosophy/methodology/human-side too.. there's not many
of it in the above book.
For more, see the recommended readings on www.svilendobrev.com/rabota/
have fun
------
ttalviste
First of all, SW engineering is a practice with a lot of responsibility. The
main responsibility lays in writing code, that is easy to understand. For
example, if you think you write well written code, then try reading code that
you have written a couple of months ago. Usually, a very painful experience :D
So try to write code for an audience. This has been the trigger for me. Also I
encourage code reviews and TDD.
The main learning resources for me have been, Clean Coder videos by Robert C
Martin aka Uncle Bob. They are pure gold. They can feel awkward, but after a
while they make sense.
Also DDD domain driven design is a key topic to tackle.
Books: \- Clean code \- DDD by Vaughn Vernon
Videos: \- Clean coder E1-E52
With these two books and videos you are on a good track! These worked for me.
~~~
Lyren
I can vouch for Clean Coder. We watched them in our company. It's a small dev
team so we took the time together. Afterwards we implemented a 4-line rule
amongst other things.
We don't always hold ourselves to it, sometimes 5-6 line functions make sense,
but we strive toward 4. Sometimes it's as easy as breaking code out into a new
function, but sometimes you just simply have to create a class for it. That
way a lot of complicated code suddenly becomes very easy without much effort.
~~~
JanisL
This honestly sounds extremely limiting. I do get why you'd want to make
functions short in general but I think there's a tipping point where making
the functions shorter actually increases overall complexity and 4 lines seems
to be past that tipping point in my experience.
~~~
Lyren
It's honestly not as limiting as you might think. Readability has definitely
improved a ton since switching.
Of course we don't count every bracket or blank lines. Only the rows with any
logic or assignment.
And yes, I agree, there are occasions where the complexity goes up. If there
is a good argument for that, then we of course go with it.
But so far, almost everything anyone in our team has made, has been improved
by rewriting it to something that works well in 4 lines, be it using
polymorphism, object oriented, or functional.
------
grigjd3
Be patient with yourself. You have talents that are quite useful, but good
code design and architecture are rarely thought about in academics. Realize
that while you spent 4-6 years getting your PhD, your coworkers were becoming
better engineers. That doesn't mean you can't do good work, but for a while
you'll mostly be learning from others.
~~~
tensor
The exception is if you are in the area of study whose entire existence is to
understand what is good code design and architecture.
------
Arnie0426
Agree with a lot of the comments here. I went through this very issue a couple
of years back and I did end up reading a few of the books suggested in that
thread and while they were good reads, I think I learned the most from my
colleagues’ harsh code reviews and developing a slightly thicker skin to those
review comments, and not getting triggered at every single slight
disagreement. I used to write a lot of grad student code at my current work
and got rightly flamed for it (when appropriate)…
These days, I do try and think about the software engineering side of things
first just so that I get quicker +1s from my team, and honestly, all the
_quick and dirty prototypes_ I used to write (I still do, but a lot less)
ended up requiring me to do a lot more debugging/redo-ing/thinking about
scaling up etc later on anyway.
Books can get you a decent idea of what to do, but I think I found reading
code (and especially code reviews of my colleagues for other people’s code)
much more useful. I think reading a few 800 paged books to improve your
software engineering skills is a very grad student thing to do. :p. I admit I
did that way too much.
------
baq
whenever you want or need to do something more than shuffling bits between
buckets with different names, do some research. most likely someone already
did it and published a library for it.
test third-party libraries. it's uncommon to find bugs, but it's not so rare
that it happens only to others.
don't forget to leave comments. a lot of my code review questions could be
answered (hence could be not asked in the first place) by a well placed
comment.
sometimes people say that code is documentation or code should read like
documentation. this is false. code can explain (usually poorly) what it does
but it can't give a rationale why it does it the way it's been written, can't
say what it doesn't do, etc. always write some documentation - comments and
commit messages at least. this should be enforced in code review.
i'd say engineering is about not writing code unless absolutely necessary.
code is an asset, but it's also a liability. you really don't want more than
you need.
------
sevensor
I made a very similar transition four years ago. Finished a Ph.D. Started a
job in a related field writing lots of Python. My advice is to take advantage
of your analytical and abstract reasoning skills. Your peers may have more
concrete experience writing software, but you did a Ph.D., which means you
have the patience and tenacity to follow all the threads until you figure out
where they go. That means that where other people might give up, you can
actually figure out how the system works and where a new feature fits in it.
Or why it doesn't work the way anybody thinks it does. Think of reading other
people's code like doing a lit review -- multiple authors, different schools
of thought, arguments about how to do things right -- these have all played
out in the code base and they're there for you to read. As a Ph.D., you have
the ability to pull this all together into something that makes sense.
------
sanderjd
My two cents: you don't need to read anything at this point, you need to
_apprentice_. Go work somewhere where there are experienced developers. Spend
your first weeks there sussing out who is highly respected among your
coworkers and choose one or more of those people that you click with. Then
just brazenly copy all their techniques and opinions for awhile. Pretty soon
you'll find yourself disagreeing with some of what they're doing or thinking.
That's natural, but you should resist the urge for awhile; some of that stuff
comes from hard-won experience that is hard to explain. Eventually you'll
start going your own way more and more. Sometimes that will blow up in your
face, and that will give you your own hard-won experiences. Before you know
it, you'll be one of the highly respected engineers that the newbies are
cribbing from.
------
anonytrary
Code review, dev/stage/prod workflows all vary on a team-by-team basis. If you
already know what they are and why they exist, there isn't a better way to
"prepare" for these than to just roll up your sleeves and look at how your
current team implements these things.
Good testing practices:
1\. Minimize mocking as much as you can -- as a rule of thumb, mocking is
inversely proportional to test confidence.
2\. Don't test implementation details, test public-facing APIs. This way, your
implementation can change. Mocking makes this harder. Don't test _how_ you get
things done -- test that they are done.
3\. Make sure your API is well defined before you start writing tests, or you
will waste time.
You can find loads of Python testing guides on Google on the first two points.
There will be times when you have to break some of those rules, but knowing
when will come with experience.
------
AlexCoventry
> the judgment / taste required to make maintainable changes to a million LOC
> repository
Try _The Art of Readable Code_ (a pair of google authors, IIRC), and
Ousterhout's _A Philosophy of Software Design_.
------
JanisL
Recently I've been involved in transitioning an academic software piece to an
open source library. One of the most noticeable things is the different
priorities and emphasis on what is driving value in these different
environments. The people who were making the code before had priorities mostly
to do with research, the main artifacts were papers and research, the software
_itself_ was not the main artifact. The interesting thing is that they had
good software and research skills so it wasn't a matter of bad skills muddying
the waters and hence gave a great spotlight into how different people can have
different priorities with code. So when we were making it into a library which
others could base their work off there was a big shift in priorities because
the code became an artifact worthy of _directly_ spending more time/money on.
You may find what we wrote about this process interesting as it highlights the
things from a software engineering/open source perspective that were now
important and had to be done to make the project a standalone library useful
for consumption by other developers:
[https://www.customprogrammingsolutions.com/blog/2018-02-25/P...](https://www.customprogrammingsolutions.com/blog/2018-02-25/Persephone-
project/)
------
truth_be_told
"Software Engineering" is merely a collection of principles, techniques,
heuristics, structure and practice all validated by trial and error. As such
you have to read a variety of books to get the overall picture. Specifically
books with sizable code for various problems. You may find the following
helpful to get started (many of these can be bought used and cheap);
* Fundamentals of Software Engineering by Ghezzi, Jazayeri and Mandrioli
* The Practice of Programming by Kernighan & Pike.
* Code Complete by Steve Mcconnell.
* The Unix Programming Environment by Kernighan & Pike
* Advanced Unix Programming by Marc Rochkind.
* C Interfaces and Implementation by David Hanson.
* Large Scale C++ design by John Lakos
* Unix Network Programming by Richard Stevens.
The key is that while reading the above you need to "get" how the code is
"structured" rather than the details. For example, how does the code for a TCP
server and client "look like"? It is a kind of spatial knowledge which you can
then consider as one "module" of functionality and reproduce as needed. Large
Systems consist of a bunch of layered and well partitioned modules exposing
simple and clean interfaces. There will also be modules which cross-cut all
the functional modules like "Error-Handling", "Logging" etc. This is the core
of "Software Engineering", everything else is details.
Finally, you would also need to read a book/source where you can see all of
the above principles put into practice while building a non-trivial (initially
not overly complex) system.
------
da_murvel
I read systems science at university. While we did some technical stuff like
basic Java programming and database design, we mostly focused on WHAT a system
is and how to design one from certain requirements. So when I got my first
job, as a web developer, I hit the ground quite hard. I hadn't really
programmed in my spare time either so I didn't have that backbone experience.
(You might wonder why I got hired in the first place, in hindsight, I also
do).
Nowadays, some X years later, I identify myself as a backend developer and I
tend to stay out of those "up in the cloud" discussions about what a system
should look like. So how did I get here? First of all, I think I was pretty
lucky having a boss at my first job who wasn't interested in me being really
productive during my first time there, but rather wanted me to learn and grow
with the company. I also had great colleagues, especially my then team lead,
who really took the time and showed me the ropes so to speak. I bought one
book, which I didn't really read. I did some online classes, but I mostly
learned programming, problem solving, TDD, etc. by working.
------
issa
I've worked in a variety of companies as employee and consultant and I have
some counterintuitive advice that applies to building things on the web: In
almost all cases, things like code maintainability, coding "standards", and
TDD, go out the window during actual development. I'm not saying this is good,
just that it happens (this is more a management problem than a software
development one). There are deadlines to meet, changes to make, surprise
features to add, etc. And usually you're just throwing things away and
building new things before any of this comes back to bite you. Being able to
go with the flow and handle chaos --flexibility-- is probably the most
important skill to have. The job ends up being a lot of communication. If
you're lucky, you'll get to code some cool stuff. But you'll also have to
hardcode something clunky and ugly because there was no time to do it right.
Be OK with that.
~~~
not_kurt_godel
> things like code maintainability, coding "standards", and TDD, go out the
> window during actual development
As someone with experience in both academic and professional programming, I'd
say that the difference is that while in the professional world those
principles may be sacrificed at times, in the academic world you are lucky to
work with someone who even knows what they are, much less how to implement
them.
------
bitwize
To quote another great academic, Ray Stantz: "I've worked in the private
sector. They expect results."
Just remember that the business world is going to expect results driven by
their current business needs, not by solving interesting problems. So you want
the shortest path that'll get you from here to there, which means bone up on
the libraries or frameworks that are germane to your company's needs. Learn
what your company's coding standards are from developers who are in the know,
and apply them to your code.
Also, might I suggest finding a company that's at least tangentially related
to what you did your Ph.D. in. That doctorate is going to look great, and your
expertise is going to be super valuable, giving you a much-needed opportunity
to strengthen yourself in the areas of industrial development where you are
weak on the job, while still contributing value.
------
dasmoth
A bunch of comments on this post give pretty good advice about what to expect,
and if you're in your first commercial job it's probably worth going with the
flow. However, one thing I'll add is that it's worth watching out for the
"academic bad, commercial practices good" mindset. Keep your eyes open, form
your own opinions about what is and isn't working. Don't necessarily kick up a
fuss about the things you don't like right now but _do_ file them away for the
future.
[https://yosefk.com/blog/why-bad-scientific-code-beats-
code-f...](https://yosefk.com/blog/why-bad-scientific-code-beats-code-
following-best-practices.html) is an interesting counter-point to some of the
usual commercial-vs-academic thinking.
------
WheelsAtLarge
Your best bet is to look into a programming boot camp training program. As you
have seen Ph.D. academic programming deals more with research while commercial
programming deals more with delivering a product as fast as possible. It's two
different mindsets.
1st decide on what area you want to specialize in and then look at a reputable
boot camp that fits your goals. You can do it on your own but it's going to
take you a lot longer and it's hard to focus on what you need to learn. Also,
if you could do it, you would have done it already. The advantage is that
you're already used to the scholastic environment and you'll be able to do
very well and be even well ahead of everyone if you challenge yourself rather
than strictly following the curriculum.
------
itronitron
I'm also self taught, have done a lot of research code and product code, have
worked on 'production' teams for over ten years and have had several PhD
students as contributing team members.
The number one thing you can do is read through other people's code. If your
colleagues are very good then you will learn a lot and pick up good habits, if
they are so-so then you will build your self-esteem and sharpen your critical
thinking skills. Some developers are shifty, and others love to talk about
what they are doing and share insights. Spend time with the latter type.
Don't try to be an expert at everything, most teams should have self-selected
individuals that choose to specialize in different areas that the team depends
on.
------
pietro
You won't be alone. In any real organization, you'll be part of an experienced
team that's working towards the same goal as you, and if you're curious, open
and appropriately humble, they'll teach you everything you need to know.
~~~
lsh
In fake organisations you'll be alone, surrounded by passive-aggressive office
culture and every personality on the spectrum from always-hostile to Vulcan-
autistic. If you're able, shop around for a job until you find one of these
real organisations. They do exist.
------
enitihas
If you are OK with reading books, I will recommend Code Complete.
------
marmaduke
I made this move (and back): treat the goal of software engineering like
another topic to do a lit search on, map out the domain, implement a few
papers, etc. Instead of journals, you’ve stackoverflow, coworkers, Google.. I
got out-coded more times than I can count, but as a PhD you can catch up
quickly by treating it as a domain and problem to analyze and solve.
For Python, the built in docs are already very good, but I use devdocs.io a
lot.
------
thom
Does your institution have a Research Software Engineering group? I think
increasingly universities acknowledge the gap between how academics use
software and how industry approaches it, and I think that would be a fantastic
first step if you were looking for a change.
[https://rse.ac.uk/](https://rse.ac.uk/)
------
pvorb
If your code is reviewed by colleagues and if you review code of your
colleagues, if you do some occasional pair programming you probably don't need
to read books about programming. Concentrate on books that help you with
things like estimations and communication, e.g. "The Clean Coder".
------
sixhobbits
This really depends on what specifically you're struggling with, so going to
take some shots in the dark:
* "Refactoring" by Martin Fowler would probably help with writing good quality code and doing code reviews (or understanding the reasons for changes requested in others' code reviews).
* In my experience, "academic" code tends to be far more prone to very long functions. Understanding the Single Responsibility principle was a very important part of the transition from academic scripts to software engineering for me. If you regularly write functions of 30+ lines, start looking at breaking these down better -- what are you actually doing in each chunk of code? Can it be broken down further.
* In Academia, building software is 90% coding. Now, reading code will be far more important, and you might even spend more time reading code than writing code. Relatedly, the _readability_ of your code is now the most important thing to optimize for (sometimes even at the expense of computational efficiency, you should aim to reduce the number of developer-hours spent wherever possible). This means writing more readable code (good variable names, learning and following style guides and other conventions, following a process even if it feels like a waste of time), using better tooling, more focus on testing, more time documenting, and more time communicating with programmers than actual programming.
* At times this will be frustrating because you'll remember when you could just go into the zone for several days straight and produce something fairly significant. Remember that a lot of the stuff that feels like a waste of time isn't - it's necessary to get out of the local maximum of what was possible when you did everything yourself and could keep the entire project scope in your mental model at all times.
* Whenever you have written code and are 99% sure that it will run fine and not break any other parts of the system ("it was such a small change"), rather assume that it is very likely to break something else. I still find I constantly need to recalibrate my confidence that what I'm changing has a limited area of affect.
* Spend a decent amount of time getting more familiar with things like source control. Assuming you use git, go down this rabbit hole to read about the different git workflows and get as comfortable as possible with flows that your team uses, dealing with conflicts, reversing mistakes, etc.
* Most of what you specifically asked for can only be learned through experience. Experience is gained the most quickly by doing, even if you make mistakes. For software quality, the best (only?) way to learn is to have someone more experienced review your code. The more pedantic they are, the more you will learn. If it takes you 3-4 attempts to get a code review through, then you have team that will accelerate your learning. If you're getting mainly LGTMs, you might be super competent and had no need to ask this question, but more likely you need to try find people to push you harder to learn new standards.
------
fsloth
Code Complete 2 is kinda the bible on disciplined software engineering
practice. That's a good start.
Other than that - there is not that much _theoretical_ basis. The core
principle is that software engineering is about dealing with a situation where
you have far too many variables to fit into a single persons working memory,
and how to organize a group of people in a way that they can co-operate
without turning the thing into a mess, really fast.
It's more about having a set of understood processes, rather than _what_ those
processes really are, so that people can communicate about and co-ordinate
their work effectively. Of course the processes need to make sense, but
there's no "silver bullet" process that either would fix everything, or,
conversely not following would lead to the end of the world.
"Issues like testing / mocking"
Testing has sadly developed bookish dogma around itself. But it's extremely
practical. The most important automated test is the high-level integration
testing - will this and that work when the customer uses it.
Unit test are about creating enforceable rules to the production system, which
makes thing break faster, and, hence, faster to fix.
You don't want someone else to accidentally to break your code - especially
that kinda weird cornercase? Write a test - now the rule becomes enforced as a
part of your domain model.
" code review,"
Same principle as in writing text. Having someone proofread the things you
write generally improves the quality. No need to be dogmatic.
The second aspect is the zenlike increase in code quality. People know that
their work will be looked at by _someone_ , hence they have a higher intrinsic
motivation not to fudge things.
"management of dev / stage / prod workflows"
The only thing that matters there is that there is one agreed process inhouse.
Otherwise things turn really messy, real fast. It's kinda tricky to wrap ones
head the first time around the ramifications of the chosen rules, so that's
why there are lot of published ways of working .
"the judgment / taste required to make maintainable changes to a million LOC
repository,"
"Working effectively with legacy code" by Michael C. Feathers is a good start.
Now, if the corpus of code has a thorough integration and unit test suite, you
can change things, and if you accidentally break something, the tests will
tell you.
If there are no tests, then, better start writing them. You can't do any large
scale modifications - especially to production code - without them.
Have some tool that automatically tells you the test coverage.
------
9dev
I personally came from the other side of the table: I got a German
"Ausbildung" as a sysadmin, started developing software as a hobby, and have
now made the switch to professional software engineer. While I feel I'm pretty
good at what I do, I'm lacking the algorithm education, the basic concepts and
especially team related skills. Always something new to learn, I guess.
------
Hbthegreat
Get into a startup where a lot of these practices/ideas aren't yet fully
ingrained/adhered to and grow with your team. This will also let you learn
more skills than "just coding" as you will have to wear multiple hats.
Once you are confident you can move on to bigger engineering shops. Or just
stay and have a great time building new things in startup world. :)
------
LifeQuestioner
code design patterns look at 'testing'
------
sonnyblarney
If you're smart enough to do a PhD, you're smart enough to figure out all of
the scaling and operational bits. It's not rocket science. It's just
operations.
Simply by asking relevant questions, practicing some things a bit, you'll get
used to it.
And consider that it's different in every organization, and nobody does it
really well frankly.
Given the pace of change, the varying technologies and flavour-of-the-month
processes, it may always seem a little unwieldy an opaque: the feeling of 'not
knowing everything' never goes away.
And I concur with the itronitron: read other people's code on the team, who
are known to 'code well'.
It does not mean that algorithmically it's genius or even good - it just means
that those are the styles/patterns that may be expected of you. It's like
learning to say certain words a certain way. You'll get it soon and then
forget you're doing it.
Don't fret you'll get all of this quickly.
~~~
drewmassey
This. I transitioned from a (non-STEM) PhD and am now working as a "real"
engineer. It is called a "practice" for a reason, you will get better with
time as long as you are self-reflective about it.
One practical tip - take a look at Dan Bader's book if you are deep in Python,
it has a lot of good stuff.
One philosophical tip - depending on your organization, remember that slow is
fast in engineering. This is somewhat different from more academic computing
environments (at least that I know of). So take the time to get it right and
really deeply understand your solution.
~~~
tamcap
> remember that slow is fast in engineering
Coming from an academic field myself... be careful with this one. Depending on
your personal habits in academia, you might have to learn the opposite - your
code doesn't have to be perfect, it has to work.
Be careful not to end up overthinking the code/design and under-delivering on
the timeline. Missing time estimate once in a while is usually OK, missing it
consistently and by a lot might become a problem.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
US Apple iPad to be released in April - computinggeek
http://thecomputinggeek.com/us-apple-ipad-to-be-released-in-april/
======
ktf
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1169343>
Or:
<http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/03/05ipad.html>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Bootstrapping Your Startup: Do You Really Need Early Investment? - ndemoor
http://blog.woorank.com/2014/01/bootstrapping-woorank/
======
tomblomfield
There are lots of startups that simply couldn't exist without early investment
- anything with high upfront costs combined with economies of scale. I founded
a payments processor 3 years ago - this is a good example of such a business.
It's possible we could have bootstrapped, but it would have been a very
different kind of business.
------
wellboy
I've been thinking about this a lot, too. Is there any startup that inevitably
needs early investment? Except for biotech or massive big data startups of
course.
Because if your product does something new, you can ALWAYS get PR.
What I've seen is that with funding, founders don't focus on the essentials
anymore. They are not as careful with whom to hire, they don' think as much
about what marketing channels to spend money on. However, without funding, you
are basically forced to focus on the very core of your startup, every decision
needs to be very thoughtful and you will need to understand every process in
your startup in-depth.
A friend of mine once said, funding should never be a lifeline, - it should be
motivated by a fast expansion opportunity.
~~~
lhnz
>> Is there any startup that inevitably needs early investment?
Yes.
In the UK, if you try to make a company which helps people travel overseas and
arranges somewhere for them to stay then you are caught by all sorts of travel
regulation. You'll need a £40K bond as well as all sorts of upfront costs just
to get started.
So pre-traction you've had to spend huge amounts of money to enter the game.
Large regulatory costs are one of the ways big companies keep new entrants
out.
------
ohwp
The book _" The Incredible Secret Money Machine" (ISBN 0672215624)_ is my
resource for bootstrapping advice. And I have to agree with Don Lancaster: try
to bootstrap without early investment.
The case of Everpix is a great example. With an early investment it's very
hard to keep track of your startup's feasibility. And your startup is tied to
the original plan (your promise to investors). So it's very hard to make
changes when you discover the startup plan isn't working.
------
simonswords82
We bootstrapped our app www.staffsquared.com.
While there are limits on what we can do using profits from our main business
and income from the app as it grows, I love the fact that we got the app off
of the ground organically. I think spolsky said that when you bootstrap you
can only grow the business in line with revenue - which is of course true and
a difficult trick to pull off.
I think more importantly, the process of bootstrapping forces you to go about
recruitment, sales, marketing, development etc etc in a way that is more
innovative (as opposed to just throwing money at problems to make them go
away). While you won't want to scale a company using these money saving
techniques, they are still excellent tools and skills that can be applied to a
business at any stage and put the founding team in to a mindset of
sustainability.
~~~
ryanSrich
I saw that staffsquared was built by Atlas, which looks to be a client
services agency.
I've been hearing of startups taking on client work as a means to fund
products. Is that essentially what you guys did? I think It's a noble way to
bootstrap but am curious of the implications that stem from splitting your
time between client and product.
~~~
simonswords82
Atlas is my consultancy business and spawned Staff Squared as a way of
scratching our own itch (I needed an app to help me better manage my team). We
hunkered down for 6 weeks and got something horrible but workable out of the
door 2 years ago...
As for implications:
\- Splitting development time between the product and the clients has been
hard but gets easier as our clients get used to it. We book in sprints of work
on Staff Squared in our schedules way in advance. I line up two solid weeks
for the entire team every quarter and this time is sacred. No amount of
customer complaints get us to move this time. The amount of time I block out
increases with the growth of the app. There's a constant backlog of minor
tweaks, so if any of the team find themselves at a loose end they always
revert to the Staff Squared backlog (We use a trello/harvest combo for
managing this).
\- Managing sales - our office manager has stepped in to help the onboarding
and sales but ultimately as CEO of Atlas I've done the lion share of this
work. This has meant a lot of overtime on my part but tbh I enjoy the work.
Given that our aim is to transition in to a product company that does a bit of
consultancy on the side (as opposed to a service company with a couple of
products) this is short term pain I'm more than happy to experience.
\- Staff development - One of our programmers wasn't performing incredibly
well in her position as a programmer. She's always had an artistic flair that
a lot of programmers aren't blessed with, and so I decided to take a punt and
move her on to Staff Squared full time to help me with marketing and UX. She's
transformed beyond recognition and now my right hand woman when it comes to
making changes to the Staff Squared app UI.
\- Using the products as a sales tool. I hoped this would happen...we're not
usually able to show/tell potential customers what we've worked on before to
any level of detail as it'll breach confidentiality. Not so with our products
(we also have www.fundipedia.com). If a potential client wants to see what
we're capable of we ask them to sign up to Staff Squared and kick the tyres as
it were. This has actually resulted in more Staff Squared customers too.
Double whammy!
\- We've had to drop any customers not willing to pay our full day rate (some
were offered discounts back in the day which we haven't been able to
readdress). With those customers gone, and Staff Squared out there as an
example of what we're capable of, newer, bigger and better customers have
arrived for Atlas and we're now fully booked for pretty much all of 2014. I
have no doubt this huge upturn in customer work is as a direct result of our
pushing our own products forward.
\- The development team are happier than they've ever been. They get to work
on an app they're incredibly passionate about (inbetween client work) and see
the direct results of their actions in the form of more paying customers. It's
a great tool to incentivise a team of people who are already very well looked
after individually.
I hope that helps, if you have any specific questions I'd be happy to answer
them.
------
bayesianhorse
One big reason early startups take on investors is to let the entrepreneurs
spread the risks. When bright coders (or other high-salaried individuals)
forego a high salary in favor of founding a startup they are raising their
investment in the business month by month.
Smart investing means balancing your portfolio. Very soon, the kind of
oportunity cost these founders invest in their venture dwarfs the rest of the
portfolio. Any bank account is a safer investment than most if not all
startups.
More capital raised initially means more salary and less risk to the founders.
The founders can pass on the ketracel white ... uh... money to their troops.
If some capital deal does not decrease your risk, then just don't do it.
------
jwblackwell
Whilst I think the need for speed is often overestimated, it's definitely
important in some industries. If you need to move quickly and get a decent
product to market first, cash is essential.
------
alien3d
Before i need some investment,but finding investment quite hard,most wanted
stable company and resources.So i'm no choice working normal freelance job
rather focussing to be next software in the market.Don't focus getting much
customer but focus getting 1 to 10 customer then go big for investment.. 20k
if somebody said bellow is so not much and can finish a few month operation..
------
troels
I suppose it depends on who you are. If you have a family and a mortgage, the
answer may be yes.
~~~
cookiecaper
Many investors are not very kind to founders with families and mortgages. YC
itself is a horrible deal for anyone that's not a college dropout. Move out to
SF for 3 months, leaving wife, kids, and property behind to fend for
themselves, shack up in a tiny apartment with a co-founder, and get paid
nothing _for $20k and 5-7% of your company_? That's alright man, pg can keep
focusing on his college dropouts (of both sexes!).
Even more traditional investment arrangements put a great deal of focus on
"equity compensation", i.e., only paying founders and employees the bare
minimum for survival and "making up" the lacked payment with equity. Not a
very realistic deal for an engineer with a family and mortgage who makes
120k-150k in the job market to take a startup gig for 60k (multiply numbers
based on local cost of living).
The startup community is missing out on a lot of extremely useful experience
and maturity with these cheapskate shenanigans. Of course, the investors are
happy to lack this, because exploitation of naivety in founders is one of
their primary mechanisms to maximize profit.
I've sought funding a few times myself and always backed out because I was
getting offered a sucker's deal. Yes, it's _much_ slower and _much_ harder to
bootstrap, but unless you're desperate, taking investment is not worth it,
because investors are going to rake you over the coals. And that's the long
and short of it.
~~~
argonaut
I'm not sure if you don't know what you're talking about or if you're just
exaggerating for the sake of argument.
1\. Most YC founders are not college dropouts. Quite a few are in every batch
of YC, but nowhere near 20%.
2\. YC isn't in SF. And most YC companies don't stay in SF during YC. Lots of
companies stay in Mountain View, Palo Alto, Menlo Park, etc where you can rent
out a 4-6 bedroom with your co-founder(s). Housing is even cheaper in other
areas like Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, and San Jose, where you can potentially
have a house to yourself.
3\. _If you expect to get paid for starting a startup, then obviously starting
a startup is not for you._ By definition there's nobody there to pay you
except yourself. By definition you are exchanging equity for salary.
4\. YC gives you $100k: $20k directly and $80k in convertible notes (well,
SAFEs now) at the best possible terms (you'd never see elsewhere). The
additional value of YC is that as long as you build a product with some users,
you have an extremely high chance (not guaranteed) of raising 1M+ at a 5M+
valuation. Other companies that don't raise can go on to raise more
convertible notes. In fact, going through YC is one way of guaranteeing that
you don't end up being offered a sucker's deal.
~~~
cookiecaper
1\. OK, we can expand it to "recent college graduates". The point is, YC is
predominantly young adult males, aged in their early 20s, unlikely to have
major external responsibilities.
2\. As someone who's not from SV, everything in that area gets lumped into
"SF" for me. My apologies if this is considered obtuse.
3\. Isn't this kind of part of the point of seeking investment? Aren't you
saying, "I can't do this all on my own, I need some help with the finances,
and will cut you in if you'll hook me up"? Somehow I don't see that as the
same thing as "please pay me a pittance". As I stated in another reply, if the
founder could live on a pittance, the chances are he'd save up a little bit at
his cushy corporate job and enter conservation mode with that, rather than
seeking external funding.
4\. I haven't looked for a few years, but I was not aware that YC offered an
additional $100k in financial instruments. This is somewhat better, but I'm
not sure how those instruments work in this specific case so I can't make a
complete evaluation. As far as follow-on investments go, these all have their
own separate terms, yes? Unless YC is officially brokering all of these, how
can being a YC company prevent you from getting suckered by YC copycats?
~~~
argonaut
1\. Yes, that much is true. Though I will claim that is partly a result of the
applicant pool. My guess is that most applicants are young adult males.
3\. If you're an exec earning $300k at big corp, you are not going to get
$300k at a startup, because the startup obviously does not have the revenue or
cash of big corp. Ditto for an engineer earning $150k at a tech company. But
who said anything about a pittance? It's up to you to set your own salary. You
can still pay yourself $100k/year, if that's necessary. The larger point of
raising money is not just for paying yourself, but it's for hiring other
people.
4\. [http://ycombinator.com/ycvc.html](http://ycombinator.com/ycvc.html) I
made a correction to my post: the amount is now $80k, which is still good
considering the assumption is that the money only holds you over until you
raise money after Demo Day (say, 6 months). The link is a bit outdated because
YC uses SAFEs now. But the notes had no discount and no cap, which are the
best possible terms for notes, and that carries over to SAFEs. YC is brokering
these. They have their own separate terms, but the terms are available
publicly online and are the same for every YC company.
~~~
run4_too
I think you are missing cookiecapers main point by focusing on minutiae.
YC targets the young male college student demographic, partly because that
demographic shares the different components that you two are arguing about.
This isn't really relevant though.
If they were targeting suburban boomers that vote republican, it's silly to
point out that some of their investments are actually women that voted
democrat.
cookiecaper's point is that the effect of targeting a particular founder
profile means that there are a lot of other high potential founders that are
under served by the "Aquire Funding, Kill Yourself, Profit!" model. I would
tend to agree with that, particularly when you see that across the spectrum,
most businesses are started by people that are 40+ and have over 10 years of
experience in an industry.
YC was started particularly because the "college dropout" demographic was
under served. Now, at least when it comes to tech, they have become the norm
and the "career switcher" has all but been ignored.
I don't think YC needs to address this in any way, but as a tech community I
think we're missing an opportunity by not tapping in to what has traditionally
been the strongest segment of new entrepreneurs.
~~~
argonaut
Do you have any evidence YC _targets_ the young male demographic, today? AFAIK
YC doesn't _target_ any one demographic. They don't really do any outreach to
demographics. I believe their cohort demographic is a result of their
application demographic. Anecdotal evidence seems to agree with me.
~~~
run4_too
I don't want to speak for YC or their intentions, so perhaps _target_ is the
wrong word here, since I doubt they have model that looks to offer to the
needs of a particular subset of people and then "sell" to them. That would be
the traditional definition of a "target market"
However, what YC presents is a series of preferences and options that everyone
knows appeal much more to a certain personality and - in this case - stage of
life, than others. Jumping across a country to live in temporary stasis for
three months (or whatever) isn't something a 45 year old woman with two kids
and a career is _likely_ to do. It's something a lot of 20 something college
kids will consider though. Are they _targeting_ college kids with that stance?
Not particularly. Does their offering appeal to one demographic much more than
another? Most certainly.
Overall though it's irrelevant, as I said. YC can target or not target as they
choose.
The bigger point is that it's pretty hard for that 45 year old woman to gain
traction in the tech world right now, and there could be an opportunity cost
there that may be pretty large, considering how the demographics of
entrepreneurs spread out over other industries.
------
jnardiello
One answer: No.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Ask HN: the link to the article ``what makes a good teacher'' - plmday
Hi, I still remember that I read a blog article submitted by someone of you talking about ``what makes a good teacher'' alike, but I can not find the article now. I googled the title, but all the results are not the one I read before. Anyone remember the link to the article? Thanks.
======
whatusername
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=391576> searchyc.com is your friend
~~~
plmday
whatusername, I did search in searchyc.com before I post this question, but no
result. But I swear that I read it here ... Anyway, thanks.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Late applications for YC S16: any news? - afonya
Has anyone who submitted late applications for the upcoming batch received any responses or interview invites yet? Thanks.
======
fatimafouda
I submitted mine on April 11th, and just received a rejection email. Better
luck to you though!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
What SaaS Startups Need to Look for in an Online Payments Solution - kpgrio
https://blog.paymill.com/saas-startups-online-payments/
======
kerro700
Cool input!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Comic book archive - fwn
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_book_archive
======
fwn
The reason I find this interesting:
> Comic book archive files are not a distinct file format; only the file name
> extension differs from a standard file of the given archive type.
It's a standard that emerged from the need to find a way to store and transfer
comic book images in a single file. It is as open as the archive format you
choose to use and doesn't need any special software to be viewed. It even can
be modified by everyone who obtains it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Lyft Partners with Waze - ktamura
http://consumerist.com/2016/01/26/lyft-partners-with-waze-in-effort-to-be-faster-more-efficient-than-the-competition/
======
samstave
Well, if they do a better job than Uber has been doing with whatever the heck
Uber has been doing with route finding - this will be good for Lyft.
I have had to write in and complain MANY times about the routes that the Uber
app takes drivers.
I now pretty much tell every Uber driver to ignore the app and I tell them
where to go. Generally they are fine with it - but I am convinced that the
Uber app is literally pulling the digital version of what taxis used to do to
scrape out just a little more money from riders.
I also have noticed that Uber drivers are taking the "drive super slow when
you have a rider" tactic - this results in them hitting more red lights or
overly waiting for other drivers even when they have the right-of-way or a
clear path.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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The third largest stock exchange in America is a startup - danteembermage
http://www.newsweek.com/id/158587/
======
elecengin
BATS does not only compete on price and speed. It offers many unique order
types tailored to it's main market - high speed traders. Targeting high speed
traders gave BATS an advantage because those are the customers that make
exchanges money - both because of volume, and the specific types of orders
they use. High speed traders traditionally try to avoid the automated routing
that traditional orders go through to match and fill. A high speed trader
would like to know the fees with certainty, and routing opens up the risk of
unexpected fees. Therefore, many high speed traders mark their trades for no
routing. This benefits the exchanges since the liquidity stays on their
exchange and they will collect the fees when/if it fills.
------
Flipparachi
Base upon their job description, looks like their messaging platform is built
on C++ and then they want some Python...
[http://www.batstrading.com/resources/employment/bats_trading...](http://www.batstrading.com/resources/employment/bats_trading_job_description_software_developer_kc.pdf)
~~~
mildweed
Parts of it are in PHP too. Not sure which parts, I never got hired there, but
they were hiring for PHP about a year ago.
------
mindaugas
It's a fine example of B2B startup.
------
jacquesm
Stock exchanges the way they are right now have no real right to existence any
more anyway. All the trading could be direct between buyers and sellers using
a fairly simple web interface.
No more people picking up on the 'buzz' and trading on their own account
either that way.
Of course that would remove all the fee structures that have been created over
the years.
I doubt it will happen though.
~~~
elecengin
I am not sure you understand - BATS is an ECN, not an exchange. In fact, most
trading is on ECNs nowadays. An ECN is basically what you describe - typically
a web application (usually using a protocol called FIX) that matches buyers
with sellers.
Of course they charge a fee - there is a cost to running the data centers and
ensuring regulatory compliance.
See:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Communication_Networ...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Communication_Network)
~~~
nowtown
BATS _is_ a Reg-NMS protected exchange on par with Nasdaq, Arca, NYSE and all
the others.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What alternatives to Symbolset? - abdophoto
Anyone know any good alternatives to Symbolset? I'm having some serious issues with it in FF and IE.
======
charlieirish
Font Awesome: <http://fortawesome.github.com/Font-Awesome/>
Although, if you're looking at icon fonts, you'll probably want to look at one
of these two resources:
IcoMoon: <http://icomoon.io/>
Fontello: <http://fontello.com/>
------
eswat
What problems are you having with FF and IE?
As for alternatives, there’s the font version of Pictos
(<http://pictos.cc/font/>) and you can export your own icons into a font
format using Font Custom (<http://fontcustom.com>)
~~~
abdophoto
Figured out the issue. Thanks all for your help!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: YC Intern- Housing in San Francisco? - loganfrederick
I am talking with one of the Y Combinator companies about interning this summer at their San Francisco office. I'm now looking for affordable living space in the San Francisco Bay area with transportation access to downtown San Francisco.<p>Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get the cheapest possible place within a reasonable distance of downtown besides Craigslist?<p>Are there any recommended modes of transportation to and from the city? Only one I am familiar with is BART.<p>Thanks for the help HN community!
======
dnsworks
Interning for a YC startup? Seeing as YC doesn't really pay anybody enough to
live in San Francisco, I have to imagine your best bet is going to be a
cardboard box under the freeway in-between 2nd & 3rd and Harrison & Bryant.
~~~
loganfrederick
The startup has received funding following its time in Y Combinator.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Poster: Napoleon's March - Tomte
http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/posters
======
pjc50
For a little background, Clausewitz writes about this in his famous book. When
wondering how the enourmous losses came about, remember:
\- the Grande Armee was walking from Paris to Moscow, and quartering in the
field along the way.
\- the army was fed (as routine for all pre-railway armies) by local looting.
\- the Russian response to this was to burn everything in the path of the
advancing army that they might capture or make use of. This rendered the
original plan to spend the winter in Moscow impossible.
A large fraction of the army starved, as was to happen later to the German 6th
Army at Stalingrad. Or froze due to lack of available fuel. Or slipped away in
the night to forage and never came back.
~~~
cafard
Tufte points out that a large fraction of the losses occurred before the
really bad weather set in. I also wonder how far there was an "original plan".
Napoleon may have expected Alexander to ask for terms well before he captured
Moscow; or he may have imagined wintering in Smolensk or marching on St.
Petersburg.
------
programLyrique
I cant' read anything on the thumbnail. How seeing the poster a bit larger?
Paywalls again...
~~~
DanBC
It's a pretty famous example of a great chart. "Napoleon's march" in Google
image search returns a bunch of results, eg this one:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Joseph_Minard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Joseph_Minard)
------
bamie9l
I'm not sure I'd be comfortable displaying such a harrowing death toll on my
wall
~~~
buro9
The best thing you can do is to never have posters that document any aspect of
the human race.
Spoiler: We all die. So it goes.
At least with history we're detached from the instant of death and can perhaps
learn how to avoid prematurely bringing on death.
------
MikeNomad
If you like this type of thing... Having taken his one-day "class," I highly
recommend it. A wonderful, saturated experience on how to structure data, and
allowing it to become maximum-useful information. And no, he does not like
PowerPoint. Ticket price includes his four hardbound books.
(I don't work for him, get a kickback, etc.)
~~~
jrochkind1
I did not find his one-day lecture nearly as useful as MikeNomad did, I
wouldn't recommend it myself.
I do like the books I got to take home though.
~~~
viggity
me too. he kinda seemed like a jackass. and the class was huge and he mostly
rambled about powerpoint sucking and didn't spend a lot of time on
visualization. he also took 45 minutes to show a slideshow of his sculptures.
Dude. I didn't spend $400 on an 8 hour class so you could show me your welding
skills.
------
toothbrush
If you like this type of thing, you should probably take a look at Tufte's
book ‘Beautiful Evidence’. It contains these images too, along with a whole
lot of opinions.
------
bane
This is that classic infographic that you see everywhere. It's kind of an
amazing synthesis of several dimensions of data and thousands of datapoints.
It's the best of the best.
It's also highly specialized to telling this particular story, it's _very_
hard to adapt the techniques used in the graphic to more general uses, thus
limiting in many ways what we can learn from it.
------
dpb000
This might be of interest to HN readers in the New England area - once a year
Tufte opens up his 200+ acre farm/sculpture park in western CT to the public
for a day. I found out about this purely by accident this year, and it's a
nice way to spend an afternoon. Google Tufte Hogpen Hill Farms for a sample of
what he has there.
------
nateberkopec
I have this poster (from Tufte) - it's an extremely high quality print for the
price.
------
rrrazdan
Any other visualization/art posters I can buy online? To me it makes more
sense to hang one of these than a cheap painting from an artist and embodies
more of what I really believe in.
~~~
bensandcastle
xkcd store has some good ones,
Here's a few I've been planning to have printed:
Human Spaceflight, everything to scale
[http://theorysend.com/uploads/bdcffe08190411f5095eabcc8860d3...](http://theorysend.com/uploads/bdcffe08190411f5095eabcc8860d3431a6c7ac8)
from:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/2niljz/human_spacefl...](https://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/2niljz/human_spaceflight_everything_is_to_scale/)
Tree of Life, over time:
[http://e.fastcompany.net/multisite_files/codesign/slideshow/...](http://e.fastcompany.net/multisite_files/codesign/slideshow/2012/09/1670898-slide-0-evo-
large.jpg)
Evolution of US politics:
[http://xkcd.com/1127/large/](http://xkcd.com/1127/large/)
I was planning to get most of these printed on a board of some kind, so they
be more durable than posters, although I haven't chosen a supplier yet.
Depending on your use of the poster and the printer you go with you may need a
rights release from the artist, so often it's easier to find a commercial
print and get it framed, if you are willing to have all that glass.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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The Fastest Growing Open Source Project? - maximesalomon
http://blog.codecombat.com/uid/137237
======
mkal_tsr
How can they say they're the fastest growing when Popcorn Time nearly doubled
the unique contributors (95-ish to 40ish) in nearly the same time? Seems
rather disingenuous to include PopcornTime clearly showing it's much younger
than CodeCombat, showing at the same age of being open-source it has nearly
double the unique contributors, then claiming it's growing slower than
CodeCombat. Don't get me wrong, what CodeCombat is doing is great and all the
well wishes to them, but I don't think they're interpreting the data very
fairly.
~~~
stonogo
The Fastest-Growing Open Source Project As Determined By Our Incredibly
Specific and Sometimes Downright Strange Metrics
~~~
nwinter
Unique contributors since open source launch is strange?
~~~
stonogo
"Unique contributors within inital 86-day window of project upload to Github"
is not equivalent to "unique contributors since open-source launch."
~~~
schmatz
You're right, that's true.
It's not the ideal metric, but it's one that is realistic to compute with
limited time and resources. To analyze that statistic using a growth metric
like "largest 30 day average contributor gain" across such a gigantic dataset,
consisting of hundreds of millions of rows and tens of millions of unique
repositories, requires resources and engineer time which few people possess.
We certainly don't want to divert too much of either of those things away from
development of CodeCombat just for a fun data science experiment!
~~~
stonogo
So you narrowed the problem set down to one that was sufficiently effortless,
then uploaded a blog post declaring yourself world champions. I'm not sure
that makes anything better. "Fastest-growing open-source project, as far as we
care" is a perfectly fine headline. What you've got now is disingenuous and
baselessly self-congratulatory.
------
chriseppstein
Navel gazing is the best way to convince yourself that things are going great
and to give you that boost to keep working on the project. At some point you
will probably look back at this and think it was nothing to brag about, but it
doesn't matter because you're having fun and enjoying the feedback loop
between you and your users -- this is a good sign.
------
dalek2point3
Also see: [http://xkcd.com/1102/](http://xkcd.com/1102/)
------
AndyNemmity
I was pretty confident I knew that openstack was the fastest growing open
source project. They didn't show up in the answers, so maybe the criteria was
such that it was cut out?
~~~
schmatz
Looking at OpenStack, it does look like an aggregate of all of the
organization's repositories would be definitely the fastest growing. However,
we looked at individual repositories, so that's why it's not on the graph. It
would be interesting see the growth of the big open source organizations (GNU
vs Apache vs OpenStack etc.)
~~~
kiallmacinnes
OpenStack kinda has a single repo - every commit to the core projects triggers
a submodule update in
[https://github.com/openstack/openstack](https://github.com/openstack/openstack)
\- and there are LOTS of projects which aren't included in this. For example
CI and Developer tooling etc.
> openstack$ git count -pm -n3
> 2014-03-01 2608
> 2014-02-01 2545
> 2014-01-01 2173
That looks OpenStack has 7326 commits in the previous 3 months.
> codecombat$ git count -pm -n3
> 2014-03-01 642
> 2014-02-01 426
> 2014-01-01 427
The same tool gives me 1495 commits in the previous 3 months for CodeCombat.
(The tool I used is [https://github.com/moskytw/git-
count](https://github.com/moskytw/git-count) )
~~~
kiallmacinnes
Replying to my own comment feels odd.. whatever ;)
If you're interested in numbers[1] shows the commits currently running through
the OpenStack CI system at this very moment in time.. I'm counting 125 when I
look at the page.
In the last 24 hours, OpenStack's CI system has peaked at just under 1000 jobs
ran in an hour, an eyeballed average looks like to be 450 jobs every hour for
the last 24 hours.
For build slaves over the same period, It looks like about 750 Jenkins slaves.
Oh and - OpenStack has a strict 1 change == 1 commit policy. So "Fix typo in
previous commit" never happens .. The actually reduces the overall number of
commits ;)
[1]: [http://status.openstack.org/zuul/](http://status.openstack.org/zuul/)
~~~
schmatz
This is so cool :)
------
dalek2point3
erm, and also the fact that MANY MANY open source projects are not on github?
Linux, apache, android, some of the most influential projects are missing.
This should be titled, "the fastest growing open source project by people who
are not too important to be hosting on Github".
~~~
schmatz
Actually, the Linux kernel, Android, and Apache are all on GitHub, and were
analyzed (though the latter two are mirrors, so I guess not purely on GitHub.)
For projects like Linux, while it may have 3500+ contributors, it got that way
over 23 years.
We also made the assumption that due to the social nature of GitHub, its
meteoric growth, and the visibility that it brings open source projects, the
fastest growing open source projects are on GitHub. We presume this assumption
is correct, but don't have the data (or even know where we could get the data)
to verify it.
------
KevinBongart
Worth noting: there's a Code Combat challenge on ChallengePost:
[http://codecombat.challengepost.com](http://codecombat.challengepost.com)
You have 50 more days to build a working parser and help others learn to code
in new languages playing CodeCombat
| {
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} |
BAE Systems reveals PHASA-35 solar-powered UAV with endurance for a year - farseer
http://www.janes.com/article/79777/bae-systems-reveals-phasa-35-solar-powered-hale-uav
======
hjek
That will give the Saudis a more environmentally friendly way of bombing
schools and hospitals in Yemen.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Could a Basic Income Be Paid by Carbon Tax? - sharemywin
======
wmf
Coincidentally, some Republicans just today proposed a carbon tax that would
be returned in the form of $2,000/person/year basic income. Because carbon tax
is regressive it makes sense to offset it with BI, although that may still
leave some people worse off.
Most BI advocates are thinking more like $12,000/person/year which implies
that the carbon tax would have to be far higher. A carbon tax that's too high
may destroy the economy which would prevent investment in clean energy,
potentially creating a death spiral.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Meditations on Moloch (2014) - elvinyung
http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/
======
elvinyung
I really like this article.
At its core, it's a really a critique of decentralized systems, and how
different actors making game-theoretically optimal decisions can make the
overall state worse.
I think anyone interested in designing any kind of system should read this.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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How many languages/frameworks is too much for back end? - tmin
We started out with Python/Django monolith when we had less than 10 developers. Then the team chose Golang for a new service to have better performance. At that time we had about 25-30 engineers.<p>Then the company hired some people who have Erlang and Ruby background. So they decided to use Elixir for a couple of new services.<p>Now we have about 120 engineers and half of us are doing backend. Another team recently decided to use Scala for a service they were building.<p>It seems to me that people tend to choose their favorite language/framework and argue that we should be using 'the right tool for the job'.<p>According to Edmound Lau who wrote Effective Engineer book, we should be using the least number of tools so that our operational burden will be low and we can have impact.<p>What do people think of number of languages that are optimal for backend these days?
======
PaulHoule
The problems with too many programming languages are: (1) it is harder for
somebody to jump in at an arbitrary place, which is particularly bad for
maintenance, where it is not unusual that a "simple" bug fix requires changes
to parts written in multiple languages and (2) code frequently winds up being
duplicated, both of the "business rules" variety and of the system and
technology specific kind.
As an example of the latter, consider a service written in Go that may need
stubs written for it in several other languages.
I have seen the cost of polyglot development to be high in teams up to 20 or
so developers. When you have 120 developers it less reasonable to expect that
one person can jump in anywhere, so the reasons for multiple languages
multiplying will eventually overwhelm the coherence benefit of using a minimal
number of languages.
Occasionally too there really is a "right tool for the job" or rather right
tools for different jobs. Most of the commercial NLP devs I know who have a
codebase they work on use both Python and Java since there are many great libs
in both languages.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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MakerDAO’s Recent Trouble May Highlight Flaws in the Ecosystem - broomnap
https://forklog.media/makerdaos-recent-trouble-may-highlight-flaws-in-the-ecosystem/
======
verdverm
The whole blockchain ecosystem has inherent flaws that the sweep under the
rug.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Swarm of bees follow car for over 24 hours (2016) - howard941
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/24/swarm-of-bees-follow-grandmothers-car-for-over-24-hours-attempti/
======
ergothus
Swarming bees are unusual creatures.
I've seen a tree that had three large (~8in/20cm) balls of bees hanging off of
branches. My grandfather (a beekeeper) said the queen had likely stopped at
each spot to consider it for a hive (leaving pheromones), then moved on, and
the swarm landed at each place. He was greatly entertained at the idea that
the bees on the outside were trying to get to the queen (who wasn't there) and
the bees on the inside had figured that out but couldn't leave because of the
bees on the outside.
That said, my grandfather was a beekeeper and a father is a beekeeper and I'm
a little uncertain about how much of their hobby is built on communal
agreement, anecdotes, and personal experience as opposed to scientific data.
(The same can be said about our profession though - what was the last good
study on code readability you read vs the opinions on code readability you
have?)
~~~
jly
> My grandfather (a beekeeper) said the queen had likely stopped at each spot
> to consider it for a hive (leaving pheromones), then moved on, and the swarm
> landed at each place.
Usually (but not always) when you see multiple swarm clusters like that, a
hive has sent out more than one swarm, each with it's own queen. The primary,
largest swarm will contain the original hive queen while the others will
contain virgin queens. If they happen to combine into one cluster, the queens
will likely fight and only one will survive to lead the swarm.
The queen never leaves the swarm cluster, and has no bearing on the decision
of hive location. The swarm sends out scout workers who inspect locations for
suitability and report back to the cluster. Through a voting process, the
workers decide and move as one to the permanent home.
If you're interested in this topic (which is fascinating), there is a great
book on it called 'Honeybee Democracy' by the bee researcher Thomas Seeley.
> That said, my grandfather was a beekeeper and a father is a beekeeper and
> I'm a little uncertain about how much of their hobby is built on communal
> agreement, anecdotes, and personal experience as opposed to scientific data.
Partly because of the commercial value of honeybees to our food production,
they have been studied to an extent not seen in many other organisms,
certainly not most insects. We know a LOT about their behavior, although there
is still much to learn.
What's really interesting is that beekeepers often neglect what we do know
about how bees evolved to live so that we can keep them in ways that make our
lives easier. This is often detrimental.
~~~
the_af
> _The queen never leaves the swarm cluster, and has no bearing on the
> decision of hive location. The swarm sends out scout workers who inspect
> locations for suitability and report back to the cluster. Through a voting
> process, the workers decide and move as one to the permanent home._
> _If you 're interested in this topic (which is fascinating), there is a
> great book on it called 'Honeybee Democracy' by the bee researcher Thomas
> Seeley._
Fascinating! So it isn't a monarchy after all? :P Thanks for the
recommendation.
~~~
jjoonathan
Haha, it's a monarchy -- where all the queens who didn't listen to their
subjects are now dead for some reason. Funny how that works!
------
natalyarostova
A little bit of a tangent to the main topic but...
>I'm a little uncertain about how much of their hobby is built on communal
agreement, anecdotes, and personal experience as opposed to scientific data.
Scientific data, which we interpret to mean a more thoughtful hypothesis and
data gathering mechanism, is not always more correct than anecdote and
personal experience. For example, it turns out we'd have been better off
taking nutrition advice from our great-grandmas in the old country, rather
than the mid 20th century scientific analysis (gathering data and running
regressions) on the optimal way to eat macro-nutrients.
In some cases when knowledge is generated by a complex non-linear system, the
default human approach of building anecdotes and personal experience is
stronger.
Similarly, I'd sooner trust the sage wisdom on code readability from some 50
year old open source hackers, then a team of PhDs in their 20s or 30s, who
studied a bunch of teams and summarized their results.
~~~
scarejunba
Huh, interesting. Well, that's a flaw in the epistemological process, right?
What is the problem?
~~~
hammock
No, it's a flaw in the scientific process.
~~~
afiori
It is not really a flaw in the scientific progress, but in the distribution of
trust. The scientific method essentially offer eventual correctness, that is
that every mistake made now will be eventually corrected.
How we decide when it is enough is a separate hard problem we still do not
know how to handle. This is also the reason why science as arbiter of truth is
at best sketchy (out of very specific instances e.g. black holes).
~~~
hammock
>eventual correctness, that is that every mistake made now will be eventually
corrected.
That is not a feature unique to the scientific method, though. The same could
be said of narrative tradition, or the heat death of the universe for that
matter.
~~~
afiori
> The same could be said of narrative tradition,
I disagree, I hold in very high regard the truth of traditions, but they
clearly lack an internal method to correct wrong assumptions. They have an
external method, that is a society dies and a "better" one take its place.
Science does not need to (either figuratively or literally) die to fix wrong
information.
With a stretch of the meaning then, ok. But it is like saying that evolution
will create the perfect creature eventually without mentioning that everything
resembling us will be long dead at that point.
------
lostlogin
The person who was worried someone would kill them was not silly. I have been
called to remove 2 swarms this year after the homeowner had already doused
them in flyspray. The last one was a bit bigger than a basketball. Depressing.
------
Causality1
The article explicitly states there was no queen and they don't know why the
bees swarmed her car.
~~~
rdiddly
Maybe God finally saved the queen?
------
ceedan
Interesting that she drove a Mitsubeeshi
------
tptacek
At like, minute #31, I'm going to a car wash.
------
ryanmarsh
_" One theory was that the queen was trapped in my car and the swarm were
following,” Carol said._
_" But they couldn't find the queen anywhere so I've no idea if that was
right._
Soo... can we please change the title on this one to something not clickbait
bs?
------
exabrial
So to give the script writers of Tommy Boy credit, this isn't impossible....
------
th0ma5
Reminds me of The Savage Bees (1976)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Savage_Bees](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Savage_Bees)
~~~
rdiddly
And of course the much bigger/better-funded (but apparently less-original)
"The Swarm" (1978):
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Swarm_(film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Swarm_\(film\))
~~~
DonHopkins
Wax or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wax_or_the_Discovery_of_Televi...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wax_or_the_Discovery_of_Television_Among_the_Bees)
>As the first film streamed across the Internet in 1993, the New York Times
declaring Wax or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees an “historic
event.”
>Blair performs in the film, which additionally features a cameo by William
Burroughs. As an anti-war statement, Wax provided an early critique of the
Gulf War and current-day drone warfare. A combination of innovative digital
animation, found footage, and live action, Wax’s visual form is a unique
representation of the technologies and politics that it critiques, which still
reverberate today.
[http://www.waxweb.org/](http://www.waxweb.org/)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nl3eEzuLwPk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nl3eEzuLwPk)
Wax or The Discovery of Television Among the Bees [85:00, 1991] [English
version]:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6mXatS-4ns](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6mXatS-4ns)
~~~
th0ma5
Of course NYT would call it "an historic" rather than "a historic" due to the
east coast H dropping. I'll show myself out :P
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anonu
Bees are some of the most fascinating creatures around. I feel like we know
close to nothing about how they live and communicate.
------
jasonlfunk
Is this article format normal for the telegraph? It seems strange to just have
so many consecutive quotations in a row.
~~~
mattnewport
And so much repetition, the editing is really rather poor on this article.
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zoidb
Misleading headline:
> "One theory was that the queen was trapped in my car and the swarm were
> following,” Carol said.
> "But they couldn't find the queen anywhere so I've no idea if that was
> right.
~~~
JdeBP
Not being able to find the queen does not mean that she is not there. They are
quite difficult to locate, sometimes.
Plus, this isn't a quotation from an actual beekeeper. It's a quotation from
the driver of the car.
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newscracker
Mods, this needs a (2016) in the title.
~~~
dang
Added. Thanks!
------
creaghpatr
Ok I'll say it...this is like that Black Mirror episode:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hated_in_the_Nation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hated_in_the_Nation)
~~~
Shorel
No, real bees must be saved.
Black Mirror used robotic artificial bees.
------
john-radio
To the tune of...
~~~
john-radio
"Tank!" from Cowboy Bebop
------
Communitivity
Shades of the movie Jupiter Ascending. I wonder if the woman is related to
Jupiter Jones. In seriousness, someone should have made an inventory of the
products in her car and on it, because if that's something that's going to
happen again it could put even more strain on a a fragile bee ecosystem. It
could also lead to more effective bee repellents, and/or tools for beekeepers.
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