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Show HN: SpringBoot web app for browsing Kafka topics - ekoutanov https://github.com/obsidiandynamics/kafdrop ====== hashhar We are using this in my org alongside LinkedIn CCFE. It works great. You can see message counts, sum of offsets, partition sizes and basic broker information. The only part its not good at is showing the topic list. Since there is no pagination it takes a long time once you get past 1k topics. Also,it doesn't help "manage" Kafka since it can't create partition assignments or create, modify topics. It's good as a lightweight read-only Kafka UI. Good to hand to the teams using Kafka but not enough for the teams managing Kafka. EDIT: Seems like a lot of new features have been added. Take my comments above with a grain of salt then since they might be outdated info. ~~~ ekoutanov Thanks for the feedback. Agreed, topic list pagination sounds like a good idea.
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Before You Use a Password Manager - smacktoward https://medium.com/@stuartschechter/before-you-use-a-password-manager-9f5949ccf168 ====== smacktoward _> Given how often you probably use your phone, and how painful it is to type passwords on a phone, you’ll probably want to sync your passwords to your phone. If you do, all your passwords will now be stored on your phone. You may want to review how quickly your phone will lock after you stop using it, and what mechanisms you will allow to unlock it..._ _> Do you install your password manager on a work laptop that everyone in IT has access to? If you spend most of your time at the office, you probably end up doing a lot of personal computing on your work devices even if you’d rather be doing them somewhere else._ _> Do you install your password manager on devices you only use every once in a while, and thus may not be getting security updates as often as you’d like? What about laptops you install lots of random software on? What about a laptop that your family members can also install software on? Are you willing to hand copy the valueless passwords you need to use on these devices over from a device you trust with all your passwords?_ I use and rely on a password manager myself, and frequently recommend them to people. And yet, the above captures a very real problem with password managers, namely that they are an incomplete solution to the problem. As the above quotes illustrate, just choosing and using a password manager is not enough. You also have to essentially define an entire OPSEC regime for _how_ you will use the password manager. You have to make a lot of complicated decisions about important tradeoffs, because without them the protection offered by the password manager is minimal. And the thing is, we _know_ most normal people won't do this. It's too complicated and too technical. People don't _want_ to spend their limited time on Earth weighing the pros and cons of storing their passwords online vs. offline, or storing their passwords on their laptop but not their phone, or storing some passwords in the password manager but not others. A password manager doesn't work if you think of it as a product; it only works if you approach it as part of a _lifestyle_ , as one component of a holistic strategy that's calibrated to defeat the specific threats you expect to face. Most people are never, ever going to do that, and even if they _wanted_ to, they don't have the level of expertise required to make those decisions, any more than I have the expertise to walk into a nuclear power plant and start giving orders just because I saw "Chernobyl" on HBO. So in a way, the more we evangelize password managers as a silver bullet, the more people I worry we are setting up for failure. I still recommend them, of course, because the alternatives are all worse. But we have to find some way to design secure systems that mesh with the way people actually _use_ systems, or security will always be a privilege of the elite.
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Ask HN: If I developed IP and go work for a big tech company, do they claim it? - alirsgp So long story short, I&#x27;m going to a big tech company in May and currently am the owner of a dating app. The big tech company has also dabbled in the dating space.<p>I published the IP prior to starting my job. But am wondering if the tech company will try to take my IP from me after I start working, assuming I still update the IP every now and then with minor updates.<p>This is in California if that helps. My product is fairly different than theirs, but they are both technically in the dating space.<p>I plan to disclose this to them within 2 weeks of starting. Am somewhat worried they will ask me to transfer my code over to them that I&#x27;ve been working on in college for 7 months or they tell me I need to shut down the app because they feel threatened by it.<p>Alternatively I could just not tell them. I think I&#x27;m protected under Section 2870 of California&#x27;s Labor Code but not sure.<p>I&#x27;d be pretty upset if I have to transfer them my IP after I start working there. Do I need to worry too much about this? ====== mojomark Not a lawyer, but have navigated IP partitioning with big engineering firms for over two decades. General answer to you question is "no", but the truth of course is that it depends on when and how you've protected your IP, and what country your in. If you're in the USA and you patent a technology, then join a company, the company doesn't have a claim to that technology unless you both explicitly agree to it during your onboarding. For example, it's possible a part of the reason a company want to bring you onboard is that they are partly interested in you're IP and partly interested in your ability to develop/implement that technology (the latter being exceedingly more difficult that generating the initial idea). In any event, you may agree to sign over IP rights (fully or partially) in exchange for better compensation. If you don't patent your IP before joining a large company, then you need to review the IP terms before you join, because in general (certainly not always) companies do tend to claim ownership of any IP you create while employed at their company. However, this clause is mostly to protect the company not inhibit your creativity or success, so you can easily get a waiver to keep building and securing IP for your own gain. That's what I did. ------ uberman You will definitely want to tell them about it and have in writing that they recognize that what is yours is yours. If they ask you to assign it to them politely tell them no. The worst situation you could be in is to have them find out in the future with some notion that you wronged them. If they press the issue of IP with you can decide at that point what you want to do. For what it is worth, I joined a startup with a bogus "all your ip is now our ip" clause as well as an overly broad "non-compete" clause. I simply struck those entire sections from my contract. In the end, they asked me for a list of my IP/inventions and I provided them the folder structure of my side projects drive. I agreed (in writing) that I would never work on any of my own IP with their resources. I told them flat out that I would accept an alternate offer if the perused the issue. I recognize that this is a different time (given the uncertainty of how the virus will affect the economy) but I feel strongly that what is yours is yours and joining a company does not give them the absolute right to anything you have done prior. ~~~ alirsgp I see. So then on day 1 of starting, email legal and tell them about my IP (it's on the App Store) and let them know I wouldn't use their resources to work on it. And yes the virus is somewhat producing uncertainty. I'm pretty confident in my ability to get a job elsewhere but these aren't normal times.
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Watching Solidity events using web3.js - raghavdua https://medium.com/@theMadKing/watching-solidity-events-the-right-way-d3d0a30bdc4d ====== raghavdua For newbie Ethereum developers. Capturing events being emitted from smart contracts serves as a core technique for majority of DApp use cases. Unless you can observe and act upon signals from outside, most applications aren't possible. This article is therefore a short guide on how to capture contract events without the hassle of searching for through the docs.
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Designers: Make it Memorable - naish http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1652-designers-make-it-memorable ====== kailashbadu The post merely regurgitates what has been repeated to the point of being clichéd. The goal of an ideal web design should be to put your message across instead of trying to inspire the awe of the visitors. The later experience is fleeting and serves little to the bottom line of your business.
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The iPhone 4S Dual-Antenna Design Could Infringe on 2 Samsung Patents - nextparadigms http://www.droidmatters.com/news/iphone-4s-antenna-system-to-infringe-samsung-patents/ ====== monochromatic Pretty weak journalism. The source article on ComOn mentions two "patents," but they're actually patent applications. One of them has gone abandoned, and the other has already issued as U.S. Patent No. 7,643,853: <http://www.google.com/patents?id=QsvOAAAAEBAJ>. There is no excuse for linking to a published application when it has already issued as a patent. There is _absolutely_ no excuse for linking to a published application that's already gone abandoned. It sounds like other U.S. and foreign patents may be in play here too, but the articles don't give us the foggiest idea which ones they actually are. Come on, people. ------ foobarbazetc Ahahaha. "Could". How about we don't publish unsubstantiated rumor based on some trash talk from the guy behind "Antennagate" until the device is actually available and we know what we're talking about? ------ fpgeek If true, this would completely change the balance-of-power in the Apple- Samsung legal battles. To date, Samsung's response has been weakened because the patents they've been asserting have generally been ones Samsung has agreed to license as essential technology they've contributed to various mobile standards. Apple has made the apparently odd mistake of not actually licensing the patents in question (I'd have thought that would have been part of the pre-lawsuit due diligence), but while Samsung might play some games on the price of licensing, they aren't in a position to refuse to license them entirely. The new patents would be a very different kettle of fish. Using two antennas is pretty clearly not essential technology (plenty of phones don't), so Samsung would have a direct line of attack on the iPhone 4S. And since Apple has demonstrated exactly how to get preliminary injunctions to keep your competitors off of the market, it could get very interesting. ~~~ jstevens85 >If true, this would completely change the balance-of-power in the Apple- Samsung legal battles. Don't think that's true. Worst-case scenario is that Apple releases a firmware update that removes the switching functionality and forces the 4S antennae to behave like an iPhone 4 (assuming the functionality can be turned off by software). Patent litigation will then continue as before. ~~~ fpgeek The vast majority (all?) of technical (as opposed to trade dress / design patents) Apple has asserted against Samsung are for software-only features (e.g. spring-back scrolling, slide to unlock, photo gallery swiping) and that strategy has been working well for them. Even if Apple can get past the antenna patents with a software and/or firmware upgrade (something I'm more skeptical about because, among other things, redesigning your radio interface after release sounds reasonably difficult), that still keeps the iPhone 4S off the market for the time it takes for them to implement, test and deploy the upgrade, plus the time it takes Apple to convince the relevant courts (over Samsung's opposition, of course). Since it is October 10th, that's almost certainly going to seriously cut into the holiday shopping season (one of the reasons Samsung is sweating on their side, too). ------ cletus I think it's fair to say that in this crazy patent regime pretty much _anything_ "could" infringe any number of patents. ------ chauzer Oh god, I hope so.
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Bandwidth.com – EdgeMarc Device Passwords Potentially Compromised - edoceo Just got this email, eeek!&lt;p&gt;--- Dear Bandwidth Customers,&lt;p&gt;Bandwidth has discovered an issue wherein EdgeMarc device default passwords may have been compromised on the internet.&lt;p&gt;Any customer who currently owns the EdgeMarc box should immediately change their password.&lt;p&gt;If you are unsure if your specific device has been compromised, you can take the following steps to investigate. However, it is still highly recommended to change the password:&lt;p&gt;In the EdgeMarc GUI, under &#x27;System&#x27; click on &quot;Client List&quot;. If there are any entries listed other than known and local IP addresses, there is a strong possibility that your device has been compromised. To resolve, remove the offending IP address.&lt;p&gt;Additionally, the following steps should be taken to to ensure a secure device:&lt;p&gt;Disable PPTP (Point-to-Point Protocol) - Under PPTP server &gt; Username, ensure there is no user built unless it is a known user.&lt;p&gt;Disallow WAN clients - Under VoIP ALG, uncheck both the &#x27;allow clients on WAN&#x27; option, as well as the &#x27;Enable LLDP&#x27; option.&lt;p&gt;Verify no additional scripting has taken place, by looking under &#x27;User Commands&#x27;. Specifically, if the following script is present, it will need to be deleted:&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt; ln -sf &#x2F;etc &#x2F;etc&#x2F;images&#x2F;m.txt chmod 777 &#x2F;etc&#x2F;images&#x2F;m.txt&#x2F;config&#x2F;passwd sed -i -e s&#x27;_&#x27;&quot;501&quot;&#x27;_&#x27;&quot;0&quot;&#x27;_&#x27; &#x2F;etc&#x2F;images&#x2F;m.txt&#x2F;config&#x2F;passwd sed -i -e s&#x27;_&#x27;&quot;501&quot;&#x27;_&#x27;&quot;0&quot;&#x27;_&#x27; &#x2F;etc&#x2F;images&#x2F;m.txt&#x2F;config&#x2F;passwd sed -i -e s&#x27;_&#x27;&quot;&#x2F;etc&#x2F;images&quot;&#x27;_&#x27;&quot;&#x2F;&quot;&#x27;_&#x27; &#x2F;etc&#x2F;images&#x2F;m.txt&#x2F;config&#x2F;passwd &lt;&#x2F;code&gt;&lt;&#x2F;pre&gt; --- ====== labpdx Seems the default root password is 'default' or 'password', and is listed in their manuals / documentation. [https://www.google.com/#q=edgemarc+default+password](https://www.google.com/#q=edgemarc+default+password)
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Joyent unveils HTTP Signature auth scheme for REST APIs - harrylove http://joyeur.com/2012/01/03/a-bit-more-about-the-new-joyent-cloud-api/ ====== pquerna Having yet another HTTP Authentication and Signature scheme really isn't adding value to the world. It's too bad this couldn't model the Keystone token authentication API that OpenStack is doing: <http://keystone.openstack.org/> Or say, heck, don't like OpenStack, even just using OAuth2 would be fine: <http://datatracker.ietf.org/wg/oauth/charter/> It sounds cool, using SSH keys as your API signature, but really it isn't solving a problem that hasn't already been solved. ~~~ mcavage We didn't want token-based auth (i.e, Oauth2 or openstack), nor did we want shared-secret based auth (i.e., hmac). We specifically wanted to offer authentication with public-key crypto, and as the blog post points out, the usability of client-auth SSL sucks. So when you say it's not solving a problem that hasn't already been solved, if you're talking about "the ability to sign a request" in the most generic sense, sure, it's already been solved N times. Generally speaking though, in most of those schemes key management is an afterthought, and we didn't want it to be an afterthought. It's been solved by SSH, and that's what we wanted to leverage.; the point was not to reinvent the wheel, the point was to leverage an existing security mechanism. ------ spoondan A better write-up can be found on GitHub: [https://github.com/joyent/node- http-signature/blob/master/ht...](https://github.com/joyent/node-http- signature/blob/master/http_signing.md) Frankly, the blog post leaves a lot of questions and is short on links to answers. It would be easy to walk away from the post thinking Joyent's HTTP Signatures to be incompetently designed. It was almost enough to have me quip, "More like HTTPS Signatures," because the design in the blog post is only sensible over TLS. However, having found the above link, I see that it is the defaults that assume TLS, but that you can specify the signature contain all headers and the request line. This makes it possible to sign requests over HTTP. I'd rather the defaults be reasonable for insecure transports (i.e., all headers + 'request-line'), since the TLS case is easily handled with just 'headers="date"'. If that's not to happen, I'd hope that implementations actively prevent the use of the defaults over insecure transports. Unfortunately, Joyent's reference implementation doesn't seem to do this. ------ foobarbazetc They're not unveiling anything. They're just describing how their API works, and they've reinvented a wheel. ~~~ thu What other authentication scheme combines HTTP(S) and SSH keys in a similar way? ------ justinsb I really like the idea of using SSH keys: one less password to manage, and it avoids sharing a secret with your provider. With hash-based signature schemes, you know that your secret has to be stored in cleartext, which is why you can't choose your own signing token on any clouds. As a solution for technical users, SSH-keys seem like a great idea: they're battle-tested, avoid a shared secret, are no less convenient than using long system-generated tokens, and have a much richer ecosystem (e.g. ssh-agent, password protection, the possibility to store it on hardware devices etc) ------ bromley As far as I can tell the signature applies only to the date header. Which means that if an attacker can intercept a signed request they can swap in any request of their own without having to change the signature at all. And the server will interpret it as a legitimate signed request. ~~~ pquerna They are using TLS to assume that the client authenticates the server is who it says it is -- if you can man in the middle TLS, there are lots of other possible exploits besides this signature one. ~~~ bromley Thanks. It's not clear to me from the post that it's using TLS but that would make sense. Though if requiring TLS I wonder why not just use basic auth since it's simpler and since TLS would protect the password. One of the things that's neat about, say, OAuth's MAC authentication, is that it works over plain old HTTP without TLS. Likewise for the AWS API's signature-based security scheme. Sounds like I erroneously assumed that this was aiming to do similarly.
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A PowerShell script for helping to find vulnerable settings in AD Group Policy - based2 https://github.com/l0ss/Grouper ====== based2 [https://www.reddit.com/r/netsec/comments/8dr0rl/grouper_a_po...](https://www.reddit.com/r/netsec/comments/8dr0rl/grouper_a_powershell_script_to_find_vulnerable/)
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Ask HN: I need a VoIP provider. Who do you recommend? - mos1 I just need somebody who can port over about a dozen inbound phone numbers, and provide a trunk to my PBX.<p>Alternately, I'd be fine with paying a reasonable fee to use somebody else's VoIP PBX.<p>I need a provider who will actually handle a port for me. I tried to switch from Teliax to VoicePulse, and ended up with most of the numbers <i>not</i> ported, and nobody on either side seeming to care about this fact. ====== sfriedrich les.net
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Mapping Yelp Reviews Across San Francisco - stang https://medium.com/@steventang/mapping-yelp-ratings-across-san-francisco-c0460e864f21 ====== minimaxir Wait, the Yelp API has a limit of 40 entries, regardless of how finely-tuned you set the geographics. (Which is why I had to switch to the Foursquare API for that purpose) What is your sample size? If it's large, how did you get past the API limits? ~~~ stang I sent a separate request for each bounding box area and limit to only the top 10 restaurants in the search response. Each bounding box is small enough where I'd say that the top 10 restaurants are a good gauge of how well-reviewed the area is.
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On a Mission - doh http://a16z.com/2014/02/11/on-a-mission/ ====== johnrob Should the mission slide go before or after the up-and-to-the-right graph? :) Joking aside, the last reason to have a mission is to get funding. The work is not worth the effort if it isn't meaningful. You are always optimizing for life, not money (although money is a part of life of course). ------ unclebucknasty I'm not buying this. First, it's funny that "building great products" is considered a mission. No. That's what a company does to make money. Money is the mission. If you just want to build great stuff, then don't call it a product or don't charge for it. Start a non-profit, build it, then give it away. Not to be pedantic, but it just feels like the last stop of self-worshiping capitalism when it's considered a mission to build stuff for sale. That's kind of the default with capitalism. The question is, what's the real vision or meaning behind the product/company? What goal is it meant to achieve? Beyond that, he's making these statements at a time when we are seeing a glut of the most trivial products/services that are not exactly world-changing. In fact, many have decried the lack of meaning and unwillingness to tackle hard problems in SV. So, it just seems like we're moving the goalposts. SV has become a vision- less, vapid place, that simply seeks the easiest path to making money? No problem. Just redefine the word "meaning" and the word "mission" and voila! ~~~ earbitscom It takes money to build things at scale. Our company has an awesome mission to empower artists by providing them with high quality exposure. Nobody is donating millions of dollars for us to do this out of the kindness of their hearts and their charity should go to starving people. That doesn't mean what we do isn't important or meaningful. In the absence of a truly charitable cause, the only way to provide this solution is by bringing in revenue and there is nothing wrong with charging for a service that provides value. Marc is saying that they look for founders doing things they find meaning in because you build something bigger when you do it for a purpose beyond money. That doesn't mean it doesn't take earning money to fulfill the mission. ~~~ unclebucknasty I don't mean that there's something wrong with making money. I am not even saying that there's something wrong with making money purely for the sake of making money. I also don't suggest that seeking-profit means that a company has no mission. I am simply saying that making a product, in itself, is not a mission to be held above the aim of any other capitalist endeavor. That is, simply saying "my mission is to build great products" is meaningless. Is that it? Full-stop? Well, if so, then just say "my mission is to make money"; else, what is otherwise the point of building something great and calling it a product? And, what we see coming out of SV has been to a large extent void of any real mission apart from making money. So, contrary to the article, I think that there are plenty of people from investors to founders to employees who are simply chasing a buck. So much so, that from outside SV (and from many quarters within), it has become the understood ethos of the valley. If that's the deal, then OK. But, let's not pretend it's something else. ~~~ data_app "So, contrary to the article, I think that there are plenty of people from investors to founders to employees who are simply chasing a buck. So much so, that from outside SV (and from many quarters within), it has become the understood ethos of the valley." Those VCs are not AZ16 + those startups are not the future facebooks or googles of the world. ~~~ unclebucknasty > _Those VCs are not AZ16 + those startups are not the future facebooks or > googles of the world_ Perhaps not. But, when the article is quoting Jobs as saying: “I want to make a ding in the universe. I want to make beautiful products that people love.” It makes me wonder how we're defining _mission_. Making products that people love is what every company strives to do. Doesn't seem like much of a standard to me, and declaring that by so doing you hope to make a dent in the universe doesn't make it any moreso. So, I'd ask Mr. Andreessen, "Is that it? Does the desire to make products that people love qualify for a16z's mission requirement?" Because, if so, then I'm having trouble seeing where that investment philosophy really differs. The other part is with regard to recruiting and the overall SV ethos. It may be true that select people want to work for companies with a mission. And, maybe many do-- _all things being equal_. But, his "insight" that a person would rather work for $120K plus a mission than $120K and no mission is self- evident and doesn't tell us anything. The test of his theory is whether people are willing to work for $60K plus a mission. And the thing is we know that so many people are really just chasing a buck. We see this in what has been coming out of SV; the glut of copycat and uninspired businesses aimed at this or that trivial opportunity and the relative dearth of companies taking on really hard or "mission-worthy" challenges. I am not saying that there are zero companies of the latter ilk. I am saying that this article is making statements about the current reality that just don't ring true. Look no further than the "fail-fast", "iterate quickly", "look for pivots", "find product-market fit" culture that has dominated SV over recent years. Do any of those things sound conducive to building companies that are on a mission? Or do they sound more applicable to companies that are just looking to make a buck any way they can? Maybe Mr. Andreessen is decrying that same culture. But, the article doesn't help by making declarations about the current state that don't appear to be accurate. ------ beat I don't know if I have a mission or not. On one hand, in the "Rich or King?" formulation, I want to get rich. I don't want to be running my company twenty years from now. I'll want to retire (hopefully a very wealthy man) and go do other things that interest me - because there are far, far more interesting things to do in the world than there is time to do them anyway. Getting rich is, among other things, a way of simplifying the process of doing all those things that are interesting but not financially self-sustaining. On the other hand, I want to change this little corner of the world, where a bunch of professional nerds like me suffer seemingly endless frustration and grief trying to make the computer systems that we get paid to work on and occasionally love actually keep running. I hate system downtime, in part because I hate the kind of work involved in downtime - digging through different systems for clues, calling buddies on other teams for their clues, giving status reports on the status reports, and beating our collective heads against the wall trying to get the information required to actually _do our jobs_ \- that is, get the downed systems back up again. I admit it, I like working on big enterprise systems. I like debugging them, and I like making them better. It may be Stockholm Syndrome at this point, but it's pretty fun sometimes. And I like my colleagues who work on them with me, the special balance of discipline and imagination it takes to do ops and development on really big systems. I want to make their lives better. And then one day I had this idea, and saw how I could make life a little better for all of us, and save time, money, and credibility for our employers in the bargain. And if I can get rich along the way, all the better. Is that a mission? Or just a mission statement? Does it matter? ~~~ mchusma Hmmm...I see signals of both in what you say: I think the mission to make a life a little better in a specific way is a true mission. Solving a frustration that you truly hate is a common factor in many successes. That said, I also tend to see the most successful entrepreneurs much more concerned about the mission than retirement. Not sure if go on to other things meant Bill Gates style or tropical beach style. If you are truly mission oriented, then you would presumably care more about the mission than yourself. Retirement is an afterthought. ~~~ beat This gets back to the problem that the "mission" when we talk about software startups generally involves making a lot of money as well. If you want a software mission without promise of wealth for the work, you do open source (I actually briefly considered open sourcing this project, and I wouldn't say it is absolutely ruled out. But that's a one-way hash function, so there's no need to commit now). This past weekend, I gave up most of the time I'd normally spend working on my startup on something else instead - playing in two different bands in a jug band competition! We're talking about people who actively opposed to paying anybody anything for the work, who fight tooth and nail to win temporary possession of a freaking _waffle iron_! And I'd be really damned proud if one of my bands won that waffle iron, too - it's been a prize for over 30 years. What did I get out of it? My closest musical partner and I put together something of a dream band of some of our musician friends, and we jammed out Stairway to Heaven in under five minutes in front of 300 people. Financially, that's worth less than nothing. Emotionally, I'll always remember that moment. Playing good music is a mission for me. Supporting the musical community and cultural history of Minneapolis is a mission. But those aren't missions that pay my mortgage. This is what squicks me out a little about all the people marketing themselves on the internet who claim to have a "passion" to do <something boring>. They might find the work interesting and rewarding, but passionate? It sounds dishonest and self-serving. I'd like to build something that is valuable, something that lasts, something that is truly hard to build in a multi-year way. Is that a mission? Maybe. Is that a passion? NO. The desire to create something big and powerful, that's passion. But the thing I'm actually creating? That's the map, not the territory. ------ normloman "The Machiavellian view on this is if you are the founder you actually want to pretend you have a huge ideological mission, even if you don’t. And I guess you would rather do that, than not have one, but clearly it helps enormously to have a real mission." Which is why all HN job postings contain keywords like "change" and "disrupt." Also, if you have a purely ideological mission with no plan to make money with it, you shouldn't be starting a business and getting investors. You should be starting a non profit and getting donors. The difference is, investors expect to be payed back. ~~~ oscargrouch >Also, if you have a purely ideological mission with no plan to make money with it, you shouldn't be starting a business and getting investors. You should be starting a non profit and getting donors. The difference is, investors expect to be payed back. Or you can have the best of both worlds: make the thing you are doing because you want change sustainable, so you dont have to beg to anybody and can just go on making it happen.. I think is that what he was talking about.. you try to make a dream come true.. than make it sustainable somehow.. becoming rich? maybe.. but thats not the primary goal. I think it has a lot to do with the personality.. Machiavel already stated that if a king need troops, its better to hire mercenaries only as a last case.. soldiers that fight for ideals are much more powerful.. i've read that when i was a teenager and never forget of that part.. So the ideological fellow is unbeatable, because passion is the most powerful human fuel ever "invented" :) ------ CapitalistCartr He is making the mistake of looking at the successes without knowing the failed companies' strategies. The successes may have this in common, but so may the failures. ------ thisisrobv The irony of, "[t]he Machiavellian view on this is if you are the founder you actually want to pretend you have a huge ideological mission, even if you don’t." I've seen a lot of founders actually start off this way, they come up with a mission post product. The best are actually capable of being delusional enough to believe this mission over time. ------ gatehouse AFAIK, Zuckerberg, and Page and Brin, STILL have voting control of their companies, all the way from day 0 to IPO. So not just "I want the world's information to be indexed", but " _I_ want to index the world's information". etc. ~~~ jonathanjaeger Or they think they're the best people equipped to do that and they don't want to give up control and have the mission lose out (perfectly understandable). It's not purely self-interested. ------ jkw Small note: I think what Steve Jobs said was "make a dent in the universe", not "make a ding in the universe" ------ nswanberg From a time when one had to read the back of the software box to check for Windows or MacOS compatibility: "Mosaic Communications Corporation intends to be the premier provider of open software that enables people and companies to exchange information and conduct commerce over the Internet and other global networks." ------ thrush This resonates well with a16z is doing (imagine they were a startup, and they were investing in themselves). a16z wants to help people (who are predominantly using software and engineering) change the world. They plan to do this through VC investments, high caliber recruiting, etc. and will happen to become wealthy along the way. ------ data_app I think many people on this thread don't understand the importance of "mission". Mission plays a big role in hiring the best talent - without a mission, you are like a rudderless ship. You may make money in the short-term but you are not building a great company for the future. ------ iandanforth I am building robots to create strong AI. I've tried to think of something more important and impactful than strong AI, but that's it. It's why I'm here. How about you? ~~~ bglazer That sounds wonderfully interesting. Care to be a bit more specific? ------ babesh Then why did they invest in Zynga multiple times? ------ choppa why is this on hacker news? this is just an advertisement, e.g. to speculators
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Katran: A high-performance layer 4 load balancer - SriniK https://github.com/facebookincubator/katran ====== hacknat So before anyone gets excited about using this, XDP has to be enabled at the driver level to work, because basically is allows you to write your own program to handle incoming packets from the driver, taking the kernel out as the middle man. The list of supported drivers is small: [http://prototype- kernel.readthedocs.io/en/latest/networking/...](http://prototype- kernel.readthedocs.io/en/latest/networking/XDP/implementation/drivers.html) I’m actually working on porting XDP into the Xen net front end driver to see if I can’t get something like this working in AWS. If I do it, I’ll likely post an example about it here: [https://github.com/newtools/ebpf](https://github.com/newtools/ebpf) As an aside cloudflare is using that repo for an XDP load balancer as well. ------ edf13 This is where Facebook actually does some good... their open source efforts are really good... [https://github.com/facebookincubator](https://github.com/facebookincubator) And... [https://github.com/facebook](https://github.com/facebook) ~~~ airesQ Their papers[1] are also quite good. [1] - [https://research.fb.com/publications/](https://research.fb.com/publications/) ------ nickcw An interesting idea to load balance at L4 so as not to terminate the TCP sessions (for speed). Normally this constrains the network rather as you can't route the output packets normally after that (they need to be routed to a vLAN) but encapsulating with IPIP means the load balancer output can go straight back into the normal routing layer. Not constraining the output of the load balancer to a single vLAN really helps for larger networks. Reading the readme I see they've made every effort to process the packets as little as possible to it seems likely that this will run at line speed. For L4 the main competitor is LVS which scales pretty well in my experience but probably not as well as this. ------ IMTDb They talk about being compatible with RSS. What is RSS in this context, ? My guess is that it's not this RSS [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS) because I do not see how/why you should need any rule at L4 to maintain compatibility with an XML based protocol. Is it possible they talk about : [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_interface_controller#R...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_interface_controller#RSS) ? ~~~ jauer Receive Side Scaling, not the syndication format :) There's more info at [https://code.facebook.com/posts/1906146702752923/open- sourci...](https://code.facebook.com/posts/1906146702752923/open-sourcing- katran-a-scalable-network-load-balancer/) ------ bdahz What is the difference with IPVS kernel module in Linux? Both are layer 4 load balancers and IPVS has come a long time and is proven to be good. Any performance comparisons available? ~~~ hacknat IPVS cannot be dynamic like XDP can, which can be powered by a reactive bpf program. XDP bypasses every kernel function and basically takes over packet processing at the driver level, so the performance tends to be pretty good. Julia Evans wrote a blog post and has some performance numbers at the bottom of her post: [https://jvns.ca/blog/2017/04/07/xdp-bpf- tutorial/](https://jvns.ca/blog/2017/04/07/xdp-bpf-tutorial/) ------ nubb Fun project. Would anyone actually ever run something like this in production over something like HAProxy? ~~~ sanxiyn Congrats, you won HN humor of the day award. FYI, Facebook runs Katran in production: [https://code.facebook.com/posts/1906146702752923/open- sourci...](https://code.facebook.com/posts/1906146702752923/open-sourcing- katran-a-scalable-network-load-balancer/) ~~~ kondro Yeah, but will it scale to the 9 billion users my growth chart has me at by year 3?
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Ask HN: How much should I earn from online freelancing? - ahmedaly Hi.. I am working on freelancer website: http://www.freelancer.com/affiliates/ahmed613/<p>I am currently making around 1500 to 2000 USD per month, and I am web developer with extensive experience in web APIs.<p>I feel that this is a too low income, comparing it to the average American developer's income..<p>So I need to know.. how much should I earn from online freelancing, if I work 40 hrs/week.. so its just like full time.<p>You can say annual or monthly expected income, or even per hour rate.<p>Waiting for your answer and thanks, Ahmed. ====== padobson Freelancer is set up to save the clients money, with developers bidding on mostly small projects - its a race to the bottom. What you need to do is use resources like LinkedIn to make contacts with business owners and use your development skills to solve pain points and contract with companies that are up against deadlines - that is how you push your rates up. Network, network, network. When you get a contract that pays $15/hr, use your network to find another that pays $20. When you get that, immediately start selling your services for $30. Once you have that, try for $45. One company may not be willing or able to pay you $2000 a week, but 3 clients may pay you $700 if you solve the right pain points in 15 hours of work. But you must always be forming new relationships and looking to make connections that could lead to more business. Otherwise, you should probably just take the best job you can find ~~~ ahmedaly Hi and thanks for that great tips.. I do earn more money from my network of contacts, specially that when they assign a project to me, no competition is there.. so my rates are much higher.. But I never thought about linkedin.. and not sure how can I select the companies that would be a potential customer for me? ------ glimcat Free is fine, expensive is fine. Cheap is not.
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My Setup for Using Emacs as Web Browser - sabya http://beatofthegeek.com/2014/02/my-setup-for-using-emacs-as-web-browser.html ====== sabya HN on Emacs works so well!
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4sq hackathon winners - adrianwaj http://blog.foursquare.com/2011/09/28/announcing-the-global-hackathon-winners/ ====== nickfrost Wow, nice description. Being a bit more informative will most likely give you more votes and clickthroughs. Just saying :) ~~~ adrianwaj What would you suggest, Nick?
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Can your boss force you to write a Glassdoor review? - Flopsy http://www.cbsnews.com/news/can-your-boss-force-you-to-write-a-glassdoor-review/ ====== stephenr Can anyone with any actual legal expertise comment on this? I do not, and will never live in the united states, I just don't understand how this idea could be even close to legal.
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The Education I wish I Had - lukethomas http://lukethomas.com/the-college-education-i-wish-i-had/ ====== sthatipamala I find this syllabus overly specific. I appreciate the pillar of "Application" but it is too applied. Any one of a hundred things can invalidate this curriculum. The industry could switch from Rails to some non-MVC model. Facebook and Twitter could turn out to be fads and Internet marketing moves onto another platform. Lean Startup could be replaced with some other methodology and all the Mixergy wisdom is rendered useless. An education should teach you something more fundamental than the flavor of the month in the fields that you care about. ------ cafard I would remark that a lot of business books are badly written. There are excellent ones, I'm sure. But a lot of the ones that make noise in the press do not age well. You are correct to insist that the student write frequently about what he or she has learned. That it is on a blog seems irrelevant to me. You do well to mention reading one unrelated book per month. A lot of college students, and for that matter a lot of persons in middle age who think of themselves as literate and up with matters, do not read that much. I'd want to see some guidance on the reading. Also, I think that language study should be all four years. One year of a language doesn't get you very far. (Unless perhaps you're a native Spanish speaker learning Portuguese or German speaker learning Dutch, or etc.) And I am not much impressed with talk of "personal branding" for anyone, let alone college students. Are you acquainted with the definition of "Rhodes Scholar" as "a man with a great future behind him"? ~~~ mathattack I was thinking the same thing about the business books. Years of college wasted on a business book a week? As someone who has read hundreds of them, there aren't that many secrets in them. Books on psychology, mathematics, economics, design, sociology and other topics are much more important than most tomes in the business section of the library. Read the true core subjects first, then you'll know enough to sort the real business books from the BS. ------ wisp558 You do realize learning is a discovery process? I think the part that set off red flags for me was the "Business book a week" policy. It's important to follow one's interests; they have a habit of leading to subjects and careers that will make you happy. Your article outlined an acceptable 4 year plan to become a very specific type of person. It's important to adapt and grow into your education, rather than set out a series of things to do beforehand. Education is a discovery process and steps this specific constitute tunnel vision. ~~~ lukethomas I agree 100% that learning is a discovery process - the purpose of my post was to outline what I wish I learned. This doesn't apply to everyone. I began college with the goal to be in Sports Management. That lasted about a week. ------ JamesLeonis Ok, I'll admit that I have quite a few problems with what is here, both for the business end and the engineering end, but I'll just name my two biggest here. 1. While nothing on this outline strikes me as outrageous in terms of time, looking closely will uncover a huge amount of resources and time that is required on behalf of the student. Let's be perfectly honest with ourselves here. Learning programming for the first time in any language isn't something you can write off as easy or quick. I have attended courses that wanted to teach a language from start to competent, and they ran three months with 24 hours per week devoted for learning the syntax and application. This didn't include any data structures, algorithms, math, or other CS fundamentals [1]. Even then classmates struggled. I led several study sessions to help people with thorny concepts. All of this just to learn the basics of one language for the first time. In addition to all this learning, you need something to apply it (More on this below). This requires blocks of markedly non-trivial amount of time. You will be stretching your brain to try to fit what you learned to the problem you are having at any given moment, as well as the bigger task you want to accomplish. This is where you start to grok what you learned. Granted this isn't impossible, but with everything else people have to do in life it seems very strenuous. People need downtime to let their brain relax. Since there is a mentor involved, I am assuming that there is some sort of rubric they are applying, thus none of what is mentioned here can be considered as a pleasurable activity. This is work, no matter how much fun you have doing it. There's also the issue of part time work. Those business books and Treehouse accounts don't pay for themselves. You still need a place to live, to eat, and some spending money outside of the necessities. None of this stuff is free. There might be somebody who is paying for all that for you, but many do not have that luxury. Part time minimum wage work of 20 hours is seriously stretched for room and board expenses, much less course textbooks and pocket change. [2] Let's look at the time breakdown of one week. We have: 25 hours to learning programming. Includes coursework and project time. 12 hours for business books and blogging. 2 hours a day (5 days) reading and taking notes, and 1 hour per blog post. 2 hours for the other book. 1 hour with the mentor. 4 hours volunteering. 3 hours of exercise. 2 hours meeting somebody. Subtotal: 49 hours per week. 20 optional (maybe...) hours for work. Total: 69 hours per week. That's just the requirements for the first year. I haven't looked into what it would take for the door-to-door sales in year 2, the white paper in year 3, or learning a language and travel in year 4. 2. I am going to assume four months (16 weeks) of vacation per year for things such as Christmas and Summer break. That might be generous, so hear me out. That leaves 38 weeks of learning under these courses. That translates to about 38 business books and 8 outside books per year. Thus you will have read 114 business books and 32 outside books over the course of the four years with a grand total of 146 books. A student would chew through your list [3] before finishing his first year. I'm not counting any technical books they will go through [4]. How much of that can you realistically expect to remember? What is preventing this student from learning the material, especially the business books, enough to write about it in their blog post and then forgetting it? How much of any education is remembered beyond the test? What I see here is a lot (and I really mean _a lot_ ) of information absorption without any focus on how to cultivate retention. To force the long term storage of information would mean free-form projects where the student must apply the information they learned. While the technical end might accomplish this some through posting code to Github, simply doing tutorials won't force your head to remember what you learned. Even the project, scratching that itch, will not be enough. CompSci has several unsexy topics that a student would need to learn [5]. This is even worse for the business book section, where application is very hard to do in a traditional MBA learning environment. Some people are very good at retaining arbitrary information for long periods of time and others are not. What will be remembered is a four year long blur of reading, writing, and some code, but the student will be hard pressed to do any effective recall of what they learned. \--- [1]: Don't underestimate CS fundumentals. Algorithms and their analysis and data structures are very important to understand. You might never write one yourself, but I _guarantee_ you will use them. Honestly, where is the math in all of this study? [2]: I'm assuming this is geared for the typical college demographic, thus the 18-22 bracket. Unless you are extremely talented/gifted, you will be working minimum wage. That's around $8/hour for 20 hours, so you will pocket $640 a month. [3]: I don't see Peopleware on that list. Now I'm very suspicious... [4]: Unless they are taking the MIT/Stanford/etc courses, I haven't seen a good comprehensive CS course online. Most focus exclusively on a particular tech, like Rails or Javascript, and eschew the general CS coursework. I would love to be proved wrong though. [5]: Granted you _can_ skip some fundamentals, there are others should not. Security and Cryptography come to mind as something most CS students do not want to dive into, but are VERY necessary for any web service. This post ballooned into something much larger than what I envisioned... ------ jmduke Oh, jeez. This sounds miserable and antithetical to the very concept of education. If you're the kind of self-learner who'd honestly eschew a traditional education (liberal arts educations are incredibly valuable, even if liberal arts degrees aren't), then you're better off not wasting your time with dozens of 'business books'. College isn't about developing your 'personal brand.' College is about doing the things that excite and challenge you, often with wanton disregard for your 'personal brand.' ~~~ lukethomas Why do you need a college class to learn about liberal arts? I see way too many peers doing nothing with their time - if I saw more students actually pursuing something productive, I may have a different outlook. ~~~ jmduke What's your definition of being productive? Do you think that spending time reading 'The Four Hour Work Week' when you haven't had a job is time well spent? I don't think reading dozens of startup books is particularly more productive than, say, anything. ~~~ lukethomas It's interesting that you point that out (especially out of the thirty or so books on the list). 50% of that book is fluff, yet there are very important points mixed in (i.e. - checking email a few times a week, specific tools to save time, etc). ------ stephencanon This looks more or less (maybe not all the business books) like 50% of what I would expect a strong, motivated undergraduate to do in their free time, on top of normal coursework. ------ Scene_Cast2 I'm assuming that this in addition to regular classes? If not - I feel that this approach is missing quite a lot. ------ jdoody You wish you had read 208 business books? ~~~ lukethomas I actually don't mind reading - all the books on the list I created I've read. ~~~ jamesmcn I like reading too, but I think I've managed to ingest close to my lifetime limit of business books. The good ones are rare. The bad ones can be replaced just as effectively by a few short blog entries. ------ mejakethomas Google Ed: online degrees accredited by Google without the $100k+ burden when you're done. Yes? ------ qntmfred why is this still a 4 year education? people don't (shouldn't?) stop educating themselves after they turn 22 ~~~ lukethomas I was simply trying to model a standard 4 year college education. ------ michaelochurch College is extremely expensive and probably not right for everyone, but it's a different experience. Should 18-year-olds be learning what it takes to program in the real world? Absolutely. I think that computer programming education shouldn't start in college, but much earlier. That doesn't mean that being active on Github is a substitute for the liberal arts experience. All that said, liberal arts education isn't about getting a job. It's about learning, by studying history and philosophy and literature, the critical thinking skills that you'll need if you want to lead and to make complex decisions that effect other people. (It's also a lifelong process; you need to keep learning and maintain an interest in that stuff or it doesn't count. If you never crack a book after graduating from college, you probably shouldn't have gone in the first place.) And yes, I firmly believe that you're not qualified to be in any higher leadership position if you don't have some education (possibly pursued on one's own-- it doesn't need to be a 4-year degree-- but autodidacts are rare) in the liberal arts. College is also about learning how to learn. Well, actually, people shouldn't need schooling to learn that, so it's more accurate to say that it's a time to dedicate oneself fully to improving one's ability to learn. The actual learning has to be a lifelong process. If your curiosity stops at college, you missed the point. The problem with the college degree is that when you give people a leadership education and then there aren't appropriate jobs, they get really pissed and clamor about how they were fucked over. And they're kinda right, too. That's what we have now: a society where people spend half a house on a leadership education and then struggle even to get regular entry-level jobs.
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Barf bags on airplanes: Are rates of airsickness declining? - prostoalex http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2014/12/barf_bags_on_airplanes_are_rates_of_airsickness_declining.single.html ====== Renaud I don't have proof to back this up, but I strongly suspect that the fact that all flights are now exclusively non-smoking has had a big influence on that decline. I remember as a child how the smell of cigarette, coupled with the decrease sense of equilibrium that you can experience in a plane, would easily cause nausea. ~~~ micheljansen Good point, apparently this is the case [1]. I had horrible car sickness as a child, on both trains and cars and I always thought I just grew out of it as I got older. A few weeks ago I was in the passenger seat of a heavy smoker's car and felt as sick as ever. Never realised the link. [1] [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/21036110/](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/21036110/) ------ droidist2 A lot depends on the type of plane. A little DC-9 would have made more people sick than a 767. As we're flying more we ride more in larger aircraft and on direct flights so there are less rides in little puddle jumpers. ~~~ liberty53 Much better (more stable) auto pilots and flight management systems? ~~~ raverbashing Probably both, but autopilot can't "shake off" turbulence However, it can fly more direct routes and do smoother curves. I remember the last time I felt really bad was in an AA Super-80, doing a lot of curves to reach an airport. Bigger planes (737s/A320) were not so bad ------ Yizahi The only reason I see for declining of actual motion sickness cases is widespread availability of super effective drugs that block all symptoms. When you know that you suffer motion sickness you'll just carry some pills in travel and never even look like a person susceptible to it. ~~~ k-mcgrady >> "super effective drugs" Any recommendations? I've 'grown out' of most of my motion sickness over the years but boats still get me bad. I can just about make 60 mins without being sick and then I feel awful for the next several hours. I've tried lots of stuff but most of it doesn't seem to help. ~~~ Scoundreller This is not a recommendation on my part, just quoting some evidence for scopolamine patches: "TTS-S has proved to be significantly superior to placebo in reducing the incidence and severity of motion sickness by 60-80%. It was more effective than oral meclizine or cinnarizine, similar to oral scopolamine 0.6 mg or promethazine plus ephedrine, and the same as or superior to dimenhydrinate." [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16719539](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16719539) ~~~ k-mcgrady Thanks. Pretty sure oral meclizine is what I would normally take so I'll have to check out scopolamine patches. ------ jackcarter Ha, perfect timing. Yesterday the guy next to me threw up in his hands on takeoff. He hadn't looked for a bag; I expect he thought he could ride it out. I handed him mine. I can't imagine the bags are a significant cost to airlines -- everyone's heard of the 'American Airline olive,' but those were actually being consumed every flight. Compare that to the PR from customers smelling vomit for hours because there was no bag. ~~~ pbhjpbhj I hadn't heard of the "AA olive" \- [https://www.quora.com/Is-it-true-that- American-Airlines-save...](https://www.quora.com/Is-it-true-that-American- Airlines-saved-40-000-in-1987-by-eliminating-one-olive-from-each-salad-served- in-first-class) gives the gist. ------ chiph Ask me in a couple of days. Going to be taking a small regional jet through the east coast thunderstorms. Not looking forward to this.
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Students Settle with TurnItIn - edw519 http://a-non-a.blogspot.com/2009/08/students-settle-with-turnitin.html ====== bayareaguy Perhaps instead of submitting papers via TurnItIn, they should submit links to papers stored in Vanish[1]. 1- <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=719067>
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Ask HN: People to follow on Twitter? - michaelbwang Hi all! I just made a Twitter account and want to fill my feed with the thoughts of experienced startup and marketing professionals. Who should I be following? Thank you! ====== JeremyKolb Personally, I find Google+ to be a much more interactive and enjoyable experience, especially for tech oriented people. On Twitter I follow Tech Crunch and PandoDaily. ~~~ michaelbwang fair enough. who would you recommend on g+? ------ 27182818284 Most of the time when you come across a post on YC, that blogger will have an @name at the bottom. Follow them if you liked what they had written. ------ cdvonstinkpot I saw Paul Graham on there once, but I don't use Twitter so I don't follow anyone. ------ QuantumGuy @lefnire @notch @scottksmith95 @zedshaw @twbootstrap
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Angry letter from minimum-wage Yelp employee (now fired) - exolymph https://medium.com/@taliajane/an-open-letter-to-my-ceo-fb73df021e7a#.zhg8q53sh ====== gus_massa Current discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11138086](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11138086) (74 points, 8 hours ago, 20 comments) ------ exolymph I feel really conflicted about this story. On the one hand, she's shooting at the wrong target: CEOs don't make minimum wage and healthcare laws. On the other hand, Yelp is a Bay Area tech company and something feels really wrong about their low-prestige support employees struggling to make ends meet. Then again, that's how supply and demand works on the labor market... ~~~ stray No. Paying someone the minimum wage sends the message "If I could pay you less, I would". Legal minimum wage establishes a limit on how evil people are allowed to be to each other. And working for minimum wage sends the message "I still believe I can work my way out of this". In _my_ opinion -- if you don't have enough money for a tip, you don't have enough money to eat at a restaurant -- and if you don't have enough to pay a living wage for every job at your company -- you don't have enough money to hire anybody. Minimum wage laws are meant to prevent employers from exploiting the vulnerable. She had the perfect target in her gunsights.
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Ask HN: Would you pay for a secured/curated package manager? - mrskitch I&#x27;ve heard a lot about, and seen, numerous vulnerabilities in many package managers (npm, gem, and now python). Companies also spend a lot of time and money trying to vet these packages internally, and setup elaborate infrastructure to keep their systems secure.<p>Seems that there&#x27;s a gap here that could be met by a company dedicated to package security and availability that just doesn&#x27;t exist at the moment. But would anyone pay for it? ====== dozzie > Seems that there's a gap here that could be met by a company dedicated to > package security and availability that just doesn't exist at the moment. ROTFL, "doesn't exist". Ever heard of Linux and BSD distributions with their package repositories? ------ PaulHoule No.
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HackerPit: challenge your inner hacker - Ecco http://hackerpit.com/ ====== jackmaney You need to change "In this picture, I see _____" to "In this picture, I think you see ____". I see nothing but static, and have never been able to see the images in those old-fashioned "3D" pictures. Thus, when I say "In this picture, _I_ see static", that is absolutely correct. Why should I waste another second on your page after you've pulled such a bait-and-switch? What does the page have to do with hacking? ~~~ shawabawa3 It's not a 3D picture. There's a code hidden in the image. I found it by opening in gimp and randomly messing with colours/brightness/levels/etc Level 2 appears to require that I download iTunes to reverse engineer an itunes twitter app... I gave up on that ~~~ xvolter You can also do this in Chrome/webkit by inspecting the element and messing with -webkit-filter, I used: -webkit-filter: brightness(50%) contrast(5000%) sepia(0%); To reveal the code. ------ aeurielesn I can't why this application will need all these permissions: + Read Tweets from your timeline. + See who you follow. Why's that? Are these standard twitter permissions? ~~~ Ecco Unless you have locked your account (missing the whole point of Twitter IMHO) this is public information… And yes, this is just the default settings :-) ------ xvolter I feel like level 4 doesn't take [http://www.mjt.me.uk/posts/falsehoods- programmers-believe-ab...](http://www.mjt.me.uk/posts/falsehoods-programmers- believe-about-addresses/) into account. Also, the question on level 4, "The only gramatically correct address in that file is", grammatically is spelled incorrectly. Since it wouldn't make a good hint, I assume it's a typo. ------ darxius I definitely see shapes when I back up and focus in the middle of the picture. Reminds me of those awesome hidden picture games as a kid. I swear I saw Santa. ~~~ Ecco Don't get yourself a pink eye tough! Hint: I'd be very surprised if you could see "it" with your naked eyes. You'd better fire up your favorite image editor ;-) ~~~ darxius Nice, I got the first one. This is fun. ~~~ Ecco Thanks! ------ lotsofcows It didn't like "polar bear in a snow storm" so I had play with an image editor and then gave up because of the Twitter requirement. ~~~ Ecco Really? Is requiring Twitter _that_ bad? I thought it was a convenient way for most people to signup! ~~~ shawabawa3 You know what's a convenient way for people to sign up? Having them enter an email/password. What are you gaining from Twitter authentication? What are users gaining from it? ------ eranation Hm... nice, but I managed to get to level 4 with just using some Google fu (for #2) and the online <http://pixlr.com> (was lazy enough to download GIMP). And I didn't need to write a line of code so far (yep, not even for #3, took me 5 minutes manually). Is that the intention? ~~~ xvolter I hope that it gets harder, but so far it doesn't appear it will. ------ zombio Viewed source, found hint. When I get home I'm going to try searching for all colours that aren't FFFFFF or 000000. The file name looks like a code. ------ zfran Got to level 2 and gave up on the Twitter app one, since I'm running Linux and I don't have an Apple computer handy. ~~~ Ecco Indeed, but that's not the only way to solve this level! ------ dpcx I got to level 3. Then there's talk of writing code about Rainman, and now I'm fully stumped. ~~~ shawabawa3 Well... either you can do image processing to count the number of blobs...or do a vague count, get a ballpark figure and brute force it ~~~ Ecco Indeed! Again, that's part of the game. The server is having a bit of a hard time though, as you weren't the only one having this idea :-) ------ k3liutZu Remembering why I don't like OAuth ~~~ Ecco Well, it's more to do with white box crypto ;-) ------ jroblak The hint in the source is a little strange...it's not really a hint at all. ~~~ adlpz Well... it _is_ a hint. It does look like that, but it isn't. ------ danbruc Why sign in with twitter? I have no twitter account so they lost me. ~~~ Ecco Hi, author here. Restricting login to Twitter was initially an experiment. Turns out it's also very convenient for people who are on Twitter, as you signup in a single click! And since this website is far from being important for anyone, I thought it made more sense to lose a few users here and there rather than forcing everyone through the tedious tunnel of picking an email, picking a password, checking your email, etc… Still I'm really sorry to have lost you. Good job on getting to level 2 though! ~~~ zombio Level 2? The sign in button is on the first page. ~~~ evo_9 Once you pass level 1 you are asked to login with Twitter to continue. ------ ryanSrich \+ Drag image to desktop \+ Open photoshop \+ Reduce brightness 2-4 times \+ Punch in code \+ Get to level 2 \+ Give up ~~~ Ecco Why? Level 2 isn't good? ~~~ shawabawa3 As far as I can tell, you're supposed to download iTunes on mac and reverse engineer the oauth secret key from the twitter app. I just got it by googling twitter oauth key leaks... Definitely wasn't a fun or interesting challenge. ~~~ xvolter Agreed. Rather lame, just found the solution on pastebin. ~~~ Ecco Well, that's one of the ways. The fun one involves GDB :) ------ tobeportable reminds me of : <http://www.ouverture-facile.com/riddles/> ~~~ Ecco Ouverture facile definitely was an inspiration. This is more developper/hacker oriented though. ------ abhshkdz Level 4 hint: Streets: 1\. rue du Temple 2\. boulevard Montmartre 3\. boulevard du Temple 4\. impasse du chat 5\. rue des blancs-manteaux 6\. avenue des champs-elysees
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"A New Kind of Venture Capitalist Makes Small Bets on Young Firms" - jaydub http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/technology/22venture.html?_r=1&ref=technology&oref=slogin ====== skinner696 I spoke to these guys a couple months ago and was very impressed. We aren't ready to take funding yet but they gave us some very good advice, asked excellent questions, and were generally nice people. I'm not surprised they are getting some good pub. ------ rantfoil This is precisely the exact kind of trend and evolution entrepreneurs need. Rather than hands-off dumb money at crazy valuations and major dilution, young web firms need smart VC's who act more like angels than ever before. ~~~ fallentimes And everything is so cheap. By the end of the summer, most of the YC companies still had seed money left. Bootstrapping is much more doable now than it was three or four years ago. If I owned a VC firm that didn't do seed investments, I'd be worried. ~~~ hugh No you wouldn't. You'd just be focusing less on internet-based software businesses and more on biotech, cleantech, nanotech, and other hardware-type businesses. ~~~ bootload _"... biotech, cleantech, nanotech, and other hardware-type businesses ..."_ Your probably right. But it's worth noting that software plays a key part in all of these industries. ------ fallentimes What's sad is how much money many of these VCs want you to take even if you don't need it. They do this, in part, to secure their ~2% admin/management fee, which they only receive for deployed capital. ------ steveplace Here's Fred Wilson's blog. He's a partner at USV, the featured company. <http://www.avc.com/> ------ amrithk Its impressive how they manage to juggle between nurturing entrepreneurs while still meeting their responsibilities to investors. Its a tough balancing act and a model worth studying more. ~~~ joshu Long term, VCs who do not nurture entrepreneurs will not find the good ones coming to them -- word gets around. (And I'm speaking as one who has been through this with the mentioned firm. I like them a lot.)
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Show HN: Framestr – Forms that integrate with Slack/Asana/Mailchimp (free for HN) - framestr https://framestr.com ====== framestr I purpose built form software for one of my digital marketing clients that integrates with Slack, Asana, Mailchimp, Campaign Monitor and Zendesk. It has built in conversion tracking for Adwords / Analytics, A/B Testing and SPAM filters. Feel free to check it out: [http://framestr.com](http://framestr.com) Message me with your organization name and I'll upgrade your account. Appreciate the feedback.
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Embedding Scheme for a game mission scripting DSL - carloscm http://carloscarrasco.com/embedding-scheme-for-a-game-mission-scripting-dsl.html ====== srean Given the requirements I was rooting for Guile. He ended up choosing TinyScheme. Those who have not kept up with Guile development for the last 4 years would, I think, would be very pleasantly surprised, I was. It has been vigorously developed upon, lots of changes to make it more performant and you can catch the highlights of all this action on Andy Wingo's blog [http://wingolog.org/tags/guile](http://wingolog.org/tags/guile) I like his rundown of different Scheme implementations [http://wingolog.org/archives/2013/01/07/an-opinionated- guide...](http://wingolog.org/archives/2013/01/07/an-opinionated-guide-to- scheme-implementations) including the comments that readers left there. Another neat scheme for games that I am aware of is ypsilon [http://code.google.com/p/ypsilon/](http://code.google.com/p/ypsilon/) one driving motivation for it was to keep GC pauses small, pretty important for games. I believe it has an incremental GC, not a fully concurrent one. > The requirements included "Windows (compiled with MSCV) and iOS." Guile can > do that? Yep! with MinGW on Windows. IIRC they distribute such a prepackaged bundle. Will probably work with cygwin dlls too. Dont know about GUI inter-op, but Guile would build with Xcode @xpolitix Good point about the need to link statically on iOS, had not thought about that one. ~~~ carloscm Guile looked to me firmly in the "midweight" category I mention in the article. I don't doubt it's a very good interpreter, in the same vein of Gambit or Chicken, but it required a combined size/platform commitment way above I was considering. Basically anything more complex than S7 is playing in a different league than little single-file interpreters like TinyScheme or femtolisp. If I had to start from scratch I would certainly consider a bigger, much more capable platform, but it's really late in the development of the game to add it. I didn't know about ypsilon! The incremental/short pause GC looks very interesting indeed (although for the current usage in The Spatials I run TinyScheme as part of the map generation and then I completely unload it, so no GC, all the script logic gets encoded into command-like objets inside the C++ heap). But it appears it hasn't been developed for awhile. Still it's quite small, I will definitely look into in the future. ~~~ Narishma Have you looked at Chibi-Scheme? [http://synthcode.com/scheme/chibi/](http://synthcode.com/scheme/chibi/) ~~~ carloscm Yep, and discarded it early. From the home page: Windows (under Cygwin) This is usually code for "needs UNIX/POSIX APIs", or its uglier cousin, "uses C99". I wouldn't mind Mingw32, and would mind a little bit Cygwin, but the problem is that for a video game I can't even begin to consider those platforms for Windows. All the official platform SDKs, or the third party ones (think Steam) require the Microsoft compilers and libs. ~~~ rwallace The Microsoft compiler supports C99 since version 2013. ~~~ carloscm Partially, mostly in the library area. It still has some troubles with actual C99 code: [http://bellecrazysnail.wordpress.com/2013/11/14/some- thought...](http://bellecrazysnail.wordpress.com/2013/11/14/some-thoughts- about-visual-studio-2013-c99-compiler/) There's also some weird double personality issues going on with their compilers in MSVC2013, for example they support designated initializers in plain C but not in C++. So you get partial C99 inside pure C or C89 (MS flavored) under C++. I forgot where I read the quote, but for a decade Microsoft saw the plain C compiler as tool exclusively meant for Windows development. While gcc and later clang adopted and embraced new C idioms, like the struct syntax I mention, they kept their plain C support frozen in time. I also found weird behavior in MSVC when pushing the C preprocessor VERY hard (nested variadic macros. That would require an entire blog post for itself...) ------ wrl Embedded programming languages are really cool. Lua's still ruling the roost, as far as I've seen, but there are some nice options out there. I'm currently using mruby for a project and have been quite happy with it so far. The community around it is still somewhat thin, but the code quality is good and development is quite active. [https://github.com/mruby/mruby](https://github.com/mruby/mruby) ~~~ klibertp I read that Io is frequently used as an embedded language. It's really nice, OO and prototype-based little language, definitely worth a look. Out of interesting Lisp dialects, there's also PicoLisp ([http://picolisp.com/wiki/?home](http://picolisp.com/wiki/?home)) which looks like it should be well suited for embedding, but I didn't find any docs for how to do this with a quick search. ------ justincormack > "The "small Lisps" are truly small, unlike, say, Lua." Well tinyscheme seems to be about half the size of Lua, which is not that different. Lua really is pretty small. ~~~ carloscm Indeed. TinyScheme being a single file of C code hides this fact at a first glance. I didn't want to diminish Lua, which I find quite good too (I wish LuaJIT was usable on iOS), but I was really looking forward to dive into Lisp. ~~~ justincormack LuaJIT is usable as an interpreter on iOS, just not a jit compiler. It is a very fast interpreter, but obviously this is not ideal (and the ffi is slower without jit). Android L is also going to kill jit compilers as well alas, see [1] [1] [http://lwn.net/SubscriberLink/609511/53f3d97eed238d55/](http://lwn.net/SubscriberLink/609511/53f3d97eed238d55/) ~~~ carloscm Yeah I liked LuaJIT for the amazing JIT performance and the super fast FFI it enables. Exactly the two things that wouldn't work in iOS. I had no idea Android L was killing JITs. It's a terrible precedent seeing how many dynamic languages depend on a JIT to perform decently. ------ nanexcool Hey, I visited your game website [http://thespatials.com/](http://thespatials.com/) and it started blasting audio automatically. Some consider this an anti-pattern! The info on mission scripting is really good though! ~~~ carloscm It's a chillout song, and, well, it's the home page of a videogame, so we thought we could get a pass with the video on autoplay. But it's been two people in the last 12 hours already complaining about it so I will disable it for awhile and see how it goes with conversions/ engagement. We well keep this in mind for future videos. Thanks for the feedback! ------ bakul s9fes is another small Scheme that runs on Unixes, OS X, Plan9 & Windows. The code is in public domain and fully described in a very nice book "Scheme 9 From Empty Space: a guide to implementing Scheme in C". It weighs in at roughly 25% more lines than tinyscheme for *.{h,c,scm}. [http://www.t3x.org/s9fes/](http://www.t3x.org/s9fes/) ------ chipsy My kneejerk reaction was "oh my god don't dump a general-purpose language into the runtime just to write mission scripts," but this is actually a good example of how to do it: The DSL defines some data structures that the C++ code uses, and has a direct handoff of the emitted results from Lisp into C++. Lisp doesn't have to interact with every frame of the game. If you start exposing the engine in arbitrary fashion, things go south rather quickly; the scripting language will never stop finding more things it happens to need to get access to, and then you have an inner platform with boilerplate abstractions that make for worse tooling than whatever you started with. ~~~ TylerE This is completely bog standard in gamedev these days. The embedded language is usually lua, occasionally python. ------ davidw Tcl is probably a bit bigger than he wanted, but still does this kind of thing admirably. Originally created by antirez, the "Jim" Tcl interpreter is pretty cool if you want something a bit more minimalistic than regular Tcl: [http://jim.tcl.tk/index.html/doc/www/www/index.html](http://jim.tcl.tk/index.html/doc/www/www/index.html) ------ krosaen Neat - I wonder if ClojureScript-Terra could have worked too: [https://github.com/ohpauleez/cljs-terra](https://github.com/ohpauleez/cljs- terra)
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Company testing Twitter's Promoted Tweets: "This is going to be powerful" - luckyisgood http://www.mongoosemetrics.com/blog/2010/11/18/top-10-things-we-learned-from-twitters-promoted-tweets/ ====== luckyisgood One of the most interesting comments in this blog post: "The haters will hate. But it’s minimal. As usual, the minority is often vocal." ------ JSig Got Promoted Tweet block?
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Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (September 2014) - whoishiring Share your information if you are looking for work. Please use this format<p><pre><code> Location: Remote: Willing to relocate: Technologies: Resume: Email:</code></pre> ====== chrispecoraro Location: Palermo, Italy Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: No Technologies: Laravel, PHP, MongoDB, MySQL Resume: I am from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and have been building web applications since 1999. The majority of my career has been full stack web application development in the United States and most recently, in Europe. My current development platform is Ubuntu Linux 14.04 LTS, MySQL5.6, Apache2.4, and PHP5.5. My latest passion is the Laravel 4.x PHP Framework using TDD, XDebug, and agile methodologies. I am a co-author in several peer reviewed publications, an invited speaker at phpDay 2014, and hold a B.S. degree in Computing & Information Science-Saint Vincent College (Latrobe Pennsylvania). My research work includes biomedical informatics and machine translation. I contribute to open source projects whenever possible. My native language is English and I speak fluent Italian, I have visited eight countries, and my non-career interests are travel and languages. [http://linkedin.com/in/chrispecoraro](http://linkedin.com/in/chrispecoraro) Email: chrispecoraro@gmail.com ------ 147 Location: Chicago Suburbs Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: No Technologies: Ruby on Rails, Clojure, currently learning Node.js. Resume: [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MrGZE4fLJWgyTUAdQhDvRGYZ...](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MrGZE4fLJWgyTUAdQhDvRGYZa0aQwGkMwPxYokKSCWo/edit) Email: christopher.d.bui@gmail.com I'm primarily a web developer and I'd like to get hired for a either a front or back end engineering job. But, if you have an interesting position like in security or something, let me know. I have the most experience in Rails and Clojure, and I just started playing with Node.js. However, if you're willing to train me or give me some time to learn, I could pick pretty much anything up for you. Like Go for instance, I'd love to get to work with Go. If you're a startup or software company, another thing I'd love an opportunity to do is be your patio11. I love analytics and want to learn sales and marketing. I can add a lot of value to your company in this way. Give me an analytics dashboard and let me do some sql queries and we can set up emails with incredible ROI. So if you're around the Chicago area or are hiring remote, let me know, even if you're doing Python or low level C stuff. I have an interview tomorrow so message me ASAP. ------ malisper Location: Chicago Remote: Yes Willing to Relocate: No Technologies: Common Lisp, Emacs, Scheme Resume: My Resume is available in PDF and in Org Mode. PDF: [https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bw9be9U3doKBVnE5d1FxZEtQWkE...](https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bw9be9U3doKBVnE5d1FxZEtQWkE/edit?usp=sharing) Org Mode: [https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bw9be9U3doKBeTllcU5sbW9LdEE...](https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bw9be9U3doKBeTllcU5sbW9LdEE/edit?usp=sharing) Summary: I am a 17 year old, looking for real world experience. Email: michaelmalis2@gmail.com (I trust spam filters) ------ andymjobsearch Location: USA/AUS/Thailand/UK Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: .NET, C#, MVC, JavaScript Resume: [http://www.linkedin.com/pub/andy- maule/4/471/b3a](http://www.linkedin.com/pub/andy-maule/4/471/b3a) My last position was as a senior SDE at Microsoft. I took a break to get married, spend some time with family, and travel, but I'm now ready to look for my next position. I have worked on teams producing successful new commercial software from the incubation stages through to large-scale global release and maintenance. I've worked in full-stack web development, programming language development and PhD research into static program analysis. I'm always excited to read about and play with new technologies and frameworks and I'm really happy to move to new tech stacks that I haven't worked with professionally before. I'm ideally looking for a position with a small to medium sized company in the US. I have an H1B visa from a previous US employer, with 2 years remaining, that can be transferred quite easily. I work best in roles that are flexible, or not clearly defined, with lots of headroom to manage my own time and opportunities for creative solutions to interesting problems. I'd love to work with a technically strong and passionate team that cares about their product and craft. I'm happy to work as a individual developer or in a lead role, and will consider part-time work for some projects. Email: andymjobsearch@gmail.com ------ throwawayacct10 Hello, I am posting this from a anonymous account so that I don't alert my current employer. Location: San Francisco bay area. Remote: No. Willing to relocate: No. Technologies: - Expert C/C++, Perl, Java, Verilog Intermediate PHP, HTML/CSS/JS, MySQL. Beginner iOS + Swift language. Resume: will provide you upon request. Email: iamanonymouscoward@gmail.com (That's a real email address...Trust me...I will respond to it!) I have 10+ years experience in EDA industry working on some complex Verilog compilers. I am now looking for work outside semiconductor industry (in SF bay area, where I currently work). I have very good algorithms and problem solving skills. I believe I am very good fit for a software architect role. I currently write code in C/C++ but on the side, I am doing some web-apps and mobile apps, to understand the internet industry. I am very good in PHP and HTML/CSS/JavaScript + MySQL. I have a bachelors from India's most reputed college and have a masters from east coast top-30 university. I will be happy to provide you with a resume on initial contact. ------ Titanbase Locations: Des Moines, IA. Also will consider Omaha, NE, and Denver or Boulder, CO with relocation. Remote: Yes Technology: Passionate developer, working in Cocoa and Objective-C. Also Windows, classic VB, VBScript, VB.NET and ASP.NET, C#, SharePoint, Office, MSSQL, Android SDK/Java. PHP4/5, Apache 2.x, Linux, X/Windows, MySQL. HTML, XHTML, XML, Javascript, CSS. Lightwave, Adobe Flash, AS2/AS3, Illustrator, Photoshop, Premiere, and Fireworks. Comfortable in Visual Studio for MS and PHP development, and XCode for Mac and iOS development. Web and native apps and games. Resume: Click 'View Resume' on my Mobile App Showcase at: [http://bensapps.neocities.org](http://bensapps.neocities.org) or e-mail me for a DOC/PDF version. Email: benlindelof@yahoo.com Front-end, middleware, and back-end development. Sysadmin, documentation, project management, security, e-commerce and R.A.D. are my specialties. Also open to a sponsorship if you are looking for a top-notch developer to pursue your ideas on developing unique software solutions or graphical user interfaces. Started in the 80's creating ANSI animations and system menus, 3D 30fps animations with POVray/PolyRay, and hex-editing commercial software like DeskMate, DesqView and QEMM for fun. ------ sidmitra Location: Delhi Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: Python, Django, Mobile(iOS, Android), jQuery, Bootstrap, Backbone, Angular, Docker, Chef, Ansible, AWS, Golang, Clojure Resume: [http://www.linkedin.com/in/sidmitra](http://www.linkedin.com/in/sidmitra) Github: [http://github.com/sidmitra](http://github.com/sidmitra) Homepage: [http://www.sidmitra.com](http://www.sidmitra.com) Email: sidmitra.del @@@@@@gmail.com Some examples from the portfolio: * [http://publish.saxo.com](http://publish.saxo.com) \- publishing platform where anyone can publish e-books, and soon printed books (print on demand) and online courses. * [http://www.ecomarket.com](http://www.ecomarket.com) \- An online marketplace for ethical and eco friendly products. * [http://www.teaspiller.com](http://www.teaspiller.com) \- An online marketplace for tax experts. [Recently acquired by Intuit] * [http://www.hypedsound.com](http://www.hypedsound.com) \- A platform for music artists to share their content from various networks. * [http://www.grapevinelogic.com](http://www.grapevinelogic.com) \- A platform for advertisers to work with Youtube content creators. ------ jerng Location: Kuala Lumpur Remote: no objections. Willing to relocate: no objections. Technologies: I like math. I use Vim, Ubuntu, HTML, CSS, PHP (CakePHP in particular), spreadsheets and slides (the usual suspects, hosted and offline), Ruby (Rails in particular), Erlang (exercise: I wrote a code basic MVC and code interpolater), Haskell (exercise: I wrote a basic MVC framework with interpolation and RESTful sessions), MySQL, Postgresql, MongoDB, bits of the necessary web-servers. Resume: [http://linkedin.com/in/generalistforhire](http://linkedin.com/in/generalistforhire) Email: yangjerng ->gmail My career is about intellectual history and the quantification of human experience (which leads me to hobbies like machine intelligence, and rewriting mathematical systems). I'm not a specialist in anything commerciable, except quantifying, acquiring, and distributing transferable skills, and general human/organisational conditioning. I do have experience across a swarth of industries, and notable experience with fledging companies. I am in an ambiguous patch where I'm 15% into a decade of focus on optimising for cash returns, just to play the game... to say that I spent a bit of my life giving it a shot. Hit me. ------ dgemm Location: Toronto, ON Remote: Have done remote but prefer not to Willing to relocate: Yes, for the right opportunity Background: I'm originally a control systems engineer that has grown into many other roles. For the last four years I have been working in the industrial automation field bringing new ideas to market. My background is in perceptive robot navigation & control (sensor fusion, estimation & control algorithms and all of the supporting sensors - GPS, LIDAR, IMUs, etc) and software, and has grown to encompass most aspects of complete system architecture as I have taken on the role of technical lead of a small team. Have handled all aspects of system software from device drivers, OS (Linux) to application level implementations of complex navigation & control algorithms to user interfaces (functionality, not design), design of customer facing APIs, embedded web interfaces, etc. Have had exposure to board-level electronic design but not comfortable doing that on my own yet. I'm not limiting myself to this specific area but I do enjoy the world of integrated hardware/software "magic box" solutions. Technologies: Python, C/C++, Web (HTML, JS, CSS, embedded servers), MATLAB, SQL (MySQL & SQLite), novice Windows (C# & VC++). Working with Linux for many years from embedded systems to servers. Comfortable with most low level IO (serial, ethernet, USB, SPI, ...). Embedded OS stuff (Pengutronix & related tools). Can easily pick up other technologies as I have done with these. Resume: Upon request. I would rather this not be the way my current employer learns I'm looking. Email: incognito.hn@gmail.com ------ nmjohn Des Moines, IA | Relocation: Yes | Full Time Fullstack developer - Ideally looking to work more on the backend but I am flexible. Backend: Node.js, Redis, MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB. PHP (Haven't done anything interesting in PHP in well over a year) - Laravel & CI. Recently started learning Go. Some Java. Frontend: JavaScript [angular, backbone, jQuery, etc], grunt, bower, SASS (or LESS) Other: Very comfortable in *nix, bash scripting, nginx/apache, and general server/database administration. I've briefly used both vagrant and docker. Me: I graduated in May with a degree in biology. Why? I thought I wanted to be a doctor. I've been programming since I was nine or ten years old, I first started using GWBASIC on my dad's IBM 286. I've tinkered with a lot of languages since then. After deciding against pursuing med school at the beginning of my junior year I became the technical co-founder of a healthcare technology company focused on streamlining consumer product distribution. Now I'm looking for a position where I can work on difficult problems with people smarter than myself who I will be able to learn from. Email: hn at njohnson.me (If you visit my site be warned, it means it when it says BETA.) ------ Anemone Location: Canada Remote: Open to remote Willing to relocate: Yes (worked in several countries). Technologies: A generalist with working knowledge of MySQL, HTML, CSS and packages like Adobe (Photoshop, Director) and MS Office (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, etc.). Skills: Writer, researcher, marketer, product development/design, operations. __Most importantly: my skills are very transferable and I learn fast on the job. __ Resume: Happy to email it on request. Email: df6e4503 åt opayq ° com Stuff I have done before: •Research, analysis and content. - business writing (RFPs, copywriting, posts/articles) - scientific/technical writing (graduate level academic thesis, tech documentation). - strategy (marketing, product commercialization, new markets, business naming, etc). - write pitches, speeches, other written communications that stay on message and brand. - strategy consulting projects •Teaching/training (workshop on business canvas, pitch training, etc) •Voiceovers (product videos, audio book narrations, etc) •Design and aesthetics related issues (physical product design, styling, etc). •Operations related tasks (eg on the ground biz dev/partnerships, satellite office setup for companies without local presence in my location). ------ adityab Location: Germany Remote: Good to have Willing to relocate: In/around Berlin, yes. Otherwise, depends on the offer. Technologies: Javascript (frontend and serverside), C++, Qt, browser APIs, MongoDB (more in the CV) Resume: [http://adityabhatt.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/mycv.pdf](http://adityabhatt.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/mycv.pdf) Email: aditya@bhatts.org Looking for companies that write technologically interesting software. If you are writing a collaborative text editing system, for example. I have deep knowledge of the quirks and features of modern browser APIs. I am a generalist and most of my work is reviewable and open source, some of which is on Github [1]. I do not marry myself to a specific framework or stack, but currently use Javascript primarily. I can occasionally do the long hours stretch but prefer a good work-like balance and enjoy my time off. I can work without ego issues and with a cool head. I have a bunch of good experience in designing document editing systems from scratch, and have special experience in writing eventually consistent collaborative editing tools using OT, being one of the primary developers of WebODF [2]. I can write a rich collaborative editing engine for you, but cannot properly live-code in a collabedit interview session due to performance anxiety - writing software should be a craft and not a stage show. If you can understand that and trust my open source experience, email me and we can talk. [1] [http://github.com/adityab](http://github.com/adityab) [2] [http://webodf.org/](http://webodf.org/) ------ cynicalkane Location: Minneapolis, MN Remote: Not preferred Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: I can use any language. I'm best with the JVM, particularly Java and Clojure. I've worked with JEE, JMS, Hibernate, Spring, jUnit, Ring/Compojure, Javascript, jQuery, Mocha, Haskell, Oracle and Postgres SQL, ElasticSearch, Redis, Mongo, AWS; among other things. Resume: On request, or see my LinkedIn: [http://www.linkedin.com/pub/mike- thvedt/11/5b4/9bb](http://www.linkedin.com/pub/mike-thvedt/11/5b4/9bb) Email: mike.thvedt@gmail.com Full stack software engineer with 6+ years experience and a math background. Right now I'm winding down a digital nomad lifestyle that I lived for about the last two years. I've worked on complicated cloud pipelines, full-stack web apps, and in a past life, high volume, near real-time distributed trade processing applications for a Big Finance Company. I've also done work with parsing, domain specific languages, full-stack web development, custom high- speed message queues, and security and encryption. I like to solve hard problems. ------ jbcrail Location: Louisville, KY Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes, but only to the Seattle area Technologies: C/C++, PHP, Python, Javascript, Go, Rust, HTML, CSS Resume: [http://careers.stackoverflow.com/jbcrail](http://careers.stackoverflow.com/jbcrail) Email: jbcrail at gmail dot com GitHub: [https://github.com/jbcrail](https://github.com/jbcrail) I've been a pragmatic software engineer for 15 years, and have developed robust solutions for both the frontend and backend. I've largely been part of small teams that built a data warehouse ETL utility which processed billions of customer records nightly for a dozen Fortune 500 companies; a distributed document store with terabytes of historical data, an ISO consistency requirement, and a strict availability guarantee; and a service-oriented platform managing internal business data worth millions of dollars in revenue. I also have experience leading, mentoring, and training developers. I'm interested in large data sets, web services, and distributed systems, but I'm willing to branch out into new domains. I recently reached a 365-day consecutive streak of commits to GitHub. I wrote about my experience: [http://polybits.net/2014/08/16/365-days-of- github/](http://polybits.net/2014/08/16/365-days-of-github/). My GitHub projects include 700+ solutions to Project Euler (in 12 languages!), a RESTful content-addressable storage server, a proxy for local and remote filesystems, a LINQ-inspired shell, a simple performance monitor, a beanstalkd library, two libraries in Erlang and Go for writing an AI bot for Vindinium, and documentation for Rust. ------ sycren Location: London Remote: Good to have Willing to relocate: No Looking for work in interesting companies that need help with their marketing (growth stage), data (what they can do with it) and business (models and revenue streams). I am a Creative Strategist helping companies to grow and connect better with their customers. This is done in a variety of different ways from helping companies understand what they can do with their data to setting up partnerships to branding strategy to business modelling and so on... This week I'm working with Amnesty International running a social media marketing campaign for them gathering opinions on internet rights and digital censorship. I'm also an advisor/mentor to startups at the University of Oxford, at the Launchpad labs incubator and for several charities. I also help to organise different hackathons so my network is quite diverse and whilst I'm in a marketing and business strategy role, I have a tech background in Computer Science, Bioinformatics, Statistics and data. Resume: uk.linkedin.com/in/jameslethem/ Email: j.d.lethem@gmail.com ------ p-squared Location: Wisconsin; actively looking to relocate to a warmer climate. Remote: No. Willing to relocate: Yes, please. Technologies: C++, C, Python, OCaml, Verilog, bus analyzers, JTAG debuggers, o-scopes, and whatever else gets the job done. Resume: [https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4aVktLek0w0bnRDLVZlTTRCX1U...](https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4aVktLek0w0bnRDLVZlTTRCX1U/edit?usp=sharing) Email: wi.is.cold@gmail.com I'm a software engineering generalist, but my skills run pretty deep in both systems engineering and embedded programming. I'm comfortable working at any level from handful-of-KB bare-metal microcontrollers to Linux kernel drivers to complex multithreaded application design, and I enjoy the variety of working in multiple domains. My most extensive experience is in block storage peripherals. I've written drivers for a variety of storage protocols and I've designed and built the software architecture for products that move data from storage device A to storage device B at improbably high speeds. But I'm not really looking to get pinned down as a "block storage guy," and would prefer to branch out in a different direction and learn some new technologies along the way. Maybe you have something interesting? I'm not really looking for yet-another-web-startup opportunities. An attractive position will have challenging problems to solve, a meaningful product to deliver, and a team of smart engineers getting it done. It might involve a physical hardware component, but that's not a requirement. If you are building something on a Node stack, you should be prepared for me to not take you seriously. Bonus points for use of functional programming languages with strong static type systems. ~~~ davidw > Location: Wisconsin; actively looking to relocate to a warmer climate. Hah, reminds me of the same thing happening to the ID Software team, as recounted in the Masters of Doom book. ------ MojoJolo Location: Philippines Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: Python, Scala Resume / Blog / Website: [http://www.summarizerman.com/](http://www.summarizerman.com/) Email: jolo@jpbalb.in Interested in NLP / Machine Learning. To show a work of mine, I created an open sourced automatic summarization algorithm called TextTeaser ([http://www.textteaser.com/](http://www.textteaser.com/)). ------ silbak04 Location: Fairfield, OH Remote: Yes Willing to Relocate: Yes Technologies: C, Python, Verilog/VHDL, Bash/ZSH. Resume: [PDF] [https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4pLVkicFQ0qZ1BvbFg2RkZVTm8...](https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4pLVkicFQ0qZ1BvbFg2RkZVTm8/edit?usp=sharing) \--- I have recently graduated with a Masters of Engineering in Computer Engineering and Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering. My primary focus is on, but not limited to: FPGA Development (Altera and Xilinx): I have ~3 years of experience in both Verilog and VHDL. Embedded Systems (Atmel 8-Bit AVRs, PIC16F/24F Platforms): I have ~3 years of C experience. Software/Tools: Git, EagleCAD, OpenGL, GNU Debugger, Quartus II, Xilinx ISE, Magic, IRSIM, HSPICE. Protocols/Filesystems: SSH/Telnet, FTP/SFTP, HTTP, NFS, Ext2/3/4. I love to use Python/Bash/ZSH for automation and GIT for tracking/committing code. Many of my projects I have worked on can be found here on my Github: [https://github.com/silbak04?tab=repositories](https://github.com/silbak04?tab=repositories) Email: silbak04@gmail.com ------ hireme01 Looking for full-time employ. Location: South Africa \- From UK originally. ==================== Remote: Yes \- Willing to work business-day US Eastern time, European time or Central Asia time (GMT-6 to GMT+6) - Work time depends on whether you want me to sync with office employees or client-base ==================== Willing to relocate: Yes \- Anywhere with a moderately warm climate (20C to 32C) ==================== Technologies: Linux, Python, Django, Flask, PostgreSQL/MySQL/MongoDB, JavaScript, AngularJS, Node.js, Git, PHP, Bootstrap, HTML, CSS (primarily self-taught in everything) ==================== Able to work as(in preferred order): \- Junior SysAdmin/DevOps: Maintaining and managing infrastructure as a junior Linux expert. Willing to work odd hours to ensure guaranteed system uptime. Autonomous in work environment (mostly self-taught - willing to apply that in practice and keep learning on my own) \- Junior Web Developer: Frontend - willing to work on Angular or pick up your preferred JS-alternative. Backend - willing to work on Python-related backend or pickup your Rails/PHP backend. Preference towards Python ==================== Salary: Willing to negotiate ==================== Preference: \- Remote openings \- B2B or B2C with paying clients \- Company with flexible policies, openness, decent vacation time, etc. \- Any size company (startups, corporates, freelance) ==================== Email: hireme01@boun.cr Will try to respond to all emails. ------ taternuts Location: Arlington, VA Remote: No Willing to relocate: I'm mostly looking in the area, but I would relocate to the bay area or somewhere nice out west Technologies: (At Work Stack) C#, JavaScript, SQL Server, TFS, .NET WebForms. (For fun stack, stuff on github): JavaScript (Node.js/Express, AngularJS), Python, git, Vagrant, Sublimetext+vim. Played with and enjoyed Ruby/RoR, MongoDB, Redis, Flask. Resume: [https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertwettlaufer](https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertwettlaufer) , [http://robert-wett.github.io/](http://robert-wett.github.io/) , [https://github.com/Robert-Wett](https://github.com/Robert-Wett) Contact: rdwettlaufer@gmail.com I'm looking to join a smaller company that moves a bit faster, and I'm really looking to break out of the .NET stack and dive head-first into Node/Python, preferably under other great developers who can learn me some fun stuff. ------ dgsiegel Location: Munich, Germany Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: HTML5, JS, CSS, Python, Node.js, PHP, C, deep knowledge of Linux/UNIX systems, Drupal, Git, HCI, UX and UI Design Resume: Available on request Email: daniel+hn@dgsiegel.net Currently I am a tech lead/architect in the world's largest consulting companies' Emerging Technology Innovation practice, which is responsible for conceiving, prototyping, and building next-generation products. My topics mostly include modern web technologies, UX and free & open source software. Prior, I co-founded, built and scaled up the world's leading fashion designer platform, where I ran the technical side of the company as CTO and lead a small team. I am looking for a senior position in a product based company in which I can make a meaningful impact. My long term goal is along the lines of great minds such as Doug Engelbart, Alan Kay and Bret Victor. That is to augment human intellect by thinking how we can conceive the computer as a new medium for everybody. ------ evanatg Location: Portland, Oregon Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: C, Matlab, Mathematica, Python, Perl, HTCondor, Git, LaTeX Resume: \- LinkedIn: [https://www.linkedin.com/pub/evan- goetz/72/b78/1a](https://www.linkedin.com/pub/evan-goetz/72/b78/1a) \- PDF: [http://1drv.ms/1tnlesb](http://1drv.ms/1tnlesb) Email: evan (dot) goetz (at) gmail (dot) com Summary: I am a PhD physicist with extensive research experience in developing and applying data analysis methods to large data sets and experimental research. Nearly all of my experience is in the field of gravitational physics (experimental and data analysis), with other research experience in solid- state physics and molecular biology. I am interested in data analysis methods on large data sets, astrophysics, and laser physics, and I would like to continue research by applying my skills to solve new problems at the frontiers of science. ------ rgovind I am posting this for my wife, who is looking for a QA position (manual/automated testing) Location: San Francisco Bay area Remote: Yes. Willing to relocate: No. Technologies: Java, Perl, Selenium, HTML/CSS/JS, SQL, Linux Resume: [http://goo.gl/2GwVTV](http://goo.gl/2GwVTV) Email: Plz Check resume. Previous experience: Netapp, EMC. My wife (for whom I am posting) has 4 yrs experience in test automation. Most recently, She has learned writing Selenium test scripts in Java. She has previously worked as a software engineer in Netapp and EMC both of which are storage giants. She has worked on automating NACL file system using Perl and Java, in Linux Environment. She has done load testing and UI testing using QTP and other tools. She is happy to pick up new languages as needed. ------ nikhildaga Location: Khamgaon,India Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript (node.js, Meteorjs, Angularjs, jQuery), PHP(Drupal, Wordpress) Resume: Nikhil is a graduate from BITS Pilani with B.E. in Mechanical and M.Sc. in Biology. While in college, he launched Phodphad!, which was awarded as the best student startup in India, by National Entrepreneurship Network. His idea was selected as the 100 social innovation ideas in the world and the top 3 in India. Nikhil is a graduate from BITS Pilani with B.E. in Mechanical and M.Sc. in Biology. While in college, he launched Phodphad!, which was awarded as the best student startup in India, by National Entrepreneurship Network. His idea was selected as the 100 social innovation ideas in the world and the top 3 in India. Apart from web development and design, his passion includes astrology and equity analysis. Email: nikhil.daga.bitsian@gmail.com ------ davidw You: need someone with Ruby on Rails or Erlang skills. I also actually enjoy working in C, but it's seldom easy to justify doing so. I've been doing the web thing for nearly 15 years, so I understand it fairly well, and have worked with a bunch of other languages like Tcl, Python, PHP, Perl, Java, Javascript and so on. Me: US citizen currently in Italy, relocating to Boulder or Ft. Collins, Colorado at some point over the next year. My wife, just in case anyone has any contacts/connections/knowledge: Phd in biochemistry and interested in getting a foot in the door doing proteomics/protein purification/mass spectometry in industry. There are a bundle of Rails jobs in Colorado, so I'm not too worried about my own prospects, but if I helped her find something, I would be _extremely_ happy. You can write to davidw@dedasys.com ------ MadMoogle Location: Middle of nowhere New York State Remote: yes! Willing to relocate: to anywhere rural or any city with an easy commute to a rural area Technologies: Whatever you're using. I love to learn. Resume: available on request Email: hn@lj3.me I am and have been a technology agnostic web engineer for the past 10 years. I've worked for both large companies and startups on projects as diverse as B2B marketplaces and online video games, some of which have brought in millions of dollars in revenue. The areas in which I create tangible value include fast implementation of customer facing application features, services integration and internal tooling. I can work across all layers of a tech stack myself or work with specialized teams (ie: a database team, a backend team, etc). Whatever it takes to get the job done. ------ bohnej Location: Memphis, TN, USA Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes (SF Bay Area, Seattle, NYC, Tokyo only) Technologies: Java (native programming language), Android SDK, MySQL, Apache HBase, Apache Lucene, PHP, Scala (very basic), Perl (very basic), C/C++ (basic), bash, git, SQLite, Gradle, Ant, JavaScript, jQuery, HTML5, CSS, NoSQL, Python, LAMP, AJAX, XML Resume: Available upon request, but my LinkedIn is very representative of it. [http://www.linkedin.com/pub/john- bohne/68/654/717/](http://www.linkedin.com/pub/john-bohne/68/654/717/) Email: johnbohne1 at(@) gmail dot com Primarily looking for entry-level/mid-level Android positions, PHP Web Dev, or back-end positions. I have 3 years of personal Android app experience, 2 years of personal PHP experience, and 5 years of personal and academic experience with Java. ------ domador Location: Mexico City, Mexico Remote: Yes, I'd prefer remote work Willing to relocate: No (I've just relocated from Costa Rica to Mexico) Technologies: Xojo (Real Basic), Ruby, C, PHP, shell scripting. Currently working on adding AngularJS and Javascript to this set (with others to follow). Resume: [http://linkd.in/Rawh7G](http://linkd.in/Rawh7G) Email: andres.cabezas@domador.net I've most recently worked as a self-employed developer and as an IT consultant, but would love to join a startup or an established company. I've worked primarily as a desktop software developer, but am currently retooling to strengthen my web development skills using currently popular frameworks. (I'm currently creating a project with an AngularJS / jQuery / Javascript front end and a Slim / PHP / MySQL back end.) ------ adaline Location: Sheffield, UK Remote: Cool either way Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: Ruby, JS (Node and client, love WebAudio), Python, Go, C++, UX, Java, audio, design Resume: uk.linkedin.com/pub/valentin-arkhipov/14/936/6b6/ Email: arkhipov.valentin@gmail.com Hello, im currently freelancing after coming back to UK, but looking for something interesting to do. Would love to work on audio stuff for the web, combines my love for music and technology. I have largely been building web based systems, from straight up apps to various data processing and acquisition systems for back end services. I specialise in building system which make people happy, rather than sweat over side-effects in my functions (which is awesome as well!) - this I believe makes me great for front end work and MVP projects. Really though, as long as we make cool new things and take pride in our work - who cares what we build! ------ trumbitta2 Location: Cagliari Area, Italy Remote: Yes (International OK) Willing to relocate: Maybe, but the offer would have to be very good Technologies: QA/Process management, HTML/CSS/JS, Web Accessibility, Responsive/Mobile first, beginner in Node and Angular but very excited about them Resume: [full: [http://it.linkedin.com/in/williamghelfi](http://it.linkedin.com/in/williamghelfi)] TL;DR: \------ \- HTML, CSS: Grand Master \- JS: Improving Journeyman \- Creativity: Pablo Picasso \- UX Design: Architect \- Graphic Design: n/a \- DevOps: Journeyman \- Problem Solving: Mr. Wolf Longer story: \------------- Born, growing up. Multi-faceted web developer, able to effectively communicate at every level from the CEO to the young intern, and with every specialist from the graphic designer to the backend developer. My top specialization is in UX – but not graphic – design, which I just can't think of without a Mobile First approach. I'm also a natural born catalyst when it comes to good ideas and the next tech trends, bringing a creative and focused drive to the table of every team I've been part of. Always in the process of learning the next skill. Excellent command of written English, professional work proficiency in spoken English. Able to seamlessly switch from being a team manager to becoming yet another dev in another team, and working 110% in either situation for the common goal. Blog: [http://www.williamghelfi.com](http://www.williamghelfi.com) Email: william@williamghelfi.com Author of Bootstrap In Practice: [http://www.williamghelfi.com/bootstrap-in- practice](http://www.williamghelfi.com/bootstrap-in-practice) ------ randomwalk152 Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada Remote: Yes - definitely interested Willing to relocate: Probably not, although depends on situation I am looking for either freelance / contract / consulting work, or to make contacts with people in the startup scene in Toronto. A summary of myself: \- PhD in applied mathematics from one of the top US schools \- Knowledgeable in machine learning, statistics, optimization, graph theory, data analysis, data science, etc. \- Expertise in quantitative finance, algorithmic trading, financial data analysis, markets, etc. \- Fluent in a multitude of programming languages \- Experienced in developing web apps in Django, Javascript, etc. Things I would be interested in working with: \- Functional languages: Haskell, Erlang, F#, etc. \- GPU or FPGA: Cuda, OpenCL \- Big Data: Hadoop, HBase, Riak, ZeroMQ, etc. Resume: cannot post here due to confidentiality reasons. Please contact me. Contact me at randomwalk152 (AT) gmail (DOT) com ------ unmovedmover Anyone hiring in house counsel? My very talented and tech savvy girlfriend would like to transition from 3 years of largely corporate and commercial work in a law firm to an in house position inside the tech industry. She has fairly broad interests and is open to a variety of positions. Location: Singapore Remote: Possible Willing to relocate: Possible Resume: On request. She'll interview a lot better than the second lower she has on paper would suggest. She's very intelligent, witty, very much a law nerd takes an active interest in topics outside of her immediate job scope. Technologies: Has through me quite a lot of high level knowledge of hosting, software development and technology. She's also currently learning Python on her spare time. Email: contractsdontwritethemselves@gmail.com ------ goodafternoon Location: Austria Remote: Yes (Also US timezones) Willing to relocate: No Technologies: Web Technologies, Clojure, Node, Angular (> 1 year exp) Resume: [http://careers.stackoverflow.com/juliankrispel](http://careers.stackoverflow.com/juliankrispel) Email: julian@goodafternoon.co \----- UI developer/designer. At work I do about 80% code and 20% design. I have branding experience and come from an Art background. I love working at the intersection of art and technology and I believe our industry is still taking its baby steps. I'm determined to create and help create interfaces that push boundaries and let us use software in more efficient and engaging ways. I'm a clojure enthusiast, because I believe that applications are more scalable and powerful when their design is simple. ------ febvigrail Location: NYC / Silicon Valley Remote: No Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: JavaScript, HTML, CSS, Python Resume: [https://www.dropbox.com/s/6opsgyxte0h0fkf/Eric_Baukhages- Res...](https://www.dropbox.com/s/6opsgyxte0h0fkf/Eric_Baukhages-Resume.pdf) Email: eric.baukhages@gmail.com I would love to work anywhere where I can continue to learn and play with many different technologies. I'm focused mostly on Front End Web, mostly JavaScript, but have been recently writing a Python/Django web app in my current job. I'd love to find a job in the Silicon Valley / San Francisco area. Thanks! ------ Sgoettschkes Location: Vienna, Austria, Europe Remote: Yes (done it before, would do again) Willing to relocate: No Technologies: Mostly php (symfony2) and Javascript (mostly jQuery but also AngularJs), python, nodejs, haskell, Java; Also DevOps like vagrant and chef; Databases like MySQL, PostgreSQL and MongoDB Resume: Master in Information Systems and Management, worked as Java Developer while studying, Co-foundet design startup in Munich and was CTO/Lead Developer, joined startup in Vienna as Technical Project Lead. A detailed resume can be found on XING: [https://www.xing.com/profile/Sebastian_Goettschkes](https://www.xing.com/profile/Sebastian_Goettschkes) Email: sebastian.goettschkes@googlemail.com ------ AndroidJedi Location: California Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: No Technologies: Android Development, Object Oriented Development, Android SDK, Eclipse IDE, Java, C/C++, SQLite, XML, HTML, CSS, Git and Linux. I'm an Android Developer, developing mobile apps for phones and tablets, with published apps in the Google Play store and full life cycle software development experience. My Android app project experience, includes: concept development, project planning, research, algorithm development, programming, testing, debugging, publishing apps to the Google Play store and app maintenance. Resume: [http://compxpressinc.com/docs/kpcv.pdf](http://compxpressinc.com/docs/kpcv.pdf) Email: ken dot compxpress at gmail dot com ------ TezzellEnt Location: SF Bay Area Remote: No Willing to relocate: Aiming for position in SF Bay Area/Silicon Valley Technologies: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Rails (still learning), PHP/MySQL(Mainly working with WordPress). Resume: [http://cjhudson.com/resume.pdf](http://cjhudson.com/resume.pdf) I've worked primarily in marketing and operations, looking grow into product management or continue to build my skills as a full stack developer. Open to internships. Built a few small websites/blogs as side projects, getting a few thousand uniques a month. I love solving problems, creating content, and building things. Email: chris at cjhudson dot com Github: [http://github.com/TezzellEnt](http://github.com/TezzellEnt) ------ zperrault Location: Athens, Ohio, USA Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: No Technologies: C++, Python, Ruby/Rails, Go, Git, HTML/CSS/JavaScript, AngularJS, Parse GitHub: [http://github.com/zperrault](http://github.com/zperrault) LinkedIn: [https://www.linkedin.com/pub/zach- perrault/32/220/b82](https://www.linkedin.com/pub/zach-perrault/32/220/b82) Resume: [https://www.dropbox.com/s/nej2oniu0qn9xo9/resume.pdf?dl=0](https://www.dropbox.com/s/nej2oniu0qn9xo9/resume.pdf?dl=0) Email: zach.perrault at gmail Currently a computer science student at Ohio University looking for remote and part-time and/or Summer 2015 internships. ------ jayhuang Location: Vancouver, Canada Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: HTML(5), CSS(3), Javascript (jQuery, Backbone.js, Angular.js), LESS/SASS, Git, PHP (CakePHP, CodeIgniter, SlimPHP), Java, RESTful APIs, MongoDB, MySQL, MSSQL, Oracle, HANA Focus on web development technologies, with experience on both the front and back-end. More recently focusing on front-end work. Most recent project (July ~ Sept) has been architecting and leading the development of a major SaaS crowdfunding platform with a front-end built in AngularJS. Resume: [https://www.dropbox.com/s/9fto5ypl4x9ryyw/Jay%20Huang%20-%20...](https://www.dropbox.com/s/9fto5ypl4x9ryyw/Jay%20Huang%20-%20Resume.pdf?dl=0) Email: See resume ------ mailshanx Expertise in all areas of data science: machine learning, optimization, statistics. If your company generates large amounts of data, i can help you exploit it and build production machine learning systems. Top 2% rank on Kaggle.com. Built the machine learning engine for the world's fastest underwater modem, leading to a 1300% performance improvement. I speak at conferences such as Europython and have an advanced degree. Location: Singapore. Willing to relocate. Stack: Python Data Stack(Numpy, Pandas, Scipy, Scikit-Learn), Matlab, Java. Contact: [http://shanx.us](http://shanx.us) / mailshanx at yahoo dot co dot in Get in touch with me, i'll be happy to talk to you :) ------ martydill Location: BC, Canada Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Unlikely Technologies: C#, .NET, F#, iOS, Python, C++ Resume: [http://careers.stackoverflow.com/marty](http://careers.stackoverflow.com/marty) Github: [http://github.com/martydill/](http://github.com/martydill/) Stackoverflow: [http://stackoverflow.com/users/184630/marty- dill](http://stackoverflow.com/users/184630/marty-dill) Email: martyATcode-ninjaDOTorg 10 years of experience, primarily in the .NET world. Desktop and server as well as web experience. Degree in Computer Science. Experience working with distributed teams as well as working remotely for a centralized team. ------ nicholas73 Location: SF Bay Area Remote: Open to remote Willing to relocate: Possibly Technologies: I'm an electronics engineer who builds webapps on the side. Would be open to building electronics products, internet of things, or a webapp development role. Would also be interested in developing for financial firms (personal trading experience only). For electronics, I can build circuit boards and know analog design. For webapps, technologies are: Python, JavaScript, jQuery, HTML/CSS, NoSQL, MySQL, Django, jinja, web2py, Bootstrap, App Engine Resume: www.linkedin.com/pub/nicholas-chen/a/394/b03/ Best webapp example: [http://sudokuisland.com](http://sudokuisland.com) Email: nicholas73@gmail.com ------ marksbrown Location: London, UK Remote: No Willing to relocate: No Technologies: Python, git, linux Resume : [http://www.markbrown.io/cv](http://www.markbrown.io/cv) email : contact@markbrown.io I'm a mere 14 days from reaching the end of my PhD ([http://www.markbrown.io/research](http://www.markbrown.io/research)) and I'm looking to find a great job to sink my teeth into. I've been using Python daily in my work for 3 years. I've also worked with C++ (Geant4). I'm currently reading SICP in what spare time I have. I'm no stranger to maths or statistics. My ideal role will have interesting & hard problems to work with. ------ mordaroso Location: Originally from Switzerland, currently in South America Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: No, not at the moment. Technologies: Ruby, Rails, RubyMotion, JS, HTML/CSS, git, etc... Resume: [http://fabiokuhn.com](http://fabiokuhn.com), more information on demand Email: me@fabiokuhn.com Github: mordaroso I'm a full-stack web developer, currently located in South America and looking for a remote job with Ruby and Rails as a freelance, consulting or contract job. During more than 10 years of professional software engineering I worked with a lot of different technologies but I'm always in the process of learning something new. You can find more information about myself and my skills on my website. ------ jessicaaustin Location: Anchorage, AK Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: No (but travel is OK) Technologies: Java, Javascript, Python, C++, Linux, MATLAB, Mathematica, ROS, shell scripting, XML, SQL, Android SDK Resume: [http://jessicaaustin.net/resume](http://jessicaaustin.net/resume) Email: jessica@aus10.org Github: [https://github.com/jessicaaustin/](https://github.com/jessicaaustin/) LinkedIn: [http://www.linkedin.com/pub/jessica- austin/12/71a/223](http://www.linkedin.com/pub/jessica-austin/12/71a/223) Coder and roboticist, Caltech and CMU grad, 5 years experience in software development/QA/devops. ------ Jacqued Location: Paris, France Remote: No Willing to relocate : Yes, to London or San Francisco / Silicon Valley Technologies : Node.JS (with Express/Mongo), Javascript, CSS/SASS/LESS, HTML, Sysadmin (Unix & AWS) Resume & GitHub : [https://www.dropbox.com/s/xpcy927aghwwe6n/R%C3%A9sum%C3%A9%2...](https://www.dropbox.com/s/xpcy927aghwwe6n/R%C3%A9sum%C3%A9%20Mehdi%20Benadda.pdf?dl=0) [http://github.com/Jacqued](http://github.com/Jacqued) Email : me@mbenadda.com I'm looking to join a dynamic startup using the latest technologies, and with skilled colleagues to learn and work fast. ------ Akkuma Location: Charleston, SC Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Possibly if most of the hassles and costs of moving are taken care of and it is a city/state I'm interested in moving to (ie. no CA or NY) Technologies: HTML, CSS, JavaScript (node.js, express, React, Angular, knockout, and built my own), .NET (C#, MVC, Web API, ServiceStack) SQL, MongoDB (I've done backend, fullstack, and frontend) Non-experience technology interests: Elixir, OpenResty, Moonscript, Haskell, RethinkDB, ArangoDB Resume: [http://careers.stackoverflow.com/akkuma](http://careers.stackoverflow.com/akkuma) Email: gmail - gregwaxman (I hope you can figure this out) ------ dep_b Location: Argentina / The Netherlands Remote: Remote any time, on location this winter in The Netherlands Willing to relocate: yes Technologies: Strong Objective-C and C# skills, also JavaScript/HTML/CSS, Python/Django, SQL, PHP Resume: [http://ar.linkedin.com/pub/lucas-van- dongen/a1/785/60a](http://ar.linkedin.com/pub/lucas-van-dongen/a1/785/60a) Email: contact via LinkedIn I'm looking for remote work from the US or Europe or a short stint for a few months in The Netherlands coming winter. I speak fluent English and Dutch, I'm an intermediate Spanish speaker and I speak some German. ------ pravj Location: Roorkee, India Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: Python, Ruby, CoffeeScript, Javascript, PHP, Bash scripting, MySQL, ElasticSearch, Git, Vim, Linux Email: hackpravj@gmail.com I'm a Student Developer and looking for an Internship. Here is my GitHub profile : [https://github.com/pravj](https://github.com/pravj) here is my portfolio [https://pravj.github.io](https://pravj.github.io) I'm interested in CLI's, API's, data science/analysis and Web Development. ------ sharpneli Location: Finland Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: OpenGL ES/Normal, OpenCL, Cuda, C/C++, Python, Linux, Android + iOS, gdb you name it. Everything that is relatively low level in mobile. Everything that goes fast and melts HW or saves power. Resume: [https://www.linkedin.com/pub/teemu- virolainen/21/570/49b](https://www.linkedin.com/pub/teemu- virolainen/21/570/49b) [https://stackoverflow.com/users/940353/sharpneli](https://stackoverflow.com/users/940353/sharpneli) email: teemu.virolainen at gmail ------ wlk Location: Poland Remote: remote preferred Willing to relocate: not really, possibly only within Europe Technologies: Hadoop, Java, Android, Scala Resume: linkedin.com/in/wlangiewicz Email: wlangiewicz at gmail dot com (let me know that you are from HN) I have been running 2 large Hadoop cluster, at the moment interested more in api/backend/server side development in Java/Scala, I'm also involved in local meetups, co-running Software Craftsmanship group, presenting at other meetups from time to time. I have been working remotely for a long time now, I'm especially interested in part-time offers (~20h/week) ------ zwtaylor Location: Philadelphia, PA Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes, the prospect of lumbering through yet another East Coast winter is beginning to lose its romance. Technologies: Primarily HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript/jQuery, PHP, MySQL. Basic experience with Python, AngularJS, Node.js Resume: [http://zachtaylor.me](http://zachtaylor.me) Email: zachwtaylor @ gmail.com I'm a self-taught web developer who's been working in a freelance capacity for about four years. I'm looking to move into a full-time on-site position but will certainly continue to entertain offers for remote/freelance work. ------ jgj Location: NYC Metro Remote: Preferred Willing to relocate: Not right away Technologies: Python, JavaScript, HTML/CSS, C#, PHP Resume: [https://careers.stackoverflow.com/jgj](https://careers.stackoverflow.com/jgj) Email: jay [at] substancedesigns.com UI/UX, Django and Flask, all things front-end and game dev. Self-taught, loads of experience. I've done coding and visual design: for consumer and b2b products; independently for small businesses; in-house, producing marketing sites and internal tools; for fun and profit nights and weekends. Extremely eager to learn and grow and make. ------ mattnibs Location: Santa Barbara, Ca Remote: No Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: Python, Django, Javascript, Angular, React, .NET/C#, SQL, Full Stack Web Resume: [https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-9BNT6DJDiXUlRxUkRoRGFKV0k/...](https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-9BNT6DJDiXUlRxUkRoRGFKV0k/..). Email: hello (at) mattnibecker (dot) com Website: [http://work.mattnibecker.com](http://work.mattnibecker.com) Looking for Fullstack Web positions. I'm passionate about making great products and like working with others/organizations who feel the same way. ------ brickmort Location: NYC | Long Island, New York Remote: Yes Willing to Relocate: Yes, depending on location Technologies: Python (Django, Flask), Bash, HTML, CSS, Javascript, Processing, Java Resume: [https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bwagfa9ahgp0SkJlRjNra3NkQkk/...](https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bwagfa9ahgp0SkJlRjNra3NkQkk/edit) email: please see resume Currently working in IT, but looking to move to a developer position. I'm bilingual in Spanish and English and consider myself an honest & sociable person. Feel free to contact me even if you just want to keep in touch. ------ nchuhoai Location: NYC Remote: Preferred Willing to relocate: no Technologies: Rails/React/Foundation Resume: [http://www.nambrot.com/about](http://www.nambrot.com/about) Email:nambrot@googlemail.com I have current commitments, so I'm only looking for freelance/contract work. I'm a fullstack product guy. A jack of all traits. At my current engagement I fix everything from refactoring the bsvkend infrastructure to SPA-ing their frontend with React. I'll be sure to help your business as well. ------ Quarrelsome Location: Iceland. Remote: Sure but I prefer inhouse. Willing to relocate: Yes. Tech: C#, AngularJs, Sql and all the techs that one usually associates with these. My C# is much stronger than my js though. Resume: By request (10+ years commerical experience, including enterprise solutions sold for $ millions). Email: uchihajax AT THE gmail (only willing to post my trash email online). I'm more an Apps guy than a barebones guy. I can do complex stuff like debugging multi-threaded code and writing stuff that is atomic but my maths is generally pretty bad. I'm also very good with people, talking and writing. ------ vdewinter Location: San Francisco, CA Remote: no Willing to relocate: no Technologies: Python, Flask, Javascript, JQuery, D3.js, Socket.IO, HTML, CSS, Git, SQL, SQLAlchemy, Postgres Resume: www.linkedin.com/in/victoriadewinter/ https://github.com/vdewinter Email: dewinter.victoria at google.com I am a new full-stack developer with a background in GIS/geoscience and operations and a particular interest in data analysis/visualizations and realtime data. ------ pmiller2 Location: Oakland, CA; looking ideally for BART-accessible workplaces. Remote: Probably not, but will consider it. Technologies: Technologies: Python, Django (backend), C, Mongodb, LaTeX, git, and a tiny bit of Ruby/Rails Resume: [https://www.dropbox.com/s/8s9b39mxbxa1ioc/resume.pdf](https://www.dropbox.com/s/8s9b39mxbxa1ioc/resume.pdf) Email: pwmiller74@yahoo.com I've been off work for some time due to personal issues, but am ready to dive back into the workforce at full strength. I'm looking for a JUNIOR or INTERN- level dev job at a not-too-large but not-too-small company I can make my home. Ideally, you'd have an engineering team of at least 5-10 people and a product that is bringing in money (even if you're not profitable). I'm open to different languages and frameworks, provided you can give me time to ramp up on unfamiliar technologies. My previous experience (1.5 years) is with a small hardware company writing software for manufacturing and testing fiber optic switches. I've been off work for a while due to some medical issues, but I'm as sharp as ever and ready to get back on the horse. If you're a web company, I'd prefer to work in a more backend focused area. Outside of web dev, I'm open to pretty much anything. Send me an email and I'll definitely get back to you. :) I'm very willing to do technical/programming challenges if it looks like we might be a good fit. ------ arenaninja Location: Los Angeles, CA|Houston, TX Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes (change from previous months, where this has been no) Technologies (grok): PHP, MySQL, JavaScript Technologies (hobbied, unpaid experience): Python, NodeJS, Java, C Resume: [http://charmeleon.github.io/resume.html](http://charmeleon.github.io/resume.html) Email: chemical [dot] rivas [at] gmail [.] com \----- TL;DR: Full-stack LAMP developer in a group of 7. My focus is on the logic side of things as I am artistically challenged. If your tech stack doesn't match mine 1:1, I assure you I'm willing to learn it ------ ammmir Location: San Francisco, CA Remote: No Willing to relocate: No Technologies: node.js, Objective-C, Cocoa (Mac & iOS), Elixir/Erlang, Ruby on Rails, Swift, C#/.NET, Go, Python, Lua; and PostgreSQL, Redis, Riak, MongoDB, CouchDB, Docker, RabbitMQ, AMQP Resume: [https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirmalik](https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirmalik) and [https://www.pilvy.com](https://www.pilvy.com) and [https://github.com/ammmir](https://github.com/ammmir) Email: amir at amirmalik dot net About me: I'm a software engineer with 8 years of experience, of which I've spent the past four consulting. I'm now looking to move back into a full-time job at an established company (i.e. with a shipped product, and ~20+ employees). I'm fairly language-agnostic, as I believe in using the right tool for the right job, but I'm also excited about Elixir, Objective-C/Swift, Go, and hybrid application stacks. I'm looking for a product engineering role or a similar full-stack position where I can contribute both on the frontend and backend. I've been learning design on the side, and it would be great to put those skills to use. I'm interested in products revolving around mobile, collaboration, messaging, B2B, SaaS, etc. There's a lot more we can discuss, so email me if interested. Thanks for looking! ------ sfythe Location: Washington, DC/Nova Remote: No Willing to relocate: No Technologies: C++ (boost), python, linux, AMQP Resmue: [https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3xTtjze6ftUZTdiU1ZQMjViUDQ...](https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3xTtjze6ftUZTdiU1ZQMjViUDQ/edit?usp=sharing) Github: [https://www.github.com/sfpiano](https://www.github.com/sfpiano) LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/sfiorell Email: sfpiano (google mail) Over five years of experience with a 1.5MM LOC code base. Interested in backend/app/tools development. ------ jimsheldon Location: New Hampshire, USA Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: No Technologies: CentOS/RHEL administration, Jenkins, Puppet, Bash Resume: [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimsheldonnh](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimsheldonnh) Email: jim.sheldon@gmail.com Currently working for a distributed software startup, recently put out the second alpha release of our p2p file transfer software. I have over nine years of build/release and Linux sysadmin experience. I am looking to join a new project, ideally for another distributed startup. ------ uladzislau Location: Vancouver, Canada. Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes Experience: product and project management of web and mobile apps. A book author. Technologies: Rails (RoR), Objective-C (XCode/iOS), JavaScript (Node.js), PHP, HTML5, CSS3 Resume: please request by email Email: my username@gmail dot com About: I worked as a project and project manager for well known companies so that’s where most of my expertise is. I’m considering myself a junior developer - I’m learning Rails at the moment and want to improve my coding skills. I’m willing to learn your technologies as well. ------ cpursley Location: Atlanta, GA | Remote preferred My Services: I help entrepreneurs get from the idea stage to a functioning MVP web application using lean startup and agile development methodologies. Recent Projects: \- www.appraisalflow.com [basecamp for real estate appraisers] \- www.motohook.com [vayable for motorcyclists] (under development) Technologies: Ruby on Rails & Heroku (back-end) and Angular & divshot.io (front-end). Availability: My preference is for a consulting / partnership role. Open for new engagements beginning in November. Email: chasepursley+hn@gmail.com ------ manuletroll Location: Haguenau, Alsace, France Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: C# (ASP.NET MVC mostly, but not exclusively), PHP, Javascript, Microsoft Dynamics ERPs Resume: [https://www.dropbox.com/s/8ab3izu0sk4fkg8/resume.pdf?dl=0](https://www.dropbox.com/s/8ab3izu0sk4fkg8/resume.pdf?dl=0) Email: manu@clementz.io About me: Full-stack web developer with four years of experience. I’ve mostly worked with .NET on enterprisey applications and ERPs but I'm quite open to other environments. ------ pdardeau Location: San Antonio, TX Remote: yes Willing to relocate: no, but am willing to travel occasionally (have valid US passport) Technologies: ObjC, C, C++, Python, Java, iOS, Android, SQLite, PostgreSQL, Linux, multithreading Resume: [https://s3.amazonaws.com/com.swampbits.public/PaulDardeauRes...](https://s3.amazonaws.com/com.swampbits.public/PaulDardeauResume.pdf) Email: pauldardeau@me.com GitHub: [https://github.com/pauldardeau](https://github.com/pauldardeau) ------ shabinesh Location: Bangalore, India Remote: Yes. Willing to relocate: No Experience: 6+ years Technologies: Python stack- Django/Flask, Go, Openstack, Nginx, postgres, HAproxy, Docker Resume: [http://in.linkedin.com/in/shabinesh](http://in.linkedin.com/in/shabinesh) , full profile on request Email: shabi at fossix.org Github: [http://github.com/shabinesh](http://github.com/shabinesh) Bitbucket: [http://bitbucket.com/shabinesh](http://bitbucket.com/shabinesh) ------ marketingadvice Location: Toronto, Canada Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes, assistance not required Marketing Skills: Content Marketing, Marketing Strategy, User Acquisition, Social Media Marketing Technologies (all at junior developer level): HTML, CSS, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, jQuery, JavaScript Resume & Background: [https://www.dropbox.com/s/lhod5sdu3xy9ieb/Jamil%20Velji%20Re...](https://www.dropbox.com/s/lhod5sdu3xy9ieb/Jamil%20Velji%20Resume%20%26%20Cover.doc?dl=0) Email: hi@jamilvelji.com ------ IpV8 Location: Portland, Maine Remote: No Willing to relocate: No Technologies: PHP, Java, Python, SQL, Apache, Linux, etc Email: Steve dot Northup at the gmail Currently do all sorts of consulting and contracting jobs in technology. Would consider a full time gig if it fit. Also relatively new to the Portland area, so interested in chatting with just about anyone in a tech or entrepreneurial setting. ------ pmerino Location: Northern Spain. Owns a EU passport Remote: No Willing to relocate: Yes, anywhere in Europe or North America Technologies: Ruby, Objective-C, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, MongoDB, Redis, SQL, Java Resume: [http://www.pablo.xyz/resume](http://www.pablo.xyz/resume) Email: pablo95@icloud.com My native language is Spanish, but I speak fluent English. I don't really mind the sector the company operates within, in fact, I'd like the company to operate in a B2B oriented sector. ------ ctogden Location: Upstate New York Remote: Willing, but not sure it makes sense Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: Most fluent in Python, JavaScript, Java. Resume: [http://ctogden.com/assets/resume.pdf](http://ctogden.com/assets/resume.pdf) Email: ogdenchris@gmail.com Recent graduate, so looking for entry-level software engineering positions. I would be extremely interested working in one of the following spaces: education, journalism/publishing, civic tech, or geoinformatics. ------ toastertyphoon Location: Los Angeles or Orange County, CA Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Possibly Technologies: Clojure(Script), Om/React, Haskell, Rust, Scala/Play!, Swift/iOS, Go, C++11, Python/Flask, Ruby/Rails, Machine Learning Resume: [https://www.dropbox.com/s/ml6njfjnswexpnz/resume- pub.pdf](https://www.dropbox.com/s/ml6njfjnswexpnz/resume-pub.pdf) Email: jorge.israel.p@gmail.com Site: [http://www.blaenkdenum.com](http://www.blaenkdenum.com) I'm a generalist that doesn't get bogged down with dogmatic views on specific technologies. Instead I strive to learn a very diverse set of technologies in order to keep an open mind and blend the best ideas from each [0]. [0]: [http://www.blaenkdenum.com/notes/](http://www.blaenkdenum.com/notes/) Lately I've taken to liking the combination of Clojure & ClojureScript with Om/React, which I've been using to implement a web interface for rtorrent [1]. [1]: [https://github.com/blaenk/levee](https://github.com/blaenk/levee) ------ srawlin Location: Ottawa, Canada Remote: Yes (preferred) Willing to relocate: No Full-Stack Python Developer with 15 years experience. Technologies: Python (15 years), Django (8 years), Web (HTML/CSS, jQuery), SQL (MySQL, PostgreSQL & SQLite), PHP, JavaScript, C# .NET, Amazon Web Services (AWS) Resume: [http://www.rawlinson.ca/resume.pdf](http://www.rawlinson.ca/resume.pdf) Education: University of Waterloo - Honours Computer Science Examples of sites I've build: * [https://www.RapidCX.com](https://www.RapidCX.com) \- Started a cryptocurrency (Bitcoin/altcoin) exchange, currently with 36 coin markets. Designed and developed the system using Python/web2py, ZeroMQ, MySQL on AWS * [http://www.OnlineDegreeReviews.org](http://www.OnlineDegreeReviews.org) \- Developed and marketed the first and largest online college review website. To date: 7,300 reviews, 22,000 comments, over four million visitors * [http://www.AndroidWallpaperHD.com](http://www.AndroidWallpaperHD.com) \- Developed a mobile Android Wallpaper site using jQuery Mobile, Python/Django, MySQL. Average 35,000 unique visitors per month Email: steve at rawlinson dot ca ------ murkt Location: Kiev, Ukraine Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: Python, JavaScript, Clojure, ClojureScript, PostgreSQL, HTML, CSS Resume: [https://www.linkedin.com/in/vsolovyov](https://www.linkedin.com/in/vsolovyov) and pdf [https://www.dropbox.com/s/f5oj6wrgtgxzwxl/vsevolod- solovyov....](https://www.dropbox.com/s/f5oj6wrgtgxzwxl/vsevolod- solovyov.pdf?dl=0) Email: vsevolod.solovyov@gmail.com ------ cmacweb Location: North Shore/Boston, Massachusetts area Remote: Absolutely Willing to relocate: Not able to at the moment Technologies: Javascript, Python/Django, Node.js, Backbone.js, Ruby/Rails, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, some Angular.js and Ember.js Resume: Please see my website (cmacweb.com) - shoot me an email if you'd like a hard-copy Email: cmacweb1 <at> gmail <dot> com Mostly self-taught full-stack web developer with startup experience looking for any opportunities that sound interesting and involve working with great people and meaningful contribution to cool products. I'm open to freelance/contracting positions (slight preference for those) but will definitely consider full-time positions as well as long as it's a good fit. Smaller, earlier stage companies are preferable to large corporates. I have experience in a number of technologies (listed above) but am always learning and messing around with other technologies as well, so would definitely be willing to try out some other languages/frameworks if the project and team are a good fit. Please feel free to shoot me an email - I would be happy to have a conversation and see if there's any way I can help you out. ------ roycoding Location: San Francisco Remote: Yes! Willing to relocate: Not currently Technologies: Python data science stack (pandas, numpy, scipy, scikit-learn, matplotlib, etc), other Python libs (requests, Flask, etc), D3, SQL, Hadoop, Pig, Git, C++, R, more. Resume: By request Email: roy.coding+hn@gmail.com Website: [http://roycoding.github.io](http://roycoding.github.io) Projects: [http://roycoding.github.io/data](http://roycoding.github.io/data) I just moved out to San Francisco and am looking for a data scientist position locally or remote. By training I'm a PhD computational physicist and have been working as a data science consultant for the past year and a half+. I am a generalist, with a focus on analysis and simulations, but have experience across the whole spectrum of data science (i.e. data acquisition, cleaning, modeling, machine learning, evaluation, etc.). I'm looking to join a team of really smart people working on something interesting. I love learning new stuff and hearing about what people are working on. Some of the things I'm currently interested in are demand prediction, recommendation systems, and risk analysis. ------ random42 Location: Bangalore, India Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes, for the right location Technologies: Python, Django, ML/NLP/Analytics, Hadoop, Cassandra, Postgres/MySQL, EC2, S3, Bootstrap, jQuery Resume/Portfolio: [https://mohitranka.github.io/work/](https://mohitranka.github.io/work/) Email: mohitranka@gmail.com \------ Currently working as a freelance backend consultant for many startups. Specialize in Machine learning, and data analytics. ------ betacar Location: Santiago, Chile. Remote: Yes. Willing to relocate: Yes. Technologies: Ruby, JavaScript, CoffeeScript, A/B tests, CSS3, HTML5, NodeJS, MongoDB, SOA, SaaS, Rails, Express, Mustache, Phamthon, among others. Resume: [http://cl.linkedin.com/in/betacar/](http://cl.linkedin.com/in/betacar/) Email (base64): bWVAYmV0YWNhci5uZXQ= ------ randomhner Location: Buenos Aires Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: Android, iOS, WP7, BB, RoR, Grails, perl, C. Resume: On request; Current employer doesn't know I'm looking. Email: randomhner@gmail.com I am a strong generalist that has dedicated the past six years to (predominantly native) mobile apps and associated backends. Have published plenty of apps to the stores and shepherded enough projects to know the full cycle and it's roadblocks forwards and backwards. ------ xyclos Location: Charleston, SC Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: JavaScript, Objective-C, Swift, C# Background: I have two B.S. degrees in CS, one for Network Security, another for Software Development. I worked for two years as a network security analyst and a year so far as a web/hybrid mobile developer. I am now looking for full time software work preferably for iOS development. Email: hello (at) jakejohnson (dot) me ------ ahmadhamza19 Location: Pune, Maharashtra, India, Remote: Yes, Willing to Relocate: USA Technologies: Ruby, Rails, Git, Javascript, jQuery, CSS, HTML Resume: [https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=185421452&trk=nav_r...](https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=185421452&trk=nav_responsive_tab_profile) Email: ahmadhamza19@gmail.com ------ Daves Location: Currently NYC Area - but see relocation information below Remote: No Willing to relocate: Yes. I'm a recent grad hoping to relocate. Specifically: Boston, SF, Seattle, Austin, or Atlanta Technologies: Django, AngularJS, Java, Python, JavaScript, jQuery, HTML/CSS, SQL, Git, Bash, AWS, some design work Resume/portfolio: [http://davestess.com/](http://davestess.com/) Email: davestess@gmail.com ------ rjcaricio Location: Cracow, Poland. (Brazilian, currently with working VISA) Remote: Good to have Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: Python, Ruby, JavaScript (AngularJS, VanillaJS), SQL, CSS/HTML Resume: https://github.com/rafaelcaricio/resume/blob/master/resume.md Email (base 64): cmFmYWVsQGNhcmljaW8uY29t ------ tumble-weed Location: India Remote: Definitely Willing to relocate: Interested Technologies: Python- Scikits-Learn, Scipy/Numpy, Theano ; Matlab; C/C++ OpenCV; Git Resume: Hello there, I am looking for exciting avenues for my skills in Machine Learning/Data Analysis and Computer vision. A little something about me: # I am a PhD candidate in Computer Vision from India's most prolific Vision Lab. # Am handy with the essentials of a data-analyst's toolkit such as Multiple Regression, SVMs, PCA & K-Means. Theoretically sound, having done courses in Machine Learning, Statistical Methods in AI, Optimization Techniques, Probabilistic Graphical Models. # For my research interests, I work on Deep Neural Networks for vision. But I have also worked on conventional face & object recognition pipelines. # Some more keywords: Matlab, C/C++, python, scikits-learn, GPU coding in Theano, git, sqlite.... you can find my resume here: [https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B-vJfhWswxvdWGdJY1Zw...](https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B-vJfhWswxvdWGdJY1ZwVGJSOVE&usp=sharing) Email: aniketsinghresearch AT gmail ------ nonnatus Location: Baton Rouge Area Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: Rails, HTML/CSS, Haml/Sass, JavaScript, jQuery, CoffeeScript, Git, RSpec, Bootstrap, Foundation, Sunspot/Solr Resume: [https://mega.co.nz/#!oIVlVKLb!SlI183yv- NVw3I3N0dHTHwgv61by-p...](https://mega.co.nz/#!oIVlVKLb!SlI183yv- NVw3I3N0dHTHwgv61by-pTYxNw5u_WAJAc) Email: julien@crawfi.sh Looking for a junior developer position ------ agroszer Location: Hungary Remote: only Willing to relocate: sorry, no Technologies: Full SDLC | Python | Zope 3, Zope Toolkit Frameworks | Pyramid NoSQL | mongoDB | RDBMS | postgreSQL | mySQL | ZODB HTML, XML, Web Technologies Linux | Windows Resume: [http://r.pyte.hu/](http://r.pyte.hu/) Python Developer with over 8 years experience I’m a highly competent and result oriented developing and implementing various backend and middleware systems remotely within an agile environment. I have also some frontend experience. I’m adapting to new projects quickly, despite existing large codebases. I have the great ability to strike the balance between getting something done quickly and applying development discipline when it comes to abstractions, tests and documentation. Recent project contexts: healthcare, HR, legal. \-- LinkedIn: [https://www.linkedin.com/in/agroszer](https://www.linkedin.com/in/agroszer) github: [https://github.com/agroszer](https://github.com/agroszer) ------ somewhatoff Location: London Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: For the right offer Technologies: CTO / product leader. Background in Python and associated web frameworks. Particularly interested in data processing / machine learning. Resume: [http://techcitylabs.com/assets/Sims_Benjamin_CV.pdf](http://techcitylabs.com/assets/Sims_Benjamin_CV.pdf) Email: jobs at the domain referred to above ------ ashleyjohn Academia.edu (Downtown San Francisco) Full Time Openings: * Full Stack Engineers * Sr. Front End Developer Company: * Our mission is to build a new system for scientists to share their results and broadcast their work * We have over 12 million users and they are extremely important to us! * Our investors include Khosla Ventures, Spark Capital and True Ventures Team: * We move quickly, everyone is in charge of their own projects but also very collaborative * We get catered lunches from zerocater and lunch usually ends with a round of foosball * We're a diverse group with backgrounds in philosophy, biology, music and art Technical: * Peer Review: We are revisiting peer review with a novel product built from the ground up that will allow layers of discussion on top of a single document and we are building this using Rails and Backbone.js About you: \- You want to have a huge impact on a product that is making a positive impact on the world \- You have a curious mind and enjoy tackling hard technical problems \- You work best when given a lot of autonomy \- You enjoy board games, foosball, rock climbing, sailing, roundtable discussions and/or free lunches Please contact ashley@academia.edu if you would like to apply or if you have any questions. ------ adlawson Location: London Remote: Possibly, not necessarily Willing to relocate: Yes, for the right location Technologies: JavaScript/Node, Golang, PHP, (interested in exploring others) Resume: [https://github.com/adlawson](https://github.com/adlawson) [http://linkedin.com/in/adlawson](http://linkedin.com/in/adlawson) Email: adlawson+jobs at gmail ------ Tomed Location: Philadelphia, PA Remote: open to remote work Willing to relocate: sure! Technologies: I'm not tied to any specific language but I mostly work with front-end web right now (a lot of JS) Resume: http://tomdehart.com/projects/ or https://github.com/tdehart - can provide a formal resume if you want Email: tdehart [at] gmail [dot] com I have a bachelor's in CS and spent a few years at grad school studying human- computer interaction however I went into the industry instead of finishing my masters. Spent a year as a govt contractor but I've been freelancing for the past 8 months. Right now I'm starting to look for something more permanent (and challenging). I really love front-end development these days but I'm pretty familiar with the full stack. Living in the Philly area at the moment but willing to relocate pretty much anywhere. ------ thmorton Location: Oregon Remote: Possibly Willing to relocate: Absolutely. Technologies: C, C++, Java, Python, R, SQL, and standard bioinformatics tools are my primary tools at the moment, but I have fluency in other technologies as well (primarily webdev and embedded). Resume: [http://potato.basementserver.org/taj/TajMorton- Resume.pdf](http://potato.basementserver.org/taj/TajMorton-Resume.pdf) Email: tajmorton @ gmail What: I'm looking primarily for opportunities for software engineering within the life sciences. I'm currently finishing up my MS in Computer Science, with an emphasis on Machine Learning and Bioinformatics. I'm open to both industry (especially startup!) and more traditional academic/research institute opportunities. In addition to machine learning and bioinformatics work, I also enjoy low-level embedded development, and would be interested in biomedical devices (and the like) as well. I'd love to hear from you! ------ dtr Location: Bangalore, India Remote : Yes Willing to relocate: Yes Full Time / Contract / Part Time Technologies: C++, C++11, C, OGDF, Boost, Java and more. LinkedIn: in.linkedin.com/in/anujagarwal464/ Github : github.com/anujagarwal464 Resume : On request Email: anujagarwal464 [at] gmail [dot] com About Me: I'm in final year of graduation(Computer Science) and actively looking for projects/jobs involving C++, Java or other backend technologies. ------ wikwocket Location: Chicago suburbs Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: No Technologies: Java, Hadoop, Pig, Hive, PHP, JS/JQuery, DB2, MySQL Email: wikwocket@gmail.com I'm a lead software engineer, with fifteen years of experience doing application design, software development, and project leading. I'm happiest when building tools or apps that make people more efficient and happier. :) I have experience in enterprise application development, database design, big data architecture, report generation, and data visualization. I have a wide range, and spend a lot of time learning new technologies and systems. I'm interested in chatting with anyone in the industry, especially companies that are in the Chicago area or open to remote engagements. I'd be happy to talk about any projects, positions, or companies with you - I'm open to a new job but I also like to build connections. Please drop me a line at wikwocket@gmail.com if you'd like to talk. ------ eccp Location: Santiago, Chile Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: 10+ years of web development experience using Java, Groovy/Grails (2y), Clojure (1y), Scala (1y), Ruby on Rails (2y) Resume: [https://goo.gl/Hkycfo](https://goo.gl/Hkycfo) (Google docs link) Email: Click on my username to see my HN profile and links to my Github repos and LinkedIn profile ------ mikemases Location: London Remote: No Willing to relocate: No Technologies: C++, C#, R, Python, JS/jQuery, HTML, Oracle, node.js and much more Resume: [PDF] [http://goo.gl/pNIetQ](http://goo.gl/pNIetQ) Email: cv@mikemases.com I'm a software engineer in the consulting services sector coming up now on 4 years experience across a broad range of technologies. My role is mainly client facing so I've had the opportunity to broaden my skills beyond just development, but I feel now that I'd rather focus my skills back into in-house developing for a small exciting company rather than the large corporate clients that I usually see. I'm interested in full-stack development, preferably in a company which is data-driven and could make use of my consumer industries data insight experience. A lot of what I've done in the past has revolved round analytics in one way or another so an opportunity to carry that on would be great! ------ blckenedicekaj Location: Columbia, SC, actively looking to relocate to Charlotte, NC Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes but only to Charlotte, NC area Technologies: UI/UX Design, Interaction design, prototyping, wireframes, branding, style guides, HTML5, CSS3, Javascript, Adobe Suite, Sketch, Mac environment, responsive design, app design, LESS, SASS Resume: [http://shercreative.com/resume.pdf](http://shercreative.com/resume.pdf) I have been working in the world of web design/front end development for 5 years. My specialty and greatest strength lies in the design aspect of my skills. I am looking for something within that realm. I have worked with a web agency and a Fortune 500 company. More specifically I have been a part of a team in charge of the branding overhaul of the company. I am hoping to join any size team to make a difference. I want to contribute with my design skills to help engage users. Email: artist@shercreative.com ------ daleco Location: Pensacola, fl Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes (Looking to relocate in CA, I might consider other location in the US) Technologies: Java, Objective C, Matlab, UX design, few years of xperience in web technologies 6 years ago in LAMP, Html,css Resume:[https://www.linkedin.com/pub/david- lecoutre/20/47a/a1b](https://www.linkedin.com/pub/david-lecoutre/20/47a/a1b) I'm a Software and cognitive engineer. I have strong skills in Java and User experience design. Experienced on a variety of technical and creative projects including tactile feedback, surgery simulator, and an iOS 3D interface. Looking for a challenging and fast-paced environment and an opportunity to have a positive impact. My research include Sensory substitution and augmentation. Interested in mobile platform, web technologies, IoE Green card holder. My native language is French and I speak fluent English. Email: dlecoutre at gmail dot com ------ nburkley Location: Berlin, Germany Remote: Yes, I have worked on many US-based projects from other parts of the world. Willing to relocate: Possibly. I have an old H1B visa which would make a move back to the US a bit easier. Technologies: Full-stack developer with about 5 years of Ruby on Rails experience. Plenty of JavaScript experience (Backbone, AngularJS & Ember.js). Good SQL skills (MySQL & PostgreSQL), Java experience and of course HTML and CSS. I like to write tests and work in an agile environment. Resume: Please get in touch Email: burkley.niall@gmail.com I'm a well-rounded and versatile web developer, looking for my next challenge. I have plenty of experience bridging the gap between the business needs and the technical requirements. I enjoy working with interesting people and can provide plenty of character and technical references from both the US and Europe. Please get in touch if you think we can work together. ------ victorantos Location: London, UK Remote: Open to remote Willing to relocate: Yes, worked previously in Czech Rep, Germany, Norway, UK, Romania Technologies: Most fluent in C#, prefer Knockoutjs and UX Resume: [http://victorantos.com](http://victorantos.com) Email: victorantos@gmail.com ------ lygi Location: Columbus, OH Remote: Yes Willing to Relocate: Yes Technologies: Python, Numpy/Scipy/Matplotlib, Numerical Analysis, Mathematical Physics, LaTeX, git Learning: Julia, C(++), Javascript/Node.js, SQL Email: l@lygi.me Resume: [https://www.linkedin.com/in/lymgill](https://www.linkedin.com/in/lymgill) Applied mathematician with a deep affection for coding and geophysics. This past May I wrapped up my M.S. in math; my thesis focused on developing and solving a mathematical problem in glaciology (thesis: [http://www.lygi.me/thesis.pdf);](http://www.lygi.me/thesis.pdf\);) my coursework and research focused on numerical analysis and PDE's. I'm looking for interesting problems where I can leverage my math background; bonus points if the phrases "free-boundary problem" or "variational inequality" come up. ------ mlent Location: Leipzig, Germany Remote: No Willing to relocate: Yes (especially to Berlin) Technologies: \-- Languages: JavaScript (with and without jQuery), SQL (PostgreSQL, MySQL), Python, HTML(5), CSS(3) \-- Programs: Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign \-- Other: Comfortable with Linux, Git, Vim, and the server-side in general. Professional experience with Backbone.js, Underscore.js, d3.js, Require.js, Sass, Mocha, Phantom.js, Grunt, basic Node. At my current job, I also helped with Django, our REST API (TastyPie), and hooking it up to Neo4j, Nginx, & Uwsgi. (For my minor in Computer Science I studied Java, Python, C, Unix, computer architecture, object-oriented programming and design, computational linguistics, and web programming. I am not keen on delving back into Java.) Spoken Languages English (native - US Citizen), German (conversational) Resume: [http://monicalent.com/monica_lent_resume_2014.pdf](http://monicalent.com/monica_lent_resume_2014.pdf) Email: monica.lent@uni-leipzig.de \--- I am looking for work in the coming months as a frontend engineer and/or interface designer -- my passion lies both in designing a beautiful user experience and implementing it in concise, elegant code. I minored in Computer Science in university, so I am well-versed in the fundamentals, while having almost five years of practical work experience in IT. I'm comfortable switching between front- and backend, and can debug the full technical stack. I'm looking for a job that will challenge me to grow in my field, where I get to learn from my colleagues, and be part of a both a technical and creative process. Throughout my career, I've taken on increasingly technical roles, but have always found a way to enhance my work with my design skills. Please get in touch if you're looking for a frontend developer with an eye for UI/UX, I would be eager to talk with you! ------ dizzystar Location: Los Angeles, CA Remote: Yes Willing to Relocate: Yes Technologies: Python, Clojure, PostgreSQL, PL/pgSQL, Emacs Resume: Self-taught programmer. Don't work in a tech company now, though I am using PostgreSQL in my current job. I used Python and PostgreSQL in my previous job. Projects: [http://courseisland.com/](http://courseisland.com/) \-- Clojure, PostgreSQL, Foundation CSS, deployed on Arch Linux [http://coderedux.com/poker-bots/play-lizzie](http://coderedux.com/poker- bots/play-lizzie) \-- Poker bot in ClojureScript. omark -- FOSS marketing, CRM, ERP, and channels management tool written in Python, PostgreSQL, and probably C at a later time. Just starting working on this one. Working on integrating the eBay API. github profile: [https://github.com/dt1/](https://github.com/dt1/) email: dbtoomey@gmail.com ------ curiositydev Location: Europe Remote: If part-time Willing to relocate: YES Technologies: Objective-C, C++, iOS ecosystem, Python, Unix shell, OpenGL, OpenCL... Resume: Please ask Email: curiositydev@gmail.com I’m a young software engineer with experience of building large-scale iOS app that is used by millions of users. I have 2+ years of experience in iOS ecosystem gathered during work in agile team with designers, backend engineers and a product manager. But more than an iOS developer, I’m a computer scientist (M.Sc.). I love solving problems and playing with data structures. I have fun by implementing neural networks or detecting actions in videos. If you’re looking for a guy like me, preferably somewhere in Europe (Germany, Switzerland, UK, Ireland, France, Sweden, Norway…), I’d like to hear more. I would also consider moving to US if you’re willing to go through all visa torture. I will relocate. Contact me with your offer and I’ll send you more info. ------ DLion Location: Palermo, Italy Remote: yes Willing to relocate: Maybe Technologies: Linux {Slackware/CentOS/Arch}, MongoDB, Nodejs, Javascript, C, OpenCV, PHP, MySQL, Bash, Git, Java, Html/Css and currently learning Golang. Resume: I am a 22 years old student and developer looking for internships for the Summer of 2015 or for a short internship during the year or for a part- time job. I'm studying computer science and I'm working as Web Developer and Sys Admin for many companies of my city (3~ years experience) I love my job (because it is not only a job for me), I want to learn much more and I want to work to become the best. [http://dlion.it](http://dlion.it) [http://github.com/DLion](http://github.com/DLion) [http://linkedin.com/in/dlion](http://linkedin.com/in/dlion) Email: domenicoleoneluciani [at] gmail [dot] com ------ threauxaway Location: Texas Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: No Resume: Over five years experience in customer support and sales with both startups in Silicon Valley and in larger companies. Very familiar with the top industry technologies. Currently employed so I'm using a throwaway. Looking for: Customer Support position at a growing startup. Email: threauxaway415(at)gmail(dot(com) ------ _mtr Location: Greensboro, NC Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: HTML/CSS, JS, Angular, jQuery, Node, some Ruby, PHP, C# Resume: [http://goo.gl/XVtVJj](http://goo.gl/XVtVJj) (Google Drive) Email: tr@tylrr.io Personal site: [http://tylrr.io](http://tylrr.io) \---- My current role is Senior Front-End Dev for a small SaaS-development group that recently went through an acquisition. I've spent that last year or so on bringing an Angular front-end to our dusty old MVC2 app. I love working across the full stack but my professional experience is definitely skewed towards the client-side. Ideally, I'm looking for a position where I can branch out some and get more experience working with back-end technologies. I'm also open to senior-level front-end positions where I can get back to working with a small, focused team. ------ enginkartal Location:Istanbul/Turkey Remote:Yes Willing to relocate:Yes Technologies:PHP,Yii Framework,Mysql,MongoDB,Angular,Jquery Resume:[https://github.com/enginkartal/](https://github.com/enginkartal/) Email:enginkartal@yandex.com ------ gpolk50 Location: SF Bay Area Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes (SF Bay, Seattle, Portland, Denver) Technologies: Ruby, Rails, Javascript, AngularJS, Backbone.js, D3.js, SQL/PostgreSQL, Bootstrap, Foundation, TDD, and Git. Resume: [http://linkedin.com/in/gabepolk](http://linkedin.com/in/gabepolk) Product Manager/Software Developer/hustler looking for a PM role at a promising startup. Experience in Scrum/agile methodologies. Background experience includes working at Facebook as an Analyst on the Platform (API) Operations team, Director of Growth at a Mark Cuban backed B2B/Enterprise startup in SF (vidIQ), and as lead PM for Slice (acquired by Rakuten) Bookshelf. Email: gabe dot a dot polk at gmail dot com Github: [https://github.com/gabepolk](https://github.com/gabepolk) ------ jayshahtx Location: Austin, TX Remote: Yes, have experience Willing to relocate: In Spring 2015, yes Technologies: machine learning/information retrieval methods, java, python, matlab Resume: [http://linkd.in/1uo7yLq](http://linkd.in/1uo7yLq), www.jayshah.me Email: jayshahtx@gmail.com Hire me to analyze/curate large data sets, extract insights, and build predictive models. Previous work: \- Used machine learning to automate $1MM service at Umbel (Austin Startup)- recommended ads for clients to run to Facebook by analyzing 1B+ data points \- Used local Twitter sentiment to predict quality of life (model used to predict poverty rates, population density, etc) \- [Current] Using machine learning forecast concert ticket prices I'm a triple major student at UT Austin with an almost perfect GPA. Graduating this year, lover of all data. Email me at jayshahtx [at] gmail dot com or visit me at www.jayshah.me ------ deerlamp Location: Berlin, Germany Remote: No. Willing to relocate: Yes. Technologies: Golang, Python, C/C++ Resume: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3tcr708EUgPVVYwbENic21OUmM/edit?usp=sharing Email: jinjiang119@gmail.com ------ afeinber Location: New York Remote: OK Willing to relocate: no Technologies: Ruby, Rails, JavaScript, AngularJS, Rspec, C, Java, C++, Objective-C, jQuery, PostgreSQL, ARM Assembly, MATLAB, R LinkedIn: [http://linkedin.com/in/alexanderfeinberg](http://linkedin.com/in/alexanderfeinberg) Email: alexandernfeinberg@gmail.com General Assembly profile: [https://alumni.generalassemb.ly/profiles/alexander- feinberg](https://alumni.generalassemb.ly/profiles/alexander-feinberg) I am a web developer now living in NYC. I just moved down from Boston, having graduated from General Assembly's programming boot camp there. Feel free to check out the apps I built (aviaricious.herokuapp.com pixology.herokuapp.com and myreads.herokuapp.com ) Email me if you have any questions or would like to know more! ------ astockwell Location: Phoenix, AZ Remote: Sure, have prior remote experience working remote. Willing to relocate: Not at this time. Technologies: Ruby (& Rails), Javascript/Coffeescript (& Angular, React, Grunt, etc), CSS/Sass, PHP (& Wordpress), Go, SQL, provisioning/linux/bash, AWS, VMs/vagrant/docker, network eng/CCNA, Windows AD/MS SQL. Each tech listed has been used to build/deploy/support a production project, no 'just tinkered with' tech listed (although those are many as well). Interests: Distributed systems, SOA, API development. Resume: [http://astockwell.com/cv/](http://astockwell.com/cv/) Email: astockwell+hn0914@gmail.com Senior Full-Stack Developer for 2+ years, looking to work on engineering challenges at scale. ------ akbarnama Location: Mumbai, India Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Possibly Technologies: Python, Django, Git, HTML/CSS/JavaScript, Resume: www.linkedin.com/in/vishalsodani Email: vishalsodani@gmail.com I have been developing web applications in Django for last 4 years. I have helped some clients with wordpress performance issues. I can commit 20 hours per week. ------ pgdouyon Location: Cambridge, MA Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Unable to at the moment Technologies: Python, Clojure, Git (learning Scala) Resume: www.linkedin.com/pub/pierre-guy-douyon/5a/82/892 GitHub: [https://github.com/pgdouyon](https://github.com/pgdouyon) I'm a recent college grad (2013) from MIT looking for a full-time entry-level role in the Cambridge/Boston area. I'm mainly looking for a small to mid-size company and just want the opportunity to work with really smart developers and build great software. I'm always up for learning new languages/frameworks and try to spend my free time tinkering with many different paradigms. Honestly, not sure what other kind of information to include here so please shoot me an email to discuss more! Email: pgdouyon@alum.mit.edu ------ caseywilson Location: Livermore, CA Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: No Technologies: C, C++, Java, Python, SQL, Bash, Git. Ready to learn new tech as well! Resume: [http://bit.ly/1unwUIA](http://bit.ly/1unwUIA), [https://linkedin.com/in/cgwilson333](https://linkedin.com/in/cgwilson333), [http://github.com/caseywilson](http://github.com/caseywilson) Email: cgwilson333[at]gmail[dot]com I'm a promising recent CS graduate from UC Davis and I'm ready to start my career as a junior developer. I enjoy growing with a team, but am disciplined enough to work by myself. At this point, I'm very versatile and open to new opportunities. Contact me for more information if you think I am a good fit! ------ ttttthrowaway Location: Europe Remote: no Willing to relocate: YES! Resume: leading SEO in Europe Email: syn dot syn at gmail dot com i have enough of Europe. silicon valley preferred. you have to relocate my family as well. and yes, it's worth it. ------ e_d_g_a_r Location: New York City Remote: Yes please! Willing to relocate: Not really, cause I'm also taking classes in the city. Technologies: Python, basic SQL, iOS, Haskell/OCaml, emacs Resume: I worked for a little over a year as a Python programmer for Bank of America. I go to hackathons a lot, won one for my iOS weekend hack. I'm pretty versatile and can do or learn to do whatever needs to be done. Email: [https://www.linkedin.com/pub/edgar- aroutiounian/42/b06/199](https://www.linkedin.com/pub/edgar- aroutiounian/42/b06/199) or edgar.factorial@gmail.com Desire: I'm taking Operating Systems and Machine learning this fall at Columbia so I'm just looking for a part-time internship, ideally in iOS development. ------ nolamark Location: New Orleans, LA, US Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: No Technologies: Computer Science, Mathematics Resume: [https://github.com/NolaMark/AboutMe/blob/master/20140901Mark...](https://github.com/NolaMark/AboutMe/blob/master/20140901MarkAndersonResume.pdf) Email: mra2@ma7.org ------ richsin Location: New York, NY Remote: Sure Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: Front-End (html,css,js,ui,ux) Growth Hacking (GA, Adwords, SEO, Content) Resume: goo.gl/5sm4j5 Email: richard@richard.io Spent 8+ years doing web dev, marketing and biz dev for local companies in NYC. Have worked as a marketing consultant in an early stage startup that eventually went public. Primarily focused on growing companies and generating revenue in a lead role. I built many businesses from zero to over $200k/mo in revenue in NYC, including building web presence, developing and executing marketing plans and expanding services and service areas. Very motivated to move into a full time position for a startup. I'm single, have no commitments, mature and focused. Reason for move: To pivot away from local into a new industry. ------ jhuckabee Location: Phoenix, AZ Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes, for the right role. Technologies: Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Javascript, Coffeescript, Backbone.js, Marionette.js, RSpec/MiniTest/Capybara, PostgreSQL, MySQL and friends. I've dabbled and am very interested in Go and Polymer. Resume: I am a full stack web developer with a passion for writing clean code and an insatiable appetite for honing my craft and learning about new technologies. You can see my full resume at [http://joshhuckabee.com/resume](http://joshhuckabee.com/resume). LinkedIn: [http://www.linkedin.com/in/joshhuckabee/](http://www.linkedin.com/in/joshhuckabee/) Email: joshhuckabee [at] gmail [dot] com ------ pocketstar Location: Palo Alto, California, USA Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: Solidworks, Altium Designer, Mastercam, Vericut, COMSOL, C, C++, Lua, Objective-C, Matlab, HTML, CSS, PHP, Java, Lua Resume: [https://www.dropbox.com/s/1mrlkmb592fghef/Spencer.Davis.Resu...](https://www.dropbox.com/s/1mrlkmb592fghef/Spencer.Davis.Resume.2014-08-12.pdf?dl=0) Email: sbd@uvic.ca FULL stack engineer including mechanical, software and electrical engineering. Mission critical satellite design experience. Embedded development with 8-bit Atmel AVR. Strong materials background with a focus on carbon. MEMS and NEMS interest. Lateral thinker with a keen eye for design. I am competent and I love to learn. I just love sailing too! ------ Widow Location: NYC Area Remote: No Willing to relocate: I'm aiming for a job in the city so no Technologies: Java, Python, Some experience with C#, VB.Net, Ruby, MySQL, Javascript, HTML & CSS Resume/email: Feel free to reach out to me at zhuenink@gmail.com. As a caveat, I just finished my software engineering degree in August! ------ ermacaz Location: Phoenix, Arizona Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: No Technologies: Ruby on Rails full stack Resume: [https://github.com/MattHamada](https://github.com/MattHamada) email: mattahamada@gmail.com ------ gidan Location: France Remote: Yes Language: French, English Mail: throw.away.jules@gmail.com Frontend: Javascript (Angular - Backbone - jQuery), CSS, HTML Backend: PHP (Symfony2), Node I like to build complex applications, if you're looking for someone to move a destkop application to a webapp, i'm the person you need in your team. Best. ------ Akkuma Location: Charleston, SC Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Possibly if most of the hassles and costs of moving are taken care of and it is a city/state I'm interested in moving to (ie. no CA or NY) Technologies: HTML, CSS, JavaScript (node.js, express, React, Angular, knockout, and built my own), .NET (C#, MVC, Web API, ServiceStack) SQL, MongoDB (I've done backend, fullstack, and frontend) Non-experience technology interests: Elixir, OpenResty, Moonscript, Haskell, RethinkDB, ArangoDB Resume: [http://careers.stackoverflow.com/akkuma](http://careers.stackoverflow.com/akkuma) Email: gmail - gregorywaxman (I hope you can figure this out) I accidentally put the wrong email before ------ BCotts Location: Derby, East Midlands, UK. Remote: Yes. Willing to relocate: Yes. Technologies: Android/Java, Linux server admin, Oracle PL/SQL. Resume: [http://lnkd.in/njPWzG](http://lnkd.in/njPWzG) \- Will supply CV on request. Email (Base 64): YmlsbHlAYmlsbHljb3R0b24uY28udWsK ------ calgaryeng Location: AB, Canada Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: No Technologies: \- Good: Ruby, Rails, Ember.js \- Beginner: Python, Go, (Docker) \- Exposure only: Clojure, R, Java Resume: On request Email: calgaryeng@hotmail.com ------ jparishy Hi! I'm looking for the right opportunity and I'm in no rush. I'm very good at iOS development and if a job exists that lets me stay in my current location while working on something awesome I'll definitely consider making the switch (currently I'm doing freelance work). Get in touch if you have something that fits! Location: New Jersey Remote: Yes, preferred Willing to relocate: Reluctantly Technologies: Expertise is iOS. Expert in Objective-C and all Apple Frameworks; Familiar with Rails, Django, Frontend Web Dev. Resume: Check my website for more info, [http://juliusparishy.com](http://juliusparishy.com) Email: boss@jparishy.com ------ socksy Location: London, UK, Europe Remote: If it suits Willing to relocate: Yes! Especially to Berlin, Germany Technologies: Despite recently graduating have a wide experience in a bunch of technologies: Backend: -Languages: \--Python, Ruby, C, Java, Clojure, Go, (also a few toy projects in Haskell, Rust, Scala) -Misc: \--MVC frameworks, MOM systems, AWS (EC2, S3, Route53, EBS, more), Machine Learning (w/ scikit-learn and Clojure), lots of web stuff (from servers to whatever), Compilers, Twilio, creating and using APIs, etc Frontend: -JavaScript, Backbone.js, Jasmine, Phantom.JS, JQuery, etc [and Node.JS, though questionably backend] Resume: [http://thejibe.co.uk/benlovell.pdf](http://thejibe.co.uk/benlovell.pdf) Email: ben.j.lovell@gmail.com ------ bwhaley Location: Berkeley, CA Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: No Technologies: Linux, AWS, DevOps, CI/CD, Python, Golang Resume: I am a part time independent consulting looking to help companies of all sizes with automation, deployment, and cloud architecture. I have years of experience in building and operating scalable web applications with notable companies in the bay area and beyond. Please get in touch for a free hour to discuss your problems and how I can help solve them. [http://www.bwhaley.com/](http://www.bwhaley.com/) [http://linkedin.com/in/benwhaley](http://linkedin.com/in/benwhaley) Email: bwhaley@gmail.com ------ yamafaktory Location: France Remote: Open to remote Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies : Front-end => JavaScript, HTML5, CSS3, Angular, Polymer, Socket.io / Back-end => NodeJS (Express, Koa), NoSQL (MongoDB, RethinkDB) Resume: [https://yamafaktory.github.io](https://yamafaktory.github.io) Email: davy.duperron[at]gmail.com Atypical profil (from LAMP dev to police officer / now willing to take a u-turn in my career as a full stack developer!). I am fond of learning everything related to the web and using bleeding-edge technologies. ------ AndreTran Location: San Francisco, CA Remote: Preferably No Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: Ruby On Rails, Javascript, Backbone.js, JQuery, Python, Java, HTML/CSS, SQL Resume: [http://andretran.io/#resume](http://andretran.io/#resume) GitHub: [https://github.com/andretran](https://github.com/andretran) Email: andre.n.tran@gmail.com Born and raised Canadian Eh, I bleed maple syrup. I'm mostly self taught, officially my background is in Business Finance and Economic. I'm definitely open to project management, but preferably looking for a full-stack/front-end web dev position. I'm looking forward to your emails! ------ sfeats Location: Portland, Oregon Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: R, SQL, Python, HTML/CSS, Javascript, Bootstrap Resume: [http://www.linkedin.com/in/lisaorr/](http://www.linkedin.com/in/lisaorr/) Email: lisafeets (at) gmail (dot) com ------ lfx Northern girl and a friendly giant are looking for a job in Canada. Me and my girl just entered working holiday in Canada program. Do you know the most wonderful place for programmer and designer/photographer/film maker to work in Canada? PS, AI, Pr, Corel Draw. Front end (all sort of stack, most experienced with Angular, vanilla JS); Back end - Java, PHP, Python, C#, NodeJS. [No,My,Postgre]SQL[Server]. Experienced with QA. Now working as DevOp. Yes, we are willing to learn new tech. Resume upon request. Email: hi@creationsfromthenorth.com Thanks! ------ zntfdr Location: Italy, I would like to go back to Shanghai. Remote: ofc. Willing to relocate: Yes. Tech: Java, C, C++, PHP, SQL, JavaScript, JQuery, HTML (any), CSS (any) and more. Resume: (Brand new!) [https://goo.gl/QifQtI](https://goo.gl/QifQtI) LinkedIn: [https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=31102172](https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=31102172) Contact: my username @ gmail.com Born and raised in Italy, I'm now ready to work with super talented people around the world, to solve the most exciting and competitive problems, and to plan and execute tremendously complex projects. ------ grigio I'm a FullStack developer freelance I evaluate jobs from companies in Europe. Location: Torino, Italy, Europe Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: No Technologies: MeteorJS, Javascript, Linux, Docker Resume: [http://grigio.org](http://grigio.org) Email: grigio.org @t gmail.com ------ dz1111 Location: Honolulu, Hawaii, USA Remote: YES Willing to relocate: NO Technologies: iOS (Objective-C, Swift), Python, Databases (PostgreSQL), Illustrator Resume: [PDF] [http://goo.gl/T8xMIP](http://goo.gl/T8xMIP) Email: spiodsoolma@dunflimblag.mailexpire.com Summary: * Software Engineer, with a strong design sense, interested in making great software that is both testable and extendable. * Dedication to profession demonstrated in latest pursuits: Scala, functional programming, TDD, Swift, concurrency and parallelism. * Works well independently. Also interested in being a strong team member. Comfortable with open-source or closed-source. * Prefers permanent position. Ready to start now. ------ aarohmankad I'm currently just looking for a side project, please correct me if this is the wrong thread to post. Location: San Diego, CA Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: No Technologies: HTML5, Javascript/CoffeeScript, jQuery, Angular, CSS/LESS/SASS Resume: aarohmankad.com email: aarohmankad@gmail.com ------ kukabynd Looking for a full-time employment. Location: GMT+6 Remote: Yes (have been successfully working over a year) Willing to relocate: Depends Technologies: SASS, JS, NodeJS, Ruby, AngularJS, EmberJS, ReactJS, basically front-end stack focused on design and user experience Email: work(at)kuka.io ------ 2close4comfort Des Moines, IA, remote/relocate, Full Time Tech: Linux/Windows, MSSQL (clustering), Exchange, Oracle, VMware (ESX/View), Citrix (PS 4.5-XA6),EMC (VNX, RecoverPoint, XtremIO), F5, Cisco (UCS, NX-OS), Perl, Ruby, Python, Bash, Powershell, VB, OSX (enterprise interop/mgmt) Resume: (please contact for resume) Contact: ph5ildm (at) gmail I have a background in sysadmin work both server/application level and also have background in security (recon, monitoring, scanning, analysis and remediation). Remote or within the Midwest but open to the idea of other places if the fit is right. ------ ccastillo_cl Location: Santiago, CL Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Sure! (US, Canada, Europe) Technologies: Ruby(Rails/Sinatra), SQL (MySQL, Postgres), DevOps technologies(chef, vagrant, aws), html/js(jQuery/Angular)/css. Currently learning node Resume: [http://lnkd.in/zbp-q7](http://lnkd.in/zbp-q7) Email: castillo85 at gmail dot com I've been working as backend developer and devops recently. I'm proficient in Ruby but interested in working with other languages. Also I'm open to work in different roles rather than backend developer and devops. ~~~ ccastillo_cl In the case you can't see the resume, here's the full link: [https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=145782407](https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=145782407) ------ JoeCortopassi Location: Southern California (San Diego area) Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: No Technologies: iOS/Objective-C, Continuous Integration, Web Services, REST API/Graph API, Version Control (Git, SVN), CocoaPods, XCTest, Jenkins, TestFlight, AFNetworking, FMDB, SocketIO (Obj-C), Auto Layout, LAMP Development, Agile Development, Test Driven Development Resume: http://www.linkedin.com/in/joecortopassi/ (PDF on request) Email: joe@{username}.com ------ hamidr Location: Tehran, Iran. Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: No Technologies(worked with): C/C++1y(Qt, Boost, and ASIO), PHP(Symfony and Kohana), JavaScript(jQuery and AngularJS), Bootstrap, Ruby, Git, MySQL, MongoDB, and Redis. Resume: On request. [http://www.linkedin.com/pub/hamidreza- davoodi/27/88/5b5](http://www.linkedin.com/pub/hamidreza-davoodi/27/88/5b5) Email: hrdavodi at gmail com Rates: $35/hour, ($40 for projects extending over 120 hours/month) Familiar with(or willing to learn): Scala(play and spray), Haskell, RoR, and AngularJS. ------ mascot6699 Location: Surat, India Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: No Technologies: Django, python, jquery, javascript, C Github: https://github.com/mascot6699 Resume:https://www.dropbox.com/s/mc0uvfa26m4ihhz/Umang%20Resume.pdf?dl=0 Email: umangshucool at gmail dot com I can do django web development and I'm looking to join a dynamic startup using the latest technologies, and with skilled colleagues to learn scaling and devops role. ------ xasos Hi! I am a 16 year old developer looking for internships for the Summer of 2015. I have experience with Java and the MEAN stack (currently learning iOS). I'm super willing to learn and have previous industry experience and want to grow my skills even further. Location: Chicago, IL/San Francisco, CA Remote: No Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: MEAN, Java, Android, iOS (1/2 year) Resume: Please send me an email :) Email: nirajpant7@gmail.com ------ ibisum Location: Vienna, Austria Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: No Technologies: Lua, openresty, linux, MOAI, node.js, luvit, git, UX and UI design, embedded, custom-distributions, handheld, mobile, SIL-4 Resume: on request Email: ibisum+hn[at]gmail[.]com Github: github.com/seclorum/ ------ alansammarone Location: Curitiba, Brasil Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: Javascript, Python, PHP, MySQL Resume: [http://registry.jsonresume.org/alansammarone](http://registry.jsonresume.org/alansammarone) Email: hi@alan.buzz ------ areed Chiang Mai Remote yes Relocate no JavaScript, Golang, PostgreSQL [http://github.com/areed](http://github.com/areed) w.andrew.reed@gmail.com ------ voyage11 Location: Malaysia Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: iOS, Objective-C, Swift Online Portfolio: [http://mobileoop.com/my-portfolio](http://mobileoop.com/my- portfolio) StackOverFlow: [http://stackoverflow.com/users/1995940/ricky](http://stackoverflow.com/users/1995940/ricky) Github: [https://github.com/voyage11](https://github.com/voyage11) Contact Me: [http://mobileoop.com/contact-me](http://mobileoop.com/contact-me) ------ elymspears Location: Boston, MA Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: No. I may be able to relocate in mid-to-late 2015, but I am unable to consider relocating any sooner than that. Technologies: Python, Haskell, various SQL and NoSQL tools, machine learning, Bayesian statistics, scientific computing, math modeling, big data. Resume: Request by email Email: spearsem a t g m a i l I wrote up a summary of my skills and what I am looking for in my next job: < [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8129505](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8129505) >. ------ alexvision Location: Sydney, Australia Remote: Sure, but prefer in-house Willing to relocate: Yes Expertise: Product and Project Management, with a little bit of penetration testing/security work. I have done some dev work but I am no expert (nor do I want to do it day to day) Technologies I've played with: Java, HTML/CSS/JS, Django, Rails Resume: alexmanusu.com Email: alex.manusu@gmail.com I'm currently an honours student (undergraduate thesis) studying merchant Bitcoin adoption. I'm looking for interesting companies to work with in the new year particularly in the Bitcoin space. ------ daj40 Location: Cleveland, OH Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes Languages/Technologies: C#, SQL, JavaScript, Python, Java, C++, C, CSS, JSP, German (fluent), English (native) Resume: [https://www.dropbox.com/s/xheo31v2d7rse40/DAJ%20Resume%20Web...](https://www.dropbox.com/s/xheo31v2d7rse40/DAJ%20Resume%20Web%20Version.pdf?dl=0) LinkedIn: [https://www.linkedin.com/pub/david- jannotta/4b/986/373](https://www.linkedin.com/pub/david-jannotta/4b/986/373) Email: In resume ------ drinkmoretea Location: San Diego Remote: yes Willing to relocate: no Technologies: Python, R, Matlab, Java, Linux, ETL tools Resume: [https://www.linkedin.com/in/dbolotov](https://www.linkedin.com/in/dbolotov) Projects: [http://dbolotov.github.io/](http://dbolotov.github.io/) Email: dbolotov {at> live {dot> com Analyst/developer with 3+ years of experience in analytics, machine learning, data pipelines. I have skills to get the data and turn it into knowledge, and am always willing to learn. Looking for a data science/engineering role :) ------ dharmit Location: Pune, India Remote: Yes! (preferred) Willing to relocate: Depends on location Technologies: Python, Linux, Docker, OpenStack, KVM, HTML, CSS Resume: [http://goo.gl/PQhjoR](http://goo.gl/PQhjoR) Email: In the Resume ------ shylock13 Location: Patna, India Remote: No Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: HTML, CSS, PHP (Yii framework), JavaScript( Ember.js, Node.js, beginner in Angular.js), C, C++, Java (with Spring Framework), Python, MySQL, Scala, ASP. Resume: [http://in.linkedin.com/in/arun13pandey](http://in.linkedin.com/in/arun13pandey) Email: arun13pandey at gmail dot com Will graduate in May 2015. (Bachelor of Technology, Computer Science and Engineering). Keen on working as a web application developer. Would love an opportunity as a UI/UX developer (beginner). ------ phish Location: Germany currently (Canadian citizen) Remote: Depends Willing to relocate: Yeah Technologies: Ruby, Rails, Golang, Can learn whatever Resume: [http://john.ston.ca](http://john.ston.ca) Email: qdylanj on the google mails ------ kachhalimbu Location: Taipei Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: No Technologies: JavaScript (AngularJS, NodeJS, ExpressJS), Java, Python (Django) Resume: [http://tw.linkedin.com/in/ashishdasnurkar/](http://tw.linkedin.com/in/ashishdasnurkar/) Email: ashish.dasnurkar@gmail.com Currently looking for part-time/full-time REMOTE only. I have 10+ years professional experience and I have full stack development experience with the technologies mentioned above. My recent work has been on a Ajax UI framework. Contact me for more details. ------ hiby007 Location: India Remote: YES Willing to relocate: NO Technologies: PHP, Laravel with good knowledge of Design patterns, Good experience with GIT, Bootstrap, html, jquery, javascript. Resume: ON request. Email: bhargavdjoshi@gmail.com Excellent in communicating in english language. ------ mendezwin Location: Boston, MA Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: No Technologies: PHP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, beanstalkd, supervisor, Mailgun, Stripe, Bootstrap Resume: http://mendezwin.github.io Email: mendezwin [at] gmail.com Bring your projects to life. I work quick and bootstrap every step of the way without putting a dent in your pocket. Looking to build my portfolio a bit more with some projects. Would prefer to work with people with budgets, and know what they want. ------ iandundas Location: Amsterdam Remote: sure Willing to relocate: possibly Technologies: experienced iOS with full-stack & ruby experience Resume: [http://iandundas.co.uk](http://iandundas.co.uk) email: contact AT iandundas .co.uk summary: I've worked with a wide range of iOS frameworks and thus have broad experience (worked on 14 apps to-date). Currently enjoying digging into functional reactive programming via ReactiveCocoa and (of course) practising Swift. I can travel to wherever you are to meet and kickoff. ------ Blackthorn Location: New York, upstate. Remote: Yes, ONLY. Willing to relocate: No, remote only. Technologies: I'm a generalist engineer. I've worked from the lowest levels of computing (hardware and OS development) all the way up to web programming, and everything in between. My most recent project has involved seriously huge and highly scalable systems. I can work on just about anything. Resume (with contact details): [http://goo.gl/7Dt83F](http://goo.gl/7Dt83F) ------ avenpace Location: jakarta-indonesia Remote: yes, willing to work in diff timezone Willing to relocate: yes (though I have a family) Technologies: python (django), javascript/jquery, java, linux admin Resume: [https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=11284281](https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=11284281) [http://www.finanfo.com/resume_uung_bhuwono.pdf](http://www.finanfo.com/resume_uung_bhuwono.pdf) Email: avenpace on gmail ------ mdturnerphys Location: Seattle Remote: Probably not Willing to relocate: Possibly Technologies: hardware development (CAD, CNC, laser fabrication), sensors, optics, MATLAB, Python, LabVIEW, microcontrollers, . . . Resume: [http://guavaduck.com/resume](http://guavaduck.com/resume) Email: matt at the domain above Looking for interesting hardware-development or data-analysis problems to work on. Finishing up an experimental physics PhD in a group doing precision tests of gravity with mechanical sensors. ------ yannister Location: Toronto, Canada Remote: No Willing to relocate: Yes.. Vancouver, San Fran, Seattle Technologies: C# .NET, Javascript, PHP, LAMP. Resume: [http://ca.linkedin.com/pub/jeff- yan/16/88b/94/](http://ca.linkedin.com/pub/jeff-yan/16/88b/94/) Haven't updated my profile but.. predominately working with C#, SSIS, Sql Server stuff. Side job doing LAMP work. I want to get myself back into doing more Javascript work. E.g. Angular. Email: mrjeffman [at] gmail.com ------ dawudawu Location: San Francisco Remote: No Willing to relocate: No Technologies: JavaScript, Jquery, Backbone, Rails, Ruby Resume: [http://david-wu.github.io/resume.pdf](http://david- wu.github.io/resume.pdf) Email: david.wuu@gmail.com Please check out my project, [http://www.preddit.io](http://www.preddit.io). I'm very proud of my JavaScript ([http://linkminifier.com/85w](http://linkminifier.com/85w)) ------ segmondy Location: Detroit, MI Remote: Yes & Only Willing to Relocate: No Technologies: Python, PHP, Lua, C, Javascript, Prolog, some Java. Unix, MVC (various experience with different web frameworks). Email: donsegmond@yahoo.com ------ nlopez Location: Seville, Spain Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes - West Coast US (Bay Area preferred) Technologies: Android 5yr/exp, iOS 4yr/exp, Ruby on Rails 3yr/exp Resume: [http://s.perry.es/resume](http://s.perry.es/resume) Email: nacho@nlopez.io GitHub: @mrmans0n 5 years on mobile dev experience with Android / iOS native code. I am really passionate about anything related to mobile dev. Currently freelancing but open to talk about other possible arrangements :) ------ timewasted Location: Pahrump, NV (Las Vegas area) Remote: Ideally not, but I'm not totally against the idea. Willing to relocate: Absolutely! Technologies: Go, HTML/CSS, PHP, Javascript, Ruby (Rails), SQL, application security, other misc skills Resume: [https://static.timewasted.me/files/resume.pdf](https://static.timewasted.me/files/resume.pdf) Email: ryan@timewasted.me \--- I just want to be in a place where I can work on fun/challenging problems and learn new things. ------ ropman76 Location: WI Remote: yes Willing to relocate: no Technologies: C#, VB.net, T-SQL, JavaScript,ASP.NET,ASP.MVC,Python Resume: www.linkedin.com/pub/tony- ropson/11/140/53a/ Email: ropman76[at]gmail.com I am interested in part time short term or long term project work. I am pretty much a .Net generalist but wouldn't mind working with python either. ------ kcutrer Location: Greensboro, NC Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: HTML/CSS, familiar with JS, various CMS and CRM systems Resume: [http://goo.gl/859l5i](http://goo.gl/859l5i) Email: kcutrer@gmail.com \----- I've been working in the product group (directly with the product manager) for a SaaS product for three years. The company was recently acquired, and I'm interested in expanding my skillset through a product development role with a smaller team. ------ ianwhen Location: San Francisco Remote: No Willing to relocate: No Technologies: Javascript, Git, Node.js, MongoDB, D3.js, Linux, MySQL, Angular.js, Socket.io, HTML/CSS, Backbone.js Resume: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianwh Email: ianwhen at gmail.com Full-stack Javascript engineer looking for front-end roles (or backend using Node.js). Contact me for references. ------ anand_nalya Location: India Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Within India Technologies: Hadoop Ecosystem, Elasticsearch, Storm, Java, Python LinkedIn: [https://www.linkedin.com/in/anandnalya](https://www.linkedin.com/in/anandnalya) Email: mail AT anandnalya dot COM Full stack experience in big data and web applications. Co-author of Learning Storm [[https://bitly.com/amzstorm](https://bitly.com/amzstorm)] ------ wyze Location: St. Louis, MO Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: JavaScript (BackboneJS, Underscore/Lodash, jQuery, AngularJS), HTML, CSS/SASS, Bootstrap, NodeJS (Express), MongoDB, Grunt/Gulp/Bower, Git Email: wyzewon @ gmail Resume: [http://linkedin.com/in/neilkistner](http://linkedin.com/in/neilkistner) Github: [http://github.com/wyze](http://github.com/wyze) ------ dtterastar Location: Downingtown, PA Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: No Technologies: .NET/C#/ASP.Net/SQL Server/Akamai Resume: [http://www.linkedin.com/pub/darrell- turner/32/26b/4a3/](http://www.linkedin.com/pub/darrell-turner/32/26b/4a3/) Email: DT@Terastar.biz ------ donaq Location: Singapore Remote: yes Willing to relocate: yes Technologies (used in professional capacity): Python, Gevent, Django, Javascript, JQuery, NodeJS, Java, Clojure, Storm, Redis, HBase, Postgres, MySQL, Bash, Awk, Perl, C++, PHP. Resume: Email me or [https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=77186689](https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=77186689) Email: adrianqsk at gmail ------ evrenesat Location: İzmir, Turkey Remote: Yes W2R: Yes!! Techs: Expert in Python, Django, JavaScript, CoffeeScript, HTML5 and CSS. Learning iOS app development with Swift. Resume: [http://evrenes.at/resume.pdf](http://evrenes.at/resume.pdf) [http://linkedin.com/in/evrenesat/](http://linkedin.com/in/evrenesat/) Email: mail@evrenes.at ------ chilicuil Location: Mexico Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: No Technologies:elastix, nagios, snmp, smokeping, proxmox, vagrant, shell, python, ansible scripting, logstash, software packaging (deb,rpm) Resume: javier.io/cv/en Email: echo m+javier-io | tr '+' '@' | tr '-' '.' ------ kodeseeker Location: San Francisco Bay Area Remote :No. Willing to Relocate : Yes. Technologies: Java,C++, C#, Python,JavaScript,PostgreSQL, Cassandra. Email :kodeseeker@gmail.com Experienced software engineer with a master's degree in Computer Science. Have both Startup and professional world experience in Java, PostgreSQL and JS. Im looking for challenging engineering opportunities. Resume : Available upon Request. ------ nabn Location: Kathmandu, Nepal Remote: yes Willing to relocate: not currently. (maybe next year) Technologies: python, ruby Resume: no work experience. [Graduating this month] Email: nabeen.khadka (at) gmail ------ SJMosley Location: Dallas, Texas Remote: Yes, but I prefer in office Willing to Relocate: Absolutely Technologies: C#, Web(HTML5,CSS3,Javascript), Java, C++, Unity, Game Design, Project Management Resume: www.sjmosley.com/portfolio.html Email: samueljmosley@gmail.com \--- I am looking to relocate nearly anywhere including overseas. My background is in game development and design with a strong emphasis on programming. ------ jivux Location: Guadalajara, Mexico Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: C/C++, Qt, C#, Python, Django, Objective-C, Git, JSON, PostgreSQL, Vagrant Resume: [https://www.dropbox.com/s/tigu2j4tvilo1t3/Resume.pdf?dl=0](https://www.dropbox.com/s/tigu2j4tvilo1t3/Resume.pdf?dl=0) Email: ivoreroman@gmail.com ------ woutr_be Location: Hong Kong Remoate: Yes WIlling to relocate: Yes Technologies: HTML, CSS (SASS or LESS), JavaScript (Native, jQuery, Angular & Backbone), Grunt or Gulp, A/B testing Resume: [http://hk.linkedin.com/in/w0utr](http://hk.linkedin.com/in/w0utr) Email: wouter@woutr.me Interested in: Software development, split testing ------ basia Location: Krakow, Poland Remote: yes Willing to relocate: no, but willing to travel Technologies: Ruby, Rails, JavaScript, Angular.js, SQL/noSQL and more than happy to learn new things Resume: [https://www.linkedin.com/in/basiamadej](https://www.linkedin.com/in/basiamadej) Email: barbara.madej at gmail ------ originalankur Location: Bengaluru / Bangalore Remote: Yes - Freelance Willing to relocate: No Technologies: Golang Python Resume: [http://ankurgupta.name/work.html](http://ankurgupta.name/work.html) Email: ankur at outlook dot com ------ kiliancs Location: Barcelona Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: No Technologies: TPAE, SCCD, Maximo, WebSphere, Oracle, MSSQL, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Java, C#, Python, Lua, JavaScript, jQuery, MooTools, PHP, Symphony2, WordPress, CSS, HTML5 Resume: [http://j.mp/1qfrZZT](http://j.mp/1qfrZZT) Email: kilian [at] aktive [.] cat ------ meat_fist Location: Philadelphia Remote: No Willing to relocate: yes Technologies: JavaScript: Node, React, Angular, jQuery Resume: My linkedin profile (please message for resume): [https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=213772259](https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=213772259) email: alex.banks0@gmail.com ------ BorisE Location: Seattle, WA Remote: No Willing to relocate: No Technologies: Objective-C, iOS Email: boris.emorine@gmail.com Github: [https://github.com/Boris-Em](https://github.com/Boris-Em) iOS developer with 2+ years of experience. I developed several popular open source libraries and have published a few apps on the App Store. ------ hiringthrowaway employed, but curious Location: London, UK Remote: considered Willing to relocate: considered Contract/part-time: considered Technologies: I can pass a FizzBuzz test and built my first website in the early 2000s, but realistically you'd consider me for relatively high-level b2b sales, or the sort of perspective on UI and customer development that's less from Tufte and more from providing thousands of demos of relatively complex and specialist SaaS. If your startup is vaguely aviation-related there's a possibility I might have useful knowledge or contacts. Apparently some people still think degrees in economics are worth something too. Resume: on request Email: hnavailable@gmail.com ------ albur Location: Dublin, Ireland Remote: No Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: Java EE (Spring, Hibernate, Maven, etc), PHP (Laravel, Zend, Doctrine, etc), Python, Bash, MySQL, Linux, Git, Mercurial, etc Resume: [http://www.alberto-burgos.com](http://www.alberto-burgos.com) Email: albertoburgosmh at gmail.com ------ canadiancreed Location: Toronto Remote: I will consider remote opportunities Willing to relocate: Depends on role and offer Technologies: PHP, Java, jquery, ruby, python, perl, node.js Resume: [http://www.linkedin.com/in/canadiancreed](http://www.linkedin.com/in/canadiancreed) Email: creedis at gmail dot com ------ alienxp03 Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: iOS, Php, Java, JEE Resume: [https://www.dropbox.com/s/jj2epz709hfuamb/MuhammadAzuanResum...](https://www.dropbox.com/s/jj2epz709hfuamb/MuhammadAzuanResume.pdf?dl=0) Email: azuanzirazairein at gmail dot com ------ _em_ Location: Toronto, ON, CAN Remote: ofc. Willing to relocate: Depends on opportunity Technologies: Java, C, C++, Delphi, Oracle, Web Frameworks (YUI, YAML), JS, jQuery etc ... email: lookingforbenwright@gmail.com I have around 7-8 years of development experience and right now i am working in one of Canada's biggest technological firm. ------ shubhamgoyal Location: Singapore Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: Python, Javacript, iOS, Android, Java, C, C++, HTML5/CSS, PHP, nodejs, Angular, jQuery, MongoDB, MySQL Resume: [http://sg.linkedin.com/in/shubham94](http://sg.linkedin.com/in/shubham94) Email: shubham.goyal@live.in ------ jerrya Location: Phoenix, AZ Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Preferred! (Places on a coast, ocean or Great Lake) Technologies: C/C++, LISP, SQL/PostgreSQL, Python, Tcl, Linux, Distributed Computing Resume: linkedin.com/in/jerryasher ------ CoreSet Bootcamp grad trying to make good as a junior developer Location: Austin Remote: Sure Willing to relocate: for the right opportunity Technologies: JS, CSS3 / HTML5, Rails, Angular, jQuery Resume: joecmarshall.com Email: joseph.charles.marshall@gmail.com I'm young and hungry. Snag me now will I'm green and get in on the ground floor of a promising career. ------ esaym Location: San Antonio, TX Remote: Yes Relocate: Within TX only Technologies: Software development in C/C++, Perl, Java. Linux administration experience with RedHat and Debian. Resume: [http://tinyurl.com/qd7cmfb](http://tinyurl.com/qd7cmfb) mail: leon36 (snail) gmail (dot) com ------ mcmillion Location: Little Rock, AR Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Maybe Technologies: HTML5/CSS3/JS, Rails, Angular, others Resume: mcmillion.io Email: matthew@mcmillion.io ------ nstricevic Location: Novi Sad, Serbia Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes, within Europe Technologies: Ruby on Rails, RSpec, Cucumber, JavaScript/CoffeeScript, Clojure Resume: [http://nebojsa.stricevic.info/cv](http://nebojsa.stricevic.info/cv) Email: nebojsa.stricevic@gmail.com ------ hfsktr Location: Green Bay, WI (trying to relocate to UK) Remote: Yes! Willing to relocate: Yes! Technologies: C#.NET, javascript, jquery, SQL, HTML/CSS Resume: [http://www.reecesession.com/resume](http://www.reecesession.com/resume) Email: reecehebel@yahoo.com ------ motyar Location: India Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: No Technologies: PHP, MySQL, NodeJS Rates: 20USD/hr Resume: http://motyar.info/cv Email: dharmmotyar+hn@gmail.com ------ enilsen16 Location: Greater Seattle Area Remote: Absolutely Willing to relocate: Absolutely Technologies: Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Javascript, jQuery, HTML/CSS, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, SQLite, MySQL etc... Resume: Available upon request Email: erik@erikdnilsen.com Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/erikdnilsen/ ------ webjac Location: Orlando, Fl - USA Remote: yes, willing to work in diff timezone Willing to relocate: yes Technologies: front-end, css, html, js, design, UX, UI design Resume: [https://webjac.com/cv](https://webjac.com/cv) Email: james AT creixems DOT com ------ martiuk Loc: Staffordshire/West Midlands, UK Remote: Yes Relocate: Yes Tech: .NET stack, some Python (Django/Flask) CV: On request. email: m.kemp2910@gmail.com ------ psenior Location: Ft. Lauderdale, FL Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, SQL, Ruby, Sinatra Resume: [http://tinyurl.com/see-my-resume](http://tinyurl.com/see-my-resume) Email: paul_senior@hotmail.com ------ czarlos Location: Massachusetts (Permanent)/North Carolina (Student) Remote: No Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: Node.js, Express.js, C++, Java, Python, HTML/CSS/JS, MongoDB Email: cer26@duke.edu Resume: www.carlos.vc/resume.html Github: github.com/czarlos ------ AlexWest Location: SF Remote: No Willing to relocate: No Technologies: JavaScript, CSS3, HTML5, Angular, jQuery, Backbone, Node, Famo.us, Git Resume: www.linkedin.com/in/alexwwest/ Email: alexanderwwest @ gmail ------ yegg DuckDuckGo (remote or local in Paoli, PA). If you're a DuckDuckGo user who is excited about what we're trying to accomplish, then check out our hiring page at [https://dukgo.com/help/en_US/company/hiring](https://dukgo.com/help/en_US/company/hiring) In particular, we're looking right now for: -1 or 2 Back-end (Perl) engineers. -1 Front-end (JavaScript/CSS) engineer. -1 Operations (Chef/Site-reliability) engineer. -1 Desktop/mobile Web designer. ~~~ swanson Hey - you are in the wrong thread :) ------ throwawydev2014 Location: U.S. Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: Rails, PHP, JS, MySQL, and more. Glad to learn what is needed for the job. Resume: Provided on request. Email: throwawaydev2014@gmail.com ------ matthewrudy Location: Taipei Remote: I could do part-time remote Willing to relocate: within greater China Technologies: Ruby, ElasticSearch, Go, Cassandra Resume: Ask me Email: matthewrudyjacobs@gmail.com ------ bilalhusain New Delhi, India: Yes: Yes: Rust: n.a.: bilal@bilalhusain.com ------ 67726e Location: Charleston, SC Remote: Yes Relocate: Absolutey. Technologies: Java (Spring, Hibernate, the usual), Scala (Play), Javascript (Backbone, jQuery, everything including the kitchen sink), web front-end Resume: Email me Email (Base 64): Z3JuZ3JuMjJAZ21haWwuY29t ------ icemelt8 Location: Karachi, Pakistan Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: JS Frameworks, PHP, Unity3D, AS3, JAVA Resume: [https://www.linkedin.com/in/mustafahanif](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mustafahanif) Email: icemelt7@gmail.com ------ notastartup Location: Vancouver, BC Remote: Yes Relocate: No Technologies: LAMP, Python, Java, Javascript, Meteor.js Resume: [http://appsonify.com](http://appsonify.com) Email: you'll find it on the bottom of the site. I'm a LAMP developer by trade with Python and Java experience. I've been doing this for 5 years, also worked with Meteor last year. ------ J_Darnley Location: Belgium, Europe; Manchester, UK Remote: Please! Not required though. Willing to relocate: Maybe Technologies: C, x86 assembly, Win32, Lua, FFmpeg Resume: available on request Email: james.darnley@gmail.com PGP key ID: 0x99412908 Ohloh profile: [https://www.ohloh.net/accounts/J_Darnley](https://www.ohloh.net/accounts/J_Darnley) Gitorious profile: [https://gitorious.org/~jdarnley](https://gitorious.org/~jdarnley) ------ menriquez Central Florida Yes Yes PHP, LAMP, SQL, C/C++, JS, & more markenriquez.tekcities.com mrk.enriquez [at] gmail [dot] com ------ high5 Wow! Based on the response to what appears to be _resume bait_ it seems IT must be really hurting :( ~~~ kordless You are making a flawed assertion, for what reason only you know. This is a regular thing to do on HN: [https://www.google.com/search?q=ask+hn+who+wants+to+be+hired](https://www.google.com/search?q=ask+hn+who+wants+to+be+hired) [https://www.google.com/search?q=ask+hn+who+is+hiring](https://www.google.com/search?q=ask+hn+who+is+hiring)
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Has the future arrived? - rman666 Google buys robotics companies. Drones. China lands a rover on the moon. Iran sends monkeys into space. Exciting times :-) ====== _random_ "China lands a rover on the moon. Iran sends monkeys into space." \- previous century's achievements. "Google buys robotics companies." \- no result yet, they still have to figure out how to add ads to robotics. No, future has not arrived. ------ brudgers "The past is never dead. It's not even past." -- William Faulkner ------ collyw The Orwellian aspects certainly seem to be here. ------ imdevelopin Future will never arrive. It is present always. ------ gesman Bad news: it is only the present. Always. :) ------ thenerdfiles > History is pre-determined by scientific laws which are sequentially > discovered by people and which, in their inexorable application, produce > technology. — Bruce Bimber. "Karl Marx and the Three Faces of Technological > Determinism" > ([http://web.mit.edu/sts/pubs/pdfs/MIT_STS_WorkingPaper_11_Bim...](http://web.mit.edu/sts/pubs/pdfs/MIT_STS_WorkingPaper_11_Bimber_2.pdf)). > 1990.
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Zynga, Facebook Spark 51% Jump in Value of Top Web Startups - thankuz http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-04-07/zynga-facebook-spark-51-jump-in-value-of-top-web-startups.html ====== edw Nyppex, the company the provided the figures for this story, needs to avoid reporting such ridiculously precise numbers: "Zynga…rose 81 percent in value…" "Facebook…climbed 57 percent…" "LinkedIn Corp.…rose 43 percent…" "…Groupon Inc. increased 19 percent…" "Twitter Inc.…rose 7.7 percent…" These are not publicly traded companies. These valuations are not precise. Valuations almost never are, unless some sort of transaction is taking place, and none of these companies is or was involved in a transaction at either the prior or more recent valuations. False precision is irritating and—ironically—encourages sloppy thinking.
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Adobe Releases Original Photoshop Source Code - fargo_limit http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/14/3990378/original-adobe-photoshop-source-code-now-available-for-free ====== benologist Fascinating story after the standard AOL-inspired blog spam. [http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/adobe-photoshop- source-...](http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/adobe-photoshop-source-code/)
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Twitter Inventor Jack Dorsey Is Working For Twitter Again - jkaljundi http://www.businessinsider.com/jack-is-back-twitter-investor-jack-dorsey-is-working-for-twitter-again-2010-11 ====== andre3k1 From the article: _> Some sources say Jack is back on new Twitter CEO Dick Costolo's request, and that Ev isn't thrilled about it._ Interesting.
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You can't tell people anything (2004) - rocky1138 http://habitatchronicles.com/2004/04/you-cant-tell-people-anything/ ====== nojvek > I often joke that my goal is to become independently wealthy so that I can > afford to get some work done. Mainly that’s about being able to do things > without having to explain them first, so that the finished product can be > the explanation. I think this will be a major labor saving improvement. I believe this is true for almost every ambitious (maker/engineer). It’s really hard to convince Management about something new because they don’t experience the pain. Sometimes their Job depends on not understanding it. Probably a reason why Startups outperform big companies in certain niches. The big dilemma right now is there’s little funding available that can compete with the salaries of big companies. Rents have shot up so high that it’s not easy to take 6 months of to build something so you don’t have to explain. Failure has become expensive. My theory is that even though people are getting paid more, we’re in this weird paradox of having less innovation. ~~~ redwood It is sad that we're at this point where people can't just live in a relaxed manner tinkering on new ideas. I remember Silicon Valley in the early 90s you really had a more hippie mentality and not everyone had a high paying salary and some people were just hanging out and talking and try new things. Austin has a little bit of this Vibe now. ~~~ oculusthrift don’t get why everyone’s pretending you need to live in silicon valley or a major metro area to tinker for 6 months. i saved enough from a year in silicon valley to support myself multiple years in other parts of the country. ~~~ mmt The parent mentioned "hanging out and talking" (i.e. network effects) in addition to "try new things" (tinker). Could the same effect be accomplished remotely? Perhaps, but TFA essentially claims otherwise. ~~~ swiley IRC is kind of nice for that. As someone who grew up in the middle of the woods that was my substitute for hanging out in person and talking. ------ scottmsul I was a physics TA in grad school. I was very good at explaining solutions to problems, so of course during exam reviews I would get big crowds to watch the explanations. I was also somewhat aware of this principle, so during a review I was trying to get students to come up with approaches or ideas while solving a problem, and they demanded "why don't you just tell us!" It was pretty frustrating. Watching someone explain solutions well can be dangerous, since it gives you the very real feeling of understanding, without actual understanding. To actually understand, you have to try a problem from scratch. Then you will understand why the solution/approach is what it is, and why other approaches fail, which will give you intuition about which approaches work on future problems. But counter-intuitively, you will get lost in the weeds during the process, which makes you feel like you don't understand! ~~~ imjk Yeah, I'm kinda on the other end of this. I often didn't do as well as I should have in school because I always "understood" what was going on in the classroom. It was confusing for me when those who struggled to understand what was being taught in class did better on exams. From a cursory glance I always seemed to understand what was being taught, so I never did the deep work where you really learn the subject. I figured out better ways to really learn the subject matters later in academia. It was almost never about reading more on the subject, but rather doing more problems (ideally exams that were use in previous semesters) on the subject. ------ PakG1 _Eventually people can be educated, but what you have to do is find a way give them the experience, to put them in the situation. Sometimes this can only happen by making real the thing you are describing, but sometimes by dint of clever artifice you can simulate it. With luck, eventually there will be an “Aha!”. If you’re really good, the “Aha!” will followed by “Oh, so that’s what you meant”. But don’t be too surprised or upset if the “Aha!” is instead followed by “Why didn’t you tell me that?”._ This jives with how children learn. Perhaps adults are actually the same in many respects. Kids don't learn how to pronounce words by listening to someone explain how to form the lips and place the tongue and vibrate the velum to form a z sound. They just learn by observing it and then trying to attempt it. Ironically, foreign language pronunciation may be one of the examples where you do need to teach adults how to do it before they try to do it because their brains have already defined what's normal and find it difficult to make foreign sounds. But various other topics? Learn by doing. Light bulb moments by doing. ~~~ mettamage I don't know how to make this point clear and concise, my apologies. As a Dutchie when I tried to learn Italian I just did it mostly. I did it exxagerated and in stereotypical fashion because I found it fun. Doing it in exxagerated manner also gave me the feeling I could have fun with the language, was allowed to fail and had an understanding where the exxageration came from and soon got to understand how to do it in a more normal fashion. This approach worked so well that my teacher at one point said to a couple of Russians in class "just pronounce it like Mettamage." They were dumbfounded, "really? Do we have to? It is so over the top." They did it anyway, their Italian accents improved immediately. Before they were really monotone and had a heavy voice, and now their tone was all over the place and their voice was less heavy. Dutch and Italian are closer in pronounciation than I initially thought. So you have a point. But not quite: The point of this whole post is this: when I got back home to The Netherlands, I wanted to continue my studies. I suddenly lost interest in Italian. I realized that learning Italian words on paper is not the same thing as learning Italian words in Rome. The biggest reason: when I learned Italian words in Rome I saw people speak. Not only did I learn a word, I apparently remember how their lips moved to such an extent that the movement was encoded in my lips. This didn't happen straight away but if you forget a particular word a couple of times and you see the word being said all the time, you start to remember how people say the word with their lips. I could clearly remember a distinct feeling of not feeling any muscle memory in my newly learned Italian words that I learned in The Netherlands. ~~~ undershirt re: learning how to pronounce foreign words via exaggeration—a friend told me that pronouncing Japanese words in the most racist way possible actually earned him nods from his teacher. ~~~ farnsworth When I was taking Chinese classes, our teacher would always demand that talk loud, exaggerate the pronunciation, and be as over-the-top as possible. Apparently there's a popular english learning method in China called Crazy English that takes this approach. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_English](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_English) ------ glial Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics): For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them, e.g. men become builders by building and lyreplayers by playing the lyre; so too we become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts. This is confirmed by what happens in states; for legislators make the citizens good by forming habits in them, and this is the wish of every legislator, and those who do not effect it miss their mark, and it is in this that a good constitution differs from a bad one. ------ bartread This harmonises well with my career experience, and I could cite multiple examples from just the last few months without even thinking about it. (I'm not going to because the project is ongoing.) We waste so much time explaining and justifying things to people that they're just never going to get when we'd be much better off building even a minimal experience for them so they _can_ get it. Of course, if you try to explain this to the people concerned they still look at you like you're from Mars and complain that we "can't" work like that. It's deeply frustrating. I absolutely loved the line about becoming independently wealthy so he has time to get some work done. ~~~ andor To be fair, "the people concerned" might themselves not have the authority to just diverge from the process. The lesson to learn is that rigid processes don't work too well in creative fields such as software development. Every company wants to be innovative, i.e. come up with better ways to do things. The innovation will most likely not come from management, because they are busy doing management stuff to keep the company running smoothly. The good ideas will come from the employees that spend most of their time actually working on the subject. If a process prevents these employees from taking what they think is the best decision, then there needs to be a conversation about that process. Rather than specify how to work, companies should focus on goals and have those goals shared across the organization: "We want to build the best possible product." The goals should inform everything else, because how can anything be more important than building the best product? If it's clear that a process is in the way, people should be empowered to change it. Which is the point of agile: setting up your organization as a system that allows teams to do the right thing. ------ chrisbennet I have an insulated drink “cozy” that has this written on the side: “I can explain it to you but I can’t _understand_ if for you.” ~~~ thedancollins Funny! Some smart guy was quoted as saying that the biggest barrier to communication is the assumption that it has taken place. If you ask somebody if they understand you will rarely hear, "I have no idea what you are talking about." ------ slx26 It's very difficult to communicate something when in most cases, in order to do it right, you need to understand the mental model of the other person, or explain a new —usually simplied— model from the ground. And as the article mentions even then it's hard to succeed, and you can't ever achieve perfect understanding anyway. You would need to be capable of mind control to have others always understand you, and then that's kinda paradoxical. But we will always have that drive, to try to explain no matter who's on the other side. Good work brain. ------ lkbm This reminds me of Feynman saying "Yeah, I took the door" and people later thinking he'd lied and denied it: [http://home.agh.edu.pl/~szymon/humor/feynman.html](http://home.agh.edu.pl/~szymon/humor/feynman.html) We usually don't memorize things we see or hear (or say) word for word. We translate them into the meanings and reconstruct them from that. And if we don't correctly understand the meaning, it makes sense that we don't remember it accurately. ------ hevi_jos I am good explaining things to people. I just realize what people take for granted and make it easy to understand. Everybody in Swizzerland-Austria knows how to sky. Kids learn so soon they do not remember when they learned like most people do with learning to walk memories. In some Pacific islands they learn to dive. In New Zealand they learn to sail. In Japan or Spain people eat fish by tradition, in most Argentina it is a strange thing to do, you eat meat. People on HN are mostly hackers, programmers, using a command line, what is a parser is or how to program is obvious for them, but is very strange to general population. What is normal to us, is very strange to other people raised under other circumstances. Learn about your audience. Use parables like Jesus to explain what they don't know with things they know very well. ~~~ fragmede (s/sky/ski/, for those that had problems parsing it like me) ------ Vinnl Although it's good to realise "you can't tell people anything", it's also good to be aware that "people can't tell you anything". As in: you're (and I'm) probably not exceptionally special, so we should take into account that we're probably not able to grasp the full picture when someone describes us something, and thus might do well toning down some of our inherent reflexive scepticism sometimes. Somewhat related: [https://signalvnoise.com/posts/3124-give-it-five- minutes](https://signalvnoise.com/posts/3124-give-it-five-minutes) ~~~ blfr It's right in the OP _For example, their server ran on five (not four, not six, five) Fujitsu A60 minicomputers, and became hopelessly bogged down after about 80 concurrent users. We were never able to get a clear picture of why. We asked lots of questions and they’d try to answer them, but none of the explanations made any sense that we could puzzle out. They were trying to tell us, you see, but you can’t tell people anything._ ~~~ Vinnl Yes, I liked that part, but thought it got de-emphasised a bit when it continued on to say that they didn't really understand the architecture themselves. In this case, I'm sure that played a large role in the Japanese not being able to tell them. ~~~ axilmar It's not that the Japanese couldn't communicate in English. It's the fact the Japanese felt, like Asians generally do, they shouldn't disrespect their partner by saying what the partner said seemed liked gobledycook to them. So the Japanese internalized the failure to understand and eventually did things the way the knew... ------ oooooof This is deeply true. I reflect on the times in my life in which I’ve tried to tell people things, I wish I hadn’t. It would have been better for the relationships. ~~~ emersonrsantos This applies so much for relationships. ------ woodandsteel The author says you can't explain anything really new, and people have to experience it for themselves. I had an experience like the author talks about when I first "got" the web. I had read lots of stories about it, and a lot of people were excited by it, but I didn't really see its value. Then I went to a web demo day the local NPR station held in hall with a bunch of computers. I wandered around looking techy things I didn't understand, and then a public demo started. The guy typed in a url and hit return, and in a bit we were looking at the home page for an art museum in Moscow. "That's nice." I thought. Then he clicked on a link on the page, and we were looking at a painting at the museum. "That's nice," I thought, but I still was not very excited. But then he clicked on a link underneath the painting, and suddenly we were at a museum in Paris that had paintings by the same painter. "Oh my god," I thought, "the potentials for that are just limitless," and thought of a long list of amazing things you could use this for. And now I understood the web. ------ thedancollins Learning is about context and we tend to assume others have the same frame of reference. This is why it is so lonely being an expert in any given topic. It is also why certain very commercially successful musicians kill themselves. The better you are at something, the harder it is to find someone to relate to. ------ ravenstine Years ago, I was developing a desktop aquaponics unit that I was planning on selling and turning into a business. I know it doesn't sound innovative, but at the time most prebuilt aquaponics systems for sale were large and unsophisticated. My idea was to build a 5-gallon aquaponics system that someone could have on their desk or windowsill that was extremely energy efficient. In fact, it'd be so efficient that only a moderate amount of sunlight would be required to keep it running. I developed a unique pumping system that was intended to require little power and few moving parts. I told people what I was doing and I was told either "Yeah, I guess that's cool." or "Nobody's going to pay for that! You're crazy." Eventually, I believed them, and so I quit what I was doing. A year and a half later, this thing appeared in stores across the country: [https://backtotheroots.com/products/watergarden](https://backtotheroots.com/products/watergarden) It's nearly identical to what I was developing, although its less sophisticated and required more electricity(not that most people buying it would actually care). I was pissed off like no other time in my life. I'm not a violent person, but that one time I went out into the woods and beat shrubs with a stick to release my anger. :) Looking back, I should have picked up where I left off even after learning that I'd been beaten to the finish line. Still , I felt very defeated. It was heartbreaking to see someone take what I thought was an original idea and make money after I'd spent countless hours building the electronics and testing various water pump/lifter designs. More importantly, I shouldn't have listened to anyone. The average person doesn't know what they're talking about, which is why they're not coming up with their own ideas, why they elect slick-tongued buffoons into office, and why they're miserable working their lives away for other miserable know- nothings. If you have an idea that you are passionate about, you're better off trying something and legitimately failing than to have watch someone else live the future you could have had because your family and friends think you should play it safe. Regret is tragic, but simple failure can be recovered from and forgotten once you've learned from it. I recently quit my job to pursue an idea. We'll see what happens! I did decide to tell people what I was doing, but my previous experience taught me to disregard anything they say, including encouragement. I've been told "go for it" by some and "the gap will look bad on your resume" by others. It might have been a mistake to tell them anything at all because I do believe that exposing yourself to negative ideas can be damaging to your motivation, and same with positive ideas if you become worried about living up to them, but at least I've discovered that I've become a master of _not giving a shit_ about what others think. ~~~ mmsimanga Thanks for sharing your experience. I had a similar experience and what is uncanny is my idea was related to hydroponics. After I shelved my ideas, literally a year later I heard radio adverts in my local radio station advertising similar product to the the one I had developed. At this point in time I have just started a new job and getting up to speed with my day job. A part of me feels there is enough space for many players in the field. We have Dell, HP, Apple. So maybe there is space for your product in aquaponics. ~~~ ravenstine No way! :) I think aquaponics gained a lot of popularity around 2011, which is when I became aware of it and started hammering away at ideas. Maybe it had something to do with that rapture prediction at the time? ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ Yeah, there's certainly room for more small-scale aquaponics products. Possibly larger scale, too. I had this foolish mindset that if my idea wasn't 100% original then it wasn't worth doing. The reality is that even the biggest of companies that exist today weren't the pioneers of their core products, nor did they necessarily innovate any faster than their competition. Thanks for the encouragement, and I would say the same for whatever ideas you shelved. Maybe we'll have to join forces some day. ;) ------ AndrewKemendo It's even worse for new mediums that you can't experience without new hardware or interface differences, like Virtual or Augmented Reality. For example I've spent literally hours trying to explain to potential customers over the phone what AR is and how it works, but if I got people to try it, they understand it in about 5 seconds. That was a lot harder to do two years ago than now. ------ carapace You _can_ tell people and have them understand but you have to know what you're doing. Most of our ideas about human communication are still in the "alchemical" stage. There are a handful of people who have initiated the rigorous "chemical" stage but their work is not accepted by mainstream psychology. This hasn't prevented diffusion of the knowledge at various rates through various subcultures, but it has grossly interfered with the _scientific_ investigation of mind and communication. I'm talking about the general body of knowledge and technique collectively referred to by the moniker "Neuro-Linguistic Programming" (the _other_ NLP.) Normally I would link to a wikipedia article here but the one on NLP is shit. (It's one of the rare cases when I've found an article about something I know well that is highly inaccurate and biased. It's a bit of an apparent paradox that many people who have trained in NLP still do a lousy job of communicating in many ways, and, ironically, often about NLP!) In a nutshell, it all started around 1974 when some therapists were videotaped during therapy sessions and the transcripts were studied in light of Chomsky's Transformational Grammar and regularities were detected. Within a decade something like the "operating system" of the human mind was mapped out. As a side-effect, various algorithms and techniques were developed. One example is the "Five-Minute Phobia Cure" which is a simple algorithm that eliminates phobic responses. (If you have a phobia and would like to _not_ have that phobia you should look into this. It's a simple verbal algorithm that any practitioner should be able to lead you through. It only takes five minutes or so, works immediately, and is permanent.) Anyway, it's the real Information Revolution. I have no doubt that when all is said and done the calendar will be divided into two epochs, before and after 1974, as the discovery of the formal methods by which the brain thinks supersedes in importance the discoveries of fire or atomic structure. ------ fouc The last comment on that page suggests we should all have a good knowledge of pedagogy. Seems like an interesting idea. ------ mettamage The main point of the article that I got is that people learn by doing. Procedural rhetoric, pioneered by Ian Bogost, does just that: you simulate a certain system (or you create a game) and people can act in that simulation (or game) to experience the point. In his paper [1] he gives an example of a game called the McDonalds game. The player eventually has to make very unethical decisions in order to keep their McDonalds restaurant alive. The rhetorical point of the game is that McDonalds is unethical. I find it interesting that project Xanadu is mentioned. The thing is: I have been working on a hypermedia system called XIMPEL. I think hypertext should still be a thing that should be discussed and improved upon, even if it will never be in global use -- for academic reasons. XIMPEL is a bit different though, it is definitely not the best hypermedia system out there. But it is a hypermedia framework in which you can make the quickest prototypes for interactive video and (by extension) for making procedural rhetorical arguments. I would like to give you guys a demo of it in action, but unfortunately not many quality applications have been made with it (in my opinion). The best one is [2], but it does not show anything about procedural rhetoric and it is partially Dutch. It does give you a baseline application on what hypermedia is supposed to be (and the simple XML language accompanying it, it is meant for non-programmers). Experience it all yourself at [2]. Arguably, I did create an example of procedural rhetoric when I created a Turing Machine program with the language itself [3]. I don't have the money at the moment to spin up a server for it, but here's a video of it [4]. I do want to gauge interest at my university to see if we could make a XIMPEL production regarding the user experience design process. Such a process is messy and different everytime, which requires non-linear storytelling, which is exactly what XIMPEL is made for. Done right, it will be possible to let students experience the user experience design process in a short time (and hopefully get it) before they start to do it. I know one thing: telling how the user experience design process works does not help. It should be experienced. What I wonder is whether we can let students experience purely the process of it. [1]: [http://www.cogsci.rpi.edu/public_html/ruiz/EGDFall2013/readi...](http://www.cogsci.rpi.edu/public_html/ruiz/EGDFall2013/readings/RhetoricVideoGames_Bogost.pdf) [2]: [http://ub-viz01.uio.no/abelprisen/](http://ub-viz01.uio.no/abelprisen/) [3]: The Turing Machine is created with 2 counters. The two counters are represented as stacks through representing the numbers in binary fashion and simulating push and pop functions by multiplying times 2 (push 0), multiplying times 2 plus 1 (push 1) and dividing by 2 (pop). More details on it here: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter_machine#Two- counter_ma...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter_machine#Two- counter_machines_are_Turing_equivalent_\(with_a_caveat\)) [4]: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NhRtKY0VzQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NhRtKY0VzQ) (until 5:12) -- Note: I made a small mistake at 3:50 but it did not affect the output. In most cases it does affect the output and from mistakes you learn. ------ sureaboutthis I own a restaurant. In the 90s, I actually managed it for six years when I lost a programming job, though I only planned to do so for a few months. The restaurant ran like "a well oiled machine" customers and staff would tell me. Nowadays, I get irritated when I walk into it and find people don't know what they're doing and inconsistencies are everywhere. I found out our manager was the type that would show you how to do things but not let you do them yourself. Later, when a new person needed to do it themselves, she would complain about their incompetence if they didn't do it right. My point has always been, until you do it yourself, you don't know how to do it. "Turn this switch on", I'd say. "This is how you stretch this, now you stretch the next 10." I ran three restaurants back then and had no managers at all. Each employee was better at their job than my current manager is. ~~~ dec0dedab0de Maybe you should show your current manager how to manage ~~~ sureaboutthis It's .... complicated. ~~~ scandox Reader, I married them...? ~~~ sureaboutthis No but close. Got back into IT. Wife quit her job to run business. Hired managers but takes a hands off approach. Doesn't want to work in restaurants directly. ~~~ alfredallan1 Curious question: what makes/made more money? ~~~ winrid Profits are better than wages. ~~~ alfredallan1 Oh yeah… I concur. That holds true even though the former be lesser in magnitude. ------ amriksohata Context is everything, however agreed in some cases people are like sheep and only want to be told what's acceptable from the media
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500 miles (2002) - tosh http://web.mit.edu/jemorris/humor/500-miles ====== nostrademons I had a similar interview question for Google. I was given a graph of both average user latency and server load, where average user latency was _inversely_ correlated with server load, i.e. latency went _up_ when the load on the server was at its lowest and vice versa, and was then asked to brainstorm reasons why this could be the case. The actual answer (I could tell this was drawn from a real experience) was "China". The valleys in server load corresponded to EST nights, which happens to correspond to the workday in China. During these time periods, there are fewer users online, but the vast majority of them are located in Asia, where a response to them needs to get through the Great Firewall of China and cross a trans-Pacific cable. Meanwhile, the U.S. west coast is just going to bed and the U.S. east coast & Europe are sleeping, so all of the low-latency users drop out of the population sample. It was a nifty application of both Simpson's Paradox, correlation-is-not-causation, and speed-of-light limits. Extra points if you can think of how to avoid strange debugging situations like this in the future. ~~~ nickysielicki Took me a couple times to read through this to realize that this was asking about the intermediate trip time between the server and the client rather than the total round-trip time that it took to process requests, including processing time. Very creative question, requires thinking outside the box. I don't think I would be able to answer it correctly. ~~~ nostrademons As measured it was actually talking about total round-trip time including server processing, but it was measured from within the JS on the client, from start-of-AJAX-request to finish, and so it included both server/client hops in addition to processing time. That's part of the red herring: since you _expect_ the bottleneck to be server processing time, you look there first. A decent partial answer to "How to prevent this?" is to look at additional metrics - graphing server-only latency would show the expected correlation with server load and an inverse correlation with total RTT, and would narrow the search space significantly. ------ iooi Somewhat related, I just found out that OSX ships with units version 1.0. The prompt gives "586 units, 56 prefixes" instead of the post's "1311 units, 63 prefixes". So if you want to try this you can `brew install gnu-units` and run gunits instead: "3070 units, 109 prefixes, 109 nonlinear units" It's pretty annoying that OSX ships with such outdated utilities [1] [1] [http://meta.ath0.com/2012/02/05/apples-great-gpl- purge/](http://meta.ath0.com/2012/02/05/apples-great-gpl-purge/) ~~~ fisherjeff In this particular case, you could also just use the equivalent units of c-msec. ------ ghayes I love this story and find it refreshing each time I read it. That said, has anyone ever looked into if it's real or apocryphal? I'd be curious to know. ~~~ lb1lf I don't know whether the original story was -ahem- embellished a bit or not, but I do know that after forwarding this to a sysadmin friend of mine running a host of Sun boxes at the Norwegian University of Science & Technology, he got somewhat obsessed with replicating this bug - turned out on his hardware du jour the range was some 1100km (700 miles.) ------ pontifier I believe the problem here can be used as a proof of proximity in a blockchain. Imagine 2 specially designed devices that can receive a string, perform a public key encryption on it, and transmit it with very low turnaround time. A bitcoin block hash is found, and 2 participants begin a back and forth hashing session in which billions of round trips are performed...every minute or so, a transaction containing the latest result is submitted to the network, and eventually one is locked in. An interested party could then verify that the transaction could not have occurred unless the 2 keys involved were within a certain physical distance from one another. Not sure what it could be used for yet, but it's something that feels like it could be important for some purpose. ~~~ Cursuviam You could use this to prove that N devices are spread fairly geographically evenly near the line between two devices you know the location of, if the transport latency was fairly constant. If you cross this line over multiple countries, you now have a system where you can prove that the devices are spread across some number of the different countries, which probably has some useful properties, like making nation-state attacks slightly more difficult. ~~~ marcosdumay I don't think you can prove they have a minimal distance between them, just maximal. Thus, any data stream may have always came from a single country, you can only impose an upper limit. ~~~ Cursuviam Sure, you can prove a minimal distance. Think of this problem as a metal chain. Each link of the chain enforces a maximal distance on the nodes it adjoins. The chain is bound on either end to some fixed point. In an non-constrained case, sure, there's no-minimal link distance. You just have a pile of chain. However, if you make the chain taut between the two points, say by decreasing the number of nodes in the chain or the maximal distance of links, the minimal distance between nodes then approaches the maximal distance between nodes. When you have a chain constrained to the straight line between the two points, the maximal distance between nodes is equal to the minimal distance between nodes. ------ PLenz I was today years old when I discovered the units program. ------ ChicagoBoy11 I read this every time it gets posted. Just too good a story. ------ ronilan I’ve seen this several times before through the years, but somehow missed the ending. > “ _I 'm looking for work. If you need a SAGE Level IV with 10 years Perl, > tool development, training, and architecture experience, please email me at > trey@sage.org. I'm willing to relocate for the right opportunity._” I wonder how things turned out for Trey... ~~~ ghayes From Trey's FAQ on the story, linked below [0]: 22. The signature says you're looking for work. Are you still? Nope, but thanks for asking! [0] [https://www.ibiblio.org/harris/500milemail- faq.html](https://www.ibiblio.org/harris/500milemail-faq.html)
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How to Avoid Being Pushed Out of the Company You Founded - alexkehayias http://www.betabeat.com/2012/03/14/defoundering-naveen-selvadurai-foursquare/?show=all ====== lusr I'm not sure I get this. Maybe I'll be fortunate enough one day to experience it first hand, but I'm perfectly happy to be the Paul Allen or Steve Wozniak. I remember reading iWoz and constantly got the impression that Woz was complaining about how he wasn't recognized for things that - in the big picture - are really not that important. Surely there are more important things in life to enjoy than worrying about the "unfairness" of stuff like this, particularly when you've become financially set for life? All I want to do is make enough money to comfortably explore the things I'm passionate about without being side-tracked by working on non-interesting things for survival, and get proper medical treatment in case I'm hit by a bus, and for taking care of my needs during my old age. ~~~ ChuckMcM I'm friends with a guy who was 'bought out' of his startup for north of $8M and he said something I found interesting. "Chuck its not about the money, until there is a lot of money and you're not getting it. I mean when its all hypothetical you can be generous, but when its not hypothetical, and the piece being offered is not what you had informally agreed upon, you tend to stop seeing what you're getting and instead focus on what you are not getting. That can be toxic." I think its just basic human nature. ~~~ lusr True, I don't doubt it is. I suppose all I'm saying is that I hope that if it ever happens to me I'll get over it quickly and move on happily with my $8M ;) I've learned a lot from Burns' "Feeling Good" and the nature of anger and pointlessness of worrying about unfairness in the world, and this just seems like another instance of something you can't control, probably can't influence (because you only recognize what's going on when it's too late), and consequently something you just need to accept. (I'm not saying don't anticipate it and try your best not to get screwed over, but _if_ it happens, relax.) ------ ValG A little bit of a link bait if you ask me; just chronicles some of the more famous founder/company fall outs with a focus on Foursquare. This is something every founder has nightmares about, especially once the company makes it. Not something you can really plan for... ~~~ jonnathanson _"Not something you can really plan for..."_ Respectfully, I disagree to some extent on this point. It's always a good idea never to attack others. And ideally, you hope you'll never come under attack yourself. But if you do, you don't want it to take you by surprise. Consider this quote from the article: _"'I think it’s easy for people to jump to the side of the founder against the big bad investor,' Mr. Blumberg said. 'But we’re all grownups and you sign the papers you sign.'"_ This may come across as cold-blooded, but let's be honest, there's a grain of truth to it. Startups are every bit as political as BigCo, and in some cases, even moreso. Whenever we see these stories -- and maybe it's just the popular mythological portrayal of them -- we see them as heartbreaking tales of betrayal and shattered friendships. But perhaps they're better described as tales of political savvy vs. naivete -- of ruthlessness vs. innocence. The business world often rewards the former, and rarely graces the latter. Nice guys usually finish last. It may be sad. It may not be right. It may not be the way we want things to be. And maybe there _is_ a "better way" to be discovered. But, no matter the case, people can't afford to place unconditional trust in each other. When big money and influential outsiders enter into an equation, people's incentives change dramatically. Eyes should be kept open to that fact. Even if we don't assume people will, by necessity, turn on us at some point, we shouldn't rule it out. It's not that people are assholes; it's that the upper echelons of business are cutthroat, and people usually respond according to their economic incentives. As the co-founder of a small, early-stage company, you don't need to concern yourself with these things. But the second you've got a VP stripe, or especially the letter "C-" in your acronym, you've got a target on your back. You need to be mindful of it. This doesn't excuse the nature of the game, but it _does_ offer fair warning to any who'd play it. Keep stock of everyone else's hand. Know what cards they've got. Know how they may, or may not, be able to play them. Know what they stand to gain or lose by doing so, and the magnitude of that gain or loss. There's no great excuse for being a dick, but there's equally litttle excuse for being a Polyanna. I would never advocate that we all actively _seek_ to screw each other over. Rather, I'd suggest we keep our guard up -- especially around times of big organizational shift (new funding rounds, board changes, big new hires, etc.). ~~~ einhverfr I am always a fan of the idea that in business, work with people you completely trust, and set things up as if you don't trust them at all. Part of it is that this way you avoid letting all sorts of things from honest data entry errors to actual dirty tricks. Anything that is important should be cross-checked. ~~~ jonnathanson Really like that first line. I think it's very true. You should try to pick people you can trust, but design systems to reduce the incentive for breach of trust. You won't always eliminate the risk of the latter, but assuming the risk will never materialize -- and thus, doesn't need to be accounted for -- is a dicey proposition. ~~~ ValG The challenge really is setting these things up from an early stage. I don't think as a founder at a company that has not yet been funded you have the luxury (time, brain power, etc.) of thinking about these things, you're so busy trying to get the company off the ground that everything else is secondary. Even more so once you get funded, because all of a sudden it's not just you pushing yourself, it's a group of investors that are all of a sudden breathing down your neck (not to say all are like that or that it's a bad thing...) Especially if it's the first company you've founded and you're stumbling along, the learning curve is exponential... ~~~ jonnathanson _"I don't think as a founder at a company that has not yet been funded you have the luxury (time, brain power, etc.) of thinking about these things"_ Agreed, albeit to an extent. It's one of those things that _must_ be taken into consideration, because the magnitude of the downside is so potentially massive. But to a large extent, 100% agree with you, it's not something you have the luxury to ruminate on for any appreciable length of time. Ergo, I'd suggest that the time to do the rumination is whenever a big org shift or financial event is on the horizon (major funding round, new board appointments, major new hires -- especially if there's any overlap with your own responsibilities -- etc.). Each major shift of this nature deals some new cards, and it changes everyone's hand in the game. It's helpful, if nothing else, to take stock of how things will change for everyone _before_ the change takes place. [Of course, I'm not suggesting that founders become _preoccupied_ with this sort of thinking. That's a recipe for paranoia and a poisonous political climate, and it may end up creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. Rather, all I'm suggesting is that _some_ nontrivial degree of thought be taken.] Come to think of it, there was a great article on HN about 6 months ago about how to structure a founders' agreement. It seems especially relevant to this conversation. Wish I could remember the title or author. ------ spitfire How to Avoid Being Pushed Out of the Company You Founded? Own it. ------ silentscope There are three things in life that make people act funny: drugs, women (or men, you get the point), and money. They don't act rationally or human, and you should be prepared. that being said, wow. ------ bootload _"... A source close to Selvadurai tells us the Foursquare cofounder has seemed ‘frustrated’ and ‘lost,’” reported the blog Business Insider; Mr. Selvadurai was “forced out,” according to a followup story. 'Dennis and he don’t hate each other—things just changed, ..."_ Remember govWorks.com?... One company, one boss. ------ maeon3 Elon Musk had to deal with and survived a hostile power play to get him removed from Tesla after he founded and funded the company. Martin Eberhard filed suit against Tesla and Musk for slander, libel and breach of contract. Eberhard failed in his power play to be named one of the remaining two founders of Tesla. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk#Controversies> To succeed after you have succeeded in business you have to be a Jedi master of strategic, tactical, and operational civil legal warfare. Extremely intelligent and opportunistic people will help you achieve your goals, then stick a daggar in your back, take all of your money, leave you with nothing, laugh at you, then rewrite history with you as the villan. ~~~ SeanLuke I think this is a completely inverted misinterpretation of Tesla's recent history. 1\. For better or for worse, Martin Eberhard was ousted by Elon Musk and the Tesla board in a power play, not the other way around. 2\. The slander suit was long afterwards and has little to do with power plays at all. ------ wilfra Did I miss the part of the article that tells us how to avoid being pushed out? I'd really like to know the answer to that. ~~~ ohashi I think the point it tried to make was you can't.
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BMW Launches Its Answer to Tesla’s Supercharger Network - antr http://www.wired.com/2014/08/bmw-i3-charger-network/ ====== yread The standards war for car charging is going to be a big mess: there is the standard which i3 is using [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAE_J1772](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAE_J1772) that in itself has (incompatible?) AC (2 levels) and DC (3 levels) variants then there is this with a completely different plug [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHAdeMO](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHAdeMO) and another standard [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VDE-AR-E_2623-2-2#VDE-AR- E_2623...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VDE-AR-E_2623-2-2#VDE-AR-E_2623-2-2) China will use yet another one [http://www.longtailpipe.com/2014/02/chinas- electric-car-fast...](http://www.longtailpipe.com/2014/02/chinas-electric-car- fast-charging-gbt.html) Oh and then there's Tesla's supercharger network ~~~ yalooze Even when everyone's compatible, will you be able to charge on another company's charger? Or will it be like the ATM issues of the past? "You can only withdraw money from your own bank's ATMs"... ~~~ beedogs Maybe they'll add premiums for non-partnered manufacturers, or secretly charge them much more slowly, sort of like the Comcast and Verizon of the roads. ~~~ rlpb Wouldn't charging more slowly risk creating a line behind the charger, causing issues for drivers of the manufacturer's cars waiting in line? ------ basicallydan Does anybody have an account of how unleaded/diesel fuel cars came to have a standard nozzle for filling up? It might give us an insight into how this particular standards battle will go down. ~~~ qbrass In the early 70's cars were being built with catalytic converters, which necessitated the use of unleaded gasoline because leaded gas would coat the catalytic material in the converter and ruin it. Cars designed to use unleaded gas would have a fuel filler with a smaller hole in it, and unleaded pumps would have a nozzle that fit in the hole, while leaded and diesel nozzles wouldn't. ~~~ timthorn Was it catalytic converters or government pressure due to health concerns that forced the move? Certainly in the UK, cats came later. ------ Shivetya I do appreciate the fact they do not intend to limit which cars can use the chargers, that is a great first step in adoption. Their choice of providing for on board range extenders is a probably a good bet as well. Myself, I could do fine with an i3 because when I need to take those few really long trips each year I won't have to adjust my route to do so. ------ nextw33k Of course these charge points should be created by the same people that run car parks. Its an additional profit opportunity and a customer draw. If I owned a EV I would be parking in a car park that was 50% more per hour if I could also charge up. Or they just factor the cost of parking into the electricity cost. ~~~ timthorn Currently, the EV charging points in my area are all free to use, subject to a £10 annual registration fee. Having taken delivery of a PHEV last month, I'm very happy :) The biggest problem is that many of the charging spots in car parks are often taken by non-electric cars. ------ lelf > _The 24 kilowatt BMW i DC Fast Charger, developed with Bosch Automotive, can > charge the i3’s battery up to 80 percent in 30 minutes._ It's more like ‘up to 60%’. i3’s battery is 18.8 kWh. And Superchangers are 120kW. So they are just joking about that “the answer to Tesla’s Supercharger Network” part I guess. ~~~ chiph They talked about how small and light their charger is. If I were an owner, I'd care less about that and more about getting more charge in less time. ~~~ nasmorn It is probably meant for European cities where there is no endless supply of parking lots to install if hardware. ------ sabret00the I guess they decided against doing a deal to license Tesla tech then: [http://insideevs.com/behind-scenes-teslas-secret-meeting- bmw...](http://insideevs.com/behind-scenes-teslas-secret-meeting-bmw/) ------ reconbot I'm fine with this. Happy even. There is more than one way to build our charging infrastructure and we don't yet know how it's going to work best. Tesla's require a lot of power, BMW's doesn't. Our electric grid can support different amounts of power in different locations. Our driving behaviors haven't yet dictated what's going to work best. Etc etc. I think the cost of adapting charges to work with multiple models of car is low and the benefits of experimentation at this early stage is high. ------ phkahler "... the range-handicapped i3 ..." I approve of this phrase. We usually see the term "range anxiety" which would indicate some kind of emotional problem with the customer rather than a problem with the product. ------ yutah Maybe Europe will pass a law like they did for cellphone charger plugs and that will help standardize it internationally... ~~~ spacefight Well they standardized but the final connector on Apple hardware is still different. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_external_power_supply#Re...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_external_power_supply#Reception) ~~~ yutah I believe that there is only one bad apple among cellphone manufacturers that didn't bring this change to the USA. But I guess that is to be expected with Apple and they might have made millions inconveniencing their customers. ------ higherpurpose I think this is the wrong way to approach this. So every car manufacturer is going to have its own charging network? Do they even realize how expensive that's going to be? Not to mention something their customers will hate. They all need to get together and create a standardized network that is both solar powered and can charge the cars very fast. ~~~ rlpb Did you read the article? BMW _is_ going to permit others to access its network. ~~~ vertex-four Assuming that they license the tech from BMW to use it, and agree that BMW's system is the best system. It's not a consortium approach. ------ namlem Woo! Who doesn't love fragmented standards?! ~~~ johnward Imagine if you could only fill up your current vehicle at certain gas stations. If EVs don't come to a standard charger they will be severely hindering that market. There are a ton of obstacles why not put one more out there for arbitrary reasons.
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TaskPaper and To-Do List Bankruptcy Without the Trauma - timriley http://icelab.com.au/articles/taskpaper-and-to-do-list-bankruptcy-without-the-trauma/ ====== michaelhoney Un-done to-dos are like unread books on the shelf: they tell us who we wanted to be. The fact that we haven't done them tells us who we really are. ~~~ gwern > "Your calendar never lies. All we have is our time. The way we spend our > time _is_ our priorities, _is_ our 'strategy'. Your calendar knows what you > really care about. Do you?" \--Tom Peters ------ timriley I had about 400 yet-to-be-completed items in my to-do list before I started afresh. Seemed like way too many. How about you?
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The world according to Android - acangiano http://antoniocangiano.com/2010/06/02/the-world-according-to-android/ ====== biafra Maybe Google was hoping some other "market app" would take over and get adopted by handset makers or carriers. It's not googles core business to sell apps worldwide. There are a lot of other market apps out there.
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Ask HN: How to accept that life is unfair? - twaway_grumpy How do I become ok with life being unfair? What bothers me the most is my mortality; if it takes me x years longer to find love&#x2F;dream job&#x2F;etc. than other people, then that is x years I will never get back. ====== gerbilly If you were born in a first wold country, with first wold living standards and medical care, and your country is not at war, and none of your siblings or parents died early deaths, then life is indeed unfair, just unfair _in your favour._ I don't mean to minimize what you may be feeling, but we are too hung up on fairness sometimes I think. It's not whether it's fair, just whether you can be happy. For example, can you be happy with a good enough job, or do you _need_ the dream job? ------ anonuser123456 I think this quote from Mr Peanut butter speaks volumes to your problem. "The universe is a cruel, uncaring void. The key to being happy isn't a search for meaning. It's to just keep yourself busy with unimportant nonsense, and eventually, you'll be dead." ~~~ brogrammer2018 lol ok ------ alan_wade Why do you think you need to be "okay" with life being unfair? People who thought slavery wasn't fair found a way to end it, people who weren't okay with dying of smallpox found a way to cure it, and made life a little fairer. And there were a bunch of people who weren't okay with things but couldn't do anything about it, so they didn't. Some things are unfair for no reason and there's nothing we can do about them, and it's not okay. You don't have to warp your mind with convoluted philosophy to become okay with things and "accept" life as it is. Life can be awesome and beautiful, life can be shitty and painful. These things don't cancel each other out. You can enjoy awesome things, you can hate and be angry at bad things. You and me and everyone we love will die some day - there's nothing that can make it okay. And yet sunsets are still beautiful and ice cream still tastes good. You don't have be okay with bad things, you can hate/resent/fear them and still enjoy the good things at the same time. These two are not mutually exclusive. Fix what you can fix, endure and persevere through things that you can't(because you have no choice), find as much joy as you can in the good things. \---- Also read "Obstacle is the Way" by Ryan Holiday - extremely well writen summary of stoic philosophy, I'm sure you will find it very useful and interesting. ~~~ brogrammer2018 > People who thought slavery wasn't fair found a way to end it Ummm fact is slavery has not ended yet. Not sure what you mean? ~~~ justbaker > People who thought slavery wasn't fair found a way to end it There are more > slaves now than ever and most of them are children. How is that ended? ------ BLKNSLVR I find the Desiderata to be good for helping to re-centre life priorities and moods: _Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass. Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy. Desiderata by Max Ehrmann._ ~~~ darnkavi Thank you for posting this. This is such a meaningful poem. ------ davismwfl Stop worrying about what you don't have and start enjoying what you do -- i.e. life doesn't need to be fair for you to be happy. Enjoy everyday, find happiness in who you are and what you do. If you are unhappy to many days in a row change your behavior or change your environment, but don't be the person that blames others or complains about being unhappy. Money doesn't make you happier, it makes certain things easier, but complicates things too. Dream jobs come and go, and you will personally change, so what is a dream today can be a nightmare in a few years. The same things can be said of love, some things are awesome, others mean compromise and complications. If you aren't happy yourself, you won't make a good partner to anyone either. Being unhappy or consistently negative is also why, many times, people find others unattractive or unapproachable. ------ screye The gamification of life has helped me a lot here. In the game of life, happiness and enjoyment are the core goals. Like any other game, the difficulty setting on which I play it should not make a difference. Games can be enjoyable on easy, medium or hard difficulty. Just that the effort-reward curve can be distributed a bit differently. Both Money and Career Success are tangential to your life's fundamental goals. You have to figure out what those are, and work towards them directly , rather than use weak heuristics like money and standing. Just like a game (say an RPG), the happiness comes from leveling up and beating a competitive boss, rather than reaching endgame where you are rich and king of the continent. Similarly, for me, it is working towards the next achievable goal and making constant progress that give the most happiness. When your happiness is tied only to your relative position yesterday, then your absolute position (which is most influenced by unfairness) is unimportant. Despite huge imporvements in QOL over the last few centuries, afaik human happiness had stayed constant. If you decide to blame unfairness for your dissatisfaction with life, then no amount of absolute gains will ever let you feel you have reached the point where you make peace with it.. Like worldly phenomena, we are resigned to the tides, the day night cycle and our mortality. Humans make peace with their existence knowing that we can't control their routines. Along the same line, unfairness in life is just as colossal a phenomenon. You may not be able to work against it or stop it, so its just better to make peace with it and work around it to achieve the aforementioned fundamental goals. ~~~ JoeAltmaier You and Diogenes should get along really well! ~~~ screye Unsurprisingly, I am a claustrophile(?), a minimalist and love standing in sunlight. Though I'd fancy myself as a tad bit more hygenic. I have seen some personal examples of the Diogenes and Alexander story, where (at least from appearances), the person with a balanced life and not many accolades appeared to crack a smile, a lot more often than the every ambitious over-achiever stuck in the rat race. (though, typical anecdotal caveats apply) Some people don't let where they sit on the "unfairness" scale, affect their happiness. Along those lines, I am a big fan of the $70k study [1] _____ [1] Kahneman, D., & Deaton, A. (2010). High income improves evaluation of life but not emotional well-being. Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences, 107(38), 16489-16493. doi:10.1073/pnas.1011492107 ------ htanirs I think life is more uncertain than unfair, there are so many variables we do not have control over. A small event can turn life upside down. Fairness is subjective, what one means by fair could be shaped by the environment and how we react to society. We humans, generally look at people above us in terms of wealth / relationship / fame and think we are not fortunate enough. But there is significant number of folks who can only dream of basic needs. For them we are the fortunate ones. Also the rich / celebrities / people who we envy, may not have perfect life. They have their own problems. Maybe if we know them completely we may not envy them as much. And they have their own yardstick for what is unfair. What has worked for me, especially when I feel down, is counting the blessings and being grateful for things I don't have to worry about. Life could be so much more worse. From what I have seen, happiness does not seem to correlate proportionally with wealth / relationship / fame. IMO, looking at people below us might help to give a balanced perspective. Hope we all find that elusive happiness within. ~~~ brogrammer2018 > But there is significant number of folks who can only dream of basic needs. > For them we are the fortunate ones. Not true. Your statement is an example of sour grapes: "In an old fable by Aesop, a hungry fox noticed a bunch of juicy grapes hanging from a vine. After several failed attempts to reach the grapes, the fox gave up and insisted that he didn't want them anyway because they were probably sour. Nowadays when somebody expresses sour grapes, it means that they put down something simply because they can't have it." ~~~ htanirs I did not intend to mean it that way. I agree, we all need to aspire for better life and sour grapes / self pity does not help. My point is, there are good number of people living below poverty line. Usually poverty has many friends like unemployment, violence, long term health issues (sometimes terminal illness), self inflicted and external abuse. While they also need to aspire to do better, they start their life with a bigger handicap and hostile environment. They need higher amount of courage, conviction and persistence to make things better. Since the question was based on comparison, wanted to put it in context. ------ rl3 Just revel in overcoming the unfairness, embrace it. When life sticks a dagger in your side, laugh in its face (or grimace) and prevail anyways. None of that will erase the pain that stems from being behind your peers in career or romantic pursuits. Speaking from experience, the latter cuts unimaginably deep. You don't get that time back, but the time you do have becomes immensely more valuable. Many will say a comparison basis isn't healthy, but being highly competitive by nature I haven't yet figured out how to avoid that. All I've described is a rather effective coping mechanism; the pain will still exist, but one could say pain is a fundamental part of living life in any real sense. As an anecdote, I used to play a couple games competitively as a hobby. While I was good, I only became an expert once I embraced two things: ridiculous amounts of practice, and the unfairness of it all. Depending on the matchmaking setup, you would be expected to defeat two or even three skilled opponents. Lamenting how unfair it all is would get you nowhere, so the only way forward was to embrace it. ------ Rooster61 My experience is that humans have an uncanny propensity to adjust to an exceedingly wide range of circumstances in a way that boils whatever's going on around them to a status quo; a behavioral homeostasis if you will. Introduce a new boon to someones life, and in time their mind tends to take it in stride and it becomes harder to register that the boon is still present. The same happens with pitfalls. After a period, the initial shock goes away and we subconsciously deal with the added negative aspect of our life. One's overall outlook on life at any given point, then, requires an effort to recognize the good things around them, and attempt to tune out the negatives. How easy that is for any given individual varies. Some have naturally sunny dispositions, while others are born curmudgeons. At least this is what I have observed. ~~~ gerbilly > My experience is that humans have an uncanny propensity to adjust to an > exceedingly wide range of circumstances There is research to back this up, see: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonic_treadmill](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonic_treadmill) ~~~ MuffinFlavored How deep does that go though? If you lose a close loved one, how close to "back to normal" are you 6 months, 12 months, 3 years, 6 years later? Is there always that empty pit? ~~~ gerbilly These are statistical results. Of course some people are permanently diminished after losing a loved one, others recover. There are some exceptions to the findings. These conditions do cause 'permanent' reductions in most people's happiness levels: 1) Loss of a child. 2) A continual decline in one's health status. ------ kageneko It's a bit simplistic, but this quote from Babylon 5 has resonated with me so much: I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, "Wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them?" So now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe. MARCUS COLE, "A Late Delivery from Avalon" (1996) To be honest, it sometimes does get to me that if I had made different choices or been in different situations, I might be richer/healthier/happier. Of course, I might also be poorer/sicker/unhappier, too. Most importantly, I also know that I wouldn't be /me/ anymore. ------ badpun You're probably rather young? I had similar thoughts too in my twenties. Why am I not more likeable, why don't I look better, why don't I <insert insecurity>? I saw these insecurities as obstacles to the perfect life I had envisioned for myself. What helped was living longer and observing that almost no one is living my dream life and what's more, there's TONS of suffering in this world, so all I all I have it pretty good. To accomplish this, I think it was important to be exposed to lots of people, as they have served as data points for what is realistic and what is a fantasy. ------ sudosteph Have you read "Candide"? Voltaire wrote it as a satire on certain overly optimistic and positive philosophical views. It's really short, and I thought it held up great despite the age and translation. Douglas Adams' "Hitchikers guide" series is another satire I can't recommend enough. Life is as strange, terrifying experience that is often absurdly unfair for no good reason at all. But it can also be kind of hilarious for the exact same terrible reasons. Develop your ability to see the humor in deeply dark and unfair situations. They aren't going anywhere. You could try to convince yourself they aren't there or that they aren't so bad with some religions/philosophies, or maybe you'll convince yourself that you'll triumph in the end - but most likely you will just end up angry, resentful, and not particularly well-liked as a result. Humor though... that's something other people (and you) can work with. ~~~ ryderm Cracking jokes at the unfairness as a way to swallow it is very different than cracking jokes as a way to point out how unfair it is to others. I'm not exactly sure which you mean, but it seems like the former, and that is depressingly jaded. I find the existential dread caused by acknowledging the unfairness a good motivator to try to improve things. There will always be randomness, but life doesn't have to be as deeply flawed as it is today ~~~ sudosteph I think it's more that humor provides a great vehicle to commiserate with the pain of others, and to explore our own pain semi-safely as well. It's almost always pro-social expression, and is equally so whether it's directed at vain rulers or fickle rolls as fate. It can indeed drive social change (and usually with less violence than fear or anger), but that's not the only reason to embrace humor. The universe really is funny. It's absurd in so many ways, and the flaws are so obvious, so persistent, and in such contrast with certain authentically sublime experiences and emotions... Until death and pain are no longer mandatory elements of human existence, it will indeed be deeply flawed. ------ xrd Whenever you are not accepting it, just say out loud "I accept this." Practice that, instead of the other things you are saying, and it will shift. I'm going to do it as well. I fucking complain a ton and I believe it solidifies my misery. ------ DyslexicAtheist I am deeply pessimistic about life and the future of humanity. the idea that tomorrow will be better because we can always solve it with technology. What actually helped me a lot in order to see myself as an outsider and gain better perspective was these books. Note they are incredibly dark and pessimistic and none of this will ever be on a Ted talk. Thomas Ligotti - THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE HUMAN RACE Zapffe - The Last Messiah also maybe you are not meant to work in the field you are in considering you feel this way. if you listen to your heart and there is nothing that drives you, why other doing it? Wouldn't it be better to first know where your passion is? ------ TheAlchemist I highly recommend this talk: [https://www.ted.com/talks/isaac_lidsky_what_reality_are_you_...](https://www.ted.com/talks/isaac_lidsky_what_reality_are_you_creating_for_yourself) And the book from the same guy, if you're interested. While we are at great talks, listen to those two guys: Steve Jobs - [https://www.ted.com/talks/steve_jobs_how_to_live_before_you_...](https://www.ted.com/talks/steve_jobs_how_to_live_before_you_die/discussion) Rand Pausch - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo) There are great insights in all of those. What strikes me in your question is the part "than other people". Seriously, why do you care ? One should never, never, compare to anybody else - just try to be the best 'you' that you can be. ~~~ qnsi Whats the name of the guy presenting the TED? It returns error for me, when I try to access ~~~ TheAlchemist It's Isaac Lidsky. ------ amingilani Understand that that's how life is but that doesn't mean you don't have control over it. What motivates me is thinking about how many years I have left, or how long I've spent and how much I've accomplished. When I turned 25, I looked over my accomplishments and wondered if they were enough to merit a quarter of a century. I decided they that while they were satisfactory, I was not satisfied, and so I decided to rectify that before my next milestone: 30. I've already accomplished more than most of my family & friends at my age, but for me that's a low bar. I want to put beat Jobs. If I shoot for the stars, at least I'll shoot past the moon. Ps- I know what the saying is, but seriously, I never understand why people say it like that. The moon is closer than the stars! ~~~ ken > What motivates me is thinking about how many years I have left That's unknowable, and could be almost any number, including 0. Is that what you meant? ~~~ amingilani Yes, sorry. I should have elaborated — I wrote that on mobile. I like to think that I can die at any point, and best case scenario, I'll die at 60. Oh, with one exception — savings. I haven't saved enough yet, but when it comes to savings, I pretend I'll live to be 150. 100 isn't an unthinkable age in our lifetimes, and with medical advances, I don't want to take any chances. ------ phakding >if it takes me x years longer to find love/dream job/etc. than other people, then that is x years I will never get back Sorry, but this doesn't make any sense to me. You will not get back any of the time you spent doing anything. You sat on toilet for 2 mins longer than other people everyday, then you spent months more than other people on toilet over years of your life. This doesn't mean you are going to hurry up and get out of the bathroom faster than you should. You get what you get in your life. It's nothing to do with what you deserve or what's fair. If you stop believing in the all powerful entity that will make it fair for everyone and start believing everything happens by a random chance, you would be better off. ------ Regardsyjc Life might not be fair but the only person who makes that meaningful is you. "You will be what you will to be; Let failure find its false content In that poor word, "environment," But spirit scorns it, and is free. It masters time, it conquers space; It cows that boastful trickster, Chance, And bids the tyrant Circumstance Uncrown, and fill a servant's place. The human Will, that force unseen, The offspring of a deathless Soul, Can hew a way to any goal, Though walls of granite intervene. Be not impatient in delay, But wait as one who understands; When spirit rises and commands, The gods are ready to obey." I highly recommend As a Man Thinketh by James Allen. Someone on HN recommended it and it was wonderful. It's a very quick read, less than 50 pages. Another one of my favorite quotes is, "Choose not to be harmed - and you won't feel harmed. Don't feel harmed - and you haven't been... It can ruin your life only if it ruins your character." \- Marcus Aurelius ------ sevilo It’s not whether life is fair, it’s all about how you perceive things and it’s a choice to be happy. It may sound cheesy but I see people living in misery all the time, blaming everything and everyone else around them for their own lack of successes, when they don’t even realize their life is so much better than 90% of the world’s population. If you embrace more gratitude in your life and start living with the mentality that if you don’t succeed, the only reason is yourself and yourself only, I think you’ll find a lot more happiness and success. I recommend writing down at least 3 things or people that you’re grateful for before you go to bed every night. ------ WheelsAtLarge Here's a friend's quote that enlighten my thinking. Me: "Life can be so cruel." Him: "Yes, that's why you have to make sure you make a difference for the better where and whenever you can." I try very hard to follow his quote every day. Change starts with us all. ------ true_tuna That’s not unfair that’s random distribution of fortune. You make terms with it by making the most of what you’ve got and being thankful for the good while not letting the bad get you down. ------ mchannon Many people derive meaning in their lives from trying to make it fair (or more fair) for others. Some see a burning house and ask why must it burn, while others reach for the hose. ~~~ ken That's a simplistic metaphor. What's the "hose" to put out unfairness? ------ blacksmith_tb I'd suggest taking a look at Buddhism, one of its key insights is that you cause yourself to suffer by wanting things to be different than they are. ~~~ jason_slack I second this. Learning about Buddhism and practicing its concepts has really helped me. I avoid spreading negative energy, I avoid getting angry, I spend time each day meditating. It's not for everyone and it takes a lot of practice not to get angry. But this is working for me. ------ naveen99 People lose love and jobs also, you could try to keep yours longer ? Also there are other things to do with your time besides loving and working. There is eating, sleeping, playing, learning, hacking, listening, singing, dancing, teaching, traveling, meditating, tweeting, investing, leading. ------ yesenadam So what would it take to make life _fair_ according to you? Living forever? (Although I guess if you lived forever but no-one else did, that wouldn't be much good either. But I don't think anyone can imagine living forever.) ~~~ 2snakes Consider that 25% of Christians and many people in India believe in reincarnation. ~~~ yesenadam I don't know what point you were trying to make. (It's easy to talk about living forever, but to imagine it? I don't mean merely _a very long time_ but _infinitely long_.) ~~~ 2snakes Yeah that is what reincarnation is about in part, taking on earthly form until able to transcend snd live as pure spirit, forever. ------ aqw137 "If I could offer you only one tip for the future, Sunscreen would be it" A lot of wisdom in a 5min song: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTJ7AzBIJoI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTJ7AzBIJoI) ------ FearNotDaniel [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/173666.Radical_Acceptanc...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/173666.Radical_Acceptance) ------ lucas_membrane The good news is that you can probably reduce the unfairness, just not for yourself. ------ andrewstuart I'm just trying to be the best person I can be. What more can you do? ~~~ MuffinFlavored What adversity has life shown you? What suffering has come your way? ~~~ andrewstuart Enough. ------ schmidty Read How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World ------ ryderm Don't accept it, try to to change it! ------ croo Journey before destination. ------ King-Aaron Try your hand at some psychedelics in a safe environment and reassess your position on the world. Note: This advice may or may not be beneficial to your personal situation, as per all comments on an internet forum. You may need to consult a professional if you are having trouble. ------ pontifier Longevity is the easy one... I signed up for Cryonics with ALCOR, and it was one of the most freeing decisions I ever made. Situational unfairness is a different story. I'm very bitter about the way certain deals I've worked on have turned out for me. I feel that cheats, insiders, and powermongers have gotten the upper hand in every deal I've been involved in. I never seem to come out on top and it's getting ridiculous. ~~~ qnsi Afaik cryonics dont work at the moment. I did some research while ago and I am sympathetic to the efforts but sceptical
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Ask HN: Are you happy, well-rounded? (dealing w/ depression/lack of motivation) - asym HN, I ask this question here as I'm unsure of where else to go with it. I'm sure a lot of people like myself are members (mid-20s, striving to be self-actualized and think about life goals and happiness, or went through this before) and I'm sure <i>someone</i> dealt with something similar. I have basically lost the motivation to do anything, in my professional and personal lives and am sure it's something akin to a quarter-life crisis.<p>More importantly, I have lost the ability to tell if and what I want anything from life. I have been a few years out of grad school; the train tracks of school/first job are fading. I have no idea where I want to live, no idea what I want to be doing, no idea where I want to be doing it and no idea what will actually make me happy. Or if I do know exactly where I want to live, I'm always terrified that I'll regret the move later.<p>This is affecting me emotionally, hurting my relationship with my long-term girlfriend (hopefully soon fiance), and is much more severe than what I've experienced before. I am going to make an apointment with a psychologist, but after a few unsuccessful attempts to appeal to parents and friends, I'm not sure what else who else to turn to or how to proceed.<p>Some people say this is what entering adulthood's like, but everyone around me seems to be perfectly fine.<p>Thank you in advance for any advice and I hope it helps someone else who's going through something similar. ====== edkennedy I have felt something similar in the last few months, and have been feeling the repercussions since then. Everything around me in my life was wonderful, in fact it was the best it's ever been. Deeply in love, working at a highly paid highly skilled job, enjoying my free time and continuing to improve my living situation. However, I felt a sincere lack of motivation and my results had started to decline. Recently I have gotten back on track. What assisted me in that process was: 1\. Talking about my feelings and listening to the life experience of my partner. This is humbling. You are not alone. 2\. Getting back to the gym. This was a huge motivating force, getting your blood pumping makes you feel alive and is the quickest way to get to where you want to be. I also changed my diet (no more coffee, alcohol, junk food). This takes self discipline. 3\. Lastly I remembered to have fun. The most stressful times for me was when I forgot to do the things that made me happy. Celebration is another part of being alive. ~~~ asym I agree with you on #2: going to the gym and traveling to work on my hobby (travel for rock climbing) has helped me feel a lot better in the moment, but ultimately feels like I'm putting off what's actually bothering me. My diet is good already, but I feel like I should relax it a little bit (more social drinking, maybe a little more junkfood) as it will help me be less pre- planned and more free-flowing and social. I consider myself introverted (as many guessed and seemed clear), but am not stereotypically introverted: I have many close friends and don't have ridiculous anxiety attacks when meeting people. (Sometimes I do though). ~~~ mistermann Just relax more, if you frequent places like HN, you can easily get a feeling of inadequacy, don't fret about it. You're in your mid 20's, lot of people her are in their 40's and 50's. As for the occasional anxiety when meeting people, just do your thing, become truly competent in the things you consider to be important....once you have this, the anxiety will disappear I suspect. When you get older and things like family start to pull on your attention, you'll realize that if you really gave it your best shot, that's good enough, whether you were a famous smashing success or not. Just work towards being happy for yourself, not towards what you perceive the community expects you to achieve. ------ johnnyg I'm 28, own successful businesses and have plowed this ground. These aren't going to be standard answers, but its what has helped me. YMMV. 1\. Get in a situation where you can balls out fight. I prefer jiu-jitsu but did TKD for a while too. We live in a controlled, over analyzed society. You talked about going to a shrink. That's valid but consider the alternative - you are so controlled and repressed that what you need is to get on the mat with someone else and just struggle/wrestle/fight. You'll know inside 1 minute if this is what was lacking. If its wrong, you are bruised but only out a free class. 2\. Plant roots, literally. I live in suburbia. A little "grow your own veggie by the window" kit was more depressing than fulfilling. I'm not sure what it was, but something inside me snapped. One too many fake plastic meals out perhaps. I bought $1000 worth of dirt and had it dropped on my driveway. I went to home depot and with the help of my lovely wife, measured out and bought wood and stakes. I worked all weekend outside, in the sun, in the rain, hauling dirt, figuring out how to plant stuff without killing it (mixed initial results). It was a lot of time to think. It was also hard and frankly, it was very nice to sit back down to work on redmine tickets. Best of all, a whole garden sprouted up and we had food for weeks that WE grew. Since then, my backyard has become a huge orchard as well as a home owners association show down in the making. It makes me feel connected to life and growth. It makes me feel like I stake my rugged individualist claim. Likely its more me playing in the dirt in the back yard, but it settles me down and centers me. 3\. Catholic mass. I was raised Baptist and am now agnostic. As a kid, I attended three churches destroyed by infighting and backstabbing. I'm not really thrilled with Christianity, or at least Jesus's current merry band of salesmen. None the less, go sit in a Catholic mass once a month on a random week night. Its great. So peaceful. It gets you out of your shell. Best part, no baptist style "welcome the guests" stuff at most masses. Just a bunch of people running through the ancient traditions and singing nicely. I would advise you pass on the free bread and wine though, in case it turns out its all true. 4\. Your Relationships. Are they solid? Are they long term oriented? I'm not sure if its a skill or a choice or what, but everyone I know that's happy is a long term relationship builder. My sincere best wishes to you. Push on! ~~~ ddemchuk For the love of god yes, everyone here, start a garden. When you find yourself pissed because ssh is taking too long, being able to go outside and water your plants that won't be flowering for another two months is a welcomed slap back into reality. I can't believe how much it keeps you grounded, it's crazy. ~~~ tmsh It's funny how much founders like gardening. I wonder if there's something to that. ~~~ oscardelben Gardening is an activity that involves a lot of thinking and more importantly it's not a quick fix. You learn to value your time and expect results after months. ------ yummyfajitas I went through this a couple of years ago. I got out of grad school, and started my postdoc. For the previous 8 years (undergrad + grad school), I had a well defined track: grad school -> PhD -> postdoc -> research professor -> tenure. During my postdoc, I realized I didn't like a great deal of the day to day work of academia: teaching, writing papers, applying for grants, hyping your work. The job I succeeded in getting was not the job I thought it was. I went through the exact stage of uncertainty you are describing. Then I decided to forget about a long term plan and focus on day to day living. I took up Eskrima (Filipino martial arts), something I wanted to do for a long time. I broke up with my long term girlfriend and decided to leave the academic track. I still don't know where I want to live or what I want to be doing (in the long term), but I don't need to know that. Yesterday I went for a run (my first this year). I found a new job (trader at a hedge fund) which I enjoy day to day. Most tuesday nights I fight with sticks. I drink more beer, am in better physical shape and am simply happier. I don't have the answers to your big questions (where to live, what to do), but I don't need answers. So, my suggestion: don't worry about the future, focus on things right now. ~~~ wallflower Read this post by fiaz about trading sometime: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=121413> ------ dotBen I started to go through this a few years ago and I'm slowly recovering from it (I'm 28 now). The experience cost me my marriage (although that may have been a good thing, looking back on it) but it also cost me a lot in terms of opportunity cost. You could write a book on this subject but my advice in a nutshell is to find a therapist. If you are like me (and most HN'ers) - highly logic brained - then it can be hard to grasp by yourself the mixed emotions you are feeling in sidw. If, like me, you are really only surrounded by loads of other geek logic brained folk, then there can be few people to really talk this stuff through with - which is why I found informal therapy (counseling, not heavy going psychotherapy) useful rather than chatting with friends, etc. I worked with my therapist on getting beyond my logic-orientated rationalization thinking and getting a much better understanding of who I am and what I want. If the original poster wants to drop me an email to chat more, I'd be delighted to talk more. ~~~ nosse This helped me a lot, and has worked for my friends. In my case it was more about illogical sabotage of my own work. I thought I was just lazy, but when I started to realize I was using more energy avoiding my work than doing it would have required. Going to therapist may seem stupid at first, but it starts working only after you've done it couple of times. ------ figured "I am going to make an appointment with a psychologist" Make the appointment tomorrow morning! The people here not advocating seeking professional help, are the same people who have never received help. Trust me, seeing a psychologist is the single best thing you can do. If you had a physical illness, this type of question would not even be asked, mental health problems are just as serious and should be treated that way. Also if it doesn't work out with the first psychologist, don't get discouraged. Just make another appointment, and find one that fits your style. Dude, lots of people have been in your position, but the ones that are happy today are the ones who treated it as seriously as they treat all other aspects of their health. Good luck, Edit: as much as it is good to talk about this with friends and family, they really don't have the tools to help you overcome this. People think you just need to cheer up, or pat you on the back. Happiness is journey, for some its easy and for some it takes time and effort. ~~~ philwelch I have received professional help myself. I would not necessarily recommend it --I've been in a similar situation and it did next to nothing for me. I wouldn't necessarily recommend against it, either--I'm just not "advocating" it, in your words. ~~~ figured point noted, I just thing like most things in life you have to find something that suits you. But I would recommend that if you don't have a pleasant experience the first time out switch doctors. I think sometimes people forget that not all care is the same, and your health is your responsibility. So find someone that fits you, instead of sticking with someone even though you are feeling that you are not getting anything out of it, or quitting altogether. ------ raganwald Well, if you're feeling depressed, I can only tell you about something that helped me: Dr. Martin Seligman's book "Learned Optimism." I wrote a little about my perspective on it about a year ago: [http://github.com/raganwald/homoiconic/blob/master/2009-05-0...](http://github.com/raganwald/homoiconic/blob/master/2009-05-01/optimism.md#readme) I'm sorry that isn't a grand, unified answer to everything, but if it helps you even a little I would be delighted. ~~~ tokenadult _Dr. Martin Seligman's book "Learned Optimism."_ Very useful, a suggestion well worth following up on. ------ Groxx Typically, when I edge down this path, I de-clutter my life. Stuff weighs you down more than anything else, and it's a constant drain on your energy and money. Stop doing things that are unnecessary, get rid of some stuff you don't / won't use, and generally purge your life of everything that really doesn't matter. It'll free up a lot of free time, and likely money-pressure too. Once you've got that, take your new-found free time, and do some experimenting / soul-searching. Odds are you "know" what you want, you just don't "know" it. And if you don't, maybe you'll discover it. Take each day as it comes, and _don't re-clutter_ until you've figured things out. I've also found that music typically helps me _a lot_ , so I make sure to get some frequently. And no, everyone is _not_ handling it "just fine". Everyone struggles at some point, you may just be hitting it earlier / later than those around you. Or they're just hiding it, which is likely more harmful than seeking help, so congratulations. You're already part-way down the correct road. edit: mimicing what edkennedy says, I've also found that decent exercise and good food are very important. Food's extremely responsible for well-being, but it's easy to devalue. ~~~ asym > Typically, when I edge down this path, I de-clutter my life. Stuff weighs > you down more than anything else, and it's a constant drain on your energy > and money. Stop doing things that are unnecessary, get rid of some stuff you > don't / won't use, and generally purge your life of everything that really > doesn't matter. It'll free up a lot of free time, and likely money-pressure > too. Thank you for confirming what I was already going to do. I am planning to donate or sell everything I don't absolutely need. ~~~ failquicker I agree that this is a most beneficial/therapeutic exercise. I started doing it 5 years ago, and it has helped immensely. I am much more agile now. Something else that I have done is keep a "junk journal" where I have taken a picture of all of the stuff that I have sold/donated/given away. After a few years you can look back and go "Wow...I really had a ton of crap" It's funny how we think we own stuff, but it can really own us. ------ njl I've been dealing with what you describe for most of my life, and I've been actively attacking it for the past fifteen years. If I had one thing I could get across to anyone, it's that happiness is a state of mind and a habit, not the result of outside factors. You choose to be happy or unhappy. It's all in your head, although it's a good idea to adjust your environment to ensure happiness. Exercise, happy entertainment, and happy friends all help. I refuse to accept that adulthood is about acknowledging limits and settling into a static and subtlety unsatisfying existence. I believe I only have one life to live, and I refuse to waste it. I want to add value to the world, and I am frothing at the mouth to do so. That's what I believe being an adult is -- accepting responsibility for my own life, acknowledging the values of other's lives, and then doing my best to add as much value to the world as possible. As for your fear of making real decisions about where to live, your uncertainty about what will make you happy... Risk is an essential element of being alive. Very few choices are reversible; you don't have kids. Make some bold choices, make some stupid choices, but be alive. Move somewhere and take a weird job. Try a start up. Take a chance at something, anything. That's what being alive _is_. Realize that everything ends up working out in the end, give yourself a kick in the ass, and go have a life that fucking matters. Good luck. ------ hesdeadjim First off, re: the "but everyone around me seems to be perfectly fine" line. Everybody may _look_ fine, but what is going on under the surface might be entirely different. When I was in the darkest depression of my life only a few select people close to me even knew how I was feeling. To the rest of the world I put on a good display of acting happy and motivated, but on the inside I felt directionless and... empty. Anyways, after reading your post and comparing it with my experience I would say you sound depressed. Life seems to have lost meaning, the things that once gave you pleasure no longer do, etc. If you see a psychiatrist they will most likely recommend an anti-depressant. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. I take a small dose of Celexa that leaves me feeling no side effects whatsoever and removed the suicidal thoughts and feelings that used to wash over me like a tsunami. However, in my opinion (and let me stress that it is an opinion, I am not a doctor or psychotherapist), drugs alone don't seem to work well. Things didn't change that much for me until I was forced to face my alcohol problem. As a consequence of doing a 12-step program and facing my fears, insecurities, and resentments, I began to find some measure of peace and fulfillment that I had always found lacking. My life began to change, I began to feel a sense of purpose and excitement to life, and my depression eventually lifted completely. I have also discovered a spiritual side of myself that I never expected to find. I'm not sure if that helps at all, but at least know that you aren't alone and that things will get better if you are willing to make changes. Hope the road is easier for you than it was for me! ------ niels_olson Lots of good comments. Some consistent themes: 1) physical labor (gardening, kitesurfing, etc): provides endorphins you're not going to get from a desk, and Vitamin D from the sunshine. Both are needed for a stable mood. 2) Socialization (mass, relationships, travel): plus-minus. Without some retooling of your thought patterns, more talking with the same people isn't necessarily going to help. Regarding travel, I wonder if there is an element of physical labor and sunshine in that as well. 3) therapy: the standard for depression is cognitive-behavioral therapy, which has two main components: a) identifying problems and making concrete progress on resolving them b) re-tooling your automatic thoughts: "If A then B". Andy Thompson, a U of Virginia psychiatrist has a very provocative theory making the rounds, which I'm somewhat partial too: the analytic rumination hypothesis. Fits in well with the effectiveness of the first part of CBT. ([http://andersonthomson.com/wp- content/uploads/2009/10/Andrew...](http://andersonthomson.com/wp- content/uploads/2009/10/Andrews_Thomson_PsychReview_2009.pdf)) 4) meds: he SSRIs appear to be not so helpful for mild-to-moderate depression (<http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/303/1/47>). Different story for major depression. If you don't remember 8 months of your life, then Prozac may well be for you. Regarding Omega-3 fatty acids: yeah, they raise your HDL a little bit, and maybe they're ok for maintaining optimal complex fats for the nervous system (myelin, etc), but few Americans have any problem with adequate fat intake :-) Finally, I'm starting to wonder if depressive tendencies are a recurring theme in the HN population in particular. Certainly negative thinkers are well positioned to identify new problems early and work on fixing them. How would one test this hypothesis? ------ rjurney Travel. Leave the country for a good long while. Go to India. Go to Russia. Go to Africa. Go to the middle east. Go to asia. Save $5K and live on $3 a day for a while. There's a long list of cheap countries where you can just hang out. Pick the one that interests you, and start there. Nothing gives you perspective and connects you with real life than... real life, as most of humanity lives it. Get out there and spend six months or a year just floating. I think you'll find that eventually you see the point of things back home, that you'll remember what is important to you. And when you come back, everything will be new, and you'll be you. That, or get yourself some Paxil. ------ rphlx Mid 20s extroverts appear to punt these kinds of concerns by drinking and sleeping around shamelessly. I'm still investigating if that really works. ~~~ ErrantX Meh. It doesn't work so well, you realise they are just constantly on the game to avoid the same problems. Eventually it got boring too; I figured out that there was actually no real challenge in it. However, short term it might be useful. It helped me grow - but I wouldn't say it is sustainable long term. ------ smachimo I am mostly an on-looker during these discussions, however I had somewhat of a similar situation myself awhile back. I've ran a company for several years now, and although I am still in my early 20s, I hit somewhat of a similar hurdle. At the time, nothing seemed to really interest me within my everyday life, but along came something that would change my entire life thereafter - KITESURFING. One of the common quirks of a kitesurfer is their passion and "stoke" for the sport. And today, I would probably be that same kiter, setting up at the local spot grinning like an idiot just waiting to get out on the water or snow. My life took a complete 180 when it came to what I thought was important in life - going from always concerned about work and the future to just living in the moment and enjoying myself now. I literally plan my weeks around the wind forecast now, but as far as right now, I wouldn't want it any other way. I understand that my attitude might be a typical phase coming from a young guy, however, the fellow kiters that I've met over the years who are all 40+ usually share this same attitude and most of them couldn't be happier. Today, this entire experience has taught just to do things that I enjoy and not worry so much. Although somewhat hippyish, it does not mean you can't be successful and live like this - I still have strong ambitions to get my startups off the ground among other things - I just sneak out when the wind picks up :) Kiting will never be the right sport for anyone and maybe not the answer to your situation. But if anything else, I would recommend you figure out your safe-zone, define it, and than, take a step outside it just to see what happens. And even if that first step doesn't change your situation, it will at least provide the grit to take another. I would recommend kitesurfing being your first step, but that might be a bit biased :P And I guess that concludes my first post on HN. Hope it helped! Dominic ~~~ endgame I'm also early 20's, just moved out from home, but I discovered tall ship sailing instead of kiting. (Actually, I'd done a 10-day voyage on the Sail Training Ship Young Endeavour before that and that's what made me keen for more.) I'm (trainee) volunteer crew of a replica tall ship called the Enterprize. She's a replica built with period techniques and materials as much as possible. Tarred hemp ropes, hand-turned belaying pins, hand-sewn sails, that sort of thing. The ship's mission is to maintain a piece of living history that the general public can access. It sounds like kitesurfing grabbed you like the Enterprize grabbed me: the major consideration when I'm planning a weekend now is whether or not I can sail. I've found that I've met an entirely different class of people in tall ships than most other things I've done. There's a real difference in the interactions, like the forcefield that people put up when they're in commute/work mode is gone. It's not just the crew, either. The sort of people who sign on as passengers are often easy to talk to and have fascinating stories to tell. Perhaps it's the wind? Keeping lookout while the wind's blowing through you is a fantastic feeling. Perhaps it's the chance to do something physical and immediate? Working together to get a sail set right is extremely satisfying. I guess that concludes _my_ first post on HN. ------ tumblen Great question and the fact that you are coming here to seek help is a great sign, I'd say. I'm in a different situation: 22, dropped out of school to start a company, etc. But, I have committed myself to developing a satisfying general lifestyle (getting there) so, maybe there are some overlaps. Here are some thoughts: 1\. In the moments when I feel most stuck and unmotivated it is usually because there is something looming over me that I "have to do." It's taken time, but developing the mindset that I truly do not _have to_ do anything has allowed me actually drop the anxiety and become truly excited about my work. What are your expectations about what you _should be_ doing? Maybe if you ease up on them, you'll find a new wave of motivation along a new path. 2\. It sounds to me like you, more than anything, need some exploration in your life. But, you are afraid of the risks. My suggestion here is to take time to define clearly what you are afraid of, what the worst case scenarios are and how to sidestep them. Additionally, lighten physical and mental load. Can you and your girlfriend sell the bulk of your stuff, tie down any loose ends and explore the World without making any living commitments for a few months? 3\. Set small challenges daily (2-3), write them down every morning along with the very specific next action that you need to do to get the ball rolling. When you complete all your challenges, put a big red x on the calendar. With each challenge, you will feel better and better and as the red X's grow, it will be clear how much you've accomplished. (Someone else suggested exercise, that is a great daily challenge.) 4\. I write ~1600 words daily in MacJournal, just a total brain dump. I don't worry about spelling, grammar or paragraphs I just type. I very rarely go back and read old ones. Somehow, just the act of typing through my thoughts, getting them out and throwing them around has had an incredible impact on my mood, motivation, etc. I feel like my own therapist. 5\. I think Steve Pavlina's book, Personal Development for Smart People, is one of the most complete and impactful books on improving your lifestyle. In particular, there are some great thoughts on finding your purpose on life. Highly recommended. Again, props to you for grappling with these emotions and talking about them publicly. Keep exploring them with others. Feel free to get in touch with me to discuss more, I'd love to hear how things pan out! ------ rlt If it helps, you're _definitely_ not alone. I'm 25. By all accounts my life is pretty good. I've got a fairly promising startup going. And yet I feel like I haven't matured _at all_ since midway through college. I don't feel like I imagined I would at 25. ~~~ Cyranix Another 25-year-old in the same situation (not leading a startup, participating in one). Many thanks to the OP and all commenters; it seems like there are a lot of eyes on this thread. ------ yeeyay I am paraphrasing what a wise man has said, the best way to get into a depression is to constantly think about "me,me and me" AND the best way to snap out of it is to start thinking about others, how can I help others. ~~~ keeptrying This may sound really shallow at first but seriously this does work. I would recommend taking baby steps in this regard. Start with opening doors for elderly people etc upto helping a co-worker on some work who isnt doing too well at work. Small measured goals which eventually change your thinking. ------ iambvk My situation was also something similar, but not quiet the same. I live in India with relatively simpler life style, and had a high paying job, but I always felt something was lacking in my life and was not happy (i don't think i felt depressed.) What I did was: I quit the job and went back to my college and asked my professor to let me stay in the college for some time. I had some savings that i can live by for an year or two (with my simple life style.) With all the free time I got, was finally able to contribute to an interesting free software project, that matched with my skill set. This made me feel a lot good, my stay enjoyable and busy. At the same time, i started attending interesting courses in the college (for free), learning new stuff, have technical discussions with students, etc. I am also taking care of my health and fitness in a much better way. Its been just 5-6 months and I feel a lot energetic and useful now. I don't know how long i could stay like this; I don't know how far i can stay unmarried (remember, i am an Indian and 29). I have absolutely no idea what future holds, but am having fun right now :) ~~~ luckystrike I don't know how long i could stay like this; I don't know how far i can stay unmarried (remember, i am an Indian and 29). I can relate to that .. :-). I think you are doing great, and am sure this would turn out really well for you. ------ jolie Most adults go through something like this. You start to realize you're not as successful/confident/responsible/etc. as you thought you'd be by now, and you kinda freak out about it. Losing motivation and feeling lost -- just about everyone I know has been there both personally and professionally at least once in their mid-20s. Seeing a psychologist might be good, but if I could give you a word of advice, I'd just tell you to start expressing bits and pieces of these feelings to others you trust. Chances are, everyone else has dealt with or is dealing with similar issues and will know what to say about your specific situation and personality. I wish you lots of luck in your "striving to be self-actualized," as you put it, and I truly wish you happiness! Being ambitious is tough; the flip side of that coin is never being satisfied. Sounds to me like you have a little bit of both going on. ------ froo Go see your doctor. You can confide in him/her and never underestimate the wonders of pharmaceuticals. I became severely depressed as a result of a combination of things. Studying 2 degrees at once was fine, however in the last 2 years of my university work my father died from heart attack and my brother committed suicide shortly after. I'm pretty sure I had a breakdown at one point, there is about 8 months of my life I don't remember living. Anyway, I spoke to my doctor, he put me on Prozac which I've been on ever since. Magic stuff. That combined with taking care of myself both physically and emotionally has kept me going. Also, I found that it is true, talking to friends about your troubles does help. You might be too proud to do so, but trust me, the alternative is far worse. ------ NEPatriot Read the War of Art by Stephen Pressman. He puts a name to this beast and calls it resistance. Most of us have gone through it. He openly discusses it and talks about the battles against it. ~~~ pushingbits s/Stephen Pressman/Steven Pressfield/ Also has a blog: <http://blog.stevenpressfield.com/> The Writing Wednesday section contains the pieces related to resistance. ------ imperator You have to be careful with something like this because you might be clinically depressed. I developed anxiety and depression when I was in college. Part of that was a feeling I wasn't achieving anything of note, or learning anything worthwhile. I had thought undergraduate education would be a splendid ivory tower, but it turned out most of my peers did not prioritize a sense of adventurous learning or a delight in knowledge. I learned a mismatch between reality and expectations can drive you, but also cripple you if it is to great. I think your decision to see a psychologist is a good one. I saw a psychiatrist and it helped me recover and develop a functioning and enjoyable life. Also, make sure it's a psychologist you work well with. Don't settle for one that you don't work well with. Also, it is difficult to know if a decision will make us happy in advance. We can develop a feeling of knowing in advance, but it's not always there to guide us. A lot of people will say, exercise, go to therapy, take a vacation. The thing to remember is that you are unique and your solutions will be unique. And that you are not alone. We all get lost. ------ lallysingh I've been pretty deep in depression before and am only a few years (2?) out of it. First, what you're going through is, no matter how shitty it feels, a good thing. You're starting to notice that most of the things you thought were important were actually important to other people you listen to. Here's a start (atop of whatever else you see that you like in the comments here): write a list of priorities, eyeball 10-15 of them. Then cross off all but 2-3. See if you'd be happy ( _not_ what makes other people, their, or your expectations happy, but _you_ happy) doing those. If you're unsure. Make another list, and cross off another bunch, and see if you'd be happy with that list. See what bubbles up. Iterative development for figuring out what's important to you. Btw: you're not supposed to have a right or final answer for this. Only psychotics and morons do. Go after what you think is best now, and plan to change later. If something sucks, fuck it, try something else. Take an experimental approach, expect to blow large amounts of time/money/energy on this -- it's the basis for how you live your life, it's _important_. Don't forget to party. ------ swombat Try this: [http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/01/how-to-discover- you...](http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/01/how-to-discover-your-life- purpose-in-about-20-minutes/) ~~~ Groxx "Kick ass and chew bubblegum" * cries __* it's so _true!_ ~~~ GeneralMaximus Turns out I want to be Gandalf. Who knew? ------ KevBurnsJr A family friend committed suicide on Saturday. Admittedly I'm not in a position to fully empathize with her plight, but I'm pretty sure it was a poor solution. ------ thaumaturgy I've known a lot of people like this -- a lot of them young, and some of them much older. Some people seem to just have a lot of drive and always too many ideas about what they want to do, and others don't have much of any at all. I've never been that way, so I can't really relate. But, I have seen that nobody else can really seem to tell someone how to live, or what to do, or how to be motivated. That part is all up to you; I could say, "go backpacking for a week", because that's what I do to clear my mind and re-focus, but that's something that works for me and probably would have no impact on you. You're looking to everyone around you for some advice that can only come from within yourself. You're the only person that can decide what you want your life to look like. ------ lionhearted When I get into a funk, I travel. It always snaps me out of it. How much are you spending per month, in what country? Because it's actually cheaper, including airfare, to live for a couple months in somewhere inexpensive. You can live an extremely nice in Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand for between $150 and $500 per month. It's $5 a night for a crummy room, $10 for a pretty nice room, $1 per meal for decent local food, $2 or $3 for higher end Thai food or Western food. Massage $5 to $10. Fairly cheap to go swimming, free to visit temples, short taxi ride $1. $20 for the weekly Thai boxing match if you're into it. I spent three weeks in Chiang Mai, and think I spent $500 all-in. That's $200 for my room, maybe $10/day for food and tea is another $200 (was having lots of really nice tea and lots of fruit shakes, the actual meals and snacks weren't expensive, a bag of roasted peanuts is like 20 cents for instance), then maybe $100 for a few taxi rides, a boxing match, and a few massages. Traveling breaks me out of a funk, helps me get a perspective. It's good because just being in another culture I feel like I'm "doing something" - learning some of the language and customs, constantly doing math for conversions on the currency, and so on. It carries pretty well into work and is good for getting inspiration to do more creative/speculative work that's not on a deadline or straightforward. Most inspirational places I've been, not in order - Tokyo, the rest of Kansai, Taipei, Barcelona, Amsterdam (if you like art or a party scene, and can handle bad weather), London, New York, San Francisco, the more remote provinces of China, Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand, Dubai, Toronto, Florence, Southern France. Some of those are cheaper than others. If I had a gun to my head and absolutely had to get something creative done in the next 30 days that was important, I'd head to Barcelona or Taipei I think. Different places appeal to different people, but hitting the road's frequently been the answer for me when I've been confused. I usually buy a one way ticket and just work my way around a part of the world, taking trains and boats whenever I can instead of flying, eating where local people eat, trying to stay away from tourist areas, getting into nature or the local art/culture, making friends, and so on. But the best part of all is you can actually save money while doing it if you don't mind slumming it, eating cheap, living somewhere not nice - I'm fairly simple, so I wind up spending less money when I'm in most places than I would've spent living in New York, Boston, Los Angeles, or London, which are the main cities I've hung my hat over the last five years. If you're somewhere a bit expensive, it's pretty cool to save money by subletting or ending your lease, and then spending a lot less somewhere else. Feel free to drop an email or post here if you've got questions - I recommend kayak.com for flights, and hostelworld if you're looking for cheap accommodation. Get a private room if you can afford it though, it's bloody miserable when you've got people who are drunk/sick/coughing/oblivious in a dorm room with you, but hey, I did plenty of that when I was younger, and you'll still survive... Edit: I'll also second the recommodations for cleaning up a diet, exercise, and martial arts, all of which are good. Inspirational books are good too - I just finished "Open", Andre Aggassi's autobiography, which was pretty incredible and highly recommend. Easy, very exciting reading. ~~~ portman _"long-term girlfriend (hopefully soon fiance)"_ Propose, then ask your finace to take a three-month leave of absence from her job so you both can volunteer in a developing nation. Use idealist.org or a similar website to find a location and organization that appeals to both of you. Then spend 3 months helping, learning, and "resetting". There are a few reasons why _volunteering_ is like "travel++" 1\. You can take time off from work. It's almost impossible for a company/manager to deny a request to volunteer overseas. Denying that request is like saying "No, our widget factory is more important than {poverty|famine|oppression}" and there is massive social stigma that prevents that from happening. Both of you will be able to take the time off. Yes, this is a travel hack. 2\. You need three months in a place to really experience it. 3\. Helping others is one of the oldest, and most universal, ways to produce happiness. It's like a nuclear power plant for self-fulfillment. 4\. Seeing poverty up-close will annihilate any Westerner's malaise. It's suddenly very, very hard to get into a funk about your career when you're watching a family live on $2/day. Normally I would add the "YMMV" disclaimer, but I think you will find that this prescription has a 100% success rate. Everyone I know who's spent time volunteering overseas describes it as a life-altering experience. ~~~ mistermann "Propose, then ask your fiance..." Judging by the OP's question, and that he seems to be a bit "out of it" generally speaking, I don't think getting married at this point in time is the best idea, especially when he's so young. Marriage is the most important decision you'll make in your life, and speaking from the man's side of it, you should likely anticipate serious modifications to the formerly implicit agreements decided upon before marriage....just fair warning. ~~~ portman You're right, that was too flippant. I also hope people didn't stop reading at that point, as what I'm really advocating is the volunteerism. If I had edit powers remaining, I would remove that line. ------ floodfx Try living in the present and not stressing out about the future or past... I recommend you read (or better yet listen to the audio book version) Ekhart Tolle's "The Power of Now". From the Amazon description: "the author describes his transition from despair to self-realization soon after his 29th birthday." ~~~ KevBurnsJr I also highly recommend this book. You can get it in audio format. <http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002LYTNR4> ------ ChRoss I'm also mid 20s, and feel about the same. You should discuss with your girlfriend, what kind of life you two wanted to live. Plan carefully, and don't think too much, it will stress you instead. ~~~ asym This is a huge issue in its own right. She knows exactly what kind of life she wants to live, I think I know (and is inline with hers) but can't feel sure about _anything_. ~~~ yummyfajitas Don't let her tie you down to a life you don't want to live. You can't live your life for another person. I almost made this mistake. Refusing to make this mistake ended the relationship, but it was well worth it. ------ neodude @asym - are you in San Francisco? I've gone (and am still going) through some similar issues. I see you rock climb too, we should hit the gym together sometime and chat face-to-face. ~~~ asym I'm not, but I am around SF a few times a year and would love to belay or spot. I'll contact you off line. I'm usually bouncing between crags in the US (mostly east coast) so we should keep in touch if anything. ------ csmeder >"I have lost the ability to tell if and what I want anything from life." Read Robert A. Johnson's [http://www.amazon.com/Transformation-Understanding- Levels-Ma...](http://www.amazon.com/Transformation-Understanding-Levels- Masculine-Consciousness/dp/0062505432/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_10) From the Amazon.com description: "Using quintessential figures from classical literature--Don Quixote, Hamlet, and Faust--Robert Johnson shows us three clearly defined stages of consciousness development. He demonstrates how the true work of maturity is to grow through these levels to the self-realized state of completion and harmony. In Johnson's view, we all reach the stages depicted by Don Quixote, Hamlet, and Faust at various times of our lives. The three represent levels of consciousness within us, each vying for dominance. Don Quixote portrays the innocent child, while Hamlet stands for our self-conscious need to act and feel in control though we have no real connection to our inner selves. Faust embodies the master of the true self, who has gained awareness by working through the stages." Then read [http://www.amazon.com/New-Earth-Awakening-Purpose- Selection/...](http://www.amazon.com/New-Earth-Awakening-Purpose- Selection/dp/0452289963/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270616065&sr=1-3) The coolest thing about being at this point in life is that: the greatest texts human kind has produced actually make sense now. The bad part is that it can be a lonely place to be: to realize everything everyone else seems to care about obviously doesn't matter (on the grand scheme of things). Being the only person you know that sees this can be hard. But if you make it to self actualization it supposedly is very much worth the negative your feeling now. ------ pgbovine (apologies in advance if someone else already mentioned this ... i haven't read any of the replies yet) i would recommend thinking intensely about ways you can serve others (not just your girlfriend or immediate family, but strangers in your community and even beyond). volunteering at local non-profits, hospitals, or other organizations where you can _directly_ impact people's lives might be able to mitigate this quarter-life crisis of yours. and by volunteering, i _don't_ mean volunteering to make a website or install Linux for your local organization ... i mean doing something _in person_ to directly interact with people in a helpful way. if you can selflessly give your time and energy to directly helping others without expecting anything in return, then you might be able to expand your mental horizons and get 'un-stuck' from this local minimum that your current mood is on. ------ rs Remember, you're not alone - it is something like a quarter life crisis, and I did (still going?) go through it for the past couple of years, and here's what I did to solve my problem: 1\. Pick up a hobby that can really consumes your focus - I've started doing some photography (I'm horrible at it, but learning) 2\. Travel - see places and meet people. I know a person who went through something similar (but in his 30s) and went backpacking for 6 months in Australia. You might not want to go to that extent, but even a shot break away from everything does help (I recommend a beach resort, but YMMV) 3\. Reconnect with old friends (college, high school) - always a laugh, but more importantly, might open up doors (work and non-work related) that might have been shut a while back. One thing I've observed is that while most people look fine, some of them are going through what you're experiencing, but don't really show it. Remember, you're not alone. ------ buzzzlight I have always been in a different boat (I'm 32 now). I always knew precisely what I wanted to do, and knew it would be something nontrivial and...transcendent I suppose is the word. Life always stops me, whether it's work, money or relationships. You may have think of the future, how you want it to be, think of things like solar powered bikes you can ride for free forever, or computers writing their own programs, or imaginative ways of meeting other people whose dreams exceed even your own vast expectations, to find your own path. Maybe those are just things I'm interested in. But I know that the world as it exists right now at this moment is so profoundly underwhelming that it can't be the basis of my own enlightenment. Although HN has sure blown my mind this last year. ------ S_A_P I pretty much felt lost until my late 20s. I finished college and worked at a few large companies, doing mostly unrewarding work and not really challenging myself. By age 30 I felt I was at an impasse, and needed to either apply myself or drift along from job to job. I think the final tipping point was the arrival of my first son. The combination of wanting to do better and provide for my son was a powerful one. I ended up losing 50 pounds, getting back to my highschool weight, and working on projects that interest me. That was almost 4 years ago, and can say that Im as happy as I have ever been. For me, exercise and enough sleep are crucial, I can get depressed and demoralized without both of them. I dont know that this will help you, but it worked for me. ------ chriseidhof A book that really helped me is Flow by Csikszentmihalyi. You probably can recall a moment (for example, when programming) where you were in a state of flow, you were solving difficult problems (but not too difficult) and everything just went naturally. His book is about this state, and about how to reach happiness in general. The key point is not only to depend on happiness as told by external people (e.g. parents, girlfriend, government, boss) but also create your own triggers. It might be making music, looking at a sunset, etc. In other words: be in control of your own happiness. That being said, I think it's wise to see a professional. Ultimately, you'll have to do it by yourself, but they can help you get back on track and provide guidance and pointers. After all, it's their job. Good luck! ------ _throw1 Same situation as you, also in my mid-20s. Neuroticism seems to go hand-in- hand with high-IQ, introverted people. Just don't let that potential instability build-up into extreme actions that you might regret later...and perpetuate that vicious cycle of self-critique. ------ travisjeffery First off -- addressing: "Some people say this is what entering adulthood's like, but everyone around me seems to be perfectly fine." Have you spoken to others publicly in this same manner that you have privately, behind your username? Just because people don't talk about it publicly -- like you didn't; doesn't mean people don't feel the same way. You didn't give any useful information about what you could do; you must have some hobbies or activities that you enjoy doing and one of those must be able to provide you with some money to live off of -- even if it be humbly. In the end you have to make your decisions on what you know now and if need be you can always educate yourself to make a more informed decision. ------ Teef Things I am doing to recover from a failed startup I was working on. 1\. Do something impossible! I rode my bike to work 25 miles in the morning and 25 miles at night. This was something I thought was impossible, and I only got to do it a couple times a week but it gave me lots of time to think and work though my issues. Find your impossible task and do it. 2\. Learn something new. When I teach myself something new it is a very euphoric experience and after I then want to do something with that new knowledge. 3\. Lots have been said about gardening and yep it is all true do it now! 4\. Exercise for 30 minutes first thing and your day will start out much better. 5\. Eat local/healthy food. Good food makes you feel better. ------ dschobel The best antidote I've found to the hamster wheel of achievement for achievement's sake is Eastern philosophy. In particular, Alan Watts has been a revelation for me as he has a really jocular and irreverent view of life which is a great counter-point for super analytical types (like those which inhabit HN) who think everything can be resolved with logic. Watch this short clip from one of his talks and see if it doesn't strike a chord. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGoTmNU_5A0> PS: Figuring this out in your 20's puts you way ahead of the game. ------ nlwhittemore I think the advice you're getting here is great, but I'd for sure add a big validation of therapy, and should it be right, medication. Therapy is one of those things that, if you find the right therapist, sort of becomes like "why WOULDN'T I have a professional to help with this?" I saw someone in Chicago on and off for about three years post college to help with transitions. I'm an extremely self-reliant person who doesn't ask for help, so it was a weird thing at first, but it became something I ended up really looking forward to. It was a place where, each week, I could dump anything and everything without any pretense, exchange, or fear of judgement. Your friends and family can and will always be willing to help, but frankly, it can put a lot of burden on those relationships to have it all on them, and I've found therapy to be extremely helpful. I've also seen an extraordinarily high number of people successfully add medication to their regimen to really help. For some, anti-anxieties that can be used when needed make a world of difference. For others, SSIRs can really help with certain transitions. For still others, SSIRs and similar drugs are just something that become a permanent part of their life - my dad is like that and the whole family has been reaping the rewards of him "feeling like himself" again for ten years. Honestly, it sounds like you are a super high functioning dude, and that's great. All I'd remind you is that just because you're high functioning and still able to keep moving, doesn't mean you don't want to leverage the full slate of available resources. Always happy to talk about my experiences with therapy/meds. Info in profile. ~~~ ApolloRising SSIR should read SSRI (Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor). Only adding this comment to be helpful to anyone that needs to Google it for help. ------ cesart My mentor, who's a wildly successful and brilliant entrepreneur and about twice my age said this to me today: your 20s are like Puberty 2.0. We had a two hour conversation and he's seen the same thing in his nephews and his students and former students (he was a b-school prof for a while before retiring). My biggest problem seems trying to find what excites and motivates me and not feeling apathetic about all this web shit. I'm workin' on it. ------ gsk A friend of mine who may identify with your situation recently quit his job and has gone to volunteer full-time to help recreate a forest in the Pondicherry, India (Sadhana forest). Cliché but absolutely true: The world is a big and exciting place. Look out to immerse yourself in something completely new. Don't worry too much about the choices. Pick the first sensible choice (use stochastic efficiency). ------ scottallison Difficult to add anything to the superb advice already given but I want to endorse: \- overseas travel (go to a completely different culture than your own) \- exercise (even just going for a walk round the local park while listening to some music) \- de-clutter (this is really, really beneficial - I've just moved house and the feeling of throwing out years of accumulated crap was fantastic) \- socialise with some new people Finally, be wary of books and seminars, etc - sometimes I find if someone is so completely off the scale in terms of achievement rather than motivating me it has the opposite effect. Don't be afraid to stop reading/leave an event if you find you're not getting energised by it. A good book that's easy to read is The Magic Of Thinking Big. Nice, simple advice and a good pick-me-up. It's full of common sense and useful steps you can take to get re-energised. Finally, I just want to echo what others have said: there's no rush; don't pressure yourself. There's a great quote on PG's website... "Your twenties are always an apprenticeship, but you don’t always know what for." Good luck. ------ confoocious I can totally relate to what you're saying. My story: I found some professional success (atleast monetarily so) early and in parallel through college-life. I thought there wouldn't be much to the transition to pursue a bigger goal post-academics. Seems like I was totally wrong. Ever since, I've been facing a huge motivational crisis, total mismanagement of time, Unkept promises in my professional as well as personal circles and most of all, to myself. Currently, I still stand potential with whatever I thought was my biggest chance to make it big in life professionally. However, the only thing that can seem to provide me any kind of respite / mental peace is slacking off on junkie travel-getaways. Personal-life has hit new lows. Complicated-relationships turned irredeemable. Finally, there seems to be a self-imposed lethargia to any kind of social life (when not travelling); Life, monotonously so has boiled down to some work -- 8 hours a day, and IRC (with other minor randomities) the rest of the time. ------ awongh This is a bit of a tangent to your question, but I've been thinking about this a bit too. I've been depressed lately as well, and this ted talk [ <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgRlrBl-7Yg> ] was really interesting. It has nothing to do with being more happy, but has to do with how we define happiness and how we experience it... (being over-analytical and also unhappy, I thought it was quite good) It basically says that the concept happiness as we think of it is really two things, the "experiential self", which is happy when we're snowboarding or whatever, and the remembering self, which is happy when we're deploying some code that's going to take over the world or whatnot. It seems to me, from observation, that unless you are the rare .01 percent who really, really, gets paid well to do the things you want, (I'm not counting Tim Ferris types- that's just a hack) that life is a dissapointment, and at some point you just get over it and live your life and try not to stress out too much about your remembering self, and try to pay some attention to your experiential self. Or, that is to say, that at a certain point, people stop worrying so much about their remembering self's expectations of their future memories... err, that is to say that it's not that you want to be happy, it's that you have an expectation to be satisfied at a later time with your choices and actions. And then at some point you have to change those expectations. This may sound like pyscho-babble at this point, but it really gets to something I've been thinking a lot about lately, namely "am I happy?". Should the question be... "am I satisfied with my life?" or... "am I having fun?"... well, this concept of the two selves really helps defines what you mean when you talk about happy. Of course, completely satisfying one self or another isn't a solution, but generally I feel enlightened for having been exposed to this concept. ------ stretchwithme Maintain commitments to others that place demands upon you on a regular basis. One strives to simplify, to avoid conflict and to eliminate dependencies and if successful, we can create a bubble we live in where we don't have to do anything or satisfy anyone but ourselves. But we are not wired to live that way! Just as a muscle shrinks and weakens without demands, our brains shrivel up too! ------ foleyfoley I'm currently going through the same thing, its not over but I've realized a couple things My philosophy is start to do something, if it something you realize is not for you, you cross it off and do the next thing on your list. It doesn't matter what you do as long as you are doing something. For me this has narrowed down and grounded my interests, and has given me an idea of what to do with myself. This idea will obviously change with time, but for right now it is a start. Or when I feel like I cant think, or am not in control of the way my life is heading. I stop, and simplify my life. whether this is a day to lay in the park and read or just look at the sky. Or something more drastic. It is backing up from your own life and editing it to whatever degree you want. For me it was really empowering to be in a place of my constructing after I threw away all the metaphorical clutter. It let me breathe and start again. ------ ithayer I struggled with a something very similar (complete inability to work, not knowing what makes me happy), a few things I learned seem relevant: 1) Don't assume what other people are thinking or feeling (about anything, but in this case, many other people do go through similar things) 2) Happiness and fulfillment has a lot to do with expectations (intrinsic as well as external). Understand what those are and where they come from. 3) Talk to people, read, and if that's not enough, get help (seems like you're doing that). You'll probably learn something about yourself. I can recommend "The Feeling Good Handbook" by David Burns (Stanford), which is about cognitive therapy [also described in other places]. It may not be exactly accurate for your situation, and those types of books may sound silly (I thought so before reading it), but I've found some of the techniques useful. ------ grilo I hope this article can help you. [http://artofmanliness.com/2010/04/06/modern-maturity- create-...](http://artofmanliness.com/2010/04/06/modern-maturity-create-more- consume- less/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+TheArtOfManliness+\(The+Art+of+Manliness\)) ~~~ endgame There's some interesting stuff on that site, thanks for the link. I read their bedmaking article last night and put it into practise this morning. My bed has never looked better. ------ neilk As for your concern that other people "seem fine"; how many people in your life know how badly you're hurting? I bet you're doing a good job of keeping up appearances. Well, so are a lot of other people. So, of your worries, you can eliminate the one where you're worried that you're alone or self-indulgent or otherwise unusual. I wish I had some concrete advice for you. A psychologist may be able to help, but don't fall into the trap of focusing too much on how you _feel_. You have to also focus on who you _are_. At the very least, it sounds like you don't quite know yourself. I am interested by the fact that you have a block about trying new things, when it's the one thing you should be doing to figure out where your talents should be applied. Perhaps you should talk that over with a psychologist. ------ missizii I second (or third) the recommendations of seeing a psychologist and upping your level of physical activity. Try to find a psychologist who isn't a pill- pusher. I also recommend the books "Feeling Good" by David Burns and "The Highly Sensitive Person" by Elaine Aron. One thing that helps me figure out if I'm ok with where I am and what I have is imagining that I'll lose it tomorrow (not in a bad way). If I'm tired of where I live, I imagine I'm moving tomorrow, if I'm unsure about my job, I imagine it's my last day here. It helps me appreciate the good things about my situation. However, I'm definitely one of those people who doesn't appreciate what they have until it's gone. ------ bballant There are a lot of good suggestions here. Reading religion and philosophy definitely helps. A good way to get into that is to find a writer you like (can be anyone) then find out who their influences were. I've enjoyed reading Joseph Campbell and Alan Watts. Exercise is a great thing as well. It's surprising to me how extremely positive a force daily exercise is in my life. Writing, therapy... all really good things to consider. You have to find what's right for you. That's a hard thing to do when you're in a slump. You need a challenge or, even better, a challenging journey. Have you traveled seriously or lived in another country? If not, do it. Go with your fiance, spend at least a year in a foreign place. Good luck. ~~~ peregrine Can you suggest some good reading? Watts has a ton of stuff out there.. ~~~ Estragon Watts is fun, but not very practical or informative. The anti-intellectual tendency of Zen makes it relatively difficult as field of self-study. All schools of Buddhism necessarily rely on teacher feedback, but the dependence in Zen is particularly acute. The book I learned from is _Wake Up To Your Life_ , by Ken McLeod. _Mindfulness in Plain English_ is also excellent, and available for free online. ------ blizkreeg I'm almost 30 now and my 25 yr old self went through this, word for word. If I had to go back and give one piece of advice to that boy, it would be - Relax a little and don't be too harsh on yourself, especially with those expectations. There is _no_ rush. You have much time ahead of you. Quarter-life crisis is more common than you think. While the reasons do not matter much, in my view, high expectations (not bad) and impatience are the culprits. Life is a long journey and learning to navigate the ups and downs is a skill learned only through experience. In many ways, this is what entering adulthood really is about :) You no longer have the structure of school, and as you said yourself, the highs and novelty of grad school, your first job have started to wear off. It happened to me too. You are lucky to have a girlfriend who has known you for long. Don't let this feeling affect a precious relationship, first and foremost. If you have a right-brained friend, a guy, who has known you for a while, talk to him. Male camaraderie & bonding is something different altogether. I hate giving you a list of "things-to-try" but this is what I've learned - "changing things up" is one of the most effective ways of pulling yourself out of this. Your mind needs fresh fuel. It needs to see and experience new things. It is a feedback loop. Your mind will automatically give back to you great motivation, new ideas, and happiness if you feed it with something new. Soon after I turned 26, I backpacked by myself for a bit around Europe. It was one of the most defining and amazing experiences of my life. Take your girlfriend along and go travel a bit if that seems possible. My travel energized me so much that soon after I returned, a new venture idea dawned on me and gave me a strong purpose. It is difficult to find meaning and purpose in modern life. Expectations are high, and we see media-fueled stories of 20-something millionaires all the time. That's a rarity. Most importantly, let life unfold. Life is long (no matter what you hear otherwise). It is a journey. Embrace the uncertainty of what is yet to come. If you stay on your feet, let yourself gravitate towards new experiences, and let them permeate you, the flow will be smoother. Remember that there is no rush. There is no deadline to get to a certain place. There should be no I-must or I-have-tos, especially in this phase. You don't absolutely _have to_ find a strong meaning and purpose to everything just yet. It will come. The 20s are some of the most wonderful years of our lives. Take a few risks, have new experiences, form some amazing memories. You seem like a fairly cheery guy prior to feeling like this. I see what you are feeling as more of a transient phase in the journey of life. It happens to all of us. Everyone. I speak from experience, too. And believe me, when this phase passes, you will have been glad you went through it. It will define the man you become. It will be good =) Good luck! ------ samratjp What you need is a Pensieve (like the one from Harry Potter where the characters can take out their memories to analyze). OK, Just Kidding! But, do go for a walk by a quiet lake or body of water. Take a notebook with you. Spill your thoughts on the paper and don't actively think about it. It's hard to look at oneself "passively" and this helps immensely. There is no shortcut here. Keep doing this everyday, you will find that negation helps. This is the closest you will get to a pensieve :-) This may help: <http://www.selvesandothers.org/article16383.html> ------ blender You have what Sally Hogshead calls "Tourist Indecision": Anxiety resulting from a sense of being lost or proceeding without clear direction. Basically indecision causes stress. Ever taken a Myers-Briggs personality test? I'm a big believer in it. Check out "What's Your Type of Career?": [http://www.amazon.com/Whats-Your-Type-Career- Personality/dp/...](http://www.amazon.com/Whats-Your-Type-Career- Personality/dp/0891061541/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270611242&sr=8-1) Reading that book was a real eye opener for me. It was like someone was reading my thoughts. This book will help you determine what kind of environment you thrive in. Cheers ------ blizkreeg >> Some people say this is what entering adulthood's like, but everyone around me seems to be perfectly fine. Your foray into adulthood does not have to be like everyone else's and around the same time. Some of your friends may mature and go through this later in life. Some will face a stronger mid-life crisis, having never gone through something like this. Here's the transition all males have to make, at one point or another in their life. Boy => Guy => Man. What you feel now will certainly pass, and you will be all the more stronger, and a man with purpose because of these (20s) formative experiences. ------ edeion I see this thread draw many clever and dynamic people. I'm afraid I can't help in any way since many have already given clever, inspired, positive advice. Anyway. I'm 28 and I have been struggling almost forever to find something captivating. In recent years, solving useless problems helped (<http://www.caesum.com/game/index.php> in case you'd like it) but oddly enough I don't manage to play this more than one week a year. Generally speaking, I try to get interested in some things but I soon feel indifferent to it. (I guess I'm just describing a depression symptom.) Anyway this doesn't make a living. I've read people around here (including PG) writing they were poor employees and it reassured for some weeks since I really am a pitiful one (to say the least). But since then I came to realize that comparing myself to this kind of people was outrageously pretentious. I may not be stupid but I can no longer do anything. I have long liked to blame school and parents for this since it was not the same in my early childhood. But blaming does not help. The most awful thing I sometimes come to think is exactly what people suggested to you: it's what adulthood is like, you are through some age crisis. If that's how life is, I should have hanged long ago. (But that's not good karma. etc. -- Nicely put.) I guess, like others suggested, a key point is finding something valuable to do. Anything you feel rewarding. Especially if it may have measurable success, I would say. Helping others is good provided either these people do not overlook your efforts or you are confident enough to value your efforts by yourself. Actually, do anything you can achieve now with the energy you have in store. I can testify that the more you wait the less energy you have. (But this doesn't prevent me from still waiting.) The best would be to find a field in which your efforts can add up. Founding a startup may be captivating and hence a therapy. But how could people like me (I wouldn't ) show the needed strength? My last effort to be on topic shamefully fails. Anyway, I took for granted that your problem comes from your job which is far from being clear. Sorry for the English (or for telling nonsense (which is almost the same in my case)). ------ gcheong One book that I have gotten help from recently is "The Happiness Trap" by Dr. Russ Harris. (www.thehappinesstrap.com). It is a basic introduction to a recent form of cognitive behavioral therapy based on mindfulness called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. The main difference between this and regular cognitive behavioral therapy is the idea that instead of trying to change your thoughts, you change the way that you engage with them and by doing that you can get away from the constant struggle with them. ------ 3dFlatLander You may joke about the phrase 'quarter life crisis', but that's what it feels like for me as well. I've found some peace of mind from letting things evolve over time instead of putting my all into a project/goal/relationship/whatever and then becoming frustrated when it doesn't succeed when and how I want it to. Eating well, exercising, and meditating also helped me feel more positive. I hope you get back into the groove soon. Just stick at it, and eventually you'll get there. Hopefully we all will. :) ------ xenophanes > Some people say this is what entering adulthood's like, but everyone around > me seems to be perfectly fine. Are you broadcasting not being fine to anyone but your closest friends? No? Then it means nothing that they aren't either. Anyway, learn philosophy. You're asking philosophical questions. Most philosophy is bad and makes no sense. However, good philosophy is very useful. See Karl Popper. And you might try www.fallibleideas.com ------ groaner Are you me? I was actually going to post this question myself sometime this week! For the moment, let's say that you've just contributed something valuable to the community that I really wanted to see. I'm still reading through the responses, but I want to take this opportunity to thank you for this right now. It takes guts to take the first step and seek help. I'm still trying to muster up the courage myself. ------ spaceman77 I am 46 and had something similar happen twice in my life and it usually preceded a huge change, for the better. tricky waters to negotiate they are (yoda) ------ stener I am more attentive. You can start to hear bird singing, smell the wood or see the night sky. The difference is in the details; you can be astonished by the nature, explore it and so appreciate own life. And good diet is amazing. Lately I climbed the tree, watched the sky and hills from the top, washed in the cold mountain brook. And I was grateful for every minute of my time. ------ herdrick Sounds like a pretty typical case of depression. Take it seriously, it's not just "feeling down" or something, it's a serious problem. Luckily it's treatable with meds. However, I'd try some of the other ideas seen here first. Especially intense exercise. That's a powerful antidepressent. Good luck my fellow HNer! ------ nfnaaron "Or if I do know exactly where I want to live, I'm always terrified that I'll regret the move later." I was almost literally born moving. Dad was in the Army with orders, and they let him/us stay where we were until I was born, then two weeks and go. I moved with my parents a lot in the Western US and Hawaii. The I joined the Navy, saw the world from Virginia to Hawaii to Kenya, and moved duty stations with my first wife a lot in the process. I did all that by the time I was 24, lived in Seattle 15 years then moved to Denver, where I've been another 15 years. I'm in my early 50s now. Besides the moving, I've lived what I think of as four fairly different lives, different friends, jobs, interests, relationships. I say all that partly to acknowledge that I look at moving and changing differently than a lot of people. It's not a big deal to me, and I usually look forward to it. It's difficult for me to understand what it's like to live in one place most of one's life, so my perspective is probably different than yours. All that said, when I look back at how much I've moved and settled comfortably, I think at your age you have more than enough time to move somewhere, decide you don't like it, and move again. And maybe again. Moving at all is something of an existence proof: if it doesn't work out, _you can do it again_. Nothing needs to be permanent. If you want permanence, it's OK if you don't get it the first time out. I have liked and profited from everywhere I've lived, everyone I've known and everyone I've been. Most types of change are a gift. No choices have to be 100% correct, which is good because they won't be. "I have no idea where I want to live, no idea what I want to be doing, no idea where I want to be doing it and no idea what will actually make me happy." Suggestions, tailor as needed. Try stuff. Treat your career as necessary but secondary for awhile, as something to support everything else. Focus on fun things outside of work. Outlandish things. Go skydiving. Go skydiving in a foreign country. Go skydiving naked. (I can enthusiastically recommend all of the last three.) Get yourself into really, really good shape if you aren't already. Become a gym rat. (I recommend Crossfit, sometimes discussed here, but anything that isn't 24 Hour Fitness/Big Box will do.) Learn to fly, models or full sized. Get really good at Bridge. Get good enough at Poker to make a living at it. Form a startup around Poker or Bridge or flying or naked skydiving. Travel as much as possible, short and long trips, with and without your girlfriend. Learn a foreign language, and go live and work where they speak it. Immerse yourself in your favorite instrument. Take up a martial art. Try stuff, lots of stuff. Be like that guy in that Jim Carrey movie and say yes to (almost) everything. Open up to the world, and let the world show you what interests you. Or as my aunt says, rise up, go forth and fake it. You don't have to know that whatever you try next is going to be "it," you just have to try it. When you get to the other end you'll have a lot of cool pictures and stories. ------ projectileboy It's hard to be happy if you haven't defined happiness for yourself. I once took the time to explicitly write out my values and their relative priorities, and now every time I think about major decisions in my life I have a meaningful frame of reference. ------ holdenc This happens to me sometimes, and my personal solution is: 1) Sit in a comfortable chair 2) Put on a nice pair of Bose headphones 3) Blast Kanye West. If that doesn't work, blast Glenn Gould. (Music and art are the cure for a bleak world.) ------ bpourriahi It took me a very long time to realize this: -Confidence is the defining quality in success. Be confident at any cost. This will help you focus on what you want most right now in this moment, and moving towards what you want will lift your depression. ------ Tichy I think often the only way to figure out if you want something is to try it. Traveling seems like a good idea, or other things to get some exposure. Do you want the same things as your stb fiancee? ------ fdschoeneman Whatever you do, do something different. Join the Army. Move to Thailand. Dump your girlfriend, if you have to. Good luck. ------ vicutoru im in the same fucking situation dude, and i have no fucking clue what the fuck to do. ------ lotharbot A lot of people have posted good advice about motivation. Rather than duplicate that, let me give some alternate/additional thoughts: 1) Pay attention to your diet. Make sure you're getting enough water, and make sure you eat enough veggies and get enough protein and calories overall. Screwed up body chemistry can make you feel unmotivated and disconnected. Carry a water bottle (I've got a nice quart-sized stainless steel bottle) and make sure you drink several full bottles a day. 2) Pay attention to your sleep schedule, as well as your sleep quality. Getting not-quite-enough sleep of not-quite-good-enough quality can leave you just a bit lethargic, or over time build up to major apathy. 3) Get a physical as well as a psych evaluation. Don't settle for one or the other. There are lots of little conditions that can drag you down and leave you with vague emotional weirdnesses. If the docs find something awry, get it treated, and don't be afraid to go back and ask for changes if the treatment doesn't work; sometimes certain meds just don't work right for certain people. 4) Keep exercising. Sounds like you do some rock climbing; don't give it up without replacing it with something else challenging. OK, so with all that physical stuff in mind -- getting your body right so it's not a drag on your brain -- you might still have a problem. In large part, "this is what entering adulthood's like", but there are still some things you can do to smooth the transition: A) Have a good, long, serious heart-to-heart with your significant other. Be totally honest with yourself and her. You might find some lingering resentment over something you had written off as insignificant, and that can affect your overall mood. B) Remember that the decisions you make now aren't necessarily permanent. You can change jobs or careers; you can load up the moving truck and head elsewhere; you can start or end various extracurriculars (others have suggested gardening, martial arts, etc.) Don't be afraid to just try something and revisit it a year down the road (and set yourself up for it -- rent, don't buy, or as lionhearted suggested, travel somewhere cheap and spend a couple months there.) C) Pay attention to the things that make you happy. Elsewhere on HN I saw a suggestion to make happyfile.txt on your computer and write down things that make you happy each day. My sister carries a paper notebook and does the same. Remember, anything that makes you happy goes in the Happy Book -- something a friend says, time spent writing or reading, minor or major accomplishments, religious pursuits, tasty meals, enjoyable HN posts. The mere act of writing the things down means you think more about them, and over time you may notice patterns and find you really want to make some specific change in your life. For the record, I was 28 and had a pregnant wife when I finally realized the thing I wanted to do most was to be a stay-at-home dad. I didn't keep a "happy book", but I did pay attention to the amount of joy I derived from working with kids and thinking about family. ~~~ abas Along with the advice about diet and a physical, you might consider taking a multi-vitamin and talk to your doctor about your energy/motivation when you get your physical. I used to be puzzled as to why people would take vitamins in general, thinking that if you need vitamins, you should adjust your diet. I still think that more or less, but started taking vitamin B when I had some nerve issues and noticed my energy, mood and motivation was for sustained periods of time better than it had been probably since I hit puberty. I later went to the naturopath for other health issues and blood work showed I was borderline hypothyroid and had very low vitamin D levels. I have been taking supplements for both of those (stopped taking vitamin B awhile back because it started affecting my sleep for some reason) and they have also helped with my mood and motivation. ------ known You'll be happy if you plan your career so that you can retire by 40. ------ cominatchu I highly recommend The Art of Happiness by Cutler. ------ ddemchuk I am in the same boat, have been for about two years now. The thing that has worked briefly for me but I haven't been able to stick you yet (I plan on doing it, eventually) is to tire yourself out every day. You sound like me, where we think too much, never finish projects because of new ideas, and am always falling short. You're trapped in your own head. You need to go exhaust yourself every day, physically. Go run, not just a jog, go fucking sprint until you're barely able to breath. Lift weights as hard as you can. Run some stairs. Get tired. Also, do those things outside. Go sweat everyday. Just sit in the sun if you have to. Remind yourself that there's an actual world behind your monitor. I sleep terribly, night terrors a lot, wake up screaming, scare the hell out of my girlfriend, bad news stuff. When I exercise hard during the day though, I sleep like a baby. Just food for thought. Keep a journal, write down all new ideas, and put them away. Review it every few days, and only then decide if it's really something you want to pursue. Try blogging. I just started again, it feels good to have readers, to think about how to teach people what I know, to PARTICIPATE in the world and give back, even if it's techie niche stuff. In regards to psychologists, I haven't decided if they help me or not yet. I found myself in a situation one day where I realised that my therapist worked off of and knew only what I decided to tell her. I had complete control over the situation. That can be a dangerous realisation; I haven't been back. I'm broke, if I wasn't, I'd go travel. To somewhere very remote. And just sit outside. Probably Ireland or Switzerland. Just sit on a grassy hill and look at nothing in particular until I knew what I wanted. Until then, just go run your ass off and get tired. You'll sleep a lot better. Your body will thank you too. ------ pw0ncakes Entering adulthood is difficult because even though the challenges are (usually) much milder, the stakes are much higher. If you get a C on your final, it doesn't matter much. If you get passed over for a promotion, it's the first sign that you need to be looking for another job. My experience is that the happiness range of college is 4-8, with a peak around 7, and that of adulthood is 2-9, with a peak around 4.5. The range is much wider and the peak of the curve is lower, but there's much more potential upside. In college, the star performers have as good a life as the average students. The "real world" has the potential to be really amazing, but for the median player, it's pretty shitty. The fact that even the most talented 25-year-olds live in fear of being in the latter category creates a lot of anxiety, and it can be overwhelming. Some advice: Definitely see the therapist, assuming you can afford it, and make sure that you're taking care of basic needs (exercise, nutrition, sex). You said: _Or if I do know exactly where I want to live, I'm always terrified that I'll regret the move later._ Remember that you can always move back. No one's expecting you to buy a house. People who leave New York come back, and people who come to New York from Chicago, Minneapolis often go back. As scary as "starting over" socially is, it's a smaller cost than the upside of living in the right place for you. Besides, you probably only have 3 to 6 real friends in your city at this point, and those you'll keep regardless of your move. (New York may be a special case; it's easier and cheaper to live elsewhere and visit 2 weeks each year, which a lot of people do, than to live here, because of the massively overpriced housing). ------ c00p3r <http://www.amazon.com/Emotional-Intelligence-Daniel-Goleman/> ------ locopati Step away if you can - take a trip, do something unrelated to anything you usually do - give yourself some space to clear your head and maybe you'll see what it is you really want. ------ hernan7 It may be depression; it may be a brain tumor... seriously, consult with your physician ASAP. ------ 3eye Try Ayahuasca. Its legal 100%, you can get components on ebay.com. Motivation guaranteed. Watch The Blueprint by Real Social Dynamics - how to get girls. Listen to some good trance music: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkITM2UIYoU> Read Tim Ferris book "Four Hour Work Week" ~~~ natrius WARNING: According to the Wikipedia article, this concoction contains monoamine oxidase inhibitors. Pretty much every commercial I've seen for an antidepressant says to be talk to your doctor if you're on any MAO inhibitors. Don't mess with this stuff if you're taking an antidepressant without doing further research. ~~~ Alex3917 Despite the fact that the parent comment is getting downvoted into oblivion, it's not completely off base. Dennis McKenna did some preliminary research which suggested that when done in a religious setting, long-term use of low- dosage ayahuasca may increase the density of serotonin receptors. And anecdotally there are stories about former meth addicts going down to South America and coming back all serene and mellow. Now it's definitely not the best option, or even one of the top twenty best options, but I think there's enough there that it makes sense to keep it in the toolkit for future consideration. (But obviously don't go out and try it yourself without doing the research and without proper psychological/medical supervision, that's just a recipe for inducing permanent psychosis.) ~~~ KevBurnsJr > there are stories about former meth addicts going down to South America and > coming back all serene and mellow. I've met at least a dozen. Coke, meth, pills, booze, herb, cutting, you name it.
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Barbie challenges the 'white saviour complex' - sea6ear http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-36132482 ====== ggggtez Does this even count as news
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Google’s new voice recorder app transcribes in Real-Time, even when offline - bgrynol https://techcrunch.com/2019/10/15/googles-new-voice-recorder-app-transcribes-in-real-time-even-when-offline/ ====== the_duke An interesting angle to this: if your phone is powerful enough to transcribe audio in real time without any external processing, and considering how cheap it is to transfer and store text, how long before autocratic countries start persisting everything you say ? ~~~ pacala Persisting is benign. Actively processing, less so. Imagine stack-ranking party alignment sentiment, based on everything the subjects ever said. ~~~ the_duke The processing part was implied. My point was just: with audio, you might want to think about really recording, storing and processing everything. But if a phone can do high quality transcriptions and just send them off to government data centers, it becomes sort of a no brainer. ------ m-p-3 Also available on APKMirror [https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google-inc/google- recorder/](https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google-inc/google-recorder/) ------ gundmc Loving the trend towards federated on-device ML. The more data that stays on- device rather than going to Google/whoever's cloud the better. ~~~ m463 I would't put it past the cloud providers to ALSO snarf up the transcript (and possibly the raw audio to help with training). It might even be a cost savings. ~~~ jrpt If they're federating the ML, they can also do federated learning. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federated_learning](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federated_learning)) Although in most cases I suspect it's probably not federated learning, instead just a deployed model that they've trained with in house data. ------ OrgNet so, where can I download the app for a different phone? I'd like to record to text my day on a phone that has no internet. I can't see it on the "play" store ~~~ pkaye I think it needs a special AI accelerator chip which is first coming in the Pixel 4 phones. ~~~ HaloZero so the chances of it on the iPhone are slim then :( ~~~ dzhiurgis Apple would more likely to remove every single feature from iPhone before allowing something like that on phone calls. ~~~ m463 I thought apple already had ML functions like this for facial unlock. They also used to provide transcripts of voicemail done locally on the phone (although it was not great accuracy) ~~~ gen3 They also use ML for "Hey Siri" and the face detection in the photos app. Edit: Here is the article where apple talks about how "Hey Siri" works: [https://machinelearning.apple.com/2017/10/01/hey- siri.html](https://machinelearning.apple.com/2017/10/01/hey-siri.html) ------ jakeogh Google: totally not an APT ------ propogandist on a somewhat related note, I've discovered that youtube is somehow exfiltrating conversations I have during the day, to tailor content on my YT feed.. There does not seem to be any one app responsible for the data exfil, so I've been led to believe they're building models (or transcribing text locally) and sending it up whenever android phones home (constantly). I've tried attempting to block data exfiltration (Netguard etc) but nothing seemed to have worked and I had to switch devices. If they're able to do on-device transcriptions and the tech is mature enough that they're going to release it as a standalone product with a big launch, I can now believe they have some similar tech running on devices to support their core-metrics (engagement w/ YT content, which drives Ad revenue). Play close attention to your YT video feeds and you may notice the behavior I've observed too. ~~~ copperx I'm not going to say it's not technically possible, because it is (although it would be a huge battery or bandwidth drain, not to mention an insane tech scandal if found to be true); but if the only proof you have is a video feed that resembles your conversations I'm going to guess you're giving that data to Google is some other way. There are a thousand ways this could be happening, and most them have a psychological component. ~~~ propogandist I've made significant efforts to minimize dependency on google services and these are items that appear w/o any interactions or data being explictly shared to the google platform. It was hard to believe at first, but after quite a bit of testing I realized what was happening.
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Show HN: Quick and anonymous salary "surveys" at lunch - narcissus http://www.salarysecret.com ====== narcissus Hi all, I made this site for the situation where you and your colleagues are all at lunch and the discussion of salary comes up. While a lot of people don't feel comfortable discussing specific numbers, they're all still curious :) So this site lets someone start a 'secret' with just a few clicks (no registration etc.). That 'secret' has a code that other people can enter on the site, too, and then by telling the site your salary it will show everyone on that secret the minimum, maximum and average salaries. As per the 'privacy' page, I'm not storing any personal information... it is anonymous. It was also a good chance for me to learn Silex (the PHP "micro-framework") and Twitter Bootstrap (though not so well), practice 'progressive enhancements' with Javascript and play with PaaS via Openshift. Anyway, thanks for any feedback, flames or criticisms... ~~~ macobo Are you familiar with the Millionaires' problem? [1] There's an easy solution when you're looking for an average salary (and everyone doesn't mind doing a little bit of calculation). The first person thinks of a random number, adds his salary to it and tells it to the person on his/her right (so noone else hears!). The next one adds his salary and tells it to the next person and so on. When it re-reaches the first person, he then subtracts the original random number. The result is the sum of their salaries, which can then be divided to yield an average. All done in a way that no one person learns what the salary of any other person was. [1]: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaos_Millionaires_Problem> (link sadly broken by HN url parsing?) ~~~ narcissus I have actually heard of this process before. In fact, it was this 'problem' that originally made me think of the site, but then I realised that if I'm doing in online, I may as well automate it a bit and came to this 'solution'. That is to say, I'm all for people doing it that way if they like. If, however, they'd rather use an 'app' or whatever, then they're more than welcome to use this. ------ thirdstation Say I wanted to know your salary. I could start a secret and enter the minimum minus one before I send you the link. Is there a way to prevent this sort of scenario while letting the service remain anonymous? ~~~ narcissus That's a good point and not something I had thought about to be honest. I guess the whole "bad actor" thing didn't play into how I expected the site to be used. Which is a terrible response, I know! Out of curiosity, are there ways I wonder to actually try and stop this? I mean there are obviously ways to deter it, but is there a way to stop it outright I wonder? I'd have to guess no, but then again, I am definitely not the right person to think about this. ~~~ aiiane You can display the # of items already entered and the timestamps they were entered at (but not the values). It's not perfect, but it would help eliminate the "pre-loading" attack. However, that still leaves the "post-loading" attack, where you send someone a blank link, and then afterwards, fill in the other entries with known values. ~~~ hmsimha This (and the other suggestion by zerr) still leave the potential for someone to create multiple false 'minimum' datapoints, then target one of their coworkers to find out their salary. ~~~ aiiane Yeah, it's not at all foolproof or even great. I don't think there's really a good solution that still provides true anonymity, since the only way to prevent box-stuffing is to actually restrict people to one entry per real person (and that generally requires a more involved real-world authentication process). ------ troygoode I started a "secret" here (for up to 25 of us) to give this thing a test drive: <http://www.salarysecret.com/continue/36-teputo13> ~~~ ipince <http://www.salarysecret.com/continue/358-ratoru54> ------ therandomguy Great idea. Why not make the code easier? Start with three letter dictionary words, then four, so on till about eight. Then restart with non-dictionary. Now regarding knowing friend's salaries; From personal experience I can now say that it is not a good thing. I come from a culture where salary is not well kept secret and you usually know your friend's. This leads to a constant state of discontent unless a] You are on the top b] you are the type of person that can factor in intangibles well (hint: most people are not). You might be working on a really good project, but the next day you arrive at work you will sit there sipping coffee and thinking how come my buddy is earning double working on a iFart app? ~~~ fxthea That's probably a good thing, no? You probably feel discontent because your mind is telling you that you should do something about the situation. Either correct the injustice if it is an injustice or invest in yourself more to put yourself in a situation where you can be earning more. If you are a company where the workforce is in high demand and you are not paying your employees enough to stop them from thinking about these situations then you are going to start slowly but surely swapping out top talent for mediocre talent. ~~~ therandomguy My take is that everyone should be always aware of their market value (the reasons for which you have stated). Friend's salary (especially in different domains), I'm not so sure. ------ run4yourlives One of the main issues I see with this is that people lie. They lie so much, that almost everyone in HR completely discounts employee based salary data. Instead, if they need to understand what a market rate is for a salary, they ask _employers_ what they are paying, since to them it is just another expense. Talk to anyone worth anything in HR and they will echo exactly what I said. You may as well guess what your buddy is being paid, because whatever they tell you is never going to be accurate enough to provide you with an informed opinion. ~~~ narcissus Yeah, so I guess the site doesn't make its "raison d'etre" very clear. If I'm at lunch with my mates, and we are discussing salaries, and there's a way for us to anonymously give each other an idea of how much we're all making, well, I trust them enough not to lie. That's also partly why I'm shooting for "really simple to set up and add to". Any other use of the site is going to be gamed. I agree. ~~~ run4yourlives _give each other an idea of how much we're all making, well, I trust them enough not to lie_ You shouldn't, because they will. Pride is a horrible thing. ------ thirdstation This is a neat idea. I like that you didn't choose to implement another todo list in order to experiment with a new framework. I think the wording of "continue a secret" is a little confusing. I appreciate the brevity but maybe "participate in a secret" would be more accurate. "Share a secret" sounds nice -- because that's what we do with secrets :-) But, it might get confused with the sharing of that particular secret code instead. On a UI note, having to click on the help icon to dismiss the pop-up was a little annoying. ~~~ narcissus Thanks for the feedback. I agree that the wording of that middle part is a bit dodgy... I think it's time I pulled out me thesaurus :) Thanks for the reminder about the popup. I did that part right at the start and kept telling myself I needed to go back to it. I can work on that tonight. Thanks! ------ mikegagnon Cool idea. I'm wondering if there's a way to implement this system without having to rely on trusting the server with your data. Homomorphic encryption seems like it could be useful in this context, since the data is small. ~~~ swalberg If all you care about is the mean, I think it was Applied Cryptography that suggested: 1\. First person picks a random number and adds it to their salary. Writes it down ands hands it to the next person. 2\. Next person adds their salary to that number and writes it down on a new note, hands to the next person. 3\. When the first person gets the note, subtract the original number and divide by number of people. ~~~ NegativeK It was definitely mentioned there, and that was what I was expecting. That method requires that there's no collaboration to remain secure. ------ rglullis Hey! This looks eerily familiar to <http://salaryshare.me>. :) ~~~ narcissus Definitely the same concept. I had no doubt that this idea wasn't already done, but it was just one of those random itches I wanted to scratch :) ~~~ rglullis If you have any interest in working with Python (Django, or any other reasonably modern framework), I would be totally okay with open sourcing my code and developing this further. You should take a look at my original announcement [1] thread: there are some good ideas in there. In the end, I didn't work more on it because I was really busy at the time with my real startup, and I saw no real interesting way to compete with Glassdoor. Plus, I got sort of pissed that all the publicity (articles on TC, MSN Money and ABC news) we got was co-opted by the Glassdoor PR people. [1]: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2441888> ~~~ avree Hey man—just wanted to let you know about a typo on salaryshare.me. It says "No punctuaction." when entering a salary. ~~~ rglullis Thank you. Should be fixed now. ------ artax77 good idea to help people gauge how well (or not) they're doing salary wise. is there a control to prevent too few minimum participants, which would make it more obvious whose numbers are whose? the interface could be more graphical, less text heavy. ~~~ narcissus Thanks artax77. At the moment it does require at least 3 people to participate and/or to reveal the end values. I think mathematically that's the minimum, though it probably should be pushed up to 4 or 5, you're right. I agree that the UI could be more graphical... unfortunately I totally suck at the UI side of things. That, I think, I'm going to just have to let slide for now :( Thanks! ~~~ artax77 i do too, just learning little by little. cool project though, interesting points raised by other commenters.
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Nitrous.io Targets Enterprises with Pro Version of Cloud Development Platform - snowmaker http://techcrunch.com/2015/04/22/nitrous-io-pro/ ====== ericjang I speak only for myself, but my 'dev' environment more or less amounts to the operating system in its entirety, with access to programs like image viewers, vector graphics editing (i.e. making websites). I still find gnome useful for manipulating files from time to time. I wonder if the future of these ready- to-go development environments will be more like full-featured operating systems (Paperspace) that offer a whole machine in the cloud? Of course this would be a niche case but Google already has CitC images of Gubuntu that they use to avoid similar onboarding setups. ------ eumm Nitrious is the great solution to work with unix box, using it for months now and it really hides the pain of managing and setting the environment for Rails app development. The built-in IDE works great too, though would like to see some more tools like refactoring but anyway I like that all it requires is the browser so can work basically from any computer. Yes, sounds like the advertisement but I am comparing to literally days spent on setting up the environment for Rails development on Windows and Ubuntu and my experience with Nitrious where it was like just minutes to get up and running. ------ favrot Surface-level, this seems awesome, but I wonder how it works for larger companies with more complex (read: messier) environments. ~~~ raingrove At Nitrous, we use Nitrous Pro to develop Nitrous Pro, and Nitrous Pro requires a pretty complex setup (minimum 10+ components required to run). We did it by creating a master Docker image that runs Docker in Docker, with sub-containers running individual components. Nitrous Pro allows you to create development environments in the cloud with Docker images, and with the master image we created, we are able to recreate a dev env and onboard a new employee in only 10+ minutes in Nitrous Pro. I won't say that creating this master image was a trivial task, but we provide many ready-to-go templates that are sufficient for most people to get started, and we are actively looking for ways to make customization of templates easier. ~~~ skuunk1 Hi, I have been a long time Nitrous user (I use it with my Chromebook). Do you have any plans for migrating current users to Nitrous Pro? Thanks ~~~ ajhit406 There's a free plan on Nitrous Pro, so you can signup to reserve your free workspace (we're rolling out free workspaces, if you pay it's available immediately). We wrote about a few ways you can migrate your data to Nitrous pro here: [http://docs.nitrous.io/v1.0/docs/migrate-your-data-to-the- ne...](http://docs.nitrous.io/v1.0/docs/migrate-your-data-to-the-new-platform) ~~~ skuunk1 Thanks very much! ------ Wogef Unfortunately Nitrous.io does not work in China, neither does any other web based IDE that I know about. While it's true that it's a tough sell for Chinese companies, there are a lot of foreign companies here doing development. ------ math0ne Outside of java is there even really any money to be made in development tools, always seemed like a sector where the open source free stuff is better than the commercial stuff (besides a few small niches of course). ~~~ stickhandle "Outside of java ..." Surprised by this given a Spring, Eclipse, Maven, Jenkins, et al setup I would think Java dev tools is a tough one to make any inroads. ------ sergiosgc I don't understand the basic premise that a development environment takes hours to setup. You must have production deployment automated, and you should have pre-production and testing environment deployments automated too. If so, building a dev install is minutes, not hours; never ever a day of work. ~~~ jszymborski On Windows, setting up a dev environment can often be a pain in the ass, so if you're locked in for wtv reason I can see the pain point they're trying to alleviate. Even then though, with things like chocolatey nuget[1] and cmdr [2], windows is heading towards parity. [1] [https://chocolatey.org/](https://chocolatey.org/) [2] [http://gooseberrycreative.com/cmder/](http://gooseberrycreative.com/cmder/) ~~~ jzelinskie cmdr looks cool, but how does it compare to using cygwin through mintty? Next time I reinstall Windows, I think I'll try out chocolatey to see if I can get the `brew cask` experience out of Windows. ~~~ vdaniuk cmder was my gateway drug to moving from windows to linux and from gui to ~50% cli use. Cygwin didn't produce quite the same effect. Also, cmder is gorgeous :)
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Free speech cannot be sacrificed to strike fake news - Jerry2 http://thehill.com/opinion/cybersecurity/381871-free-speech-cannot-be-sacrificed-to-strike-fake-news ====== rdiddly The market will sort out the real from the fake? The market is how we got where we are. The market favors clickbait, not necessarily truth. Don't get me wrong, I find all the calls for somebody to _do something_ (i.e. restrict free speech) equally troublesome. I basically think there's no solution. Liars gonna lie. ~~~ beisner I mean, there's a long precedent of restricting free speech in the public interest. The classic example of shouting fire in a public theater comes to mind: the speech causes imminent danger to the theater occupants, and the courts have ruled that the rights of the public to safety outweigh the rights of the individual to say whatever they'd like. The question with fake news becomes: what is the damage that this type of speech causes to the public? This is a really difficult question to answer, especially since we're only starting to notice the effects on our political system. If this damage is too great, there would be justification to restrict it in the public interest. Of course, the people who end up making these determinations may also have conflicting political incentives, which makes this a very delicate situation to tackle in as broken of a political environment as we have in the US. ~~~ tikhonj The "fire in a crowded theater" example comes from a court case that allowed the government to imprison somebody for _advocating against the draft_ , and it's been used to defend government overreach ever since[1]. What's interesting is how the same argument for allowing more discrimination would be laughed off the stage as completely meritless and bigoted. But the situation is exactly the same! Organizations are allowed to discriminate against protected classes when it's a _bona fide_ occupational qualification or the organization is a private club, so surely there's long precedent for allowing discrimination in specified circumstances? Somehow almost everyone sees how this argument is totaly facile in the context of discrimination, yet it gets trotted out over and over when suggesting further restrictions on freedom of speech. [1]: [https://www.popehat.com/2012/09/19/three-generations-of-a- ha...](https://www.popehat.com/2012/09/19/three-generations-of-a-hackneyed- apologia-for-censorship-are-enough/) ~~~ mr_spothawk > The "fire in a crowded theater" example comes from a court case that allowed > the government to imprison somebody for advocating against the draft, and > it's been used to defend government overreach ever since[1]. good grief... you should shout this from the rafters. thanks for sharing. ------ superkuh Freedom of the press only means freedom to use hand cranked printing presses. That is all the founders were thinking about. They did not anticipate high throughput roll to roll printing, radio, television, or the internet. Consequently freedom of the press does not apply to any of these things. Only hand cranked printing press manufactured leaflets should be allowed. Freedom of the press should be banned for all other mediums. ... and in case you're wondering, yes, this is a metaphor for another on-going debate and an apt one. ~~~ ufo Sorry but I dont understand what analogy you are trying to make here ~~~ hluska I'm not OP, but it seems to be an apt (and well written) analogy to the 2nd amendment to the US Constitution, which grants: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." The 2nd amendment was written when muskets were state of the art and assaukt weapons like AR-15s were almost beyond belief. ~~~ stale2002 > The 2nd amendment was written when muskets were state of the art and assault > weapons like AR-15s were almost beyond belief. I am not sure why everyone believes this, because it is completely untrue. During the time that the constitution was written, 30 round semi automatic assault rifles had existed for around ~100 years. Yes they did. Really. Check out the Kalthoff repeater: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalthoff_repeater](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalthoff_repeater) It was an up to 30 round semi automatic assault rifle, invented in the 1600s. Now, it wasn't used a whole lot, because it was fairly expensive and also wasn't mass produced (Although it WAS actually used in a couple conflicts, by specialized forces!). But to claim that such things were "almost beyond belief" is ridiculous. ~~~ hluska I hadn't heard about the Kalthoff repeater (thanks for the link), read more and also found out about the Cookson repeater, which was also released in the 17th century. [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cookson_repeater](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cookson_repeater) I didn't know about those weapons and they're impressive (though very rare). But, there's still a huge leap between a Kalthoff/Cookson repeater and an AR-15. According to that weapon's manufacturer, an AR-15 has a 30 round magazine and can shoot 45 rounds a minute up to 1/3 of a mile! ~~~ stale2002 IMO, the most important innovations around guns have mostly been because of changes in bullet technology. The modern day bullets are the things that have caused the massive increase in accuracy, energy, and range. And I guess, also decreasing prices, and reliability. It is perhaps possible to make a reasoned argument around THAT, but the arguments around guns rarely reach the point beyond "ban the guns that look scary". ~~~ hluska I don't think it has much to do with "looking scary", rather it has to do with raw power. Very few ardent gun activists would argue that citizens should have access to fully armed m-1 tanks or nuclear weapons because they're too powerful. There's an implicit understanding that certain kinds of arms are too powerful, so the right to bear them can be infringed. I'd argue that the same kind of logic should apply to weapons like the AR-15. An accessible, reliable, fully dangerous weapon like the AR-15 is so far beyond the 'arms' of the 1790s that the right to bear it could be infringed. A gun in the hands of a qualified, reasonable person is a legitimate means of self defence, but I can't think of why that should apply to something like an AR-15, which is built to kill as many people as quickly as possible. Qualified, reasonable people have many, better options to protect themselves from the threats they'd reasonably face that can't so easily be perverted by deranged fucks. ~~~ ThrowawayR2 > _A gun in the hands of a qualified, reasonable person is a legitimate means > of self defence, but I can 't think of why that should apply to something > like an AR-15, which is built to kill as many people as quickly as > possible._ If AR-15 style weapons, which use .223 cartridges, were banned, that would still leave sporting rifles, which use the larger and more powerful .308 cartridge. That cartridge was the size used in the battle rifles of the WWI / WWII era that were standard before the evolution of the assault rifle. (Assault rifles have smaller cartridges because the range and power of the standard battle rifle cartridge was found to be unnecessary and the smaller cartridges allowed soldiers to carry a larger quantity.) Given that, it's hard to see how an AR-15 ban is anything other than a cosmetic ban. ------ losteverything I wish people could live my life before cable and the internet. We are so so much better off now than the 3 networks is all you get days. Somebody in N.Y. decided what important to me, not me. When i wanted a sports score or tomorrows weather I had to listen to 30 minutes of news. As I get older I want to consume Far Less news.... And I can now pick and chose. A much better place than the 1960s or 70s ~~~ CM30 This is actually a good point. For as much as people criticise echo chambers and fake news and what not, you have to ask yourself whether it was really any 'better' in the old days, or whether you simply didn't know otherwise. Was it better when the government or the church decided what people were allowed to know? When there was one media outlet in a certain medium, like in the UK when there was originally only one TV network in existence? I mean, even the days when it was just newspapers didn't necessarily have an informed populace or people open to other views. It had people who read the same tabloid for decades and got stories that would likely make Breitbart jealous. Fake news may be a hot topic nowadays, but at the end of the day, it's really just a byproduct of anyone being able to become a publisher, and it's probably better that's the case than that one or two organisations can dictate what's newsworthy and what isn't. ~~~ orev Well, it really was better, for this reason: because you had limited options and limited control, you had to sit/listen/watch/read through segments and articles that you didn’t necessarily agree with, forcing you to be exposed to other ideas. Sure it wasn’t perfect, but there just simply was not an echo chamber like what exists today. Like any healthy diet, your news needs to include things you might not necessarily like, but you could wash them down with the other frivolous bits. Today you can just binge on candy all the time and like any kind of addict, people get really upset when you try to take it away. Further, there was a pretty big stigma associated with buying tabloids, but today you can indulge without anyone having any idea what you’re looking at. ------ enitihas I think the solution for the problem of fake news is going to be very difficult. People have a tendency of believing whatever they read in Facebook or a random google search or a random WhatsApp message, and that is going to be difficult to counter. Traditionally the source of information could be monitored at least in well run countries. However, when anyone can make his/her views visible to the whole world and make emphatic claims with false logic, it is going to be hard to prevent people from believing them. A lot of threads I saw on the Myanmar issue say Facebook should have done more. Maybe Facebook could change its algorithms to not show people aggressive stuff. Maybe they can have an option to report stuff. But what about people spreading propaganda in an exponential way, with only very few people reporting. How on earth any messaging platform will deal with that. I think we are looking at a very painful compromise some where down the line. ~~~ matwood > People have a tendency of believing whatever they read in Facebook or a > random google search or a random WhatsApp message, and that is going to be > difficult to counter. People have a tendency of believing whatever they read, period. Trying to always remain skeptical and search out multiple sources and facts is hard and time consuming. Being a skeptic is also challenging from a mental/emotional standpoint, because you always have to challenge your own possibly deeply held beliefs. ------ chrissnell "Fake news" is an awkward word choice by the President but I think I understand who he is targeting. There is a trend among major news organizations to do reporting with an agenda in mind. Whereas traditional reporting was "this happened and then this happened...", the agenda-driven reporting reads like "this happened because so-and-so is trying to <insert politicized opinion>". Sometimes these pieces push the facts to the very bottom of the story. Sometimes they exclude them entirely. I place the blame on editors with agendas driving the reporting process. This happens on both the left and right. Fox News, Washington Post, L.A. Times --they are all frequent offenders. I'm just so sick of it. Any sophisticated reader can spot this biased reporting quickly but other readers can't and are sucked in. I wish there was a strong just-the-facts movement/resurgence in reporting. I'm basically down to the Wall Street Journal in my daily reading selections. ~~~ jacquesm Fox News and the Washington Post are about as different as could be when it comes to the level of their reporting. Fox is straight up propaganda, to the point that it is ridiculous that _anybody_ would even take them serious, they're about at the level of Russia Today. The Washington Post is more along the lines of 'manufacturing consent', and if they lie it is by omission. ~~~ JBReefer To me, "manufacturing consent" is scarier. Fox News is ridiculous and everyone - _especially Fox News_ - knows it. The Washington Post is as you claim, which feels dangerous. The same with the Times (and the Journal on any non-free market health policy) in the modern era - there's a lot that's left out: important context is intentionally omitted to shape the narrative or to produce an angle, which is much more malicious. Fox News/HuffPo/Breitbart/TPM don't scare me because they're somewhere between junkfood and supermarket tabloids. It's the people who lie when they appear to tell the truth - like WSJ coverage of any single payer country - that freak me out. ~~~ wycy This became painfully clear to me particularly during the 2016 primaries. I watched as news organizations I formerly respected--CNN, NYT, NPR, WaPo-- shamelessly twisted facts and spun deliberatly misleading narratives, even on their front pages. CNN now acts indignant when Trump calls them fake news, but because of what they did, they've made him not _entirely_ wrong, and I'm annoyed that they gave him that ammunition. I think the best way to combat fake news is to have trusted, respected news organizations. But now both the right and the left no longer fully trust these organizations, so people have started looking elsewhere. IMO, the only way to fix it is for these organizations to start reporting honestly to try to regain our trust---so I think fake news is going to continue to be a problem. Disclaimer: I know that CNN/NYT/NPR/WaPo propaganda is nothing compared to Fox News/conservative media. But it was misleading enough to shatter the trust of many people, including me. ~~~ s2g > But it was misleading enough to shatter the trust of many people, including > me. Which story was so fake that you can't trust them anymore? Honestly, I think people like you are a big part of the problem. OH you know that places like Breitbart are worse, but you just can't bring yourself to trust the Washington post. Do you not see how much that sort of attitude contributes to the _much_ bigger problem? ~~~ wycy I mean there were constant examples throughout 2016, but here was a fun one to rewatch: [https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/05/17/cenk_ugyu...](https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/05/17/cenk_ugyur_cnn_never_showed_you_what_really_happened_at_nevada_dem_convention.html) In the wake of Wikileaks revealing that what CNN called a baseless conspiracy theory was actually true, this was a fun trip down memory lane. ~~~ jacquesm CNN gets stuff wrong from time to time, sometimes badly wrong. But I would stop at seeing this as a structural problem, they're not lying wholesale, all the time like Fox does and even though I'm fairly sure they have a bias - just like almost every other news organization - unless you are hyper partisan yourself it likely won't influence you. The Sanders/Clinton controversy may be a huge issue to you but what the likes of Breitbart, Fox and so on are doing is on an entirely different scale. All this besides the fact that Clinton stood a much better chance against Trump than Bernie Sanders ever did. She even won the popular vote. ~~~ wycy > All this besides the fact that Clinton stood a much better chance against > Trump than Bernie Sanders ever did. She even won the popular vote. I mean, every poll at the time suggested otherwise: [https://imgur.com/a/K9Rzr](https://imgur.com/a/K9Rzr) Additionally, Sanders is a guy who did very well with exactly the demographic that HRC lost. But I digress-- I agree that Breitbart and Fox are far worse than the rest of corporate media, and I still watch CNN/MSNBC every weekday. But I go into it with a much higher level of skepticism and the knowledge that I need to seek other sources of information if I want to know what's going on beside the corporate-friendly narrative. ~~~ jacquesm That's Quinnipac which is about as biased towards the GOP as they can get away with. The game ahead of a general election is to try to sow as much division in the camp of your opponent and to get them to elect the weakest candidate that increases your own chances during the real thing. The main takeaway for me is that elections are more often than not choosing the 'least bad' candidate rather than the best candidate. I personally don't think Clinton should have run at all, but I think the same about Sanders and Trump. All of them have substantial baggage and in some cases serious doubt about their qualifications and mental stability. If those three people were the best that could be found in a country of 300+ million people then that's indicative of a much larger problem. I do think that neither Sanders nor Clinton would have fucked up to the extent that Donald Trump is currently doing. If this really will go on for almost three more years you'll be able to say you were there when America lost its place. And no doubt CNN will cover it. ~~~ wycy I believe you’re thinking of Rasmussen, not Quinnipiac. Q is respected, Rasmussen is known to be GOP-leaning: [https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/pollster- ratings/](https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/pollster-ratings/) Otherwise I agree, we are living a major part of history. ~~~ jacquesm Ah yes, got that mixed up, thank you for the correction. ------ ILikeConemowk >Why is fake news so prevalent? Because of fake news? I find this phenomenon kind of pleasing, intellectually tickling? I mean, like recursion. Everyone asks why the phenomenon exists without realizing they are the sole creators. It's like a merry go round, each outlet trying to "catch" the baddies without realizing _they_ are the problem. The MSM and the people within are so desperate for clicks and views that they spend their whole lives hopelessly slinging bullshit, "fact checks", retractions, hyperbole, "OP-eds" which are actually propaganda disguised as opinion and every other thinkable form of garbage content aimed solely at manipulating us. Then there's those of us who just sit quietly on the sidelines and laugh, and then we turn the talking heads off. ~~~ moate #WakeUpSheeple. Cool Story Bro. ~~~ Varcht #TheCakeIsNotaLie You tell him, bro. ------ arunbahl > Ultimately, legal tools should be limited to problems they can solve. Fake > news is not one of these problems. False. Replace "fake news" with "false advertising", and there's ample precedent for how this might be achieved. We've got laws at both state and federal levels that make deceptive or misleading claims illegal, to protect consumers; protecting consumers of news media needn't be any more problematic constitutionally. ~~~ nokcha Imposing criminal or civil liability for false news has a chilling effect on someone reporting even true news if there is reason to believe that the government might disagree with the reporting. I certainly wouldn't trust Trump's DOJ not to abuse such a law. Just look at how the Alien And Sedition Acts were abused. Supreme Court jurisdiction holds that commercial speech (advertising) is less protected than other speech. This is why laws against false advertising are usually upheld while similar laws against other kinds of false speech would be ruled unconstitutional. ------ GCU-Empiricist “If it can't be expressed in figures, it is not science; it is opinion. It has long been known that one horse can run faster than another — but which one? Differences are crucial.” R.A. Heinlein ------ jlbbellefeuille I just won a freedom of speech lawsuit against NYC for my startup VUGO. We do not want to make governmental entities the judges of what information is fact or opinion, because the government will pick winners and losers based on what benefits them. The good news is that the judicial branch is in favor of protecting the 1st amendment in all it's forms (press, political, religious and commercial) Although a strong 1st amendment means that the responsibility falls on the citizen. Caveat Emptor...In other words the the consumer of media alone is responsible for checking the quality and suitability of information before a accepting something as fact. We need to do a better job of helping people think critically, I don't know what the answer is, but I do know that government regulation of Free Speech is definitely NOT the answer having fought content-based censorship in NYC. ------ hirundo Fake news is not a market failure, because there is a large and robust market for fake news. It's driven by our wishes, whims and dreams. To defeat it you'll have to start by defeating those. ------ cabaalis Using words that do not directly harass, libel, or slander another person or group is harmless, even if those words are charged and disagreed with by the majority. The actions that people take upon hearing or reading words are solely their own. ~~~ blacksmith_tb I would like to agree, but there are some strong counterexamples[1], though by the same token, I find it hard to accept that we would make policies designed to think for people on the grounds they can't be trusted to do so themselves. It points to a means-end problem at the very least. 1: [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3257748.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3257748.stm) ------ s2g > It does not distinguish between facts and opinion Neither does the author of this piece, apparently. > Courts cannot become fact-checkers Why not? ------ frgtpsswrdlame >The marketplace for ideas will ensure that true news trumps fake news. Why would I believe this? It hasn't worked so far and I think there is some misplaced faith here. Perhaps the media is facing a backlash because of their basic hypocrisy in the modern era. CNN, Washington Post, NYTimes and more are quick to criticize Trump which I'm fine with, he's in a position of power and he's not handling it well, checking his power and public perception is literally the purpose of media. The problem is that the media has abdicated this same duty everywhere else where it has been convenient for them. An example is why is this criticism of Facebook so linked to Trump's election? We deserved this level of coverage years ago. Blaming this all on obviously fake news on social media sidesteps why people believe those things in the first place - conventional media has repeatedly betrayed the trust of people. Take this recent article that was posted here: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16642683](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16642683) There is a lot of good criticism of the author in those comments, how she pre- formulated a story, repeatedly encountered suspicious roadblocks in her investigation and then because she couldn't write the perspective she wanted, dropped the story entirely. What am I supposed to call this uncritical coverage of Theranos other than Fake News? And even there I can't exactly pin it on that journalist, it wasn't just her that encountered these things and didn't write about them, it was lots of journalists which points to a systemic issue. All of which is a really longwinded way to say this piece made me sad because it _is_ the 'marketplace of ideas' that led us to an era of actually fake news. Journalists like Jenny Gold are simply responding to the incentives of that marketplace. And that other journalists inside this system, like Sandeep, have no creative solutions for how to bring back real investigative journalism which questions and speaks truth to power _in all it 's forms_ and simply rely on old clichés does not bode well for the future. ~~~ s2g > An example is why is this criticism of Facebook so linked to Trump's > election? Because nobody cares until something goes horribly wrong. IT's the same reason why infrastructure spending is non-existent until a whole bunch of people start dying.
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The meaning of CSS - afshinmeh http://i.imgur.com/Q3cUg29.gif ====== ibudiallo I debug my css on Chrome and it is a breeze. And with a reset I almost don't need to debug it in IE ------ sidcool Flag. I can't, you can.
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UX Movement - Articles on Interface Design - lichengcai http://uxmovement.com/ ====== lovskogen Too bad Anthony comes off as a jerk in his comments.. e.g in the article about left aligned search buttons. ~~~ yakto Wow. That one article ([http://uxmovement.com/forms/left-search-buttons- perform-fast...](http://uxmovement.com/forms/left-search-buttons-perform- faster-than-right-ones/)), along with his dogmatic replies there, made me delete the bookmark I just created for his site. It's one thing to come off as a jerk on the internet, but another thing altogether to be so completely misguided on the layout of a simple search form. ~~~ adyus Why would you say he is misguided? I'm not taking his side, I'm just curious as to what the solution to the problem would be. ~~~ ma2rten I am not an expert on the subject, but I also think he is misguided here. In the Western world, where we read from left to right and top-down, we also expect our UIs to follow that order: first you type something and then you click on a button. Also I don't know if these visual fixations are really relevant here. Power users will use the enter key, so for them it's the best, anyway, if the button gets out of the way. Computer novices, on the other hand, will look away from the screen at the keyboard, while typing. Even Google places the search button at the right of the input bar. I am sure they have A/B tested every possible variation and this turned out to work best. Last but not least it's simply what we are accustomed to. ~~~ adyus That's good enough for me, since it makes more sense. A followup question: It is indeed best when the button gets out of the way. What assumptions are safe to make about the computer literacy of your visitors (i.e. they know to hit Enter to submit)? I realize that this depends on the target demographic, but we should have a set of standards, I think. It influences everything from UI streamlining to what content goes below the fold (can we assume visitors know how or when to scroll?). ------ shrikant This blog's made quite a few appearance on HN: [http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=uxmovement....](http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=uxmovement.com) ------ padolsey I'm sure the content is interesting but the website's design seems dull and generic. ------ perfunctory What is so good about it?
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Scala 2.9.0 RC1 released - stephenjudkins http://www.scala-lang.org/node/8976 ====== stephenjudkins There isn't as much new features in this release compared to the 2.7.7 -> 2.8.0 upgrade, but this is still a notable release. Not mentioned in the post but apparently included with this release it the new "Dynamic" trait, which enables runtime method dispatching. See [http://squirrelsewer.blogspot.com/2011/02/scalas-upcoming- dy...](http://squirrelsewer.blogspot.com/2011/02/scalas-upcoming-dynamic- capabilities.html) for a better explanation and examples. ------ melling I see they've shaved a second off of startup time. The slow startup is a problem for me because I want to learn Scala by writing little utility scripts, instead of using Perl. I don't want replace Perl but it's more fun to learn something by using it to solve real problems.
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India reports its first case of coronavirus - reddotX https://in.reuters.com/article/china-health-india/india-reports-its-first-case-of-coronavirus-idINKBN1ZT0TE ======
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Porting a React Front End to TypeScript - gary_bernhardt https://www.executeprogram.com/blog/porting-a-react-frontend-to-typescript ====== scottfr You can get a lot of the benefits of Typescript in VSCode without leaving JavaScript behind by using JSDoc. Typescript will pick up the JSDoc type annotations and use them to type the code. This can be a great option when typing an existing project. Docs: [https://www.typescriptlang.org/docs/handbook/type- checking-j...](https://www.typescriptlang.org/docs/handbook/type-checking- javascript-files.html#supported-jsdoc) ~~~ hombre_fatal Vanilla VSCode also has surprisingly good code inference for Javascript/Typescript. Recently, Typescript was complaining about an implicit `any` even though the VSCode tooltip clearly could infer the actual type (it confusingly was showing both cases in the tooltip). I finally realized that VSCode's built-in inference worked here but Typescript didn't work at all because I forgot I was importing a .js file rather than a .ts file. VSCode for course also downloads @types/* files in the background even in vanilla JS projects which is super helpful because you get effortless intellisense. That it does this kind of stuff out of the box is the sort of reason why I've lost my Vim/Emacs fanaticism over the years. ~~~ DanRosenwasser VS Code's JS support is actually still powered by TypeScript. I'm not 100% sure exactly what you were experiencing, but it's intentional that VS and VS Code automatically download types when powering JavaScript contexts because we try to make things "just work" for JS users. ~~~ tomnipotent > intentional that VS and VS Code automatically download types Are these coming from DefinitelyTyped? ~~~ WorldMaker Indirectly, sometimes. They come from npm, but the largest chunk of type packages for libraries that do not provide their own types on npm are serviced from DefinitelyTyped (via the `@types` organization and its long tail of shadow packages). ------ sefrost I’ve found this React + TypeScript cheat sheet extremely helpful while recently porting a React codebase to TypeScript. (To the point it’s one of only four bookmarks on my browsers bookmark bar.) Perhaps others here will find it useful as well. [https://github.com/typescript-cheatsheets/react- typescript-c...](https://github.com/typescript-cheatsheets/react-typescript- cheatsheet#reacttypescript-cheatsheets) ~~~ eliseumds Same here, combined with a bunch of curious looks at the DefinitelyTyped repository pull requests: [https://github.com/DefinitelyTyped/DefinitelyTyped/pulls](https://github.com/DefinitelyTyped/DefinitelyTyped/pulls) ------ stgewehr It seems that I fundamentally misunderstand the benefits of TypeScript. I found myself spending hours and hours on reading the type errors stacktraces and adding types for libraries. Writing TS code takes 2x time than simple JS... and it is extremely painful experience. In comparison to many old plain JS projects I did - it simply doesn’t make any sense, the TS solves problems which I haven’t experienced at all. ~~~ sunaurus Writing statically typed code will always be slower than writing dynamically typed code. People don't use static typing for writing code faster, they use it for code that can be READ (and understood) much faster, especially by somebody who doesn't work with that specific piece of code every day. I think it's generally agreed that in most situations, reading code is much more common than writing code, so static typing really make sense. ~~~ winter_blue _> they use it for code that can be READ (and understood) much faster_ You nailed it. I agree, this is _the biggest_ benefit of static types. I worked at on a several hundred thousand line JS code base at a company, and people were passing objects around, and it was extremely painful to trace code and figure what the structure of the object was. I had to set a breakpoint in the browser, and inspect the object during runtime. Moreover, some fields would randomly be missing, because the field wasn't necessary for that instance of the object. It was infuriatingly maddening. I ended up spending a lot of time adding Flow types to it, of the form: type Foobar = { someField1: string, someField2: number, someField3: Baz, fieldThatIsNotAlwaysThere: ?Qux ... } The untyped state of the code base gave me an extremely hard to resist to add Flow static types wherever I could. I also added a step to the pipeline (with my manager's support) that would break the pipeline and make it impossible to merge new code, if it didn't have Flow static types (and I used flow-coverage to make sure the "any" keyword wasn't being used excessively to side step Flow type checking). I was told by some of my teammates to stop forcing types down their throat. I eventually spent so much reworking large parts of the code base, and adding static types to it that my other work suffered (and I wasn't putting as much time as I should have into it), that I was told to stop spending so much time on adding Flow static types. But it was hard to resist the temptation. When I had to implement a new feature / change a file, I would add Flow types to it, and then be drawn to adding types to the various other files that it connects to (imports from, passes data to, etc). They fired me in the end, for that (not prioritizing the things I was supposed to do well enough) and other reasons (was going through relationship issues and eventually a bad breakup, which caused associated psychological/personal/self- care issues). I've learned my lesson. Dynamic types aren't my cup of tea, and I find dynamically typed code to be repulsive and quite nauseating. ~~~ MaxBarraclough > some fields would randomly be missing, because the field wasn't necessary > for that instance of the object This problem can occur in statically-typed languages too, such as if you have a class to model your entity, but in this instance you only need certain fields to be hydrated. The other fields may be set to null. This might only a problem if the half-populated instance is 'leaked' to somewhere that expects a fully hydrated instance. Thinking about it though, it's possible that _null_ could also be used to represent a null held on the database, rather than _not hydrated_. The ideal solution would I suppose be to roll your own type for this semi- hydrated data, but that's not always possible/convenient. Example: [https://github.com/microsoftgraph/msgraph-sdk- dotnet/blob/de...](https://github.com/microsoftgraph/msgraph-sdk- dotnet/blob/dev/docs/overview.md#query-options) ~~~ xsmasher Typescript makes it convenient to roll your own type- `let draft : Partial<Foo>;` says that 'draft' is shaped like a Foo, EXCEPT all of the fields are optional. If you try to access a field on draft that doesn't exist on Foo, it's a ts error. If you try to pass draft to a function that takes a Foo, it's a type mismatch. ------ DanRosenwasser Hey all, I work on the TypeScript team. I've been super happy to read some of the posts about the migration on Execute Program. If anyone has any feedback or questions on TS, I can also try to answer them. ~~~ brlewis Noticing the time when you posted your comment -- how big is the TypeScript team, and how many time zones does it cross? ~~~ DanRosenwasser In total there's roughly 20 people, more or less split between core compiler/language service and VS editing scenarios for JS & TS. We also work pretty closely with the VS Code team on their integration. > Noticing the time when you posted your comment Uh, I am just kind of a night owl. Most of our team members work out of Redmond, WA, and our distributed members are either on the East or West coast of the US. ------ joelbluminator I'm not saying I never ever run into bugs due to dynamic types such as method/variable typos, I just think it's much more rare than people make it out to be. If that sort of thing happens a lot in a project you basically have very little tests. I'm confident in saying it happens to me maybe once in a few months - and that's working in a super dynamic environment of Rails. The Null error does happen, but that happens in java as well. ~~~ com2kid Not having to go to the code and investigate what the types of am object's fields are. That alone can make TS worth it. Heck just getting auto-complete on an object's members. ~~~ hombre_fatal Also any sort of combinator usage or functional programming reminds me of why static typing is so useful. A few layers of higher order functions / combinators and I don't remember if I have `value` or a `{ value: value }` container (like map vs flatMap). Or which stage of the curry I'm at. Oh right, I'm at foo(a, _, c) but thought I was at foo(a, b, _). If you can't even remember the last time you've encountered a runtime error, you are by my definition writing trivial code or not writing much code at all. ------ prmph I love TypeScript, but have encountered a situation where I simply could not compile my code anymore because it started causing an internal error in the compiler itself. Fortunately, I work as a team lead, and this was on an experimental branch, so I was able to hand off bits of code relating to architectural patterns I was evaluating to my team to continue work on those. But I simply could not proceed with my code as is, a very frustrating experience to say the least. How is this even possible? ~~~ mayank > But I simply could not proceed with my code as is, a very frustrating > experience to say the least. How is this even possible? As a team lead, I'm sure you know...bugs happen. What sort of internal error was it causing? Something specific and spelled out, or a generic uncaught exception? ~~~ prmph .../node_modules/typescript/lib/tsc.js:78602 throw e; ^ Error: Debug Failure. at Object.assertDefined (/media/psf/Code/Hypothesize/node_modules/typescript/lib/tsc.js:1690:24) at /media/psf/Code/Hypothesize/node_modules/typescript/lib/tsc.js:13175:89 at String.replace (<anonymous>) at formatStringFromArgs (/media/psf/Code/Hypothesize/node_modules/typescript/lib/tsc.js:13175:21) at Object.createFileDiagnostic (/media/psf/Code/Hypothesize/node_modules/typescript/lib/tsc.js:13191:20) at createDiagnosticForNodeInSourceFile (/media/psf/Code/Hypothesize/node_modules/typescript/lib/tsc.js:7770:19) at Object.createDiagnosticForNode (/media/psf/Code/Hypothesize/node_modules/typescript/lib/tsc.js:7760:16) at handleSymbolAccessibilityError (/media/psf/Code/Hypothesize/node_modules/typescript/lib/tsc.js:71556:50) at checkEntityNameVisibility (/media/psf/Code/Hypothesize/node_modules/typescript/lib/tsc.js:71929:13) at visitDeclarationSubtree (/media/psf/Code/Hypothesize/node_modules/typescript/lib/tsc.js:72066:29) ------ czei002 Regarding the previous backend related article and code sharing between backend and frontend, how does your project setup look like? For example, does the code get compiled using a bundler like webpack? if yes how do you solve the import '../../../../../shared.ts' problem? Or do you use node modules in a monorepo? Compared to other languages I found these questions surprisingly difficult to answer and solutions often quite cumbersome, e.g. if I want to share one small file in my project I don't want to maintain a public npm module for it... ~~~ gary_bernhardt (I wrote the article.) We use a single git repo with no npm packages defined, other than the package.json in the root because we have to put dependencies etc. in there. The directory structure for our source code is dead simple: src/server src/client src/common For example, the API endpoint definitions are common code, so you'll see stuff like this in client code that uses the API: import * as quizApi from "../../common/api/pages/quiz" The ".."s are annoying, but working around them isn't worth the effort. Even when we heavily reorganize the file organization, it only ends up taking a few minutes to mechanically update these imports with a vim macro, or even with sed if it's a perfectly mechanical change. We run two copies of tsc: one for the client and one for the server, building to build/server and build/client. That results in a weird build directory structure: src/server/db.js src/client/app.tsx src/common/endpoints.ts build/server/server/db.js build/server/common/endpoints.ts build/client/client/app.tsx build/client/common/endpoints.ts If you need separate build settings for client and server, this weirdness is going to show up one way or another. However, we only introduced this build separation in the last month or so. For the first 1.5 years of the project, we got away with a single tsc process and tsconfig.json, with no build separation at all between client and server. If anyone who's newer to TS reads this, I'd encourage looking for simple solutions like that; you can get to the weirder stuff down the road if you need it (and you may never need it!) ~~~ czei002 Thanks for sharing! We actually tried the same approach but we have a couple of more micro services relying on the same shared code. This has some additional complications, e.g. managing all dependencies for all services in one package.json is a bit messy and preparing a pkg for deployment gets a bit more complicated... ~~~ gary_bernhardt Ahh, if you're taking the microservice path then you're going to have to fight all of that complexity. So far we've stuck to the constraints that I set at the beginning of the project: vanilla Heroku web dynos; exactly one Heroku worker dyno (never 0 or 2); and Postgres is the only data store (no queues etc.) ------ LAMike The question is, is it worth it? I'm starting to feel behind the curve and I want to learn new stacks like Next.js, Typescript and GraphQL. Anyone else feeling this way or have already gone through that learning curve? ~~~ kilburn I have transitioned my entire team (comprising people ranging from fresh-out- of-a-bootcamp to senior 20-years-in-the-web). Next.js and GraphQL are interesting technologies, but I would say they will eventually fade. They do solve some problems, but they introduce new (hard to fix) ones. Typescript is here to stay. The improvement it brings to the development experience cannot be understated. It helps the inexperienced to avoid lots of (minor) bugs and providing much more useful autocompletion/inline docs than any javascript analyzer can. For the experienced people, it is an invaluable tool when the time for largeish refactorings comes. For the first time you can "follow-the-trail-of- errors refactor" in frontend-land. ~~~ shriek This question probably varies on who I'm asking but how long does the transpiling process take for you on a, let's say, fairly large project? ~~~ kilburn We were already using Webpack + babel. Adding transpilation there is fairly inexpensive (done by babel, without type checking). Type checking did roughly double our build time. Even then, we do run type checking during builds because we prefer the added safety even with this extra time. Developers run with an incremental checking watcher. It does add a significant tax, and takes a few seconds after saving in some cases (3-4). We would love that delay to go away, but it is a cost we are more than willing to bear if the alternative is not having type checking at all. ------ ludamad One critical thing for TypeScript's success that I wish for the Lua community is that it paved a roadmap for typing a huge chunk of the JS ecosystem. Porting to TypeScript can be entirely incremental, and you usually have a wealth of types coming in from dependencies. The UX here is going to be one of the best as far as ports go, as usually porting feels negative value up front ------ Kiro I want to start using TS for my Node service but ts-node seems janky and the compability with ndb (which I use all the time) seems bad. ~~~ DanRosenwasser Anything specific about ts-node that doesn't work or that stuck out as janky? ~~~ Kiro I keep reading people saying you should use tsc + regular Node instead which is enough to make me worried but haven't really evaluated it myself. ------ conmigo I've never increased my productivity by using Typescript, although I really tried very hard to like it. It just keeps bugging me. It's a constant stream of interruptions that force me to please the TS compiler, compared to having a rare type issue a once in a while in plain JS. Besides that, I've never been a Microsoft fanboy(to say the least) and it's worrying me that almost the entire JS eco system falls in the hands of that company; Github, VSCode, Typescript, NPM, etc.. Am I alone in this? There is so much good stuff in the JS world, but we seem to adhere to a few companies and a few systems more and more. Being a 'Javascript' developer today only has very little to do with Javascript. It's about React, Redux, Hooks, ESLint, Prettier, Typescript, etc.. Oh, and don't forget to do it Agile, another joy and productivity killer. And when you don't agree with this stack you're either not so smart or still need to learn to 'understand' it. ~~~ sli Your comment is pretty much exactly the reason why I'm moving to Elm and PureScript as much as possible. As a specific point, function types for redux- thunk are just an absolutely miserable mess and that alone moved me to redux- saga. But personally I just want to dump the whole wretched thing. I'm glad people are waking up to this, because I felt like the odd one out disliking Typescript and preferring Javascript. Typescript in my experience has felt like a collection of hacks more than a well thought out expansion of Javascript. Additionally, it concerns me that official solutions to some problems (e.g. iterating on an enum) require you to write around the code that the compiler will generate. That does not fill me with confidence at all. As a personal point of contention, I really dislike that the types are useless beyond design-time. But since they don't want to go outside the EMCA spec, we'll likely not see anything like pattern matching on type or type-level destructuring anytime soon. As it stands, some trivial things can become a nightmare very quickly. Maybe I'm just used to the ease at which ML-family languages can express some concepts. ~~~ acemarke What specific concerns did you have with the redux-thunk types?
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IQ scores have been in decline for cohorts born since 1975 - sndean https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/dumb-and-dumber-why-we-re-getting-less-intelligent-80k3bl83v ====== steve918 There seems to be a lot of negative bias around IQ tests based on social stigma. IQ tests are far from perfect and I think everyone agrees they are a woeful indicator of success. However, I think improving IQ testing for the purposes of documenting human evolution is just as important as documenting fluctuations in disease, addiction, obesity and the like. For example, there has been considerable scientific research that points to a noteable increase in IQ in America in the twenties due to increased iodine intake. If we are in-fact getting less intelligent, I think it would behove us to purse potential causes. ~~~ dnomad > IQ tests are far from perfect and I think everyone agrees they are a woeful > indicator of success. I don't know many people that agree with this. At least in my bubble, the great majority regard IQ tests as bunk and the rest regard IQ as just a very roundabout way of measuring the education level of a child's parents. (There's some disagreement whether the father's level of education is the most important factor [1] or the mother's education level is [2]).) It's only in a select few internet forums dominated by a select few types of people where IQ is taken seriously and even obsessed over. Putting aside the wholly made-up _g factor_ , what we've been seeing in the West for the last 30 years is rapidly increasing inequality in educational attainment. Severe cuts in education at both the public level and the private level (see, eg, the extraordinary rise of single mothers in both the US and EU and parents with multiple jobs) means that many children are simply getting less education than they did 30 years ago. Note that this does not apply to the knowledge elite who go to extraordinary measures to educate their children. It's quite likely that the children of today's elite are the most educated children in the history of the planet. I know a few parents who have budgeted a million dollars for the education of each of their children. The Flynn Effect was likely nothing more than the result of the extraordinary and broad-based increase in wealth we saw from 1900 to 1980. Since 1980 virtually all of the growth is being captured by the elites so it's not surprising at all that we'd see a similar reversal in the Flynn Effect. [1] [https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/sep/23/fathers- educ...](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/sep/23/fathers-education- child-success-school) [2] [http://bigthink.com/ideafeed/mothers-education-level-at- time...](http://bigthink.com/ideafeed/mothers-education-level-at-time-of- birth-determines-her-childs-achievement) ~~~ throwaway37585 “Putting aside the wholly made-up g factor” Why do you stoop to blatant lying? “Research in the field of behavioral genetics has established that the construct of g is highly heritable. It has a number of other biological correlates, including brain size. It is also a significant predictor of individual differences in many social outcomes, particularly in education and employment. The most widely accepted contemporary theories of intelligence incorporate the g factor.[1]” “The practical validity of g as a predictor of educational, economic, and social outcomes is more far-ranging and universal than that of any other known psychological variable. The validity of g is greater the greater the complexity of the task.[2][3]” [1] Neisser et al. 1996 [2] Jensen 1998, 270 [3] Gottfredson 2002 ------ AltVanilla IQ is the last taboo. We don't want it to matter for socioeconomic success in life. We don't want it to be inherited to such a high degree that environmental factors like parenting and education hardly matters. Its all too depressing. People are born unequal, and there is little that can be done about it. IQ correlation studies: Same person (tested twice) .95 Identical twins—Reared together .86 Unrelated children—Reared together—Adults .04 [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritability_of_IQ#Correlation...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritability_of_IQ#Correlations_between_IQ_and_degree_of_genetic_relatedness) ------ foobaw The article is pay-walled for me - but based on the title: people that take IQ tests also have changed. The value and significance of IQ tests have definitely shifted since 1975 so that could be a big reason. ------ yontherubicon If it's true, as the article said, that this is occurring within the same families, that is to say within Norwegian families, rather than within new migrant families, then this result is highly disturbing. ------ jeffdavis If the reversal of the Flynn effect can be described as just a changing definition of intelligence, why are we so sure that the Flynn effect represented real intellectual gains? ~~~ oerpli Flynn himself does not believe that the Flynn effect represented real intellectual gains. For any test, your grade is usually based on: * Your form on that day (good day/bad day whatever) * Your competence * Test taking ability (TTA) The first one can result in pretty large fluctuations, though on the population level (what the Flynn effect measures) it should not matter. Competence usually means "knows the subject", for an IQ test this would (ideally) be "is smart". TTA is either "is prepared for the test" or "knows how to make educated guesses". It is believed that the Flynn effect largely results from two factors: * Some parts of the population were severely malnourished 50-100 years ago which hindered their brain development. * Improved TTA The first one would be a real gain (of intelligence), though with limited capability to expand upon, as these days almost no one (in US/Europe at least) is malnourished enough to allow for further gains at the population level The second is not a gain of intelligence though it is a gain of competence, just not the kind that we want to measure with an IQ test. As there are not many reasons to believe, that the current decline is due to nourishment/TTA, it may be that those are constant but actual intelligence is on decline. ------ mirceal Setting aside the click-baity title. The world today is way different than when we came up with IQ tests. Yes there might be a corellation between how good you do on an IQ test and how “smart” you are but I think over and over again your background/upbringing had been show to influence that more than your “smartness”. If the question is: do we think in different way than we did 50 years ago? I think the answer is a stong yes. The technology and the tools we have today enable us to do things that were unconcievable 50 years ago. Is this good? Is this bad? The truth is that human beings are (and always were) pretty limited. Our hardware sucks. The things that enables us are tools and our use of tools. As we get better tools we do better and better and our attention is focused on different things. I would argue that today we are smarter than we’ve ever been and we are getting smarter each day by using more and more powerful tools. ~~~ cgag I thought it had been shown over and over again that Iq had more to do with it than your upbringing? ~~~ oculusthrift it has. there’s twin studies where they are adopted to differnt families and yet end up scoring the same on IQ tests later in life and end up with similar levels of educational attainment and income etc ------ creep Haha. "IQ". A numbered score given after answering a few short problems administered in a high-pressure situation. Oh, IQ; woe. If I take a second to sit down with my peers (20's) and really _talk_ , all sorts of funny things come out of their mouths which really invite me to think about intelligence in a different way. You wouldn't believe the insights-- from every angle possible. Who gives a damn about IQ anymore? Who is anybody to equate it with intelligence? What is intelligence? I say: you don't know and I don't know, and who cares! ~~~ mzl A real IQ test (i.e., WAIS-IV or similar) is a lot more than just a few short problems, it takes several hours and is done one on one with a trained psychologist. The test used by Mensa (as an example many think about when they hear IQ test) is a simple test that has shown reasonably stable correlation with IQ, but it is not a real IQ test. ------ rzzzt I'm confused. Is the 100 IQ value's meaning, "average intelligence" (it's also supposed to be the median value, half of the population has an IQ around 100) stuck to a single point in the past for a certain cohort? How can IQ scores decline? ~~~ Camillo Scores are periodically renormalized to a new sample to keep 100 the median, but you can normalize to a single baseline to compare across time. ------ merricksb Other discussion in the past 1-2 days: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17302830](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17302830) ------ fulafel Paywalled link. Source seems to be: [http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2018/06/05/1718793115](http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2018/06/05/1718793115) Key piece from abstract: "Using administrative register data and cognitive ability scores from military conscription data covering three decades of Norwegian birth cohorts (1962–1991), we show that [...]" There may be some changes in what kinds of people sign up for the military as the cold war cooled down and disappeared. ~~~ cbsmith I believe Norway has had mandatory conscription for all males, so sign up bias shouldn't be a factor. ~~~ fulafel Good point. But then, WP says " In practice recruits are not forced to serve, but if the armed forces see an unmotivated person fit for military service, they can force them to serve. About 60,000 Norwegians are available for conscription every year, but only 8,000 to 10,000 are conscripted." So in practice my argument stands, with the additional factor that playing dumb in an iq test might be a good way to escape the "fit but unmotivated" categorisation. ------ thomk It's official; this generation dumber! Now get off my lawn and listen to some real music! jk, kids today outpace me daily. PS I wasn't kidding about the music! ~~~ thomk Sorry was trying to be funny. ------ vengefulduck Non pay walled link: [https://pastebin.com/54h7zF0b](https://pastebin.com/54h7zF0b) ------ Camillo Article is paywalled. How about this for a hot take, based on the title alone: there is an overlap of an IQ boosting effect from environment (better nutrition, health care etc.) and an IQ depressing effect from genetics (e.g. increasing years of education depressing fertility of high-IQ people, or increased mutational loads from all those carcinogens California tried to warn us about, or whatever). For decades, the IQ boosting effect dominated (resulting in the Flynn effect), but now it's basically maxed out, and the IQ depressing effect drives the trend. ~~~ bloak Article was not paywalled for me the first time I looked. As I recall, it claimed that the measured fall in IQ test results cannot be explained by genetics because the same fall was observed within particular families. In any case, the fall seems far too big to be explained by genetics, so probably it's caused by education, I would guess. There probably is a much smaller, perhaps not yet measurable, fall caused by genetics. I tried to submit an Economist article on that. (Can you see it under [https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=bloak](https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=bloak) ?) ~~~ dschuetz It appears that when an article gets many hits at a time a paywall is triggered. So, the title is clickbaity, then it gets submitted to HN, a few people read it, then suddenly it's paywalled. Right. Moving on, nothing to see here. ------ tzahola inb4 anecdotes like “I have a friend with a PhD in applied chemistry with an IQ of 73” ------ dschuetz Stop submitting paywalled articles. It's really annoying. ------ ggm Since primary school in the 1960s and 1970s I've refused to do IQ, and I don't intend doing IQ: I think its bad social policy, the theory may work for some people but its used in pretty awful ways once it hits politics, school policy and budget. That said, I think there are two pretty clear choices which then lead to more choices Either this is a thing, and we should worry about it, Or, its not a thing, and we don't have to worry. The comments in the article about the Flynn effect and the ability to measure IQ in a changing world of "what is intelligence" goes to the second case: its too early to worry. But, if this turns out to be something environmental or educational, much as (on the positive side) removing lead was for it's effect on behaviour, mood and intelligence, then we need to worry about this. Personally, I don't yet think this is a thing. All the signs I see from the peak of 57 meritorious, unmeasured-in-IQ years, is that younger people are smarter than me, and more capable than me of applied thought. "I don't believe it, yet" ~~~ creep > Younger people are smarter than me I feel this too. I'm in my twenties and the small children scare me with their brilliance sometimes. I am excited to see those little guys grow up. I am convinced they will be the first generation to ask, in full, "what should we do?" rather than, "what can we do?". Very excited. ~~~ geomark Does anyone have kids that seem less smart than they were at that age? Asking for a friend. ~~~ JeanMarcS It depends if the age of the kids and what you want to measure as smart. Kids, when growing, learn stuff, but not in the « same order » as other kids. Some gonna walk early (my sister was 8 1/2 months old), some gonna talk early (my parents told me I was able to discuss with adults at the age of 17 months) etc.. And it’s true for all the abilities. Read soon, draw soon. It won’t mean that they’ll be good at it later. Just they assimilate it sooner than others. So some abilities make a kid shines when another might not. Doesn’t mean they won’t be smart later. ~~~ geomark That's an interesting concept, that kids naturally learn not in the same order. Implicates an issue with school systems since curricula are rather rigidly sequenced.
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In Huge Shock, Mitochondrial DNA Can Be Inherited from Fathers - max_sendfeld https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/in-huge-shock-mitochondrial-dna-can-be-inherited-from-fathers/all/ ====== rco8786 Wasn’t this first discovered in 2002? Unclear why it’s currently taking up two top spots on HN, with headlines like “Plot Twist” and “Huge Shock”. ~~~ MaxBarraclough Seconded. Let's leave that kind of headline to the tabloids. ------ JoeAltmaier Not well-versed in genetics, but isn't it just possible that this finding could be explained by casting some doubt on who the father actually is? If the mitochondrial DNA came from a father with a different mother, it could look like it came from a different father? that sort of thing. ~~~ dTal If no mitochondrial DNA is inherited from the father, why should it matter who anyone's father is? ~~~ JoeAltmaier Ah! Now I get it. And its very hard to be confused about who the mother is... ~~~ tzs > And its very hard to be confused about who the mother is... ...but not impossible: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lydia_Fairchild](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lydia_Fairchild) ------ andyjohnson0 There's an article in the NEJM from 2002 reporting something similar [1] - at least to me as a layman. Since the linked PNAS paper is paywalled, can anyone comment on what's actually new with this announcement? [1] _Paternal Inheritance of Mitochondrial DNA_ [https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa020350](https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa020350) ~~~ eridan2 In 2002 one person was found. Now they have 17 different people from three families and they were able to analyze the pattern of transmission across generations. This article explains better: [https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/11/plot-twist- mitochond...](https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/11/plot-twist- mitochondrial-dna-can-come-from-both-parents/)
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Instagram Isn't a Public Utility - The Industry - jkoschei http://theindustry.cc/2012/12/18/instagram-isnt-a-public-utility/ ====== fennecfoxen Instagram doesn't need to be a public utility: it needs to figure out a way to make its profits without trying to pull sneaky, unethical stunts like these which confuse, mislead and exploit its users. ------ summerdown2 > Social media is not a public utility. Using Instagram is not a right. When > you begin using these services, you enter a legally binding contact with > them, defined in the Terms of Service. I think there may be a difference in audiences here. You have the literal version of US law, which is what this article appears to be based upon, but you also have people's expectations, which is that companies should not abuse their position with respect to the data they hold. From an American point of view, the idea that people can form any contract they like with a company presumably makes sense. From a European point of view, there are public limits on what a company can do with data. The Uk is not alone in having a data protection act that absolutely limits the use of data sell on, for example. This of course brings up the question of which law applies, and companies are very adroit at manipulating this. But it's hardly surprising they aren't so good with public opinion. My own view is that cloud providers should have a European style data protection act, but that's mostly because I like the law and find it to my benefit. However, even where there isn't a law, if I think my data is being abused, I'm more than happy to call a company out on it. My counter argument to the one that says: they're a company, they can form any contract they like is: I'm a free individual, I can protest that. ~~~ dfxm12 The other question is why does Instagram (Or Facebook, etc) have the power to retroactively and unilaterally change the terms of this contract? Why do they alone have that power? ------ bradleyland "The internet brings out extremism in its users." You don't say? Extremism like, "These are somewhat icky, sure, but not in the least surprising." and "When you begin using these services, you enter a legally binding contact with them, defined in the Terms of Service. Clicking “I agree” without reading that document is insanely irresponsible — you could be selling your soul without even realizing it." If you're wondering why that's extremism, then you need to take a step back and get some perspective about where you lie on the pro-consumer<->pro- business spectrum. In my opinion, the author's views push pretty heavily toward the pro-business side. There _are_ limits to what you can put in an EULA. They're pretty far reaching, but they're there. Also, you can't simply tell users they shouldn't be upset and expect them to listen. That's not the way people work. You can enumerate bullet points and write lengthy essays until your fingers fall off, but a sufficiently large population of angry users will always have their voice heard. ------ leephillips I agree with the main thrust of this article, although I'm not sure he's entirely right about the legal force of click-through agreements. Mainly I'm confused about the decisions and expectations of people who decide to use a service like this. I take pictures with my iPhone; if I want them to be public I put them on my website; if I want to share with certain people I either email the pictures or put them up at a secret URL. If I want to alter the pictures there are plenty of Apps to do that locally on the phone, or Gimp, ImageMagick, etc. on my computer. Why would I decide to give my pictures to some company? And why would I imagine that they would do things for me without trying to profit from it?
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I would love to share some promo codes for my app Quicklytics with HN! - escoz http://escoz.com/quicklytics ====== escoz I develop this on the side while reading HackerNews, and I would love to share some promo codes with the HN community! Should I just post them here on the comments??
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DeepStack: Expert-Level Artificial Intelligence In Heads-Up No-Limit Poker - apetresc http://fermatslibrary.com/s/deepstack-expert-level-artificial-intelligence-in-heads-up-no-limit-poker#email-newsletter ====== LeanderK How can one create visualisations like Figure 3 (assuming it's latex)[0]? I have to write my Bachelor thesis soon and need to improve my latex-skills. I only know to to use the math-mode and write text. [0] the paper: [https://arxiv.org/pdf/1701.01724.pdf](https://arxiv.org/pdf/1701.01724.pdf) ~~~ mikebjohanson Hi - I'm one of the authors on this paper. We had professional designers do the figures for this paper; Fig3 in particular was far better than what we could do ourselves. ~~~ andr3w321 Just working my way through the pseudocode to try and gain a little insight. I think there may be a small typo. Line 29 VALUE should be VALUES? ------ mastazi With regards to Texas Hold'em, Conterfactual Regret Optimisation [1][2] was already able to beat humans in limit games, while it seems that this new approach is able to do the same in no-limit games. My naive understanding is that no-limit games are harder to crack because there are more possible outcomes, thus the available information (poker is an "imperfect information" game) becomes "even more imperfect". [1] [https://arxiv.org/abs/1407.5042](https://arxiv.org/abs/1407.5042) (yes, the author is the same Oskari Tammelin who created Jeskola Buzz, a popular piece of music software). [2] [http://www.nature.com/news/game-theorists-crack- poker-1.1668...](http://www.nature.com/news/game-theorists-crack- poker-1.16683) ------ PaulHoule One thing I haven't seem come up in discussions or media coverage about this is that the heads up game is entirely a different thing than playing with 5 other players. ~~~ Tenoke For what is worth, heads-up is a very popular game, and from reading the paper, the approach should more or less be applicable to 6max or full ring, except it will be way more computationally expensive (but not unfeasibly so like before). ~~~ jumpCastle In my understanding the approach is based on game theoretic principles that do not extend naturally to more than two players. If that's correct then it's not only a computational issue. See [http://www.nature.com/news/how-rival-bots- battled-their-way-...](http://www.nature.com/news/how-rival-bots-battled- their-way-to-poker-supremacy-1.21580) ~~~ peternilson Yip, exactly this. The CFR algorithm they speak of is based on finding a nash equilibrium for each strategy-pair in the game tree. Something that I think can only be computed for 2 players, and no more. ~~~ Tenoke Surely you can adapt it to compute an approximation of a mixed Nash equilibria. My game theory isnt at a high level, but there are similar computations you can perform, and when I used to play poker, you'd have common calculations based on it for more than 2 players when you are playing with a limited stack. I dont see how that wouldnt be adaptable (abeit more computationally expensive) for more players, but I might be missing something. ~~~ jumpCastle I'm not sure Nash equilibrium exists for more than two players in this game. ~~~ mikebjohanson Nash equilibria are still guaranteed to exist. But it's only the 2p zero-sum perfect recall case where an equilibrium has useful properties, like being robust against any opponent strategy, including a worst-case opponent who knows your strategy. In a multiplayer (> 2 players) game, opponents can collude against you and playing your part of a Nash gives no useful guarantees on performance. Even if they aren't colluding, in poker games, the presence of a bad player just before you in turn order can hurt your EV worse than their own. And even if all players independently compute their own Nash equilibria (there can be many) and use the piece for their position, then that combination of strategies may not _itself_ be a Nash equilibria. ~~~ jumpCastle Thanks for the explanation. I will also appreciate a reference to a good survey paper if you are in the mood :) ~~~ mikebjohanson I don't know of a survey paper on CFR for multiplayer, but it's been showing up in conference papers and theses. Here's a link to a shorter conference paper where CFR _does_ converge to a Nash, in 3p Kuhn poker. It describes a family of equilibria, where one player (the second to act, IIRC) has a parameter that can't affect their own EV (...or else it wouldn't be a Nash), but _does_ determine how much the other two players win/lose from each other. This illustrates the problem in equilibria for multiplayer games: if you're players 1 or 3, then even if you are playing a Nash, and everyone else does too (albeit different equilibria), then you can still lose. [https://webdocs.cs.ualberta.ca/~games/poker/publications/AAM...](https://webdocs.cs.ualberta.ca/~games/poker/publications/AAMAS13-3pkuhn.pdf) For a longer read, the best I know of is probably Rich Gibson's PhD thesis. He focussed on CFR for multiplayer games. [https://webdocs.cs.ualberta.ca/~games/poker/publications/gib...](https://webdocs.cs.ualberta.ca/~games/poker/publications/gibson.phd.pdf) ~~~ jumpCastle Thanks again. So I guess for multiplayer games a better approach would be reinforcement learning with no game theoretic heuristics? ~~~ xapata Game theory is always applicable to games :-) Nash equilibrium is just one aspect of some games. ~~~ jumpCastle Game theory is domain specific. Generic methods in AI tend to dominate domain knowledge over time. Although I agree that other game-theoretic techniques might help here. ~~~ xapata Game theory is specific to the domain of agents optimizing outcome in adversarial, cooperative, or (rarely) solitary systems. That's a pretty big domain. ------ andr3w321 Anyone know where to find the pseudo code? It references item 10 in the References and Notes which states See Supplementary Materials. ~~~ foob They're included in the arXiv version of the paper: [https://arxiv.org/abs/1701.01724](https://arxiv.org/abs/1701.01724) ------ maaaats Pretty helpful with the annotation along the way, explaining mbb/g and what it means, for instance. ------ grumpopotamus Any hints on how to implement CFR-D on the GPU? ------ IMTDb This seems to be a major threat to online casinos. Is there any study on how they plan on fighting the AI's that will likely be flooding the market soon ? ~~~ gdulli Heads-up is a contrivedly simple scenario compared to solving poker in general. There have been bots for a long time that have co-existed with real players, and we're likely not close to a scenario where bots can reliably beat real players in general for real world scenarios. However, in theory even a break-even bot could be a gold mine because it can earn loyalty points. That's how it was the last time I was playing online, I don't know if loyalty programs still work the way they used to. Of those programs would just go away if abused enough. ~~~ Tenoke Loyalty points are paid out of (and lower than) the rake, so the bot still needs to be better than break even. ~~~ alasdair_ Online poker has the concept of "bonus whoring" where one takes advantage of various loss-leader promotions offered by different sites. A typical promotion would be offering a 20% bonus on a $1000 deposit, with the caveat that you must play in, say, 1000 raked games before cashing out. It's possible to play in games where the total expected rake if the user breaks even is, say, $100, leaving $100 profit.
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DARPA: We Are Engineering the Organisms That Will Terraform Mars - sethbannon http://motherboard.vice.com/read/darpa-we-are-engineering-the-organisms-that-will-terraform-mars/? ====== a3n Why? It took billions of years for Mars to be Mars. Once terraformed it's lost forever.
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Experienced SaaS entrepreneurs: please get in touch - authentiQ Hi - I&#x27;m looking to chat with entrepreneurs with previous SaaS exits. Am in the enterprise solutions space, have traction and could use advice. Thank you. adena@au.thentiQ.com ====== davidw You might try asking around on [http://discuss.bootstrapped.fm/](http://discuss.bootstrapped.fm/) \- there are a few people there.
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How to scare off female developers - pmjordan http://rachelnabors.com/2012/02/how-to-scare-off-female-developers/ ====== notatoad how is what he said a "sweeping and dismissive generalization"? he's complaining about women with 'golden uterus complex', which is not a phrase i've heard before but i know immediately what he means. some women derive a sense of superiority from the existence of their reproductive organs, and it can get pretty annoying. he is specifically complaining about those women, not all women. the tech community has a severe case of male guilt when it comes to things like this. Mark has done nothing wrong, and there's no reason for other male software developers to be apologising for his actions. he complained about annoying people - there's nothing wrong with that, and there's no reason for women in general to be getting up in arms about it. ~~~ dsr_ When you complain about annoying people by making their gender the primary basis of identification, you are most definitely making a sweeping generalization. You are part of the problem. You are correct that there's no reason for other people to apologize for him, because he needs to do that himself, if he can be convinced that his sexism is a problem. There is also no need for other people to be defending his sexism. Here's a hint: a complaint about "annoying people" should aim to be more specific than 50% of the population. ~~~ ramblerman Oh please, this is so much brooha over nothing. If I say guys who run out on their newborns are dicks, that doesn't imply anything about the male gender as a whole. When this guy categorizes women with a "golden uterus complex", whatever that means, he's not grouping all women. Yes, all women do have a uterus, but that isn't what he is saying. As for apologizing... I'd be sad to see him do it, as a man, of course. ~~~ lomegor You really can't use the word guys as they are not being discriminated in this world (in the majority of cases). Copying and pasting from another comment of mine. Imagine if instead he said: "I hate black people who steal". Of course he does! But he must also hate white people who steal, in fact, he hates people who steal. There's no need for specifying race. ------ Drbble Once we're debating the political correctness of a statement someone made of _Twitter_ , we've already lost. Mark's comment shouldn't harm female developers, because they should be busy working on something with other female and male developers and not having fights on Twitter. ------ Rembrand She’s calling it like she sees it and even ignoring the right or wrong of it for a minute, seeing the less than subtle mysogyny in some (if not most) of these comments I’d say she’s right. In gender as wel as in race issues you don’t go around telling people they’re wrong to feel they’re being singled out. Instead of being dicks about it we should strive to build a friendlier atmosphere for everybody so women, gay people or whoever else doesn’t feel they’re being targeted as a group when conflict arises. ------ markjaquith Mark Jaquith here. Happy to clear some things up (and would appreciate it if you could make this comment visible on the thread). Here is the text of my tweet: > Imagine if men talked like women with "Golden Uterus Complex" do… "Excuse > me, but which one of us has a penis? That's what I thought." First, the definition of "golden uterus complex". This phrase was brought to my attention by Dr. Tara J. Palmatier, a doctor of Clinical Psychology. Dr. Palmatier assigns a great many attributes to this personality, but the one most related to my point is: > the golden uterus believes that having birthed a child makes them better and > more knowledgeable than others; e.g., the “Well you don’t have kids so how > would you know anything?” woman This phrase doesn't apply to "women". I wasn't making any kind of blanket statement about women. I wasn't even making a blanket statement about mothers. I was referring to women who have carried a pregnancy to term __and who exhibit specific behavior characteristics __. I sure hope that __how people behave __is an aspect upon which they can be judged. Here's the specific thing that triggered my tweet: <http://i.imgur.com/GxYf8.png> For context, it is a picture on Facebook of a mother feeding her newborn baby solid food — a seriously dangerous, ignorant, and irresponsible thing to do. Someone in the comments tells her that you shouldn't feed a baby that little solid food. The mother responds "Well it my kid not Yours so what I do with him is none of your concern thanks" [sic]. It didn't matter to her that the commentator was correct, and that what she was doing was potentially lethal to her baby. She gave birth to the baby, so in her mind she's the expert and the ultimate arbiter of what is right for the baby. I've even seen this complex be applied to matters other than child care, as if the act of giving birth confers all manner of sagacious powers. I'm not discounting the power of personal experience. I was present for the births of both of my children, and even as a mostly-spectator, it was a unimaginably transforming experience. What I am objecting to is the idea that childbirth automatically makes a woman the ultimate authority on child care or anything else. This is the sort of attitude that has contributed to the anti- vaccine nonsense that has been plaguing some Western countries in recent years. My tweet contrasted the way that mothers with this behavioral complex openly talk about the utilization of their reproductive organs for childbirth being the source of their claimed superiority, and I pondered what it would be like if men claimed and talked about their reproductive organs as the source of their supposed superiority. It was a reductio ad absurdum, clearly. Men (well, most men post high school) don't bring up the use of their sex organs in polite conversation as a trump card. Some (nota bene: __SOME __) women do. Sexist men usually exhibit a sexism that is much more closely tied to feelings of mental superiority and greater physical strength. I find it to be an interesting social sexual difference to how some women express a sense of superiority over men. People do reductio ad absurdum comparisons about social sexual imbalances all the time. Like how it's weird to imagine women yelling things out of a car at an attractive male jogger. Or making a joke about how if men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament in most religions. I guess I made the assumption that my Twitter audience would get that (a) I was proposing a ridiculous scenario, partly for comedic effect and (b) that I also did it to provoke thought about quirky social sexual imbalances. Maybe that was too much to assume for such a constricting medium such as Twitter. But in any case, my intention and meaning could have been discovered by Ms. Nabors by either asking me for clarification, or doing a simple web search for the phrase, either of which would have immediately made it clear that the phrase refers to a __behavior __exhibited by a subset of the subset of women who have given birth, and it is not in any way a slur against women or mothers (I will grant that it is a slur against people __who exhibit this behavior __, behavior being an acceptable thing to criticize). Instead of seeking out my meaning, Ms. Nabors quite publicly called me an "ass", accused me of making "sweeping and dismissive generalizations" about women, implied that I was socially inept (while also making her own sweeping generalization about the social skills of developers), called me openly hostile to women, and called my remarks a symptom of a boys-club attitude within the developer community. I'll leave it to you to decide whether she fairly judged my actions. ~~~ mst Oh my. The fascinating part here, to me, is that actually it's the "this is my child therefore butt out" argument - which isn't even the golden uterus complex thing - that would be "you haven't given birth to a child therefore butt out". I can imagine a similarly stupid male saying exactly the same thing except perhaps for saying 'our kid' rather than 'my kid'. How you jumped from there to your Golden Uterus Complex joke, I don't know. What I do know is, had you typed out the text of your tweet into one of many of the private chat rooms of various sorts that I'm part of, I would probably have laughed. However, I don't believe it had any place in a public twitter feed that also contains technical-related stuff and therefore may get followed by people who don't know you personally. My public twitter account is somewhat restricted in what topics I cover on it for pretty much precisely this reason. ~~~ markjaquith > How you jumped from there to your Golden Uterus Complex joke, I don't know. Someone else's comment on the photo bridged that gap. Don't recall the comment. But you're right, there's a difference between "my child, butt out" and "you haven't birthed a child, butt out". The former can definitely be done by any parent. In practice, the latter is exclusive to mothers. And I can somewhat relate to the former — people can be too nosy with other people's kids. So that doesn't seem to bother me as much, as long as they aren't endangering the child. But the latter is really arrogant and dismissive. Furthermore, it perpetuates the idea that child care is the mother's job. If we want to address the issue of women being underrepresented in the workplace, we have to get away from that "Daddy works, Mommy is a mommy" vestigial 1950's attitude. Male dominated workforces need to be friendly and more welcoming to women, and at the same time female dominated parental arrangements need to be more friendly and accommodating of other caregivers. > However, I don't believe it had any place in a public twitter feed that also > contains technical-related stuff and therefore may get followed by people > who don't know you personally. I don't want to play a persona on my Twitter account. It's not like there are two people — WordPress me and personal me. It's just me. If you follow me on Twitter, you get it all. May FSM have mercy on my followers if Rick Santorum wins the GOP nomination, because it's going to be all "oh HELL no" all the time on Twitter. :-) ------ cantastoria That comment wouldn't scare off female developers just feminist developers which isn't the same thing. ------ negelirelden Imagine the kind of world we would be living in if people felt so entitled, by their identities and the things they do and have, that they felt justified in dismissing the needs and opinions of other people as unimportant by comparison. ------ mst I love how people seem to have trouble with the idea that Golden Uterus Complex isn't an offensive term to use. It's the genderedness. If he'd called it Golden Genitals Complex I might've been less bothered. But really, it's "argument that superior experience guarantees superior knowledge", and whether that is on the basis of the ownership of a vagina, a penis, a marriage license, a car, or really anything else, it's the same type of stupidity, and I'd like to see it called out as that. ~~~ ramblerman People say Obama has swagger. Women have that motherly touch. These are positive statements, one however has a racial implication, and the other has a "genderedness" aspect. It isn't offensive to realize they're are differences between us. Unless, of course, we really want to bring the "smooth area" from kid's dolls into the adult world. ------ fhwang I've actually never heard the phrase "golden uterus complex", but I seriously wonder if it's any different from calling a black person "uppity". Which is also not cool. ------ Craiggybear "Excuse me ... but which one of us has a penis". I have in fact been in the room when someone has actually said this. It was intended as a joke and the lady to whom he was addressing his query (who just happened to be his boss) was also in fact highly amused by it. All the other men just sat there with their mouths literally hanging open. ------ ThaddeusQuay2 "How to scare off female developers?" Nail a huge, purple dildo to your office door, and enjoy the quiet solitude of a nag-free, gossip-free, rage-free, single-gender work environment, where you can get stuff done, and in which you may occasionally stroll without pants. Seriously: Either you are qualified for the job, or you aren't. If you are, then stop claiming offense over gender or race or whatever, because all that does is create further division, and not the enlightenment which you expect. What matters is not what the other person says, but rather, how you respond. Every minute that you spend being negative, is a minute you could have spent on a project that will get you that raise or promotion. ~~~ gensym Clearly you've never worked at an all-male environment if you think that would necessarily by nag-free, gossip-free and rage-free. In my experience, an environment without women devolves into some "Lord of the Flies"-type shit pretty quickly unless you're super careful about who you hire, personality- wise. Seriously, all research done on the matter indicates that women are just as effective as software development as men, so the lack of women in software development indicates it's far from the meritocracy you seem to imagine it is. This "either you are qualified for the job, or you aren't so it's ok to act like an asshole" bullshit has gotten pretty old in 2012. Here's a clue: if you're a lead developer creating an environment that's hostile to a large pool of potentially highly skilled developers, you're not fucking qualified, regardless of your coding skills. Otherwise, what's the point of the word "lead"? ~~~ ThaddeusQuay2 Not that it might matter to your reply, but FYI: I added a couple of sentences just as you were posting. Clearly, your experiential matrix is not the same as mine. I'm 45, and I've worked in many different environments since I was about 15, when I was at a boys-only school, which, by the way, functioned quite well without devolving into anything resembling Lord of the Flies. The lack of women in software development indicates that there aren't enough women who can "take it like a man", so to speak. Whatever men dish out is merely a social filter, designed to rid their environment of those (men and women) who can't handle pressure. If you are much shorter than me, and I want you gone, the first thing I'll do is to repeatedly call you "shorty", because that's an easy way to start, as it's the low-hanging fruit in the insult aisle. Either you are qualified, or you aren't. That wasn't bullshit a hundred years ago, and it shouldn't be today. You make the assumption that women can be highly skilled. My experience is that, in general, they are not, and most of the few who are, have a personality which clouds their judgment. Knowing how to program is not enough for the job. You need to have non-related life skills, such as dealing with people who don't like you, or who are otherwise in your way. ~~~ hcayless There were teachers at your all-boys school whose job it was to prevent the Lord-of-the-Flies scenario and if yours was anything like mine, they expended a lot of energy on that task :-). You're attempting to rationalize the mostly-male situation you find yourself in, but it's pure conjecture. Women are (in general) just as capable as men (in general) at software development. My own belief is that there are a host of poorly understood factors that tend to push women away from software engineering careers. One of them is the fact that it's a "boys' club", but it's mainly a boys' club because it's mostly boys—if there were more women, cheerful misogyny like that exhibited in your "take it like a man" comment would be less acceptable. In other words, we can't fix the problem (and it _is_ a problem) of gender imbalance in software engineering just by not being asses to women, but it's a place to start.
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Ask HN: Devs – how does it get decided what you work on? - lukker I’d like to hear from other software developers who work for a company (not one man shows).<p>For context, I work for a smallish (40 people, 8 devs, 4 are in my team) company that builds a retail consumer app (both mobile and web). The company is less than 5 years old and is having reasonable growth. I joined about 6 months ago and the code base was super messy, which was apparently due to the company previously relying on short term contractors to smash out individual features. Funnily enough, I really enjoyed the mess, because there was so much to improve. We had stories coming through from product, but they also gave us a lot of freedom to just ‘make things better’ without too much coordination. Fast forward 6 months and we now have a new CTO, who demands everybody to follow a strict process. Anything you want to work on needs to be prioritised in a refinement session. And that’s literally anything - doesn’t matter if it would take 1 minute, hour or a day. I’ve had a couple of jobs before, but never anything that restrictive (even at big-corps). I understand that there are pieces of work that need to be widely coordinated, but this level of control feels like micro-management taken to the extreme.<p>Is this kind of strict process following common out there in the industry? Are there any experiences, opinions or stories you’d like to share? ====== noir_lord > CTO, who demands everybody to follow a strict process. Anything you want to > work on needs to be prioritised in a refinement session. And that’s > literally anything - doesn’t matter if it would take 1 minute, hour or a > day. I’ve had a couple of jobs before, but never anything that restrictive > (even at big-corps). Sounds like my big company. They perfected the art of removing what little value agile (in the true original sense) added and replace it with "waterfall with extra steps". In terms of work assigned, it goes to a team level and then typically the leads/seniors like myself take the harder tickets (or the ones we know will go long/cause problems because frankly it's harder to shout at us) and the rest is divided out by the other team members depending on who feels like doing what (unless no-one picks something up that is important I generally stay out of it, it gives them some autonomy in an environment that honestly has little). The whole process is hilariously (and I mean genuinely it makes me laugh) Byzantine. It is also entirely the reason I'm looking for another job (combined with no remote in a global pandemic when I could do my job remote). Honestly, it is simply poor management - they can't handle the flexibility of running large teams _nor_ can they bring themselves to delegate the running of smaller teams so they impose a "One size fits no-body, was this even made for humans?" process in the hope that will save them. It never does but they then assume the problem is the process and change it again - so often in fact that we on the 7th I think since I've been with the company - half our communication is "but you changed X from Foo to Bar on Jira, under the new process it needs to be Fizz before it can go to Foo" type stuff.
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Y Combinator Dataset Of Posts Version 1.7 - xirium A 133MB archive of Y Combinator posts is available by accessing http://www.rushy.com/ycombinator-news20080906.tar.gz ====== globalrev Is this safe? ~~~ d0mine Yes.
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Should You Pay to Pitch Your Startup? - t3mp3st http://www.betabeat.com/2011/12/12/pay-to-pitch-how-much-is-too-much/ ====== patio11 It's a sign that you're entering hugely, hugely seedy territory if you ever are asked to pay to receive offers of employment, scholarships, or investment. First, _many_ out-and-out scams operate that way. Second, if the opportunity were legitimate, there is an adverse selection risk. Meritorious candidates for employment/scholarships/investment have no interest in paying to get a chance at them, so those candidates would avoid that opportunity like the plague. The decisionmaker, if they have two brain cells to rub together, knows this _and charges anyway_. Why would you ever take investment from someone who had a declared policy of only entertaining pitches from the bottom of the barrel? (Plus, egads, what does that say about you to follow-on investors or other parties you need to sell?) ~~~ whenisayUH Uh oh -- The downvoting has started. Feel free to do that but please explain where I'm missing the mark. Thanks. \----- I'm really not sure why entrepreneurs who I'd suspect believe in free markets need to be coddled and "protected" from pay-to-pitch programs which at the end of the day are just another business - some good and some bad. Just because you're a struggling entrepreneur doesn't mean other people shouldn't charge you or you're entitled to anything. At the end of the day, it is the entrepreneurs' choice. If you don't have the money or if the program doesn't seem legit, don't pay. And find another way to reach investors. If spending $50 or $100 gets you a credible chance at $500k of seed funding and helps accelerate your path to getting that money or getting feedback, that seems fair. Some pay to pitch programs may add value. And some may not. If an entrepreneur learns that the hard way, so be it. Nobody ever said being an entrepreneur would be easy. ~~~ duhoang It's not about being coddled, it's about exploiting entrepreneurs who are either desperate, or new to the game. We don't want to encourage that type of behavior in our community. "entrepreneur learns that the hard way, so be it." That attitude is like saying children should learn to look both way before crossing the street the hard way...by getting hit by a bus! ~~~ whenisayUH How is anyone being exploited? You have a choice to pitch or not. It's not blackmail. It may be foolish to pitch at these events, but as far as I know, nobody is being forced into pitching or being told "you can't research this event and our track record before signing up." ~~~ duhoang It's like a scam...no one is forcing you to be a victim of a scam, you just don't know better. reply ~~~ whenisayUH "You don't know better." If an entrepreneur is that helpless, paying-to-pitch is the least of their problems. ~~~ evgen So it's better that you get your hand in their pocket before someone smarter comes along the relieve them of that burdensome wad of seed capital? ------ west1737 When I started my very first web business and didn't know any better, I almost blew $1000 on a couple angel groups that I know with the wisdom of hindsight would have been a complete waste of money. For someone who didn't know any better, it seemed like a good deal. The worse part isn't that it preys on startups, it's that it prays on startups and new entrepreneurs that aren't plugged into the HN/SV scene (I was looking at angel groups in TX). I don't think that a nominal fee (~$10 - $20) is necessarily a bad thing (but really, why bother?), but anything on the order of $100 or more is too much for a startup to be spending on that type of thing- a definite red flag. What investor would want to invest in a startup that spends all of its money looking for financing rather than creating a great product/service? ------ SemanticFog In general I think pay-to-pitch is highly suspicious, but I'm sympathetic to Graham Lawlor and Ultralight startups. He charges a small fee to cover expenses and make sure people are moderately serious. There's no way he's getting rich off of it. Pizza is included. The feedback and exposure are well worth the minimal cost. If the fee still bothers you, then just don't pitch there. ~~~ lawlorg Thanks SemanticFog, I appreciate the kind words. Running good events is very time consuming, more than people often realize. And yet my landlord continues to "prey on" me by demanding that I pay rent. Somehow, he fails to see comrade Calacanis' logic that everything should be free... Graham Lawlor - Ultra Light Startups ~~~ mindcrime Are you in the event planning business or something? Isn't the idea for investors to make their money via return on the investment they make in startups? That said, charging enough to cover the cost of pizza and what-not, that seems reasonable. But any outfits that are charging more than a nominal fee are highly questionable to me. ~~~ lawlorg Yes, planning events (Ultra Light Startups) is a full-time job for me. I need to cover pizza, etc - and my rent... ~~~ evgen If you are playing a valuable role to investors by providing them access to interesting new startups then they should be the ones paying you, not the startups. ------ vm I'm a VC and these pay-to-present groups disgust me. People who charge pitch fees aren't investors - they're in the business of nickle and diming entrepreneurs who don't know any better. The culture of feedback and mentorship in the valley is what makes entrepreneurship flourish here, decade after decade. ------ jayzee It is not only an East coast thing. I met with the folks organizing Band of Angels in the valley and after multiple meetings and phone-calls they told me that we had been selected to present at their event. It was free to pitch apparently but dinner was $80. I was tempted to turn down dinner and offer to bring my subway sandwich. I didn't end up going... for all the reasons patio11 points out. ------ pavelkaroukin I am not a founder looking for an investment (at least, yet), but $50 in USA does not sounds bad for a lean start up. It act more as a filter than as an income for event host IMHO. Founder probably will spend more on a hotel alone. On the other hand, practice of not disclosing fees and charging in the range of $1.000 - $8.000 definitely look shady. Just my .05 ~~~ lsc what do you think it filters? Do you really think there are a large number of low-quality companies that would be deterred from pitching by a $50 entrance fee? ~~~ hippich Well.. Let me show you it this way - If someone offered me a free 32" LCD good TV - I would definitely take it. Just because it is free and it feels like it have value. If someone offered me it for $25 - I would pass it, since I have no place to put it nor I have time to watch it. Similar could be observed in .99 games at any app stores. While 99 cents is really close to 0 cents for most US persons, still .99 games will have much less downloads. But ones who downloaded had much bigger motivation to actually play it and not just check it out. Most of things should have associated costs. At least nominal. In case of such events it is good for both pitchers and for public listening to them. It is different topic if costs should be in dollars or some sort of efforts tho.. IMHO, as usual :) ~~~ lsc oh man, your example really hits home: >If someone offered me it for $25 - I would pass it, since I have no place to put it nor I have time to watch it. Growing up, I hunted down free and really cheap computer hardware. I've always had a sizable stash of equipment that I'd play with, learn about, and eventually use to run services. As I've grown older, the initial purchase price has become less important, and the storage cost has become more important; my current workshop/office is maybe 200-300sqft, and it's got two people and a lot of hardware in it. The thing is, here the cost is time, not storage space; and I think people learn the 'time is valuable' lesson sooner. But yeah, you would be keeping out 12 year old me, which is fine. Personally, I would think that the majority of people at these events would be past that point. dono. You'd certainly need to apply another level of filtering; obviously you don't want to listen to a pitch from every joker with fifty bucks, the question then would be how much easier would that filtering process be if you first filter out all the 12 year old lsc types for whom the fifty bucks is a big opportunity cost. Personally, I don't think it would save you much time, but I could be wrong. ~~~ pavelkaroukin >> But yeah, you would be keeping out 12 year old me, which is fine. Personally, I would think that the majority of people at these events would be past that point. dono. Judging solely on all rage I see about costs associated with giving a speech at such events, I can see how it might filter non serious people. I am not saying that $50 or $8000 is right/wrong. I am just saying - it is filter. Even small bump in requirements tends to filter out non serious people. Here is simple way I look at it - if you can remove 5% of total noobs and get $1000 to spend more on marketing materials, why you shouldn't do it? ~~~ lsc >Here is simple way I look at it - if you can remove 5% of total noobs and get $1000 to spend more on marketing materials, why you shouldn't do it? depends entirely on how many good prospects also get removed. A grand in marketing materials is not a big deal if you have enough money to invest. If it removes more unsuitable than suitable candidates, then it's a good deal; I'm just not convinced that is what happens. I think you get some adverse selection- The sort of people you want to invest in are going to be focusing on their business rather than focusing on getting investment, so I suspect you'd get vastly better results making your event 'invite only' ------ maxdemarzi That's the kind of crap we have in Chicago. <http://fundingfeedingfrenzy.com/present-your-company/> $330 early bird special... :( That and "entrepreneur networking" events that are full of service companies or software shops trying to drum up business. Lame. ~~~ timjahn As someone who produces events for entrepreneurs in Chicago and charges for those events, I'd love to learn more about what your ideal event looks like. ------ int3rnaut This attitude also exists in other industries[1], and while it is shifty, it's relatively common to the degree where it's not even given a second thought or whimper. This to me is quite unfortunate, especially considering where I am in my life and my economic standing and I can't help but think of all the other people in my position. Really though, the best you can do is hope that there's good people out there that are willing to GIVE you a few minutes of their time, and not charge for it--and then when you're in that position you remember where you came from. [1]Sundance Film festival charges $75 to submit a feature length film for consideration. I've come across many film festivals, writing contests, art shows and the like that charge you to "pitch your work". People are always trying to pick on the starving artist eh? (Callback to PG's Hackers and Painters). ~~~ v21 I can actually understand this. If you're running an awards ceremony, then the payback from the winner of the competition is relatively low - hopefully they go on to great things, and you helped them along, and establish your reputation that way. But the costs of having 10x as many entrants is pretty high - each of those entries has to be evaluated, hopefully by multiple people. Each entrant is another contact to be managed, another bit of IP to keep track of. The most important role of the fee is to reduce the number of entrants without reducing the number of genuinely awesome entrants. That's why Sundance's entry fee is so low - it makes it a reasonably expensive whim, but if you're honestly got a shot, it's obviously worth doing. It still sucks, but it's for sensible reasons, and not just for the actual revenue stream. [Edited to add: But if anyone is charging more than a nominal fee, run away!] ------ philco The truth of the matter is that unless you have massive amounts of traction, investors won't really care about your product at such an event. Personal introductions into VC's is the best way to get your funding, and it acts as the first screen of your hustle. If you can't hustle, find someone you know in common with a VC, and convince them to make an intro, you might not have what it takes to launch a startup. (Hint: It's all hustle). Get on LinkedIn, use Meeteor.com, and start uncovering the relationships that can help you. It's not that hard, it just takes effort. ------ kurtvarner Anyone who pays to pitch their startup doesn't deserve to be funded. ------ harryh Betteridge's Law strikes again! <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridges_Law_of_Headlines> ------ jgershen No. ------ jroseattle Easy answer: $0. Anyone who says otherwise generally benefits from the result. ------ mattadams Waitaminute. Paying to pitch?? I thought ideas were a dime a dozen! ------ jpdoctor > _“It’s low-class, inappropriate and predatory for a rich person to ask an > entrepreneur to PAY THEM for 15 minutes of their time,” he wrote._ LOL it's _predatory_? What exactly do they think the VCs' business _is_?
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Show HN: Elfbox – Personalized developmental toys delivered to your door - pmohan6 https://www.elfbox.com/ ====== pmohan6 Hello folks, I'm the Co-Founder of Elfbox and I just wanted to share what Elfbox is and the backstory of why we started it. At Elfbox, we deliver monthly boxes of developmental toys for children at home on a rotational basis. Parents tell us about their child's preferences and developmental requirements and we partner with child development experts and use AI to individually curate toys for each child. Families use the toys for a month and return them when they receive their next box (with the option of purchasing toys at a discounted price that they want to keep longer). Why did we start Elfbox? I was looking to buy toys for my nephew for his 1st birthday last year. I went to Toys R Us (before they decided to shut down :P), thinking that this is where people buy toys. After spending several hours walking their aisles, I walked out of the store with a sensory overload of lights and sounds. I realized that I didn't want to get anything for my nephew from there. It took me several days of online research to find appropriate toys for my nephew that I knew were made of safe materials & would aid in skill development. After speaking to my cousins and friends about this issue, I realized that when it comes to toys, parents struggle with the following issues on a regular basis - 1) It is really difficult to find good quality, engaging toys for children on an ongoing basis. Parents often don't know what the right toy for their child's developmental stage is. Providing kids with the right set of toys for their developmental stage is critical since children learn most of their foundational skills (cognitive, physical, social, emotional) through play. 2) Clutter. Parents have to deal with clutter every day because kids outgrow toys very fast. There is no easy, frictionless way to reuse or recycle toys. Families end up hoarding them for years. This problem is even more acute for millennial parents who live in space constrained urban settings. This provided us the motivation to start Elfbox. Our aim is to give parents access to a highly personalized selection of high-quality developmental toys for their kids without having to own them. If there are any parents here, we would love to hear your stories about how you manage your toy collection!
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Ask HN: Facebook browser? - austinB Many online giants have created browsers after establishing a significant presence or before in some cases (ie. Netscape, Aol, MSFT, Google, etc.). Has anyone heard of, or do you all see potential for Facebook to follow this trend and create a social network integrated browser? I have to believe many individuals, especially university students and less techy facebook addicts, would use a browser by FB. Undoubtedly productivity would go down, but I doubt that's what Mark Z is concerned about. I am interested to hear your thoughts. ====== badkins If FB really wanted to do something like this, I would think they would have a better chance by writing extensions to the existing browsers, rather than writing a whole new browser. People do not switch browsers on a whim. But people install new extensions all the time. ------ hoag Valid point: seems that a "social browser" of sorts, from within FB's walled garden, would accomplish with far greater effect -- and success -- the idea behind Flock and RockMelt. ------ anujkk Flock (<http://www.flock.com>) is one such social web browser. ------ philthy Could see this being chalked up in the "bloatware" category on new Windows machines.
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Image opacity manipulation and dynamic watermark generation - nadavs http://cloudinary.com/blog/image_opacity_manipulation_and_dynamic_watermark_generation ====== nadavs This blog post shows how you can use cloud-based image transformations to easily manipulate the opacity of images and how to use this technique to add watermarks to images. Sample code in Ruby, PHP, Python and Node.js is included.
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Canada's last witch trials: Women accused of fake witchcraft - Thevet https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45983540 ====== billyjobob _> "If you're going to invest $20, $40, $60 in a tarot reading and you find it's irrelevant to you, or did you no good, why would that being any different than going to a reiki treatment and finding that didn't work?" she asked. "Would you charge a reiki practitioner with fraud?"_ She makes an excellent point, but not the one she intended. ~~~ meowface It is a slippery slope, though. Do we need to prosecute all manufacturers of homeopathic medicine and all doctors who recommend it for fraud? All psychics, mediums, etc.? Does this extend to religious healers? Similar to reiki, what about people who claim acupuncture or chiropractic adjustments or crystal healing can treat serious diseases? What about doctors who recommend Eastern medicine practices like consuming certain organs of certain animals to treat issues? It is all fraud, but if we're going to be charging all people like that with fraud, then freedom of speech becomes infringed to some extent. Many of these fraudsters genuinely believe what they're doing is legitimate and isn't fraud. Many of the clients genuinely believe it's legitimate due to their belief systems. An argument could be made that people should be allowed to spend their money as they choose and that the government should not be in the business of deciding if they're spending their money wisely. Gambling is another example. ~~~ pjc50 The UK restricts advertising of medicine quite dramatically (you're not allowed to advertise prescription-only drugs), and has a specific ban on falsely advertising the ability to cure cancer. > freedom of speech becomes infringed to some extent Fortunately not everyone thinks that freedom of speech extends to freedom to defraud the vulnerable. ~~~ meowface True, but many of the aforementioned fraudsters are careful to dodge around those laws and not make extravagant claims of effectiveness. They won't advertise that something can cure cancer. But during private 1-on-1 treatment sessions, they could imply otherwise. ------ AJ007 When you see a storefront psychic, which appears to have no customers, in a place where it would seem the rent wouldn't support a handful of $20 readings a day, there is a reason why. People don't understand how widespread psychic fraud is or how much money they are stealing. Other religions or cults tend to be more ambiguous in the direct benefits donors will be receiving but often the general premise is the same. ------ Rjevski It’s a shame the law is being repealed. Seems like it’s doing it’s job perfectly fine at dealing with “witches” defrauding people out of tens of thousands of bucks. I don’t have a problem with “altruistic” witchcraft (although I still think anyone believing in this is an idiot) but there should be protections in place against these magicians exploiting the fears of vulnerable people for money. ~~~ vinceguidry I get the feeling that many of the commenters on this story would love to see a law banning all religious practice. ~~~ krapp I'd be fine with banning the tax exempt status of religious organizations and making the separation between church and state as explicit as possible. ~~~ maxxxxx I also would like to see the Catholic Church treated like any other organization would have been treated whose members abused children and covered this up for decades. ------ mprev This seems less about witchcraft as such and more about defrauding people. Having said that, is there any other kind of witchcraft than fake witchcraft? ~~~ DanHulton Well, as a religious practice, it's only really as fake as any other religion is... Which I'll leave as an exercise for the reader to debate. ~~~ crankylinuxuser So... When Christian churches tell congregants that tithing 10% saves your soul, are they engaging in fraud? ~~~ krapp Christian churches shouldn't be telling anyone that, because that's not how Christianity works, but if they did, yes I think they would be. ~~~ Retric [https://www.britannica.com/topic/indulgence](https://www.britannica.com/topic/indulgence) Now days it’s not mainstream, but I suspect a few preachers/televangelist has suggested such things more recently. ~~~ PhasmaFelis Selling indulgences was never mainstream or officially sanctioned by the Catholic Church, and it was formally banned almost 500 years ago. And, in any case, many modern churches and denominations are only tenuously connected to Catholicism of any era. ~~~ Retric It was Catholic doctrine at the time, and a significant portion of the protestant reformation. 'Luther came to reject several teachings and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. He strongly disputed the Catholic view on indulgences. Luther proposed an academic discussion of the practice and efficacy of indulgences in his Ninety-five Theses of 1517.' [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther) Now, I am not saying the church selling indulgences from a specific menu of sins > prices was mainstream. But, the idea of good works on earth and specifically giving to the church being a good work was very much so. There are also cases of rather significant donations to the church connected to this idea. PS: Note, this is about reducing time spent in purgatory, not buying your way into heaven. Purgatory was supposed to be a very unpleasant place, but your stay was going to be temporary either way. ------ dmix The article doesn't mention a man sold his house and car for $600k to pay Samantha Stevenson (a Toronto psychic) to get evil spirits from his house: [https://globalnews.ca/news/4594695/woman-charged- witchcraft-...](https://globalnews.ca/news/4594695/woman-charged-witchcraft- york-regional-police/) I'm guessing the 60k charge is against this woman's sister or mother? ------ dsfyu404ed TL;DR the law prohibits fraud in the context of witchcraft and is being repealed along with laws against dueling and blasphemous libel because it is redundant and isn't really used except by prosecutors looking to throw the book. ------ canekong They pass the test if the witches can do the 7 wonders.
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Your Code is My Hell - joshuacc http://avdi.org/devblog/2011/08/22/your-code-is-my-hell/ ====== rauljara Ruby has such wonderful evangelists that somewhere along the line I had gotten the idea that all Rails projects had 100% test coverage, and refactoring was a matter of course. It's kind of a relief to hear that not only do not all projects live up to the ideals, some are the exact opposite. Knowing that, maybe I can go a little easier on myself when I fail to live up to the ideals, and simply keep on striving without having to feel that I am obviously an inferior coder. ~~~ mechanical_fish Again, it's about maturity. _Every_ popular young platform has a relatively large amount of evangelical fervor and a relatively small amount of real-world long-term experience. Java was no different, years ago. ~~~ kd1220 The two Rails programmers I've met didn't know Ruby itself very well. Also both had to bow out of their contract jobs because neither could build a functioning CMS in less than a year. When I talked to them it sounded like they were kicking ass and getting things done, but they were just vomiting buzzwords apparently. When I started using PHP ten years ago, I inherited an existing project. Two days into it I thought to myself: "PHP is kind of like Perl, but less useful." I guess I missed the PHP hype phase. If it had one. I've never been a language evangelist. I just solve problems with whatever technology is most appropriate for the case. ------ jballanc I've had my fair share of refactoring legacy code bases as well, and I agree that Rails code is a special kind of horrible. I think you will find that this primarily traces back to the following observation: Rails developers read GoF and think "object composition is awesome!" Then they go and create a bunch of acts_as_foo and has_bar modules which they mix into their models and controllers, all the while thinking "object composition is awesome!" Meanwhile, it never occurs to them that modules are, in fact, closer to multiple inheritance than object composition, and all the wonderful benefits of object composition that GoF touts are nowhere to be found. Instead, what's left is a giant plate of spaghetti code... ~~~ Cushman Spaghetti code is procedural-- what you see in Ruby is ravioli code :) ~~~ TheAmazingIdiot Lemee guess; Bash scripting is shells and cheese? ~~~ jerf I don't know if Cushman was referencing this, but it seems reasonably likely: <http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?RavioliCode> "It has been said that with objects you get RavioliCode: thousands of little classes everywhere and no one knows how to find the places where things really happen." ------ Lewisham I think the majority of the points here (which are good!) can be summed up with the "You are not a special snowflake" heading. This particular form of arrogance (let's call it what it is) permeates throughout most sub-communities of CS programming. Ruby is just one tribe. Lispers are another. Game studios, web app developers, a different product team inside the same company, [insert pretty much any other here]... they all believe/rationalize that they are different to Java, and thus have nothing to learn from all those enterprise projects. Even HN has a particular anti-unit testing tribe that will turn up as soon as any article appears that says "Hey, Test Driven-Development is pretty good, huh?" who will complain that testing hurts velocity (it doesn't, see Etsy for a great example). It's an arrogance that inevitably leads to the issues brought up in the article, taking out a huge technical debt that some other chump has to pay off. I'm not sure how this will ever change. I guess the conclusion is just to try and make sure you're not the chump. ~~~ code_duck Which side of the example is Etsy supposed to be for that, exactly? They make a lot of changes, and supposedly do a lot of testing, but if you're actually paying attention to what's going on there (and the overlap between Etsy fanatics and people who know what TDD is are pretty small) they have constant stream of small problems. Many people I know who are serious Etsy users complain that the site changes too frequently, has tons of glitches and is confusing - most serious ones were overwhelmed years ago. Just thought I'd let you know since you're using them as an example of something. ~~~ Lewisham _I know who are serious Etsy users complain that the site changes too frequently... and is confusing_ Well, I used the example in the context of velocity, not necessarily in whether the users are happy ;) The glitches are more of a concern, but that might be a hardware issue for all we know. ~~~ shasta Oh, you meant speed. Velocity includes direction. ~~~ threedaymonk No it doesn't. Well, I mean, sure, it does in the context of physics, but in regular English speed and velocity are pretty much the same thing. On the other hand, velocity has a specific and well-understood meaning within agile software development, and that's what the antecedent post was referring to. Of course, if you were just being snarky and implying that Etsy are completing plenty of nominal work without it resulting in any actual progress, then carry on :-) ------ pavel_lishin I've said it before, I'll say it again - in 5 to 10 years, people will view RoR as they view PHP today - as something that's ruined a lot of programmers. How much of this sounds familiar? > “Design Patterns are a Java thing. In Ruby you just write code.” > “The warnings Ruby produces are dumb; just disable them.” > In a way I think this is a testament to the power of the platform. If you’re > getting a 500 error in a Rails app, you can keep adding kludge after kludge > and hitting “reload” until it works. No need to ever write a test or > refactor. In languages and frameworks with a lower turnaround time, this > kind of tweak-it-till-it-works workflow is simply impractical. Ruby on Rails > has an impressively low barrier to fiddling. ~~~ phillmv That's a bit trite, don't you think? This is all a religious war, but at the end of the day something like Rails enables you to come a lot closer to "good design, good programming" than many other systems currently in use, i.e. your less than favourite PHP or Java framework here. I think that someone who honestly believes PHP has RUINED them may be a bit of a tool. We're programmers, we can figure it out. ~~~ pavel_lishin > at the end of the day something like Rails enables you to come a lot closer > to "good design, good programming" than many other systems currently in use The same thing's been said about PHP. And sure, PHP ruins programmers like BASIC does - not at all, if they've some brain cells they can rub together. But it does teach shitty habits which can take time and effort to forget. ~~~ phillmv Right. I'm just not sure there's much to Ruby or Rails that ingrains shitty habits, but I'm biased. It does give you ample rope to hang yourself with, though. ------ jrockway The underlying issue is the attitude that if you manage to get some sort of process bound to a TCP port that produces HTML, you have nothing else to learn about programming. Then you join mailing lists and say stuff like "the law of demeter is bullshit" and then "unit testing is too hard, so I don't bother". But in reality, if you actually tried to make unit testing easy, then you'd independently discover the law of demeter and most of the other design patterns, and you wouldn't be telling other people that testing is too hard. It's hard because you don't care and haven't tried to do it. Or, you're bad at programming and it's time to pick a new career. Either way, there is always new stuff to learn. It may crush your ego to learn something new, but in the end, it's a lot easier to read a book or Wikipedia article than to independently reinvent programming. Or maintain that app that's "too hard" to write unit tests for. ~~~ eru That's what I love about Haskell: You'll never get the impression that you learned all there is to it. Understood monads? Good, try your hand at monad transformers, arrows, continuations, zippers, enumerator based IO... ------ olefoo This is what happens whenever a language is seen as a hot ticket to a good job. It happened with PHP back in the late '90s where thousands of people were learning to program on customer's web projects. The problem is in some cases worse with Rails because of the attitude of _some_ of the leaders in that community which are imitated by too many of the followers; confidence does not always equal competence. ------ peteretep Random: I found out recently that Ruby has no unified test output standard, and that every tool makes up its own o_O Not only this, but there is active resistance to useing something like TAP. ~~~ spitfire What is TAP? ~~~ jrockway The Test Anything Protocol: <http://testanything.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page> ~~~ spitfire One of the frustrating parts of the technology industry is that it moves so damn fast, and people love acronyms. As a result, a new acronym every day. It looks like an interesting tool, I'll investigate it. ~~~ jrockway TAP has been the testing protocol for the perl core since the late 80s :) ------ Pewpewarrows "Dividing methods into private and public is for control freaks, you don’t need it in Ruby" Coming from a Python dev's perspective, does Ruby have the concept of public/private? Python just has the underscore and double underscore conventions: if you absolutely have to you can use the "private" variables and methods, but in doing so you still understand that it might change without notice in future versions. "We're all adults here" is the the motto, if I recall. ~~~ route66 Strictly speaking ruby, _private_ only forbids calling the method in question with an explicit receiver. _object_instance.private_method_ is obviously prohibited, but so is _self.private_method_ when called from another class method. The latter one is fine when _private_method_ is called, without the self. To circumvent privateness in the other case ("calling an underscored method") you would have to say _object_instance.send(:private_method)_. ~~~ petercooper Luckily there's also protected, which allows you to call with an explicit receiver, but only from an instance of the same class (or within its hierarchy). ------ hello_moto Didn't Zed Shaw predict this before? Anyhow, personal recent experience on using a plugin that is an API to some webservice: \- Lots of static methods \- Code structure is awful \- Documentation is non-existent ... and I rarely use Rails let alone learn Ruby yet I can see how horrible that plugin is. I heard I'm not alone when it comes to the discussion of the quality of plugins out there. I don't mean to bad-mouth Rails framework because it is a well-thought project (let's not discuss the internal code). But as many who have been in this industry for a while, we kind of know that this is coming sooner or later. Python code, in many places, seem to have a good balance of pragmatism, UNIX culture, and discipline. Having said that, Rails 3.x seems to mark a change in attitude from the Rails core team. They're starting to address issues and stabilize the framework for the better. Let's hope the rest would clean up as well. ------ amcintyre From the article: "In fact, offhand I can only think of one commercial greenfield Ruby project I’ve participated in." I can say the same of C, C++ and Python in the context of my personal work history. Is Avdi's experience so unusual in the Ruby world? It seems that most development jobs primarily involve working on other people's code if the language has been around for any time at all. _Edited to add_ : I've also seen everything listed in the "But Rails is different!" section in every commercial project I've ever worked on. I suspect most developers that just want to hack away on commercial code without any discipline end up having nearly the same set of justifications, no matter what language they're using. (Especially that bit about ignoring/disabling warnings.) ~~~ raganwald With a young language, the ratio of people working on greenfield projects to legacy projects is going to be higher than with an old language. ~~~ amcintyre Sure, but that's why I mentioned Python: Ruby is only 4 years younger than Python, but I haven't run across that many greenfield projects that involved Python. Of course maybe I just haven't looked in the right places. :) ~~~ jeffdavis I think Python developed a little bit more gradually. Ruby was a little slower at first, and then shot up like a rocket. I have no data to back that up, but it certainly seemed to happen that way. ~~~ chernevik Is it significant that Ruby on Rails seems frequently learned "framework first, then language" -- many people first learn Rails, then go to work learning Ruby. Whereas I think frameworks like Django are learned by people already familiar with Python. It's possible that folks can more easily get through the hassles and design questions posed by unit tests with a better grounding in the underlying language. ~~~ zeemonkee > Django are learned by people already familiar with Python If only that were true. Like the OP I've been working with mostly legacy Django codebases the last few years and much of the same issues he raises could be applied to those projects as well. ------ 3am Worth it all for the subsection titled, "You are not a special snowflake" ------ cageface My take on this is that the excesses of enterprise Java poisoned a generation of programmers' opinions about static typing. We're going to see people start rediscovering the benefits of static typing in a sane framework as more of these kinds of projects hit the wall. ------ bitops I wish I had 10 accounts so I could give you 10 +1s! I guess those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it. It's funny, principles of good programming are about as old as programming itself and yet everyone seems to feel the need to rediscover them periodically. If you look at some great __nix utilities, they should "do one thing and do it well". Hm, sounds like Single Responsibility Principle. Dependency injection? Funny, reminds me a lot of __nix pipes. So to me the moral of the story is: programmers with experience and an open mind will tend to make good decisions. Inexperienced programmers just need time if they're willing to learn. And arrogant jerks will always make messes. ~~~ eru Yes. Though principles tend to change. For examples Unix' "No news is good news" started because IO was slow via teletypes. Now we keep it, because it makes piping easier. Also nowadays you can afford to value simplicity over speed in so many more places. ------ jshen I've been doing rails for a long time. My biggest advice, use rails plugins sparingly, and when you do ensure they are well maintained. Nothing is worse than an old rails project that is using 20 plugins and you need to update it to a new major version of rails. ~~~ threedaymonk So very true. Almost all the misery of maintaining and upgrading a Rails app comes from the interactions between plugins, each other, and Rails. Why is this? I don't know exactly. It could be the way that plugins tend to manipulate multiple layers of the stack and tend not to use clearly-defined public interfaces. I suspect that more of it is the fact that plugins are the self-promotion tool of choice for the jobbing Rails developer: they fall from grace as quickly as they rose, abandoned by the developers to whom they gave a leg up, supplanted by a new, different plugin with an obviously - everyone agrees! - much more correct way of solving the problem. Meanwhile, your old Rails app is dependent on a dozen pieces of decrepit abandonware. ~~~ aaronbrethorst Why is this? I don't know exactly. Monkeypatching! It's all fun and games until someone else decides that monkeypatching #poke is also what _their_ gem or plugin needs. Then, of course, you start accidentally #poke'ing your Eye when you least expect it, and cannot figure out from where or why... ------ wccrawford Not sure that's a good title for the content... But it's certainly true that sloppy code can be produced in any language. ~~~ bitops To me what the article is highlighting is a certain blindness on the part of many Ruby coders. My first language of choice is Ruby, so I'm not trying to spread hate here. That said, I've encountered many times where a Rubyists first reaction to anything Java is "oh that's terrible" but anything implemented in Ruby _must_ be beautiful, just because it's Ruby. Clearly, that is not true and yet people believe it over and over again. Also, if you look at a lot of the developments in the Rails world over the past few years, they've been running into problems long solved in the Java world, but only now have Ruby projects been getting big enough to warrant general purpose solutions. A perfect example is Bundler. It's basically Maven for Java, but it took the community a while to realize "hey, managing libraries is a pain, we need a tool for it". So as Rails grows up, hopefully it won't forget that many other communities have solved similar problems before it. Sometimes it's almost as if Rails invented the Internet. :) ------ powertower That JS on page crashes IE8. ~~~ avdi I had someone else report an IE7 crash recently. I wish I could narrow down WHICH JS is the problem. It's just stock WordPress+various widgets. ~~~ nfriedly Yikes - IE 8 really crashes. Here's the console output from IE9 developer tools when changed into IE8 Standards mode: SCRIPT438: Object doesn't support property or method 'indexOf' github-badge.js, line 59 character 7 SCRIPT438: Object doesn't support this property or method badge.js, line 47 character 7 SCRIPT438: Object doesn't support property or method 'getElementsByClassName' embed.js?pname=wordpress&pver=2.61, line 35 character 78 SCRIPT438: Object doesn't support property or method 'getElementsByClassName' embed.js?pname=wordpress&pver=2.61, line 35 character 78 So, hopefully that gives you a starting point. The IE9 developer tools are much improved over previous iterations. Interestingly enough, when I switched it into IE7 mode, only the first two errors appeared. ~~~ avdi Thanks! I've queued this for a closer look. ~~~ teja1990 Its still crashing.. ------ gbog I would be interested in a comparison with Python projects.
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Show HN: Modern Hacker News – Read Hacker News on Windows Phone 8.1 - qhung49 http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/modern-hacker-news/a3dd1bb6-aaa4-498f-af6a-8f228531f298?signin=true ====== qhung49 This is my first app and uses the official API (hosted on Firebase) instead of scraping the site or using third-party APIs as other apps. I hope that it's usable and stable enough. Please give me feedbacks
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Show HN:Reading Your eBooks Should Be Easy - skillachie http://bookfusion.com/ Read all your Hacker News Magazines across all your devices booth offline and online on any device!<p><i>Tired of being restricted to one device </i>Tired of copying your eBooks from one device to the other *Tired of losing your bookmarks and notes<p>We are revolutionizing the way we read and interact with eBooks today by making reading eBooks easy<p>See http://www.bookfusion.com/ for more details<p>Feel free to post feedback in the comments or reach put to mr at dc@bookfusiom.com ====== skillachie No eBook readers on HN! Let me know what you think guys
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Ask HN: Does anyone have a personal dashboard they use? - Kevin_S Whether created by you or a service you use? ====== stylepulse Some of my favourites: Google Analytics - helps me understand what the heck my writing is doing online, how's the performance Hootsuite - my pet solution for social media Alto - well kinda, for emails lastly, plain Excel - my solution to everything! ------ codegeek I m creating my own dashboard to see my business Stripe numbers and analytics better. I am aware of services like baremetrics but they don't cover my use case (custom subscription logic in my own app and stripe is only used for processing payments). So far, I only got to building a simple chart for calculating Monthly Run Rate (MRR) but will build few more things like Churn rate, Customer growth % etc. I also will add some analytics like where my customers are coming from (google analytics sort of integration) all in one place. It is built using PHP/Laravel framework with vuejs in front.
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Los Angeles approves 'historically low cost' solar+storage project - Osiris30 https://www.utilitydive.com/news/los-angeles-approves-historically-low-cost-solarstorage-project/562681/ ====== mdorazio No word here or in the 8minute press release on what type of storage they're going with. Does anyone know if it's lithium or flow batteries?
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Protect your privacy with Krypton Anonymous - adrianbg https://kr36.co/krypton-anonymous ====== omgbear I've been using this a while now, all the controls are on the bottom, making it easy easier for me to reach. ------ sjwalter I've been using this as my regular browser for over a month and it's been fantastic ------ sarciszewski They open sourced their core module. I consider this a good start. :P
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TideKit Failure – Blaming the Community? - PaybackTony Here is the automated e-mail I got from TideKit announcing the discontinue of their development. For those of you who don&#x27;t know what it was, it was an attempt to create an all-in-one app development platform, almost along the lines of an Ionic and NodeWebkit (or Atom) in one. They actually took pre-orders (tickets to beta), and the time stating they were very close to letting Beta customers in.<p>Months and months went by and there was no movement, so after some complaints they began writing update blogs, again talking about how soon they were going to be opening up for beta testers.<p>And now, they send an e-mail saying they couldn&#x27;t do it. The worst part is they seem to be blaming the community for wanting it too fast... Even though they continued to set expectations that were never met. This is a great example of how NOT to handle these complicated projects, and if they fail, another example of how NOT to handle the failure. The end of the e-mail is an attempt to take some blame but for me, a few paragraphs of deflection dampened that attempt. Am I taking the tone of this e-mail wrong?<p>---------- http:&#x2F;&#x2F;pastebin.com&#x2F;a0S3B6w0 ====== Trioxin Matters are being taken into their own hands, as we have evidence showing that their only intention was to collect money. Original discussion: [https://github.com/reduxframework/redux- news/issues/59](https://github.com/reduxframework/redux-news/issues/59) TideKitLawSuit@gmail.com [https://twitter.com/TideKitLawsuit](https://twitter.com/TideKitLawsuit) ------ detaro In case you haven't seen this: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9875372](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9875372) After reading the e-mail (I haven't seen this at all before, so I have no opinion about their communications and what has happened in the community), this reads to me like it was written by someone who is frustrated that their plan of how to do things wasn't understood/respected and is now fed up with the entire thing? Seems a bit weird, but I think it could totally be genuine (probably result of failure to communicate). And if money has changed hands for access to a product, they'll probably have a bunch of refunds to issue? (depends on exact terms of course) ~~~ PaybackTony They probably will. I don't expect a refund, and anyone paying that early for a product that isn't done should do so with the understanding that there is a chance you may never see what you paid for. With that said, this e-mail makes it stink a bit, and doesn't sit well with me, and after reading that issue on github it seems not with anyone else either. Seems to be a common theme on that thread that it's not as much the money as it is how they are handling the situation as a whole.
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The case for letting children vote - skewart http://www.vox.com/2015/11/28/9770928/voting-rights-for-kids ====== analognoise Have you been watching the American presidential campaigns? We already let children vote.
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Iranian cyber warfare commander shot dead in suspected assassination - jnazario http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/10350285/Iranian-cyber-warfare-commander-shot-dead-in-suspected-assassination.html ====== AsymetricCom Obv. mossad. Apparently, "light to all nations" means starting another cold war.
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Don’t Copy That Floppy - good coders code, great reuse - Anon84 http://www.catonmat.net/blog/musical-geek-friday-dont-copy-that-floppy/ ====== disq Rapper in that video is a lawyer now :D <http://www.strategicinteractions.com/who_staff.html#me> ~~~ rudyfink I am so pleased that you created an account to pass that information on. ------ kqr2 If you liked that, you may enjoy the kill -9 rap: <http://www.idkwtf.com/videos/latest-videos/kill-9-linux-rap>
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Ask HN: How do you validate an idea that it will work? - heyhey123t I just launched http:&#x2F;&#x2F;startmydomain.com and im trying to validate the idea. I&#x27;m not sure if its a good idea or a crappy one. :)<p>Time will tell I suppose. The idea is that you want to create a coming soon website, with responsive design and you want to collect visitor emails for people interested but you don&#x27;t have alot of time as you are busy building the main website.<p>Lets say it takes a week to build a coming soon website and your time ( or someone else&#x27;s is worth $30 an hour ) that&#x27;s $1200 dollar just for a basic coming soon website. with http:&#x2F;&#x2F;startmydomain.com you can build a coming-soon website with zero coding and zero hosting and i&#x27;m making it FREE while its in BETA or I might just keep it free if I don&#x27;t get alot of signups<p>I am basically looking for validation and I&#x27;m making this up as I go along:)<p>Would love to get some feedback though.<p>Is it a thumbs up or a thumbs down ?<p>cheers! ====== mindcrime This seems to have some potential, but I feel like there are a number of services that at least overlap with what you're doing. The challenge might be differentiating yourself and figuring out how to gain mindshare. A few thoughts on the site itself: 1\. "domain named servers" should probably read "domain name server" or just say "DNS servers". 2\. "Easely" should be "Easily" 3\. Regarding collecting emails... how do you do that? Do you just capture them and let the user download a file, or do you provide any sort of distribution list service, or is there a way to easily integrate with something like Mailchimp, etc? My point is, if you're going to collect emails, ideally it would be very easy to turn around and send a message out to all of those collected emails. 4\. Some of those templates you have do look really awesome! It might be interesting to put a carousel on the front-page with some thumbnails of those, so people can get a quick look without having to click through to the template list page. 5\. Profit?? ------ cVwEq It seems like there would be a narrow window where firms would want a "Coming soon" website. So you'll only have like five minutes in the new firm's life get their attention and get them to sign on the line that is dotted. Also, since they are new they won't have much cash to spend. There are lots of website creator websites (Wix comes to mind, or even wordpress), so cutting through the others' marketing noise and capturing a new firm within a short window seems very difficult. It might be interesting to look at the tactics of capturing customers for other businesses that cater to the initial steps of creating an entrepreneurial venture. LegalZoom comes to mind (for incorporating a new business). Also, The UPS Store and getting a PO box --- how do they attract new small businesses? My $0.02. Good luck!
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DefendTheInter.net: An illustrated guide on why the Internet needs saving. - halfwayglad http://defendtheinter.net/ ====== marshray Am I the only one who finds the symbol of the clenched fist to be a real turn- off for any feeling of support for these kinds of sites? ~~~ MaxGabriel Why so? It is a common symbol for groups fighting for civil liberties <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raised_fist> ~~~ marshray I guess because when I was coming up, the sign of the clenched fist was being used primarily by Marxist revolutionaries and race nationalists. It was not a sign of civil liberties <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_liberties> in the general sense, more a sign of unified struggle. Adopting the "worker's revolution" symbolism also seems to downplay the strengths in many cases. Groups like Anonymous or the readership of HN are far from being mobs armed with farm implements, they're the techno-elite. Personally, I think a better sign might be the extended middle finger. :-) ------ sakai Thank you for this -- an accessible presentation of the most important facts and numbers on a contemporary, quickly moving issue. We could use more of this from journalistic outlets as well (albeit without the editorializing). And the 'What the Internet could look like...' scroll down is simple yet truly elegant. Bravo. ~~~ pferde Too bad the majority of the internet users only care about one model: (me)-----------(facebook) ------ danso I get that the background image is the "subject" image in the before and after SOPA/PIPA boxes...but I think for most people, it will look like content failed to load. Especially because the two (low contrast) backgrounds don't appear to be substantially different. I had to look it over twice to even notice a difference. ~~~ borski I had exactly the same reaction. I had to go back and forth a few times to see the difference. Perhaps making the transition more obvious with a fade or having the connecting paths be different colors? ~~~ halfwayglad That was bothering me too. Looks good now :) ------ danso Also, the site linked to for "Call your representative now" (<http://fightforthefuture.org/>) is either outdated or factually incorrect: " _The Stop Online Piracy Act could pass this week._ " IIRC, Congress is in winter recess. Also, it's still in subcommittee: <http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-h3261/actions_votes> And of course, its Senate-companion must be voted on, too, before it reaches the President.
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The place for people to share things they're willing to do for $5 - caffo http://www.fiverr.com/ ====== Qz Main page loads fine, none of the other links seem to work for me (website takes too long to respond error in firefox). ~~~ kgermino Thats a problem they have been having since they launched. Seems like they jumped into promoting it before they had the capacity to handle the traffic. It seems like an interesting idea though. ------ fatbat Page is loading rather slowly for me too. BTW, how is this monetized?
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FizzBuzz with Matlab and CVX. TensorFlow Version Had Bad Feature Engineering - siilats https://www.facebook.com/siilats/posts/10104962964136889 ====== siilats I made an actual solution
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Run your SaaS Product in Enterprise Mode - dmathieu http://blog.shazino.com/articles/dev/run-your-saas-product-in-enterprise-mode/ ====== boothead This looks like excellent advice! I'm just in the process of automating my set up into a set of canonical ansible playbooks, and this is just another reason to do so. Perhaps this will be even easier with the rise of docker: You ship your customer a VM that's also a docker host, you have a private index where you push new versions of your app containers , and the customers pull the new versions. Would this be workable do you think? ~~~ dmathieu I haven't really looked into docker yet. So I can't guarantee anything, but it should be feasible yes.
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Any Tcl hackers here - jemptymethod Any Tcl hackers on HN? I ask because I'm preparing to open source a project in Tcl that most people have been telling me seems quite compelling. In my most grandiose vision its a project which in turn could enable other startups. Anyway, just want to see who out here hacks Tcl, and/or might be interested in the announcement of the release of version 0.1. Until then, vapor-tastically yours.... ====== eam I believe davidw(<http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=davidw>) is a Tcl hacker. ------ Shooter I used to use Tcl (with AOLServer and ACS/OpenACS.) It's not my favorite language by any stretch of the imagination, but I would use it again if there was a compelling reason to do so. ------ jemptymethod Hah I've already told davidw about the idea but thanks, I've known him online from other Tcl forums
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Circuits.io is growing up – multi-layered PCBs and more - benschrauwen http://blog.circuits.io/post/48198477707/circuits-io-is-growing-up ====== kyzyl This has a lot of potential, but doesn't seem to be functional yet. That is to say, a partially functional EDA software is pretty much useless. I just tried to work up part of a board I'm designing right now using the interface, and was stopped dead when the IC I needed wasn't available. When I tried to input the IC footprint specs, the proper (standard) footprint wasn't available, only one that is "almost right". Then when I tried to continue anyhow, the interface told me to select pads to map them, but nothing was clickable. This kind of thing is a complete show stopper. I can't adopt a piece of software without knowing that in the worst case I can design my footprints manually, in a reliable way. Minor nit picks: \- Disabling the context menu is fairly irritating \- Many of the buttons ("create", "next") take a very long time to do anything and so they appear broken \- If you're going to use Octopart as your parts DB (which is a great idea) why not use an interface more similar to theirs for fitlering, instead of making me scroll through 5000 components to find the one with the right package? EDIT: If I am simply missing some key piece of the interface, do let me know. ------ cadr After Tinkercad shutting down, I would be wary of tying my workflow (or investing my time in learning) into software I didn't own. Not trying to spread FUD or anything, but it seems risky. ~~~ acgourley While I agree that all users are taking the risk you describe, I think they reason they are using the website at all is the hope that an online tool will increase productivity via features _only_ an online tool could be expected to have. That trade-off might be unavoidable. ~~~ cadr What are those features? ~~~ acgourley Live collaboration, one click share, Q&A style community interaction, crowdsourced component databases, crowdsourced modules, forking... ------ TheLegace This is some really cool software. I have just finished my first boards with eagle and open sourced them. Alas I absolutely hated Eagle, but getting mercy for Linux users is a miracle in of itself ;( If anyone gives a shit my boards are here. <https://bitbucket.org/TheLegace/yurt_motordrive-hardware> ~~~ jrabone Did you hate Eagle because you are used to something better (and presumably costing $000's), or because it's not like any other app? IME all EDA apps are weird, and I really like Eagle (although I don't use the auto router). ~~~ fnordfnordfnord Eagle is terrible, and their "native" linux app is (or at least it was) less robust than some Windows software under WINE. ------ michaelt Anyone know what the business model is here? How can I expect to be monetised once I'm tied in? ~~~ kbruneel Hi Michael We just hope you will order your boards through circuits.io :), but we will not tie you in. You can download your gerbers and have your board produced elsewhere. Karel ~~~ michaelt Gerbers are fine for sending PCB layouts to board manufacturers - but what about my schematics and my library of footprints for parts I've used before? Traditionally EDA tools are weak at importing and exporting this sort of thing which makes moving between tools a total pain. Could be inconvenient if your commercial offering had a price increase, presuming you plan to have a commercial offering (it's not 100% clear from your website; I assume you're planning to make money somehow?). ~~~ cussiel As you have said, tools in general are weak in importing and exporting, chances are you won't be able to import it into the other tool, anyway. As long as there's no standardized format for exhanging this info, it's hard to support these features. In circuits.io at least you benefit from other peoples work on component libraries. ~~~ michaelt True - but non-cloud-based software will keep working even if the developers go out of business or have to increase their prices (unless it has DRM or is leased by the month) - my 10-year-old copy of Altium Designer still works just fine. ------ amirmc Anyone come across PCBmodE? Make pretty (and functional) boards. [http://boldport.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/introducing- pcbmode.h...](http://boldport.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/introducing- pcbmode.html?m=1) ~~~ jrabone It's pretty, but no DRC or back annotation support. It is a shame professional tools have to be so ugly. ------ drgreiner I have wanted to dabble in making my own PCBs and I have always wondered about the steps beyond the PCB. As in, is there a good small-run manufacturer for doing the pick and place of the components? ~~~ fnordfnordfnord Fritzing (FOSS) does single and double sided boards and has an almost child- easy interface and they have a pcb fab service 4pcb, PcbExpress, and many other board houses have their own Windows software they give away, but they usually don't let you export your data. DipTrace is surprisingly good for the cost, runs in WINE, renders 3D models of your PCB. gEDA - Get ready to spend years of your life editing PCB files, running scripts, generally being an errand boy for your PC, but you can do amazing things with it after you learn to make it sing. (FOSS), but the price you pay is in the thousands of hours you'll spend. Kicad - (FOSS) - Recently adopted by CERN, I used to consider it less capable than gEDA, probably worth a second look. ------ proee We just released PCBWeb BETA - a full-featured schematic and layout tool. Feedback welcome! <http://www.pcbweb.com>
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The Resulting Fallacy Ruins Decisions: An Interview with Annie Duke - acconrad http://nautil.us/issue/55/trust/the-resulting-fallacy-is-ruining-your-decisions ====== Arbalest Looks basically like black swan theory. Looking for explanations as if someone could have seen this coming. ~~~ goialoq No, it's simple misunderstanding of randomness. Black swans are unpredicatable unmodelable events. "Resulting" just means misjudging well-modeledrandom events. It's thinking that if you win a small prize on a lottery ticket, that buying the ticket was a good choice _because you won_. While in reality, it was more likely that you'd lose. ------ autokad "Think about the 2015 Super Bowl. The Seahawks are on the 1-yard line, they’re down by four, there’s 26 seconds left in the game, Pete Carroll has Russell Wilson throw and it’s intercepted. Do you remember what the headlines looked like the next day? “Worst play in Super Bowl history,” “What was he thinking?” “Idiot.” That kind of thing. But imagine it was caught—what do you think the headlines would have looked like then? The outcome was irrelevant to the decision quality." no that was a pretty bad play choice. ~~~ mikeash Would you be saying that if it had been caught? ~~~ ueushzvzis Yes ~~~ mikeash I’m skeptical. ~~~ autokad The QB's completion percentage is ~57%, meanwhile seatle had one of the best running backs in the league with 4.25 yards per carry in the game. wilson doesnt throw many interceptions, but Lynch almost never fumbles, Wilson was 4 times more likely to turn over the ball than Lynch was. write that down, if they turn the ball over they loose the game. the play they choose increased their risk of loosing over 400%. wilson scores 28% of the time from the 10 (dont have 1 or 5 yard stats), lynch scores 42% of the time from the 5. he even scores more than wilson from 10 yards out (37%), which is not even a valid comparison because they only need 1 yard. There is just no way to cut it, it was a bad decision. ~~~ hkmurakami How do the stats change when the opposing team knows what you know about these stats? That's a very relevant dampening factor. ~~~ lazyasciiart From memory, the explanation for the play was that everyone expected them to go with Lynch, so they tried the pass for the surprise factor, and still had the fourth down to go with Lynch if the pass failed. So yes, very much affected by knowing that the opponent knows your stats. ------ cowpig I couldn't read past the first, fawning paragraph about a figure in the poker world who likely stole millions of dollars from online players[1] directly, and at a minimum profited from turning a blind eye to her associates' theft[2]. [1] [http://pokernewsboy.com/poker-player-news/secret-ub-tapes- an...](http://pokernewsboy.com/poker-player-news/secret-ub-tapes-annie-duke- used-version-of-god-mode/13939) [2] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cereus_Poker_Network](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cereus_Poker_Network) ~~~ valuearb Annie is well known as an awful person who hasn't been a top tier player for over a decade. The best players in today's game would love to have her in their games. ~~~ monitorman But she has taken in over 4 million in lifetime earnings... from FTP players.
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External addresses can longer send mail through Google SMTP servers - fiatjaf http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2014/08/external-addresses-no-longer-use-gmail.html ====== look_lookatme So bizarre that they'd drop this without an announcement. ------ chippy Existing setups are okay, I think - it's only for new email accounts. In general it seems like a huge change - gmail was a useful email client
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Show HN: Nodebook – Multi-Lang Web REPL on Docker - netgusto https://github.com/netgusto/nodebook ====== netgusto I came up with Nodebook while training for coding interviews. I wrote this because I wanted to work in the kind of environment used for these interviews, namely an editor in a browser, and I needed a quick way to browse and run my snippets when preparing. That, and procrastination. There's also the possibility to watch code and run it in the shell directly, without browser UI. I use it these days when I need to do quick experiments or POC. I think it can be of many other uses. ~~~ pjmlp It looks nice, thanks for sharing it. ------ fenollp From a quick look this looks like a subset of what [https://repl.it/](https://repl.it/) provides (which is fine!). Any features / wild ideas you feel deserve more attention than a quick look? ~~~ netgusto It does indeed look like repl.it! I'd say the main feature is owning the code you write (on your filesystem) which allows your scm on top of it. Also, the cli mode (watch and run), which does not expose a web ui, and is nice in combination with tmux and vim. If I ever get the chance to do it: * Markdown file support * Integration in vscode as a code runner * Use Monaco (potentially with code insights) instead of Code Mirror ------ mattsfrey It would go a long way to package this such that somebody on a mac can just download it and run, or install with brew. Also after disabling security, chmoding +x, and attempting several patterns on the command line I could not get this to run, each time spitting various errors i.e. "Could not find notebooks in .: Error while looking for notebooks: skip this directory", "Could not find notebooks in /Users/mfrey: Error while looking for notebooks: open /Users/mfrey/Library/Application Support/CallHistoryDB: operation not permitted" etc.. maybe I'm just an idiot but at this point of dysfunction in a program I'm experimenting with for kicks, my capacity to continue futzing with it is exhausted, just FYI. ~~~ talkingtab As a long time mac user, I suggest getting access to a Linux machine and even learning how to use it if necessary. If you use the mac terminal its not all that hard. Options are: \- get a DigitalOcean or other cheap VPN. $5 or less/month with easy ssh access. Be sure to set up ufw just for fun. \- have an old mac? install Ubuntu 19.10 and be surprised at how fast and usable it is. My 2011 Macbook pro is amazing with an external monitor. \- buy a cheap machine. I would suggest a Pi 4 with 4GB and have one, but since the architecture is ARM it sometimes is a hassle. Maybe someone has a suggestion for a low cost linux server box. edit: I forgot the main point- if you want to play around with a lot of cool stuff, like this, much of it is linux by default so having a linux box is perhaps a good long term solution. I use brew, but for me these are better solutions. ~~~ em500 Or install multipass, which installs ubuntu containers inside a ubuntu kvm on your Mac: [https://multipass.run/](https://multipass.run/) ------ joshstrange Hmm, this is very interesting. Currently I use CodeRunner on my mac to do this kind of one-offs but I rarely save them. It's mainly an easily way for me to test out a theory on how some code will behave in an isolated environment. I would be interested in this if it could run itself inside a docker container as well so I could easily throw it on my NAS. I guess I could just run it in a VM but... ~~~ netgusto > if it could run itself inside a docker container It could be done by running the snippet containers in the same docker host as the one running nodebook (by exposing the host's docker socket to the nodebook container). Is this what you have in mind? ~~~ joshstrange Yes, I was thinking docker-in-docker was probably the answer to that. Or a single docker container with all runtimes installed in it so you didn't have to deal with the DiD overhead. Hell, I could probably just throw it into a docker with just node/php/java (since that is my main use-case) and call it a day. ------ asah I'm curious about security... On one hand it's running inside a container? OTOH, there's no key/password required for clients to connect i.e. any local software can connect? For remote access, perhaps an SSH tunnel? ~~~ netgusto The api listens on 127.0.0.1 by default; so yes, local software can connect (see [1]). File pathes for read/writes and execution are not imperatively ordered by the client, but done declaratively based on the notebook ID. When the toolschains are in docker, the code runs in disposable containers. It would be possible to add creds (for instance, with creds stored in ~/.nodebook.conf); do you think it's mandatory? The cli mode (--cli) does not expose a port, but watches notebooks and outputs them in the terminal (works nicely with $YOUR_EDITOR) \--edit-- I guess running this on a remote server through SSH tunnel would workyes, but I think it's safer and easier to version control the notebooks and run them locally. [1] [https://github.com/netgusto/nodebook#%EF%B8%8F-a-bit-of- warn...](https://github.com/netgusto/nodebook#%EF%B8%8F-a-bit-of- warning-%EF%B8%8F) ~~~ mbreese One mechanism I’ve seen (Jupyter) is to print out a token when the listening service (Webserver) starts. Then this is the credential needed to login to the web GUI. The token is randomly generated at runtime and unique to each time the server restarts. It would be expected that you’re running this on a computer you already control access to (remote server that you access with an SSH tunnel or a personal workstation). In this case, the token approach is a nice medium between full user accounts and ease of use while still providing some security. ~~~ netgusto Oh yes I see, it’s indeed a nice in between. I will do that, like it! Thank you.
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Made in NY - Why Your Startup Should Be, Too - pshin45 http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130219190155-4421225-made-in-ny-why-your-startup-should-be-too ====== prodigal_erik I moved to the Bay Area in 2006 seeking out the very strong labor market. When I'm not situated for going through another risky startup, I want to be floating on a deep reservoir of high-paying employers desperate for every specialty I can conceivably claim. Nothing I've read convinces me NYC has that to the same extent yet, at least not when I don't want to become a quant. If you aren't here, you're selecting against people who responded to incentives I found very compelling. ------ pshin45 I've always believed Silicon Valley to be the Mecca for entrepreneurship by an overwhelming margin, but more and more I'm seeing NYC mentioned as the next best place to start a startup, with Boston being mentioned less and less. Thoughts?
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Two-thirds of Germans may get coronavirus, Merkel says - Reedx https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-germany-merkel/most-people-will-get-the-coronavirus-aim-is-to-slow-its-spread-merkel-idUSKBN20Y1EY ====== mtmail previously discussed in [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22543055](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22543055)
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Dropbox Adds More Sharing Features And Search For Enterprises - goronbjorn http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/23/dropbox-gets-down-to-business-adds-more-sharing-features-and-search-for-enterprises/ ====== beermann This is a step in the right direction for them, but in order for Dropbox to be the go-to provider for small businesses they're going to need to integrate better into the every day lives of people at those companies. Features like volume shadow copy and image based backup, local backup, centralized management, and reporting are common features provided by competitors targeting the small business market. Dropbox was designed for consumers and I think the core experience lends itself well to them. They certainly have that market nailed down. But there's a reason there is a huge market they've left untouched and I don't think it's going to be easy for them to enter it without some fundamental changes to how their product operates. Disclaimer: I work for a small online backup provider.
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Go where the filters are - niyazpk http://sivers.org/get-filtered ====== Quarrelsome This is rubbish. As Charlie Brooker stated, if you can do the idea yourself DO. Put it on Youtube, make them come to you. As soon as you go to them they will be changing your idea, suggesting you wear a cowboy hat and you wont have a strong bargaining position to resist. ~~~ sivers I agree it's mostly rubbish now. I wrote that article in 2001, when “The Wisdom of Crowds” was not really in effect online yet. Still, in many places in the music industry, an artist is taken much more seriously when they are represented by a company (whether label, agency, manager, etc) - that communicates that the artist is not just one of the 2 million amateurs on MySpace. That subtle difference in perception and image actually changes how people listen. Read this great Brian Eno quote about that: <http://musicthoughts.com/t/112> ~~~ 10ren The article is misdated, as "2007-08-18" The general principle still seems relevant, of relishing obstacles and difficulties because they discourage the competition. Although we don't have "yes/no" filters today, don't influencers have a role - like what youtube highlights etc? Or do these have relatively little effect, compared to the spontaneous, organic, emergent, collective choices of crowds? ------ akshat This works until the filter is one who wants to maximize profits by minimizing risk. You see this in every field where there are filters: 1> Music 2> Movies 3> Publishing industry 4> Venture Capital 5> Newspapers ... But I think there is a glimmer of hope on the internet. There are millions of blogs but the best still surface and build a large audience. There are infinite number of videos on youtube but still the best still gets 100 million views. The common element here is social media. As twitter and facebook gain popularity, general public will decide winners and not a media executive.
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Useless but fun things to do with the Linux CLI - opless https://lunduke.com/posts/2020-02-18/ ====== alec2dabreen Hah, I appreciate giving the terminal an attitude. ------ m463 I also like ponysay, toilet (and banner)
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Why Your Startup Should Have A Retreat - rafaelc http://blog.learnboost.com/blog/why-your-startup-should-have-a-retreat/ ====== LeonW I really like this idea of a week together. However 7 days is quite a long time. It might apply for startups who have grown beyond 4-5 members. Otherwise I think what you are saying is still feasible, but maybe not for the entire 7 days. A weekend spent together might be enough. ~~~ rafaelc We had 6 people when we did our first retreat, so you may have a point. Let me be clear: we were there Monday to Friday, so it was 5 days. It was important that we did this during the week so that we didn't cut into personal weekend time, e.g. with families, spouses, and so on. ~~~ matzner Yeah, that's key! It's too tempting to just rope in a weekend for this sort of thing. ------ jacquesm When you're still small forget about this, you need to mind the shop and keep moving. Treating your whole company to a week 'off' is a great idea but you need to be a bit bigger before you can even begin to think about stuff like that, unless you're very lucky with your launch, cash flow and new hires (who gets to go and who doesn't?) you will probably need 'all hands on deck' for the first few years. A good reward at an earlier stage might be to throw the occasional collective dinner when milestones are reached for everybody to let their hair down for a bit, but after that: back to the grindstone, no start-up that I know of could afford a full week 'off' for the core team in the first two years or even the first three. ~~~ rafaelc I'm not saying to take a full week "off", but rather to mix fun and work in a great location. We're starting month #8. One of our investors, who co-founded Mixer Labs (now part of Twitter) did this early on as well. Any other examples out there?
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Disaster Recovery in a Virtualized World - debble In today’s always-on, information-driven organizations, business continuity depends completely on IT infrastructures that are up and running 24&#x2F;7. The costs of downtime are huge and data loss can put a company out of business. Data loss is not only caused by natural disasters, power outages, hardware failure and user errors, but more and more by software problems and cyber security related disasters. Therefore thorough security and business continuity strategies are crucial for modern businesses, minimizing data loss and downtime.<p>Especially now, as data centers become more and more softwaredefined, these private, hybrid and public clouds become more vulnerable to these kinds of threats. In a software-defined, virtualized environment, applications run on virtual machines (VMs), independent from the hardware. Though this brings a lot of efficiency benefits to the business, these benefits are not extended into the realm of disaster recovery (DR) and business continuity (BC).<p>Most DR&#x2F;BC solutions are still based on physical entities, arrays and appliances, and lack the ability to scale with the amount of data modern organizations produce. Many of the benefits achieved through virtualization, therefore, can be lost because of the management overhead and the complexity of aligning a virtualization strategy with disaster recovery tools designed for physical environments. Virtualization-aware BC&#x2F;DR solutions are needed to overcome this. ====== debble for more information visit the link :-[http://tinyurl.com/dm-in- virtualization](http://tinyurl.com/dm-in-virtualization)
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Forget conspiracies; Why Apple’s reason for slowing your iPhone is hostile - MRSallee https://medium.com/@mrsallee/forget-conspiracies-why-apples-reason-for-slowing-your-iphone-is-hostile-584b91a42603 ====== antonyme So imagine Apple starts to show warning messages saying "your battery cannot hold sufficient charge and is EOL - you should replace it now". We would have a different spin on Batterygate where Apple is greedily telling people to replace their batteries when they allegedly still work just fine, because all they care about is selling more batteries and making more profit. ~~~ MRSallee Whether or not Apple alerted users is still missing the point. ------ gumby I get the feeling the author has never designed hardware, much less shipped any. ~~~ MRSallee That's an easy bet... What's the relevance? ~~~ gumby If you don’t know what you don’t know it’s hard to be pithy. You claim that one device in particular you happened to own has a certain characteristic failure, yet offer no discussion of the n on the issue, distribution, nor anything else really except “well I felt this way” Then you claim that thermal throttling is somehow unique to Apple yet every device these days does such thermal management, and such things we’ve even visible at the user code level (e.g. selection of vector instruction use). And when you look at the trade shipping any product, and what defects are considered acceptable... you write as if you have zero experience or visibility into any of these issues. So what’s the relevance? Your argument is unconvincing because you haven’t made any effort to justify it. ~~~ MRSallee Thanks for elaborating. > You claim that one device in particular you happened to own has a certain > characteristic failure, yet offer no discussion of the n on the issue, > distribution, nor anything else really except “well I felt this way” What I wrote: "For option [c], it’s important to view this hardware crash as a problem unique to these phones. ... Admittedly, I don’t know that it’s unique to this hardware." I've essentially invited anyone with better knowledge to knock down my posit, while giving my reasoning with the facts that I know. > Then you claim that thermal throttling is somehow unique to Apple yet every > device these days does such thermal management What I wrote: "unlike any rechargeable device I’ve ever owned — the iPhone 6 and 6+ suffered hardware resets (crashes) when their batteries drop below a certain output" For starters, this isn't about thermals, as far as I understand the issue Apple was trying to solve. And what I described as unique to the iPhone 6/6s is that the hardware crashes as the battery health degrades. I've owned a lot of rechargeable devices over the years. When their batteries degrade, the battery doesn't last as long. I don't recall that any of them began to experience crashes. > And when you look at the trade shipping any product, and what defects are > considered acceptable... you write as if you have zero experience or > visibility into any of these issues. There's a lot we don't know about this iPhone 6 + battery + slowdown, like at what battery health does Apple begin to slow down phones, how long before users reach that battery health (within warranty?), how can users identify if they're affected by this, and how many devices are actually affected. It is entirely possible that the problem is overstated, and not widespread. It's possible that nearly every device is affected within warranty. Probably somewhere in between. But none of that is my point. My point is that -- on the assumption that this is a hardware/software design problem unique to these devices, and I invite you to kill this assumption -- resolving the crashing problem by slowing down devices is hostile in that it penalizes consumers for a problem Apple created. ~~~ gumby I have had to use this exact strategy myself at the suggestion of a colleague. This was not invented by Apple, much less invented by them for this one piece of hardware. ------ endemic Every year I see hardware folks write breathlessly about how good the performance of Apple's AX chips. In retrospect, seems like Apple is pulling a fast one: amazing performance, but only while the phone is new (coincidentally, when all the benchmarks get run). I'm curious how this will impact future reviews of iDevice performance. ------ mtgx Following his own logic, then you could also argue that Apple not recalling its broken iPhones is also a matter of incentive = avoiding negative PR. So to be consistent, he should admit that in both cases Apple is in the wrong and user-hostile. Apple could avoid the issue for the majority of users by increasing battery size and quality (Samsung has said that its S8 battery will only drop 5% of its charge after 3 years, for instance). Instead, Apple chooses the easy and more profitable way out - degrading users' performance, which coincidentally also happens to get users to buy iPhones more often. There is a false dilemma not just between "conspiracy vs not conspiracy", but also between "performance vs battery life", a dilemma manufactured by Apple itself.
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The Procrastinating Caveman: Human Evolution and Procrastination - da5e http://calnewport.com/blog/2011/07/10/the-procrastinating-caveman-what-human-evolution-teaches-us-about-why-we-put-off-work-and-how-to-stop/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+StudyHacks+%28Study+Hacks%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher ====== BoppreH I'm sorry, but I'm unconvinced. It's just too easy to use "human evolution" to explain all sort of behaviors. I think the problem is that you don't have to validate anything, you just tell a convincing story. The nearest the author got to validating it was: _"[...] only a small minority of the fifty hyper-organized students I interviewed reported procrastination as a serious problem"_ I don't know how this study was carried down, but it seems as self selecting as it could possibly get. The author went from "early humans' advantage was complex planning" to "procrastination is your brain silently rejecting your ideas" in little more than a handwave. Here's what I think was lacking: a) Why does the idea selection characteristic had to be an unconscious process? b) If it had evolved to save lives, how can we be sure it would still kick off when lives aren't at risk? c) Why would it manifest itself as a lack of motivation instead of more efficient alternatives such as fear, or simply losing interest? d) If the brain is rejecting the idea, how do people cling to them for so long? Are we consciously overriding our brain? ~~~ bluekeybox The arguments in this article are indeed poor, but just because someone uses poor arguments to support X doesn't imply that X is wrong. I found the main point raised in the article to be very interesting because it supports a view that I arrived to independently, by thinking about why I myself was procrastinating in college (I was a pre-med student and of course I had a heavy course load -- but I never deep down wanted to be a doctor -- my real love was math, technology, computers, and believe it or not philosophy). a) The entire consciousness/unconscious separation is somewhat bogus (our "unconscious" is simply the part of our brain that evades introspection, but degree of introspection is hard to measure for obvious reasons). The main point to gather is that there _is_ a process of self-criticism that manifests itself as lack of motivation, at least as stated by the article. b) Our lives are always at risk -- being outcompeted by others of our kind is equivalent to being trampled upon by a mammoth. c) I don't see how lack of motivation to do X is a less efficient alternative to fear. Fear is rarely an efficient mechanism (except in very time- constrained situations) -- it forces us to focus all our energy on a single task, it prevents us from thinking broadly and seeing new opportunities, and finally it forces us to make decisions towards increase of security instead of increase of opportunity. And the "loss of interest" you mention is technically the same as lack of motivation. d) It makes perfect sense that we are conflicted about complex decisions for a long time. If we made up our minds quickly instead, it would prevent us from gathering enough information to make the aforementioned complex decision correctly. Complex decisions are complex for a reason. ~~~ TeMPOraL b) Unless it's subconscious, I disagree. I procrastinated my way through the high school and at this age I had zero fear for my life or competition with anybody. Things do change when one gets older, but at that point I didn't cared about being outcompeted by others (actually, right now, I don't really care that much either). c) Sometimes forcing us to focus on a single task is beneficial. Multitasking is usually bad for productivity, at least from what I've seen so far both in my life and on discussions at HN. ~~~ bluekeybox b) Yes, i meant that there likely is an effect different from fear of loss of life, but an effect nonetheless. You can call it subconscious. c) Unless you are very intelligent with enough life experience (not plenty -- just enough), and have a carefully thought-out plan, wholly focusing on a single task is rarely beneficial (and could have been detrimental in the prehistoric times to other important tasks such looking out for predators/danger and finding mates). If you have a great idea for a startup -- go focus on it -- but just to put it in a perspective, great ideas/plans are so rare and hard to come by (as demonstrated by 95% of the population not being entrepreneurs) that 95% of the time your brain is probably justified in critiquing your commitment to anything. At this stage in my life (I'm 28) I feel secure and confident in myself to wholly immerse myself into the tech business, but before that I went through a long period of low motivation which was most likely due to not feeling confident enough about any particular career decision. ------ jayzee I said this before in another post, but this article that I read in the New Yorker really hit home for me: The philosopher Mark Kingwell puts it in existential terms: “Procrastination most often arises from a sense that there is too much to do, and hence no single aspect of the to-do worth doing. . . . Underneath this rather antic form of action-as-inaction is the much more unsettling question whether anything is worth doing at all.” In that sense, it might be useful to think about two kinds of procrastination: the kind that is genuinely akratic and _the kind that’s telling you that what you’re supposed to be doing has, deep down, no real point._ And when you are in school often you are given tasks which seem to have no discernible purpose or meaning other than perhaps to take you off your parent's hands while they go make a living. From: [http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2010/10/11/10101...](http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2010/10/11/10101..). ~~~ markbao > _the kind that’s telling you that what you’re supposed to be doing has, deep > down, no real point._ Kind of like when I watched the Atlantis space shuttle launch and then go back to working on the code for a social bookmarking service. All joking aside, is he talking about an existential crisis, or something else? A common cause of existential crises is some kind of negative experience that prompts reflection and thinking as to why it happened, which sometimes leads to questioning the _meaning of it all_. The experience of which, if you went to school, you probably know pretty well. Most frequently after walking out of class after bombing a test. Working link for the aforementioned article: [http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2010/10/11/10101...](http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2010/10/11/101011crbo_books_surowiecki?currentPage=all) ~~~ sliverstorm _... then go back to working on the code for a social bookmarking service_ SpaceX is proving that if you want to do more than make a social bookmarking service, you _can_ get involved in the future of space. Just sayin :) If you can't get them to hire you, figure out what they need. Contract out for them. There's possibilities. ------ nostromo If there's an evolutionary cause for procastination, I'll offer a much simpler one: It's best to conserve your energy unless you _really_ want/need to do something. The author's example of spearing a mammoth works perfectly: only bother if you're actually hungry, or if you think you'll be very hungry in the future. ~~~ zyfo Except that it doesn't: His point with the example lies in the difference between going straight at it and risking ones life verus figuring out a safer alternative. If it was just about energy, both methods would be deemed just as valid, and they'd work for both sapiens and erectus. Also we don't really need bridges and tv and space shuttles. I'm not saying his reasoning is flawless either, but this doesn't seem to be more convincing. ~~~ Retric Except that cavemen can't preserve food for long periods of time. Cat's spend a lot of their time asleep because hunting is risky behavior and hunting at the wrong time can easily waste energy. Granted I think the amount of time early humans spent hunting is over estimated by most people, but even still if there is easy energy sources to scavenge going hunting is a bad idea. ------ darnton The best thing I've read on this topic is The Procrastination Equation by Piers Steel ([http://www.amazon.com/Procrastination-Equation-Putting- Thing...](http://www.amazon.com/Procrastination-Equation-Putting-Things- Getting/dp/0061703613/)). He concludes that different people procrastinate for different reasons and that those reasons boil down to: \- learned helplessness (you have a low expectation of success) \- boredom (you don't value the task), and \- poor impulse control. He then gives specific advice for working out which applies to you and then for dealing with each of these, which is far more useful than either saying, "Just do it," or telling an impossible-to-apply just-so story about mammoths and frontal lobes. ~~~ goblin89 Here's a quick summary of scientific research on procrastination by the same author: [http://commonsenseatheism.com/wp- content/uploads/2011/02/Ste...](http://commonsenseatheism.com/wp- content/uploads/2011/02/Steel-The-Nature-of-Procrastination.pdf). No specific advices for fighting it, but interesting nevertheless. ------ skarayan I think calling it evolutionary is a guess, however, I do see a link between procrastination and being uncertain how to proceed. In my case, I am very determined when I have a sound plan and tend to procrastinate when parts of my plan are questionable. Good read. ------ markbao Are you rejecting an option just because it's simply _bad_ , or also because there's a better option available? So in essence, you'd reject the idea of charging the mammoth, because you could throw the spear. Likewise, you'd reject the idea of sitting down in the library with a quadruple-tall mocha (and probably your study materials), because it doesn't seem viable. So, you procrastinate. But what's the better option, in this case? The alternative route (procrastination) is also not a better option. Everyone that procrastinates (so that means everyone) knows when they're procrastinating, and have that 10% of their status quo thinking about the fact that they're procrastinating and shouldn't be procrastinating. I don't buy it—that means your brain thinks procrastination is better than just trying to do the work, because in the long run, we know procrastination is worse than just doing the work. My argument only holds if you believe the brain is functionally logical, which... probably isn't true. ~~~ astrofinch "Everyone that procrastinates (so that means everyone)" When I find myself unable to work, I generally make a conscious choice to take a break so that I can be rejuvenated by my down time to the greatest extent possible. Does that count as not procrastinating? "My argument only holds if you believe the brain is functionally logical, which... probably isn't true." Yes, of course it isn't true. The best example of this is the fact that people sometimes give up (succumb to learned helplessness). If people were purely rational agents, having their plan fail would be an indicator that they need try something new. But in real life, they tend to do things like feel depressed and watch more TV. ------ convulsive This is not the 'evolutionary perspective' as you claim it is. This is just your perspective dressed in evolutionary terminology so that the reader will believe that if you accept human evolution, you MUST accept this conclusion. But the fact that you came up with a possible evolutionary past and thought of a constraint that could've pushed us to develop the adaptive behavior of procrastination doesn't in any way imply that this is actually the way things happened. Procrastination might've been a fitness-maximizing adaptation (or even just a spandrel [1]) for so many other equally convincing reasons. It's really strange that while for molecular & morphological phenotypes we use rigorous methods to measure evolutionary relatedness so we can determine possible sequences of evolutionary adaptations that led to them, when it comes to behavioral phenotypes people think that conceivability arguments coupled with very inconclusive evidence are sufficient to demonstrate that some evolutionary story is true. [1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spandrel_(biology)> ------ jamesbkel Not to be a jerk, but if you're going to start offering opinions on evolution, at least get it right and not refer to the "Homo sapien" species.... it's the "Homo sapiens" species. Again, not trying to give you hard time, but at least for me, that stuck out like a sore thumb. ------ sanj Procrastination is the basis of one of only two optimizations that exist: 1\. Do it late (because you may not need to do it at all). vs. 2\. Do it early (because you _know_ it'll need to get done, over and over, and you've got the data onhand right now). ------ nazgulnarsil these are known as "just so" stories and have plagued eve-psych since its inception. ------ sehugg You say procrastination, I say lazy evaluation. ~~~ TeMPOraL There's something in that concept. I sometimes don't do things people request immediately, knowing that they most likely don't really need it. Then either they repeat the request (forcing the computation ;)) or (more often) realize it was superfluous. ------ JamieEi <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptationism> ------ AlexCP Damn, I am procrastinating right now ------ ignifero Doesn't seem like an evolutionary adaptation from his remarks. It seems more like a physiological balancing act. Could be a slow homeostatic process to prevent certain brain cells from burning out. And I will present my data when I m done customizing my terminal color theme. ------ gbeeson Very good article from a very good site. I WILL read the whole article later, of that you can be sure.
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A Rover Named After DNA Pioneer Rosalind Franklin Is Headed for Mars in 2020 - rbanffy https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/bjqjva/a-rover-named-after-dna-pioneer-rosalind-franklin-is-headed-for-mars-in-2020 ====== dekhn If you want to learn more about Rosalind Franklin, I recommend reading three books: Watson's book on the discovery of the structure of DNA (with a heavy prior: he's a colossal asshole who wrote the book to give him the best light), Maddox's biography (The Dark Lady of DNA), and The Eighth Day of Creation by Horace Judson. The third book is the most important because Franklin gave her scientific notes to her friend Aaron Klug and Judson did some very careful sleuthing to extract what Franklin did and how Watson & Crick got access to, and reduced her role in, the data that led them to deduce the three dimensional structure of DNA. In an extraordinary example of parallel reconstruction, he demonstrated that Franklin actually made all her data and speculations available in a departmental publication and a talk, addressing the controversy about how W&C got access to her data, and when. the book is amazing all-around. It's a tough read (I make it through maybe a page or two a day before having to put it down) but very well researched via first-person interviews.
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Another Reason To Avoid Diet Soda - libin http://www.getfitslowly.com/2010/05/12/another-reason-to-avoid-diet-soda ====== maqr These iodine deficiency claims are entirely pseudoscience and alt-med bullshit. Here's where they come from: [http://www.naturalnews.com/008902_hypothyroidism_thyroid_gla...](http://www.naturalnews.com/008902_hypothyroidism_thyroid_gland.html) The whole pH thing is a lot of nonsense too, as many of the commenters on this article pointed out. Here's a thorough debunking: [http://sciencebasedpharmacy.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/your- ur...](http://sciencebasedpharmacy.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/your-urine-is-not- a-window-to-your-body-ph-balancing-a-failed-hypothesis/) For the more real point about BMI increase being associated with artificial sweeteners: \- The bloggers link to this 2005 WebMD article, which doesn't cite the reference for the study: [http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20050613/drink-more- diet-soda...](http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20050613/drink-more-diet-soda- gain-more-weight) \- The real literature appears to be from 2008, so I don't know if the authors just spoke to WebMD ahead of their publication or what happened. I believe this is the study: [http://www.nature.com/oby/journal/v16/n8/full/oby2008284a.ht...](http://www.nature.com/oby/journal/v16/n8/full/oby2008284a.html) There's also a critical response: [http://www.nature.com/oby/journal/v17/n4/full/oby2008623a.ht...](http://www.nature.com/oby/journal/v17/n4/full/oby2008623a.html) And a response to the response: [http://www.nature.com/oby/journal/v17/n4/full/oby2008624a.ht...](http://www.nature.com/oby/journal/v17/n4/full/oby2008624a.html) ~~~ yosho so instead of having to check and read every single link... is there a general consensus on the effects of artificial sweeteners and diet coke? Or is it still basically up in the air and no one knows for sure. ~~~ maqr As far as I can tell, they're actually fine, but people who drink them tend to make unhealthy lifestyle choices. The majority of the really scary claims (like this video) are total bullshit about pH levels and aspartame conspiracy, but it seems like the literature is conflicted on if people who drink them do end up fatter for some reason. ------ noelchurchill As bad as diet soda is, I have the feeling it's not as bad as the non-diet soda with the high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). So the point is, don't drink soda, of any kind, at all. It's poison. ------ libin Please do take one minute to watch the video. ~~~ ajscherer It's blocked for me here at work (as I sit sipping my Diet Coke). What is the reason?
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FBI has seized Deep Dot Web and arrested its administrators - jbegley https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/07/deep-dot-web-arrests/ ====== randie63 I really wonder what they have legally against deep dot web. The site just provided the links and reviews of the darknet marketplaces. So users could look up what might be trustable and what better to avoid. Information is not illegal. and should never be. The referral link stuff is maybe gray area, but you can not see who bought what and for how much from your referral link. But maybe the website owner(s) had some illegal side business going on dark net markets, and FBI just took deepdotweb down with everything else connected to the owners. ~~~ zaphirplane Is darknet market places a nice way to say, online illegal drug marketplace Seriously and I have no idea what else is on the dark web market other than drugs ? ~~~ nyolfen yes, also guns, identity theft data, etc, but mostly drugs ~~~ HNLurker2 Child porn ~~~ nyolfen i'll take your word for it ~~~ HNLurker2 What happens on deep web, stays on deep web ------ lowpro Luckily we still have the archive [https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://www.deepdotweb.com](https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://www.deepdotweb.com) so the valuable information the site made available is still around. Really a shame to see such an informational site go. ------ Moxdi the internet is starting to suck real time... ~~~ randie63 Maybe the dark net will become the "new" internet some day in the near future with all the freedom limiting regulations going on.
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Facebook: Got it backwards? - bootload http://blogs.opml.org/amyloo/2007/05/25#gotItBackwards ====== natrius Apparently a lot of the people who are making this kind of comment about the Facebook API haven't actually given it a good look. Their original API does exactly what she's asking for: it let's you use Facebook's friend data, among other things, on your own external sites. This new version still does that, but it also allows you to embed your application inside of Facebook, as well as add data from your application, like Twitter updates, to people's profiles. If you don't want to embed your app inside of Facebook, you don't have to. Facebook has added features that make it far easier to find and use external applications based on the API, but for some reason people think that's a bad thing? I don't get it. Yeah, if your app relies heavily on Facebook you'll be locked in, but every other API has that same effect. It's the nature of the beast. I think the reason why this is throwing people off is because Facebook really isn't a discrete application itself. When you use the Google Maps API, you're building on top of that map and embedding it directly into the page. You basically get everything Google was already offering in that widget. With the Flickr API, you get to do neat things with pictures, and put those in your pages. With Facebook, what would you be embedding? At its most basic level, Facebook is the friend graph, with all sorts of other things piled on top of it. Most of what you care about is who is friends with who, and it's harder to visualize that than it is with most other sites out there that offer APIs. But anyway, they didn't get it backwards. They made the API more valuable to third party developers by integrating it into the site more, while still giving you the freedom to have your entire site live outside of Facebook. In turn, that will make Facebook more valuable to its users, which is kind of the whole point. I guess people expect offering APIs to be some sort of act of altruism. ~~~ master54 precisely. some people just don't get it ------ timg Not the only thing.
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A rant on Puppet - keymone https://medium.com/@keymone/disconsolate-puppeteering-3e22b468b1d4 ====== dozzie > Configuration management was a new field and major competitors at the time > were (and still are) Puppet and Chef. No, it was a field dozen years old already. And major competitor was (is) also CFEngine, though they suck heavily at marketing, so they're usually omitted by operationally undertrained people. > Ruby is a beautiful language. [...] The Puppet language on the other hand is > gross. If we talk about persoanl opinions, I call it the reverse. Puppet is OK and Ruby is atrocious. > It almost seems as if [Puppet language] was deliberately designed to be > removed from its Ruby roots. So first you believe declarative tool fits better than imperative (stated earlier in the rant), but now you complain that Puppet moved in different direction than Ruby? Make your mind already. > [...] calling Puppet functional is a major insult to most other functional > languages out there. Calling Puppet's language _functional_ is a major insult to caller's knowledge about programming languages. It's _declarative_ , and it's _not even a programming language_ , it was not meant to be Turing-complete. > Building a functional language without builtin support for closures and > adequate syntactic- or library-provided functional primitives like map, > reduce, filter, etc is just plain bad. What made you think it's a programming language? It's not. \--- The rest of the rant is a list of actually valid problems. From what I know, most of these don't occur in CFEngine, which also uses simpler architecture in typical deployment (agents are more autonomous, not tied as much to their master as in non-masterless Puppet). ~~~ keymone > No, it was a field dozen years old already valid point, what i meant was that it was new field to me. fixed it, thanks. > first you believe declarative tool fits better than imperative ... but now > you complain that Puppet moved in different direction than Ruby? Make your > mind already where do i even begin.. a) i was talking about functional/declarative approach, not tool; b) ruby is much more mature, coherent and pleasant language to work with - working hard to move in opposite direction is what i'm complaining about; c) while being very much imerative/oo, ruby still beats puppet in being functional and declarative. > Calling Puppet's language functional is a major insult to caller's knowledge > about programming languages. It's declarative, and it's not even a > programming language, it was not meant to be Turing-complete. what it was or wasn't meant to be i'll leave for your imagination, i'm concerned with what it _is_ in practice. name me one feature of declarative puppet language that definitively rules out possibility to classify it as functional language? > What made you think it's a programming language? It's not i could go this way: have i used the word "programming" even once? but this is probably more efficient way to settle the issue: > The Puppet language is more declarative/functional in its style than > imperative/object-oriented, and is more likely to evolve in the functional > direction instead of becoming more imperative and operating on mutable > objects. - Henrik L ~~~ jldugger > name me one feature of declarative puppet language that definitively rules > out possibility to classify it as functional language? Out of order operations? IIRC puppet is free to reorder operations, and thus you need to explicitly declare any dependencies between operations, and the runtime has a solver to decide what order is appropriate. But it's kind of a silly dichtomy. Your article screams "I wish I had used Chef." It's technically a functional language, but looks very declarative: acme_certificate site do crt "/etc/apache2/ssl/#{site}.crt" key "/etc/apache2/ssl/#{site}.key" chain "/etc/apache2/ssl/#{site}.pem" wwwroot '/var/www/website' end There's two general options for creating a DSL: define a formal grammar (Puppet) or extend an existing one to needs (ruby+chef). The latter gives you easy access to a community of existing developers, but ties you heavily to the language and runtime you extended. A formal grammar is more work to create, and more work to learn, but allows for multiple implemenations in languages and runtimes other than Ruby. When you're courting the likes of Apple, Google, and Facebook, suddenly the scalability of the solution matters. Chef Server is in Erlang, which is neat, but chef-client will basically always be a slow ruby app.
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