Ask: OK, I've got my Web 2.0 website.  How do I promote it? - <AUTHOR>

OK, I've got my Web 2.0 website.  How do I promote it?
This is really two questions.  The first is: How does one promote a website in general? The second is: How do I promote this particular website?  The first question is interesting to a broader audience than just me, but if anyone has any suggestions for the second, I'd certainly be appreciative.
The website is called Golimojo (http://www.golimojo.com) and the service it provides is Wikipedia "autolinking".  Basically you can take a webpage and have Golimojo examine it for noun phrases that can be linked to Wikipedia articles whose titles match those phrases.  Golimojo is smart enough (I'm using "smart" loosely) to autolink nouns like say "Iraq" or "Iran" but not common words like "page" or "men".  It works better on some pages than others.  I did most of my testing on political blogs (lots of name dropping) and the online versions of newspaper and print magazine articles (poorly linked even today, fifteen years after the World Wide Web was invented).
Now out of the billion-odd Internet users out there, probably only a tiny fraction of them would find Wikipedia autolinking really useful.  Still that could be thousands or even tens of thousands of users.  The question for me, is how do I find them?  In particular, how do I find them without putting a lot of effort and money into the process?
One obvious target market is Wikipedia editors who might like a tool to help them identify missing links in Wikipedia articles.  But there seem to be dozens of Wikipedia mailing lists, and I'm not sure how a service that looks like it might be commercial would be received (I have no commercial expectations at this point).
Any ideas? <comment><USER2> curtis9

I want to shake your hand. This is probably the best example of utilizing Web 2.0 that isn't ambiguously superficial, no obscenely huge banners, flashing colors of "beta" texts. You're attacking the technology at the core. I congratulate you heartily, sir.

I would promote this service personally by NOT making it social (yet), for one thing. There are lots of possibilities in socializing this type of software, which is truly unique and very helpful for research endeavors; all of them good. This may kill some of the buzz you might get from TechCrunch or Mashable on the blogosphere, as it is a great app but I wouldn't rush to make it social just yet. Find the user incentive to socialize it, understand the needs and demands, then bring in the sheep.

Great job by developing a bookmarklet: you see many blogs out there with autolinking, those double underlined links that popup little hover boxes and kill usability by displaying a screenshot of what they're going to see. Maybe even develop your bookmarklet so that it will bring up a smaller, unobtrusive hoverbox with the page title of where you're going (eg. Wikipedia: Tibet) for the end user.

You are correct in estimating that not very many people would find this useful. You may target it at education based blogs, or even yes, wikipedia editors. I know one guy who was just elected to an editor position and I'll be more than willing to ask him if he'd find any use in it.

Finally, commercialization really should be your last thought. 37Signals put it best, solve your problems first and the rest will fall into place. Build to solve problems, not create new ones with financing.

Just my two cents. Awesome application overall, I'm very impressed overall, most notably at your method of attack; sticking with the core technologies and solving a problem from a different angle. Color me surprised if your work goes unnoticed by the big wigs out there.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey thanks!

I'm not even sure how to make it social, so that's certainly not high on my list of things that need to be done. A lot of the design is such as it is because I was scratching my own itch, and I have no love of in-your-face UIs (I didn't fully succeed here, but I can't justify a lot more work unless I get some actual traffic.)

<comment><USER3> To make it social, let people define other (non-wikipedia) documents that are tied to terms, at least for linking up their own work. This will make it more useful for SEO, and specific unique domains. Then let people share wordlists, and select wordlists to use on a per-post basis (or maybe your code already has the smarts for this.) The result should be that if I write a post about an arcane topic, the jargon is linked to my favorite references on the subject.

Something to consider: instead of embedding direct links, use redirection so you get a record of every time a link is clicked on.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Pretty freaking cool. Make a plugin for wordpress. Getting on people's blogs would give your great visibility and wordpress developers/designers are always talking about new and useful plugins.

<comment><USER5> Just add the option to make the link nofollow so blogs that don't want to squander their PageRank prowess can keep the linking for links they actually want to approve manually.

Another thing you might want to add is to build a wikipedia based spell checker for the plugin for misspelled names etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Haha. Step 1 - post it on Hacker News ;-)

</comment><comment><USER7> What about an API for websites that want to detect links to wikipedia in their content?

<comment><AUTHOR> I've certainly considered that idea. There are two big questions here: 1. What does the API look like? 2. How do I promote it to that particular audience?

Right now websites could use the existing service to manually add links to new content. Certain features might make such usage quite a bit easier, for example the ability to take text markup (MediaWiki markup, MarkDown, etc.) and spit it out with links added in the appropriate syntax. This would still be manual, but it would be pretty easy to use.

A fully automatic API could be something as simple as "include this .js file". That's simple, but not very efficient (caching would help of course), and doesn't present the best user experience (there would generally be a delay where the text is visible in the browser, but links haven't been added yet.) A server-side API would certainly be better, but then you have a whole bunch of different server types to support: PHP, Python, Ruby, Java, ASP.NET, or even application specific like WordPress or Drupal, etc.

I could probably roll a client-side JavaScript inclusion API in a weekend, but it would probably take another couple of weekends to implement decent caching.

A server-side solution is ultimately the right way to go, but is there a way to get maximum bang for the buck? Just expose an XML API and let other people do the server-side integration?

<comment><USER7> A server-side XML api would be ideal; javascript loads on every page and would add significant latency to page loads, which is unacceptable (and wasteful, and tough on your servers). Find someone who can code a Drupal and a Wordpress module and you're pretty much set.

The only question with an XML api is how do you benefit from it?

<comment><AUTHOR> > The only question with an XML api is how do you benefit from it?

As long as the load doesn't blow out my hosted server, then just some branding on the client might be worth it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I might consider changing the name to something more direct - for example, wikiautolinks, or wikilinkster, or wikilinkr, or wikiglue

</comment><comment><USER9> To me, initially it was unclear when somebody would want to use this. After some thought I figured that something like this could be cool for a tech document or white paper you're reading online with a lot of unfamiliar or esoterically techie jargon in it.

So people who have to read about difficult concepts in varied areas may find this useful. This could be anyone from students to professional consultants. So finding forums where students are trying to get help with various topics could be a good place to start.

</comment><comment><USER10> I constantly right click on words or subjects to read their wiki entry. I wished there was a firefox extension in which I right clicked the word or subject and in doing so would bring up the entry in a box (CoolIris like) without leaving the page.

I see you have a firefox extension - does it do something similar to the above?

As for promotion, ironically this post here on Y News is a great place to start! Its a highly trafficked site with a demo that ranges from the tech influential to the next Sergey/Brin!

<comment><AUTHOR> I think this is a good idea and I'd like to do something similar. The current version just adds ordinary hyperlinks to pages and I'm too time constrained to do anything about it right away.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> This is definitely better as a software extension to websites & browsers, not a website that you go and visit, like flickr or something similar.

</comment><comment><USER12> I would created plugins for popular blog authoring software movable type and wordpress and such.

I might also be cool to make an API so developers could call your service on single words or sections of text from their applications. I might not want whole pages autowikied, but it could be cool to have sections of articles or something. Offering a simple and easy to use webservice can drive adoption of your service in ways that you could never even begin to imagine.

I would also try to find some high profile bloggers in your target audience (in your case politics maybe), and write personal emails to them about how the service could be good for their readers and ask if any would be interested in trying it out, or if there were any features they would really need before the service would be useful for them (such as which wiki links were click through, showing what their readers don't know enough about or are most interested in)

anyways just some thoughts off the top of my head.

</comment><comment><USER13> _cocks head_

I'm not sure if I see the utility in this... maybe I just don't look things up on wikipedia enough, but Firefox already has a "look <selection> up on Google" in the right-click menu, and most "important" nouns will have a wikipedia link on the front page of Google anyway.

As for promotion, in the "level of connectedness" we now have, word-of-mouth seems to promote products really well. Make something impressive, and people will tell their friends about it. At this point, I won't tell my friends about your site, I probably won't remember it in 15 minutes (unless something on- topic comes up). Do change my mind ;)

So I'd say ... keep working on the idea/implementation until it wows people, at which point users will find you.

</comment><comment><USER14> I know you're not asking for advice, and I figure you're still working on it, but I'd be more likely to use something like this if it didn't only search for capitalized proper nouns. i.e., If "san antonio" or "set theory" generated links too. I wouldn't mind waiting a little longer for the script to do the extra work. [http://www.golimojo.com/proxy.html?christiansands.livejourna...](http://www.golimojo.com/proxy.html?christiansands.livejournal.com/4446.html)

<comment><AUTHOR> It's not strictly limited to proper nouns -- try "jury nullification" or "obfuscated code" for example. However, if the matching title is a proper noun, it requires exact case match. This is a side-effect of relying heavily on case for matching in order to prevent accidental or overzealous matches. This is in fact a fairly thorny problem, at least without some sort of semantic parser.

<comment><USER14> hm... okay i typed a few more into the same link and it picked up a couple... i just figured it was only proper nouns b/c those worked every time. thanks...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Promoting a website? It's easy. Submit it to mailing lists, search engines and discussion boards. For additional measure, you can even try purchasing advertising and making a youtube video but this is unnecessary. If people like it, they will spread the word, and usage will lift it higher on search engine results lists.

I was thinking that this should be turned into a firefox extension, but I see that you already did it.

<comment><USER16> That's not how it really works, when it works.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> <http://can-we-link-it.nickj.org/> \- Automatically wikifies wikipedia entries.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Wikify> \- internal Wikipedia project for wikifying more articles.

</comment><comment><USER18> hey congrats man, it works quite well. I like the concept. You should see if you could get this incorporated into opensource forum software and the like. Most of these pieces of software have user preferences, one of which could be to have your hotlinking turned on by default. I think forums are a good place to start since it is a basically large amounts of text, almost none of which would be linked properly, lending itself well to your tool

<comment><AUTHOR> That's an interesting idea. I don't really have a lot of time to do much engineering these days due to the demands of a real job. It's certainly worth some thought though. Thanks.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> btw, the frame that loads the website provided by the user is way too small (100px-ish) in Safari 3.1 OS X.

<comment><AUTHOR> Ah, I see what you mean. Try it now.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> This functionality is built into IE 8. You can select text and look it up on Wikipedia, Facebook, etc...

<comment><USER20> Was I voted down, simply because someone doesn't like IE or Microsoft? I was pointing out a feature of IE 8 that directly competes with his website.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> make it into a facebook app and see if that increases usage.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm not sure Wikipedia autolinking would be popular or useful on Facebook, although some other form of autolinking might. I have a coworker who's put a lot of work into a Facebook app, I'll mention it to him and see what he thinks. (My personal position towards Facebook is that it seems like a great idea in principle, but I've never found it all that interesting in actual practice)

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> this is a great idea. i always find myself searching for people or products mentioned within articles. great. could it be like snapshot where we could see maybe a bit of the content then if we are interested, we can click for more and be redirected to wikipedia.

</comment><comment><USER23> Hire a Startup Marketing company :)

We work with Australian Web 2.0 startups to help them grow traffic, conversions and customers.

It seems in most scenarios the skillset needed to build a great web service, and the skillset required to market, promote and sell that service are be totally different.

Something to be wary of tho, the majority of PR/Marketing/Advertising companies really dont get startups at all, and can be a very fast way to drain your scare capital without offering measurable results.

Any questions, happy to help out.

<http://www.ShiftedPixels.com.au>

</comment><comment><USER24> first congratulations for ur effort - u shud start using blog as one of the tool, visit the site below and see whether that can help to spread the word .

[http://innovation.freedomblogging.com/2008/03/19/top-13-ways...](http://innovation.freedomblogging.com/2008/03/19/top-13-ways- to-use-social-networking-to-build-your-business/)</comment>


GOTO.js - <AUTHOR> https://web.archive.org/web/20160507105653/http://summerofgoto.com/js/goto.js <comment><USER2> Funny script, though I can't help but point out a flaw: it doesn't play well with unbracketed conditionals. For example:

        if (num > 5) goto foo;

will not behave as expected, because "goto foo;" is replaced by two separate statements, the second of which is outside the scope of the conditional and will always be called. Maybe they could fix this by tying the statements together with a comma instead of separating with semicolons? (EDIT: I don't think a comma will work, but adding brackets around the two statements should do the trick. JS doesn't seem to mind redundant blocks.)

Still funny though.

</comment><comment><USER3> I really wish JavaScript had goto statements, because it would make it less of a hassle to make code generators that target it.

Before the new block scoping constructs (which I assume would make implementing goto more complicated), was there anything preventing JavaScript from having gotos, other than an authoritarian "we know better than you"?

At least JavaScript has labeled blocks that you can break out of!

</comment><comment><USER4> I wrote one of these in 2014 after my boss called goto a mistake.

Goto is a beautiful structured programming construct, the fundamental structure it represents is a skyscraper made of wet spaghetti.

</comment><comment><USER5> Great advice: "If you are seriously considering using this script, please don't."

</comment><comment><USER6> Goto can already be functionally achieved with labels, [https://developer.mozilla.org/en- US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Refe...](https://developer.mozilla.org/en- US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Statements/label)

<comment><USER7> Good hint! However, JavaScript labels via break/continue have subtle differences to classic GOTO statements.

From the MDN site examples:

        var itemsPassed = 0;
        var i, j;

        top:
        for (i = 0; i < items.length; i++) {
          for (j = 0; j < tests.length; j++) {
            if (!tests[j].pass(items[i])) {
              continue top;
            }
          }

          itemsPassed++;
        }

The statement "continue top" does not really jump to top, because it only increases "i" and rechecks the loop condition.

In contrast "GOTO top" would re-initialize the loop ("i = 0") and effectively restart it from the very beginning.

<comment><USER6> Well sure, but you're just doing it wrong. Here's the goto equivalent.

        var itemsPassed = 0;
        var i, j;

        top:
        do {
          for (i = 0; i < items.length; i++) {
            for (j = 0; j < tests.length; j++) {
              if (!tests[j].pass(items[i])) {
                continue top;
              }
            }

            itemsPassed++;
          }
          break;
        } while(1);

Not a great pattern but there you go.

<comment><USER4> You can just pass 0 to while, and ditch the break. ;- )

<comment><USER6> No you can't.

Try it if you don't believe me

<comment><USER4> Oh, forgot the weird label behaviour in JS, you're right. Funny to have the label up top, but the branching condition somehow in its way.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> would also recommend [https://github.com/contra/blink- polyfill](https://github.com/contra/blink-polyfill)

</comment><comment><USER9> Related for Python: [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6959360/goto-in- python](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6959360/goto-in-python)

There were some earlier discussions about this: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10250770](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10250770) [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3691472](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3691472)

</comment><comment><USER10> While I fully agree that GOTO can lead to unmaintainable spaghetti (and is rather more likely to do so than other constructs), I wonder if it is actually more understandable than function calls for someone approaching programming for the very first time? I know I cut my teeth using GOTO before discovering GOSUB in BASIC.

Does anyone know of any research on whether some programming constructs are more easily approachable for beginnings and can serve as a tool to understand further concepts (scope, functions, etc.)?

</comment><comment><USER11> You can do a lot of interesting stuff by parsing the code before running it. For example implementing ES6+ features in runtime's that only support ES5. The possibilities are limitless! It can be really fun when the parsed code itself gets parsed, like a dream within a dream.

<comment><USER12> I guess this is also what made Lisp and Smalltalk so powerful, right?

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> callCC is my favorite goto weirdness.

        import Control.Monad.Cont
        import Data.Function (fix)

        main = for 0 (<3) (+1) $ \i -> do
            liftIO (print i)

        for z p s body = do
            (jmp, i) <- label z
            when (p i) $ do
                body i
                jmp (s i)

        label start = callCC (\cont -> return (fix $ \jmp cur -> cont (jmp, cur), start))

Guess you could do this in javascript via trampolining?

</comment><comment><USER14> BASIC is dope. Maybe hipsters will start using it to build WebApps in a few years, and it will dethrone JavaScript as the hipster language de jour.

<comment><USER15> JavaScript can hardly be called the language de jour when has been pretty much the only serious frontend language in the (short) history of the web.

<comment><USER16> Actually 30+ years is almost half of computer history...

<comment><USER17> How did you arrive at 30+ years?

<comment><USER16> The first web browser was released on 1990, so 27 years ago. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Web](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Web)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Does it still work?

<comment><USER19> There is nothing special about this code. I guess it should still work (but please don't use it ;-) )

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Incidentally, I just released [https://github.com/pygy/gosub](https://github.com/pygy/gosub) for the cases where you want to use pkg.scripts and either npm or yarn as a task runner, but don't want to force your users to depend on one of these tools at the expense of the other.

`gosub` will run subtasks with the binary you've used to launch the main task.

What does it have over npm-run-all? It passes parameters to subtasks. That's all. It doesn't take any options and can't run tasks in parallel unlike npm- run-all.

<comment><USER21> Wait, wrong thread?

<comment><USER20> Not really, but people didn't get the reference.

In Basic, GOSUB is GOTO's younger, smarter's brother. Basically a function call.</comment></comment></comment>


Keyboard sniffers to steal data - <AUTHOR> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7681534.stm <comment><USER2> There was a story a few months ago about being able to figure out which keys were pressed by the sound they made. Does anyone know how that story developed? If it was validated then I'm not sure this new attack vector really changes anything.

</comment><comment><USER3> I can read passwords over someone's shoulder while they're being typed in. However, I usually look away to avoid temptation (University lecturer's root, etc).

</comment><comment><USER4> This known vector has been around. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TEMPEST>

</comment><comment><USER5> so iphone/virtual-keyboard is more secure ?

<comment><USER6> Not necessarily... electromagnetic eavesdropping on LCD monitors has been proven possible as well. We're all going to get exposed!

If you're interested the following is a link to a paper on Van Eck phreaking LCD monitors:

<http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/pet2004-fpd.pdf></comment></comment>


Show HN: An app for your older relatives, helping them find the right cables - <AUTHOR> https://www.dongledaddy.com <comment><USER2> This is awesome! My only suggestion would be that for selections that are incompatible, you should offer an explanation about why they are incompatible. Just having the options greyed out and disabled is really frustrating for non- technical users.

For example: "I want to connect my tablet to the TV". As a techie, I know this is possible, but the solution is probably too complicated. It might be helpful to let the user make this choice, but then say "You can't do this with a cable". Even for stupid ones like "I want to connect my Printer to the TV", just say "This is not possible, you can't connect X to Y".

<comment><USER3> > For example: "I want to connect my tablet to the TV". As a techie, I know > this is possible, but the solution is probably too complicated.

What do you mean? I've plugged in my mother's tablet to the TV on numerous occasions with a mini-HDMI to HDMI cable. Is that uncommon on newer tablets?

<comment><USER2> Well that depends on the tablet you have, so the next question when you select tablet-to-tv would be "Which tablet do you have"? Because a Nexus 7 doesn't have any HDMI ports, so you'd have to get a Chromecast or something (too technical).

<comment><USER4> When you select computer to TV, it asks whether your computer has a port like this (this being a picture of a HDMI port.) I see no reason why they couldn't do the same for a tablet.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Found a problem when trying to go for USB-C on Android.

I chose Mobile Phone to computer. It asked if I had an iPhone. I said no. It asked if I had an Android. I said yes. It showed me a picture of a Micro USB port and asked if the connection looked like that. I said no. Then it showed me a picture of an older iPhone with a 30pin connector and asked if I had that.

<comment><USER6> Can confirm. Dongle Daddy can't currently help me power my Nexus 5x.

<comment><USER6> Also, if my laptop doesn't have HDMI or VGA, I can't connect it to my TV. Don't some ultrabooks only have Display Port out?

<comment><USER7> Yes, and even if something has DisplayPort and VGA (like some Thinkpads) you'd probably want to use DP where possible.

EDIT: and I'm fairly sure the suggestion for connecting a VGA laptop to a HDMI TV doesn't actually work that way around.

<comment><USER8> Indeed -- many TVs have VGA ports, or DVA, and that should be the first option if the computer only has VGA (or DVA) out.

You can buy a VGA to HDMI adaptor, but I haven't tried one.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Awesome and clever idea! But, uh, marketing....

Within IT, we know what a dongle is. Outside IT, it sounds like it might mean dildo or dong or something equally penilesque.

Combine that with "daddy", and, well, we might get it as a joke, but your churchgoing grandma might not.

This service is not for IT people, so it cannot assume IT culture....

<comment><AUTHOR> Old people love inuendos too :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Good idea, but I noticed some issues:

IMHO it would be useful if at least the result pages had permalinks so you could copy and share them.

I think the adapter suggested for "laptop with VGA" to "TV with HDMI" does not work that way around, which is exactly the kind of mistake this site should help to avoid.

As others have noticed, (m)DP is fairly important and missing.

given the watermark, you are probably not allowed to use this image on your site in this way [https://www.dongledaddy.com/images/tv/hdmi.jpg](https://www.dongledaddy.com/images/tv/hdmi.jpg)

</comment><comment><USER10> This is one of the few blatant affiliate plays that I'm 100% ok with. This provides a very useful service, I don't care at all that you have your amazon links there. Very very well done!

</comment><comment><USER11> Actually a pretty clever, and useful app. Definitely not only for "older relatives". People in my office, in their 20/30/40's, can't even handle the basics. That name though :D

</comment><comment><USER12> You're missing a cable I had to buy recently for my father-in-law: Laptop to monitor: mini display port to DVI (specifically DVI without analog pins or it wouldn't fit into the plug on the monitor).

</comment><comment><USER13> It's worth pointing out that the results might be hidden if you've got an adblocker enabled. Took me a second after the result appeared to figure out why there wasn't any product link like other comments were mentioning.

Neat idea though. Almost makes me wish I had some tech illiterate people in my life so this could save me tech support.

Also, small suggestion: "TV" could reasonably be named "TV/Monitor/Projector".

<comment><USER14> Ah, I was wondering where the link was, that explains it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> There is no way I am showing my grandfather this. He'll surely do it wrong and blame me. Even when I do all the work for him, he gets confused, tells me I did it wrong, redoes it himself, and then blames me when it doesn't work...

Last time I tried to help him, we argued for an hour about the difference between an HDMI cable and a high-speed HDMI cable...

My clients, on the other hand, will love this tool.

</comment><comment><USER16> "Your older relatives," really? Did I miss the memo about how I'm supposed to become instantly stupid and lazy just because you happened to come along and be born? (Late?)

I know I know, "people whose purchasing of electronic junk surpasses their ability/willingness to use Wikipedia" just isn't catchy.

</comment><comment><USER17> Cool site. I noticed it doesn't know about phones that have USB-C chargers.

edit: also DisplayPort for connecting to laptops

<comment><USER18> > "I noticed it doesn't know about phones that have USB-C chargers."

Allthough I find the base concept of the side promising (not only for older relatives), it would be much more helpful if you add more connection types. Some examples:

\- "Computer --> TV" only knows HDMI and VGA (E.g. what about [mini] Display Port?) \- "Computer --> Printer" only knows USB A to USB B

I would start with the most common possibility and go down to the more exotic ones, to not clutter the expirience for most people. Then you could even add more special connections where you need adapters for.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> "For Christ's sake Billy, I just want to connect the CueCat to my iPAQ... Where's my soldering iron? And hand me those reading glasses."

</comment><comment><USER20> > "If your phone is made by Samsung, HTC, Sony, Motorola, LG, Nexus, Nokia or > Google it's definitely an Android phone. If you have an Apple iPhone, it's > definitely not an Android"

Just a heads up, my Nokia running WP is definitely not an Android phone.

<comment><USER21> Ditto for my wife's HTC Windows Phone 8X.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> I dare you to add a "Live Chat" or "Live Video Help" button. :)

Charge by the minute and see how long your patience lasts.

</comment><comment><USER23> You know where this could become _really_ valuable would be in helping people figure out which USB Type-C cable they need. Because of the proliferation of Type-C alternate modes (USB/HDMI/Displayport/Thunderbolt) and power levels, it'll will become common to use a cable that fits mechanically but doesn't function. I predict significant unhappiness!

<comment> crooked-v This is a good idea, but would also take an exhaustive database of individual devices.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Older people often have older hardware since they don't feel the need to change what works. My first search for a common older printer connector (USB AB) didn't work:

[http://www.notebookreview.com/feature/what-printer-cables- do...](http://www.notebookreview.com/feature/what-printer-cables-do-i-need/)

<comment><USER25> I found it immediately:

      I want to connect my... Printer/Scanner
      to my... Computer/Laptop
      Printer/Scanner connection: USB B
      Computer/Laptop connection: USB A

      You need this cable
      USB 2.0 A-Male to B-Male

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> That's a rather unfortunate name. Or fortunate, if you're targeting certain audiences.

</comment><comment><USER27> The ageism in this post is incredible. I speak as someone who is the "older relative" to a lot of people, and as someone who provides tech support to those same people. Characterizing older relatives as people who need help with cables is as ridiculous as characterizing millenials as "digital natives". My generation has been cabling shit together for decades, from stereos to VCR's to DVD's to quadraphonic sound systems to DVR's. If anything, cabling has gotten simpler these days. HDMI and USB cover a multitude of sins. Curb your ageism, please!

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> As many have mentioned, this is missing some key connectors (USB C, DP, etc). I wanted to launch with an initial subset of connections just to get going. Also I found USB C hard to distinguish in a photo compared to Micro USB. But I will put it in soon, for sure.

Technology wise this app uses two things I really want to recommend. Netlify for the static hosting with automatic SSL provision (and they have awesome GitHub integratiOn). And Preact, which is the front end framework in use here. This is the same API as React but bundles down to 3kb which is really cool.

</comment><comment><USER28> The question section is great, with lots of helpful picture, but then the answer is just text - how about some pictures there too? If i tell my mum she needs a USB 2.0 A-Male to B-Male, that might help her order a cable from amazon but it doesn't help her find what she's looking for in the shoebox full of cables under the computer desk.

<comment><USER29> > that might help her order a cable from amazon

I'm surprised there weren't (affiliate) links to Amazon in the responses - that would be such an obvious route to profit.

<comment><USER7> there are, maybe your adblocker is throwing them out? (They are just some amazon widget, so they get blocked completely)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Back in college I made an application similar to this: [http://mymanual.herokuapp.com/](http://mymanual.herokuapp.com/) (sorry if its slow or broken, unmaintained for ~3 years).

I had to do an input for each device and tag the ports so the logic in the application can create custom setup guides.

</comment><comment><USER31> This is really nice. If you are looking to expand, I would like to see more audio equipment included, such as synthesizers, mixers, and computer audio interfaces. I've recently been struggling somewhat with the difference between mono, balanced mono, and stereo connections as I try to set up a small home studio.

</comment><comment><USER32> TV is greyed out when I want to connect from a mobile phone. We do this all the time with our Lightning to HDMI adaptor to show family videos to grandparents. Also, older relatives have asked for this capability specifically, since they are mostly phone-only (iPhone in our case), but have HDTVs.

</comment><comment><USER33> For Computer => Printer it only proposes a USB cable, but many still-working printers require an LPT2 cable.

</comment><comment><USER34> I would be nice to have links to the products.

Also the name is kind of weird :/, it looks like a porno site name.

<comment><USER21> > Also the name is kind of weird

I think I would've called it Cable Sleuth.

<comment><USER35> I would of went with "Just The Tip".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> If my computer only has a HDMI and my monitor doesn't have a HDMI then it doesn't know what cable I need (hint: check for dvi-d)

</comment><comment><USER37> Great idea, but many common connection options are missing. Connecting TV with HDMI to computer asks only about full size HDMI and VGA and then gives up. No DVI, no display port, nothing else.

</comment><comment><USER38> I like it and the name is a nice combination of memorable and provocative.

Should add a Phone => Computer guide though would be more specific to the model type (ex: may need a Lightning to HDMI adapter).

</comment><comment><USER39> As an IT guy with a computer science degree who just hasn't found it worth it to keep up with consumer technology, I also find this helpful.

</comment><comment><USER40> My nexus 5x has a USB type C connector. So I need USB-A to USB-C cable to connect Nexus 5x to PC. The site could not find this combination

</comment><comment><USER41> Didn't see the affiliate links until I turned off Adblock. Well, the target audience is less likely to be Adblock users.

</comment><comment><USER42> Interesting that this doesn't tell you how to connect the newest iPhone to the newest Macbook Pro

</comment><comment><USER43> Love the idea, you can may be add YouTube link witg the result to show how to connect the two devices.

</comment><comment><USER44> cool idea!

Note the first thing I tried (connecting a laptop with DVI, say, an old macbook) to a TV told me it didn't know what cable to use, I would've expected it to show me a DVI->hdmi cable

<comment><USER45> Or thunderbolt, or display port.

</comment></comment><comment><USER46> Good work Jonny :-) I'm proud of you!

</comment><comment><USER47> No option for phones using usb c

</comment><comment><USER48> FYI, ur FB share isnt set up</comment>


Ask HN: Sendgrid vs.? - <AUTHOR> Is there definitively a better service than Sendgrid? I've been a little frustrated with it lately and perused Mailchimp and Mailgun sites, but would really appreciate any opinions of those who have tried multiple services or feel strongly about a service. Thank you! <comment><USER2> I cannot say if it is definitively better or not, but I've been happily using Postmark for 2+ years

[https://postmarkapp.com/compare/sendgrid- alternative](https://postmarkapp.com/compare/sendgrid-alternative)

</comment><comment><USER3> We just made this decision recently at our startup and after a relatively thorough review of many options, we went with Postmark. So far so good, emails seem to land in inboxes very quickly.

</comment><comment><USER4> For transaction email, Postmark deliverability is the best I have experienced so far.

For marketing email, I would go for ConvertKit

</comment><comment><USER5> I've been using postmarkapp for 3+ years, never had any issues. Works flawlessly

</comment><comment><USER6> What has frustrated you about SendGrid?</comment>


Anonymous Open Letter to the Ember.js Core Team - <AUTHOR> https://gist.github.com/anonymous/5378663

<comment><USER2> It's scary, but even if you release something as open source, for free and free for people to modify as they please, you're still in a weird relationship with the people that use your software. You haven't exactly promised to do anything for them, and the code as-is is in itself a great gift... but on the other hand, there's an implicit acknowledgement that "yes, you can build on this".

(Both the open letter and the response from Tom Dale seem to acknowledge that there's two sides to this issue, which is refreshing. Usually you get these really boorish "dude, it's open source, just fix it yourself will ya" responses.)

It makes me wary of pushing any of my projects. I still open source pretty much everything I do, but usually with a big fat "for your edification, don't expect any support or ongoing development" disclaimer.

(Also see fat's "What Is Open Source & Why Do I Feel So Guilty? at <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIDb6VBO9os>)

<comment><USER3> Maybe the open source community needs a sort of standard way of declaring/disclaiming how production-ready a project is, and how much effort we intend to put into supporting it.

<comment><USER4> People should assume that if there is no affirmative declaration of "This is production ready" then the code is not production ready.

If there is no affirmative declaration of "I will be actively supporting this beyond my own personal needs" then assume that the code will not be supported beyond the personal needs of the project owner.

Or people can just ask, instead complaining (however well-intended) that their assumptions have turned out false.

This is like people who build a business on some aspect of Twitter or Facebook then complain that Twitter or Facebook is shutting them out. If you are using someone else's code or API make sure you get some positive, unambiguous statement from the owner about what to expect.

Things can still go south, but then you at least have a legitimate gripe.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Man this rings so true with me. Emberjs has so much promise but it is just so frustrating to work with. Every time I turn my head something fundamental seems to have changed (the router and now dependency injection). It does always seem like a good move but because the docs don't keep up it means you're suddenly googling solutions that don't work any more. Maybe a kickstarter would be a good way to get things stabilised? If yehuda etc. don't have the time maybe someone would like to step up and with some kickstarter money spend a few months getting up to speed with the project and getting it stable, docs done etc.

Edit: BTW my money is ready and waiting!

</comment><comment><USER6> PG: is it possible to configure HN to show the domain as gist.github.com instead of just github.com?

<comment><USER7> Yes, browsers have this feature where you can hover a link and it reveals the href.

<comment><USER8> It's easy to use snark to dismiss someone's problem.

Why show the domain at all if you can hover over the links? For a minimalistic interface like HN you'd think there would be a reason for it. And if people are identifying content based on that URL, it's probably best to make it descriptive when subdomains have very different content.

Plus, many touchscreen devices don't have an easy way to see where a link is pointing to, even on devices with 'hover' functionality.

<comment><USER7> Because that's not what this discussion/thread is about.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> What is the need to do this anonymously? It seems like the intent is only to complain and not contribute back to the project itself.

<comment><USER10> I suppose there are some developers who are not advanced enough to contribute to the project, but smart enough to use a framework? I don't know: Tom Dale did reply to the gist, and mentions there are non-trivial CS problems being solved.

Ember is actively trying to compete with angular (backed by google) and others - and I think the people rooting for ember are just people feeling let down after deciding to move forward on it in production.

edit: Tom's actual quote: "trying to solve are novel computer science problems"

<comment><USER9> Contributions are not only in form of code right. The anonymous person can help in documentation, interact with the core devs on problems through back and forth communications etc.

<comment><USER11> When there are 50 open pull requests it's clear that people are contributing but getting nowhere. The anon poster may in fact own several of those..

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> To the ember.js team: don't worry, people like this are poison to open source. They demand so much, have such high expectations, and are not willing to contribute anything. They do not realize people have real lives outside of open source, and sometimes they need a break.

<comment><USER13> On the contrary, he's unhappy that contributions (PRs) are ignored.

<comment><USER12> Pull requests can take more time to process than feature requests, because 1) The code is usually inconsistent with the rest of the project, 2) there are often merge conflicts that the submitter has to resolve 3) people rarely write tests or documentation about the feature.

<comment><USER14> You make good points, but each of these is solvable:

1) Require the code to be consistent. Tell the submitter how to do this.

2) Merges have to be straight forward, or you don't accept the submission. I think Linus Torvalds has the same strategy for the kernel - you figure out the merge, I'll accept it.

3) That depends a lot on how you set up your tests and documentation. If you make it simple to write both, it's simple to require them. If they're not simple, you should make them.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Why is there drama for such a small community? Angular doesn't seem to suffer from these constant HN threads.

<comment><USER16> It shows that Ember.js is a community-driven project.

Angular.js OTOH is run by Google, and like everything done by Google is part of their strategy to collect data and increase advertising revenue.

<comment><USER17> This is not even wrong...it's just an absurd statement. Using angular makes it no easier or more difficult for Google "to collect data and increase advertising revenue" compared to any other JS framework.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> It's a big issue that any successful open source project faces. It's natural for the team to want to promote all the great things the product will do. But the core team doesn't scale as fast as contributors, let alone the userbase, and there is great risk of over-promising.

I think the approach of something like jQuery works best: do one thing well. Add polish, not features. Let other people start their own projects that extend yours.

A way to scale back expectations even more is to provide sample code, not a drop-in library. If you want to use it, copy and modify it so you know how it works and can fix the bugs yourself. This ensures that people don't think of themselves as just users.

</comment><comment><USER19> These are great ideas for things to improve in Ember, but I don't understand how someone could start an Ember project without understanding 1) It's _very_ new, and therefore very raw. And 2) You're gonna have to dig into the Ember source if you want to do anything beyond what you can see in the tutorials.

If you want a framework that can be used for a large, complex project without you having to do infrastructure work yourself, then you have to use a framework where someone has already done that, and there's an established organization that's in the "fixing little bugs caused by slight variations in developer use cases" stage. End of story.

<comment><USER20> <http://emberjs.com/> doesn't say anything about being that unstable on the homepage and the list of users has enough well-known companies that you would reasonably conclude it's ready for production.

Various posts have made the front page here and I don't recall many (any?) caveats saying it's only for thrill-seekers, either.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Not to sidetrack the conversation, but why is Backbone "a joke"? It seems a bit different in approach from Ember, but I've used it for a pretty big application and it worked great.

<comment><USER3> IMHO Backbone is in a weird spot between plain old jQuery apps with no structure, and frameworks like Ember/Cappuccino/Angular/Knockoutthat have "bindings" constructs that can drastically reduce glue code.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> I think it's bullshit someone did this anonymously. Just stand up and say what you want and own it for crap's sake.

<comment><USER23> Things you say on the web have a habit of being preserved for quite some time.

I can easily imagine certain future employers seeing the author because of this rant / critique as a liability.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> When you choose a framework, surely you have a responsibility to thoroughly review it to ensure it meets your needs? Your needs might include professional support. If none was advertised and you still chose it, why bemoan the fact it's missing?

<comment><USER7> This, back at 0.8.x, I choose Ember (over an array of frameworks), 4 weeks wasted fighting the framework. Switched to angular in under a day. Using ember is and continues to be filled with surprises. I don't like surprises in a framework.

Tom Dale said it himself, ember doesn't have enough manpower. I find it odd, that Dale & Katz, are unable to raise funds to increase the level of manpower on it. A simple kickstarter may help.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> <http://gist.io/5378663> if you like your eyes or you're on a mobile device.

<comment><USER26> ... or you don't want to read the enlightening reply from an Ember core member :P</comment></comment>


How Many iPhones Will Apple Sell This Weekend? - <AUTHOR> http://allthingsd.com/20130919/with-two-new-models-how-many-iphones-can-apple-sell-in-a-weekend/

<comment><USER2> I'm willing to bet that the iPhone 5C doesn't surpass the original iPhone 5's sales from a year ago.</comment>


They're made out of Meat - <AUTHOR> http://baetzler.de/humor/meat_beings.html

<comment><USER2> Wanted to point everyone to this excellent video adaptation of the story: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaFZTAOb7IE>

Bonus: Stars Benjamin Bailey, the cash cab guy.

<comment><AUTHOR> Tom Noonan (the guy in the fez) was great in "The Wife" and "What Happened Was...". Check those out if you ever feel like watching something different.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> "They talk by flapping their meat at each other. They can even sing by squirting air through their meat."

My favorite part.</comment>


United WiFi terms lets them use your ideas, inventions, concepts, techniques - <AUTHOR>

"Any communications you send to this Portal or otherwise to United Airlines, Inc. by electronic mail are on a non-confidential basis, and United Airlines, Inc. is under no obligation to refrain from reproducing, publishing or otherwise using them in any way for any purpose."<p>"United Airlines, Inc. shall be free to use the content of such electronic mail communications, including any ideas, inventions, concepts, techniques or know-how disclosed therein, for any purpose, including the developing, manufacturing and/or marketing of goods or services."<p>Taken from 'use of information' section of their terms @ http://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/travel/inflight/wifi/terms.aspx <comment><USER2> This says that if you email United Airlines, they are allowed to use your ideas. It has nothing to do with ideas that you may post on other sites, or emails you send to other people...

<comment><USER3> Depends on how you define "This Portal" I suppose.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is why the Let's Encrypt movement is so important.

[https://letsencrypt.org/](https://letsencrypt.org/)

<comment><USER5> I have no idea how I missed this project. If it lives up to its motives and ideals, that will be an absolutely amazing project! I'll start watching for it to launch.</comment></comment>


The Global American Dream - <AUTHOR> http://brandonpearce.com/2011/09/global-american-dream/

<comment><USER2> 'Interestingly, one word I didn't see mentioned at all throughout the survey was "freedom." To me, this is what the American Dream is all about, and is in large part what the country's first immigrants found so appealing'

Yes, I'm sure that's what african immigrants were thinking when they stepped off their boats.</comment>


StackOverflow Podcast returns - <AUTHOR> http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2011/04/podcast-88/

<comment><USER2> I'm an unabashed fan of the StackOverflow podcast. They shared tons of insights on building an online community, getting from bare servers through launch, dealing with disagreements among co-founders, launching and tons of other minutiae on launching a startup that I found fascinating.</comment>


Reject the PROTECT IP Act - <AUTHOR> https://secure.eff.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=487 <comment><USER2> >PROTECT IP = Private Rightsholders Opposed To Emerging Consumer Technologies, Innovation, and Progress

I find it odd that, while I'm uniformly turned off by Stallman's "iBad/iGroan/Swindle" characterizations, I can fully get behind this repurposing of the PROTECT IP acronym. Perhaps because it doesn't reek of Stallman's immaturity, or maybe because it is actually descriptive; I nonetheless find myself supporting it.

<comment><USER3> I groan at iGroan because it's a bad pun, but Stallman's position seems more or less sound. DRM sucks.

This article from the EFF is too brief and poorly annotated to really lead me to any conclusions on its own. I would like to read a fully fleshed out position paper/article on the deficiencies of the PROTECT IP act. Anyone know of one?

edit: Found this from the EFF themselves:

[https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/05/plus-ca-change- protect...](https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/05/plus-ca-change-protect-ip- domain-name-system-and)

They link to the bill itself which is only 30 pages. It is pretty poorly thought out.

<comment><USER2> I don't have a problem with Stallman's positions, just his tactics. He marginalizes himself and the FSF by behaviour that appeals only to his most devoted followers. As a hacker, he should realize that his solution is suboptimal and find ways to improve it. Instead, he brushes off those who criticize him as being in league with the forces of oppression, or at least not caring enough about freedom to see why he's right. He presents a false dichotomy: either you agree with me and my methods, or you agree with Apple and theirs. He ignores the obvious majority opinion amongst hackers: I agree with you, but I find your methods distasteful and ineffective. For that reason, I can't support you or your organization.

<comment><USER4> I don't think that the majority opinion amongst "hackers" (as in, the general programmer audience here) agrees with Stallman in a meaningful sense. A majority might sort of _prefer_ free software, but don't care to fight for it very much; how many people use and develop for & on proprietary software and locked-down hardware anyway because they care more about convenience and utility than freedom?

RMS calls it like he sees it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I hope people who read this story are not just upvoting it but also signing the petition/form.

Politicians sticking their noses in technology is like a pshychopathic criminal with a machine gun. They don't have a clue what they are doing and what consequences thereof will be.

<comment><USER6> I hope the people who sign the petition also write a letter to their congresscritter, or at least make a phonecall.

A flood of letters will be much more effective than any single petition.

But what really needs to be done is ongoing education and active participation in the political process -- long term. And that means more than just voting once every 4 years, or signing the occasional petition.

<comment><USER7> It's not a petition. It is a form that emails your congressperson, which it derives from your address (you can either include your own message or use their form letter).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> The entire reason acts like the PROTECT IP act even get this far is because NO ONE understands the internet, and the potential of it.

Yeah, we're slightly more enlightened than the politicians, but that's not really saying much.

All we know is that it'd be better to just leave the internet alone for now, until we have a better idea of its potential (which, I acknowledge, may never happen).

Of course, as other commenters have said, the idea that the US can basically say "follow our law, or you have no internet" is disgusting. Unfortunately, this threat will hold until some country decides to call the US's bluff.

</comment><comment><USER9> Signing petitions is fine, but as a tech expert[1] there are many ways of long-term engagement by which you can have a much bigger impact. I just wrote about some of them (I'm an academic computer scientist who's been involved in policy for the last couple of years): [http://33bits.org/2011/06/07/bad- internet-law-what-techies-c...](http://33bits.org/2011/06/07/bad-internet-law- what-techies-can-do-about-it/)

[1] If you don't feel like an expert, don't worry about it. The bar in Washington for who's considered an expert is fairly low :-)

Edit: I just submitted this here: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2630141>

<comment><USER10> submitting the form will mail and fax your congressmen. so, it is not just another online petition. i got replies from two of them, though canned they seemed, but i know they got them at least.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Once mechanisms are in place to block websites encouraging 'IP infringement', how likely is it that these mechanisms will be repurposed?

Although I'm not entirely convinced, part of my wonders whether governmental support for these lobbyists might be partly swayed by the simple proposition that these methods to control the internet could eventually be used for more varied forms of censorship.

<comment><USER12> Governmental (more accurately Congressional) support for lobbyist-supported legislation is a 3 step process.

1) God I am so fucking sick of dialing for dollars.

2) This guy has a bag of money.

3) I spend all my time dialing and none of it on policy so I can't tell the difference anyways.

Hey, I'll just do what he's telling me.

It's not quite that cut and dried but that's what it comes down to in the end, with a little dancing in between so the congressman can convince himself he isn't being bought.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Being from Oregon, the submission is kind of funny. It automatically sends an email to your two senators and district representative. So Wyden got an email from me stating "I urge you to join Senator Wyden". Well, maybe it will buttress his resolve.

<comment><USER14> You can edit the text... :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Could someone explain in layman's terms what exactly the PROTECT IP act proposes to do? I'm not much for politico speak and don't really have the time to rummage through the entire text myself to figure it out.

<comment><USER16> A domain name server(DNS) is what leads you to a particular website, For example when u type <http://news.ycombinator.com> its forwarded to your ISP DNS and from there it is forwarded to the IP of Hacker news. This new act if passed will have let them have control over all the DNS servers of ISP's. That means the site which they dont want you to see get blocked easily.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> I find it interesting some of the stories that get more upvotes here. Is there anyone here that's actually in favor of this? I'm curious to know why. (And I'll be polite about it.)

Maybe it's just cynicism?

</comment><comment><USER18> You have got to be kidding me... the same idea has haunted us Europeans not too long ago!

The (then) Minister of Family Affairs (,Senior Citizens, Women and Youth) sold it as "fighting against child pornography" and despite every serious expert stating that it is completely useless, it got passed, was taken out of effect later on, then put on hold by the president, it turned out to possibly being unconstitutional and now seems to be scheduled for being lifted again.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursula_von_der_Leyen#Blocking_i...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursula_von_der_Leyen#Blocking_internet_child_pornography)

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zugangserschwerungsgesetz>

For the life of me, I will never understand politics.

</comment><comment><USER19> Here lets rename the act correctly:

PROTECT THE REPUBLICS Lobbyists ACT

</comment><comment><USER20> We should ban the united states from the Internet and leave them with their own will.

Simply, disgusting.

<comment> steve-howard Please don't punish the citizens for what our idiot politicians do. I didn't vote for them anyway. :(

<comment><USER21> But enough idiot American citizens did, and those idiots have indirect control over much of the world's IT infrastructure. Too much.

But what organizational body can take control? The UN? I don't think the Internet would be any safer in anyone else's hands.

<comment><USER8> Whoa, whoa, whoa. Let's back up and take a deep breath.

Ok. These politicians get "elected" because they, quite simply, can buy their elections. When you can tell your constituents "look! I got you <latest bill of pork>! I'm doing good for you! Re-elect me!", they will re-elect you.

The only thing we're guilty of is being incredibly short-sighted.

<comment><USER22> >"The only thing we're guilty of is being incredibly short-sighted."

This has shorter name- Being an idiot, so he is exactly RIGHT. -> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiot_(Athenian_democracy)>

And speak rather for Yourself(or Your group, im not in).</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


How Funding Rounds Differ: Seed, Series A, Series B, and C... - <AUTHOR> http://blog.eladgil.com/2011/03/how-funding-rounds-differ-seed-series.html

<comment><USER2> A good read for entrepreneurs learning their way around Sandhill Road's alphabet soup.

</comment><comment><USER3> Nothing about Series F? Founders Institute has special Series F in their incorporation docs in order to protect founders.

<comment><AUTHOR> Series F is often actually a series seed or A stock instrument. I write more about it here:

[http://blog.eladgil.com/2010/03/vcs-starter-stock-why-how- to...](http://blog.eladgil.com/2010/03/vcs-starter-stock-why-how-to-ask- for-f.html)

<comment><USER4> From my understanding, you're describing (edit: something like) Series FF (i.e. what Founders Fund issues) there-- the founder's institute stuff has certain additional voting rights attached in additional to liquidity provisions.

From Scott Walker's blog: [http://walkercorporatelaw.com/startup-issues/ask- the-attorne...](http://walkercorporatelaw.com/startup-issues/ask-the-attorney- series-ff-stock/) [http://venturebeat.com/2010/03/01/ask-the-attorney-what- the-...](http://venturebeat.com/2010/03/01/ask-the-attorney-what-the-heck-is- class-f-stock/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes agreed. I focus on FF/starter stock versus series F. I have not seen an early stage startup successfully negotiate series F stock given e.g. supervoting rights.

Later stage companies (see e.g. FB and Google) with strong founders in place can often get a dual class structure with super voting rights later in their life as they prepare to go public and their existing investors/board can get liquidity.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: How do you achieve life balance? - <AUTHOR>

[I posted this late yesterday but it didn't get any traction.  I think it's an important topic, so I'll try one more time]
I don't see much on HN on what developers, entrepreneurs, designers, tech-folk might be doing outside of work. I think it's important to engage in other activities in order to reset your brain and even gain perspective.
I probably have too many hobbies. Some techie (RC drones/helicopters), others not so (woodworking). One activity I have enjoyed for nearly twenty years is Schutzhund Obedience training. I have now gone through this process four times (always German Shepherd Dogs). I find it incredibly rewarding and lots of fun. Nothing like spending a couple of hours at a park training your dog to completely unplug you from the keyboard.
It's even more fun when you get to teach your kids how to train the dogs. For kids this inspires confidence, inner-strength, self-reliance, compassion, understanding and a whole host of other good qualities that you just can't get out of playing video games all day. A dog is almost a perfect mirror of who you are. They reflect how you treat them and how you relate to them. If you are mean they'll be skittish and afraid. If you are firm but fair they'll be confident and willing to do anything you ask. If you are not disciplined and consistent they'll be confused and will not respect you. Too many lessons in just one activity to list here.
If you've never seen Schutzhund, here's a really neat video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTZmIFdgU2M
I am not affiliated with this dog or this kid at all. I just think this video is a beautiful example of the connection that can be created between a dog an its owner. Keep in mind that in this video she was seven years old. She has full control of a dog that probably weighs nearly twice as much as her and if far stronger.
How about you? What does your life look like outside of work? <comment><USER2> Part of my strategy for the company I'm developing means working in sync with what seems optimal in the long term.

Based upon what I've gleaned from the Happiness Hypothesis, this means daily I do the following:

\- Meditation (Space for subconscious processing of problems to bubble up) \- Time spent with Family / Friends (One of the key processes for happiness) \- Exercise (Preferably in nature) \- Cooking / Eating well \- Making progress on a Goal (Users added, etc.) \- Continuing a practice towards mastery (IE Skateboarding/photography/writing) \- Giving back in some way

It's a lot to squeeze into a life, and on top of that, building a business. Doesn't leave much time for TV and games.

But I think most business is done in an unsustainable process, one that burns people out. If you want to work optimally, you've got to have time away from the meat grinder.

<comment><USER3> You've said this all better than I could. Playing video games just wasn't rewarding enough for me compared to outdoor activity, which is social and keeps me in shape. Most of the TV I watch is sports and movies, which are experiences I can share and talk about with all kinds of people.

I'm always working towards being a better musician -- I write music and DJ locally -- which is very rewarding. But I'm also always trying to be there for family and friends as well as pay forward what I've been lucky to receive.

When I feel healthy and socially rewarded I am the most confident and do the best work. When I'm not feeling healthy I'm not as sociable, so eating well and staying in shape are the most important aspects for my balance and sustainability. Spending time taking care of the important aspects of my life forces me to take that time away from work. I also work more efficiently when I know I have something to look forward to.

In this age of technology it is easy to feel smart by knowing a million facts. But I believe the old adage "Know thyself [to know God]" exists in cultures ancient to present for very good reasons. If I truly want to reach my goals I have to first fully understand what and why they are.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I guess for startup founders it's really all work and no play. At-least that's what happens to me. Most of my time is consumed towards work. Getting time for other stuffs is a luxury. I'd love to hear from other startup founders who are able to achieve a balance between work and play. What's their secret?

<comment><AUTHOR> I've been there. Being older and having kids obviously forces the issue.

When I was single I could easily spend 18 straight hours coding and barely notice the passing of time. So, I do get it. Perhaps I was lucky in that I fell into a work environment early on where there were older people who did have other interests and some of them sucked me into other areas. That is, for example, how I got into sailing.

I think it's important to really make an effort not to look at a computer screen all day. This is particularly true for entrepreneurs. I know it's hard.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Hate to say it, but don't really have much of a life outside of work.

<comment><AUTHOR> Why? Too busy or just haven't found something to focus on?

<comment><USER6> As preposterous as it may sound, HN is actually my idea of fun. I love reading what potatolicious, rayiner, etc. have to say about things... I genuinely enjoy reading HN comments. I play the guitar and piano for fun, but that's about it -- I do not have much of a social life. I have friends from HS/college I exchange e-mails with (once or twice a week) and meet (once or twice after few months), but not much beyond that.

I think I would call myself a well-adjusted and happy individual, by the way. :)</comment></comment></comment>


ScrollAppend.js: Endless Scroll that doesn't Push the Footer - <AUTHOR> http://www.hawkee.com/snippet/9445/ <comment><USER2> Looks good, one thing though: as a user if I scroll down and see the footer, after some more scrolling it disappears, however when I scroll back up it does not reappear - which is my expectation.

<comment><AUTHOR> That is a good idea. My thought was to make it disappear when you scroll up to provide a mechanism to suppress it. I would guess 99% of the time the user will not want it. But you do have a good idea.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Why even have footers in the age of endless scrolling?

<comment><AUTHOR> People still look for periphery information at the bottom of the page. Until that habit changes I think we'll still need to keep it there.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Great job. This is definitely needed.</comment>


Introducing Teepee: the next step for rust-http - <AUTHOR> http://chrismorgan.info/blog/introducing-teepee.html

<comment><USER2> Glad to see someone putting in some effort to create a well-designed, versatile HTTP library for Rust. I hope it takes off, and that Rust becomes a viable language for developing HTTP-based services that are both safe and efficient.

</comment><comment><USER3> From the perspective of a person who wants to invest time in the near future to learning a highly performant systems language, I'm having a hard time deciding between Go and Rust.

Any thoughts on the matter here? Obviously there's going to be a lot of learning material for Go courtesy of its stability and age, but I get the feeling that Rust is Go without the warts.

<comment><USER4> One question you could ask yourself that may help clarify your choice is what precisely do you want the phrase "systems language" to imply?

Both the very first question in the official Go FAQ and the front page of the Rust site use the phrases "systems language" and "systems programming language" respectively, but one could argue that they are not both referring to the same idea.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> A separate project is pointless. Just break the old one. Rust doesn't need your old version. And git has it for anyone that does in the interim.

<comment><AUTHOR> Given that it is a complete rewrite, breaking rust-http is an unnecessary evil; people are using rust-http successfully and I see no reason to cause them unnecessary trouble. Until Teepee's HTTP client and server are ready, rust-http will be maintained so that it can still run on Rust master, though it will not be developed any further; Rust _does_ need the "old version" for now.

<comment><USER6> Seems like rust-http 2.x would work for this purpose. It's subjectively a much more descriptive name than "Teepee", too.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> To the OP: did you write http libraries in other languages or rust-http is your first experience?

<comment><AUTHOR> I had worked in raw HTTP before with a bit of parsing, but rust-http was my first experience actually implementing a proper HTTP library.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> More strong work from the inner circle of Rust devs. Cool work Chris!</comment>


Ask HN: Do you write more/better code when you are drinking/drunk? - <AUTHOR>

I don't know about you guys, but my productivity goes through the roof when I'm drinking and coding. It lets me completely focus and ignore all of the random thoughts that are typically running through my head. I don't think "oh, I wonder how XYZ would work with ABC" and spend absurd amounts of time on random tangents.
I don't know if it was a state-dependent learning thing from my days as college student, or what.
Obviously, I don't drink at work, but you bet I do for my side projects.
Anyway, does anyone else find that it helps them? <comment><USER2> More, yes, but probably not better.

We had a CS39 liquor cabinet in my Operating Systems Design course. Rum, vodka, gin, and lots of mixers. We needed it.

This led to some funny comments in the code, like

        // Don't believe anything this next line says
        // I'm drunk anyway.

</comment><comment><USER3> I drink while I'm coding pretty routinely. I can't really tell if it makes me any more productive but it definitely holds up the programmer stereotype.

There is also that sense of urgency that you have to get stuff done before you get to drunk...

</comment><comment><USER4> Apparently there's been some research into this topic: <http://xkcd.com/323/>

</comment><comment><USER5> I used to do this years ago - I'd get home from a night at the bar and decide to sling some code. Ultimately I had to stop doing it though; the code I wrote was written in such a different style than my ordinary style that it became problematic to troubleshoot easily.

That being said, there was more than one occasion where I solved a problem after drinking that I was having a problem figuring out prior to it.

</comment><comment><USER6> I've not tried this, but I would wonder how much the potential for "dumb errors" increases when in that state. I already say "Why the heck did I write that?" too many times even when sober!

</comment><comment><USER7> Ofcourse that's extremes to everything. If you develop while trashed I doubt its gonna turn out well.

However, I do find myself programming better with some beer. I actually feel a little more relaxed and focus better. Strange I know.

</comment><comment><USER8> It doesn't seem to hurt for straightforward programs, but it's much easier to make bad design decisions while drunk. It also takes me forever to debug while drunk. I don't really think it helps me in any way.

</comment><comment><USER9> I'm glad you asked this, now I won't feel so bad about doing it.</comment>


Show HN: I made a price comparison tool that doesn't suck - <AUTHOR> https://www.letscompass.com <comment><USER2> Got a version that doesn't require Chrome?

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm thinking of making Firefox next, seems to be in highest demand. But I want to get it fine tuned on just one platform before making it for other browsers, especially because I'm pushing updates almost daily.</comment></comment>


Are people really ready to make friends online? - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/15/find-a-hobby-and-some-friends-on-urbanorca/

<comment><USER2> I don't think connecting you with your facebook friends is a real pain point. You know them, and have ways to contact them already (email, sms, phone, facebook). We think UrbanOrca can add more value by allowing you to view the world around you in an organized way, and provide an easy way to reach out to these new people. This world is larger than your friend group - so when filtered by your interests, location, etc you'll have more matches.

</comment><comment><USER2> I think people are ready! Look at online dating. It was creepy for so long. Now 20%+ of relationships start online. It seems natural that the internet would help organize data on people we don't know by matching interests / location, and make it easy to reach out. Obviously that's why we launched UrbanOrca.

</comment><comment><USER3> Virtual world to real life friend, interesting idea. I wonder if people are really ready for it.

</comment><comment><USER4> cool concept. hope it takes off. but why would i want to meet strangers. why not help me reach out to and organize my facebook friends?

<comment><USER5> From talking to my friends, I think quite a few people have some Facebook friends who might as well be strangers, so why not expand your horizons :)

<comment><USER2> I think it's definitely a relevant feature, but not the core. You can reach out to those people on facebook. And besides, if you are friends with someone on facebook, and you haven't already become good friends in real life, then arguably they will never become part of your close circle.</comment></comment></comment>


Reform ECPA: Tell the Government to Get a Warrant - <AUTHOR> https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/reform-ecpa-tell-government-get-warrant/nq258dxk <comment><USER2> Less than 24h to go, please sign!</comment>


Bootstrap HTML5 History Tabs - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/jeffdavidgreen/bootstrap-html5-history-tabs

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm not the author, but found this useful: Bootstrap tabs that keep track of the history using the HTML5 History API</comment>


Ask HN: How do you convince yourself to take more risk in order to grow? - <AUTHOR> Hi I feel like I am stuck in corporate company where I am not earning as much as compared to outside market even though having very good skill sets like data engineering, machine learning etc. I feel like I am trapped in comfort zone or may be imposter syndrome is making me feel like that and dont want to take risk and go out and earn more or take challenging job. Any input will be highly appreciated. Thanks much! <comment><USER2> I've been reflecting on this for myself recently and i think it boiled down to a fear of failure, so i took up a hobby that i knew i would fail a lot at - chess. Maybe training your brain to enjoy risk/reward would be helpful

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks much I will try to follow</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Successful startup publicity stunts? - <AUTHOR>

Hi there,
Loved reading about the wepay's publicity stunt with the icecube, as well as paypal's stunt with the t-shirts. (http://www.wepay.com/blog/)
Airbnb's "Obama O's" episode doesn't quite fit into the same category, but is still very cool so worth mentioning!
Can anyone remember any other successful publicity stunts that startups have pulled???
Dave <comment><USER2> Yes. Kenneth Cole pulled a great stunt when he first started out. See [http://www.fragrancex.com/products/_bid_Kenneth--Cole-am- cid...](http://www.fragrancex.com/products/_bid_Kenneth--Cole-am-cid_perfume- am-lid_K__brand_history.html)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Someone just told me about Josh Kopelman renaming a TOWN half.com!!! Love it!!!!

\- Thanks for this CJ, Keep 'em comin'!</comment>


The Last Shift: What Really Happened to Those Carrier Jobs Trump Saved - <AUTHOR> https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a20066498/carrier-factory-donald-trump-jobs/ <comment><USER2> _I thought I would retire there. Now I'm in a class for entry-level programming ... I'm not proud of what I've left for the next generation. No jobs, higher taxes. You're either going to be able to live on McDonald's wages, or you're going to have to be a doctor. There is not going to be any in between._

Is there a better description of the current US jobs picture?</comment>


Ask HN: How to find research on a certain topic - <AUTHOR> For example, I would like to find research (academic or otherwise) on static analysis and structural editing of computer programs.
I have been having trouble finding a direct approach to surface pertinent publications or researchers currently focused on the topic.
So far, my best search strategies have been
(1) starting at a random university's computer science department site, finding groups in adjacent topics like Programming Language (PL) and/or Program Verification, and scouring for relevant publications.
(2) finding conferences where there's a chance such topics could come up and looking at historical entries.  For the topics above, I often come back to venues such as the European Lisp Symposium and Strange Loop.
I haven't had much success searching ieee.  And following a paper's citations generally leads to past works, whereas I'm interested in what's recent.
Is there a better way?  Any help would be much appreciated.  Thanks! <comment><USER2> If you're specifically interested in recent work then it could be worth checking out arxiv for preprints of papers in the relevant field.

For instance, here's a section on Programming Languages: [https://arxiv.org/list/cs.PL/recent](https://arxiv.org/list/cs.PL/recent)

</comment><comment><USER3> No luck with Google Scholar? I'd search that and Library Genesis' scientific papers search with (various combinations of my) keywords.

[https://libgen.is/](https://libgen.is/)

Then I'd look at the home pages/other papers of the authors of the best papers, also their co-authors.</comment>


Login Form Design Patterns - <AUTHOR> http://www.flickr.com/photos/factoryjoe/sets/72157600010029792/

<comment><USER2> Nice. These photos are part of a larger set of design patterns (collected by Chris Messina et al), [http://www.flickr.com/photos/factoryjoe/collections/72157600...](http://www.flickr.com/photos/factoryjoe/collections/72157600001823120/) and <http://www.flickr.com/photos/factoryjoe/collections/>

Thanks for finding this.

<comment><USER3> Wow, these are great. I highly recommend getting the piclens firefox extension for viewing these, great for browsing large quantities of photos.

<comment><USER4> Also, Greasemonkey + The Image Gallery script.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Do you consider ambition to be a virtue or a flaw? - <AUTHOR>

<comment><USER2> I'll go with the boring cop-out of, "it depends".

I think it has positive effects, the main one being greater motivation to work on hard problems and see them to completion. It can also have negative effects, such as an unwillingness to do anything that doesn't directly advance one's career, and a tendency to avoid hard problems for quick-win types of problems.

So I guess it depends on how you use it. The stereotypical politician and scientist are each ambitious in a way, but "want to become President" and "want to win a Nobel Prize" are ambitions that manifest themselves somewhat differently. I tend to trust people more if their ambition appears to be somehow tied up with the subject matter rather than purely social status: I'm wary of people whose sole ambition is to become rich/famous/successful, but admire people who are very ambitious when it comes to wanting to revolutionize/advance some field or activity.

<comment><USER3> Which could be described as "driven".</comment></comment>


Zoe Quinn launches an anti-harassment group, Crash Override - <AUTHOR> http://bostinno.streetwise.co/2015/01/20/gamergate-victim-zoe-quinn-launches-anti-online-harassment-site/

<comment> ryan-c For anyone who doesn't get the reference, "Crash Override" was a handle used by the male protagonist in Hackers[1].

1\. [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113243/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113243/)

</comment><comment><USER2> Flagged. Registration wall. :(

EDIT:

Unflagged, was looking at wrong tab, like an idiot.</comment>


Oracle linking to it-ebooks.info - <AUTHOR>

In Oracle's New to Java Programming page (http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/newtojava/downloads/index.html), the recommended books section (bottom of the page) contain a link to Head First Java on it-ebooks: http://it-ebooks.info/book/255/<p>Are those books legal? <comment><USER2> I don't know what to think of that site. How has it not been shut down?

personally, I've used that site to browse through books before buying them online. In my case, it is beneficial for the publisher to have their books on that site, but I'd imagine most people don't use it that way.

</comment><comment><USER3> No. Support Kathy and buy it instead.

[http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596009205.do](http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596009205.do)</comment>


Retina MacBook Pro full of Air-style proprietary parts - <AUTHOR> http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook-Pro-with-Retina-Display-Teardown/9462/ <comment><USER2> Ten years ago, a computer's useful lifetime was measured in months. Hardware specs were advancing so quickly that a two-year-old computer might not be capable of running newly-released software. RAM, disk, and even CPU upgrades were necessary to keep up to date.

Except for gamers, this is no longer true.

Computers without user-replaceable parts are a natural outcome of the fact that users no longer _need_ to replace parts. Serviceability wasn't a goal, it was a _workaround_.

<comment><USER3> This. I think it's also worth noting that for a pro _laptop_ , price is not a major issue, if you're trying to treat your laptop like a BYOB, you're doing it wrong. So:

(a) The RAM capacity is limited by the chipset anyway, and on "pro" machines, most people max out the RAM when they purchase or directly after. It's just that now you can't cheat and buy the RAM elsewhere to avoid an apple price premium.

(b) The SSD _is_ replaceable, it's just not a standard connector. Obviously, 3rd party replacements will show up with a slightly higher cost than a bog standard SATA drive. I view this like the replacement of FW with tbolt, who cares?

(c) (Stock) RAM seldom goes bad before other components, and if it does, you treat it like the other components. They can unplug the SSD from your MBP and plug it into an identical one, swap complete. So we're not talking weeks for a replacement here -- just go to an Apple store. If you're not near an Apple store, you're probably not near a vendor of replacement RAM or SSD drives either.

One issue though: You had better keep that SSD backed up! 'cause if the machine goes south, you have no way of accessing your data unless someone comes out with a apple propretary card egd to sata adapter.

<comment><USER4> How is purchasing RAM identical to what Apple uses at market prices (rather than marked up by a factor of 2x to 5x) "cheating", exactly?

RAM and storage prices fall drastically with time while memory and storage requirements in software increase with time. If I plan to get 3-5 years of life out of my computer isn't it only logical to add on memory and storage when I need it, not all up front?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is going to be a trend with Apple.

They have a good thing going with the iPhone and iPad devices which are both non-upgradeable: consumers are compelled to buy a new device every couple of years or so.

It's pretty clear they're getting rid of the Mac Pro, which is highly configurable (with memory, storage and graphics cards) and thus has a much longer life span.

So is Apple aiming for a future where you have to buy a new laptop every 2 years to have a machine that is relevant?

<comment><USER6> > They have a good thing going with the iPhone and iPad devices which are both > non-upgradeable: consumers are compelled to buy a new device every couple of > years or so.

This is no different than any other phone, it has nothing to do with the upgradability (which arguably is better for Apple than other phones since Android's OS upgrade path is slow at best and absent on a lot of devices).

Phones get upgraded every couple of years because the technology is changing so quickly that there are large differences between the models and with carrier subsidies the upgrade cost is minimal. If the iPhone had a removable battery or a SD slot it wouldn't cause people not to upgrade to the next model.

<comment><USER7> The perceived rate of change in phones has been decreasing for a while. After you have a multi megapixel camera, can show HD video, and do Doom 3 or better 3d graphics the hardware bumps are less noticeable.

Honestly, broken hardware and decreased battery life drives a lot of phone upgrades among my friends and coworkers.

<comment><USER6> LTE and NFC are two biggies. The chipsets in general are getting better in terms of both performance and power usage. Ditto for displays.

If you want a new battery in your iPhone, it's $79 away from Apple and cheaper not from Apple. No need to upgrade.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> In terms of aesthetics, form, weight, efficiency, and so on, there are obviously huge benefits to building computers that are not upgradeable or user-serviceable.

It's important to remember, though, that serviceability/upgradeability is not just a matter of satisfying the urge to tinker. Serviceability makes it much more likely that old hardware can be reused and repurposed for years beyond its putative obsolescence date. I'd hate to think that a computer only has a few years of useful life before it's garbage.

</comment><comment><USER9> Personally I don't really care. I recognize this going in, and I recognize that there are many many other hardware options if I want to unscrew my laptop and dork about with the internals.

For me, I travel around a lot. Physical durability and integrity of the hardware, in the smallest possible form factor, is important to me. You don't often get expansion/flexibility to go along with svelte and rugged.

I'm sure it's only a matter of time before laptops become one giant COB (chip- on-board) manufacturing process where the whole "laptop" is a 10mmx10mmx1mm chip glued to the back of an LCD panel with some battery wrapped around it. And I'll buy one.

<comment><USER10> I believe what you've just described is an iPad

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I can't get too worked up by user serviceablility, or lack thereof.

"My SSD died the other day. I tried to open it up and replace one of the flash chips, but they deliberately made it impossible for me to service. I had to buy an entire new drive!"

<comment><USER12> Isn't it obvious that your example is different than "My $3000 MacBook Pro's SSD died the other day. I tried to open it up and replace the SSD, but they deliberately made it impossible for me to service. I had to buy an entire new computer!"

Sure, you can pull out a microscope and complain about how you can't fix your SMD components, but the vast majority of consumer (Apple, even!) laptops have previously been very easy to upgrade or repair and now that's different. SSD/hard disks have always been hard and there isn't an expectation that they are user serviceable.

<comment> X-Istence The SSD is a separate part that can be removed. In the future (within a year, before then Applecare will take care of defects) I am expecting manufacturers to have third-party SSD's available that will work in the new MacBook Pro's.

<comment><USER13> Correct. It seems faulty RAM will be the real trouble beyond that first year, as it's soldered to the board.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> What do they mean 'virtually non-upgradable'? It's actually non-upgradable!

Annoying that I can't upgrade the RAM though, that's the only part I've changed in recent years - because it's so much cheaper DIY.

<comment><USER15> Because it is upgradable. You just have to have the expertise to do it. Soldering a SMD component, while not exactly something that everyone can do, is indeed doable.

Disclaimer: I can solder some SMD chips...

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Blogspam.

Article is just a summary of [http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook-Pro-with- Retina-Displ...](http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook-Pro-with-Retina- Display-Teardown/9462)

<comment><USER17> But maybe the blogspam had a stronger server; the link being used now (the same you provided) is down and Google Cache doesn't seem to have it.

Link to blogspam: [http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/06/retina-macbook-pro- full...](http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/06/retina-macbook-pro-full-of-air- style-proprietary-parts/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Anyone who's been around long enough or has read Jobs' biography has known this to be the modus operandi (and/or "vision") of Apple since, well, Apple was founded. One of the first real company disagreements between Woz and Jobs was the inclusion of expansion slots in the II. They WANT it not to be serviceable; they always have.

</comment><comment><USER19> How many upgrades does average consumer make on their MacBook Pro? I'd argue it's ~0.

<comment><USER20> I know lots of folks who've added RAM and who've swapped out the spinning drive for an SSD. Maybe it's more of a "power user" thing, but here you are on Hacker News.

<comment><USER21> This. And all the other same replies below.

My manager just "upgraded" his old Mac by installing an SSD and gave it to his wife to use. Said it prolonged the life for another few years.

I just upgraded RAM and HDD -> SSD on a friends computer. He had no clue what I was doing, but his computer ran "better than new". All he does it surf the web, use Outlook for email, write Word/Excel docs. Extended life for another few years for him. He certainly doesn't need a new computer (which is was about to go buy). If users themselves can't or don't know how to upgrade, they may well know someone who can. Or some small local indie shop who has the skills.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> The "talking computer" text on their server load error page put a smile on my face. I love it.

</comment><comment><USER23> The Retina MBP seems more like the "Macbook Air Pro." (Which is cool...)

</comment><comment><USER24> Has the problem with the high defect rate of SSDs been resolved? Not to long ago, I remember reading of many defects after about 1 year of usage. A SSD defect would now effectively brick the whole MacBook Pro.

<comment><USER25> It never existed for the Apple branded SSDs - the people who reported that were people who bought the cheapest SSDs and used them with non-SSD-aware filesystems which overwrote the same blocks repeatedly.

SSDs with smarter controllers and filesystems which don't abuse the disk make a huge difference. Apple controls all of these so they should have a much better idea of the reliability factor - and even if you pay for repairs, there's a high risk that an early failure will make you less likely to buy from them next time.</comment></comment>


LinkedIn's Series B Pitch to Greylock: Pitch Advice for Entrepreneurs - <AUTHOR> http://reidhoffman.org/linkedin-pitch-to-greylock/ <comment><USER2> "You have the most attention from investors in the first 60 seconds of your pitch, so how you begin is incredibly important. One common mistake is putting the team slide early in the deck. The team behind your idea is critical, but don't open with that. Instead, open with the investment thesis."

Great piece of advice, so obvious in retrospect and at odds with many other pitch guidelines out there, that suggest you _start_ with the management team / "company snapshot".

<comment><USER3> With the increasing popularity of the "aquihire" exit strategy, I'm not surprised that "pitch guidelines" encourage discussing the team so early.

<comment><USER4> Investors typically are not going for acquihires. See for a good discussion on many issues: [http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2013/05/13/the- corrosive-...](http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2013/05/13/the-corrosive- downside-of-acquihires/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Interesting data from the "LinkedIn is the Market Leader" slide (data from 8/04):

\- Friendster is the largest social network. \- Facebook is not present.

Something to keep in mind when considering how much emphasis to place on existing competition in a market.

</comment><comment><USER6> I would love to see a visual representation of the relationship between pitch deck length and successful raise. I was surprised by the length of this deck.

<comment><USER7> I think it was more a sign of the times and the fact that it was a B round. You can elaborate a bit at the B stage.

<comment><USER8> Longer decks still work -- even today.

Possible reason: Often, decks are shared _before_ a meeting is taken, so the really good ones are designed to be _read_ (not just presented).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Love this post. Only about a fifth of the way through it right now (@work), but I'm definitely going to peruse the rest later and bookmark it for when I make my own pitch deck here soon!

</comment><comment><USER10> Wow this is fantastic! Not only are the slides included, but a detailed and helpful analysis of each slide as well.

</comment><comment><USER11> Wow, the design looks much worse than I would have expected from LinkedIn.

<comment><USER12> Looks perfectly minimalist to me. You don't want a flashy design to distract from important content.

<comment><USER8> Disagree with this.

In today's world (particularly in consumer Internet), investors often judge the "quality" of a team based on the aesthetics of the pitch-deck -- and website. All things being equal, the deck with the better design sense wins.

<comment><USER12> In the present context, I think you make a good point.

But it's worth noting this deck is from 2004, and thus should be judged in the context of contemporary designs.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I know what a lot of future startup pitch decks will look like :)

</comment><comment><USER14> am I the only one who is surprised at how ugly it is?

</comment><comment><USER15> Brilliant! Thanks for sharing this on HN.

This one line is simply bang on at so many levels:

 _...we knew that our pitch would need to steer into investors' biggest concern: the lack of revenue._

And seemingly relevant in the current climate of 2013 again.

<comment><USER16> ICYMI, Reid addresses today's climate, too:

 _In 2013, it's whether you can break through the noise. Today, there are probably a thousand consumer internet startups founded every quarter — how do you become one of the 1 to 3 that matter in a 7-year timeframe?_

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> A much better system would be printing money to fund startups, instead of our current, print money to fund debts.</comment>


Product Manager You Are… a Janitor, Essentially - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@matbalez/product-manager-you-are-664d83ee702e <comment><USER2> very well written. As a previous PM I can feel all the pain and satisfactions mentioned in here.</comment>